Third riding season in the books!
2187 miles later and I'm still kickin. That's still embarrassingly low mileage, but that's more than 2x last year's mileage. Maybe next year I'll get 5000 miles in :)
So after our super awesome trip to HI in March, I dragged Drew over to my parents' house the weekend we returned. Got the bike started up without any problems. But before we headed back to VA with it, we ended up driving the truck to one of his cousin's band's shows in Southern MD that night. I wanted to leave at a somewhat decent hour because the temps were dropping and I was still jetlagged and tired and needed to ride back. Naturally we didn't end up leaving till pretty late. I ended up having to drive the truck back from So. MD to my parents', chugged some caffeine then rode back to VA in upper 30 degree temps. Ugh. Not exactly my ideal first ride of the season.
Things started warming up a bit, so I rode the bike to work again. (Un?)fortunately I changed projects in mid-April, so my nice 20 mile rides to and from Reston turned into 5-min 2 mile rides to Fairfax. Having work so close to home is great in a car, but there were beautiful mornings when I'd arrive at work on the bike and seriously have to stop myself from going right past it and riding off somewhere.
I also had to get used to parking in the new motorcycle parking spot in the garage in Fairfax. In Reston I would just pull in front first and back out very carefully when leaving. But the motorcycle spot in the garage in Fairfax is laid out so that it's right by the entrance and exit of the garage. I didn't feel too safe backing out into the exit lane of the garage when everyone always goes speeding by at ridiculous speeds. So, I spent a couple of nights practicing backing up and parking and kind of have it down. I still think I use up way too much space maneuvering, but oh well.
Turns out 5 or 6 guys on my project ride, which is cool. They would come by after seeing me walk in with my power ranger gear and chat for a bit. Also ran into some other guys in the parking lot who were nice enough.
In April, Justin asked if he could ride my bike for some practice. He had passed the MSF Basic Rider Course and got his M-class endorsement, but had not bought a bike yet. So Ginny and I had fun watching him zip around the business center parking lot on the V-star. He seemed to remember everything ok. He still hasn't bought a bike yet though, I think he might be scared ;)
After chatting with one of my neighbors who owns a ginormous BMW touring bike (Chris? I'm so bad with names!), he suggested some roads in Clifton that are nice for riding, complete with a nice ice cream shop nearby. I've been down some of the roads in Clifton in the car, and some of them are ridiculously twisty (ie- Popes Head Rd). A little too twisty for my skill level on a bike. So I mapped out the wussiest, straightest route to Clifton that I could.
It's a short ride, but kind of nice (lots of trees and 2-lane roads), so I added that ride to my tiny repertoire.
In April or May I noticed the V-star was running rough and being cranky in general. It stalled out at a light and I wasn't very happy. I got it started back up right away, but had to stay on the throttle to keep the revs up so it wouldn't do it again. I was worried the shitty ethanol gas was gumming up the carburetor again, but decided to try and troubleshoot before taking it to the mechanic. I thought it might be the battery, so Drew and I yanked it and put it on the tender, but the charge was fine. Added distilled water to it cause I thought the electrolyte stuff might be low. That didn't help either. After a bunch more googling, I figured it might be the spark plugs. Ordered some online and Drew helped me pop them in. Ran perfectly after that. Guess it makes sense cause I had never changed them in the 2.5 years I had the bike. All hail the mighty internet! I don't know what I'd do without the countless motorcycle forums out there. I might suck at being a mechanic, but my googling skillz are awesome!
I was also worrying about my mysteriously loose chain. Called around and took the bike in to Fairfax Cycles to get it replaced. They looked at it but said it still had a little life in it, but they couldn't let me leave with it so loose cause it was a safety hazard. They tightened up for me and charged me $20. It's something Drew and I can do, but it's a royal PITA doing it. oh well.
In April we had a bit of a thunderstorm. I woke up one morning and looked out the window (which I do obsessively when my bike's out there) and saw the V-star all covered up sitting in the rain. I went to take a shower. When I got back and looked out the window again, it was lying on its side !!! I screamed and ran over to Drew and we ran outside and picked the bike up. The cover acted like a sail and the wind had knocked it over. I was so upset. It's one thing to hurt your bike during some stupid mishap, but to have nature do it when you're not even looking is horrible! There were some new scratches on the brake fluid box, handlebars and exhaust, but everything else was ok. Still upsetting though :( :( :(
Later that month I was flipping through the bulletin boards at work and a lady was selling some of her gear. She had an ex who used to ride and she would ride on the back. She had an old First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket and some leather pants to sell. I was REALLY hoping the leather pants would fit cause my current pants are the unsexiest things you've ever seen. Unfortunately the leather pants felt really uncomfortable sitting on the bike. The jacket was nice though. I didn't need it, but I bought it anyway :X I'm such a gear whore.
In May I decided it was finally time to get the Ducati Monster I had been drooling on for the past 2 years, and we went to Duc Pond in Winchester. I talked to Donny, told him what modifications I wanted, what color, and paid him a lot of money :X Fortunately it hurt less because my tax refund on the house covered most of it. The mods were a couple thousand more, but I had set aside some overtime money from last year that covered those for the most part.
I had done a ton of research on www.ducatimonsterforum.org and www.ducatimonster.org and made a list of stuff I wanted modified. Most importantly I had Donny lower it by an inch or so, change out the suspension spring for a softer one so that it would actually compress when I sat on the bike, bend the kickstand a bit and swap out the 15 tooth sprocket with a 14T one. I heard that due to some European environmental regulation they had to put 15T sprockets on the bikes, which makes them horribly jumpy at low speeds. The 14T sprocket knocks the top speed down a little, but smooths things out at lower speeds. I figured I don't need to be going 130 mph all the time, so the 14T was worth it. Finally I had them replace the stock exhaust and put carbon fiber Termignonis. Definitely not a necessary mod, but Drew peer-pressured me into it, as he likes loud rumbly machines. I guess if you're going to get a Ducati, it should sound like one, right? ;) I opted for the ABS model and frame sliders too. And because "reliable" and Ducati don't go together, I opted in for the 5-year extended warranty.
I paid and Donny showed me all the features on the bike. After a lot of going back and forth between red and black, I decided on red. The black looks awesome too, but the red's a little more high-viz. He gave me the keys and manual and I nearly peed myself. He needed some time to get the bike ready, so I told him as long as it's ready before my birthday next month, I'd be happy.
So I waited a few weeks and then gave Duc Pond a call back checking on the status. It was tricky getting them to give me an exact delivery date, and some phone tag was involved, but we finally got it figured out. Finally on 6/9 the bike was delivered! I was super nervous and excited at the same time. Al (I think that was his name) drove up in a van and had the Monster tied up in the back. He had just dropped off another Monster in Reston. It was tricky getting the bike out and we had to help him back it down the ramp. Some neighbors drove up and watched the whole process. The guy was like "Is that a Ducati monster? I really want one!". And I was like "YEAHHH XD XD XD". Some other neighbor came by and was like "that's a mean little hot rod you got there!". bwahaha. Al was super nice about everything and headed out after dropping the bike off.
