DesmoDog

I rode Ducatis exclusively for about 25 years, then strayed when I bought an Aprilia RSV-R for a track bike, and then a Guzzi V85tt for a street bike. I never bonded with either. The Aprilia was sold off last spring, and it's pretty much decided the V85 will be put up for sale next spring. I already bought a 900ss track bike to replace the RSV, the Guzzi wil likely be replaced by an older air cooled Ducati Monster, or if I decide to sell my 851 also, perhaps a V2 Streetfighter. I need to see one in person first but so far it's caught my attention.

Spring of 1991. I went to pick up the Ducati 907ie that I had put a deposit down on months before and of course, it starts raining. So I ride it home and park it, anxiously awaiting the next day when it's supposed to be clear. The next morning I get up to sunshine. Suit up, head out. This was before the 900ss came out, and before Ducati's big come back, so most people had NO idea what a Ducati was. People who did know what it was often thought they had gone out of business. So the bike was a but of an oddity. Anyway... I'm tooling along and saw a guy I kind of knew, a friend of a friend who was in to bikes. I pull into his driveway. He has no idea who I am, he only knows this brand new Ducati is pulling up. I get to the garage, start to turn, and realize I haven't got enough room to turn around, I'm going to hit one of his cars. So, against everything my brain was telling me, I hit the brakes while still turning. And promptly fell over. I'm on the ground. Brand new bike is on the ground. This guy has no idea who I am yet. I don't recall taking off my helmet or picking up the bike or anything for a bit. Nice enough guy though. He told me the story of how he was pulling a BMW into the garage one day and fell over onto his dad's newly repainted Jaguar. Made me feel a lttle better... but I still went straight home and went back to bed. The only real damage to the bike was a cracked mirror and a couple scuffs in the paint, so it could have been worse. Messed up my wirst too but I didn' tfeel that right away... Years later, a friend asks me to ride with him in a team Hare Scrambles off road event. I had a KDX250 and had ridden off road for about five miuntes in my life but sure, why not? I had off road gear, what could possibly go wrong? He takes the first leg, then hands the bike off. I fumble around the track for a bit, mostly trying to stay out of everyone else's way. I was climbing a hill (a weak point in my already very limited skills) and I hear a two stroke coming up behind me, so I try to up the pace and get to the top. The bike hits a bump, I go up in the air, the bike drops, I start to drop, the bike hits another bump and comes up while I am still dropping down, and the tank crashes into certain body parts that are not known to resist impacts very robustly. Fack me. I got to the top of the hill, pulled over, and took a little rest... But that's not the embarrassing part. I remounted and continued on, a bit worse for wear and getting pretty tired. Suddenly the trail opens up into a small field with a checkpoint table. Open field after all the riding through the woods. Nothing to avoid, no trees to dodge. Well, I mean there was one small little tree there, out in the open, before the table. Not much more than a sapling really, right there by the table. You'd have to be a complete idiot to... oh son of a bitch, I clipped it with the bars and went down. Right in front of everyone sitting there doing checkpoint stuff. And I'm not exactly running with the pack so there wasn't much else for people to be watching when I pulled up. One guy has his kid with him. The kid starts laughing. The dad tells him not to laugh. I stood up and told the kid it was ok, that was pretty funny. And I started laughing too. It was that or cry. I got back around to the pits and handed the bike off to the other guy. It had been so long he thought I had broken down. And that was the end of my Hare Scrambles career.

I rediscovered this when going through some old videos. I get a kick out his comments at the end. http://teamyikes.com/vids/Rookie.mov

Because there is already a market for the good parts. Why make yet another market for something that is already in demand instead of creating a market for something there is a surplus of? Buffalo chicken wings are one of the great marketing stories of the '80s IMHO. Create the market, grow it by expanding to other seasonings, and suddenly that stuff you used to have to pay to have hauled away is bringing in money. EDIT: And I've got to say, when done right they're pretty good.

I rode my '66 160 Ducati to a show, was convinced to enter it, and ended up winning an award.

Yeah... Eric "rides" from Colorado to Ohio in two days, and 1000 miles into the trip he shows a huge enclosed trailer that just HAPPENS to be from... COLORADO. Yeah, sure, he rode all the way... uh huh...

Some days I wish I hadn't sold this bike. I owned it for 17 years and put about 7500 miles on it. It was the worst streetbike I've ever owned but when the time was right it was awesome. I sold it and kept my 851, some days I think I sold the wrong bike.

In the USA that's the only color they came in. It was also the reason I had Larry find me a yellow 996 instead of buying the red one they had in stock.

Ducati Superlight, 900SS/SL. When this bike hit the showroom I spent half an hour staring at it and running the numbers in my head. I was still paying off my 907ie and couldn't handle two payments. I should have sold the 907 but didn't. Oh well... it was a one year only model in the USA. Had I known that, I may have sprung for it. I've owned three 900ss's since then. I'm considering building a tribute bike with the same body work but different details (944cc, FCRs, Ohlins shock, differnt wheels, etc) or even selling my 851 and buying a real one. Could very well be my favorite street going Ducati...

I've been to the same wall but can't find pictures now. It was a day trip while we were in Scotland. I tried to rent a Jeep but they didn't have any, so I told them to give me whatever they had sitting around. This thing didn't work so well off road. Stayed with some friends at some quaint little place out in the woods.

