Is it summer yet?

I have been bad about posting . Have I been riding?, yes, have I been riding a lot?, no.  As noted previously, I am a fair weather rider, i.e. I enjoy riding, when I don't have to worry about wet roads, slippery divider lines or manhole covers, so my recent rides have been somewhat dictated by the weather map.  The riding prep now includes a look at the  radar map and where there is a green spot (rain),  don't go there.  My rides have been limited to some local roads or down to the quintessential  Ducati hang out, the coffee shop.

That said, I have managed to put on about a 1500 miles or so combined on the bikes, which even included an eventful  scooter ride with a few folks  that saw us dodge a couple of deer, pick up a fallen biker and see one of our scooter riders scoot break down :(.  

The Monster is due up for an oil change now, so looking to get that scheduled in the next few days. 

Solo ride to Tillamook

Left home to just run a loop around a local lake, but once that was done, decided to extend the ride a bit and head out to coast the back way. The road I took is one of the less travelled roads that follows the Nestucca river. My first time on this road this season. The road itself was in pretty poor shape with lots of debris and potholes through from the winter. There is also a short gravel section on this road, but fairly well packed. Anyway, quite an adventure, don't think I'll be taking this road again until later in the season :).

On the positive, the river was full and flowing and the views were pretty amazing. The road pops out in Beaver, OR by the coast, so rode that up to Tillamook and then Hwy 6 back to Portland.

10-24

I have been wanting a wide angle lens for a while, but just could not justify spending a whole lot of cash for a lens that would go on an entry level Canon that is a few years old. However, I was at photo supply shop today and they had a Tamron 10-24 lens (which also got some good reviews)on sale, plus the sample pics I took at the store came out nice, so with that decided to take the plunge and get it.

The first pics of course are of the bike, so here you go.

And I did get a ride in today since the sun was out and from what I hear, it finally hit 60 degrees. :)

Yay! - another dry day.

Sun decided to show up off and on for a few hours today and even through the temps did not go up more than about 50F, I decided to take the bike out for a spin. Took the 848 for a short ride around a local lake, which has a nice drive around it with some sweeping curves and little to no traffic. Needless to say, it was nice to get out, but really sick of the rain at this point (heard that we got over 8 inches of rain in the last couple of months) and ready for Spring to finally emerge.

As you can see still no leaves on trees.

First longish ride of the season

The weather guys predicted a dry day with clouds with a high of 53F, so decided to take a chance and got out for a ride out to the coast. On the way, hooked up with a few cruisers and a BMW adv bike that were heading in the same direction. Roads overall were decent, some were a bit more chewed up than I remember last year, but overall fairly clean. That said, they were not dry.

As to the weather, although the forecast said fifty something on the coast, it was definitely not fifty something on the way there. 60 miles into the ride and my fingers were icicles (I still don't have decent winter gloves) and if the group did not stop every so often (benefit of riding with cruisers) they probably would have fallen off. The BMW rider noted that his temp gauge showed 35-40F, yes, it was a little nippy.;)- thanks to him though, he lent me some over gloves that helped a ton.

Net, net, made it to the coast in one piece, had some good fish and chips and took the fast way (hwy) back home vs. the twisties. Bike was super dirty from the ride, probably dirtier than it has ever been- could not let it sit that way, so ended up washing it- was still freezing, but had to do it.

Also decided, from here on, no more long rides for me until the temps hit at least 55 and above (through out any route I'm taking).

Anyway pics below.

Hooked up with some cruisers

Saw some Elk

Ended up at the coast.

This is what you get for getting the tail chopped.

Cleaned it up.

A few more shots.

The five min paint job is holding upwell.

Spring?!?

Not much new on the Monster front, other than the fact that we are still waiting for Spring to show up in the Pacific northwest. March ended with 29 continuous days of rain and temps in teh 40-55F range and April's forceast does not look any brighter. That said, got a couple of rides in the wet/ cold and got the bike dirty. :) Hoping for dryer days ahead.

Long rides

I have been recently reading a lot of ride reports from the ADV forum and thinking that I need to get a longish ride in this summer. Last year I did a weekend ride from Portland to Victoria, which was fun, but stayed in hotels and didn't ride much, once we got to Victoria.