After he left I hopped on the bike. It had been lowered but it was still taller than I expected. I was super nervous and was ready to just pull it straight into one of the spots in the circle, but Drew was like, no! go park it in front of the house! And I'm like ~_~;;; I really didn't want to and wanted to keep it simple, but went with it anyway. So I nervously started it up, drove down the street and attempted to U-turn to get back in front of the house. I quickly realized that when a bike is too tall for you, even a centimeter of uneven ground feels like a foot. I flopped over with the bike on top of me :( Drew came over and pulled it off of me. Thank goodness for those frame sliders! Just a scratch on the brake lever and the right frame slider and everything else was fine. ughgh.
So for the next few days I rode around the complex's parking lot. Getting used to the new standard sitting position was weird. On the V-Star my feet were out in front of me, on the Monster, my feet are tucked underneath me. I had to get used to the pressure on my wrists and slide my butt back and grip the tank with my knees more. Turning felt weird , because of the short rake angle compared to the V-Star. I also noticed the bike gets HOT rolling around in first gear after a while. I was surprised because I felt like I had to give it more gas to get it moving when compared to the V-Star. I thought that since the Monster is a much bigger bike, it would take less gas, but apparently not. I liked the fact that I finally had a tachometer. I never knew what rpms I was at on the V-Star, just had to go by sound and feel.
After a while I felt confident enough to try the elementary parking lot a street over. I had never been there, but figured it'd give me more space and less traffic than the complex's parking lot. So when i got there I started doing some loops around the parking lot. There weren't too many people around because it was a weekend. Just some guy talking on his cellphone on the sidewalk. Did more loops and practiced shifting a little. I went around and decided to slow down around the entrance of the loop, which I found out was cambered/slanted. I slowed down too much, the bike stalled, I grabbed the front brake, and put my left foot down to catch it, only to find that there was no ground to put my foot down on... and then flopped over.
I was so embarrassed. I pulled myself out from under the bike and found a part of my clutch lever snapped off. 14 miles on the odometer and I had already broken my beautiful bike! ;_____; I tried to lift the bike by putting my butt in the seat and walking it back upright, but the slope wasn't helping any. I called Drew and asked for help. After I got off the phone I fumbled around a bit more and grabbed the trellis frame. Adrenaline took over and I managed to yank it back upright, but I was still on the slope. I started walking it down the slope but it was tricky to keep it from rolling too fast, and grabbing the front brake made it dive and tip more. I was struggling to just keep it upright.
Finally I heard someone say "do you need help with that?". I looked and it was some big dude walking a tiny tiny dog. I asked him to just put the bike stand down so I could take a rest. He helped me push the bike to level ground and I was finally able to breathe again. We ended up talking and he and his wife both rode sportbikes which is cool. He gave me some tips and after about 20 mins he was on his way. nice guy. UNLIKE the Korean dude on the cellphone 50 feet away who offered NO HELP whatsoever and just watched me and kept talking on his cellphone the whole time. *smh*
Drew rolled up a few mins later. he took my broken clutch lever piece for me and I found the bike was ok otherwise. I just gave myself a shorty clutch lever without meaning to :p
So after that I was kind of traumatized. I went online and immediately ordered the Ducati low seat, even though I heard it didn't help much because it was wider than the normal seat. I also gave in and ordered a $450 pair of Daytona Ladystars. They're supposed to give you an extra inch in height. I told myself I wouldn't ride the monster until the boots came in.
After a week, the status of my boot order hadn't changed and I asked the company what was up. They said they were out of stock but were hoping to get them in in August. August?! I couldn't not ride the bike for 2 months! So after I picked up the low seat from Coleman's, I told myself I'd take it slow and be REAL CAREFUL not to stall the bike or stop on uneven ground. Learned to be very careful with the front brake, cause they are super powerful! I actually use more rear brake than I used to just because I don't want to grab too much front brake. I finally learned what it meant to stand up on the pegs going over bumps, shift my butt around in corners, and weight the pegs. I just wasn't getting it on the V-Star, I guess because it's a cruiser. It makes way more sense on the Monster.
I'm not really sure if the low seat helped much, but I did notice it was more comfortable and i was able to sit up better and keep more pressure off my wrists. So that helped. I kept on riding and started getting more used to things. The bike is quirky, as all Ducatis are. Learning to keep it up at high RPMs was weird, but I finally got the hang of how much throttle to give it to avoid more stalling out and flopping over. It also takes FOREVER to warm up in the mornings, even in 90 degree heat. I have to let it run on fast idle for 5 mins before it lets me go anywhere. People must think I'm crazy just sitting on the bike twiddling my thumbs every morning.
I asked for the Ride Like a Pro dvds and book for my bday. It's cheesy and meant for cruisers, but it does have some good exercises in it. I've only done the first two though, because the parking lot setup looks ridiculous for the other ones. Basically it teaches you low speed maneuvers using the clutch and rear brake and getting you used to having the bike leaned over. The first exercise is keeping the bike going at a really slow speed, like <5 mph. It helped me a bit cause the Monster gets upset and all herky jerky going slow. I learned using some rear brake is ok. The second exercise is riding in a 24' circle. Sounds easy, but it was actually kind of terrifying and dizzying. I was able to do it several times though, so that's cool. I'm sure I was hardly leaning over, but it felt like I was riding at a 45 degree angle!
I tried riding both the V-Star and the Monster regularly, but putting miles on 2 bikes when you don't ride a lot is kind of hard. So in August I took the V-star to Colgan to have them check it out and do any maintenance that needed to be done. Drew and I bummed around manassas and ate at Okra's while they did the work. Everything checked out ok, they just said it needed new sparkplugs, which is weird because we had just changed them. They didn't mention the chain either. After getting the clean bill of health, I put the V-Star up on the bulletin boards at work for $2600. I also posted on facebook's marketplace, but someone banned my post within 2 days and they took the post down! wtf. I hit the dispute button asking for a reason, and never heard back. Also posted on one of AMA's bulletin boards.
In August a guy at work posted on the bulletin boards that he wanted to take pictures of bikers and their bikes for solo photo book month. He offered a free photo shoot, so I volunteered. I figured my bike would stand out from all the Harleys. The guy met me at the business center parking lot on a weeknight and we got started. I know absolutely nothing about photography so I was impressed by how much stuff you need to consider to get a good photo. He was really nice and we talked bikes for a good hour and a half. I was terrified because I always look dumb and awkward in pictures. He took over a hundred and kept messing with the lighting. About half way through some lady drove up and was like "what are you doing?" and he explained. She was like "did you see the no trespassing sign? We don't want anyone getting hurt" and she drove off. It's not like I was even sitting on the bike, and after coming to this business center for 2 years no one's ever said anything to me. And I've never seen a sign! I guess it's cause we showed up when people were still working in the buildings. We stuck around a bit longer anyway :p We talked more and he mentioned a good route out on 50 past Aldi, on Snickersville Turnpike that he and his wife like to ride out on. I said thanks for the tip and headed out for the evening. After a week or so the photographer guy sent me 6 or so of the best pics. I was pleased! He made me look....ok.
