Don't buy a Ducati Hyperstrada

I rode an older Hypermotard in Europe, and really had fun.  Probably the most fun I'd ever had on a motorcycle, to be honest.  So I naturally wanted my own.

Unfortunately, I'm too short to be in the Hypermotard club.  I was on tippy-toe the whole week in Europe, and it was not a good feeling.  I needed something shorter.

Enter the late-model Hyperstrada.  Very much like the Hypermotard, but including panniers, all Hyperstradas after 2015 are 939s, and the "low" model.  After test-sitting one I knew it was OK for me.

Don't get me wrong: this bike is fun.  Damn fun, actually.  And far more capable than I am capable of riding it.

Unfortunately, it suffers from some glaring flaws that - somehow - nobody sufficiently points out.

One is the legendary grabby clutch, a seeming constant characteristic of modern Ducatis.  That goes away once warmed up, but is irritating.  Still, no bike it perfect, and it's annoying but tolerable.

Similar is the "false neutral" issue of the transmission, which can rear up at the least opportune times.  Never an issue on any of the other bikes I have ridden, this happens infrequently enough so that might be considered an infrequent quirk, although such a loss of control is (in my mind) far too dangerous to be so easily dismissed.

Of far more day-to-day concern is the horrible throttle response on the low end.  No longer a nice linear ramp, the throttle behaves far more like an on/off switch, resulting in a terrible low-speed riding experience.  Fixing this requires an ECU remap to correct the frankly abysmal low-end tuning of the 939 engine, at considerable cost, just to make the bike properly rideable.  

Still, this issue is fixable - albeit at great cost - and might be chalked up to a combination of Ducati "personality" or - more often - blamed on the European emissions regulations.  Why Ducati engineers simply can't make the bike properly rideable within the confines of the emissions specs, however, indicates to me a lack of expertise that I quite frankly find hard to accept.  Such is, after all, arguably the primary job of their engineering staff.

However, there is one "personality" issue that I have and am finding completely unforgivable:

The bike stalls.

Now, I'm not talking about stalling on startup, or in some kind of unique weather condition, or after tens of thousands of miles.  No, this bike - when NEW - will simply stall, randomly, when you pull in the clutch to come to a stop.

Don't believe me, check here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

This is utterly and completely unacceptable.  There is NO CIRCUMSTANCE - whatsoever - where it is acceptable for a vehicle engine to simply randomly stall under normal driving conditions.  Not now, not in this day and age, nor in any other.  It simply SHOULD NOT HAPPEN. 

This is more than a simple embarrassment on how a "premium" Italian motorcycle is patently inferior to German or Japanese motorcycles.  The safety hazard here is clear and present, and surely has put more than one owner into seriously dangerous situations.  And yet it persists through all Hyperstradas of all model years and engines, as well as some Hypermotards as well.

How on God's green Earth does Ducati get away with this with hardly a peep from anyone?  The safety hazard associated with this is so obvious, yet nobody seems to raise anything more than an eyebrow.  No such issues are ever mentioned in "professional" reviews of the motorcycle, and the owner base seems to simply grin and bear it.

Most astonishingly, there appears to be no fix.  Nobody knows why this motorcycle, or it's 821cc sibling, simply randomly stalls at low speeds when the clutch is pulled in.  No one has developed a way to bump the idle up a few hundred RPM, change the mapping, nothing.  It's simply written off with a shrug as "a Ducati thing".

Some people do blame the charcoal canister,  some the ECU (needing an update), and so on.  But there is certainly no definitive fix.

Now, it seems the newer Hypermotard 950s don't have this issue - although they do / did have some issues with some kind of anti-corrosion gunk clogging up the throttle bodies.

So it seems that Ducati simply can't make their own 821/939 engines behave, and follows on with not knowing how to properly assemble the 950 engine.  So much more Italian engineering expertise.

I really wanted to love this bike, but this issue pisses me off.  With all of the improvements made in computerized engine management, a 30,000km 2001 CBR600 works better than a 3,000 km 2016 Ducati Hyperstrada.

Yes, I realize I'm probably unlucky.  Yes, I realize other owners haven't had issues.  Doesn't change my opinion much.

So, I would advise anyone looking to buy one of these: Don't.

