Test Pilot - Funnelweb Desert X Air Filter Trial

Late last year I was given a pre- production Funnelweb air filter to test in the Deserrt X. I had already purchased a Unifilter for it…..which had sat on the bench for at least six months. My reluctance to fit it was 100% because of the difficulty in accessing the air box on the Desert X…..and this reluctance didn’t change when the Funnelweb arrived. The following video is probably the most succinct version of the Desert X tank removal.

So, armed with this example, I decided to launch into fitting the Funnelweb. It went pretty well until I got to the controversial vent tubes. One came off easily. The other…..not so much. Twenty minutes of pulling on it by hand, then pliers, then by hand and pliers again - this time while cursing profusely - then resting while considering using a Stanley knife 😡……and then one last huge yank on the tank saw it finally come free! The Italians had glued the bloody thing on! 

WTF?

Offending vent tube is the lower one. Grrrr….Top tube is the one that kinks and implodes the tank 🫤

The top of the airbox is held on with six self tapping screws. Classy move there Ducati! Of course, two of them are inaccessible unless you are willing to strip the frame 🫣 so I had to make do with just the four rear screws to access the genuine filter.

Looking forward on the bike with the Ducati paper filter still in place.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how clean it was after 13 000km of use. I had been in discussions with another Funnelweb test pilot who claimed to ride in clean air (I always ride alone on the dirt) and whose filter looked like it had had a handful of dirt dumped on it!

The Funnelweb does look the business and comes pre-oiled. 

Very well pre-oiled too.

It also comes with a nitrile glove……which I clearly didn’t find until later…..🙄

There is talk that the standard Ducati filter is a bit of a loose fit in the airbox edge recess but I found mine hard to pluck out of the recess, so it was well sealed/fitted. The Funnelweb goes one better, not only fitting into the recess but also having a wider top edge that gets squeezed between the airbox and it’s cover giving a fantastic seal.

Putting the whole shebang back together wasn’t too bad. I had fitted the internal spring to the top vent tube as per the Ducati recall. This next video is by the other Funnelweb test pilot, Darren, who does a great job of describing some double checks so one doesn’t implode their fuel tank due to vacuum.

Tank about to go back on.

The tank went on easily in the end. Like most jobs, once you know how to attack it, it becomes much easier. I reckon I can have the tank off in about ten minutes next time. Now to get the bike out for some testing……but first a mountain biking trip to Tassie needs my attention.

Does anyone want to buy an unused Desert X Unifilter……?

EDIT 23rd March 2024 - Darren, the other rider testing the filter for Funnelweb has logged 3000km of dusty riding on his test filter.  He runs an adv touring company so gets the kilometres up fast,  following a bunch of bikes to deliberately expose the filter to dust. From the photo of the disected filter,  it looks to be doing it's job well. 

Merry Christmas 2023

 Well, we are coming to the butt end of the year again. Luckily (or by good planning by someone 🤔) we have Xmas and the New Year break to look forward to to round out another year.

We don’t have big plans for Xmas this year but are spending time at home here in Queensland with my little bro’s family. 

We have had some wicked thunderstorms in the days leading up to Christmas but this didn’t stop us from getting out for an early ride with my kids, Steve and Mike, a QANTAS mate on Xmas eve. Parking outside The Flying Bean cafe', the remnants of yesterdays storms were lingering in the Numinbah Valley blotting out views of Mt Warning but making for a dramatic outlook.

Luckily, it was an early ride because massive thunderstorms rolled in late morning then again late afternoon Xmas eve, smashing various parts of South East Queensland. 

Credit South Brisbane Storms. 

Thankfully we were home by then and were spared the ~12cm hailstones that some suffered!😳 It is almost unfathomable to my tiny mind that these huge chunks of ice are not only suspended in the air but get sucked up to anywhere around 60 000ft before they either get too heavy or the storm loses some intensity, when they plummet to earth.

Credit South Brisbane Storms. 

Anyway, I hope all 3 of my regular readers 😜 have a great holiday season and are looking forward to 2024. I have some plans on the drawing board. Wish me luck - I may need it. 🫤

See you in 2024!

Cheers.

Ducati Gets It’s Shit Together - Finally

I just found this interesting article acknowledging how rubbish Ducati’s historic reliability has been and detailing how they have finally got their shit in a pile - finally making exciting motorcycles that are reliable enough for the average rider to confidently part with their hard earned cash.

Just to be clear - I did not write this. It does encapsulate “the vibe” of why I finally felt comfortable enough to purchase a Ducati after 30+ years of rubbishing their reliability - so I thought I might share it.

This is an interesting read - Here’s How Ducati Made It’s Motorbikes Reliable Under VW Group 

Cheers.

