The poor man's Ducati Monster strikes again.

 

I'm not poor, but Ducati was not helping. LOL.
I bet 95% or better of folks would never know if you repainted the tank with a Ducati logo.

 

Nice report Lee, Beautiful bike, and I must admit, I'm jealous of you bitches who live minutes away from twisties. Louisiana is flat and boring. Cheers.

 

I think it will be good for exploring back roads and such too.
And yes Geo, us creepy old guy bitches got lots of good roads not far away.

 

For some reason it's sort of like I'm seeing Einstein with an SV. Super cool!

 

Nice having other oldsters here. Makes me feel at home.

 

You guys with tons of safe miles under your belts are inspiring to the rest of us. Thanks for lighting the way

 

Rode 120 miles to get some ice cream.

 

Sometimes a jar of coffee costs me a full tank of Gas

 

I haven't been riding a lot lately due to the heat, but was out and about this morning. Got a Friday Ride Video even..

 

I don't see it.

Old video from my 2003 Tuono.
Tuono is Italian for Thunder.

 

Ducati lite; all the fun of a Ducati at 2/3rds the price.

 

Well, you didn’t see a thread because there’s an entire sub-forum devoted to this sort of thing! ‘Touring and Trips’… 😉 Yeah, after sampling a tiny bit of this things nimbleness, I can imagine what it would be like in the canyons. Don’t need the power up there much, either. When you can break 5k and take it up to 8k, it’s a bit better, but is still no 1200. My only complaint is that it sounds a bit like a tractor. Does yours have the Dunlop RoadSmart 3’s on it? How do you find them?

They call it ‘Going for a $100 hamburger’ in aviation! 😄

 

Does yours have the Dunlop RoadSmart 3’s on it? How do you find them?

It does have them. They have yellow lines running around the circumference but not in the center. I leaned a little past the line on the rear and not quite to it on the front. So my chicken strips are pretty good, I am not pushing the envelope. Anyway, tires seem fine. Will see how they last and feel as I go along, and past the break in.

Talked to insurance, surprise it is not going down, but up $30 per year.

 

You landed a great looking SV Lee, I especially like the black with the gunmetal tubular frame. It will be a lot more fun when you can ignore that 5k rpm ceiling. Mine never goes that low I keep it between 6500 and probably 9k, it seems happy up there.
I miss these individual ride-report threads. I wanted to do one last Monday as I got my SV out for a bit for the holiday. I didn't take photos though, so that would be boring.

 

That IS a surprise. One reason I picked this bike is because it was one of the cheapest, insurance-wise. Though most ‘older’ bikes were the same or less, cause older. Let me know about the tires, cause I figure you’d be more aggressive than I with those beautiful curvy roads all around you. I’m also a bit of a ‘fraidy cat, though my father said I was getting surprisingly low on some pretty sharp corners for being relatively inexperienced. Probably 1/2”- 3/4” strips in the rear? It’s all bike, though. Just seems to eat up the twisties!

 

Added 125 miles today, up to 321. Little Tujunga Canyon Rd, Soledad Cy, Boquet Cyn which has lots of nice fresh pavement, and Little TJ again in the other direction. Got a bottle of some Strawberry Kiwi drink. Two or 3 more Sunday rides and it should be first service time. It's not a horse, I did not tie it to the railing. Good times.

 

Added 125 miles today, up to 321. Little Tujunga Canyon Rd, Soledad Cy, Boquet Cyn which has lots of nice fresh pavement, and Little TJ again in the other direction. Got a bottle of some Strawberry Kiwi drink. Two or 3 more Sunday rides and it should be first service time. It's not a horse, I did not tie it to the railing. Good times.

View attachment 61957

The discoloration on the header pipe is beautiful.

 

damn yr right up where I used to ride regularly BITD, ill be ready to roll again here in a cpl of weeks, I'll be following these ride threads and may have to post a cpl of my own as i get back into the swing.

I'm out in ventura county nowdays, also an " oldster" lol, my local ridin buddy likes short rides, agoura to the beach and grab some lunch & run the canyons back & that's it... his partner keeps him on a short as leash i assume.....I prefer longer rides and actually going somewhere for a little bit at least.... ill be upgrading the seat on my bike here soon,... should be good for much longer spells ;-)

nice pics!

 

I do Hwy 33, maybe up and over then back via Lockwood or Cerro and I-5 or something once in a while. But makes for a long ride. Same with 150 by the coast, good ride but a bunch of Freeway for me.

The bottom / south end of Little TJ is about 15 - 16 miles from me, and those roads seem to have less squids than some others. I usually try to run at least 100 miles.

