Last night we had the 2nd meeting up of the Nor Cal Ducati Club this evening in at Cibo, in Monterey CA.. It was a nice evening, warm, sunny and the food was quite enjoyable, but the company made it all worth the ride. And a bit of a challenging ride it was!
I met up with Dimitri on his cool Monster900 (a deal may be in the works soon!), at the Vista Point on Highway 1, for the ride to Monterey.
We waited a little while to try and catch a couple of riders coming down from the North Bay, but by 5:30 PM we decided it was time to head south. We didn’t make it far before we were caught in a massive traffic jam on Hwy 1. It was a virtual parking lot, we were going nowhere.
Fortunately we both knew of an alternate route and turned around on Hwy1. By the time we reached Castroville, the traffic heading north was also backed up for miles. A check of the local news sources didn’t reveal the cause of all this chaos, but I heard that at least one person was life-flighted from and accident scene on the highway.
We arrived in Monterey a little later than planned but it was no matter, there were two parking spots for us in front of Cibo, so we pulled in, popped off the helmets and met up with the southern contingent of the Nor Cal Ducati Club. It was nice little array of fine Italian machines on display:
Thanks to The Bear for setting this all up. Looking forward to the next Ducati Bike Night.
Awaking this morning, I decided to put together this little rundown of my two liter-class Italians. For a pair of bikes with remarkably similar style, their characters are vastly different.
Awaking this morning, I decided to put together this little rundown of my two liter-class twins. For a pair of bikes with remarkably similar dimensions, and engine type, their characters are vastly different. Some of this is clear in the HP and weight differences, but it goes beyond that. There is a ‘feeling’ you get when riding a Ducati that no other bike I’ve owned, delivers.
While reading FaceBook tonight, someone posted a funny picture of an MR2 towing a small boat. That reminded me of a picture I had of me towing my Ducati 998 with the Miata! So, I went looking for that photo.
It took a few minutes to locate it, but I did. 🙂
While locating that, I stumbled across a few other photos of the old Miata, and thought I’d post them too, just for old times sake. When I find a few more of the car in action, I’ll post those too.
Ah.. photos, they are like a time machine, taking you to places you once visited, and sometimes showing you places you’re going to go!
Out along the Hood Canal.Stopped for a photo on Elphandahl Pass.Side shot, taken at the Varsity Compound. Sure do miss that house. 🙁
Finally, a pic with the new seats, roll bar and video camera installed: Roll bar and video camera mount.
The Ducati had not been out yet this year. I’d just made sure the battery was charged, tires filled, chain oiled and my riding gear still fit. All systems GO!
WX data indicated I had until 6:00PM to get the thing done, so I headed West, towards the Hood Canal. Reaching the Ridgetop crest on 303, those plans were unceremoniously, canceled. Many fine (and little traveled) roads exist just a couple of miles from home, so a run through the South County became the plan de jour.
There are some really neat little places that you pass along the way. The first of which is Seabeck. A sleepy little town along the Hood Canal. Decent salmon fishing during the season, but the real score is the Dungenus Crab, and shrip fishing. It’s almost impossible not to limit out. 🙂
Seabeck Washington
From there, the road winds southwest, high and inland from the canal, eventually terminating in the little town of Holly.
Holly Wa
This is where things start to get interesting. Just prior to the road’s terminus, starts the an even smaller lane + 1/2 road to the little burg of Dewatto. Winding up the hill and across the ridge, views of the Olympic mountains are impressive and picturesque.
Road to Dewatto.
Dropping out of the hills, just before the town of Dewatto, you are treated to great vists such as this:
Bay at Dewatto. Olympic reflecting off the Hood Canal.
Riding a little further along the water, and the mountains really begin to loom, despite being miles away, across the Hood Canal.
Storm approaching over the Olympic Mountains.
Not far from the bay, is one of the sweet little treats on this run, a steep up-hill right-hand curve followed by an increasing radius turn to the left, finally topping out on the ridge.
DeWatto Curves
It does not really matter which direction you approach Dewatto, it always delivers.
Looking West, towards DeWatto, Olympics and beyond them, the Pacific Ocean.
The road continues to wind it’s way back towards the larger towns, providing both technical corners and broad open-sight-lined sweepers where… “you can really breath.”
Taking a diversion up Elfandahl Pass, through the ORV parks is key.
75 miles and some time later, it seemed fitting to finish off the day at The Boat Shed for a burger and beer. Ah, life in the Pacific Northwest. It’s full of sweet surprises.
Having a photo shoot coming up next week, I want to create a couple of new backdrops. The shoot will once again focus on the yellow Ducati. Today I’m working with some rough masks in Photoshop to get an idea of what backdrop colors I should work on creating next.
This will take a few hours to work though. First I’m working on some basic background tinting. Once I get an idea of what my eye likes, I’ll break out my color books (a favorite of mine is the Jim Krause’s Color Index 2) and find tune the pallets looking for the best complimentary colors. Creating the backdrops is not an exact science (at least for me), so having a perfect color target is meaningless. It serves as a goal for dye an base fabric color selection.
These are a couple of the images I’ve created so far to get an idea of what direction to go in.
Saturday, I got great deal on some AVVI rearsets for the Superbike. Adjustable billet Rear Sets have been on my desire list forever. I never did get a set for my 998, and 2 years into owning the 1098, I finally got it done!
