Due to a string of lost packages from USPS affiliates around the world,  I no longer ship USPS International Priority Mail. I now offer Fedex, UPS and USPS Global Express. The cost  is more, but I know the packages will get there. USPS priority has no tracking, and worse customer service. As always, my shopping cart provides ESTIMATES of actual shipping charges. Rates are calculated when the box is weighed. At that time all charges are applied. For you international folks, I suggest you pool things into 1 larger order to save on shipping.

I got my quote today to get the ST4/ST4S hoses made. As always, I was disappointed at the cost. I can do $160/set including hose clamps, but my $150 target went out the door with the setup charge.  I’m only getting 25 sets made initially. If you want a set, I’ll post here when I have the ad ready for the hoses. I’ve gotten several emails asking for a set.

All the parts are in for the ST except for the hoses. That little detail will keep her sidelined for the next month. Damn…

I changed the Seminar schedule of events. Added 30 minutes to the AM and an hour to the PM. Should be a full day.

Rides this Sat and Sun. The usual destinations. If interested email me or Mark.

Daryl, Bobby and I did a Blackwater run yesterday. By the conclusion, it was almost toasty in my gear. I have the wheels/tires off Mark’s St4S on my ST2, and those 2CTs stick like glue. It’s just a shame that you have to ring the neck of the ST2 to ride it at a spirited pace. I remember when I thought it was all the power I needed. The maintenance is much less expensive, but other than that the 2 pales to the 3 and 4/4S in the power dept. That bike has been bulletproof for me though, so I can’t complain. Other than a blown solenoid, I’ve had no maintenance issues. On the way back yesterday, Daryl was running low on fuel, so we stopped at a “park and rob” on Munson Hwy. The station actually had ethanol-free premium gas. Cool. Unfortunately, it’s 30 miles from home, so it does me little good. Surely there are similar stations around Pcola.

The maintenance seminar is laid on for the 17th of April. I had to change the date due to other weekend obligations. Min attendees to make it a go is 5. Max is 10. A schedule of activities will is at http://www.desmotimes.com/seminar.htm. If it works out, I’ll do them several times each year. Lots of shops have them, so it isn’t like I’m inventing anything.

Enjoy your work week.

There will be local rides tomorrow to breakfast and sunday in blackwater. email if you want to ride.  Most of our local riders are attending Daytoner.

Enjoy your weekend.

Sometimes I yell the sky is falling and nothing happens. Other times I’m right on the mark. Remember my warnings about the dangers of ethanol to fuel systems. Well, last week I wheeled my 748 over to the shop for a checkup. I drained the fuel and, just for grins, decided to shine a flashlight into the gas tank. What the heck? I saw a pile of goo at the bottom of the tank. I quickly removed the tank and pulled the fuel pump for a closer look. The above picture is  proof positive of what happens when ethanol separates from fuel. It turns into a pile of goo. Now before you get all hot and bothered, there is some good news. The fuel in my 748 has been there since last summer. So it’s 7-8 months old. I’m guessing it separated during this cold winter. The good news for me is that the bike hasn’t been started, so none of that goo made its way into the fuel system. The bad news is that the rest of my bikes have been sitting up as well. Every one of them will have the fuel tank pulled and cleaned. My CF5 additive would have prevented this from happening, but I’ve only heard about ethanol separation until now. I’m also adding a note to the fuel system chapter in my books. My recommendation is that if your bike sits up for more than 90 days with the same tank of fuel (sans fuel stabilizer), that you drain the fuel and pull the tank and fuel pump to clean things out. For the paranoid, fuel stabilizer is the ticket.

Gotta love those Ethanol fans. What a great idea for our economy and for motorists……….. frack…

I only have 10 more chapters of picture re-dos before the book is ready to head to my editors for a proof read.

The Surflex clutches are on the way and should be here tomorrow.

Ducati is filling orders again, so I’m stocked up on ST4S belts. On the downside, CC stocked out of their testa belts, so I only have OEM testa belts until the end of next month.

Several bikes are due into the shop in the next few weeks. None of my own projects are really pressing, so a few customer bikes is probably a good thing. The weather should be breaking within a few weeks so maybe I won’t have to crank the heater out there.

Still no news on the digital voltmeters or the ST4/ST4S coolant hoses.

I have a contact that will reflash stock ECUs to remove the immobilizer, put in DP maps, and remove the 02 sensor and convert the F/I back to open loop. I sent off two of my own ECUs to see how quick they would turn them around. Unfortnately, they have been slow, and as a result I won’t offer the service to customers. Getting emails every few days of “where’s my ECU” isn’t something I’ll mess with.