I checked out Snickersville Turnpike in my car a week or two later. It's very pretty, but it's twisty, narrow, and there aren't even lines on the roads! Craziness! I think I'll hold off on that ride for a little while longer.
At the beginning of September I scheduled my first 600 mile maint on the monster. The tricky part was the 100+ mile round trip to and from Duc Pond in Winchester, which was the longest trip I had taken on a bike. I ended up riding around a lot just so the bike would be at 600 miles upon arrival. The ride there wasn't too bad. I followed Drew and BB while they were in Drew's truck. Took 50 all the way out west, which is a nice ride. The only thing I hate is the 3 traffic circles in a row. I HATE traffic circles :( But I made it there in one piece, which was good. My knees were just a little bit achey after the ride.
Got to Duc Pond, dropped the bike off, and went to Perkins for breakfast. I forgot how good Perkins' breakfast is :D Huuge selection. I got $1.99 cream chipped beef on toast and corn beef hash. We all pigged out. Went thrifting a little after that, then went back to Duc Pond.
Waited a few mins, and then they said everything looked fine. I asked about adjusting the chain cause I wasn't sure exactly how to do it due to poor Italian to English translations in the manual. So one of the tech's took me back and explained some stuff. I'm super paranoid about loose chains after the V-Star. Unfortunately they didn't have a spare clutch lever around, so I still have my embarrassing busted one. The guy was nice and also showed us some of the super rare old bikes they have in the back. Awesome stuff! I paid $270 for everything, which I researched and found might be a little high :\ Ugh, I hate dealing with mechanics, but I really don't trust Coleman.
After that we dropped by one of the other motorcycle dealers' to check out bikes because a coworker had recommended it. Drew sat on few bikes and found a kawasaki vulcan he really liked. After that I gassed up, and hit the road. Around 620 miles my wrench icon came up on my dash. It hadn't been there before. Bike was running fine though, so I don't think it's from anything they did to the bike. Then I remembered that it was just the scheduled maint icon. I'm guessing it was due to the km to miles conversion and it doesn't come on at exactly 600 miles, instead it's 1000 km. Oh well, will have to have them turn the icon off at my next maint. The ride back was ok, but it started drizzling and things got a little wet. Got home ok though. Thanks to BB and Drew for going out there with me!
My neighbor told me that Henderson Rd. in Clifton was a nice ride. So I went to check it out. Plenty of twisties, but not 100% hairpin turns. I took the V-star out on it and managed to survive. There were a couple parts that made me nervous, like the 2 stop signs on hills that I have to stop at and make a left at with limited visibility. I was still too nervous to take the Monster, even though it's supposed to kick ass at curves and twisties.
I also added Sterling to my practice routes via Fairfax County Parkway. Not a very exciting ride, but it puts miles on the bike.
I started getting worried because I hadn't had many responses from potential buyers about the V-Star yet. There was no way I could store two bikes over the winter. I didn't really want to post on Craigslist because of all the weirdos out there. I was thinking of selling it back to Colgan if it was looking bad. I talked with one of the guys I park next to at work and he said he has a female friend who might be interested. I emailed her a few times and she was super flakey and said she was having second thoughts about riding in general. Finally in late September a few people at work started writing me. One was a girl who had her license a couple of years but wasn't able to get a bike until now. One was a guy who was taking the MSF BRC in a few weeks and was shopping around for bikes. The girl ended up being super pro-active and wanted to see the bike that weekend. Her uncle rides so she wanted to bring him with her.
I looked online for selling a bike tips. Don't let anyone test ride your bike without all the money up front, don't let anyone come to your house, etc... I felt like a jerk asking for all the money up front if she wanted to do a test ride, but she didn't seem turned off by it. I rode the V-Star to the business center parking lot and met her, her uncle, and aunt there. She was really nice and we spent a lot of time chatting. She was kinda nerdy but badass at the same time. She sat on the bike, but didn't want to do a test ride. I rode it around a few times just to show them how it ran, etc... Her uncle didn't look too hard at everything but I guessed he was ok with it. After about an hour, she said she wanted the bike!
So later that week I contacted her and arranged a pick up time. She rented a pick up truck and bought a bunch of ties and a giant plank. I've never packed up a bike before so I tried googling things and watching youtube videos. Fortunately she had more of a clue than I did. Between me, Drew, and her, we managed to get the bike in the truck bed and tie it down. It just barely fit! We had a couple of the neighborhood kids come out and watch the spectacle. Finding a place for the plank after the bike was in the bed was a different story though. Drew had to grab his circular saw and sawed off a couple feet so it would fit.
She had $2600 in cash which was awesome. No need to go to the bank and get a cashier's check, etc... I had printed out a ghetto sale form and we both filled it out. I gave her the keys, owners manual, and service manual. She said she was driving the bike up to Ohio to get tagged and she was going to store it up there and try and hide it from her mom. I have NO idea how she was going to get the bike out of the bed herself though, especially with the shortened plank.
After all that, she drove the truck off with my bike. Seeing it go kinda made me feel like crying. That bike was a good friend. The Monster is sexy and fun, but sitting on the V-Star was like coming home. I could flat foot it, muscle it around, and I knew all of its shift points perfectly by feel. But I knew that I wasn't putting enough miles on it and I hate to let it sit and feel neglected. I just hope the girl and the bike made it to Ohio ok and they're going on fun adventures together. Bye bye, little V-star :(
At one point my dad offered to buy the Ducati off of me because he thought I couldn't handle it and had made a mistake buying it. I said hell no. For some reason my dad has zero faith in me at all times, even though I don't know what I've done to make him feel that way. Just like when I studied abroad in Japan. After successfully completing my semester there and returning home, he told me he was surprised I survived the whole four months, because he had expected me to run home with my tail between my legs after the first month. WTF. Thanks, Dad. Maybe he's still upset that I didn't go to Princeton or something...
A couple of weeks later I was lubing the chain on the Monster, when I found a nice nail sticking out of the rear tire. We live near a waste transfer station so we always have ghetto pickup trucks dumping stuff off and I see them with unsecured crap falling out. I'm guessing I picked up the nail from some of their random debris. I was upset cause the tires only had 800 miles on them. Drew wanted to pull it out, but I ran inside and googled it. Naturally some people were against patching motorcycle tires and some were for it. Either way, you'd have to take the tire off the bike, and I do not have the proper equipment to take the tire off, patch it, and then put it back on and balance it properly, so I'd have to take it in somewhere. Then I remembered that Duc Pond gave me some sort of tire warranty for free when I bought the bike. I sifted through all my paperwork and finally found it. It said that I could get a free set of tires if I took the bike in to a licensed mechanic.
The next day I made some calls to Brooks Cycle and Fairfax Cycles. Brooks Cycles is the mechanic I went to before and I think he overtightened the V-Star chain. His rates are cheap, but Drew convinced me to take to to Fairfax Cycles, which is more of a legit shop, rather than a guy working out of his garage. I called up Fairfax Cycles they asked if my bike had spokes and I said no. They said then the tire can't be patched, it has to be replaced. So I took it in to Fairfax Cycles after work and showed them the tire warranty. They had never heard of it before, but said they'd file the claim for me. It took a week for the new tire to come in and for them to put it on due to Monday being a holiday, but everything worked out well! Free tires ftw.
