One Year Review of 2003 Ducati ST4s

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One Year Review:
Ducati ST4s ABS

Bought: January 2003
Milage: ~32,000mi (as of November 2004)
Dealer: BCM Ducati, Laconia, NH

Pros:

antilock brakes
trick suspension, remote preload adjustment for Ohlins rear
oh-my-goodness power, flat torque
excellent handling—very precise
weighs less than a VFR
crashes very well ;-)
world's only 2003 matte grey ST4s!
pingle!

Cons:

expensive—well into BMW territory
stock headlight is terrible (fixed in '04)
stock seat not suited to long distances (fixed in '04)
turbulent air off top of windscreen (fixed in '04)
oh-my-goodness power delivery (oh, hello officer, i had no idea i lost you back there)
throttle is very twitchy just off closed throttle (cure: better throttle technique)
weighs 83 lbs more than my ducati 750Sport did
poor parts availability
bars are too high and too low: too low & forward for long highway rides, too high for aggressive sport riding. solution to too high: grow back muscles. (it worked.)
ride height adjuster threads not coated with anti-seize from the factory

Failures:

front rotors warped twice—see notes below.
cold starting problems when new—see notes below.
but at least Ducati & BCM Ducati are excellent with warranty issues

Modifications:

Sargent saddle ($200 used)
replacement headlamp by Ducati Designs ($550)
Laminar Lip on windscreen ($75 very well spent)
Cycle Cat frame sliders ($250)
excessories:
- Dual Star heated grips ($25)
- voltage meter ($35)
- Ducati 52 liter top box ($350, oem'd by nonfango; uses givi-like mounting attachment)
- Motobags pannier liners ($140) and ST fairing storage bag ($45)
Sil Motor pipes ($0, included as part of purchase, temporarily offline, rated 86db)
Dzus fairing fasteners ($160)

Why I bought this bike:

This is my third bike. I started on a Suzuki GS500E. Winter lead to me wanting at least a quarter fairing for some weather protection, and I wanted something a bit sportier. I got a half-faired Ducati 750Sport, with free 1k, 6k and 10k services. "Hello Ducati" was tremendous fun, but it was cursed. I was in for major warranty work on average every 2500 miles. That got old, and I'd also discovered that i was doing a lot, lot more two-up and distance riding than I had expected to. I'd put a good chunk of change into turning the 750 into a tourer, but it just wasn't built for it. So I started looking at sport tourers.

My top candidates were the Aprilia Futura, the Triumph Sprint ST, and the Ducati ST series. Roger kindly let me take his Futura for a spin, and while fun and spacious, it wasn't quite my cup of tea. Pir gave me an indepth tour of his Sprint ST, but in the end, that wasn't quite my cup of tea either. I briefly considered the VFR800, but reviews of passenger accomodations were less than shining. And so I ended up looking at the Ducati, and with the ABS version of the ST4s around the corner, I decided that ABS would be Smart. So I ordered one from BCM Ducati, and in January 03 it arrived and I traded up.

I hoped that I wasn't about to trade one warranty basket case for another. I figured that at worst, i could sell the ST and get a Triumph or somesuch. Ducati is pretty good about warranty repairs, and my dealer in particular is really, really good. They've driven 90 miles (each way!) to fetch my bike at no charge more than once. With this history, I felt pretty good about the risk, and it seems to have paid off. I haven't had any showstoppers (no failed main bearing, no leaky seals, nada), but I have had a couple small problems. See "Problem Notes" below.

The 2002 ST4s were available in matte grey ("titanium grey"), much like a previous special 748S. It turned out that the 03 would be only available in a glossy, paler grey (in addition to the usual Ducati Red & yellow) with bright red wheels. Susie at BCM suggested a solution: she would take into stock from Ducati a 2002 matte grey bike, order an '03, and swap the bodywork and wheels between them. This we did, and about three months after I got my bike, they sold the '02 with '03 bodywork (proudly, but inaccurately, proclaiming ABS) to someone who was trading up from an ST4. I got what I wanted, and BCM got to sell a couple of high margin bikes. Win-win.

