Sports: Re: [DucatiST] 1st Ride '07 ST3s

Yeah, no matter when you get them, you'll wish you had none it sooner. I believe Motowheels has a set by Spark that sells for $900. Cut the top off the air box, free, and have your ECU reflashed by Houston Superbike with the DP Race map for $250.
Go ahead, you know you want to.

On Apr 13, 2013 8:20 PM, "st ryder" <st3ryder@yahoo.com> wrote:

Get the pipes. :-)

From: BRG <bg9696@yahoo.com>
To: "st2_owners@yahoogroups.com" <st2_owners@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2013 7:11 PM
Subject: [DucatiST] 1st Ride '07 ST3s [1 Attachment]

This will be a little long, hope that's tolerated here.

Well, the good news is the new/old '07 ST3 bike that I bought from a quick seller post here arrived yesterday. It made the tripo from Utah all the way across country in good condition. The BAD news is that the local trucking company today, before it was delivered, made a stop and found a tie down came loose the bike fell over and the front fairing is destroyed. The good news is the insurance should cover everything good as new.

It was freezing cold and rainy yesterday so this morning I went out for my 1st real Ducati ride. I rode a friend's Monster 696 to lunch 1 day 3-4 years ago and that was the extent of my Euro or sport bike experience. I sold my YZ-250 a couple months ago to make room for this. My son sold his CRF so with nobody left to ride motocross with anymore, a street sport bike was calling. That and I visited Mikey (on this list) in Chi-town a couple years ago and lusted over his household of Dukes. That started this venture.

Stopped at a local dealership today to get a written quote for the fairing and right saddlebag. That's all that needs replacing. The guy has a bit of an attitude and basically said it would take 2-4 days to write up the quote so I can submit it to insurance. Is that unusual? Doesn't seem like much of a big deal to me to write up something like this so I can get the quote in but maybe it is and I'm expect service to be to quick. Told the guy they would be my service place. They're 5 miles close to the next closest dealer so if I'm not happy, I can switch.

Now to the ride, couple of early comments and a couple of early questions:

1) I bought the ST3 sight unseen and not knowing if this was the bike for the mission I want. I own an '09 H-D Ultra for touring and wanted a sport bike that could carry stuff for local errands and maybe a w/e trip max. The Ultra is for real trips. Initially, thought this Duke might be more Tourer than Sport but in fact, my experience today is the opposite and that's EXACTLY what I want. This sweetheart is smooth, fast, responsive, light (compared to my 900lb Ultra LOL). I'm addicted. First 70 miles was with my wife on back and then later in the day I took it out myself for a stronger ride. I'm not close to putting it to what it can do but I can see and feel what it's capable and understand my early limits.

2) What's with these rear view mirrors? Can't see shit. Of course, the right mirror is off the bike :) due to the truck damage but the left view is mostly my arm. Any way I can improve that? Not great at all but maybe I'll feel better when there's a right mirror.

3) Took off the right side fairing to add heated gear cables from the battery. Yes, I know I can juice off the Powerlet but a tech told me it's unwise to use a splitter off that to juice 2 Gerbing inner jackets, that the splitter would eventually melt. So I attached 2 coax cables and tie wrapped them frame sections for my wife and I. Anyway, what's the deal with these rubber/nut insert things? If you push to hard to get a screw back in, they pop out and fall inside the fairing. No retrieval. Seems like a sucky design. Is there a better way? Nutclips? Is that what the talk earlier this week was about with Dzuz? Getting the fairing off was a PITA but I think it's something that will get easier over time. I feel like I'm bending a lot of plastic to get it off and back on. Is that normal? Went back on easier than it came off but still not smooth. I think maybe loosening a couple of non critical screws on the front fairing may make it easier.

4) I think the windscreen needs an upgrade. Seems most people use the ZG which looks pretty good. Just might ask the insurance company to cover the upgrade.

5) Mikey says I need non-OEM pipes to pull out the real Ducati sound and performance. Doing my homework about that but won't be in the market for a few months. I like to ride a bike for awhile before making any major changes.

If you got this far, thanks for reading and any input on the above is welcome and appreciated. Again, sorry for the length. In closing, I guess my overall perspective when taking my 1st rides today could be summed up in 1 word........................................Yahooooooooooooooooo!!!