954RR gets new tires and oil

This was going to be another weekend dedicated to motorcycle maintenance. This time the 954RR was going to get some attention. My new set of tires has been waiting for me at Dalton’s house for a few weeks now, I just haven‘t had much time to get out there and get them mounted. Next week I was flying to Chicago for a visit, so this weekend I wanted to get this done.

Sportbikes look so nice up on the stands

Oil change

The old Pirelli Diablo Strada tires with 11, 760 miles

Taking off the wheels

Dalton removing the old tire off the rim

A piece of metal hanger holding the brake caliper

Grime under my nails, and proof that I did work on my bike

Unlike working on the ST3, the 954RR was easy and quick. The most time consuming thing was scrubbing the wheels, frame and the under tail. The bike was filthy. Dalton took the old Pirelli Diablo Strada tires off my rims and mounted my new Pirelli Diablo Strada tires. I truly love these tires. This is my second set of Stradas on the 954RR, and the reason I had Stradas mounted on my ST3 last month. Coincidently, I have Pirelli tires on my XT225 as well. Lets just say, I like Pirelli tires.

Heading back home as it starts to rain

Showing off my brand new front and back tire

43,281 miles on the odometer today, lets hope these new tires get me to 53,000 miles

The Pirelli Diablo Strada tires that were coming off the 954RR today had 11, 760 miles on them. And up until the last few hundred miles, they felt as grippy as new tires.

Totally soaked from rain

The 95 mile ride up to Strasburg was sunny and pleasant temps in the mid 60‘s. The 95 miles back home was totally nasty. Rain and 40 degrees. I didn’t see that coming at all, so I didn’t bring my Gerbing heated liner, or the even the quilted liner for my jacket, or rain gear. All I had was a t-shirt and a thin fleece and I froze on my way back and arrived with my gear totally soaked through. Up until this ride, I’ve never been this cold on a motorcycle ride. Of course, since I don’t tour on the954RR anymore, the Gerbing and my rain gear were tucked away in the hard luggage of my ST3. By the way, new tire and rain, not a good combination.

Review: Continental Road Attack

The Continental Road Attacks were good tires and performed well until the end. My only complaint is that they just didn’t last long enough.

This second rear tire only gave me 6,500 miles. The first rear tire I took off at approximately 7,000 miles last summer because I was getting ready to do a long ride and didn’t think the old rear tire would make the trip.

First Continental Road Attack rear tire had something stuck in the rubber when I took the wheel of to get the new tire mounted

The second Continental Road Attack rear tire had a nail stuck in the rubber, although it went in sideways and didn't cause any air to leak since it punctured the rubber only - two tires near the end of their life and two punctures - kind of weird

I went with a second Road Attack rear because I still had the first Continental Road Attack front tire on the bike and wanted matching sets. I get a new front tire for every two rear tires.

First Continental Road Attack rear at about 7,000 miles (left), second Continental Road Attack rear at 6,500 miles (right)

The Continental Road attack front tire had 13,500 miles when I took it off and it had some weird uneven wear. The last 1,500 miles I started to feel the clip-ons jerking just a tad in the corners. This uneven wear still wasn’t as big of a deal as that bulge that developed on my Avon Azaro front or the two Bridgestone fronts that cupped.

The front Continental Road attack with 13,500 miles

I’m going with a set of Pirelli Diablo Strada for the front and rear on the ST3 now. I love the set I have on the 954RR, the tires have held up very well. They have close to 12,000 miles now.

ST3: New tires - Part 2

When I left my bike in Dalton’s garage last Sunday and needed to take his car to get back home because the caliper bolt was stripped (see previous post) and I didn‘t have a spare, we decided that I’d come back during the week with a new caliper bolt. We would only need a few hours to install the rear wheel on the ST3. Then I could ride the ST3 home and Dalton could have his car back.

So I made it back to Dalton’s with a new bolt for the rear caliper earlier this week. I picked up the rear caliper bolt at the Ducati dealer and paid $5 for it - yikes! I was going to get some spares but not at this price. By the time I left work and made it to Dalton’s we only had about three hours to get everything done before I had to head back home.

