[Ducati] Independent shop in San Antonio? Ducati Austin

[Peter Bonner]

Sorry to all involved, but due to computer woes that are well advertised on
the "Heads" lists, I never am quite sure if todays technoligies were
available.

Anyway, the response to Mark Harris at Ducati Austin was intended to be:
Meanwhile of course to Mark Harris and his very politcal yet non response,
it you really wanted it off list, a long time ago was the chance, but of
course you only wanted to do the political course of events, and of course
that is what Austin is all about. Just hope you will give some advice to the
democrats and republicans as they need it, (which is bloody obvious on both
sides) and hoping some day you (and the rest of the politicos) come out on
the side of the people.

Meanwhile.
Why don't you tell me the other "side of the story" regarding why I asked
Jay (the official face of Ducati Austin, as far as I could tell) why he
never backed off his original statement that Ohlin forks require replacement
every 4k miles.  Unfortunately for Mark and all his representatives, no
answer was ever provided.

Please, Mark, enter that answer now! In private or onlist, as you prefer.
Recognize that your private reply could appear onlist. So far, you have not
answered the question.


Basically, what I got from Mark is that if you bitch enough, we will help.
Please let me know I got that wrong. Meanwhile, those of you who have strong
dealer networks, like I do with KCI in San Antonio, or EuroSport in Waco, or
Doug Nash in Dallas, at least we have options. So if you live in far off
places, use the interet to realize that Ducati North America has not
abandoned you, even if your local dealer appears to. I am sure that Ducati
Austin will eventually learn that Ducat is all about pleasing their
customers, as they have done for me in over 45 years, which of course is far
longer than most Ducati dealerships have been  around, and certainly more
than the few months of the current Austin Ducati dealership.
.
We all appreciate it when Ducati dealerships do something positive for us,
and I am sure that if we wait long enough, Ducati Austin will follow suit.
However it is much more a detriment that any dealership would institute
mythical maintenance periods as Ducati Austin by saying that any "S" series
Ohlin forks need to have the fork seals replaced every 4k miles. If this
exempliyfies the attitude of Ducati Austin, then  you are forewarned that
they will hold you responsible for charges that the factory is responsible
for.

In my case, had the factory handbook specified that every 4k miles, I should
renew the fork seals on my Ohlin forks, I would have had no complaint. The
bottom line is that no such specification exists. So Jay, Mark, and the
entire staff of Ducati Austin be darned, they were all set to charge me for
a warramty problem. Note, it was well documented in the Multistrada list
that the Ohlin S forks came with a number of problems, including bushings
sizing and seals fit. However Ducati Austin's Jay Bernard (with backup from
Hamr Harris) chose to provide an initial response that after 4k miles, Ohlin
was not responsible, and continiue with that repsonse, despite repeated
requests to  change it. Apparently, Jay never sought Ducati factory opinion
to balance his "opinion".

S0....... for those of you who may still entertain doubt, I would suggest
the following:

Call your local dealer, tell them you have an 05 (May) Strada that has a
problem with a leaking fork seal for a DS1000SDS model multistrada with the
1k motoer and the Ohlin suspension. Tell them one of the fork seals is
leaking. Tell them that you want to replace the leaking seal under warranty.

Please report whether your dealer is willing to replace the seal under
warranty or not. It they are a "are not" kind of dealer., then you will know
what Ducati Austin is like. If they report yes, then you know what a dealer
like KCI is like.

Ciao,
Pietro



> Message: 10
> Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:08:30 -0500
> From: "Peter" <dsi at swcp.com>
> Subject: [Ducati] Independent shop in San Antonio? Ducati Austin
> To: <ducati at ducati.net>
> Message-ID: <000401c756b4$d7a671a0$0502a8c0 at Gordon>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
> Vito,
>
> What I found perplexing was that I had heard good things about Jay at
> Mototek and then knowing Mark Harris was involved, it seemed like it
woulId
> be a good thing. Why Jay wouldn't even direct someone to make a simple
> enquiry about what warranties cover is beyond me, but to give a total BS
> answer that Ohlin forks require seals every 4k miles is absolutely unreal.
> Naturally, the first thing I did was check, and sure enough on the
> Multistrada list, a number of folks related that there had been some
> problems with fit and finish of the Ohlin forks that caused seal failures,
> and dealers covered them under warranty. My Cagiva Elefant had way more
> miles, and was ridden in much more agressive dirt situations than the mild
> off road I do with the Strada, and never a fork seal problem. Guzzis that
I
> have put over 100k miles have not had fork seal problems, same kind of
> riding. And of course the Jap. bikes I have ridden don't have those sort
of
> problems, so why would I expect less of the Strada. Heck, even my 1964 250
> Scrambler did those kind of miles with no fork problems when I bought it
> new. The real question is, why did a dealer make an opinion statement
> instead of doing the obvious and natural thing, calling it in to see what
> Ducati actually says to do.  Same thing for the speedo. It would not
require
> anything other than a glance at the display to have enough info to call
> Ducati and ask the question. Absolutely no need to pull the unit for that
> question to be asked. Ducati Austin just chose to not make the call. KCI
was
> willing to spend 2 minutes of their time and make the call, just as other
> dealers around the country do, as reported to me on the Strada list.
>
> So yeah, I am gonna enjoy the new tires I just put on the bike this
morning
> on my way to Austin for my commute to work. And I definitely am gonna
enjoy
> the nice sunshine but yet pleasant weather we are having. Best of all, my
> Stada will be cruising down some real nice twisty roads that are so
obscure,
> even folks from Austin don't know about a lot of them, even though they
are
> just outside the city limits. The tough part of course will be getting
into
> the commute traffic right at the end where 71 and 290 come together. But
the
> bike is running great and everything is perfect on it, so I better enjoy
it
> while I can. Because soon those folks up North will be having nice riding
> weather, and I will be commuting in the hot and humid Texas summer, which
> starts in about a week or two I would say. Oh well, its still riding
> weather:-)
>
> Peter
>
>
>
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:27:01 -0600
> From: "vduc" <vduc at prodigy.net>
> Subject: RE: [Ducati] Independent shop in San Antonio? Ducati Austin
> To: "'Ducati Owners Group'" <ducati at ducati.net>
> Message-ID: <001401c7567c$c0e9a6e0$0300a8c0 at DHM3LY91>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> I wasn't going to comment but in the spirit of being fair and balanced
here
> goes.  My experience with Jay and Ducati Austin (including Mototek for
> Aprilia) has been quite different from yours
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>