Drop Some Coin For A Good Cause & Win A New Monster
So this is pretty nifty, but Pro Italia is raffling off a brand-spanking new 2009 Ducati M696 to benefit the International Rett Syndrome Foundation. Tickets are $25 each (or buy 5 chances for $100), limited to 500 total and can be purchased online or in the showroom.
Tixs will be onsale for the next two weeks and the winner will be announced on the 26th of October at the annual Love Ride in Pomona. The first prize winner will win a 2009 Ducati Monster 696 (MSRP $8,995) and the second prize winner will receive an America leather jacket from Vanson (a $550.00 value).
For more info head over to Pro Italia and check it out…
Ducati Story of Passion Props
Always nice to wake up to good news 
It seems that veteran moto-journalist Jim McDermott, a long time contributor to SuperbikePlanet.com, has started a blog — Called “Real World Rider” — And for one of his first posts he’s penned a review of “Ducati: A Story of Passion” , the DVD that we produced for Pro Italia Motorcycles last year! (more…)
The Dark Side of Ducati Ownership
A few folks noticed that I never explained what happened to MotorMilt’s Ducati. As some of you might recall Milt’s 999 started smoking during the middle of a ride up to the canyons right after we got both of our bikes back from ProItalia after they had done the 600 mile service. In what I tend to think of as a typically Italian Adventure, Milt’s bike went in for the 600 mile service and also for what seemed like a low revving throttle response issue. When it came back both of those issues were solved, but then it started to smoke. Again as some of you might recall, we pulled the fairing off at a gas station in Malibu and noticed that there seemed to be a small oil leak - well, drip really - that was trickling down the transmission case and dripping on to the hot exhaust pipe running underneath the engine. Hence the smoke. So apparently when you fix one problem with a Ducati, you get another one to deal with free of charge. Being the rock’on dealership that they are, ProItalia picked up Milt’s bike and checked it out the very next day. To make a long story short, part of the 600 mile service is replacing the oil filter. Unfortunately whomever was responsible for this task didn’t screw the new oil filter back on snuggly. So the small oil drip was in fact because the oil filter had just a tad bit of free play in it. Go figure.
Now the good news is that a) I don’t think that this was an intention oversight, b) everything has been corrected and double checked by the ProItalia boys and c) there was no permanent damage. So now that it is all sorted out I’m not all that worried about it. However I do have to say that so far MotorMilt & I have been relatively lucky with our Ducati experience. I continue to read over and over about how poor Ducati’s quality control is on several of the message boards that I frequent. Here’s a bit that got posted yesterday by someone named gixn8r, which I find particularly scarry:
Let me start by saying that this is my first Ducati. It was definitely a bike I never thought of being able to own, but last November, I was able to purchase one brand new…a 2004 749 Dark. When I bought the bike, it had less than 3 miles on the odometer. According to the instructions in the manual, I treated her very gently keeping the revs down until the motorcycle was broken in. I did change the oil at 200 miles so that I can get rid of the metal shavings from the new engine rather than waiting til the 600 mile service. I used a Ducati filter along with a non-synthetic motor oil according to the specs for the motorcycle. I never thought that I would experience what happened 400 miles later.
On my way home from work, which is about 70 miles away, I was close to home when all of a sudden, I saw white smoke coming from all around the motorcycle. I was at a stoplight where I tried to locate the source of the smoke as I sat on the bike, but since the light turned green and it was a very busy street, I rode home since it was just under a mile away. When I got home, I found that the motor oil leaked all over the motor and all over the rear tire kicking it up onto my exhaust and every other part of the bike. I thought to myself how lucky I was in that the oil hadn’t leaked earlier on my ride. I could’ve been killed had I been on the freeway when the oil leaked in the path of my rear tire. I immediately suspected that it may be due to the oil filter or drain plug only to remove the fairing and find that neither showed any leaking. Since oil was also on top of the motor, I knew it had nothing to do with the oil change. I cleaned it up all over to see if I can find the source, but I did not have any luck.
I brought it to the dealer to have them take a look at it and have Ducati pay for whatever repairs necessary being that the bike has under 700 miles on it. I told them how upsetting it was that it may have been due to the oil cooler recall that occurred last August and that it should not have happened to a motorcycle purchased in November. They advised me that they’ll look into it.
And gixn8r isn’t the first person to have this sort of issue crop up with Ducati or Ducati North America (”NA”). There’s a long running thread over at the Speedzilla Forum about how someone named monstaman has sued Ducati using his state’s lemon law. His bike has been in the shop for 8 of the 12 months that he’s owned it for an assortment of issues.
Of course suing Ducati or Ducati NA is only one way to get the attention of the folks at the factory. Now some are using the internet to promote their case, Ducrapi is someone’s personal website where they had until recently published a very detailed description of exactly what had gone wrong with their brand new 999s that was having lemon law problems. Apparently that got Ducati or Ducati NA’s attention as the page has recently changed to state:
In 2004 my brand new red 999s motorbike had done 250km since new and spent three months getting “fixed” by Ducati. Ducati have now delivered to the dealers a new 999s which I will collect after the new year. The site will report on life with the new machine.
