Hesitation / misfire?

[off_again]

Hi all,

I have a 2017 MTS950 with just over 15000 miles on it. It’s due a service and by the time I have finished the current trip, it will be due the 17500 mile service (the big one I believe). However, currently in rural Nebraska at just over 60% of a long trip and the bike has developed a bit of a misfire / hesitation.

Really looking for some recommendations and ideas though - there are no Ducati dealers for around 100 miles so I can’t just drop in and have them take a look. I did stop by a non-Ducati dealer who was very helpful and we tried a Yamaha fuel system cleaner under a recommendation. It’s certainly better than it was, indicating that its something to do with the fuel system, but really looking to see if anyone else might have some ideas?

At higher revs (say 4000+) the engine runs OK with no real issues. Full throttle acceleration in 1st and 2nd and you can feel some slight hesitation at higher revs, but normal roll-on and off is OK. It’s between 2000 to 4000 that it doesn’t hold revs well and you can hear something cutting out. It’s like a misfire or a dirty injector or something.

MPG has been consistent and the fuel cleaner did help. Is it worth running a few more tank fulls of cleaner to see if it gets better? Anything else worth looking into? I have a basic tool kit with me, but don’t have the ability to take the tank off or anything, so somewhat limited on troubleshooting options.

Have around 800 miles to finish the trip, at which I can get it to a dealer, but really wondering if anyone else had a similar issue and might recommend something.

Thanks in advance.

[Nitram]

I had similar symptoms on a ST2 years ago. Turned out it was a bad injector.
In your situation, far from home and all, I would give it a go or two more with injector cleaner in the fuel.
Also for good measure check that the fuses related to the fuel system is OK and properly seated.
Also check that the negative (ground) wire is securely tightened. Loose ground wires can cause the weirdest faults. 
Happy trails.

[Paul_Smith]

If you have been riding in dusty conditions, you might want to give your air filter a look. It can sometimes cause similar symptoms,

[off_again]

Completely forgot to provide a follow up on this!

I made it to my destination and I am actually flying out to pick up the bike and ride it 2400 miles home again! This was part of the plan, dont worry.

The dealership that I dropped the bike off at is a Ducati franchise and they do have a master tech there, so I asked them to double check for the misfire and make sure it was all good. They didnt find anything specific, but did comment that the spark plugs seemed original and unlikely that they have been replaced. I cant verify this, but it does look like one of the spark plugs went bad and was causing issues. They are supposed to be replaced more frequently and I suspect that my normal dealer didnt. I have suspicions of some other things they havent done in the past and after a failed fuel level sender, they didnt even put the fairing back on correctly! I will be much more careful in future though.

So if anyone is suffering similar symptoms in the future - check your spark plugs and make sure they are all good. A simple replacement and potentially easy fix.