Enjoy your Wed.

There were 8 of us on today’s ride. There were no incidents, which is a good result when new riders are present. It started out chilly, but ended up at a perfect temp, at least for the hot-running MV. I had hoped to do the full route today, but one rider’s bike experienced shift rod difficulties, and it took awhile to fix it. Mark led the 2nd leg of the ride, but his ZX kicks up SO much debris that I passed him to get some clean air. I’m sure it isn’t much better riding behind the MV. Strange CF bits are appearing on Mark’s Deathstar ZX.  He’s as bad as me when it comes to being able to resist bling. I have the toughest time riding the MV at a sedate pace. It just wants to ridden fast, and isn’t a whole lot of fun to be tooling around on. She’ll sit for a spell while the other bikes get a turn.  After 15 years of riding in our back yard, I still enjoy it. Without those roads we’d be pretty much screwed for local riding, and I’m not in the mood for any travel just to get some riding in.

I had to shoot some more pics for an article for MCN, so the above shot was in the mix. Yeah, it’s pretty bad when your house becomes a garage… I think.

I won’t comment on the WSB races until I watch them. The results were a bit surprising.

I did some more work taking pics for the book too. Two more chapters were put to bed with the added pictures.

Enjoy your work week.

I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished this past week on projects.  The ST4s is dead in the water while I await parts from 5 different vendors. It probably won’t be back together until April. On the product front, the only success I had this week was finally getting a batch of the tapered roller bearings for the steering head for the 90s era SS and Monsters. That was kind of a big deal, since the only other source was Ducati and they cost A LOT more. So now I have tapered roller bearings for every Ducati made after 1990. Cool.

I stocked out of surflex clutches this week. I sold 6 in 1 week, which blew my inventory. They’re on order, with no ETA from the vendor… as usual. Meanwhile Lockhart-Phillips stocked out of Barnett clutches, so I’ll have to source them directly from Barnett at a higher price until L-P gets their resupply late next month. I have a few on the shelf to tide me over until I can get them from Barnett.  No other news. Nobody seems in a hurry to get me quotes on parts I’ve ordered. It must be nice to not have to hustle for a sale.

Wait List:

• Silicon Hoses
• ECU reflash
• Hard ano rear sprocket for BST
• Milled out parts from Alex
• Fairing parts from painter

Don’t worry guys. I’ll take pics of the mods and final product. Shooting pics of the M1100 for the BOTQ very soon.

I’m looking forward to the ride tomorrow. The rainy skies this morning broke away leaving a sunny day. I’ll spend the night in the shop working on some odds and ends. Let’s hope the roads aren’t strewn with debris for tomorrow’s ride.

In case some of you forgot, the 2010 WSB season kicks off tomorrow. Two Ducati’s on the front row, but they aren’t both from the factory team. Carlos Checa on a satellite team heads the front row.  Haga qualified a disappointing 14th,  a full row behind the B-team Ducait riders. BMW and Aprilia are struggling to open the season. We’ll see what shakes out tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of you weekend.

LT,

In the process of rebuilding my bike from the ground up. I’ve just bought some SBK
forks, and Marchesini mags, Fuel cell tank, and leaning towards a Quat D ExBox
w/Rexxer ECU. The bike has a DP ECU, Termi’s, DP shorty airbox. The question I have
is I can’t make up my mind to build out the 916, or to locate a 996 and swap. I’ve
thought about sending it to the Ducshop, I’m looking at $2k or more. I’m trying to
lighten the bike as much as possible, but want something a tad quicker. In your
experience, what would you recommend? Get some new Twitter updates.

Reply: Mark at the Ducshop is probably a better person to ask, since he does these rebuilds every so often. To me, the perfect setup would be a 748 close-ratio tranny mated to a 996. The 916 is good, but the 996 has significant more grunt. It needs the single-injector mod though to run right. To have that done right with high comp pistons and lightened/balanced/knife edged crank will set you back a few pennies. It depends on what you want to do with it – track, street, bling? Infinite possibilities ain’t there? With regards to twitter, I post periodically, but right now am swamped with the requirements of teaching this semester. Only so many hours in the day.

Many of the questions I get are from first-time Ducati owners. This gentleman has spent a lot of time and money trying to get rid of the clutch “rattle” on his newish Ducati.  I’ve helped him out, but have also explained that a dry clutch will always make more noise than a wet clutch for obvious reasons. More of his questions follow.

