The Official Sport Classic Ride Thread - Ducati.ms

dietrichpfeifer · May 20th, 2007, 10:01 pm

I had another really great ride today and wanted to share. Maybe we could get a thread stickied similar to the pictures thread to share stuff about rides we do on our Sport Classics?

I'll go first. Today a few of us Phoenix Ducati riders rode out to Tucson to meet up with more riders for a trip up Mt.Lemmon. I had the only Sport Classic, but we got some great pics and even some crumby video from my digital camera. Food at the Summerhaven Cafe was great, and so was the riding! The best part about the ride was that the temperature dropped about 20 degrees as we quickly climbed into the pines and unique rock formations. The worst part was we had to come home.

Here are a couple of short video clips of me on my GT1000 being chased by my friend on his Monster:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4UzMgVEkmnw
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-2hSD9j0l_4

And some pics...

The roads and the bikes:

Me chasing a 999r:

Having fun in the endless twisties (i.e. watching out for tar snakes ):

My Ducati Ad:

sjd70 · May 21st, 2007, 4:00 am

I must first say how jealous of the fantastic country and company dietrichpfeifer posted. That's riding nirvana... I wish I had that kind of riding and scenery where I live. Except you folks seem to ride on the wrong side of the road.. It looks terribly dangerous!!

I have a few pics from my recent ride to the big smoke to have my fuel line recall done.

It was an early morning start, just after dawn to make sure I didn't add a kangaroo to the front of the bike. I was planning on a highway ride (not a highway in the USA sense!) for about five and a half hours to the dealer. Five minutes down the road it started raining and rained lightly for the next two hours. I wasn't getting too wet but then it poured and I was soaked. By the time I reached Brisbane I had almost dried.

I had the fuel line fixed and headed off again in the the mountains and rode until about four o'clock. By then my clutch hand was very sore!! It was a shame the the twisties were a little greasy with rain and it seemed to reduce my confidence so I took it a little easy. If it wasn't wet the corners were covered with leaves and that looked real slippery as well. In the valley I was able to speed responsibly

(140-180 kph in top which I rarely use) on open roads with little traffic, until a show off car blasted by at some crazy speed. I let him go.. I am so responsible... or because I would be blown off the back of the GT at speeds faster than this. I was getting tired too.

Stayed overnight, ate a big steak and drank an even bigger beer and headed off early in the morning. Another couple of hours through some real twisty stuff and then three hours or so back along the highway and home.

On a side issue I had the fuel setting changed to lean the bike out a bit because I was using too much fuel. (From 15 to 10 on the little hand held computer) Not so much the $$ allthough fuel is costing $1.30 or so a litre here but to increase the range between stops.

Overall a top ride (except for the rain.. it only rains when I ride to Brisbane!) through some excellent country. The GT performed well although I was getting a little tired of the Termis (no baffle) for a while there. I never thought I would say that. The 1000 kms or so was also my longest ride on the GT.

Cheers

Sean

GreyDuck · May 21st, 2007, 7:01 am

Epic ride Sean,
Great shot of the GT in the mist.......is that Dr Jane Goodall in the background?

dietrichpfeifer · May 21st, 2007, 9:28 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjd70

I must first say how jealous of the fantastic country and company dietrichpfeifer posted. That's riding nirvana... I wish I had that kind of riding and scenery where I live.

What you can't see in my pics is the heat! I'm actually jealous of the pics you posted, great post! Maybe we should start some kind of rider exchange program so we can all go check out each other's countryside...

Xannadu · May 21st, 2007, 11:06 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by dietrichpfeifer

Maybe we should start some kind of rider exchange program so we can all go check out each other's countryside...

Amen to that! Who wants to trade the Swiss Alps for dusty ol Utah?

petzi · May 21st, 2007, 12:40 pm

great pics!!!

DUCeditor · May 21st, 2007, 6:38 pm

Thinking of Sport Classic rides... Please keep in mind that New Hampshire Bike Week is only a few weeks away. June 10th - 17th.

I personally am not a fan of the Laconia scene itself, which to me is basically a rumbling traffic jam decorated with tatoos. But that's just me and I suppose it is worth doing once just to see what it's like.

But New Hampshire itself is so welcoming to motorcyclists! Can you think of another state that devotes a significant section of its offical map to a list of good motorcycling roads? New Hampshire does. And uses a picture of a Ducati ST in the map cover photograph.

Gotta love this place!

-don

sjd70 · May 22nd, 2007, 2:00 am

Thanks GreyDuck, The mist was cool.. I needed to ride with the visor up but it was fun none the less.

Thanks dietrichpfeifer. I have been paying alot more attention to the motorcycle tourism stories in the mags lately. I really enjoy reading about the hard-core riders who transverse continents on their BM's et al.

I think a trip to North America and Europe on a bike, not sure about the GT though...perhaps a ST4s would be cool, would make a great change of pace for my annual holiday.

So that's a +1 on the exchange idea..

Sean

GreyDuck · May 27th, 2007, 4:36 am

Despite the sky being a gun metal grey colour I set off this morn' for a much needed ride.
Just as I was thinking the rain had moved on,down she came.
Lucky I had the wet weather gear on.
Here's a couple of pics.

Bly · May 27th, 2007, 8:40 pm

I hadn't been on the bike for a week, the girl was going to be busy on sunday and I had a couple more K's to put on it for the 1000k service.

So planned a route through the twisty bush backroads north of Sydney. Up the old Pacific Highway to Gosford, across to Broke, up to Singleton then back the Putty Road. Hardly any cage traffic, but heaps of sport bikes.

A great combination of high speed sweepers and some tight corners.
Didn't see a cop all day either.

I must say the bike handles well enough for my level of skill. Although some high speed rough corners did give a bit of headshake. Got a steering damper coming should fix that.

It's getting a bit cooler here now so some of the corners under tree cover were still damp even in early afternoon, and made me a bit nervous.
The Michelin Pilot Classics hung on pretty good though.

Well 500km and 7 hours later I got home tired and happy.
What great fun bikes these are..
Now I can't wait till next weekend ahaha