Henry Lubong’s Journal

I’ve been eyeing on the Ducati Corse jacket ever since I got my 848. It’s a nice jacket made by Dainese in a Ducati inspired color red, white and black. Last week I test fitted it at the store. It fits like a glove and it has the same feel as the  Alpinestars MX-1. The inner liner has long sleeves, which is perfect for riding in cold weather. Other jackets only come with a vest inner liner. This jacket is not cheap though. The tag price is $599 from the Ducati dealer and online stores sell it for more. I saw one the other day selling for $720. I know I got a Ducati bike but it doesn’t mean that I should pay premium for everything that has a Ducati label on it. Today at lunch, I visited the Ducati dealer again to checkout the jacket. The size that I wanted was gone from the rack. One of the guys that work there told me it was already sold. I believe him because this jacket is a popular gear of the Ducatisti. Luckily the guy found another one in stock for me. I don’t care how he found it but as soon as I saw the jacket, I asked him to ring it up for me.

After 4 months of ailing wrist from a bicycle mishap, I finally went to an Orthopedic doctor today. Three weeks ago, I had an x-ray done on my wrist and it came back negative - no fracture, no broken bones. My Ortho guessed I have torn ligaments in my left wrist. Sprain or torn ligaments take relatively long time to heal because they don’t have blood vessels to bring them nutrients. A surgery is not necessary but some immobilization on my wrist is required to allow it to heal. It means, I may need to stop riding my motorcycle for a while and I can’t do any weight lifting with my left arm. My doctor recommended a wrist brace or an ace-wrap so I can perform some light duty lifting without over stretching my wrist. The brace will also help me while typing all day at work.

And here is the worse part of this injury. Next week, I have a Go Kart race and on August 22, I have a motorcycle trackday on Reno. There’s another trackday on October and I’m hoping I’m healed by then.

A friend called me and said that he’ll be staying over in my house for the weekend and he’ll see me in 3 hours. Ah… what do you expect me to do, turn him away!? He’s like a brother to me. I’ve known him for almost 17 years now. He and his wife and two daughters are on their way from Barstow. Chester is an Army veteran of Iraq and currently stationed in Barstow expecting for another deployment. As much as I respect the brave men fighting for our country, I don’t believe in this war that we are on. But these men are just doing their duties and I salute them for that. I wish though that he doesn’t re-enlist anymore for the sake of his wife and children. But I guess the military is very good in brainwashing soldiers The best thing that we can do right now is to enjoy the moment together with his family before he gets deployed again or stationed to another country. That would mean another long years of not seeing each other.

This is the first time I rode my bike at night in the twisties… on a familiar road of course; where else, San Felipe / Metcalf. I met up with Glenn and JMack and had a halo-halo in Jollibee before we head to our favorite road. I’ve ridden at night on San Felipe road before but with my RX-7 back in the import car days. I was riding pretty hard when a family of deers appeared in the middle of the road. I almost hit them and scared the crap out of me. I like San Felipe road because it’s quiet out there and feels like I’m in a country side although it’s just 10 mins away from my house. I hope they build a small picnic park in that area.

So our ride turned out pretty good, not too slow but just alright. We ended up outside the Metcalf Motorcycle Park. I took some pictures of the bike and we hung around for a while enjoying the clear skies and the cool breeze of air. It’s amazing how the small elevation change makes a big difference in temperature. It’s around 90 degrees just a mile from where we were and it feels like 70 degrees in Metcalf. I can’t believe we hung around in that place for almost two hours. You can’t blame us, it was a gorgeous night and an almost perfect time to ride.

I warned her about the CHiPs this morning but she just got unlucky today. 80 on a 65… ouch. No worries, contesting a radared ticket in court is a sure win.

Ok, is it that time of the month again for CHPs? Did they miss a quota or something? I saw about 3 motocops this morning along the stretch of 101 between Santa Clara and Mountain View. All of them are pointing speed radars to the motorists. I thought radars on busy highways are not legal because they don’t provide accurate reading due to the many number of vehicles on the road. Hmmm… what is going on?

Keep the spirit but please be safe and leave the fireworks to the pros.