While trying to get the rear wheel back on I grabbed the GIVI top rack and it moved. Then I noticed that the GIVI top rack wasn’t bolted down in two places. Two bolts were missing, one on each side. You can’t see the bolts with the side cases on, so who knows how long they were missing. Couldn’t have been too long though, the top case would have been too heavy to stay up on the rack without those bolts so they fell out very recently. Probably at the end or after the 4th of July trip.

A GIVI top rack bolt is missing, the same bolt is gone from the other side

Getting the rear wheel back on and adjusting the chain took way longer then it should have. We still needed to figure out how to secure the GIVI top case rack using some zip ties and I still had to put the plastics back on the ST3, which is very time consuming and a pain. And before riding 95 miles back home I wanted to do a test ride to make sure the rear tire and everything was good to go.

We worked as fast as we could but it just wasn’t going to happen and you can’t rush these things. I would have to leave my bike here until the weekend after all. Dalton made some measurements for the GIVI rack bolts that were missing. I would not be going to the Ducati dealer for those and paying too much.

So this weekend I was back to finish the ST3. I had with me two 8mm x 25mm bolts that I picked up at a hardware store for $0.87 each. Dalton was going to install a new front tire on my ST3 but first I wanted to get those two bolts back in to the GIVI top case rack. After examining the situation, I couldn’t believe it, but I was going to have to take the whole plastic off the tail section and unbolt the Nonfango rack that holds the side cases in order to get those two GIVI rack bolts in.

Picked up some bolts at a hardware store for the GIVI top case rack; they fit

In order to get those two GIVI top case rack bolts in I had to take apart the whole tail section of the bike

After two hours the GIVI top case rack bolts were in and I could finally concentrate on taking off the front wheel. Dalton mounted and balanced the front wheel and we got the wheel back on to the bike. I was finally done! It took two weekends but the ST3 had new tires, new coolant and two new GIVI rack bolts and was ready to come home. The new Pirelli Diablo Strada tires felt awesome. New tires always feel great but I really love the Stradas. With exactly 33,333 miles on the odometer I headed home. I’m hoping to get 10,000 miles out of these tires.

It's a very happy moment when the plastics are all back on the bike

Check out these really cool and high-tech brake caliper holders

While I was messing around with the bolts and plastics on the ST3, the VFR got a new rear tire mounted

Work in progress: VFR missing the rear wheel, ST3 missing the front wheel

Dalton taking off my old front Continental Road Attack

Mounting my new front Pirelli Diablo Strada

Heading back home on fresh and shiny new tires

The odometer turns 33,333 miles

Because the Pirelli Diablo Strada tires are very pointy, the ST3 is slightly taller and leans more on the kickstand. Pointy tires turn in quicker

ST3: Changing the coolant and new tires

This weekend was going to be a maintenance weekend for my ST3. I had ordered a new set of Pirelli Diablo Strada Tires for the ST3 and had them shipped to Dalton’s house. Dalton ended up purchasing a No-Mar tire changer since he wanted to mount and balance his own tires and between the two of us right now, we already had 6 old tires to take off and 6 new tires to mount.

I’ve been so happy with the way the Pirelli Diablo Stradas have lasted on the 954RR. I have 11,650 miles on them now and up until the last few hundred miles, they have performed like new tires. Those will have to be changed out next since I purchased a second set of Stradas for the 954RR as well. After hearing me talk about these great tires Dalton ended up purchasing a set a Stradas for his VFR also. He didn‘t take my word for it though, he read many great reviews on-line about a the Stradas, apparently I’m not the only one that likes them so much.

If you remember my last maintenance post, I was already riding on cords the last time I rode out to Dalton’s. Since I had to ride another 100 miles this weekend I was a bit worried if the rear would even make it. I ended up pulling over a couple of times on my way to Dalton’s house to check the rear tire but when I got there it didn’t look any worst then when I had left my house.

