Photo: Ducati
Common sense would tell you a major fault in a motorcycle is somewhat more dangerous than a similar one in a car. And you'd be right, although it seems such faults are so much rarer in the motorcycling world. Rarer, but not completely absent.
The most recent bike maker to fall victim to what may be a potentially life-threatening issue is Ducati. The culprit for the Italians now being under the spotlight is the XDiavel, one of its most popular products.
The two-wheeler has been around in Ducati's portfolio since 2016, arriving into the world as a sport cruiser derivation of the Diavel. It is now offered in three variants, namely Nera, S, and Dark, all of them packing the Testastretta engine in its frame.
That's a monster capable of releasing 160 horsepower into the wild, but in some of the older versions of the model, all of them can be brought to a complete stop by the failing of a simple bracket.
According to the Ducati, a fault was discovered in XDiavel models made as 2018 to 2020 model years and sold in the U.S. For reasons and under conditions that have not been disclosed, the side stand bracket on the bikes may unexpectedly fail, causing the side stand to open.
When that happens the engine shuts down, and that, of course, can lead to a crash, especially given how there's no way for the rider to tell this is coming.
It's unclear how the Italians learned about the issue, and we're not informed of any incidents related to this fault having taken place. Even so, the bike maker is issuing a recall to get the problem fixed.
We're told the problem affects a rather small number of bikes, 842 of them, of both the XDiavel S and XDiavel Standard variety. The company will notify owners of affected bikes the old-fashioned way, via mail, with the notification letters expected to begin rolling out on October 3.
No advice as to how to prevent the bracket from failing and the engine shutting down was provided, nor do we know of any measures the rider can take to prevent a crash if that happens. Ducati does however let owners contact it with questions, and you can do at customer service number 1-888-391-5446.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety (NHTSA) hotline is another way to go. The number of the recall is SRV-RCL-23-004.
The fix for the issue is simple and, as usual, it comes at no cost to the owners. Ducati dealers will be asked to replace the faulty bracket with a new one, a procedure that probably doesn't take a lot of time either.
No details on whether the fault affects bikes sold outside the U.S. are provided.
The two-wheeler has been around in Ducati's portfolio since 2016, arriving into the world as a sport cruiser derivation of the Diavel. It is now offered in three variants, namely Nera, S, and Dark, all of them packing the Testastretta engine in its frame.
That's a monster capable of releasing 160 horsepower into the wild, but in some of the older versions of the model, all of them can be brought to a complete stop by the failing of a simple bracket.
According to the Ducati, a fault was discovered in XDiavel models made as 2018 to 2020 model years and sold in the U.S. For reasons and under conditions that have not been disclosed, the side stand bracket on the bikes may unexpectedly fail, causing the side stand to open.
When that happens the engine shuts down, and that, of course, can lead to a crash, especially given how there's no way for the rider to tell this is coming.
It's unclear how the Italians learned about the issue, and we're not informed of any incidents related to this fault having taken place. Even so, the bike maker is issuing a recall to get the problem fixed.
We're told the problem affects a rather small number of bikes, 842 of them, of both the XDiavel S and XDiavel Standard variety. The company will notify owners of affected bikes the old-fashioned way, via mail, with the notification letters expected to begin rolling out on October 3.
No advice as to how to prevent the bracket from failing and the engine shutting down was provided, nor do we know of any measures the rider can take to prevent a crash if that happens. Ducati does however let owners contact it with questions, and you can do at customer service number 1-888-391-5446.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety (NHTSA) hotline is another way to go. The number of the recall is SRV-RCL-23-004.
The fix for the issue is simple and, as usual, it comes at no cost to the owners. Ducati dealers will be asked to replace the faulty bracket with a new one, a procedure that probably doesn't take a lot of time either.
No details on whether the fault affects bikes sold outside the U.S. are provided.
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