Spring finally sprung!

[Porkchop]

Spring has finally sprung in Ohio and last week was the inaugural week of the season for me. The battery was completely dead in the Duc from sitting in the bike all winter long in the storage unit. No power outlet=no tender. Decided it was time to pull the battery a month back and put it on a tender. Unfortunately, thanks to Ducati's mass centralization efforts, the battery is under that false tank, under the real tank, and hunkered down next to the airbox. FUCK YOU DUCATI. Even with watching the how-to video 10 times and knowing exactly what to do, it was still a 35 minute job to get the battery out, with 2 sets of hands!

Well the battery ended up being toast so I had to buy a new one last week when I knew it was going to get warm. Threw that battery in (another 35 minutes to get it buttoned back up), and she fired up at the first hit. By that point I was itching to ride, but the sun was dropping to the trees fast. Ran over to the gas station to fill it up with some good premium gas to dilute the old shit and I was on my way. Got a good 20 minutes in as the temps dropped from 49* to 41* in a matter of minutes. Rolled in for the night and snapped this pic.



The next afternoon I rode it to meet my buddies at the gym to get a quick lift in. Nice and warm in the afternoon, it was glorious. When I left his house at 9:30pm however... my onboard temp got down to 34*. Thank god for a fantastic Tourmaster winter jacket that kept me nice and toasty. My knees were a different story....

Left work Friday afternoon in almost 70* weather and nothing was stopping a nice long ride. Hit some twisties and country hills for a good hour before multiple sheriff sightings drove me back into town. Went to see an old coworker and met up with another friend for a nice group ride before dinner.

Then yesterday we had our usual Ducati Owners Club meeting at the clubhouse for the GP race and some brews. Ended up doing some maintenance on some of the bikes, including a sprocket swap on mine. The monsters come with 15t sprockets on the front to meet Euro 3 sound regulations which really makes the gearing way too tall. There is a lot of engine "chugging" or "boxing" at low speeds due to the gearing, and you would never see 6th gear unless you were doing 75+ on the highway. Going to the 14t on the front really changes the bike and makes it run like it should. Easier away from the line, you don't have to slip the clutch like you had to. No "chugging" on the engine, the thing revs smooth and crisp, much better throttle response, and of course the added benefit of better acceleration out of corners. The only downfall I see is instead of running at 4300-4400rpm on the highway, it runs at 4800-4900 at about 70-72mph. Wasn't too bad of a job to do. Two bolts on the sprocket cover, two bolts on the sprocket, three bolts on the slave master cylinder, two bolts on the rearset, and then you dialed the rear wheel in to the front of the swingarm for slack (since it's as DSS not a SSS). Maybe a 45-50 minute ordeal tops. Could have been faster, but the old members were teaching me stuff as we were going. Wish I would have snapped a picture of the maintenance or all the club's bikes together in the parking lot though.