Even though I had two whole days to do only 2 things on the bike - changing the coolant and get the new tires mounted - I’m not very fast when it comes to working on the bikes. And the ST3 isn’t exactly the easiest bike to work on, plus the thing was dirty and I wanted to clean all the parts as I was working on them.

Take fairing off and unscrew the filler cap of the expansion tank (the cap is not shown in this picture, it's hiding underneath the fairings)

Loosen the clamp on the expansion tank radiator hose, disconnect the hose from the radiator and allow the expansion tank to drain

Place a container under the engine, place the motorcycle on its, side stand and unscrew the drain plug located on the water pump cover, allowing the coolant to drain off completely

Closer view of the drain plug

Draining the coolant

Replace the drain plug along with a new sealing washer, fill the circuit with recommended coolant

Allow several minutes for the coolant to fill all internal ducts and then start the engine, bring the coolant to operating temperature (217.4 °F) and allow the cooling fan to start at least once

By the time Saturday evening rolled around, all I had done was changed out the coolant. I changed the coolant out by myself and it was pretty straight forward. I followed the instructions in the ST3 service manual. With the tires I was going to need Dalton's help.

The rear tire is off the bike

Sunday morning I got working on taking off the rear wheel. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the rear caliper bolt off. I struggled with it for a bit, then Dalton tried to get it off and couldn’t either. He put some Kano Kroil on the bolt and it magically just came off although it was totally stripped. I didn’t have any extra caliper bolts with me and since today was Sunday, the dealerships were all closed. That meant I wasn’t going to be able to ride the ST3 home tonight.

Dalton removing my very worn Continental Road Attack with a No-Mar tire changer

Lets check those chicken strips - I can't believe I worn the tire in closer to the edge on the right then the left... I usually lean more to the left and prefer left curves

Dalton mounting my new Pirelli Diablo Strada

Dalton purchased the No-Mar model that sits on the hitch instead of being mounted to the floor, really neat concept especially for people that do track days (left), the No-Mar tire balancer (middle), sticking on some test weights to see how many are needed to balance this tire (right)

We got the rear tire off the ST3, then Dalton took the old tire off the rim and mounted the new tire using the No-Mar tire changer. By the way, the No-Mar tire changer is a great machine. This was the first time Dalton used this machine, the "how to" video on the No-Mar website helped a lot. The process wasn't too complicated and the machine is well built and simple to use although it does require some muscle.

The balancing actually took a while. It just seemed like there was either too much weight or not enough. Finally we got it as close as we could. Since I couldn’t ride the bike back home, we decided to call it a night after the new tire was balanced. We would install the rear wheel on the bike next time, it was getting late. Dalton had to lend me his car so I could get home.

Nail in the tire, bleeding the brakes, oil change

Now that the ST3 was done with trips for a while, it was time for some maintenance. CJ came over a few days ago with a torque wrench - my torque wrench for some reason didn’t survive the move from IL to CO and is now broken and in many pieces. I have not replaced it yet. He was also helping me adjust the chain on the Duc, which is a major pain. The ST3’s chain started making major noise when I was riding back from Gunnison over 4th of July weekend. My guess was that when it was originally installed it just wasn’t tight enough to begin with. In all the miles I’ve owned the ST3, and this being the third chain on this bike. I've never had to adjust a chain on the ST3.

When CJ and I were done with the chain, I went ahead and lubed it. As we were rotating the rear tire CJ noticed something silver on my rear tire. I’m pretty good at checking my tires when I'm riding. Even when I park the bike I will take a look at the exposed sections of the front and back tire looking for anything strange. I never noticed this. Thinking about though, it might have happened on the last trip, probably on the last day coming home when we were riding the shoulder, there is always lots of debris on the shoulders. I haven’t checked my tires since then.

A rusty nail in my rear tire

Usually a nail in the tire is a very bad thing. After such discovery a plug or a new tire is required right away. I was so lucky. The nail went in sideways and only the outer rubber was damaged. I already had over 6,200 miles on this rear tire and I figured since the puncture didn’t really damage anything I could still putt around on it a bit until it got replaced.