When I came to pick up the bike, they asked me if I had ever run the bike without the baffles/db silencers in the exhausts. I said no, and they were like "Why not?! It sounds awesome! We took them out and tried it! It sounds like a Ducati now!". I was like uhhhh -_-; should I be concerned that these dudes were molesting my bike? Drew's eyes lit up and he got real pumped. But I didn't want to be the crazy biker with the overly obnoxious farty potato sounding bike that everyone hates. Especially when my bike takes 5 mins to warm up and I have to sit with it running in front of my neighbor's houses. The mechanics were like "well, just come out and listen to it. If you don't like it, putting the silencers back in is real easy". So I went out and they fired it up and it was a lot louder... and growlier and sexier. I was like "bahh, fine! I'll ride it home and if I don't like it, we'll put the baffles back in." They handed the baffles to Drew and he threatened to throw them out the window on the ride home.
It was loud riding home. But I couldn't make up my mind. We left them out but I was still debating. The next day my BMW touring bike neighbor came out and was like "Did you do something to your bike? it sounds different". I told him about the baffles and he was like "The pitch and tone are perfect. It sounds great now!". Hmmmmm.
So I kept the silencers out and waited for one of my neighbors to yell at me about the noise, but so far no one's said anything. I've turned the bike on and run inside the house to see how much I can hear. There's definitely a rumble, but I guess it's not enough to wake anyone up. We'll see.
So I should have learned my lesson the first time. During riding season I'm checking the weather every 10 mins to see what's going on. I slipped up one night and got distracted by Project Runway. I'm really lucky Drew peeked out the window that night, cause the Monster was taking a nap on the ground!!! The wind had picked up and knocked it over! WTF :( One of the mirrors snapped off on impact, and then the other one broke off when Drew was picking the bike up. It was tricky getting it upright again cause the entire curb area was covered in slippery leaves and it was dark. My brake pedal was bent too :( It still works, but it just looks bent and funny. *sigh* Ugh, my poor bike!
I was stubborn and rode the bike to work without mirrors the next day. That was the scariest two miles ever. I thought I'd be ok just looking over my shoulders, but that wasn't the case. Having no clue what's going on behind you is terrifying. When I got home, I immediately got online and ordered some CRG lanesplitter mirrors that attach to the handlebar ends. I could've gotten stock ones for cheaper, but these got awesome reviews.
Waited a week and the mirrors came in. Drew helped me pull out the scratched up plastic bar ends and stick the mirrors in the adapters and stick those in the bars. They're pretty cool and give the bike a different look. I also took the time to touch up some of the red paint on the gas tank with red nail polish and the metal around the exhaust with black nail polish.
Ever since we've gotten the Funimation channel, I've become an expert on infomercials. I keep seeing the LifeAlert commercial and thinking I need one for the Monster. It'd be the same commercial, except instead of the old woman, it'd be the bike lying on its side going "BEEP! BEEEEP BEEEP! BEEEEEEP D: BEEP! ;_____________; " at the operator. Except the operator's just a dude and he doesn't understand what it's saying. Cue sad bike and "waaawaaahhhwahhhhhh" infomercial sounds. Ahh, if only my bike could emote :p
Between 800 and 1100 miles the bike was being a PITA and I had a hell of a time shifting up from 2nd to 3rd gear. I would kick it up, and the bike would rev and go faster, but I could tell it was trying to trick me and I was really in some sort of weird 2.5th gear. It would take me 4-5 times to get it to stick to 3rd. At first I thought I was going crazy and just being a wuss when shifting and not kicking it hard enough, but even shifting hard didn't do anything. All the other gears were fine. I researched a lot and found one other person with the same issue,but they never wrote again to say what happened in the end. Finally around 1100 miles, shifting became easier again and I'm hoping it was just weirdness with the the transmission breaking in.
I needed even more retail therapy at one point and saw a leather jacket on sale at Revzilla. All my jackets are textile because I'm cheap, but I figured this one was on sale so why not. The only size they had left was small. I would've preferred a medium, but the small is ok, just a little tight. There's no back protection so I'm kinda paranoid about that, but I guess I can wear it during warm weather and just hope nothing bad happens.
Finally the weekend after thanksgiving we winterized the bike. It was 75 degrees that day so I felt kind of dumb, but knew I'd be too busy to ride due to our trip to Disney and all the usual holiday madness. The ride to my parents' was awesome. I was going 85 around the beltway before I knew it, which is bad, but the bike and I were genuinely happy.
Due to it being a different bike, I had to rethink the whole winterization process over again. The Monster is fuel injected so it was nice not having to drain the carburetor. However, I siphoned all the the gas out of the tank, which took forever. Just as with everything motorcycle-related, there's a debate as to whether or not plastic ducati tanks should be topped off with gas and stabil, or completely emptied. There's a defect in all the plastic gas tanks where ethanol causes the tanks to warp and deform over time. I didn't want to take any chances and the manual said to drain the tank so I did. I'm crossing my fingers that everything will be ok come spring.
I had seen this video on oil changes, but there are slight differences between the 2009 and 2011 models:
Changing the oil was also tricky because I had brought a torque wrench but Drew didn't bring all the adapters and whosits for it. We had to use a giant pipe my dad had lying around to unscrew some of the things that were on really tight, and then had to guesstimate how tight things should be. We also didn't know how much oil to put in. Also, Coleman's gave me the wrong crush ring size so I had to reuse the old one. At first we filled up the oil and it was really high in the sight glass. Usually I can't even see any oil in it unless the bike is hot. Even then, it's very low in in the glass. We had filled it to slightly over the max line. After some debating, we siphoned some of it out so it was at least sitting between the min and max line. Not sure if it'll go down more once we start it in spring or if we'll need to take more out.
The whole winterization process was kind of exhausting and took 4 hours.
Then as the last step, when we went to plug the battery tender in, we realized the pigtail that Duc Pond had installed had a different plug and wouldn't fit my tender. The battery is ridiculously hard to remove from the Monster 696, so that's why the pigtail was installed. So after some research and scrutinizing pictures of plugs, I realized I bought some off-brand battery tender, while Duc Pond used an actual Battery Tender brand batter tender. It had worked fine for the V-Star because we used to remove the battery and just use the alligator clips. So I had to order a new Battery Tender brand one and have my dad stick it on the bike and plug it in a couple weeks later.
Well, at least I don't have any chrome to polish anymore :P
Oh, and finally in mid-December, my Daytona boots came in. AFTER I had put the bike away! I've been clomping around in them and they definitely give me some height. I went to the Bike Show in them and while they don't work miracles, I was able to fit on more of the bikes this time around. Haven't tried them on my bike though. They're pretty chunky so I might have to adjust the shifter pedal.
