Who’s the service king?
The valve check interval battle is hotting up, which is good news for your wallet…
Ducati have made a big deal out of the new V4 Multistrada’s 37,500 mile gap between valve check services. By changing from Desmodromic valve actuation to plain old springs, the engineers have doubled the V4’s major service intervals over the latest Multistrada V-twins. Though this might seem a nerdy achievement there’s a significant financial impact – checking valve clearances is expensive, particularly on four-cylinder bikes which usually require comprehensive disassembly to get to the cylinder heads and have 16 valves to check. So Ducati have created an argument against the standard ‘Ducatis are expensive to run’ line.
Of course, you’ll still have the intermediate services – Ducati’s V4 needs one every 7500 miles at over £250 – but putting off the valve check is a bonus. So where does 37,500 miles put Ducati in the Valve Service Interval League?