As I have read these sort of reports on the various message boards that I checkout on a semi-frequent basis, I’ve had a variety of reactions. At first I thought, ‘gee this must be an isolated incident and it can’t happen to Milt or I’. Of course as I continue to read stories like these and after Milt’s recent oil leak issue anything seems plausible. On the other hand, at certain times I’ve felt that there is something amiss when the people purchasing high end Italian sportbikes - I mean, let’s call them what they are - act as if the motorcycle they just bought ought to work like a Honda Civic. Obviously people, myself included, have spent a great deal of money for these bikes. But they’re also extremely high performance and not run of the mill. If you wanted something that simply worked all the time it exsists. It’s called a Honda CBR or Yamaha R1. Of course neither of those bikes have the character that a 999 does. So perhaps it’s really just one big trade off. Something out of the ordinary that acts like it. Of course I think that’s a rather simplistic response rational.
The reality it seems to me stands somewhere in the middle. You’ve got this fantastic brand that’s stepped in history and heritage, who’s got this old factory that’s trying it’s best to play catch up with modernization. Slowly they have started to embrace more modern approaches but they haven’t caught up with the übber Japanese production assembly system. And until they do, the fact is that while they can assemble every bike in the same manor, they lack the ability control the quality of the products they produce to the same degree that Honda, Sony, Apple or Dell can. A great number of the parts on any of their bikes come from outside vendors, not Ducati themselves and thus I question the level to which Ducati can check the quality control of these items.
Of course I knew all of this when I decided to purchase a Ducati and I choose to do so anyway - not out of ignorance, but because ultimately I was willing to take the chance. The rewards seemed to out weight the risks in my mind. Because at the end of the day owning a Ducati takes some faith, some cash, a great local dealership and/or mechanic and a whole heck of luck.
Bikes Are Back…
I don’t know why but it always seems like life is a bit empty when the bike is at the dealer for service. Thankfully the gang at ProItalia made quick work of the 600 mile service on both our bikes. Given what was written up on the invoices, my bike went pretty smoothly. MotorMilt on the other hand had some warranty work done already. His throttle advance seemed to be set a bit high, requiring him to give his bike a fair amount of gas while engaging the clutch. Otherwise the bike seemed to stall at any intersection known to man. I thought this was all in his head, but after taking his bike for a short spin the other weekend I realized that it was giving me the same hassle as his. Luckily for me, my 999 has been behaving rather nicely, having no issues that required any extra attention by the Pro Italia gang. I’m hoping the weather cooperates this weekend because now that the bikes are back from their service it’s time to crack up the rpms to 7k and get some more miles on the treads. Full throttle just ain’ that far away!
The 600 Mile Service
So Lil’ Diva and her sister (aka MotorMilt’s Red Duc) is headed to ProItalia for their respective 600 mile services. We’re a bit late on both bikes since both MotorMilt & I crossed over 800 miles respectively this past weekend, but well deserved regardless. Hopefully we’ll get the bikes back for this weekend so we can squeeze a ride in but with Italian Motorcycles, who knows how viable that idea will turn out to be.
Ike’s In The White House & All Is Well
The saga of motorcycle anguish and despair finally ended this morning and it feels absolutely great to finally ride myself of this awful nightmare once and for all. Thankfully everything worked out in the end and MotorMilt & I are luckily back on Ducati Motorcycles once again.
At 10am this morning we pulled up to ProItalia in Glendale, California. We had been talking to Bill Nation and Jake for the past couple of weeks trying to see if we could pull off a spectacular switch. Taking the insurance payout from the 749’s and trading in our two BMW R1100S bikes on two brand new 2004 999’s. Somewhere along the line I decided that I wouldn’t post anything about it because I just didn’t know if it would happen. I’m not usually a one of those folks who gets worried about this sort of thing, but it just seemed better not to jinx it.
Cutting to the point, Bill & Jake were fantastic. They worked with us, put two magnificent biposto 999’s on hold early on in our conversations and eventually matched a late lower offer from Spectrum Motorsports in Irvine (who’s sales staff called coincidentally after someone from either the insurance company or finance company called them). We were in and out of ProItalia in just a tad over an hour. Jake had most of the paperwork prepped and ready to go and they were more than happy to take the beemers in trade. This was by far the most painless part of this entire bike replacement exercise. So I have to give big props to the PI gang.
After picking up the bikes, we headed out on the 210 West, to the 118 and then the 23. Eventually ending up on the 101 right next to the Malibu Canyons. All in all we put about 130 miles on the new bikes in our first day.