So that's it. This upcoming season I'm looking to get more training and gain some confidence on the Monster. Learn to lean more and maybe actually find someone to ride with.
So after our super awesome trip to HI in March, I dragged Drew over to my parents' house the weekend we returned. Got the bike started up without any problems. But before we headed back to VA with it, we ended up driving the truck to one of his cousin's band's shows in Southern MD that night. I wanted to leave at a somewhat decent hour because the temps were dropping and I was still jetlagged and tired and needed to ride back. Naturally we didn't end up leaving till pretty late. I ended up having to drive the truck back from So. MD to my parents', chugged some caffeine then rode back to VA in upper 30 degree temps. Ugh. Not exactly my ideal first ride of the season.
Things started warming up a bit, so I rode the bike to work again. (Un?)fortunately I changed projects in mid-April, so my nice 20 mile rides to and from Reston turned into 5-min 2 mile rides to Fairfax. Having work so close to home is great in a car, but there were beautiful mornings when I'd arrive at work on the bike and seriously have to stop myself from going right past it and riding off somewhere.
I also had to get used to parking in the new motorcycle parking spot in the garage in Fairfax. In Reston I would just pull in front first and back out very carefully when leaving. But the motorcycle spot in the garage in Fairfax is laid out so that it's right by the entrance and exit of the garage. I didn't feel too safe backing out into the exit lane of the garage when everyone always goes speeding by at ridiculous speeds. So, I spent a couple of nights practicing backing up and parking and kind of have it down. I still think I use up way too much space maneuvering, but oh well.
Turns out 5 or 6 guys on my project ride, which is cool. They would come by after seeing me walk in with my power ranger gear and chat for a bit. Also ran into some other guys in the parking lot who were nice enough.
In April, Justin asked if he could ride my bike for some practice. He had passed the MSF Basic Rider Course and got his M-class endorsement, but had not bought a bike yet. So Ginny and I had fun watching him zip around the business center parking lot on the V-star. He seemed to remember everything ok. He still hasn't bought a bike yet though, I think he might be scared ;)
After chatting with one of my neighbors who owns a ginormous BMW touring bike (Chris? I'm so bad with names!), he suggested some roads in Clifton that are nice for riding, complete with a nice ice cream shop nearby. I've been down some of the roads in Clifton in the car, and some of them are ridiculously twisty (ie- Popes Head Rd). A little too twisty for my skill level on a bike. So I mapped out the wussiest, straightest route to Clifton that I could.
It's a short ride, but kind of nice (lots of trees and 2-lane roads), so I added that ride to my tiny repertoire.
In April or May I noticed the V-star was running rough and being cranky in general. It stalled out at a light and I wasn't very happy. I got it started back up right away, but had to stay on the throttle to keep the revs up so it wouldn't do it again. I was worried the shitty ethanol gas was gumming up the carburetor again, but decided to try and troubleshoot before taking it to the mechanic. I thought it might be the battery, so Drew and I yanked it and put it on the tender, but the charge was fine. Added distilled water to it cause I thought the electrolyte stuff might be low. That didn't help either. After a bunch more googling, I figured it might be the spark plugs. Ordered some online and Drew helped me pop them in. Ran perfectly after that. Guess it makes sense cause I had never changed them in the 2.5 years I had the bike. All hail the mighty internet! I don't know what I'd do without the countless motorcycle forums out there. I might suck at being a mechanic, but my googling skillz are awesome!
I was also worrying about my mysteriously loose chain. Called around and took the bike in to Fairfax Cycles to get it replaced. They looked at it but said it still had a little life in it, but they couldn't let me leave with it so loose cause it was a safety hazard. They tightened up for me and charged me $20. It's something Drew and I can do, but it's a royal PITA doing it. oh well.
In April we had a bit of a thunderstorm. I woke up one morning and looked out the window (which I do obsessively when my bike's out there) and saw the V-star all covered up sitting in the rain. I went to take a shower. When I got back and looked out the window again, it was lying on its side !!! I screamed and ran over to Drew and we ran outside and picked the bike up. The cover acted like a sail and the wind had knocked it over. I was so upset. It's one thing to hurt your bike during some stupid mishap, but to have nature do it when you're not even looking is horrible! There were some new scratches on the brake fluid box, handlebars and exhaust, but everything else was ok. Still upsetting though :( :( :(
Later that month I was flipping through the bulletin boards at work and a lady was selling some of her gear. She had an ex who used to ride and she would ride on the back. She had an old First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket and some leather pants to sell. I was REALLY hoping the leather pants would fit cause my current pants are the unsexiest things you've ever seen. Unfortunately the leather pants felt really uncomfortable sitting on the bike. The jacket was nice though. I didn't need it, but I bought it anyway :X I'm such a gear whore.
In May I decided it was finally time to get the Ducati Monster I had been drooling on for the past 2 years, and we went to Duc Pond in Winchester. I talked to Donny, told him what modifications I wanted, what color, and paid him a lot of money :X Fortunately it hurt less because my tax refund on the house covered most of it. The mods were a couple thousand more, but I had set aside some overtime money from last year that covered those for the most part.
I had done a ton of research on www.ducatimonsterforum.org and www.ducatimonster.org and made a list of stuff I wanted modified. Most importantly I had Donny lower it by an inch or so, change out the suspension spring for a softer one so that it would actually compress when I sat on the bike, bend the kickstand a bit and swap out the 15 tooth sprocket with a 14T one. I heard that due to some European environmental regulation they had to put 15T sprockets on the bikes, which makes them horribly jumpy at low speeds. The 14T sprocket knocks the top speed down a little, but smooths things out at lower speeds. I figured I don't need to be going 130 mph all the time, so the 14T was worth it. Finally I had them replace the stock exhaust and put carbon fiber Termignonis. Definitely not a necessary mod, but Drew peer-pressured me into it, as he likes loud rumbly machines. I guess if you're going to get a Ducati, it should sound like one, right? ;) I opted for the ABS model and frame sliders too. And because "reliable" and Ducati don't go together, I opted in for the 5-year extended warranty.
I paid and Donny showed me all the features on the bike. After a lot of going back and forth between red and black, I decided on red. The black looks awesome too, but the red's a little more high-viz. He gave me the keys and manual and I nearly peed myself. He needed some time to get the bike ready, so I told him as long as it's ready before my birthday next month, I'd be happy.
So I waited a few weeks and then gave Duc Pond a call back checking on the status. It was tricky getting them to give me an exact delivery date, and some phone tag was involved, but we finally got it figured out. Finally on 6/9 the bike was delivered! I was super nervous and excited at the same time. Al (I think that was his name) drove up in a van and had the Monster tied up in the back. He had just dropped off another Monster in Reston. It was tricky getting the bike out and we had to help him back it down the ramp. Some neighbors drove up and watched the whole process. The guy was like "Is that a Ducati monster? I really want one!". And I was like "YEAHHH XD XD XD". Some other neighbor came by and was like "that's a mean little hot rod you got there!". bwahaha. Al was super nice about everything and headed out after dropping the bike off.