October And November "Stuff"

 I'm playing catch up here on the blog again and I am just trying to remember what went on in the above mentioned months. I do recall though that I spent a lot of money!

Radiator guards and a bash plate turned up for the SWM RS500.

Bash plate installed.

Need to move the horn for the radiator guards. Luckily I had the 300 there for reference.

I had a problem with the rad guard cross brace as I just couldn't get it to fit. perhaps I should take the tank off? Nah, there is something not right as the brace is asymmetrical and it doesn't need to be.

The keen eyed reader might see that the enclosed instructions are for a 2017 model, not the 2023 that I have......hmmm, nothing on the outer packaging says anything about being for a 2017. Contacting Force Accessories via email, they were absolutely no help at all. The guards seemed pretty sturdy so I decided not to worry about the cross brace for the time being. It was too hot working in the sun this morning to mess around any longer!

Job done (for now).

Will and I got out for a ride in the Glasshouse Mountains pine forests the following weekend. We found heaps of flowing, sandy single track and had hours of fun as it wasn't too hot.

I had a dumb fall at the end of the day where Will was leading us down a steep rutted track and I was thinking "NOOO, don't go down there". At the first flatter bit he was stopped and as I stopped to say "lets go back to the car" the front washed out suddenly and I was on the ground before I knew what happened! I was doing all of 10km/h but standing on the pegs so landed heavily on my right shoulder/side. This is the first crash I've had on the dirt in a few years (I haven't even been off my mtb in that long) so it was a bit of a shock how fast it happened. To be honest I was pissed off at myself for such a nothing spill after how we had just spent the last few hours! At least I wasn't injured.

Continuing on the spending them I lashed out for some decent ADV boots in early November. I found some Alpine Stars Tech 7s at a reasonable price so I jumped on them. I still haven't actually worn them yet as I haven't done a decent moto ride but they seem very comfortable wandering around the house. I went with the waterproof Drystar versions even though many internet reviews said they cook your feet in a hot climate. My take on that is that 1. lots of people on the internet are sooks and 2. I would rather dry warm feet in winter and am willing to put up with the heat in summer. I mean, I live in Australia - we are born into dealing with heat but cold? No thanks!

While we are talking Alpine Stars, I have been toying with the idea of purchasing a Tech Air 5 airbag vest. Pushing this thought is the fact that I am getting older, won't bounce as well into the future and I need to buy a new ventilated jacket as Will seems to have taken possession of mine. This will also see me needing to buy some new leathers as the Tech Air 5 needs room to expand if it is deployed and there is certainly zero room in my 30 year old Rivet leathers! 

The main draw back on purchasing has been the price - $1100 Australian. So, after procrastinating for several months I noted a second hand, "as new", one come up for sale on a FB Marketplace advert. I offered about half the new price and the guy reluctantly took it after a few days. I have only worn it a couple of times and it does add to the heat discomfort at this time of year but hopefully a new ventilated jacket will help on that front. Lets hope I don't get to test it's functionality any time soon!

The biggest expense of all though was my new car! After three years without a car and waiting for 13 months for this one to arrive, it was finally time to pick it up!

Normally the car would have been delivered to me with the options I had selected, namely a towbar and bullbar. The pandemic has thrown many things into disarray and the leasing company seems to be one of them. I needed a towbar by the following week as we had to head down to Dad's place and pick up his old car. We had sold the house and it was settling the following week!

I did need to park it up at the pub and just look at it for a while. I didn't realise how much I missed having a Prado (or any car for that matter). I have a bunch of other mods to complete so as to get it to the spec I had on my old Prado. Drinking beer while looking over the car is part of that thought process.

Don't drink and drive kids....!

So, I got the Toyota dealer to throw a towbar on at the 1000km service (which took me 4 days to put that distance on the car) and then Will and I headed for Central West NSW for one final trip to "Mum and Dad's". It was handy having a co-driver for a change!

On the way we pickled up another low kilometre, second hand dirt bike - this time for Lucy. The bloke we bought it from in Bathurst was an absolute champion and the bike is immaculate. So, we now have a smoker in the stable, a Beta 300 Xtrainer

We stopped off at a mate's place near Orange on the way from Bathurst to Forbes as he has his trailer and car there to bring his KTM1090 home to Brisbane. He kindly offered to bring the Beta home for me as it wouldn't fit on the trailer with a car loaded as well. But not before we gave it a rip around his farm and had shot a few cans off some logs. Ahhh, I miss country life!

I think Will would have loved growing up in the bush.

Then it was on to "home" to pick up Dad's old Falcon. He bought this car in 1975 and it was our family car growing up. Dad drove it every day until he retired, when he bought a new Corolla for he and Mum. The Ford was simply driven into the carport in the backyard and that is where she has sat since 2005.

