09/09/03 After the big trip comes the maintenance. Pulled off the bodywork and started cleaning all the grime off the mechanicals and frame.

Quite a job. The procedure took a couple hours and a full can of WD40. In the process of cleaning I realized just how lucky I had been. It turns out that the dealer in California, when installing the flatslide carbs, had used a cheap plastic 'Y' piece in the fuel line. Well, with all the heat of the aircooled motor the plastic had embrittled and cracked. Just after I spotted this and made a mental note to replace the piece at first opportunity, I moved the fuel line out of the way to get to some stubborn dirt on top of the motor and the plastic just crumbled to pieces.

I'm eternally grateful that it didn't choose to do that somewhere on Highway 1, in cold foggy rain and that the engine was not running when it broke - otherwise fuel would have gone all over the lower exhaust header... So I went out and got a brass 'T' piece and installed it. Much better now. Also ordered new chain and rear sprocket (the one I have on there now is aluminum and has worn a bit in 9K miles). The bike will get an oil change and new spark plugs as well. I even washed my riding suit, one of the advantages of the Aerostitch over leathers being the ability to pull all the armor out of the pouches, throw it in the washer, then dryer and have it good as new again.

When dropping off the body panels at the bodyshop I saw a car I drove only a week or so ago - the Lotus Elise 111S demo car. Apparently someone had managed to ding the front end on it already. Bummer. And speaking of bodywork, a weird and somewhat disappointing thing about the paintjob on the 900. The clearcoat had cracked where the damage from the fall was, so I decided to wash the dirt out from under it with a garden hose. Much to my surprise, I just washed the clearcoat off the entire panel! It came off in large chunks like thin ice off a car windshield. Ouch. Since a rock chip had slightly cracked the clearcoat on the front fairing I decided to take that in as well. At the bodyshop they pointed compressed air blast at it and the stuff just flew off like dust. I'm somewhat concerned about my other side panel now, but I guess I'll just hang onto it as-is and have it repainted if / when any problems develop.

09/12/03 The various parts showed up from California Cycleworks so I did the remaining maintenance. Replaced the sprocket, chain, spark plugs, oil and filter. Since I went to a 40-tooth sprocket (from previous 39, which was itself bigger than the stock 37) I made the chain 2 links longer than stock. Worked out perfect.

As the bodywork won't be ready for another 2-3 weeks I went for a quick 'shakedown' ride sans fairing, then rolled the bike into the livingroom which will be its winter home. The neat part is that the Duck looks pretty cool even without the plastic. To me anyway.

It will be joined by the 748 before too long, but I might do one more track day with it this year... Or not. Either way, my livingroom will look even stranger this winter. And it already smells of oil and rubber. Cool :)

10/02/03 Picked up the panels at the body shop. They did a great job with the paint, but... The sticker was not positioned properly. Sigh... To their credit they've committed to making it right and have ordered a new sticker. But now I have to take the fairing piece back and wait some more. In the meantime I've put the other parts back on. One great thing about Ducatis is that they make such neat livingroom sculpture :)

The 900 will be joined by the 748 in the next couple of days. I'll enjoy looking at them every day till spring....

08/05/04 Ducati NorthWest 2004 event at PIR. A first of what will hopefully become an annual Ducati event put on by the factory and local dealers. Naturally I had to bring a Duck to this so two days ago I rolled the 900 out of the livingroom and fired it up after a nearly one-year slumber. Being a bit cold-blooded with flatslide carbs and no choke the bike took nearly the entire length of the hill I live on to get gravity-started (the battery naturally was completely flat). But start it did, just as I was beginning to wonder if I'll be pushing it back up... So a quick ride to fill up and get fluids circulated, then a once-over to prepare for the event. After the R1 the 900 feels, well, antiquated, is the word I'd use. Of course being nearly ten years old it kind of is. But it's certainly a fun machine nevertheless and after a few turns we got re-acquainted and got along just fine.

On the morning of the event, at 3am, I was awakened by the sound of heavy rain - the first in well over a month and somewhat unusual for this time of year. But somehow I didn't think it would be a problem and I was right. By 8am the clouds were breaking up and pavement was nearly dry, which is how it stayed all day. The remaining cloud cover provided a welcome relief from the heat we've been seeing lately. So, off to the track. After waiting in a long line at the gate, another long line to sign up for demos (Ducati brought a few bikes for people to try on the track) and for track sessions. Initially we are told we could only run 3 sessions but I ended up running 5 and my friends ran 7 by the time the day was over. A couple hundred people were in attendance, and lots of Ducatis were parked in a huge arc several rows deep - everything from old to new to custom, with a few other neat machines thrown in for good measure...

The first track session turned out to be quite fun. I was unsure about how the 900 would perform here, having only done one previous track day on it in the 8 years I've had it. Turns out it does great. It's no top speed demon like the R1 is, indicating a peak of 150 mph which I know is really closer to 135, but still decent. And in the turns it did just fine. In one of the sessions, just after the checkered flag, a 999 rider pulled alongside, nodded in approval, then sped off. Turns out it was Doug Polen who was out to have some fun at the track day. So my handling of the Duck was sufficient to earn approval of a Superbike world champion. Cool! Later in the day I got an unsolicited compliment on my riding - this time from a regular mortal like myself though :) In subsequent sessions I had a lot of fun slicing through traffic, passing 5-10 people at a shot in braking zones and carving through the pack in the corners. I didn't bring a video camera but now wish I had - while I didn't break any lap records all the passing maneuvers would have made for fun viewing :)

For the demo session I ended up with a MultiStrada, a weird looking contraption that can be best described as a mutant offspring of a scooter, a dirtbike and a 900 streetbike.

The demos are run in a follow-the-leader fashion, no passing, single-file. Of course I had to drop back on the straights by cruising 55 so I could enjoy the corners at 70+. You sit really tall on the MultiStrada and it's not particularly powerful but it steers very light and is quite responsive. I'm told that I came within a couple of inches of scraping the luggage bags! The Ducati truck had some of the 999 publicity photos on it, including one of a rider dragging his hand on the ground. So naturally I had to find out if the MultiStrada had the Ducati magic to let me do that. Sure enough! Too bad nobody was there to take a photo :( Later I repeated the trick on my own Duck. It's kinda fun actually...

All in all a great day. More track time than I expected, way more fun than anticipated and even the weather cooperated perfectly. All that for just $50 - can't beat it. There was a photographer at the event so in a couple of days I'll add a few more pictures. In the meantime, the Duck is back in its winter home in my livingroom. If I only use it once a year, this is definitely the way to do it!