The bike is in an independent Ducati shop in Calgary who I trust.
The backstory-I had problems with the bike in 2019(it wouldn't start)and it sat at a now defunct Ducati dealer in Kelowna BC for about 3 months without any progress being made. I retrieved the bike and got it to the shop in Calgary with whom I had dealt with in the past and who had done good, but expensive, work or me in the past on my ST2. The Calgary shop had it running within a couple of days and found that the Kelowna shop were either incompetent or fraudulent in the work they claimed to have done(I eventually received basically a full refund from the Kelowna shop). Anyways, the Calgary shop found the compression was low but not dangerously so, I think it was around 110-120 on both cylinders(this is at about 70,000km). After a full on service the bike ran like a top for the last month of the 2019 season and in 2020 until the beginning of September when all of a sudden it wouldn't start. It would start and run for about 1 second then shut itself down, the display reading engine error. I went through few simple things I could think of then eventually phoned the Calgary shop who finally got the bike in February.
I'm not sure how they do the compression test but I'm confident they're competent and trustworthy, the main mechanic has over 30 years experience with Ducati and was a full on shop until about 2008. I've been down the engine rebuild route before and know how expensive that can be, especially i one has to pay someone to do the work!
I'm competent to do most of the routine maintenance and a bit more on some older bikes but the electronics and 4V Duc motors are above my pay grade. I suppose if it was a straight on swap I might be able to do it but it would not be a fast process, not o mention I no longer have the space where I could do that kind of work. On my 2nd ST2 I did actually pull the engine to have an engine mount welded but that was a much simpler bike.
There are used 821 and 939 motors out there but unfortunately most are in the US. There's a 2013 HM engine with 40,000 miles on it and apparently good compression about 200 miles from the Calgary shop. Oh yeah, just for the record I am about half way between Calgary and Vancouver, roughly 400 miles from each.
I'm hoping to talk to the mechanic today and see what he thinks. A straight swap with an identical engine would, in my mind, be the easiest and most cost effective route.