After he left I hopped on the bike. It had been lowered but it was still taller than I expected. I was super nervous and was ready to just pull it straight into one of the spots in the circle, but Drew was like, no! go park it in front of the house! And I'm like ~_~;;; I really didn't want to and wanted to keep it simple, but went with it anyway. So I nervously started it up, drove down the street and attempted to U-turn to get back in front of the house. I quickly realized that when a bike is too tall for you, even a centimeter of uneven ground feels like a foot. I flopped over with the bike on top of me :( Drew came over and pulled it off of me. Thank goodness for those frame sliders! Just a scratch on the brake lever and the right frame slider and everything else was fine. ughgh.
So for the next few days I rode around the complex's parking lot. Getting used to the new standard sitting position was weird. On the V-Star my feet were out in front of me, on the Monster, my feet are tucked underneath me. I had to get used to the pressure on my wrists and slide my butt back and grip the tank with my knees more. Turning felt weird , because of the short rake angle compared to the V-Star. I also noticed the bike gets HOT rolling around in first gear after a while. I was surprised because I felt like I had to give it more gas to get it moving when compared to the V-Star. I thought that since the Monster is a much bigger bike, it would take less gas, but apparently not. I liked the fact that I finally had a tachometer. I never knew what rpms I was at on the V-Star, just had to go by sound and feel.
After a while I felt confident enough to try the elementary parking lot a street over. I had never been there, but figured it'd give me more space and less traffic than the complex's parking lot. So when i got there I started doing some loops around the parking lot. There weren't too many people around because it was a weekend. Just some guy talking on his cellphone on the sidewalk. Did more loops and practiced shifting a little. I went around and decided to slow down around the entrance of the loop, which I found out was cambered/slanted. I slowed down too much, the bike stalled, I grabbed the front brake, and put my left foot down to catch it, only to find that there was no ground to put my foot down on... and then flopped over.
I was so embarrassed. I pulled myself out from under the bike and found a part of my clutch lever snapped off. 14 miles on the odometer and I had already broken my beautiful bike! ;_____; I tried to lift the bike by putting my butt in the seat and walking it back upright, but the slope wasn't helping any. I called Drew and asked for help. After I got off the phone I fumbled around a bit more and grabbed the trellis frame. Adrenaline took over and I managed to yank it back upright, but I was still on the slope. I started walking it down the slope but it was tricky to keep it from rolling too fast, and grabbing the front brake made it dive and tip more. I was struggling to just keep it upright.
Finally I heard someone say "do you need help with that?". I looked and it was some big dude walking a tiny tiny dog. I asked him to just put the bike stand down so I could take a rest. He helped me push the bike to level ground and I was finally able to breathe again. We ended up talking and he and his wife both rode sportbikes which is cool. He gave me some tips and after about 20 mins he was on his way. nice guy. UNLIKE the Korean dude on the cellphone 50 feet away who offered NO HELP whatsoever and just watched me and kept talking on his cellphone the whole time. *smh*
Drew rolled up a few mins later. he took my broken clutch lever piece for me and I found the bike was ok otherwise. I just gave myself a shorty clutch lever without meaning to :p
So after that I was kind of traumatized. I went online and immediately ordered the Ducati low seat, even though I heard it didn't help much because it was wider than the normal seat. I also gave in and ordered a $450 pair of Daytona Ladystars. They're supposed to give you an extra inch in height. I told myself I wouldn't ride the monster until the boots came in.
After a week, the status of my boot order hadn't changed and I asked the company what was up. They said they were out of stock but were hoping to get them in in August. August?! I couldn't not ride the bike for 2 months! So after I picked up the low seat from Coleman's, I told myself I'd take it slow and be REAL CAREFUL not to stall the bike or stop on uneven ground. Learned to be very careful with the front brake, cause they are super powerful! I actually use more rear brake than I used to just because I don't want to grab too much front brake. I finally learned what it meant to stand up on the pegs going over bumps, shift my butt around in corners, and weight the pegs. I just wasn't getting it on the V-Star, I guess because it's a cruiser. It makes way more sense on the Monster.
I'm not really sure if the low seat helped much, but I did notice it was more comfortable and i was able to sit up better and keep more pressure off my wrists. So that helped. I kept on riding and started getting more used to things. The bike is quirky, as all Ducatis are. Learning to keep it up at high RPMs was weird, but I finally got the hang of how much throttle to give it to avoid more stalling out and flopping over. It also takes FOREVER to warm up in the mornings, even in 90 degree heat. I have to let it run on fast idle for 5 mins before it lets me go anywhere. People must think I'm crazy just sitting on the bike twiddling my thumbs every morning.
I asked for the Ride Like a Pro dvds and book for my bday. It's cheesy and meant for cruisers, but it does have some good exercises in it. I've only done the first two though, because the parking lot setup looks ridiculous for the other ones. Basically it teaches you low speed maneuvers using the clutch and rear brake and getting you used to having the bike leaned over. The first exercise is keeping the bike going at a really slow speed, like <5 mph. It helped me a bit cause the Monster gets upset and all herky jerky going slow. I learned using some rear brake is ok. The second exercise is riding in a 24' circle. Sounds easy, but it was actually kind of terrifying and dizzying. I was able to do it several times though, so that's cool. I'm sure I was hardly leaning over, but it felt like I was riding at a 45 degree angle!
I tried riding both the V-Star and the Monster regularly, but putting miles on 2 bikes when you don't ride a lot is kind of hard. So in August I took the V-star to Colgan to have them check it out and do any maintenance that needed to be done. Drew and I bummed around manassas and ate at Okra's while they did the work. Everything checked out ok, they just said it needed new sparkplugs, which is weird because we had just changed them. They didn't mention the chain either. After getting the clean bill of health, I put the V-Star up on the bulletin boards at work for $2600. I also posted on facebook's marketplace, but someone banned my post within 2 days and they took the post down! wtf. I hit the dispute button asking for a reason, and never heard back. Also posted on one of AMA's bulletin boards.
In August a guy at work posted on the bulletin boards that he wanted to take pictures of bikers and their bikes for solo photo book month. He offered a free photo shoot, so I volunteered. I figured my bike would stand out from all the Harleys. The guy met me at the business center parking lot on a weeknight and we got started. I know absolutely nothing about photography so I was impressed by how much stuff you need to consider to get a good photo. He was really nice and we talked bikes for a good hour and a half. I was terrified because I always look dumb and awkward in pictures. He took over a hundred and kept messing with the lighting. About half way through some lady drove up and was like "what are you doing?" and he explained. She was like "did you see the no trespassing sign? We don't want anyone getting hurt" and she drove off. It's not like I was even sitting on the bike, and after coming to this business center for 2 years no one's ever said anything to me. And I've never seen a sign! I guess it's cause we showed up when people were still working in the buildings. We stuck around a bit longer anyway :p We talked more and he mentioned a good route out on 50 past Aldi, on Snickersville Turnpike that he and his wife like to ride out on. I said thanks for the tip and headed out for the evening. After a week or so the photographer guy sent me 6 or so of the best pics. I was pleased! He made me look....ok.