Frankly to be honest I’m not sure exactly where to go from here. I’d like to think that I usually can adequately describe the events and moments in my life, but to be completely fair these bikes almost leave me speechless. They’re special beasts and so completely unlike the 749’s it’s scary… Actually that’s a favorite word for the day, because with every corner and every straight away all I could think to myself underneath my helmet was that these suckers have “Scary Power” and I mean that in a good way. For so long I’ve heard people say that Ducati’s are the motorcycle equivalent to Ferrari super cars, only affordable. After spending most of the day riding an 124 horsepower cruise missile I tend to disagree - at least right now - these things are like Dodge Vipers. They tell you exactly what they’re doing. They feel the road, they sense the corners, they wrap you in such a different level of confidence and they rumble. They’re not nice and they don’t play fair. They run wild. All day it felt like I was taming a bull. They are without a doubt absolutely amazing motorcycles. And I have no doubt that this is true of any of the modern liter bikes…
Thinking back on when we went to pick up the first set of Ducs, I remember feeling a great deal of trepidation and anxious energy over whether or not I would be able to handle a mid-level superbike or even if I would enjoy riding one. Up until that point all I had known as a rider were BMW’s. Things like ABS brakes, saddle bags and sport touring were paramount issues for me. Yet as it turned out little did I know that something deep inside of me had switched and while a part of me still cares about bits and pieces of the beemers, they simply are no longer pushing my soul in the same sort of way that a Ducati does. For all intents and purposes, I have completely fallen in love with true sportbikes and Ducati’s especially.
I suppose that’s not such a shocker since if you look back on this very blog which happened to start coincidentally just about the same time that the idea of picking up a pair of Duc’s struck, you’ll see what basically amounts to a change of heart and a love letter all wrapped in one. I hadn’t quite realized my mind had solidified this much until a good friend pointed it out to me the other day while I was fuming about the State Farm claim adjuster and my motorcycle situation. Up until that point I had felt more than a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of trading in the R1100S, but once I sat down and re-read all the motorcycle posts that I had written about riding, I realized that he was right. My heart simply was no longer in the ‘S’ and it was time to move on. If this is starting to sound all together to similar to a relationship, I suspect that’s because for me that’s what riding and owning a motorcycle has become. In so many ways it has become part of me, my identity, my idle thoughts, my vacations, my relaxation, and my soul. Sometimes I think that might not be such a good thing, but then on days like today I’m reminded that maybe, just maybe, it’s okay profess your admiration to an inanimate object because the minute that I fired over the 999 for the first time the most amazing feeling took a hold of me. From that point forward no matter what I tried to do I couldn’t shake it. This bike feels more alive than any other motorcycle that I’ve ever ridden. It shakes and screams and begs you to let it lose. It might be all in my head, but the sound reverberates differently than the 749. It echoes. It stirs. There more there, there if you know what I mean.
Towards the end of Mullhulland Highway, near Neptune’s Net on the PCH
Veering back towards reality, a couple of instant reactions from the ride today. While on paper the 749 and the 999 seem amazingly similar - just about everything is the same except the suspension and the motor - they are not the same at all. The clutch on a 999 seems to engage much further out and seems to take a heck of a lot more throttle to be smooth. Although to be fair, as the day went on the clutch seemed to break in a bit and get a little less stiff. The brakes feel remarkably similar which is a good thing in my eyes. However the ride is much stiffer. It hadn’t dawned on me until today’s first ride that when a Ducati dealer or message board member says that the 999 has a “better suspension” then the 749, they mean better racetrack suspension not ride comfort… At the 600 mile service I’m thinking that I’ll have the ProItalia techs soften it a bit. On city streets and freeways at high speeds the bike feels a bit less dexterous than the 749, but once in the canyons it feels more nimble. And the engine… It roars. Every RPM is more linear. From 1k to 5k it pulls as well as the 749 did from 7k to 8k. Above 5k it fly’s. I greatly understand now why motorcycle mag editors suggest that people start off on 600s and not liter bikes. It takes much less effort and perhaps even skill to make this rocket ship blast off while the 749 towards the end was just making aware that the real power lied at the end of the spectrum. The 999 starts right away and just gets better and better. There’s just a different sort of grin factor here. And I’m pretty sure that none of it is street legal. If I have one reservation it’s the fact that a fair amount of the powerband seems greatly unusable on city streets. On the 118 freeway I was at 6k in 6th gear and hitting 99 miles an hour. That leaves 4k or 4.5k available? Like I said, Scary Power…
Coming around the bend, today’s ride was fantastic. It’s been awhile since I was on any bike and really felt alive. This whole stolen bike ordeal has hung over my head like I never thought possible, so it was wonderful to finally be able to let that one go. After we hit the usual Deli breakfast spot, we took Kanan Rd to Mullhulland Highway and proceeded to head all the way to the PCH near Neptune’s Net. From there we put our first fresh tank of gas in the new bikes and then backtracked (slightly unusual for us, but it was a special day I guess) to Encinel Canyon Road. Took that all the way until it became Mullhulland. Along the way we stopped at the Rock Store, where we stopped for some water and a smoke. Out of nowhere the lady who owns it and two of the waitresses ask where we’ve been. Apparently without realizing it MotorMilt & I have become noticeable at The Rock Store… How odd is that?
Anyway after getting back on the bikes, we shot down Mullhulland and did the portion commonly called “The Speedway” and then ended up taking Mullhulland all the way to Old Topanga Canyon and back to the PCH. All in all it was around 130 miles for the day. So we’re more than 1/6th of the way towards the first break in point. Pretty sure that I’m going to be sore in the morning…