LT,

What’s up with this M1100 shop manual?  How come you can’t even get it in pdf form? I never saw such waste of ink and paper as in their user manual; you know, they refer you to the dealer for a chain adjustment!!!:  but I will go to italy if I have to in order to get it.  Not even Mercedes is this zealous with theirs! Also, what’s up with this exhaust valve? I installed the tail tidy and had to disconnect the cable and upon reconnecting it, i thought i made a little experiment and left it open all the time; the bike seems to run smoother in the low RPM’ range!!! with check engine light and all. I’m thinking they probably have to reset the computer when I bring it for the 600 mile service, and God knows what kind of verbal abuse I’m gonna be subjected to. I had seen a picture of the bike with a full termignoni system and it does not have it. It is there probably just to mitigate noise at certain RPM’s, and to annoy me, right?

Hello, the M1100 shop manual will be available in PDF soon, but it usually takes a year or so after a new model release to become available. Yes, the latest manuals refer  you to the dealer for chain adjustments. You can guess why – repeated instances of owners mis-adjusting the chain tension themselves. Usually, customers will OVER tension the chain, which places increased wear on drivetrain items and added stress to the transmission.  The exhaust valve is to reduce noise levels. Yes, the check engine light will come on if you disconnect it. You can only get rid of it if you install the termi system with the race ECU. Because of the new Siemens ECU, no other exhaust manufacturer has made full systems for the bike to eliminate the exhaust valve.

We had several nice rides this past weekend. I rode the 888 on Saturday to the Oasis with Brad, Daryl, and Daryl Sr. On Sunday 7 of us did a Blackwater ride. I rode the MTS1000 2-up at a sedate pace. The MTS front brakes are pulsing again even after the rotor upgrade. I never did get around to fixing it at the master cylinder.

All of the bikes are road-worthy again except for the dead battery on the GC. I need to order one this week as I’m planning an out of town excursion on her in a few weeks.

This week ‘ll also wait – for the ST4S coolant hoses to get to the silicon hose vendor, for the painter to finish my bodywork, and for a lot of backordered parts to arrive.

On another note, I’m toying with the idea of a Ducati maintenance seminar. I’ve had a few people send me emails asking for it. I’m shooting for hosting one the first Saturday in April. Registration is limited to 10 people. First come, first serve. It will be an all-day affair starting at 0900 and running until 1700. Lunch provided. $75 registration fee that includes lunch. Email me for details. Seminar will be custom-designed based on the models of bikes that attendees own.

Enjoy your week.

Above: The ST4s sits…. waiting on parts

Like many of you, my Wintertime is project time. This winter I sought to tackle 2 projects. The first was to clean up the ST4S and give it a new look. A batch of parts is off getting lightened/milled while I await the bodywork repaint. Even though the carbon bodywork was made by Carbon Dream in Italy, the finish is WAY lower than typical Carbon Dream stuff. The bodywork they made for the MH900s is something to behold. For the ST, the finish is poor, with no clearcoat, and pinholes everywhere. My painter is having fits. It’s taking him 4 coats of clear sealer to fill the pinholes and then a good coat of clear to make the carbon shine like the sun. I made up my custom decals, and kept it  minimalist  – one on the tail section sides, and one on each mid-fairing.  I already swapped over the Wilbers rear shock, black powder-coated peg hangers from my ST2 and the BST wheels fitted with new rubber. The coolant hoses are off getting modeled for silicon. Yup, it’s going to happen. I’ll put up a page later next week to accept pre–orders for the silicon hoses. They will fit the ST4/ST4S ONLY. I’ll do the ST2 hoses after that. I’ll offer a discount on pre-orders, but won’t know price until I work things out with the manufacturer. Updates will be posted here. I’ll probably do a batch of 30 sets on the initial run.

Yesterday I also contacted my LCD module vendor about getting another batch of them made. I should have the voltmeters in by the middle of March, and the kits ready by the end of March. Christina doesn’t know it yet, but she’s about to get a crash course in how to put together my voltmeter kits.

The photo shoot for the 2011 Ducati Hottie calendar begins in the coming weeks. I can’t wait until the heat of summer to shoot like I did last year. This time we’ll do multiple shoots throughout the Spring. The shots will be most outdoors, and we’ll use multiple bikes instead of single-bike shots — one for the 3 generations of Monster, one for the 4 generations of Superbike, variants of ST in the same picture, etc. There will also be focus shots of iconic Ducati parts for several months — undertail exhausts, clutch setups, single-sided swingarms etc.  Christina will still be in all the shots.

We’re riding today and tomorrow. It’s still a bit chilly, so the Superbikes will continue to get the chores. Now where are those darned electric gloves?

Enjoy your weekend.