My riding buddies are excited to see my new bike so I took her out for a group ride and show it off a little We met at *bucks and head to San Felipe / Metcalf. As usual, we had our bike talk at the bottom of Metcalf just before the 101 overpass. Our rides do not end with empty stomach and the pick of the night is Macaroni Grill.

I was riding home from work on 101 and I got stuck in traffic behind a VTA (Santa Clara Valley Transport Authority) public transit bus on lane #1. All of a sudden this bus started spewing black smoke spraying it all over me. My visor was all covered with oil and almost blinding me. My jacket was greased up and my brand new white Duc was also blasted with this nasty oil. Just imagine what my face would look like if I only have a half helmet on. VTA, what the f***!!! Don’t you check your buses regularly. I almost got into an accident because of your carelessness.

She rolls, she tumbles, she crawls… next thing you know she’s on her two feet running around the house.

This day calls for a toast. I just became an official Ducatisti today! I picked up my new Ducati 848 at Moto Italiano in Santa Cruz. My wife took a few hours off so she can drive me to the dealership and take my pictures as well . When we arrived in the dealership, my bike was still in the stand and being worked on. They put in some fresh oil and cleaned it up too. After an hour of waiting all the paper works were done and the bike was ready for me to take home. You could see the grin on my face while I put my gears on and started the bike for the first time.

Getting out of Santa Cruz from Highway 1 to 17 was a pain. We were sitting in mad traffic for half an hour just to get to 17. The underseat exhaust of the bike was getting too hot and it was burning my hiney. I couldn’t split lane because I had to guide my wife on our way back home.

Here’s my first impression about the bike:

My ride home was about 40 miles from the dealership so it was a good distance to put the bike into test. When it comes to power and torque, there’s no doubt that the 848 is more than capable on the street. Leaving the dealership, I was able to gun it and to be honest, it scared the bejesus out of me. Although, I didn’t feel the surge up until 4K RPM. This is my first V-Twin or L-Twin so I don’t really know what to expect from it. I also noticed the rev limiter and the engine backs off just right pass 10K RPM. I’m used to revving my 636 close to the red line before I shift, that’s about 12K to 13K RPM. I don’t like shifting early. I’m a little bit disappointed with the narrow RPM range of the 848. I’m probably not used to the V-Twin yet but I kinda miss the smooth delivery of power from an Inline-4 engine.

The handling of the 848 is superb. I’ve ridden the zig-zag of highway 17 before with my 636 and I thought that bike handled it well. To my amazement, the 848 made it even easier for me. It’s a very well balanced machine. The steering feels kinda heavy but once you start leaning the bike, it just glides. It’s very stable and I could tackle every corners with ease and confidence.

When it comes to ergo, the 848 has the worse body positioning for street riding. It is very agressive and was more designed for track use. I felt it very uncomfortable but it is something that needs getting used to. It puts a lot of pressure on my wrist and it does hurt after a while. Like I mentioned above, the underseat exhaust gets too hot when the engine temp reaches 180 degrees. But once the bike is moving, it doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. A lot of 848/1098 owners complain about the side mirrors too. I can see why but it doesn’t really affect me. I have problems with the 636’s mirrors being unusable too. What I do with the 636 is, I have to move my elbows inward to check the mirror while in the 848, I have to move my elbows outward.

In spite of some of the negative feedback I have about the bike, the 848 is still a keeper for me. The bike is just stunningly beautiful. I just need to get used to the V-Twin power and I should be set. Oh, did I mention that I stayed in 3rd gear all the way down to San Jose. I just couldn’t get a chance to shift it up to 4th gear. I always run out of road. The 848 has plenty of power between first and third and it’s more than enough for street use.

As for my parting words, THE 848 IS AN AWESOME BIKE AND IT ROCKS!!!!

Calling someone a backstabber maybe too harsh but still I don’t regret what I said. I don’t like having enemies and I am not the type of person that holds grudges. I’ll leave that to past but I don’t condone that person’s actions.

