01/12/03 Another quick trip to California, to visit with friends, see the LA car show, and of course ride the 900 a bit. Only a quick ride, but it's great to have the ability to do this in the middle of January.

The trip was short enough (only two full days) to have a sort of parallel-universe feeling to it. Which makes it all the more fun :)

07/29/03 OK, as you can see the previous entry for the 900 was almost eight months ago. Yes, I've seen the bike since then - once, I think. The core issue being that I've really had it with California and have little desire to go there anymore. So the natural question arises - how do I get the 900 up here to Portland? I've looked at a number of options and the leading candidate is flying down there and riding it back up. It's only a thousand miles, or thirteen hundred if it take the coast - which I would. Certainly not doing 1K miles on the freeway on a Ducati! So the immediate reaction to the thought was the memory of how much the highly crowned stock seat hurt even after 100 miles, in all the wrong places. OK then, another seat. So a couple of weeks ago I ordered a Corbin aftermarket seat for the bike, and today it came in. Of course it is not exactly as I wanted (I specifically requested no 'Corbin' tag, and to contact me if they could not accommodate, but there it is). Looks OK overall though.

We'll see how well the red color matches the bike...Whatever it is, the comfort should be worth it. Now I just have to find a break in this record heat wave we've been having (with my luck it will be pouring rain) and catch a decent airfare. An adventure in the making - or not. Stay tuned...

What will I do with it when I get it here? Park it in the livingroom, of course. And maybe ride it more often than the slightly-too-harsh-for-street 748. Either way, it'll be better than sitting in some garage 1,000 miles away.

08/22/03 Finally made it down to California again - this trip is for business, however, and so I won't be able to ride the 900 back to Portland just yet (maybe in a couple of weeks). But I did bring the new seat down and got it fitted.

The color match is adequate in some light, not so good in other settings. Will have to do I guess. Also tried removing the Corbin tag but the stitch holes underneath are very noticeable so I had to glue it back down. Comfort-wise the seat is definitely better than stock, although the fact that it ends up being more than 1" lower than stock makes the bike feel like a low-rider :) Not bad for touring duty. On a quick test ride I was also reminded of the technological difference between the 900 and the 748. Definitely can feel the frame flex on turn-in and a bit of imprecision on this one. The 748 is much more solid and collected-feeling. Quite different machines - all the more reason to have both, I suppose.

Now I need to fit the replacement clutch slave cylinder, do some other minor maintenance and hopefully ride it a bit.