Hairsy

Have you considered any of the 4 pot options in the same genre? Maybe a Versys 1000? I haven't ridden one but I love my Z1000SX which I believe shares the engine.

Tickover sound wouldn't give me any cause for concern. When you rev it slightly in the first video, there's a noise like a slight exhaust blow. Hard to be sure with such a short blip but worth a check.

The bike has become my daily but I'm under mounting pressure to create some garage space so the bike is advertised. I've toyed with the idea of it replacing my Z1000SX but I've just got a thing for the ultra smoothness of an inline 4. If anyone is interested ... https://www.gumtree.com/p/ducati-motorbikes/ducati-st2-1998-low-mileage-restored-by-enthusiast-complete-with-factory-panniers/1494760515

There's nothing you're not prepared to do now! Can I just offer one bit of advice - if you're running the feed directly from the battery then please fit an inline fuse to the positive - as close as possible to the battery (ideally 4-5 cm) and definitely before the cable passes anything metallic. If you don't then you've potentially created your source of ignition. e.g. This Link

Completely agree. At risk of sounding like a nob, I wish they could use a little more imagination and intelligence with their adverbs and adjectives. It's lazy. If they repeated any other word so constantly then they'd probably edit it out as it would be so boring. It also seems to have become a bit of an 'in the club' thing. Look at all the drivers who don't have English as their first language. Swearing as an extreme heat-of-the-moment thing isn't really something that you do in your second language. It has to be learned and then a choice taken to use it. They sound like a bunch of uneducated teenagers most of the time. I'm not offended by swearing. Used a little more sparingly, it can even be entertaining. Greg Davies on Taskmaster is a good example. But it's amusing (and slightly clever) because it's timed for effect. Thank you for the rant prompt. Very therapeutic.

Yes, its great to keep records of anything you do. Receipts are a very good way to validate your notes. A particularly sensitive buyer might also appreciate seeing photos part way through when work is done. Servicing on bikes is generally relatively simple. The one slightly more complex but common servicing job is valve clearances but on your bike that's actually not too tricky. In terms of the important service jobs, if your bike has passed an MoT then its wheel and steering bearings should be fine. You've done the oil change, which is important. Off the top of my head, the only significant jobs that I would say are left to do are: 1) Changing the brake fluid assuming your bike has at least one hydraulic brake, which I think it does at the front). This video is a different bike but same technique: 2) Valve clearances. If you did these two jobs, you could fairly advertise your bike as 'incomplete service history but all significant service tasks recently completed'. And, given what you've said before, I think you'd quite enjoy the satisfaction of doing these jobs.

I'm thinking I'd like to get a bike for true every day use. One that I wouldn't think twice about riding in the wet. It would be mostly for shortish local journeys - ideally a naked. I'd like something physically small as local riding is gong to involve filtering. I'm thinking at least 250cc but probably not bigger than 600cc The most important thing is that its a bike that isn't going to corrode away at the first sign of rain. And just to make it a more challenging question - how about a budget of £2,000 max. Ideally lower. I'm not worried about age but, based on experience, I'd quite like a <30,000 miles. It could possibly be my next project if that was the only way for it to fit into budget. But I quite like the idea of buying a bike that actually works. Haven't done that for a while. What would you suggest?

Just in the interests of documenting my whole journey, a little update. Took the bike out in the glorious sunshine today and had a lovely little ride. I still find it slightly odd going from the silky smooth inline 4 of my Z1000SX onto the less smooth but oh so characterful L twin of this Ducati. I need to consciously keep the revs higher but, when I do, she really does pull impressively. Definitely puts a little smile on my face and there's more power than this slightly nervous middle aged man needs. There were absolutely no problems today but I did find I needed a small adjustment. With the new braided clutch line that I fitted yesterday, the biting point of the clutch moved further out. The lack of give in the new hose means the clutch gets actuated earlier in the stroke of the lever. It was a nice easy adjustment though - popped the lever out, adjusted the adjusting screw and popped it back in. And it's now biting where I like it. On the other side of the bars, the front brakes feel more 'solid' with the braided hoses - just as you'd expect. The other noticeable thing today was that it was 12 degrees and I was still in my winter gear - wow was I hot!

A very light covering in anything oily will be good. Personally, I wouldn't wrap it as I'd be worried that I'm just as likely to risk trapping water in than keeping it out. Best bet if you're concerned would be to take it indoors and hide it in the bottom of a wardrobe. If you need space, remove some of your wife's shoes and put them in the garage. A light spray of AC50 should keep them fine for a month.

Definitely do the fuel thing. I believe it's fuel injected (but that's not linked with having a starter motor). Given your experience level, I recommend you invest in a Haynes manual. That should have some troubleshooting guides that you'll find helpful. As a first step though, do you know someone with a compression tester? I think you mean compression when you talk about exhaust pushback but you need to know there's enough compression - not just 'some'. If that proves successful then, given that you can see a good spark, your injection system would be the obvious place to look. But replace the fuel first ...

Oh man - I feel for you. Always possible that it was just a bit of dirt in the fuel system that got washed through. My suggestion would be to re-try it today. It might not happen. Or it might happen again, in which case you know that it's not an intermittent fault - and that's great news for diagnosis.