We got her loaded up and said one last goodbye to our childhood home. It was a sad day and I was glad Steve and Will were there for it. 

We headed for Brisbane late in the afternoon. Initially thinking we might stay in Dunedoo we decided to harden up and press on. We had two drivers after all! Filling up in Dubbo we did just that.

With just a short stop at about 2:30am to close our eyes for an hour, we were home at about 0930 the following morning. 

It has been as dry as a chip all year here in Brisbane and the countryside, as well as my lawn, was starting to look very depressing. 

My yard was withering away and what little greenery I had left was being devoured by the local wildlife.

But a succession of thunderstorms in the past few weeks has restored a tinge of green to the place, thankfully. 

Mud even replaced the dust for a few days out on our local mountain bike trails.

Well, that was a bit of a rambling post but I think I am pretty close to being caught up on happenings in the latter stage of 2023. There is certainly not much left of it but lets see what we can pack in, eh?

Cheers.

MPE Suspension Upgrade

 

I've been a bit slack lately with keeping this blog up to date. I just haven't been feeling it to be honest but if I don't get a few things written down I will kick myself in years to come as this blog, if nothing else, is a great diary. Things that would otherwise be easily forgotten are right here to refresh an ageing memory.

With that in mind, I recently (well, actually back in September! Told you I've been slack!) organised to get the Desert X's suspension upgraded by MPE in Caloundra to better suit my weight and riding (lack of)style. I had to be up there for an 8am opening as I needed the work done on the day and it is an approximately 7 hour job. An early start saw me arrive at about 0730 and hang around the car park. One of the staff who arrived early pointed me across the road to a gym where they made decent coffee. That done, MPE was open for business when I returned, so I handed the bike over and caught an Uber into Caloundra to kill some time. After wandering around for a few hours, going into the public library and reading some magazines I was up to midday.....what to do for the rest of the day? Hey, Caloundra has an aviation museum at the airport that I had never visited.....so I caught another Uber out there to check it out.

So, the QLD Air Museum doesn't look like much from the street but they have an enormous number of aircraft packed in there!

Walking through the front door you are immediately confronted with their prized possession. A frickin' F-111 !

It takes up the whole length of the entry hangar and is very imposing.  So imposing that I couldn't get a good photo of it in this confined space!

These aircraft are an amazing feat of engineering considering they were designed and first flown in the mid 1960's. Swing wing, Mach 2+ capable with ground following autopilots to keep them below enemy radar! Think about where car and motorcycle technology was in the mid 1960's for comparison. Here are Ford and Holden's best work at the time....

The 'Pig" was pure rocket science by comparison and being able to practically climb all over one of the few remaining ones was a privilege.

The rest of the museum is partly outdoor and partly covered static displays. Each aircraft has an information board by it's side and many have stairs so that you can look into the cockpits. I'm just going to (mostly) do a bit of a photo dump of these and the details are on the information boards.

This first one is a Metroliner III. This is close to what I was flying in my previous job, some 21 years ago. A simple but honest commuter/freighter.

Hawker Hunter.

Bell UH-1 Iroquois.

DC-3 on the left.

De Haviland Meteor and North American F-86 Sabre.

North American P-51D.

Lockheed Ventura.

English Electric Canberra.

The following was Australia's front line fighter, along with the F-111 bomber when I was a lad. 

It's still "dead sexy"!

Beech Starship! 

This is the first Starship I have ever seen in the flesh and I have no idea what it is doing here!

Lockheed P-3 Orion.

Mig 15 Trainer.

Transavia Sky Truck.

There are many other displays in the main hanger and I found this one to be particularly interesting. Deb Lawry was a pioneer for women in aviation here in Australia. I am proud to say that I assisted her in the simulator earlier this year as she completed her return to work training with my airline after the Covid 19 shakeout that saw many pilots put out of work. Yep, she is still flying!

Just as I was finishing up I had a call from MPE to say my bike was done. A couple of hour early too! Once I had managed to get a cab (Uber wasn't responding) back to their workshop, the big girl was waiting for me. 

She had new spring rates both ends to accommodate my "mass", along with revalved damping to better suit Aussie conditions. I must say, I like the red spring better than the standard yellow one. It is definitely more "Ducati".

MPE provide a sheet with all of the specs of what they have done and how best to set the pre-load and damping for various loads. They transformed the handling of my Africa Twin and I am very confident that they will have fixed the shortcomings of the standard Desert X suspension of too soft in the rear and the waaay too harsh fork reaction to small, sharp bumps.

Now to get it in the dirt and see how it goes.

Cheers.