2007 Ducati GT1000-new to me!

First ride of 2021!  Woo Hoo!

I took the Beeline on a few dry runs in the car and it works well.   Last Friday had to rip over to a customer with a machine start-up issue so I took the bike and used the Beeline.  It will be perfect for what I was looking for-no maps, no touch screen, no graphics, no need to have my expensive phone out on the bars while I'm riding.  It can sit safely tucked away where it can be ignored until I grab it.  It'll post pics soon.  

Some Beeline shots of the mount and the device itself.  

This is one of the mounts.   I have two additional-a bar clamp and a linked arm with adhesive pad.  I chose the silver metal case version and it fits right in.

Warmer today (mid 50's) so I'll take a quick ride tonight.   Low to mid 60's this weekend and sunny so maybe I'll roll by Angry's house.

I also joined Desmo Detroit, a Ducati owners group.  They have their first GTG of the season soon and a group ride to SE Ohio in June for some twisty two lane rides.   I just signed up for that and booked my room.

Very interested in the Beeline. Any chance you could take a wrong turn and see how good the re-routing function is? 

Already done Seth!   It re-routes quickly in route mode.  I was forced off route by a downed power line last Friday and it re-routed quickly.  There is also a mode they call compass which points toward your destination and allows you to roam a bit.   

Looks great on the bars. I'm really curious about the compass mode because that's just the sort of nod in the right direction I might appreciate on a bike. I love finding my own way when I'm on my bike and despite mounting a phone holder on the bars of one bike I have yet to use it. 

Thanks.  I was going to save a few $$ with the black plastic cased version but I'm glad I went with the bright aluminum instead.

I thought the compass mode was a pretty cool method as well.  You enter your destination and instead of directing you turn-by-turn to a route the big arrow just stays locked to your destination and you pick your route to get there.  You also see a distance read-out so you know generally where you are in relation.  

I've been getting shipments in for my upcoming SE Ohio trip mid June.  New lighter weight textile jacket with lots of vents, gloves, tank bag, and simple rear rack.   Most of my heated gear came in as well so this weekend I'll wire that up except for the switch enclosure which won't be here until Monday.  

The Beeline continues to impress me.   The simple user interface gets the point across without being distracting.  This is critical to me as I'm still a relatively new rider.  beeline recently did a major upgrade on their app focused on the map and guidance making it more comprehensive and fully featured.   I'm not familiar (yet) with GPX but I'm getting riding files in GPX soon for my June ride and I can now import the files easily.   

During a recent pre-ride inspection I noticed a cracked vent hose that runs from the crank case to the air box under the fuel tank.  I've been wanting to replace the air filter so I bought both from the local Ducati dealership today.  I'll run the fuel level down the old fashioned way with some miles tomorrow and then tear in to the job.  While the fuel tank is off I can run the wires for the heated gear.  
On a side note I installed some hand guards as an attempt to keep my hands warmer by shielding them from the air blast.  Somewhat better with regular gloves but seemed to help more with my heated gloves. 
I still love this bike and it never fails to get thumbs up from folks on the street.  It's not fast-not a bad thing for me-but looks good and sounds great.  

Beautiful spring day here in Detroitish so I tore into the bike.  To access the air box I needed to pull the fuel tank.  The fuel line quick connects were a bit fiddly to get off and back on but I got there eventually.  Pulled fuel pump power and some vent hoses along with a single bolt and the tank was off.   The new air filter was six bolts off and on and done.  The vent tube had one worm drive clamp and a molded undercut end.  I snaked it through the frame and fit the clamped end on the nipple.  The undercut end took some time but eventually popped in to place.  
With the tank off I was able to get the Gerbing heated gear controller in place and connected to the battery.   I ran the control wires up to the bars and routed the gear plugs to the seat/tank junction.  Then dinner happened then dark so it's not yet finished though after dinner I got the tank reinstalled.   