 

The luggage rack / base plate holder came a week ago from Amazon. The other stuff I ordered via Suzukicycles.com who farmed it out to a local dealer. Finally 12 days later it arrives, but I ordered 5 crush washers and there was just 1, taped to the oil filter package. E mailed them to send me the other 4, but this is not good customer service. More of a pita.

 

Someone from the dealer dropped them off in a small bag just now.

 

Another 124 miles today, total at 445 now. Chilly at first because of a marine layer hiding the sun, but that did not last long. I was reading the Mom and see it says keep revs below 5,000 for first 500 miles, and below 7,500 for the next 500 miles. Then keep below 10,000 RPMs. I assume there is a rev limiter somewhere above that. First oil change at 600, seems like kind of a disconnect with the rev limits.

Got my spools on yesterday, and put it on the stand. Started removing stickers and stuff. Damm they use some extra sticky stuff on the frame stickers. Will probably leave the one with the VIN for now. It is partly behind a radiator hose, and I don't know I could get it all removed cleanly with the hose in the way.

 

I MAY have broken through those limits by 500-1000 rpm accidentally a couple of times… The offset just sees your break-in oil getting a bit higher RPM action before it’s changed. The bike really wakes up above 6k rpm. Hate to see what it’s like closer to 10k, but I tend to putt around in city/commuter mode most times.

 

I'm looking forward to winding it up some.
I like to get out in the mountains and back roads. You can wind it up without much worry if you pick your time and place right.
A lot of those back roads are lightly patrolled. And last time I got stopped a couple years ago, it was a female motocop on a big cop BMW. Asked if I was surprised to be stopped "by a girl". I said I did not know the Sheriffs Dept had female Moto officers. Let me go for 77 in a 55 with just a verbal warning.

I credit the power of greystache.

 

Just to expand on that. I was not buzzing along at 20+ over the limit. I was following a slowish truck and it was a 2 lane road. I was being good and dawdling along behind it, saw other vehicles back in my mirrors but not close. We got to a passing lane posted slower traffic keep right. Truck stayed left, I opened throttle moderately on the Monster and zipped by. Then got lit up.

She did not mention my passing on the right or the earplugs. I kind of wonder if she was hanging back there waiting to see if I would smoke the truck across the double yellow. Or maybe just patrolling. I noticed the bike had "Tucker" on the fender. I guess the bike is assigned only to them. Probably personalized for fit. Hopefully I do not encounter Deputy Tucker again. Riding is fun.

 

Oh, my default is 5-10mph over the limit. In a CAR. That seems to be the speed where most cops might notice you, but won’t look twice. On a bike, let’s just say I have to exercise at least a little bit of patience. That’s where the 650 is a good match for me, as opposed to a 900+…

 

Congrats on the new bike

 

Installed the Givi top case yesterday. It sits up kind of high, but I don't notice it all when riding.
Nice to have an easy place to put my water, phone, and stuff.
Did another 125 miles+ and the odo sits at 571. Caught a tiny spritzer of rain about 2 miles from the end of the ride. It's been baptized. Almost time for that first service.

 

Fifty miles ride today to Bear Divide via Little Tujunga Cyn, then back.
Odo at 621, drained oil. Thought I had everything I needed to change oil and filter.
Discovered none of my 3 filter wrenches fit.
Went to dealer, got change back from my $30 for a cap style wrench.
Fits tight. Added 2.9 liters oil because the bottles were liters.
Realized after I was supposed to add 2.9 quarts, so I am overfilled.
Crap. Well I still need to do the other 600 mile service things anyway.
Tomorrow. And maybe another day after that too. It's too hot.
Dripping sweat does not help when trying to work on stuff.

 

3 hours and 116 miles today. Left at 9:45 AM, back at 12:45 and over 100 degrees. Stopped once for about 5 minutes.
Nice ride but hot and I am not going outside again today except to roll the trash cans out for pickup tomorrow.

 

Nicest day in a couple weeks or more here. It's been past 90 and some days 100 lately.
Today got up and the sun was hiding behind a marine layer. Go, Pacific Ocean! Temp in the 60's.
Put a long sleeve T on top the short sleeve one, then the mesh gear. Was cold the first few miles but broke out into the sun and at the halfway stop, time to take off the long sleeves. Left at 10 AM, home at 1 PM, temp was about 83. What a difference. Good ride.

We are getting ready to move soon, depending on selling our house. So time frame is not certain.
But I am thinking lately I am not going to ride these same roads many more times.
Which is good, I have been riding the same roads for 35 years.
One of these times hopefully soon, my post will be

Saddled up my new SV, and I rolled that power on.
And I rolled clean outta sight! Sorry Bob Seeger.

One way trip to a new place.

 

But I am thinking lately I am not going to ride these same roads many more times.
Which is good, I have been riding the same roads for 35 years.


One way trip to a new place.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S.Elliot : Little Gidding