Oil drip?!?

I thought I was done with riding for the season, but yep, I got to ride the monster this weekend.

For the winter I basically end up putting the bikes on a battery tender, but even so, I still like to go out and start them up, hear the rumble - try running a 848 with Termi's (no baffels) and a 796 at the same time in a garage (with the door open), neighbors hate you, but they sound awesome and its fun ;). Anyway, was running the 796 and after about 5 min or so, saw a little puddle form at the bottom....hmm.., looked a little closer and it was oil - crap! Dug a bit more and looked like it was coming from the oil filter, not a whole bunch, but a steady drip. Turned it off and as the bike cooled down, the drip stopped.

Called up the dealer and he said to bring it in so yep, in the 15 mins where it stopped raining on Sat, rode it out to the dealer to have them check it out. I was concerned that the 796 may have inherited the "oil leak from the engine block" issue that the 696 had. So the guys at the shop call me up in the afternoon and tell me it was just a bad seal on the oil filter- whew! - so a minor thing, something I probably could have fixed myself, but did not want to mess with it if it was something else. Regardless, a WTF moment, courtesy of Ducati.

Now I need to find another 15 mins of dry weather to go get the bike back from the shop. :)

And here are the pics.

The "drip".


And the Monster 696 oil leak. I got this pic of a bike I was looking to get early this year.

And its snowing!

Snow in November. Last year I went out for a ride out to Crown Point in the Columbia river gorge in November. This year, as with the sucky summer, it is snowing! so yet another gear entry. This time around the jackets. I have 3 that I wear regularly .



First and my favorite is the Dainese Vintage jacket. This is a full leather jacket with armor built into the shoulders and elbows. Zips up to Dainese pants. It does not have any back protection (not even a foam insert). That said, there is a pocket built in if you want to get the Dainese G2 protector. I usually end up wearing my regular back protector underneath and it fits just fine.

Fit- when it is all zipped up, armor hardly moves*, which is super important if you go down. It was a bit tight at first but as it has broken in, now it just feels right, even with a thin fleece under it for those cold days.

Breathability - very little. This is a jacket for the cooler days. It has a couple of air vents under the arms, but that is about it. No liner in this one either. So a very basic jacket, but great build and quality.





The 2nd one, the Dianese Portland jacket, is my summer jacket. This is constructed with Dainese d-skin fabric with a mesh back. Armor in shoulders/ elbows. The cool thing about this jacket is that it comes with a removable back protector, which is super convenient as I don’t have to wear another piece of riding gear and it keeps the jacket in place. The bad, no zipper to attach to pants and the back protector does not fit in my other jackets - I tried :(.



This jacket has been road tested and worked flawlessly. It took brunt of the impact on the shoulder. Armor stayed in place and did its job. If it had moved or not been there I likely would have ended up with some broken parts.



And when I really want to pimp it up, out comes the Tattoo. This was more of an impulse buy while at the Dainese store in Italy (first stop after checking into the hotel ;), but I do like the detailed work that went into it. This is more of a summer jacket and has a combination of leather (perforated) and d-skin material, so is breathable. Armor in shoulders/ elbow, nothing in the back. Includes a zipper for pants. I was a bit disappointed in the build quality on this one as a month into owning it, some of the stitching at the edge of the jacket started coming apart!!! Called Dainese, and they did fix it, but left a bad taste. Other than that, this too has worked well and it definitely gets some attention.





*I recall my first jacket. I had no clue what I was doing, the sales people were unhelpful and I ended up getting a jacket which was super comfortable to wear while walking around, but 3 sizes to large.

Back to rain

I like Indian summers, too bad that in the pacific northwest it decided to come about in the middle of the week for three days (with near 70 degree weather) and the on schedule the rain returns on the weekend. So what is one to do, but take off early from work, even if it is just to ride the bike out to a coffee shop and work from there. Given the timing of the weather, I was not able to get a long ride in, but did get in a couple of short rides, which included detours on to bike lanes and some pics among the leaves.



No new mods on the bike. I'm thinking about powder coating the exhaust as a winter project, but need to find someone local who can do a decent job and does not cost an arm and a leg. Also want to get new levers. Ducati put on adjustable levers, but only if they could have made them black.

Also looking for some winter gloves. Riding in 45-50 degree weather is not kind on hands. Rev-it seems to have some good options, so need to go down to the bike shop and see what I can find out - I have ridden with glove liners which works for short distances but not the most effective, so think it is time for proper gloves.

Riding in the leaves does tend to make the bike a bit dirty, so washed the bikes yesterday and then, of course had to take a couple of shots. :) My perferred washing materials: Honda Brite for washing/ taking the grime off, Plexus for polishing (awesome stuff), followed by a quick 10 min ride to blow off any remaining water; warm up the chain a bit and then finish off cleaning/ waxing the chain with Chain Wax.