the remaining 401 breakin miles... and about 200 bonus ones

[cmorgan47]

or, why i need a new helmet

might have to do this in brief installments, as i do need to get some work done today.  briefly though, the last breakin miles on the 696 consisted of every type of riding condition i could find; rain, highway, 5 hours on 2 lane blacktop, twisties, and even some dirt.

the weather in SE michigan finally came to a head wednesday night and by thursday morning the hail and thunderstorms had become nothing more than a light drizzle with "partly sunny" predicted by early afternoon; this was enough for me to declare it a good time to see how the 696 handles in the rain.  so i nervously puttered out of the neighborhood only to quickly realize that it's quite well behaved on slick pavement as well.  the light clutch makes it a simple task to meter out the gobs of torque and the freshly scrubbed in tires stayed glued to the road.  the back slipped out once while engine braking at a light, but quickly fell back in line; plus, i'll take the blame on this having dropped 3 gears while coasting at about 40.  no big deal, but it woke me up.

by the time i got to the coffee shop, i was confident enough in the rain to quickly slow and turn into the lot in the middle of rush hour woodward ave. traffic.  i have to admit something at this point:  i've begun drinking espresso in the morning instead of coffee.  this is not some stupid "i ride a ducati so i drink espresso" thing; i did it on my honda as well.  i simply can't carry a mug of coffee and need my caffeine... plus i like espresso.

so the day passed slowly,and the clouds did indeed clear.  by 4:30 i was ready to call it quits and take a meandering trip up to clarkston where i was to meet my buddy gabe and start the ride.  not sure if he would want to take the highway or not, i decided to get a bit of feel for it first so i hopped on I696 (how appropos) and cruised off.  plenty of power, even with the breakin restrictions, to keep up on the slab and it felt planted as always.  this particular stretch has some uncharacteristically nice bends and i had no issue getting the bike to follow them even at highway speed.  the suppleness and accuracy of the steering is amazing.  it truly follows whatever line you look through effortlessly.

hopping off the highway took me through some of the nicer parts of SE michigan; windy little roads along inland lakes where the only issue is the cager riding his brakes in front of you.  it also took me by my brother-in-law's house, and i had some time to kill, so i dropped in.  i should point out he races a CBR 600 cause he'd "rather have 2 hondas than one ducati."  needless to say, i didn't need to ring the doorbell to get him out.  sitting in the drive blipping the throttle had him bursting through the door in seconds, and after a few minutes of oggling, he wen't back in to grab a helmet.  this, i have to say, was the best "want to take it for a spin" yet cause he actually had something fun for me to ride.  his previous track bike (the other CBR) was still set up fairly "tracky" so it was pretty entertaining.  also nice to not have to worry about revs for a few.  after the quick ride, he approved and couldn't get over how good the braking is and how light the bike is.


...

[cmorgan47]

Gabe had no interest in the highway, and neither do i by default, so it was the state highway system all the way up.  added about an hour and a half to the trip, but well worth it as it's just nicer.  we made pretty good time on the way up and even had about a half hour where we were riding straight at a fireworks display; if you can ever arrange to do this, i recommend it... it's pretty cool.  all in all, the trip up to cadillac was fairly uneventful though i did realize the following things:

at breakin revs, you can hit about 90 in top gear
my helmet is noisy and sucks
i'm getting about 55 mpg
if you're already cold, don't bother checking the thermometer... it rarely helps

oh, and my helmet sucks.  you see about halfway up, i was talking to gabe at a light.  when i tried to pull the visor down, the hinge on the left broke leaving me with a visor that flapped maniacally in the wind.  if i turned a bit to the right, it would seal a bit better, but it sucked. 

so 5 hours later, we parked the bikes next to what had once been a fire, but was now just a small pile of embers.  that immediately became our first priority and as soon as it was going strong, we turned our attention to beer.  after warming up a bit, i realized another thing: after 5 hours, i was not sore at all.  legs felt fine, arms felt fine, no numbness in the wrists.  it's a very comfortable bike if you get your body into the right position, though it will remind you when you're not; i.e. stiff arms and the tank.  put your weight on the balls of your feet, grip the tank with your knees, and drop your elbows and it's great.
   

[cmorgan47]

the weekend was then spent mastering the long straights followed by on camber 90s.  pretty fun, and a few roads had the sweeping left-rights that i was looking for.  i believe i've commented enough on the planted-ness of the bike and how easy it is to swing through the turns.  it's just fun.  at one point i passed gabe in the middle of a 90 right waving at him the whole way through.  fun stuff.

i had a chance to try a bit of dirt, which i needed as i'll be doing some camping off this bike next month.  held fine once i started to trust it, though i really hate loose gravel.  there's just no way around that though.

the ride home was solo and pretty nice.  i'd completely lost the visor on my helmet at this point, so it was ridiculously noisy and i kept taking bugs and road-gravel to the face.  luckily i had decent sunglasses to wear.  even more luckily, while resting at a gas station, some guy on a harley stopped to check it out.  after a minute of conversation, he offered me his spare pair of ear plugs, which made the next 4 hours much nicer.  i basically spent them passing cars on 2 lane country roads.  fun stuff.

so my complaints about the 696:
yeah, the levers are too far out and not adjustable.  i'll be replacing them soon.
i found 1 false neutral between 5th and 6th during the trip.  i also found the solution: quit using the clutch above 3rd
need to remove that stupid tail
that's about it.

in the end, i'm completely enamoured with this bike.  the handling and overall performance far exceed my hopes.  as has been discussed on this forum ad naseum,  the looks are subjective, but i like what they've done.  doesn't replace, for example, the S2R800 in my mind, but i like the looks.

currently, i have the breakin scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and a new shoei helmet ordered up to replace my crappy HJC.  cannot wait for this weekend.

oh yeah... i pulled off all the silver frame stickers too. looks much cleaner

[il d00d]

Well, congrats on the bike, and I am glad to hear it is a good match for you.  Despite the friction between the respective generations of monster owners, I am sure we can all agree that a good bike, and a good Ducati especially, is a Good Thing. 
What kind of HJC was that by the way?  I have been eyeing the AC-12 carbon, but will take any input on the perceived quality...

[Duc L'Smart]

Mucho Nice Glad you're enjoying your new ride [moto]
Now just get that helmet fixed...
+1 on earplugs