(The sad thing is that a year later, I started thinking that red wheels might be fun.)

Discussion:

Coming off Hello Ducati, which was the 398lb without fuel and 433 with a full tank, the ST seemed huge, although not as monstrously large as the Futura felt. According to the scales at NHIS, the bike weighs 519lb with a full tank of gas. Well, for a big fat pig of a bike, it handles just fine. It's definitely a SPORT-tourer. It's tremendous fun on Vermont's pleasantly twisty roads, and it's just a dream going through Colorado's canyons, which it seems made for. However, I feel I should note that at the Team Daemon track day last year, I was way slower on it than I was on the 750. Karl was passing me. :-) A big part of the reason is that I wasn't comfortable with all the power this bike has, and it is really, really abrupt right off idle. That took a long, long time to get used to, and 16,000 miles later, I think I still was generally faster on the 750. (Side note: low end throttle response is better with stock pipes than free-flow pipes & stock ECU. The ECU is non-remappable and can't be rechipped, so changing FI mapping requires replacing the entire ECU. About US$600.)

If I can free up the cash, I'm thinking about trying out above-the-clamp 916 clip-ons (using Helibar adapters) to improve front-end feel. Feel is good, but not as good as on Hello Ducati—which had a much lower quality suspension. So, yeah, having gone to a more upright sport-tourer, here I am trying to go back to sport. I now understand why some people have a stable full of different machines. :-)

It's worth mentioning that I'm 5'8" tall, with a 30" inseam, and weigh about 170.

ObSquiddy: first and second gear roll on power wheelies, yes. GPS-measured top speed with a full set of luggage (panniers & top box) was 137 at 5800' altitude (145 indicated). I haven't got an unpatrolled stretch of straight road at sea level to test without a top box, but other ST4s owners report 155.

Clutch lever effort is rather high, and took some getting used to. Just like when I moved from a GS500E to a Ducati 750Sport. Aftermarket master/slave cylinders are available from Yoyodyne (www.yoyodyneti.com), but the 2003 model appears to have improved on previous model years, so changing seems pointless. I am now used to the clutch effort.

Cycle-cat frame sliders (www.cyclecat.com) are not very useful with panniers on, as the fairing contact point is a little forward of them, and the bar ends touch down first. With panniers off, they're great for protecting the battery & ECU on the right side and the water pump on the left, and minimize or eliminate fairing-ground contact.

I got a lightly used Sargent saddle (www.sargentcycle.com) from an ST owner who was switching to a Corbin (www.corbin.com). This seat is extremely well designed and incredibly comfortable. The passenger seat is slightly dished and has a rise at the front to reduce forward slippage. The seat includes a large storage container in its underside; I keep a tire puncture repair kit, spare earplugs and my registration in it.

The bike doesn't have much internal storage. It has a small compartment under the seat holding a minimal toolkit. (The toolkit combines cheap-ass steel tools with a very nice red nylon bag to hold tools and manual.) I used this space to mount my Autocom and a Valentine-1 remote audio box, and padded the remainder with a first aid kit. I have a Motobags fairing storage bag in the left side fairing next to/below the passenger seat. It's great and can hold securely an insane number of tools.

The ST4s, being the ultra-sporty model in the ST line, comes with appropriately sporty tires. This would be a very bad idea when taking delivery on a bike in january, so I had BCM swap them for sport-touring tires before delivery. Being partial to Michelin, they put on Michelin Pilot Roads. These tires suck beyond belief. Poor rain grip, poor cold grip, they resist turning and tend to stand up in turns. They only thing I can say in their favor is that they are very stable. Bridgestone BT-020 tires suit this bike much better, delivering a perfectly neutral response. Lately I've been using Avon Azorro tires. In California, we put on a pair of ST-45/46; after returning home, I put on a 49 front. Azorros have a triangular profile and positively dive into turns; the price for this is a slight loss of stability. The ease of making low speed maneuvers is handy as well, but I think when I wear out these tires I'll go back to BT-020's.