The air filter conversation is interesting. Theoretically you can get a more efficient air filter but the only way to get more air through an air filter is for it to have bigger holes for the air or a bigger surface area (i.e. more holes). Most OEM paper air filters are pretty good at maximising surface area by having concertina folds in them. If you get a performance air filter and it actually delivers a benefit but it doesn't have a bigger surface area then you're sucking air through bigger holes - and filtering less. The reality is that most performance air filters make more noise and so people think they're going faster. And the way they deliver that 'bigger / meatier' noise? Bigger holes.

I know I've already given a little credit but let me just add that my custom made HEL hoses arrived through my front door only 40 hours after I ordered them. That's amazing. I have no affiliation with them but massive kudos again to motorcycleproducts.co.uk. As I've always found with HEL hoses, they're made beautifully and come with new banjo bolts and crush washers. Really impressed. Fitting them was pretty standard stuff. Ducati are big fans of the cable tie so plenty of those to cut off and then everything fitted as it should. Each hose had the right angle of fitting for its routing and it was all pretty simple. I generally make a bit of a mess when I'm bleeding brakes single handed and I was true to form. However the bleeding went smoothly and everything is now functional and fairings are back in place. I'm really glad that I enquired to find the gold banjos. It's a tiny touch of customisation on what is, otherwise, a completely standard bike - and I'm allowing myself that personal touch. After all, braided hoses aren't standard anyway. The other drift away from factory spec was that I opted for a race brake hose setup which has two hoses from the master cylinder, one going directly to each caliper. The standard setup goes to the right caliper and then passes over the front wheel to the left side. The race setup is cheaper (due to simpler fittings) and, in my experience, easier to bleed. Looking at the pictures, the paint on the reservoir caps has been affected by the brake fluid so I'm just off to touch those up in a moment. And I reckon I can get the calipers a bit cleaner too! Otherwise, hopefully, the bike is now done and I can enjoy her for a bit before selling. I've no intention of advertising just yet but if anyone might be interested in buying then drop me a message.

I use this and find it to be excellent. Downside is that it needs to be applied each day that I need it, although I do notice some effect the following day. But it's quick and easy to wipe on / wipe off. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08PK4V67Y/ref=pe_27063361_487055811_TE_dp_1?th=1

Chris, you really need to get on and do your DAS!

A little shout out for motorcycleproducts.co.uk When I ordered my HEL rear braided hose a few weeks ago, I was able to order it with gold banjo bolts. These look superb with the gold Ducati chassis. When looking to order my new HEL clutch and brake hoses, I wanted to get the gold banjos again. I found that ordering the hoses direct from HEL was much more expensive than ordering them via 3rd parties. However, none of those 3rd parties offered the gold banjos on their websites. I got in touch with some of those 3rd parties to see if they could get the gold fittings. I got "computer says no" responses from most but Arnie from motorcycleproducts.co.uk said he hadn't come across this before but it seemed the sort of thing that he might be able to help with. So he did some behind the scenes checking for me and found out that he could arrange it. The cost was a little more than his standard price but still less than ordering direct from HEL. These days its quite rare to find someone who is (a) great value and (b) still wanting to deliver great service. Hoses are now ordered ...

And off we go again ...

A little extension to the project. I took the bike out today for some fun in the sun. It delivered all the fun but when I returned I gave it a close inspection and saw some fluid seeping from the clutch hose. With that in mind, I'm going to replace the clutch and front brake hoses with braided hoses. Although the brake hoses look fine, there's no way I can ride the bike (or sell it with a clear conscience) with brake hoses that are the same age as a clearly aged clutch hose. I've already upgraded the rear hose so this will give the bike a full set of new hoses. Not sure this work is interesting / worthy of a detailed description but I'll update when its done. First job is to motivate myself to remove all the fairings again!

Toasty!

Maybe you could put your video on YouTube and then post a link. When you say it won't start, is the engine not turning over properly or is it turning fast but not starting? Assuming it's not turning over properly then, given that you have a new battery, I'd suggest that the first thing to look for is a battery drain. To test for this, first make sure the battery is charged. If you have to charge it up then wait 30 minutes after disconnecting the charger. Then disconnect the earth (negative) from the battery. Let the battery sit for 10 minutes and check the voltage with a voltmeter. Then reconnect the earth, keep the ignition OFF and check the voltage again. If there's any significant drop in voltage after connecting the earth then the bike is draining the battery and that's where you want to start looking. Post back here for advice but, in summary, the first thing to do is to start pulling fuses to find the circuit that's causing problems. If there was no significant drop in voltage after reconnecting earth then get the bike started again and check the voltage when it's running. You'd expect this to be 14+ volts above 2,000rpm. If you're not getting this then RideWithStyles' suggestions are what you need to be looking at.

Love this - puts a smile on my face. Amongst all the tough days, projects do also come with days like that!

I've learned something new! In that case, nothing to be concerned about. And great idea to do a further oil change.

Ah right - that makes sense. With a view to being helpful, can I suggest that you need to give a little more information about your service when asking people to complete the survey. My immediate questions are: 1) How much will it cost? 2) How long will it take? 3) Will it leave my helmet even slightly damp inside? 4) What will you actually do to my helmet, including what chemicals you'll use? 5) Is there anything that you can do that I can't do? Or is it a 'convenience' service? It could appeal to me, but I don't think I can provide helpful insight until I know the answers to those questions.

Did you replace the oil filter Chris? Apologies if you did but, if not, it's always good practice to replace the oil filter alongside new oil and particularly if the oil that came out was really nasty.

I haven't completed your survey but I looked at it. You're not asking any questions about my willingness to have my helmet transported somewhere and then returned to me, presumably via some sort of courier service. Not in a million years.