I don't think I'll ever get enough time off to do a cross country trip - although that would be awesome and I don't have a BMW GS or a standard touring bike- no intention of getting one either.

So what can I do with a Ducati monster? I want to get in at least 2-3 long weekend rides over the next season. Here is what I'm thinking -

1) Do the Victoria ride again, but extend it to 4 days or so.
a. Day 1- Ride up to Port Angeles
b. Day 2- Victoria to Vancouver B.C
c. Day 3- Vancouver BC to somewhere mid- Eastern Washington
d. Day 4- Mid-Eastern WA to Portland

2) Ride south on the coast line- east into Oregon and back up.
a. Day 1- Portland to around the Florence area
b. Day 2- Florence to Crater lake to Bend
c. Day 3 - Bend to Portland

3) Ride south on the coast like to however far I can get in a day- stay
the night and come back up.

I had friends that rode scooters from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine in about 10 days and then shipped their bikes back- but to do such a trip you need a bigger group- don't think I would want to take that one on with my limited mechanical skills + really need to save up for something like that. Maybe when I'm retired and ride a couch on wheels ;).

Cafes and customs

I haven't had a chance to ride much over the last few weeks even though the weather has been somewhat decent for FEBRUARY - but the pattern, as always, kind of sucks (for lack of a better word)- nice and dry during the week and rain throughout the weekend. Well, today I did get to check out some very cool bikes at a local motorcycle show called, the One.

Held in a warehouse in the industrial district of Portland, it was a mixture of ratty, cafe and custom bikes owned/ created mostly by local bike shops. There were some bikes with no front brakes (and I know for a fact that the owners still ride them), bikes with hot sauce bottles as oil catchers, hard tail customs with seats with no padding whatsoever. Also in the mix,active racers, bikes with cup holders and some very well preserved, Ducatis, Triumphs, BSAs, Hondas, Yamahas, and Kawasakis. Also a bunch of bikes that I had no idea what they were when they first rolled off the line.

Regardless it was fun to go check them out and hope that they make this an annual thing.

Blacked out fork update.

Well the forks are back to normal (silver) again. I didn't care much for the wrapping, gave it too much of a home made look, so until I find somthing that looks a little more smoother/ professional, these are back to stock.

First ride of 2011

So even though it was freezing outside, the sun was out and I just had a get a ride in. The 848 has been neglected (plus the monster has one fork wrapped), so decided to take it out. Average air temp freezing at 32F. I guess, it'll take me a week or two to thaw out but it was still nice to get a short run in.

Road conditions-

Forks

Happy new year!! - January is living up to its reputation, with highs of 35F and ice/ gravel on the road, riding is not particularly fun, so decided to take a bit of time and wrap the forks black. I'm not sure if I like them, so holding of wrapping the other one. We'll see how it goes.

Here is what is looks like.





Oh, and here is a better shot of the sprocket cover.

Farkle

Latest addition to the bike. Was at the dealership where they had a sale going and there was this cool looking black and red sprocket cover, that matched my new levers, just staring at me saying, buy me, buy me - so I just had to get it.

It was late in the day, so thought I would install the cover over the weekend, but Thursday night or should I say, Friday morning, suffering from jet lag after the recent trip to Dubai, I was up at 2:00 AM, so decided to install it then. It's a small piece, but I think it looks good on the bike and really like it.

Details: This is a speedy moto sprocket cover. It comes with two silver bolts, but I decided to use the stock black ones that blend in with the black frame.

Pics.

Levers

Since the bike was in the shop for the oil drip issue, I also decided to get the levers. I like CRG's but the problem was that the levers I liked came with a silver pivot and I wanted it to be all black. So went and spoke with the guys at Motocorsa to see if they could get CRG folks to switch out the pivot with one of their all black ones. Well, they were able to work their magic and got me what I wanted. First impressions, in the short ride home, I like them. I got the shorties, so on the brake side, no issues as I'm a one finger braker. On the clutch side, however, my pinkie kinda hangs out there, really not knowing what to do :)so need to get used to that.

As always nothing is without its quirks - just realized that on the clutch side, the switch that lets you start the bike in gear does not engage in the first and second setting. Not a big deal, but as I said, just quirky. :)

UPDATE: Fixed the issue with the clutch by sticking a small piece of tape to the lever, the kind with the foam to depress the switch when the clutch is pulled in. :)