Have other on this forum experienced front brake rotor warping on their Scrambler? You know, where the front brake lever pulses or you can feel the shudder through the handle bars when braking?
Over on the other Scrambler forum there have been postings about owners experiencing warped front brake rotors without many miles on the bikes. Disk warping issues? | Ducati Scrambler Forum Some with a few as 800 miles. Mine began exhibiting warped rotor symptoms at about 2,750 miles. The symptoms have gotten progressively worse up to the current 3,500 miles on the bike. Ducati does not warranty brake rotors in the USA claiming they are a wear part. My dealer told me to bring the bike in and they will have a tech ride it to confirm the symptom and then they can assist me in asking Ducati Customer Service to "Good Will" a replacement rotor.
I completed a customer contact form at Ducati and the following is the result of that effort:
Well, this morning I had a telephone call from Fabiana at Ducati "customer service" (tel # 390510938001) regarding my complaint filed through their contact form. (She was persistent as she called three times trying to reach me) They called all the way from Italy, kept me on the telephone for 15 minutes and that time was spent repeating over and over, in a slightly different way each time, that I would have to do what I had already been told, which was to take my Scrambler to the dealer (250 mile round trip), have them evaluate the issue and then they could assist me with reporting it to "customer service". Once Ducati "customer service" had that information they would decide what, if anything, they would do and if they were going to replace the rotor I would have to bring the Scrambler back to the dealer (another 250 mile round trip) to have the service completed! Guess Ducati would rather spend money making international calls trying to make me feel better about Ducati instead of replacing defective brake rotors (which would really make me feel better about Ducati).

I suggested that perhaps Ducati could inform my dealer that should they verify the warped rotor they could then replace it without making me spend another full day returning to the dealer to have it replaced. She only repeated herself yet again with the same litany of two trips will be required. Now you understand why I am placing quote marks around "customer service".

Fabiana, the woman who telephoned me responded to my question of why she called if all they were going to do was tell me what I had already been told (and included in my customer contact form) said something to the effect of "We telephoned you because you filled out the form and we wanted you to feel better" i.e. nothing to offer, Ducati just wanted to try and make you like us. Guess Ducati did not want to put that in writing which is why they telephoned. In all Ducati wasted 15 minutes our of my work day and only served to make me even less pleased with Ducati as a company.

It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Stay tuned.

In my own experience it's hard to warp car or motorcycle rotors. My Harley was shuddering when I was braking (has dual front floating disks) and I solved it by cleaning the 'buttons' with brake cleaner and a lot of patience. The previous owners never cleaned them and the bike probably lived outdoors.

Have you checked the buttons on the Scrambler to make sure you can make them move with your fingers? Keeping the 'floating' aspect of the rotors in proper operation will hopefully mean no shuddering. They may very well be made from sort of bad metal though. I'm just throwing it out there as something free to check before wasting time at the dealership.

A good cleaning and making sure the buttons turn freely.

Hello

I'm the moderator an Ducati Sport-Touring mailing-list, in France (approx 400 members) and we faced several front rotor warping issues. Many of them have been taken in warranty.

Another reason for this strange feeling you describe can come if one the pushing rod in the calliper is not working properly, mainly due to dirt and bad cleaning of the brake callipers. Perform a deep cleaning of the calliper, ensure the rods are moving slightly and you may suppress this feeling.

One last action you can do is to put some high temperature grease (copper grease) on the ***backside*** of the brake pads. This will avoid some vibrations in the brakes and suppress this feeling.

I also have this problem. I don't remember when it started to happen but I think it was maybe around 4000-5000km. During my 12k km service they kept the bike for 3 days to check it out and said they cleaned and adjusted the rotor and brake and it definitely made a difference but the pulsing is still there. I'm pretty sure it's warped but I already had so many problems that I'm tired of getting them fixed and am now thinking I'll just live with it and hopefully a new rotor wont be too expensive once the old one is used up.

But this is definitely an issue that quite a few people experience.

Maybe these rotors were never ment to be used alone? They usually have them as dual rotors on the other bikes. I'm sure having only one rotors puts a lot more stress on it.

Hello


It's very easy to see if your rotor is warped or not. Just lift your front wheel from the ground, use a plastic card (like a bank card) to push back both pushing rods from the brake pads and spin the wheel. If the rotor is warped, you'll see it approach the pads on some angles of its rotation. It may even, if it is severely warped, touch the pads on some angle and stop.


You may also remove the brake calliper from the fork footleg and place a tool against the fork leg that just touch the rotor, to measure if, on some angles, the rotor goes away from the tool.


If you find it warped, check the pieces that link the rotor to its center part. These pieces should be able to move. If not, you need to release them.

Its not warping, we have a floating disc setup and the buttons are probably jammed. Clean them with a brake cleaner spray and then make sure EACH ONE of them rotates.

One way to do it, is to take a few washers, take a 6 to 8mm screw and nut, put washers both side and tighten it till the button starts rotating.

Do NOT use any lubricant spray such as WD40 etc.

Are you sure it is not the Anti-Lock kicking in?

Does it do it when you brake very easy or just when you brake hard?

Mine is warped - confirmed by dealer there is a runout of 0.25mm. But they reckon Ducati (Australia) won't cover it under warranty and quoted me $695 to replace it. An email to Ducati Australia about a week ago has also not been replied to. It caused me to get air in the lines (this was at about 4000km) and I had them bled. I then did a big trip over Xmas, long rides so not much stress on the front brake in that time, and when I got back I noticed the vibration and had the dealer check it. That was at about 7000km. Really not happy with the response from the dealer, owned by Ducati Australia, or the lack of response from Ducati themselves.

In 2006 Triumph had major issues with front discs warping. They replaced the one on my Scrambler 3 times under warranty up until about 18 months down the track whereupon I fitted an aftermarket disc and it was fine after that. (Metalgear)
Ducati should replace the disks because there is evidence they are defective. Triumph did.
Tell your dealer you'll keep the $695 and spend about $200 on an aftermarket one sourced online and fit it yourself or given their attitude, look into finding a private workshop to do this and all the future servicing.

Yeah, will probably end up going that way. Just waiting to get a response from them to say they will or they won't either way. Can then chase them up via consumer tribunal for selling a defective product and not providing required support to fix.