I checked out Snickersville Turnpike in my car a week or two later. It's very pretty, but it's twisty, narrow, and there aren't even lines on the roads! Craziness! I think I'll hold off on that ride for a little while longer.
At the beginning of September I scheduled my first 600 mile maint on the monster. The tricky part was the 100+ mile round trip to and from Duc Pond in Winchester, which was the longest trip I had taken on a bike. I ended up riding around a lot just so the bike would be at 600 miles upon arrival. The ride there wasn't too bad. I followed Drew and BB while they were in Drew's truck. Took 50 all the way out west, which is a nice ride. The only thing I hate is the 3 traffic circles in a row. I HATE traffic circles :( But I made it there in one piece, which was good. My knees were just a little bit achey after the ride.
Got to Duc Pond, dropped the bike off, and went to Perkins for breakfast. I forgot how good Perkins' breakfast is :D Huuge selection. I got $1.99 cream chipped beef on toast and corn beef hash. We all pigged out. Went thrifting a little after that, then went back to Duc Pond.
Waited a few mins, and then they said everything looked fine. I asked about adjusting the chain cause I wasn't sure exactly how to do it due to poor Italian to English translations in the manual. So one of the tech's took me back and explained some stuff. I'm super paranoid about loose chains after the V-Star. Unfortunately they didn't have a spare clutch lever around, so I still have my embarrassing busted one. The guy was nice and also showed us some of the super rare old bikes they have in the back. Awesome stuff! I paid $270 for everything, which I researched and found might be a little high :\ Ugh, I hate dealing with mechanics, but I really don't trust Coleman.
After that we dropped by one of the other motorcycle dealers' to check out bikes because a coworker had recommended it. Drew sat on few bikes and found a kawasaki vulcan he really liked. After that I gassed up, and hit the road. Around 620 miles my wrench icon came up on my dash. It hadn't been there before. Bike was running fine though, so I don't think it's from anything they did to the bike. Then I remembered that it was just the scheduled maint icon. I'm guessing it was due to the km to miles conversion and it doesn't come on at exactly 600 miles, instead it's 1000 km. Oh well, will have to have them turn the icon off at my next maint. The ride back was ok, but it started drizzling and things got a little wet. Got home ok though. Thanks to BB and Drew for going out there with me!
My neighbor told me that Henderson Rd. in Clifton was a nice ride. So I went to check it out. Plenty of twisties, but not 100% hairpin turns. I took the V-star out on it and managed to survive. There were a couple parts that made me nervous, like the 2 stop signs on hills that I have to stop at and make a left at with limited visibility. I was still too nervous to take the Monster, even though it's supposed to kick ass at curves and twisties.
I also added Sterling to my practice routes via Fairfax County Parkway. Not a very exciting ride, but it puts miles on the bike.
I started getting worried because I hadn't had many responses from potential buyers about the V-Star yet. There was no way I could store two bikes over the winter. I didn't really want to post on Craigslist because of all the weirdos out there. I was thinking of selling it back to Colgan if it was looking bad. I talked with one of the guys I park next to at work and he said he has a female friend who might be interested. I emailed her a few times and she was super flakey and said she was having second thoughts about riding in general. Finally in late September a few people at work started writing me. One was a girl who had her license a couple of years but wasn't able to get a bike until now. One was a guy who was taking the MSF BRC in a few weeks and was shopping around for bikes. The girl ended up being super pro-active and wanted to see the bike that weekend. Her uncle rides so she wanted to bring him with her.
I looked online for selling a bike tips. Don't let anyone test ride your bike without all the money up front, don't let anyone come to your house, etc... I felt like a jerk asking for all the money up front if she wanted to do a test ride, but she didn't seem turned off by it. I rode the V-Star to the business center parking lot and met her, her uncle, and aunt there. She was really nice and we spent a lot of time chatting. She was kinda nerdy but badass at the same time. She sat on the bike, but didn't want to do a test ride. I rode it around a few times just to show them how it ran, etc... Her uncle didn't look too hard at everything but I guessed he was ok with it. After about an hour, she said she wanted the bike!
So later that week I contacted her and arranged a pick up time. She rented a pick up truck and bought a bunch of ties and a giant plank. I've never packed up a bike before so I tried googling things and watching youtube videos. Fortunately she had more of a clue than I did. Between me, Drew, and her, we managed to get the bike in the truck bed and tie it down. It just barely fit! We had a couple of the neighborhood kids come out and watch the spectacle. Finding a place for the plank after the bike was in the bed was a different story though. Drew had to grab his circular saw and sawed off a couple feet so it would fit.
She had $2600 in cash which was awesome. No need to go to the bank and get a cashier's check, etc... I had printed out a ghetto sale form and we both filled it out. I gave her the keys, owners manual, and service manual. She said she was driving the bike up to Ohio to get tagged and she was going to store it up there and try and hide it from her mom. I have NO idea how she was going to get the bike out of the bed herself though, especially with the shortened plank.
After all that, she drove the truck off with my bike. Seeing it go kinda made me feel like crying. That bike was a good friend. The Monster is sexy and fun, but sitting on the V-Star was like coming home. I could flat foot it, muscle it around, and I knew all of its shift points perfectly by feel. But I knew that I wasn't putting enough miles on it and I hate to let it sit and feel neglected. I just hope the girl and the bike made it to Ohio ok and they're going on fun adventures together. Bye bye, little V-star :(
At one point my dad offered to buy the Ducati off of me because he thought I couldn't handle it and had made a mistake buying it. I said hell no. For some reason my dad has zero faith in me at all times, even though I don't know what I've done to make him feel that way. Just like when I studied abroad in Japan. After successfully completing my semester there and returning home, he told me he was surprised I survived the whole four months, because he had expected me to run home with my tail between my legs after the first month. WTF. Thanks, Dad. Maybe he's still upset that I didn't go to Princeton or something...
A couple of weeks later I was lubing the chain on the Monster, when I found a nice nail sticking out of the rear tire. We live near a waste transfer station so we always have ghetto pickup trucks dumping stuff off and I see them with unsecured crap falling out. I'm guessing I picked up the nail from some of their random debris. I was upset cause the tires only had 800 miles on them. Drew wanted to pull it out, but I ran inside and googled it. Naturally some people were against patching motorcycle tires and some were for it. Either way, you'd have to take the tire off the bike, and I do not have the proper equipment to take the tire off, patch it, and then put it back on and balance it properly, so I'd have to take it in somewhere. Then I remembered that Duc Pond gave me some sort of tire warranty for free when I bought the bike. I sifted through all my paperwork and finally found it. It said that I could get a free set of tires if I took the bike in to a licensed mechanic.
The next day I made some calls to Brooks Cycle and Fairfax Cycles. Brooks Cycles is the mechanic I went to before and I think he overtightened the V-Star chain. His rates are cheap, but Drew convinced me to take to to Fairfax Cycles, which is more of a legit shop, rather than a guy working out of his garage. I called up Fairfax Cycles they asked if my bike had spokes and I said no. They said then the tire can't be patched, it has to be replaced. So I took it in to Fairfax Cycles after work and showed them the tire warranty. They had never heard of it before, but said they'd file the claim for me. It took a week for the new tire to come in and for them to put it on due to Monday being a holiday, but everything worked out well! Free tires ftw.
