Hiccup

Got the headers back from Cycleboyz and painted. Should work well, still wondering if I shouldn't wrap them in header wrap. They are actually stainless steel, but painted black... my question is, why go to the trouble of making an exhaust system in stainless, and then go and paint it? Either way, the tig welds look great, they patched the hole from the crossover pipe, and everything fits.
Since I was going to make a set of shorties anyway, in the interim, I hacked about 5" off the end of each of the exhaust stacks. While they looked 100 times better, what resulted was a straight-through type set-up, so when I fired up the bike, it was obscenely loud. Good news is, the bike still runs after a year dormant. Bad news is, the exhausts still need more work. This will involved some perforated tubes and nutserts (on order), and another trip to Cycleboys to tig weld the assembly back together again. The resulting cans will also be much lighter, and should have a more "rorty" exhaust note.
Wilson came over yesterday, and we chatted and I was able to weld a tab back on his TZ250 expansion chamber. His indication is that Gimli as a track is on the mend -- the turn 8-9 combo is being modified properly, and might even end up as a safer turn. I can't forsee me making it to the track before September this year... the trip in July and the resulting financial crunch will put a damper on my trackday excursions. It would be a good opportunity to "test" the bike before putting it on the street. I should probably sit down and put together chapter 3 of the Ducati build chronicles for Desmotimes -- see www.Docc.ca for a great website, forum, and club. If you are reading this, you should join!
Switched around some banjo bolts yesterday as well, and now have all the hydraulics bled and sorted -- the clutch, front and rear brake systems are all operational and ready to go. Another 20 zip ties, and all of the electronics and wiring is out of the way, including the front wheel speed sensor for the speedo. Just the pipes and a place to put the plate, and it should be able to hit the road!