It’s almost 1AM and I am very angry. I was checking my email at work and I caught something that I think is not meant to be seen by me. I’m not sure if the “sender” forgot to not include the original email in his forward or it was deliberately included in there. Apparently someone is badmouthing me through the email that this person sent to the sender. Of course they are all lies and I have already responded to them. What makes me very angry is I joke around with this person everyday. There are also things that I told this person that should not be discussed with other people. From what I’ve discovered today, who knows what other lies this two-faced ass kissing piece of s*** has said about me. Thanks to this blog coz I don’t want to explode tomorrow at work.

I can’t sleep, too excited for the free event at Laguna Seca tomorrow. AMA will be testing their bikes for the upcoming Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix on July and Laguna Seca will open their track to the public for free. The most interesting part in this event is the fan parade lap around the 2.238-mile, 11-turn track. That alone had caused me to take a day off from work tomorrow :). Gates will be open at 8AM and the first 100 fans will receive some freebies. I am planning on leaving at 7:30AM. Too bad, none of my friends are available to go with me so I’m riding solo tomorrow. This is also a good opportunity to test how my Nikon D40 will do in high speed sports photography.

I’m not that unlucky after all. After what happened on Thursday, I went to ducati.com to see if there are any other Ducati dealers around my area. There’s another one in Santa Cruz called Moto Italiano. I called them up and they have a white 848 in stock but it’s a demo bike. It has 635 miles on it already though. Price? It’s a hot bike so of course they want some ridiculous price for it. How about $14,800 OTD. Geez, that’s a price for a brand new bike. The good thing about this bike is, the required 600 mile service has already been performed. That’s about $350 savings right there. The guy said, the bike is flawless and looks brand new. The tires are also new. This could be the last white 848 in the planet so I told the guy to save it for me. I’ll be picking it up next week.

Thanks to my A/C, it’s keeping me and my daughter comfortable all day. In the previous years living in my house, when its triple digit outside, the temperature inside my house can reach up to 90 degrees. If you ask me, that’s almost close to hell. I can not tolerate that anymore. So, yeah, I need air conditioning!

I’m so excited today about getting a deal for the Ducati 848. First, I called Honda Peninsula to ask them about the price. Guess what, the bike that I was looking at was sold yesterday for $15,800. I was like, WHAT!!! That is the only white one they have and the last one that they had received for the rest of the year. So I called Modesto to make a deposit for the white 848 that they have in stock. Guess again… yep, it’s sold too. They have another white one coming but it’s already reserved for anothery buyer. Same thing with the other dealer, that is the last white 848 that’s coming their way. In desperation, I called Peninsula again to ask for a red one but now they’re telling me that they can’t give it to me for the original price that we talked about. What a day! I’m so disappointed right now.

It was just a lust at first but that pearl white man, that pearl white…. Wow,  I just called Modesto to ask them if they have a Pearl White Ducati 848 in stock. They only have one but the OTD price has gone up to $14,800. If it’s just a $400 difference from my local dealership, I would just go back there and ask them if they can work out the numbers more or maybe take it for $15,200 and get some upgrdes for it. So i told them I’ll call them back. I called the San Jose dealership but I was told that the guy who can work out on the price is not available ’til tomorrow.

Today at lunch, I made a trip to Honda Peninsula in El Camino Real (one of the Ducati dealers in San Jose) to check out the 848 and 1098 bikes. They only have one pearl white 848 and a couple of red 1098s in the showroom. Although they look the same, the white 848 is just stunningly hot! I was salavating and deep inside I wanted to take the bike home. The main difference between the two is obviously the more powerful engine on the 1098. I sat on both machines and I thought the 1098 has a lower seat height and felt lighter as well. I also noticed the absence of steering damper on the 848. The nice solid red passenget seat cowl on the 1098 is also not included on the 848. Instead, it comes with a black padded seat. Other than those, you can’t really tell the difference between the two. The dealer wanted $15,800 OTD for the 848 but someone told me that I can get one in Ducati Modesto for $14,000 OTD. Originally, the MSRP for the 848 was $12,995 but Ducati raised it up to $13,495 just recently. I guess, they can do anything for a hot bike. So anyway, I asked them if they can price match the other deale’rs price and they said the best thing that they can do is $15,200. So I walked out the door.

We had her ear pierced today at Icing by Claire’s. My daughter is a brave girl. She cried for 5 seconds and back to playing again