Everything you didn't want to know about installing new TPMS sensors on Lexus / Toyota vehicles

Note: this post is for Lexus, specifically the 4th Gen Lexus RX350 (2016+).  I am ASSUMING the process is similar for other Lexus and Toyota.

 

TPMS on the Lexus is a pain.

 On a GM vehicle, you do the following:

• Install the new wheels with their new TPMS sensors on the car
  
• Put the car into "relearn" mode; and
  
• Poke each TPMS sensor with a $25 activation tool.

Done.

Not so easy on the Lexus/Toyota.  The basic steps are:

1. Read the ID codes for the existing TPMS sensors (for future use)
   
2. Obtain the ID codes for the new TPMS sensors
3. Program / load these ID codes into an OBDII-capable TPMS programming tool; and
4. Connect the tool to the car to upload the new sensor IDs to the car ECU.
   

The main issue with this is that many of the less expensive tools on the market will do only 1 or 2 of these steps.  You obviously need a tool that does all of them, and that means a more costly tool.

Unfortunately, vendors use confusing terminology such as "trigger", "activation", "re-learn", "reset", "electronic reset tool", and other misleading garbage, and often deliberately obscure the fact that some of their tools can't do some of these functions.   It's really all about what they don't say.

For example:

A.  The ATEQ Quickset will do 1, 3 and 4, but cannot do 2, because it cannot talk to TPMS sensors directly.  So if you don't have the ID codes for the new TPMS sensors, this tool will not work.

Reasons why you might not know the new TPMS ID codes:

• You (or your shop) failed to write down the ID codes stamped on the TPMS sensors before they were mounted.
• The sensors are aftermarket / generic, and did not have ID codes written on them.
• The TPMS seller did not provide you with the ID codes.

If you do know - or can get - the IDs for the new TPMS sensors, the Quickset is probably a great tool, and cheap.  But if you don't already know the IDs, it's no help.

B.  Carista will do 1, maybe 3, and maybe 4.  It will not do 2 because it cannot talk directly to the TPMS sensors.

C.  The ATEQ VT31, VT36 and VT37 will do 1 and 2, but will not do 3 or 4, because they have no OBDII connection.  They talk only to the TPMS sensors, not to the car.

D.  The Autel TS401 and TS408 also lack an OBD connection, meaning they cannot do steps 3 or 4 either.

This leaves some people with a need for a tool that will talk to both the TPMS sensors directly and to the car via OBDII, and these are more costly.

At time of writing, the least expensive tools I can find are the ATEQ Quickset X and the Autel TS501.  These tools can talk directly to TPMS sensors and also have the necessary OBDII cable connection to allow complete identification and programming of new TPMS sensors for Lexus vehicles.  The Quickset X is the least expensive at about $300.

Notes:

•  I've not tried any of these tools myself (yet), so I can't confirm they work.

•  The TS501 includes features for testing keyfobs, programming virgin / blank TPMS sensors, etc.  The Quickset X (apparently) does not, but may be cheaper.

•  Some Lexus vehicles have a "TPMS reset" and/or a "TPMS initialization" procedure built in to the car.  These do not reprogram or relearn the TPMS sensor IDs, and so are no help when installing new TPMS sensors.  They should NOT be used, at all, when installing new TPMS sensors, or else the car ECU might "lock up" and prevent new TPMS IDs from being programmed at all.

•  Some Lexus cars will store two sets of TPMS IDs.  As far as I can tell, the only tool that can program the second set is the Techstream (?) tool used by dealerships.  All of the aftermarket tools will only program the first bank of IDs.

•  If you did buy a Carista, Quickset or similar "program only" tool in error, you might consider:

• Downloading your existing TPMS IDs into the Quickset;
• Having the dealership install and program the new TPMS sensors for you; and
• Downloading the new TPMS IDs into the Quickset afterwards.

You will then have the TPMS IDs for both sets of wheels and can swap them at will yourself (at least until your existing TPMS sensors die in 7-10 years and you have to do this over again).

Alternatively, a dealership or tire shop might agree to just read the TPMS sensor IDs for you, for a fee.

•  Toyota dealers may be able to read / program Lexus TPMS systems, and may charge less than a Lexus dealer.

•  Many Lexus cars will determine the position of the TPMS sensors automatically, meaning there is no predefined order for programming them.