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I meant that you may void your warranty if you do the work yourself.

not in the US

depends on what you end up doing to it. as long as you keep reciepts for parts, the warrentee should be good, unless your adding aftermarket things.

I think I found my next bike. I think it's a darn sexy bike
Now I just need to start my "Scott Needs a Duc" Fund...And put a few bucks out of every check into it


Then it will be MINE!!!

Mintbread wrote:I meant that you may void your warranty if you do the work yourself.

As people mentioned Minty, in the states, performing certain types of maintenance will not void a warranty - It's against the law.

Even better, there is a bill in legislation (Who knows if it will make it ...)
The "Right to Repair" act - Basically stating that Manufacturers cannot keep information from consumers which would allow them to repair their own vehicles (Like refusing to sell their diagnostic systems to private citizens)

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtex ... =h109-2048

So no warranty books and dealer stamps?
That is a can-o-worms.

This would have to affect resale value though (backyard vs dealer work), would it not?

Honestly Minty, most people are too dumb to ask for maintenance reciepts, let alone bargain someone down on the value of the bike due to lack thereof...

However, Resources like Kelley Blue Book and NADA offer a Retail and Private sale value. Most private sales will only list what their bike is worth according to the KBB's low value anyway - Smart owners save all their work reciepts and adjust prices accordingly. If an owner did all his maintenance, (and backs up his claims with reciepts as proof of his purchases) he has a right to charge more for the bike - on par with what a dealership would ask.

Looking at it again, I don't think it's as much of a can of worms as it seems. Even a bike which has recieved little to no maintenance should be able to make it past the warranty cut-off point with little trouble, and it's actually pretty easy to determine whether or not a component has died due to lack of maintenance vice having a factory fault.

Finally, if you take a bike in for a warranty issue, and the dealership says that the fault was due to lack of maintenance, they are not required to perform warranty work - you'd have to take them to court (Or at least be able to prove to a court) showing that all maintenance was done on schedule. A smart DIYer will keep his OWN warranty book and reciepts for this purpose.

Are the bikes sold with a service log where all work (services and otherwise) are written in and accompanied by the stamp of an authorised factory repairer?

I was partly thinking about warranty work but I failed to mention scheduled servicing too.

Normally, No, used bikes do not have a service log. It really depends on the owner and the type of bike, but i would say 75% or more of the bikes on the market (in the USA) today don't have a complete service log (if any)

wow This is a good read. I was looking at the multistrada MTS620D or the MTS620 (I like red) for a beginner bike. I havent taken any courses yet but have been reading and looking etc etc for everything. I have a Ducati dealer about 15 minutes from my house (25 ish miles). My problem is as an industrial Mechanic I would use it to drive back and forth to work. If I have to go pick up any parts I dont think teh ducati would allow me to go pick up a 15lb motor (I never have to pick up anything bigger than that lol). I have driven 4 wheelers for quite some time but obviously something with 4 wheels doesnt ride/drive the same as something with 2 wheels.

Now are some of the parts that are needed (like shims for valves) available at places like autozone? Or would most of those best be bought at the ducati dealership? I have no problem doing my own work on my own vehicles (amazing they charge $320 to replace front brakes on an oldsmobille mini van and all it cost me was $25 in parts and my time lol) as you can tell I am a mechanic although not a vehicle mechanic. As someone in this thread mentioned I dont think $7000 is a whole lot of $$$ considering I was thinking a new bike was gonna cost me $14000 or $15000 lol. I cant seem to really find any differences between the multistrada and the monster 620D other than $1000. Sorry this is my first post and I am doing as much reading as I can about bikes. Dont want to make a bad decision. I ahve been thinking about a bike mostly because I leave my wife at home without a vehicle everynight (I work 3rd) and want something cheaper than the truck I want to buy for summer months (talking gas prices).