First a nail, then 95 miles later the cords are showing

I was planning to replace the tires on this bike soon anyway, the Continental Road Attacks weren’t lasting as long as I had hoped. I must admit though, I was very hard on my tires - especially this past Colorado and Utah trip. Chasing Sandy and Dalton around required lots of high performance riding since they both ride faster than me, especially in the twisties.

Since putting on the new brake pads, the brakes never really did improve very much. The brake lever was still squishy. So this weekend I rode over to Dalton’s so we could bleed the brakes. The ST3 also needed an oil change. When I pulled in to Dalton’s garage I was shocked to see the cords showing in my rear tire. In the last 95 miles, somewhere between my garage and Dalton’s garage, the Continental Road Attacks were done.

After Dalton and I bled the brakes on the ST3, there was a bit of improvement and the brake lever wasn’t as squashy anymore. It never did get as firm as the brake lever on my 954RR. Maybe I should stop comparing the ST3 to the 954RR - the two bikes are different. With the cords showing on my rear tire I made it back home, riding nice and easy. I checked the rear tire when I got home and it didn't show any further deterioration. It looked the same as it did at Dalton’s and we live 95 miles away from each other. I guess it’s time to get shopping for some new tires.

New brake pads for the ST3

I needed to get some new brake pads installed on the ST3 before I could do any more long rides. I went by the local Ducati dealer to inquire about new brake pads and I was floored by the price. I ended up getting EBC brand brake pads for the ST3 and saved hundreds of dollars. Yes, I said HUNDREDS of dollars. I was told by the Ducati dealer that the EBC brake pads would not last as long as the ones they wanted to sell me.

OK. I’m sure the Ducati brake pads are better but the way I see it, the EBC brake pads should last me at least 10,000 miles, probably more the way I ride. But even if they only lasted 5,000 miles, getting six sets of the EBC brake pads, that is still way cheaper than the one set of Ducati brake pads which are supposed to last 30,000 miles. Now, usually I do some research and shop around. But since 4 days ago I just got back from a 13 day ride and tomorrow I was heading back out on another multi-day ride, I purchased what I could easy get since I didn't even have time to get anything from the internet.

Dalton and I had a three day ride planed over 4th of July and we were leaving tomorrow morning. I needed to put these new brake pads on so he rode over to my house after work to help me install the new brake pads.

Unfortunately this week was a bit crazy. I didn’t have any time to wash the bike before heading back out with it tomorrow on yet another ride. It was pretty dirty after 13 days on the road and it would have to stay dirty for a few more days.

So why the emergency brake pad install on the ST3? Back in Illinois when I had my bike in for valve service I was told by the dealer to start thinking about new brake pads for the front - like, the bike needed new pads already. I honestly don’t think they had even checked the pads themselves, they probably looked the maintenance scheduled and were hoping that I’d agree to have them install new brake pads. The ST3 was at 26,000 miles back then and the brake pads were fine.

Taking the brake caliper off

There is still some life left in these old brake pads

The brakes on the ST3, even when the bike was brand new, were never as good as the brakes on my 954RR. The Honda stops on a dime and the the brake lever is firm. The Ducati’s brake lever was always kind of squishy.

Old stock brake pads (top) new EBC brake pads (bottom)

In the last thousand miles my brakes started to make a noise, a metallic sort of squeaking noise. The brake lever felt even more squishy then before. The brake fluid was fine. After I returned from the last ride I was pretty sure it was time for new pads but when I got the calipers off and we took the old brake pads out, the front pads were still OK. Since we had the old brake pads off I just decided to install the new pads. Not sure why the brakes on the ST3 were making noise, maybe the brake pads had some debris on them.

Inserting the new brake pads

Inserting the clip

Inserting the retaining pins

Inserting the cotter pins

1 - clip

2 - cotter pin

3 - brake pads

4 - retaining pins

After the new EBC brake pads were installed I took the bike for a short ride to make sure everything was working correctly. It was too early to tell if the new pads make any difference since you have to allow the new pads to bed in completely before any hard braking can be done. The brake lever still felt squishy but it might firm up after a while. If things didn’t improve in the next few hundred miles I was planning on bleeding the brakes.