Wow.  Where to begin?  I’ll start with the past week.

Last week I had the tires mounted and balanced.  I talked with Alex Florea, the Michelin guy for the Bay Area, and had him mount some of the 16.5” racing slicks on my rims.  I’m still not sure whether I should run Michelins or Dunlops, but we’ll try the Michelins for starters.

Last weekend, I ended up running other errands most of the weekend, and didn’t get a lot done on the bike.  I managed to get the bodywork mounted, but still didn’t have my gas tank, didn’t have the seat mounted, and didn’t have my gear packed and ready.

Monday and Tuesday, after getting home from work and/or dinner with friends, I would plug away a little more on the bike each night for a few hours. 

Wednesday morning, I decided to check out some stats on the new Ohlins rear shock I had purchased from a friend.  It was a take-off from his 2005 749R.  My bike is a 2003 749s.  It turns out that the Ducati website mentions that the shock for the 2004-2005 749R bikes has a shortened stroke and is specially designed for the suspension of the 749R.  I don’t have the special suspension of the 749R, so I did some quick research and realized that his shock was not going to work in my bike.  The shortened stroke would likely cause pretty major problems (bottoming out the suspension) and possibly crashes.  I made some calls and decided to order a new Ohlins rear shock through Evolution Suspension in San Jose.  They ordered the shock and offered to install it on Thursday night after work.  A bit of a scare from cutting things close, but it looked like I was back on track to have the bike ready for the weekend.

Wednesday on my lunch break I went and picked up my gas tank.  When I first purchased the bike, it had some dents in the gas tank.  I also added a few dents last year in some of my crashes.  I wanted to get the tank repaired and also to get rid of the yellow on the tank.  Bobby Keith at Cycle Finish in Menlo Park did an amazing job with the tank.  It looks great.  He even put a decal on the tank and cleared over it, all for a very reasonable price.  My friend suggested I put the tank on the bike, throw some gas in it and fire up the bike before heading down.  Great idea, but I just plain ran out of time.

Wednesday night, I put the tank and seat on, so the bike was then fully assembled.  Now, I only needed to get the suspension set up and then I’d be ready for the track.

Thursday night after work, I went over to Evolution Suspension.  I worked with the owner, Robert, to install the new shock and set the suspension up for my weight.  I rolled back up to the city at about 8:30 and picked up my friend to load things up for the trip.  It took us about 2 hours to get the bikes into the minivan and load all our gear.  Part of the problem is that I’m still trying to keep the bodywork in good condition, and that makes piling lots of gear next to the bike a little difficult.

Friday after work, I picked my friend up at the train station in San Jose and we set off for the track.  Because it was raining at the track that night, we decided to get a motel instead of unloading all the gear at the track and sleeping in the minivan.

Saturday morning, we rolled over to the track by 7am and started unloading and setting up.  While it had clearly rained the night before, it was dry now and looking like it would not rain within the next couple hours.  It was friggin’ cold – about 45 degrees.  I wasn’t only worried about my tires not providing good traction in that temperature – I was also worried about being able to stay warm in my perforated leathers.

I unloaded the bike, my tools, set up the canopy for some shelter.  I had 3 things I had planned on doing to the bike over the weekend – bending a fairing stay bracket that was out of position (it’s what holds the bodywork on the bike, and my bodywork was on crooked), bending the mount for my gas tank (for whatever reason, the tank looked like it was tilted to the left pretty badly.  This could cause problems going through turns – you strive for symmetry), and tightening the new chain I had slapped on my bike on Wednesday night.  I knocked out the chain pretty quickly and then bent the fairing stay without removing the bodywork.  No problem!  I was feeling good about the setup, so I planned to ride my bike over to the tech inspection to get cleared to go out on then track.

I poured some gas in the tank (it was bone dry after I had reassembled the tank.  The painter had taken out the fuel filter and the gas cap when he painted the tank.  I had quickly reassembled it on Wednesday night, but everything went together pretty quickly.).  My friend immediately started shouting at me.  I stopped pouring, and then looked at the bottom of the tank.  To my immediate shock and dismay, I saw gas pouring out the bottom.  Not dripping.  Pouring.  This is never a great sight.

