So I guess there’s never a dull moment when you own a Ducati. MotorMilt got a chance today to talk to the service manager over at ProItalia about my bike. Unfortunately my worst fears have been realized. The news was not so good. Apparently while riding during our trackday with the CLASS folks I managed to uncover a manufacturing deficiency in my bike that according to PI is not all that uncommon for ‘04 999’s. As it turns out, the pistons in my bike’s engine somehow made it through quality control process without anyone every realizing that instead of being perfectly circular they were in fact oval. This allowed a small portion of oil to pass up around the pistons and into the air filter. Chances are that this has been going on for awhile, but apparently trackday and the higher rpm’s I was tossing at the engine elevated the circumstances. So basically I guess this is what you get with an Italian exotic. Lots of excitement and lots of downtime… Oddly enough people told me that this would happen with a Duc - not this specific problem mind you, but ’some problem’ - and I didn’t listen. Several folks have already mention the fact that this probably wouldn’t have happened with a Japanese bike. Like, no shit. As if I didn’t know that… I’d highly doubt that anything this odd would happen with a CBR or a RC51, but then somehow neither of those bikes would speak to my soul nearly as much as the 999 does, so I guess that’s the rub… I find it a bit odd that on one hand I’m extremely pissed that an almost new bike with slightly less than 2,000 miles can suddenly have a piston problem and yet on the other hand it somehow seems to fit perfectly with what I expect from a Duc. So go figure. Thankfully it’s all covered under warranty and there will be no new engine break-in once PI gets the new parts from Italy or NJ or where ever Ducati North America is storing their parts these days. The downside is that it appears that all riding is a no go for at least the next two weeks if not longer. It seems I’m at the whim of the postal service now….

Sweet.