The Happy Hour sale at Ducati Seattle yesterday was IMPOSSIBLE to pass up. 60% off! That cut the price of the parts from $400 to $160! That’s hardly more than the cost of replacing the bits with stock parts, perish the though, if it’s crashed. So.. picked them up, had a cheese burger, talked to Marty for over an hour about tuning the bike…. and headed home to mount the parts.
10 minutes later: New AVVI Rear Sets
How, I need to get them anodized to match the rest of my billet parts, such as the clutch cover, pressure plate and my levers: Billet levers.
I also talked to Marty about the advantages of putting in a custom stroker crank. We looked at some dyno graphs for other stroker motors recently built. It really flattens the torque curve. A 916 stroker was cranking well into 80 ft/lb. from 4400 with at table flat profile all the way to 8500! That would be a massive kick in street drivability, and also corner exit acceleration on the track. If I can file $5000 to burn between now and Summer, I can get the crank done, the heads blueprinted and the entire thing custom dyno tuned. Tempting… very tempting.
It’s great to have a world-class dyno facility less than 1 hour away, with a technician that has decades of experience and the professional network that offers the latest in tuning knowledge to be made available to the average consumer, such as myself.
Dave Rosevelt and Ducati Seattle are a world-class operation!
With my parents in town, and having the need to pick up some parts at Ducati Seattle, I hatched a masterful plan for all of us to have fun, while allowing myself to take care of the essential needs of my beloved Ducati.
We caught a lucky break and boarded the 11:35 AM boat out of Bremerton for the big city. Once on the mainland, we had to contend with a TON of traffic from the combined Sounders F.C. game and the weekend long ‘Bit of Seattle’. As it turns out both ends of the city we needed access too were choked with humans. Why do I ever venture into cities? I always ask myself this, while I’m there.
Regardless, headlong into the breach went we.
Having taken almost 30 minutes to traverse the 4 miles from the ferry terminal to Ducati Seattle, I had to make fast work of my parts acquisition mission. While there Dave R. (owner) made the point of saying hello to me. He always makes a point of saying hello to his customers, even when just dropping by for a quick part, or no part at all. This is why I only do business with David and Ducati Seattle. Personalized, customer service. A lot of businesses could learn something from this award winning dealer.
Having acquired the tank protector I needed, and one more set of tasty blingy bits (yet to be announced), I met the family next door at Boca di Beppos, where we at a late lunch. YUM! We shared a large bowl of stuffed shells, a large mixed green salad and some Peroni Nastro Azzurro. YUMx2. It was more than enough for 6 people.
Lunch took just the perfect amount of time, for I had pre-ordered tickets for the 3:30PM ‘Ride the Ducks Tour‘. The youngest of my clan has been dying to do this, so today I surprised him with this little treat ($155 for the 6 of us later…). He was suitably shocked and thrilled. Few things warm the heart like a genuinely happy child.
Following a very amusing and educational tour of the city, we entered the water of Lake Union and enjoyed one of the great features of these old WWII workhorses… it’s amphibious qualities. It’s not a fast ride (top speed about 7 kts) but also full of good Seattle / Northwest history. Even enjoyed watching a few sea planes takeoff over us on the lake. It was quite a treat, one that I found well worth the price paid. Much merriment was made, often at the expense of the local PWN culture. What’s not to joke about, we’re a bunch of nuts that live here.
Completing our fun, games and a little business in Seattle, it was back to the Washington State Ferry dock on the Seattle waterfront. This time we took the shorter (thus faster) run to Bainbridge Island to execute the last piece of my master plan. A visit to Mora Iced Creamery (review updated on my blog post of 16-Jul).
The ferry system was running a little late on the run, no matter, we had time to spare (well.. I we hoped we did, since it turns out we locked ourselves out of my house when we left – $100 visit from a locksmith at 11:00PM solved that little problem). On the way out, the passengers were treated to quite a display of water cannons from one of the City’s fire fighting boats. Many photos were taken ( by myself at least). I’ll select the best of them an upload at a later date. For now, here is one I just pulled off the pile:
Ferry boat practices washing bird poo off Space Needle
Despite some whining from a certain, rather tired and perhaps over-excited 7 year old, we did enjoy some very fine island ice cream. A wonderful treat, indeed.
It was quite a day, and I think it was enjoyed by all. It’s always good to spend time with my parents, and also to be able to have my kids spend time with their California grandparents. And it’s also a treat to have such wonderful weather, all at the same time!
D2Moto had a pretty dang good say going, so I ordered some more parts for the project bike.
Parts Ordered
While I was at it, I also picked up some blink for the Ducati. In fact, almost 1/2 the order is one set of blingware for the Duc. It deserves a little attention as well.
Parts page lists them fo the Monster. Checked the 1098 and they all LOOK similar. I know Ducati re-uses parts extensivly so, I’m hoping in this case I’m right, or it’s a $40 error. In the end, if they don’t fit I know plenty of people around the area that I could sell them to for at or near what I paid.
Having worked 1/2 the previous night, until 1:00AM, then gettng up again at 7:00 to continue forward with a large development project, I decided to reward my hard work with a little R&R at the top of the Olympic National Park. My friend Bill had the day off so we decided to meet up north of Poulsbo and ride the 80 miles to Port Angelas. The final destination, Hurricane Ridge 93 miles from our starting point.
