Now these smaller Ducati motors have quite a tricky feel to them at the bottom end of their rev-range – they do possess a bit of snatch. With any of these bikes the engines do need some miles under their wheels; a lot of the abrupt throttle feel will evaporate.
But they’re running double lambda sensors – one for each cylinder – and a Siemens ECU and the net result is that they simply don’t work like they did on the old Marelli ECU. Without doubt, there’s a difference. Chuck in the Manifold Air Pressure sensor (MAP) and you have awkward running, as load is used versus throttle position.
We’ve done a few of these now and have learnt to be careful. This bike (and it was very snatchy) needed as much work in its ignition tables as anywhere else to smooth it out… it’s all down to emissions, really so the sooner you get rid of it all the better the engine will feel. A lot of the owners of this type of bike live in town – and their daily commute is horrible in traffic because their machine is unridable.
All we try and do through an ECU remap is give ’em control back of their own engine!