Crikey, I thought you said you wanted to 'calm it down'....... I think it must have given you migraines then before, however, goodness knows what sort of dizziness you must get from looking at it now
Put down a deposit on a very special Ducati, a couple weeks ago. I will be collecting it at the end of June, as it is located on the other side of the country from where we live. Patience… In the meantime, I found the right key ring for it. That’s important, to find the right key ring, you know…
Turned the bike from this minging mess To this. I now need to spend a few hours getting all the tar spots off, and remove all the chain lube that flung just about everywhere, as the can i had ran out, so had to use my mates stuff.
Was that just found in a draw or purchased though? If a purchase do you have a link to the vendor please?
Rode the course twice. It was a bit windy on the mountain. Bike parked up now, changed and going to Bray Hill to watch practice with added alcohol. I’ve been up since 6am yesterday. I’ve a feeling this won’t end well.
Dust coat around repair to v2 tank to show any pinpricks or proud spots. Then plenty more filling, rubbing etc. A further dust coat just gone on.
Lubed the chain on the Multistrada in readiness for my Scottish weekend coming up. Now I'm just about to sort my packing out
Just waved goodbye to the 748R and still waiting on a courier to collect the exhaust that’s off to NZ. My buyer in Auckland has been great but sadly let down by the UK courier who is in no hurry, now he has been paid Andy
Picked up a little work bench from a car boot this morning, and tested out the blanking plates I made.
Got the Dunlop SportSmart TT’s fitted to the Monster today. Only done a few miles back up the mountain but it’s a very, very twisty road. The bike just rolled beautifully from one side to the other with ease on the new tyres. Really put a smile on my face. Obviously I’ve got to take it’s easy for the first miles but I could already feel the bike is more planted in the bends. No steering head shake any more and it felt like pure joy wafting (not pushing it) up the mountain. I’ll post pics tomorrow but the front profile is much more rounded compared to the Metzeler’s so it rolls smoothly into the bends. When I pulled the carcasses around, off the rims, the Dunlops were way stiffer than the really surprisingly soft Metzeler M7RR’s. The difference in structural rigidity was amazing. I’m therefore considering less psi and I’m wondering if there’ll be less feel but I think there’ll be less counter steer. We’ll have to see. To be fair, the Metzeler’s have been on the bike since pre-Covid and I think they’ve just gone through so many heat cycles that they’d gone off. Up until recently I’ve always really liked the Metzeler M7’s and 9’s. Tomorrow we’re off for a group ride, that’ll be the acid test. I’ll start to push it but initial feeling is a planted bike with no weave, great.
Bridgestones are stiff as well. When I bought my 748 I spooned off the 12 year old Pirelli’s (they only had about 200 miles on them ) easy peasy, but shodding the S22s was another level of pain. I think, in almost all cases, new tyres are going to feel nicer at first even if they aren’t really better tyres. Secondly (and I’m going to contradict myself slightly now ) I don’t think road compound tyres are affected by normal heat cycles, so they shouldn’t really have “gone off”. I think what you’re experiencing is more confidence due to the profile of the tyres being rounder and less tendency for the bike to fall into the corners over a certain lean angle. Which is fine, that sudden drop is something that scares the shit out of me if I wasn’t expecting it.
