Mixed Media

No, not watching TV and listening to the radio!!! Using the other piece of Fiddleback Maple and a plasma cutout of the Texas Longhorn. Found the metal at welding class, someone actually threw it out!!! So, I ground the sharp edges down, salt sprayed it, and let it rust a bit more. Then used some gorilla glue to adhere the steel to the wood. This is a gift for a friends 40th birthday.

I hope she likes it.

Salsa del Diablo dispenser

Well, a new brewpub is opening here in Bellingham, the Chuckanut Brewery Mari and Will Kemper. I've been working with them on a sign idea, but was able to pick up this old fire extinguisher from their site. They're doing a HUGE remodel in our Old Town District. I emptied it, sanded it down, primer and put the base layer of flame colors on it. I'm going to do the flame outline with fine line tape, the spray it with black, and then do blue pins, just like the wheelbarrow several posts ago. Then I'm going to use the red tiger verigated goldleaf for "Salsa del Diablo" along the bottom. We'll see if Mari might hang it in the pub area of the brewery. I think she will.

Piston Install Update

Well, she's all buttoned up and running like a scalded cat!!

Lessons learned - two extra hands are nice to have around, four extra hands aren't. You only need a little tiny bit of Ducati bond on the mating surfaces, you don't want to clog any oil passages. I didn't, but I think I'm lucky. Ground the ECU and the PC3 on the alum/metal plate under the ECU. Patience is a good thing. Coors and Girl Scout cookies are a handy snack when you get frustrated. JD, Dan Kyle and David are Ducati Seattle were fantastic with Q and A's. The Bearded Wonder - Marty - at Ducati Seattle spent MORE than enough time talking with my and making my custom map on their dynometer. We ended up with 75bhp and 56ft/lb (with a 13 AFR). For those of you that care, add 10% for comparable numbers on a Dynojet dynometer. Marty said I'm running 190lbs of compression, which is kind of high for a street motor, typically these 2v motors are running about 145-160lbs. I've never ever felt the bike act like this and she's a screaming beast. I can't believe how fast she spools up and I can't imagine this bike with a lightweight flywheel and some lightweight wheels.

These are all shots of Ducati Seattle's new dyno room in a secret back alley underground bunker location. Marty treated her to a firm but gentle flogging while he created a custom map for the Power Commander. I will NEVER EVER go to the dealership that's 25 minutes away from me. I'll ride/trailer my bike the 1.5 hours to Seattle to David/Marty and work her over.

Now for some pics.

New 'art' piece

Had this piece of 'fiddle back' Maple from my tiki bar laying around. Sanded it down, few layers of polyurethane and the grain really pops. I think having the 'live edge' still intact really lends to the earthy feel. Anyway, I had a great day snowboarding with a friend at Mt Baker, came home, picked up the new issue of SURFER magazine, and found a drawing that inspired this design. A few hours later here's the finished piece. I plan to give it to a friend for her birthday. Although I'm really tempted to keep it. I've never really done anything like this, but I'm sure there's more where this came from.

Monster of the time cont'd.....

Then a new gasket and some Ducati bond and we're back on the way to reassembly. Everything was hooked back the way it was, no extra parts left over, but son-of-a-gun she would turn over or start. Long story short, we needed to have the ECU grounded (thanks to David at Ducati Seattle for taking that call) as well as the Power Commander module (thanks to Dan Kyle at Kyle Racing for helping with that one too). Lesson learned here, remember what wires hook back up to what and understand what it means for something to actually be GROUNDED!!!

Now she's running and I've heat cycled her twice. Weather is still crap here in the PNW, but I'm anxious to get her out for a ride. Hopefully down to Ducati Seattle and let Marty have his way with her on the dyno!!

I'm hoping to get about 10bhp and 5-6ft/lbs of torque increase. Which would really make for a some rides. It was previously dyno'd with 73 and 56, so......fingers crossed.

Monster of a time....

Had the opportunity to pick up some high compression pistons for my Ducati Monster from JD at Hord Power in Ohio. Solid Midwestern guy that was patient and answered a TON of questions. These pistons would give my little baby a bit more OOMMPHH. Scary thing it was going to require me to completely disassemble the motor. I can barely even get my lawnmower to start, so what am I even thinking about doing with my bike?? Well, one thing lead to another and my friends Denny (Dr Speed on Truckblog) and Matt decided that it was a good thing to pull the bike apart. So, off came the seat, tank, battery box, airbox, throttle bodies, heads and cylinders.

While the heads here off I thought it would be a good idea to clean all the carbon build up after 24K miles. They were pretty gunky, so I VERY gently scraped the stuff off and used a scotchbrite pad and some 2000 grit wet/dry paper to really smooth things out.