Wheels? I wouldn't even think about trying to annodize anything that large, at home. It's been a while since I've looked into it but from the little I recall, getting a decent result would be next to impossible for a newbie home user, and the set up wouldn't be cheap either. Just getting them clean enough for it to work to begin with would be a challenge. What I'm trying to say is, Earache gets things right every so often and this is one of those times. Have them powder coated if you must but annodizing wheels at home? Forgetaboutit.

It's a .mov file. Quicktime plays it. Try right click and download. Or I can sum it up for ya'll; Or here it is in mp4 format http://teamyikes.com/851/ChinaSyndrome.mp4 Early on in the process you could see arcing inside the case, after the case split open of course. The good news is, these batteries are usually Lithium IRON as opposed to Lithium ION, which means they don't have the same tendancy to burst into actual flames when they fail. I didn't know the difference at the time so watching it progress was oh so wonderfully suspenseful as I waited for the flames. I was pretty sure it was going to burn down on the side of the road, but it didn't. So here's what happened as I understand it. The regulator failed, and the voltage to the battery reached somewhere around 60 (according to the manufacturer, that's what it'd take to overpower the built in protection, which they have since increased). When the voltage gets too high in a lithium battery, it starts to plate it's internals. Eventually it shorts itself out internally and then it's China Syndrome time. There's not a damn thing you can do until all the smoke leakes out. In my case the bike stalled, then started again, then died for good. Stopped on the side of the road, removed the seat to get to the tool kit, and noticed a small wisp of smoke. What the??? Small wisp became massive amounts accompanied by a horrible stench. A seriously nasty chemical smell that stuck to everything even after the event. Peaking under the fairing (while holding my breath) I saw arcing inside the case. After replacing the regulator and battery, I ended up having to replace the ECU, a bulb or two, and a relay. There is some sort of device in the ECU that is supposed to protect against over voltage. The component unsoldered itself and was rattling around in the ECU's case. Old school Ducati regulators suck. Don't run a lithium battery without a MOSFET regulator. Just don't do it. PS: The tool kit included with a 1991 Ducati 851 is missing one tool that is required to remove the fairing. You've been warned. That fastener was omitted when the faring was reinstalled by the way.

The aftermath of putting a lithium battery in an old school bike, and the old school regulator rejecting it. http://teamyikes.com/851/EarthX.mov This is near the end of the ordeal. Trust me, the smoke was a LOT worse earlier in the show. And the smell. Oh my god... PS. The bike now has a mosfet regulator, and another lithium battery. What can I say, I'm stubborn.

That snow (Jones Pass) is over 12,450 feet up... depends on which website yyou believe. Here's a picture Earache took at the top of the pass a few years ago with no snow. This was taken when I had a rental out there. Nothing parties like rental!

I was playing around with video software a little more and came up with somethign that shows the beginning of a ride yesterday. Basically from Earache's house to the interstate entrance ramp. The first couple minutes are the run from his house to Central City. they have been edited... the last few minutes are a look at some of Central City, Colorado, for those of you who like that sort of thing. I got tired of trying to filter out wind noise and don't have suitable music on my laptop to put over it, so I suggest viewing it at little or no volume... http://teamyikes.com/Guzzi/CentralCity.mp4

Yep, Ducati stopped using dry clutches on streetbikes about 15 years ago... but I thought they also stopped doing slipper clutches when they went to throttle by wire. No need for a slipper clutch if you can crack the throttle plates a touch under decel.

As mentioned the first day of riding yesterday was pretty tame, I was trying out a camera set up and getting a feel for the bike as I haven't ridden it much this year and never at this altitude. After the ride I tried to figure out how to use video and audio software. Excuse the music but the camera just picked up wind noise. I can't upload this to YouTube or Facebook because of the music but here's a little video. The camera wasn't on when the local Ferrari club came by. Isn't that always how it works? http://teamyikes.com/Guzzi/Colorado1.mp4 That'd be @Earache leading the way.

You forgot to mention the memory card we found! Or the one I lost about 20 minutes before we found it again... I'm pretty sure I'm already looking for it in the rear shot of the bike. Yes, the shock is mounted on the side, not all that uncommon these days. And by that I mean Ducati does it too and they're the only other brand I know anything about, so it's common in my world. No idea if the Japanese do it on anything? I'd be surprised if they didn't. I'm not sure a handgun is all that useful around here? I'd be willing to bet most landowners have long guns and probably big scopes. You'd never hear the shot...

Well far be it from me to argue with a Brit about cars that handle like shopping trolleys (You guys were certainly experts at that back in the day) but the GT350 did win the SCCA national B-Production championship in 1965. Though to be fair that would have been the R version vs the H version I've shown above. Other cars in BP included the E-type Jag and the Sunbeam Tiger. Again for the kids at the back of the room. Best. Mustang. Ever.

A couple years ago a company that does vintage car/bike/boat insurance did a photoshoot that included me and my 851. This is a shot at the end of the day, excuse the helmet hair. Not that it looks much better pre-helmet. There are no pictures of me looking stylish around a motorcycle I'm afraid...

Let's get something straight. THIS is the best Mustang. Ever. Carry on.

The fooking Pacer made me laugh... Hopefully it's laughing with the owner and not at the owner...

I've been kinda sorta looking for a vintage Vespa to restore as a retirement project. They're pretty scarce in these parts though.

What's "chain lube"?

Please! Our involvement was the main reason the forum took off so fast! In fact I'm dismayed we did not receive some of the money from the sale! Ok maybe not. But that's not the only forum I've been on that has died shortly after being sold.