When I came to pick up the bike, they asked me if I had ever run the bike without the baffles/db silencers in the exhausts. I said no, and they were like "Why not?! It sounds awesome! We took them out and tried it! It sounds like a Ducati now!". I was like uhhhh -_-; should I be concerned that these dudes were molesting my bike? Drew's eyes lit up and he got real pumped. But I didn't want to be the crazy biker with the overly obnoxious farty potato sounding bike that everyone hates. Especially when my bike takes 5 mins to warm up and I have to sit with it running in front of my neighbor's houses. The mechanics were like "well, just come out and listen to it. If you don't like it, putting the silencers back in is real easy". So I went out and they fired it up and it was a lot louder... and growlier and sexier. I was like "bahh, fine! I'll ride it home and if I don't like it, we'll put the baffles back in." They handed the baffles to Drew and he threatened to throw them out the window on the ride home.
It was loud riding home. But I couldn't make up my mind. We left them out but I was still debating. The next day my BMW touring bike neighbor came out and was like "Did you do something to your bike? it sounds different". I told him about the baffles and he was like "The pitch and tone are perfect. It sounds great now!". Hmmmmm.
So I kept the silencers out and waited for one of my neighbors to yell at me about the noise, but so far no one's said anything. I've turned the bike on and run inside the house to see how much I can hear. There's definitely a rumble, but I guess it's not enough to wake anyone up. We'll see.
So I should have learned my lesson the first time. During riding season I'm checking the weather every 10 mins to see what's going on. I slipped up one night and got distracted by Project Runway. I'm really lucky Drew peeked out the window that night, cause the Monster was taking a nap on the ground!!! The wind had picked up and knocked it over! WTF :( One of the mirrors snapped off on impact, and then the other one broke off when Drew was picking the bike up. It was tricky getting it upright again cause the entire curb area was covered in slippery leaves and it was dark. My brake pedal was bent too :( It still works, but it just looks bent and funny. *sigh* Ugh, my poor bike!
I was stubborn and rode the bike to work without mirrors the next day. That was the scariest two miles ever. I thought I'd be ok just looking over my shoulders, but that wasn't the case. Having no clue what's going on behind you is terrifying. When I got home, I immediately got online and ordered some CRG lanesplitter mirrors that attach to the handlebar ends. I could've gotten stock ones for cheaper, but these got awesome reviews.
Waited a week and the mirrors came in. Drew helped me pull out the scratched up plastic bar ends and stick the mirrors in the adapters and stick those in the bars. They're pretty cool and give the bike a different look. I also took the time to touch up some of the red paint on the gas tank with red nail polish and the metal around the exhaust with black nail polish.
Ever since we've gotten the Funimation channel, I've become an expert on infomercials. I keep seeing the LifeAlert commercial and thinking I need one for the Monster. It'd be the same commercial, except instead of the old woman, it'd be the bike lying on its side going "BEEP! BEEEEP BEEEP! BEEEEEEP D: BEEP! ;_____________; " at the operator. Except the operator's just a dude and he doesn't understand what it's saying. Cue sad bike and "waaawaaahhhwahhhhhh" infomercial sounds. Ahh, if only my bike could emote :p
Between 800 and 1100 miles the bike was being a PITA and I had a hell of a time shifting up from 2nd to 3rd gear. I would kick it up, and the bike would rev and go faster, but I could tell it was trying to trick me and I was really in some sort of weird 2.5th gear. It would take me 4-5 times to get it to stick to 3rd. At first I thought I was going crazy and just being a wuss when shifting and not kicking it hard enough, but even shifting hard didn't do anything. All the other gears were fine. I researched a lot and found one other person with the same issue,but they never wrote again to say what happened in the end. Finally around 1100 miles, shifting became easier again and I'm hoping it was just weirdness with the the transmission breaking in.
I needed even more retail therapy at one point and saw a leather jacket on sale at Revzilla. All my jackets are textile because I'm cheap, but I figured this one was on sale so why not. The only size they had left was small. I would've preferred a medium, but the small is ok, just a little tight. There's no back protection so I'm kinda paranoid about that, but I guess I can wear it during warm weather and just hope nothing bad happens.
Finally the weekend after thanksgiving we winterized the bike. It was 75 degrees that day so I felt kind of dumb, but knew I'd be too busy to ride due to our trip to Disney and all the usual holiday madness. The ride to my parents' was awesome. I was going 85 around the beltway before I knew it, which is bad, but the bike and I were genuinely happy.
Due to it being a different bike, I had to rethink the whole winterization process over again. The Monster is fuel injected so it was nice not having to drain the carburetor. However, I siphoned all the the gas out of the tank, which took forever. Just as with everything motorcycle-related, there's a debate as to whether or not plastic ducati tanks should be topped off with gas and stabil, or completely emptied. There's a defect in all the plastic gas tanks where ethanol causes the tanks to warp and deform over time. I didn't want to take any chances and the manual said to drain the tank so I did. I'm crossing my fingers that everything will be ok come spring.
I had seen this video on oil changes, but there are slight differences between the 2009 and 2011 models:
Click to viewChanging the oil was also tricky because I had brought a torque wrench but Drew didn't bring all the adapters and whosits for it. We had to use a giant pipe my dad had lying around to unscrew some of the things that were on really tight, and then had to guesstimate how tight things should be. We also didn't know how much oil to put in. Also, Coleman's gave me the wrong crush ring size so I had to reuse the old one. At first we filled up the oil and it was really high in the sight glass. Usually I can't even see any oil in it unless the bike is hot. Even then, it's very low in in the glass. We had filled it to slightly over the max line. After some debating, we siphoned some of it out so it was at least sitting between the min and max line. Not sure if it'll go down more once we start it in spring or if we'll need to take more out.
The whole winterization process was kind of exhausting and took 4 hours.
Then as the last step, when we went to plug the battery tender in, we realized the pigtail that Duc Pond had installed had a different plug and wouldn't fit my tender. The battery is ridiculously hard to remove from the Monster 696, so that's why the pigtail was installed. So after some research and scrutinizing pictures of plugs, I realized I bought some off-brand battery tender, while Duc Pond used an actual Battery Tender brand batter tender. It had worked fine for the V-Star because we used to remove the battery and just use the alligator clips. So I had to order a new Battery Tender brand one and have my dad stick it on the bike and plug it in a couple weeks later.
Well, at least I don't have any chrome to polish anymore :P
Oh, and finally in mid-December, my Daytona boots came in. AFTER I had put the bike away! I've been clomping around in them and they definitely give me some height. I went to the Bike Show in them and while they don't work miracles, I was able to fit on more of the bikes this time around. Haven't tried them on my bike though. They're pretty chunky so I might have to adjust the shifter pedal.
So that's it. This upcoming season I'm looking to get more training and gain some confidence on the Monster. Learn to lean more and maybe actually find someone to ride with.