Cleaning Up

 

Getting back from an epic 2500km of dirt obviously leads to a need for some maintenance - or perhaps not if you are slack or lazy - but a thorough wash and close look over the bike is a good idea. 

After so much dust I also needed to check the air filter to see how it was faring. It was still the experimental filter from Funnelweb  that I had installed just over 12 months ago.  I was hoping they weren't looking for timely feedback as I just don't do the distance or ride in others dust if I can help it. But this trip I rode behind Steve a bit plus the other traffic threw up a fair bit of dust so it definitely needed checking. 

A quick re- watch of some YouTube tutorials (as I've only done this once before) for the Desert X filter location is a bit of a mission to get to. 🙄

Only a small amount of swearing was required to get the tank off today.  This revealed a fair bit of dirt and dust on top of the air box. 

Getting the filter out I was pleased to see that the inside of the airbox was absolutely spotless. The dust caught in the filter seemed to only be on the surface with no penetration at all. 

The design of the Funnelweb has a shoulder that gets squeezed between the top of the airbox and the lid (the black edge you can see in the photos above that is crushed into the shape of the lid lip) so that no dust can get in around the edges of the filter. 

Excellent!

As I have had a Uni Filter for the DX sitting here for almost two years I decided to put it in as the Funnelweb needed to go back to the distributor for inspection.

The Uni Filter is a two part unit with the main filter element/cage with a thin (red) pre filter sitting on top. The filter comes with a second pre filter with the reasoning being that you can simply swap the pre filter mid ride if you need to without the need to wash the whole filter. 

The pre filter says it is pre-oiled but I could not detect a skerrick of oil on it despite it being sealed in a plastic bag from the factory.  

So,  I dipped it in my Maxima dirt bike filter oil and then wrung it out. 

Looks dirty but that's the blue Maxima filter oil.  

The filter cage is a reasonably tight fit into the airbox recess but common sense (and Uni Filter recommend) applying a layer of grease around the sides of the filter to seal the edges.  Messy and unnecessary with the Funnelweb filter (which as a side note was very well pre oiled when it was new).

We will see how the Uni Filter goes but honestly I think it will be fine.  I'll probably get another Funnelweb installed at the 30 000km service as I like it's design better.

As for the rest of the bike, it cleaned up nicely with nothing obviously loose or needing attention on it.  I have decided to just leave the plug in the rear puncture and not bother getting it repaired from the inside as I estimate there is only a few thousand more kilometres life left on it and it will cost at least $100 to get it seen to. The temporary plug is holding just fine with no leaking at all. 😉

With ~22 000 trouble free kilometres now on the bike I could not be happier with my Ducati experience thus far.  The bikes performance meets all expectations and my biggest worry,  the reliability, is simply not an issue. Maybe I need another late model Ducati in the garage..........🤔

Cheers.