 

This Thursday is the first Detroit Desmo bike night so I also washed herreally well.   Here is the destination for my June weekend ride   

Work meeting ran late today and family had to leave for my youngest sons soccer game.  Checked the temp (52f) and just jetted off for the 10 mile ride.  Only heated gear I grabbed were my gloves.   Yeah that was a bit frosty on the ride home an hour later.  Oh well still enjoyed the ride.   

Tonight I just about finished up the wiring on the heated gear switch.  Pics to come later tonight.  

Great success!   I need to lift the switch block up for better access to the knobs especially while wearing my heated gloves.  The insoles got HOT as did the jacket. The pants got warm but not hot.  Outdoor temps in the low 50s and full sun though a bit windy.  Freeway and surface streets.   

Pics from the install.  I'll start at the end.

As I mentioned above the controls are a bit low and tough to reach with gloves on.   I'll elevate the box and relocate the Beeline mount off to the side.

Knobs are slightly outta whack.  Rev 2.0 will address that. 
I found a nice little aluminum enclosure with screw on end panels.  The controls from Gerbing are potted for environmental protection as delivered.   I'm not the fabricator that many here are but I strive to improve and watch what others here do.   Gotta start somewhere right?

Here is the box.

The wiring is run thru the sidewall of the box but to get a large enough hole required my step drills and unfortunately some grinder action to clear the turns as the connectors are rigid.

I needed to get the hole OD to the second Sharpie mark on the step drill.   Yeah, that's not going to work at all.  Larger OD step bit got the hole where I needed it for the grommet.

I couldn't get the connectors thru the hole and clear the far wall of the enclosure to make the turn.  Seeing things now, a week later, another install method just hit me.   Again Rev 2.0, right?

The box itself

The Sport Classic series and my GT1000 in particular had some factory issues that I'd like to take care of.  The entire series uses a blow molded plastic fuel tank which on the surface is fine and works well on almost every liquid fuel powered vehicle.  Ducati elected to use a nylon material for their tanks on this series so it could be painted whereas most blow molded fuel tanks are HDPE based, typically multilayer construction for vapor control, and hidden.  HDPE cannot easily be painted though a decorative cover could have been used.  Nylon (aka polyamide) is hygroscopic (absorbs water) and the ethanol in our US blended fuels causes issues as it holds more water than non-ethanol fuels.  Hand formed AL tanks are available but pricey.  Many owners use recreation fuel which doesn't use ethanol.  That's too much of a PITA for me.  Maybe an AL tank at some time in the future.  
The second is model specific in that the GT1000 uses chrome plated steel wheels whereas the rest of the series use aluminum rims.  Unsprung weight, mass reduction, reduces inertia and general coolness are all better with the AL wheels.   These come up for sale time to time though tonight I may have found a set from a low mileage bike.  Wish me luck!

Earlier this year I joined the Detroit Desmo group.  I wanted to connect with some other riders and today they had their first group ride of the year.  We did a twisty back road ride for about 120 miles.  25 riders and it was a blast!   Really glad I joined and am looking forward to future events including a bike night this week and a weekend long ride thru SE Ohio in mid June.  

A few pics from yesterday's Detroit Desmo run to Stockbridge.   I was mistaken and we had about 35 bikes in our group.   

Alright alright alright!  New rear rack from Hepco Becker just arrived!   Installation planned for this weekend along with re-wiring the rear indicators to function as brake lights and installing my new LED headlight bulb.  

Some bad news as the Hepco rear rack interferes with the mounting of the OEM pannier mounts in such a way that mounting it as is is impossible.   I'm not yet ready to cut and weld nor buy the Hepco side bag mounts.  

Good news is Detroit Desmo bike night tomorrow.  

Bad news is the headlight socket appears to have been poorly installed back in 2006 when this one was built.  It's a melted mess on one terminal.  Quick trip to local parts place and $3.49 out of my pocket and a new socket procured.  I'll wire it up tonight and try my new LED headlight bulb.