The Ducati parts network is not so good. It took over eight months to get the clutch lever, which ought to be a commodity item. OTOH, there is a good after-market for curing the ST's known issues, ranging from saddles to storage to handlebars to lighting to $11 adjustable brake lever.

I installed a replacement headlamp by Ducati Designs (www.ducatidesigns.com). At $550, this is the most expensive possible way to fix the problem, but also the most effective. Other options include a set of lighting mounts from Salt Lake Motorsports (mounted at the mirror bases) with $50 Harbor Freight lights for a total cost of under $200, the same mounts with expensive PIAA lights, PIAA lights under the nose inside the front wheel well, and MotoLights fork- or caliper-mounted lights for low down visibility in turns (www.motolights.com). If you don't do much night riding, I suggest a lower-cost option. If you ride much at night, or if you commute year round, consider bright PIAA lamps or the DD headlamp replacement.

The air off the top of stock windscreen is very turbulent. (But better than my 750—the first time I took an ST2 for a test ride, I found myself going 120 when I thought I was going a lazy 70. I think this says something about the relative power, wind protection and high speed stability of the Ducati ST series.) There are a number of aftermarket options, including "high" and "low" windscreens from Ducati and several third party replacements. Consensus on the Ducati ST owners list is that the "low" screen did a better job of removing turbulence, while nobody's high touring screen much reduced it—just moved it up a bit. Then along comes Laminar Lip (www.laminarlip.com) with a $75 add-on: a 3" tall acrylic lip that sits atop the stock screen. It's amazing. The turbulence is just gone, and the wind flow has moved up noticeably. It's very comfortable and worth every penny. I can't attest to how well the Lip works for other bikes, but if this is standard, they're selling something very good.

The Ducati ST fairing is simple enough to take off—unless you strip out a wellnut, which usually happens. It is merely nearly impossible to put back on—because you stripped some wellnuts taking it off, and they don't line up very precisely. Also, you have to take off the nose and mirrors to remove the upper fairings. And also, it's difficult (but not impossible) to do an oil change with the uppers in place. So I made a common mod—I had the fairing converted to Dzus fasteners. I had this done by BCM Ducati, which does it a bit differently than most people. Instead of converting all fairing wellnuts points to Dzus, they only convert the nose-upper junction and three of the four wellnuts joining the lowers. The upper and lower fairings remain permenantly joined, and the upper fairing and nose interlock tabs are trimmed so the upper/lower unit can be removed without removing the nose. Heaven! This makes fairing removal/replacement a five minute or less process. Jay at BCM has this conversion time down to about an hour, and uses fewer fasteners than the usual approach, so the cost is quite reasonable for the benefits.

Another note is that the ride height adjuster is prone to seizing in place. If you get an ST with adjustable ride height, remove it and coat the threads with antiseize. Mine had seized at only 6000mi and required a lot of grunting to break it free. It's now treated to prevent recurrance. This should be done at the factory, but it looks like Ducati doesn't believe in this. ;-)

Passenger Accomodations:

A friend who's ridden on the back of this bike and an ST2 relatively frequently wrote: "from the passenger's point of view - there is *something* about the ST4s frame that makes it very, very easy to hold myself in place, comparatively, by clamping my knees against the sides of the bike. haven't experienced that with any other bikes, and i'm wondering if it's design or just a fortunate accident of geometry." YMMV and my friend would be interested to hear other experiences.

ABS:

ABS on the st4s is interesting, and i like it. Ducati's manual says this:

"ABS uses hydraulics and electronics to limit pressure in the brake circuit when a special sensor mounted to the wheel signals the electronic control unit that the wheel is about to lock up. This avoids wheel lockup and preserves traction. Pressure is raised back up immediately and the control unit keeps pumping the brake until the risk of a lockup disappears."