We quickly put some rags underneath the tank to soak up some of the gas, and then started disassembling.  We took the fuel filter back out and tried to reinstall the o-ring that prevents such leaks.  After reassembly, we put some more gas in the tank and it immediately started pouring out again.  It was about 8:15am in the morning on a Saturday.  I started asking around and realized the nearest Ducati shop was about 100 miles away in Fresno.  I talked to a few guys and we concluded that my old o-ring was stretched and distended and wasn’t seating properly, so I would need a new one (or two).

I talked to the trackday organizer and explained I needed to run up and grab a part.  I took off, just as it started to rain at the track.

By the time I got back, it was about noon.  While it had rained on and off most of my drive, it now seemed dry.  Riders were out on the track, and I was starting to feel upbeat about my odds of getting out for a few laps to test my setup.

I put the new O-ring in and added some gas.  It all dumped right back out of the bottom again.  NOT good.  We quickly found Scott from Desmoto Sport in San Francisco, and he graciously helped us take the fuel filter in and size up the situation.  We took the tank off the bike and turned it upside down to work on it – this is the only easy way to deal with the fuel filter assembly on the 749/999.  It turned out there had been some paint overspray onto the surface where the o-ring is supposed to seat.  He scraped that off, and we reinstalled the fuel filter.  We put some gas in to test it out and it held!

So…  just as I started putting the tank back on the bike, it started raining again. 

The rest of the afternoon it went from rain, to sun, to hail, to rain, and I never had a chance to get back out on the track.

Sunday morning.  We rolled to the track at 7:30.  It was cold, dry, but the sky offered *some* shred of hope.  I decided to tink with the bike a little bit in the morning, but it was basically good to go from the setup work the day before.  As we were sitting in the riders’ meeting at 8:30, it started raining again, and it hasn’t let up.  It looks like I won’t get to feel what the new setup is like until another time.

I was wrong about the weather.  Sort of.

Keep in mind I’m on “racing slicks” which don’t have tread.  The problem with no tread is that they can’t channel away standing water – they automatically hydroplane and slip.  The other problem is that the tires won’t heat up enough in the wet.  Racing slicks typically run at a higher temperature and need that temperature to provide grip.  So the net message is that racing slicks don’t provide good traction unless it’s dry.

Things cleared up enough for me to get in two sessions.  The first time out was essentially sighting laps for me.  I poked around really slowly watching for the pockets of standing water I would need to avoid.  Nothing too bad, though.  A little water in turn 9 – “the sweeper” was about all I could see.

I started plodding along a little faster and a little faster, not daring to push it in the slightest.  I got in a few laps and then came back in to wait.  From what I could tell, the bike flicked over nice and easy through the “esses” leading out of the sweeper, which is one of the few places on the track where you need to flick the bike from side to side.  I attributed this to the 14 pound reduction in rotating mass, courtesy of my new Marchesini rims.  Also, I felt the bike pulled really great right out of the corners.  That’s one of the main things I’m watching with my new gearing.  I do want to make sure I don’t pull too quickly and start slipping the rear wheel.

The next session in the afternoon, I went out at the same time as my friend.  We did one lap really slowly.  As we entered into the second lap, I started trying to pick up the pace a bit.  This was when I discovered that my clutch was slipping pretty badly.  I stayed out on the track just to get the time to gain familiarity with reference points and how the bike felt tipping in for turns, but trying to go fast was a lost cause.  One of the worst feelings happened when I was lining up a guy to pass him on the inside as we went over the wheelie hill.  I came wide and dove to the inside and had a great passing line and the closing speed with which to do it.  As I went for the gas hard as we were climbing over the wheelie hill, I felt the plates slip and my drive whimper.  I knew I would have had him if my plates hadn’t slipped.  Major bummer.

I came back in and swapped out the clutch plates.  I’m getting proficient at doing this now, and was able to make the change in under 20 minutes.  However, by the time the new plates were back in the bike, the rain had returned and it put an end to the riding for the day.

We packed up without too much more happening.