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March 17th, 2016

3/17/2016

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This is what a naughty, stubborn, misbehaving bi##h looks like! After all I've done for her as well. I've spent thousands on her, taken her to exotic locations, showered her with love, nice clothes and have made a continued point to ensure she drinks at only the finest establishments that sell the fine expensive stuff. And what do I get in response? I'll tell you what, a blunt refusal to do the simplest of tasks and to cap it off, when she does finally decide to wake up, she blows smoke out of her arse, putting the fear of god into me.
My Ducati and I really have a love/hate relationship at the moment. After a winter in the garage and a brief firing up and rumble around my cul-du-sac at the end of Jan or start of Feb (I can't quite remember), I went back into the garage to see if I could work out why I couldn't get the bike into an electric neutral. 
Some online forum suggestions were to look at the sensor on the back of the engine, but I can't get that out with the tools I have, which is a pain. Whilst I was there I wanted to possibly eliminate the sidestand switch as the culprit, which was another suggestion. So after four or five futile attempts at starting, it put it back on the trickle charger and phoned my buddies at Conquest again.
You may remember, Conquest had her for her rebuild last year and Howard has said he'll pick her up next week, which is great. After the call, I tried once again, sat on the bike, with the sidestand up and she started. Excellent I thought, at least she starts. This contentish feeling was very short lived as I could smell burning and there was white smoke coming from the underside of the bike. Not wanting an inferno directly under my house, I shut her down and had a look.
Thankfully there were no flames so emergency avoided. Now, I don't recall putting any ACF-50 or anti corrosion spray on, but I may have. I could be dust, which is unlikely as I had it under a cover all winter, but I wasn't going to hang around and find out.
I'll let the experts look at it next week, but there's no rush. The Ducati isn't my daily ride any more as that honour falls to the Blade. The only annoying thing is its more bloody money. Maybe I should rename her Ducati £10,098s moneypit and be done with it.
Bloody thing. If I didn't love her so much, I'd had kicked her to the kerb long ago.
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    Me

    My name is Matt Brown and I'm a UK journalist formerly based in London, but now calling the South of England home. I've been riding bikes since 2007, but got hooked straight away. Nothing gives me the feeling of freedom, even when stuck in a city. In 2010 I became a RoSPA gold rider, but when it comes down to it, I'm Just a normal man, riding his bikes as often as he can.

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