Note also that while ducati's literature refers to the ABS sensor wheel as a "phonic wheel", implying that it uses light, the ABS sensor next to it does not appear to be a visible or infrared sensor. I assume that it is a magnetic sensor similar to BMW's.

For comparison's sake, when ABS kicks in on my Saturn, it pulses the brakes quickly, and continues pulsing until it's good and sure it's no longer skidding. This can be for a brief moment or almost until one comes to a stop, depending on conditions. (Usually the latter.)

But on the ducati, instead of the usual skid and ever-so-slight fishtail i'm used to from past bikes, the brake gently but sharply kicks back as the ABS system releases the brake. No change in direction, no hint of fishtailing. Bike continues to slow down. It does this repeatedly if conditions suck, but i've never had it continue for more than about half a second. I have almost never had ABS activate in the front.

Unlike ABS-equipped cars i have driven, it doesn't pulse for a long period of time, it just unlocks the brakes with a sharp kick, if you will, and then lets me continue squeezing/pressing hard for maximum braking. Under most conditions, a single ABS kick is enough to let the tire regain traction and start rolling again, so it doesn't need the constant pulsing of my car's ABS system.

I read a report from a BMW rider describing a time his ABS did something very unfortunate—on a slick metal deck on a ferry, his bike's ABS kicked in and he couldn't slow the bike down from 5mph to zero, which ultimately resulted in a tipover. Very car-ABS-like, aside from the tipover bit. It's my sense that the ducati ABS would be much less likely to suffer from this sort of problem.

Those interested in how ABS works may be interested in reading this description of BMW's ABS. Reads like a white paper, and comes from BMW north america:
http://www.largiader.com/abs/abs2.html

Problem Notes:

The front rotors warped at 8k, again at 16k. First set replaced under warranty; second set to be replaced with cryo-treated rotors next time i take it in. Bruce at BCM commented that he's seen this before—and always on commuter bikes or bikes that aren't ridden hard. Brakes that are ridden very hard don't seem to suffer from this. He says the problem is that the rotors don't finish annealing properly unless they're ridden hard. The theory on cryo-treating the rotors is this will remove the internal stresses of the rotors before they're used and prevent warping this way. We'll see. This strikes me as a dumb problem, which every other manufacturer in the world seems to have a good handle on.

The bike had serious cold starting problems when brand new new. This may be a hazard of taking delivery on a new bike when it's 15 degrees Farenheit in january. (Ducati factory considers 40 degrees to be winter and tests accordingly. Really.) My dealer picked up bike (drove from new hampshire!), richened mixture, changed to lighter oil. Engine seems to have loosened up and starts readily at 10 degrees, but doesn't start at all at 5 degrees. generally, i don't even try under 7 degrees, but in a pinch, I've found that a 100 watt work lamp under the engine for half an hour with a heavy wool army blanket over the bike to hold the heat warms up the engine enough to start pretty easily. Still, I would not suggest this model ST if you ride in the bitterly cold winter. The slightly smaller, lower-compression ST4 and ST2 motors seem to fare somewhat better at these extremes.

Overall impression:

I wanted a bike that was good for carrying a passenger, had decent storage that didn't look and function like outriggers, and was comfortable to ride long distances. I seem to have gotten this, and I'm very pleased. I would like to play with the bars, but that's an expensive proposition, so it's low on the priority list. My only real complaint is that without extreme measures, the bike just won't start at 5 degrees.

Would I recommend this bike? Yes—with caveats. Every one of the caveats except the 5 degrees thing has been addressed in the 04 model. If you're looking at used or leftover ST4s's, plan on a few upgrades—first seat, then lighting, then windscreen. If you're looking at a 2004, get a test ride and have fun.