It’s 3:30pm on an 80 degree Saturday in December here in Los Angeles and the ride is still echoing through me. Nothing brings out my admiration for Southern California like great weather on a winter day. After spending the past several weekends feeling semi-freezen on our various rides up and around the pacific coast, finally a SoCal Winter has hit and it feels great. On a day like today, there is truly no other place I’d rather be.

As MotorMilt & I were rolling around the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains this morning I couldn’t help but think about what life would be like if I had to put the bike in storage for 4 or 5 or even 6 months. I know people do it, but can’t imagine how. Frankly I don’t think I could deal with it. Today was to crisp, to intense, to clear, just to damn endless that it seemed almost incomprehensible to think that it was real. Aside from some rocks sitting in the roadway, no doubt caused by the last few storms to pass through LA, it was just glorious. Obviously a great deal of my reaction to todays ride has to do with the weather - I just love life so much more when its warm - but it’s also because after spending months on end riding through musty brown colored canyons, visual color has come to LA in a big, big way. Maybe it happened months ago and I never noticed or perhaps it took the hills awhile to blossom, I don’t know. But for the first time all season the Santa Monica Mountains were green…

For those not familiar with living in Los Angeles, between the city, the beaches and the lack of water you’re simply forced to forget about lush green hills and valleys. They just don’t happen here - at least not for most of the year. You spend all summer looking at brown and tan countryside. If you are lucky one or two months out the year you’ll get a few glimpses at greenery. Of course if that’s your thing in life and you live in LA, you get used to heading north or east. It just so seldom seems to happen here. And yet today it did. Today I saw it. Today we rode through and around it and beyond it and it just felt great to see.

So there was great visual scenery, wonderful weather and basically clear roads. Once again the power of the Ducati showed up. I’m finding it more and more difficult to stay under legal speed limits. Of course that’s not really a new thing I suspect. For part of the ride I was thinking about a thread that I read on the Ducati.ms forum, where people were asking others about how to ‘blip the throttle’ when downshifting… A great number of things had been written, some of which was dead on target with some of the track days I’ve had and the sport riding books I’ve read. Other comments on the board surprised me, seemingly making things much more complex than I would normally describe them as being during a downshift. Others just seemed flat out wrong in my opinion. So I had all of this running around in my head as we were riding today and I’ve come the realization that riding has gotten to the point for me where when I think about a downshift, I muck it up. If I simply see the corner and look through the turn, my downshift just happens. It’s fast (for me anyway), smooth and it works. When I sit there and try to forceably go through every step as if riding was a university course it just doesn’t feel in sync with me. As I came to that realization, I’m both fascinated by it and unsure of it. Fascinated because as I’ve grown as a rider so much about riding has become more like second nature. Unsure because sometimes I wonder if simply gaining more confidence in one’s abilities ultimately limits your chances at growing beyond where you are. Downshifting is a perfect example. Right now, when I don’t think about it, it feels fast and it feels smooth. Two components which regardless of who you listen to seem rather important. But to get faster and smoother, do you break down your mental process and build it back up or do you simply allow yourself to assume that if you continue to react to the bike, that in and of itself will make you a better rider? I don’t know the answer, but I think I should find out…

The only downside to the day came towards the end when MotorMilt and I came up to a stop light and realized that Milt’s bike was smoking… Not a lot, but certainly a bit. We quickly pulled over at the local Agoura Chevron and checked things out. After years of BMW Motorcycles which seem to run forever, this was the first time I felt like a Harley rider. Here we were stopped, looking for oil leaks. Luckily I’ve gotten pretty adept at getting the fairing panels on and off, so I popped the side and we scoped out the scene. To make a long story short, it appeared that there was a small oil leak emanating from the new oil filter that ProItalia installed during the 600 mile service. After a few minutes we got Chris, their service manager on the phone, he quickly explained that it’s not the first time that a ‘new’ oil filter has sprung a small leak on a Ducati and if we brought the bike over he’d check it out. So some time this coming week it’s time to see the dealer again… Perhaps this is what people mean when they say that owning a Ducati isn’t just owning a bike, but a lifestyle. I have a feeling that while this isn’t a real big deal, we probably ought to get to know Chris in service pretty well. I’m sure we’ll be talking to him again… Of course the ironic part to me is that if one of our Beemers had an oil leak when we owned them, I’d be annoyed. Probably even pissed. With the Duc it just seems normal - almost rational. Like I should expect this to happen… It’s just amazing to me how an awesome riding machine can warp and twist the way your mind works. Even now as I’m thinking back on the days events, I’m smiling as if this is a fun experience. Who hell smiles at oil leaks? I must be crazy… Or just a Ducatista who’s delusional.