05/12/02 Interesting day today. Started out with driving and tuning the Westie, with a Caterham along for the fun. On return home, made some tuning changes to the Elise and of course had to 'test' that. Then getting back decided to run the M Coupe for comparison on the same twisties. And then the Duck was feeling left out, so I ran it along the same route as well. So basically I got to play with all the toys except the kart. A very surprising thing I realized is that if I were faced with a lengthy journey in decent weather, the 748 would be the second in order of preference as the vehicle of choice, behind the Bimmer. It is quite refined, can be fairly comfortable (despite what all the magazines write), a lot of fun in traffic, and just generally a joy all around. I've done the track days in Seattle on the Ducati and in the Elise, and upon getting home after 120-150 miles on the track and 180 miles on the road, was LESS tired on the bike. Interesting indeed.

At the end of the day, all the horses are back in the stable. Cooool :)

08/16/02 Finally a bike track day this year.

I haven't really ridden very much lately. The 900 in California had seen almost as much use as the 748, and that isn't much. So being rusty I took it relatively easy. Still, it was a lot of fun, as my helmet cam video shows. I really need to do at least three bike track days a year to keep progressing. It has been too long. Not too many left this year but something to keep in mind for the future...

11/08/02 Well, the 748 hasn't seen that much use this year. Only 350 miles, half of it on the track. I resolve to do better next season. In the meantime, after an oil change, chain lube, and general clean and wax, the Duck is now back in its winter home...

04/09/03 Spring is here. How do I know? Well, there are birds trying to nest in my chimney... but most importantly, the Duck is out of the livingroom and back in the garage again.

Took a quick ride, just to recharge the battery and get the fluids going. Fun :) Gotta install new brake pads upfront and watch the forecast for the 17th, which is the first bike track day for the year. Not fully decided if I'll run it but would like to. Next one after that is in May.

04/14/03 Yesterday I looked on the web and realized that there is a bike track day today. But it was raining though supposed to clear up. This morning I woke up to sunshine and decided to head to the track. Quite a variety of machinery there, as usual...

Tonkin MOTOCORSA, the organizers of the event (and the guys I got my bike from) had a full setup there, which later proved very 'fortunate'.

I registered, paid the money, removed mirrors, taped lights and soon headed out onto the track.

After the initial warmup lap I started to pick up the pace a little, but not working it too hard yet...

Which is when the clutch went away. It wasn't slipping, but the clutch lever lost all resistance and the clutch wouldn't disengage. So I pulled in after just 3 laps, and after some help from the mechanics figured out that the master cylinder is shot. So the day was over and I was now faced with getting the bike home. This is where the fortunate part comes in - the MOTOCORSA guys were kind enough to put my bike in their van and drive me home. I owe them much gratitude - thank you!

So now tomorrow I have to go buy a new master cylinder (hopefully they have one in stock), install it and if the weather cooperates try it again Thursday. Or maybe just wait till May, as there will be two track days then. A bit of a bummer, but all is well that ends well (and I'm glad it wasn't the brakes that went!).

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UPDATE - after taking things apart I found that it was the slave cylinder, not the master, that went bad. As it turns out this is a common problem on Ducatis (the one on the 900 is leaking also), to the point that there was a recall on a couple of years. My bikes may or may not be covered by the recall, but either way it is a much cheaper part ($70 vs $190) and is in stock unlike the master cylinder which would take two weeks to get in. I'm just going to get new cylinders for both bikes and install the one on the 900 the next time I'm down in California.

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UPDATE, part 2 - Installed the new slave cylinder, bled the system and everything worked fine. For about 1 minute. Tried pressing the cluch lever a dozen times and pressure went away. Re-bled, same story. Seems the master cylinder is letting air into the system. The seal is fine under compression (so when there is no air everything works) but on the return stroke air gets in past the seal. Ah well, got to order the new one afterall. The slave cylinder needed replacing anyway so I don't feel too bad about the whole thing, other than missing the two track days. Other than oil, filters one battery and one set of tires it's been the only maintenance the bike has needed in 4 years and 9 track outings (each of which can be essentially considered as four 20-minute sprint races). Now of course the battery seems to be about gone due in no small part to lack of use, and after the next track day a new set of front brake pads will be in order, and maybe a new set of tires too.