Hope you wash the salt off afterwards and give her rub down. They deteriorate rapidly without proper after-care if ridden hard.
Ill ride as long as its dry but - if ive not ridden either of them and its freezing ill make a judgement call then at the time...sometimes it can be so long since ive been on either of them then I just gotta put up with the cold. Some of you probably know that im building a uber coated supermoto which when completed will be going out in all weathers just to see if it can survive the elements. So far nothing has gone back on to it that rusts from a fixings point of view and before anyone mentions that the frame is steel yes it is but its been recoated with a weatherproof undercoat and a second coat on top. The plan is, is if I need to get somewhere and the weather is shitty and the roads have been gritted etc etc then I can use that - chuck it in the garage and then clean it whenever...should be interesting...
Yeah - I know but part of it is that ive never renovated anything from scratch before and seeing as one of my bugbears is corrosion I thought the 2 could go together...its kinda fun in a bankrupting kind of way....just about to buy all the replacement loom/electrical stuff which'll weigh in at an initial 600....
Ive rode my ducati all year round for many yrs ,tends to be dry though.On the older 916 series ive found the parts hold up very well to salt if cleaned well afterwards.In fact its the summer use that takes its toll on finish due to higher speeds and more grip for other roads users bike suffers more with stone chips etc. Cleaning when its freezing cold and your knackered can be a pain in the arse but essential from my experience if you want your ducati to stay mint.This year ive finely purchased a winter hack Honda 650 as it has heated grips and wind deflector hand guards.Found riding the 916sps wasn't so much fun below 5 degrees with summer gloves lol.Fecking hell your fingertips get cold. Not sure how the newer bikes hold up as a lot of people complained about build quality and parts going downhill after 999 series bikes.
I thought the older ones were worse! I did see some time ago on ducati.ms where an Australian bloke had a hyper that stopped on 100,000 km's - ducati said he had to buy a new clock....he show a pic of it (which I was trying to find) and while mechanically he said it was running fine - and he did all the services on time. It looked a right shed....but then id kind of expect it...heh. Mechanically I think theyre fine but....id love to meet the bloke in charge of coatings and fixings at Ducati....with a bat...
The only things ive noticed with my old bike is the dzus fasteners at bottom can corrode and same for bolts under the numberplate holder for indicators.Other than that all the major stuff has held up brilliantly.I always rinse bike with cold water after riding with salt on the roads and get through shit loads of sdoc bike cleaner and wd40.
All year round on the Hyper evo, lots of acf 50, dont intentionally ride in snow but have been caught out before & will attempt to get home if possible... mad me... Only corrosion is wheel spindle nuts & calliper bolts, otherwise scrubs up like new in spring.
mine must have been assembled in the "pig iron" division of Ducati - the super secret "see if we can get away with it department..."
Nope, she is away for the winter, still never seen rain! I will just have to wait until it's warmer and dryer. Less humid. So went and got something else to keep me on 2 wheels.
I wont ride in the rain or when the grit is down, but any reasonable day in winter as long as its dry I will ride. Dont mind the cold. But rain and salt just kill ducati's. If it didnt then I'd ride all yr. But probably not a sportsbike. An enduro of summit for winter would be nice. I rode my old husky 510 in winter and I rode my 300exc in winter. The 916 stays in the garage, all tucked up and cozy. (wifey doesnt know its heated)
Off to wash mine now before its winter lie-up. Its going to Louigi-Moto tomorrow for the Christmas fairies to work a bit magic on the engine.
Its's a definite no from me. Winter is tinkering time. Dark winter afternoons spent in a freezing cold garage with the plastics off, old t-shirt and toothbrush in hand cleaning engine parts that will never see the light of day. Fantasizing about the first dry, sunny warm morning of spring. I think that denying yourself the pleasure of riding makes it all the sweeter when you do eventually get out on the road again.
He sure has. Even down to his machine-shop coat. Perhaps less so when he's rinsing a 1048, or whatever it might be, round Castle Combe and blowing everyone else into the weeds. I somehow imagine him racing in Bellstaffs and goggles. Top bloke.
I used to ride the first Mrs Gimlet all year round. Like most blokes my age I started with a standard issue British twin pot. She was solid and worthy but not unattractive and surprisingly agile. I wouldn't call her racy, she didn't have the ground clearance for a start but she responded well to being thrown around and made quite a nice noise when ridden hard. We were together a long time and I must say she aged quite well. After many years of hard riding she still looked pretty good viewed from a distance. A few blemishes, obviously, the odd leak, but when I took her to the pub she turned heads and other people wanted a go on her. But she became more and more difficult to get going and took an age to warm up. When she lost her spark altogether she had to go. I sometimes wish I'd kept her on and made the effort with her. She'd be a classic by now. But I was seduced outside a pub in Weymouth by a long-legged cruiser. Massive lungs, curvy body work and a sumptuous seat. I had some fun with her for a year or two but she wasn't all she looked. She had immense reliability and some charm, but no performance. You couldn't do any tricks with her. And she drank a bit. I tried a few compact and highly strung screamers. Small, tight, nervous slappers. Hell of a lot of fun but I had a job to stay on them and they made my back hurt and people kept pinching them. They'd turn up days later ridden ragged and nothing left in the tank. I gave it up for a while and had to make do with paying for public transport. Very happy now with my Italian redhead. She's much easier to live with than I thought. Keep her well serviced and buy her plenty of cosmetics and there's nothing she won't let me do. Phwoar!
