Ok, so this is arguably not motorcycle, let alone a Ducati, but it's bike-related and still pretty cool.  By the time I'm posting this, there have been fewer than 70 "Slingshots," marketed by Polaris as a "3 Wheel Motorcycle" sold in the world.
 They're pretty rare, so I considered myself lucky to see a Slingshot, when my buddy needed to get a rear tire on his BMW S1000RR replaced at Philly Cycle.  The service staff were gruff and argumentative, so I can't say I recommend the shop, but bikes (and almost bikes) they had on display were pretty slick.
© 2014 Tigh Loughhead

My buddy Jay and I went for a ride today.  He had to get the oil changed on his newly acquired BMW S1000RR, and we set off  towards Pennsylvania, planning to snake around the Delaware River up Route 32 towards the Delaware Water Gap.

 We got to Lambertville, NJ around 2:30, where in a delightful bit of happenstance, I ran into my nomadic Great Aunt Sonya, who had been staying for the last three months with my cousin in London, and just happened to be visiting friends in New Jersey for a couple days.  After grabbing lunch, we met a guy named Giovanni out on the street riding a BMW HP2 from Brooklyn and all of us took off up 32 and 29 going North for a few miles.  The Delaware River is beautiful, especially on the Pennsylvanian side, though Frenchtown and Phillipsburg are hardly un-picturesque.   After stopping in Easton for gas, Jay asked me if I had any interest in going to Philly, as he had never been before.
 After a bit of reluctance, I was convinced, and an hour and a half later I was showing off City Hall in Center City Philadelphia.
 We roamed around Chinatown for a while, where it was difficult to find a hotel as there was some Rock and Roll convention going on, and most of the hotels were booked.  I texted a few friends who might want want to get a drink on a Wednesday.
 Eventually we met up with a friend Molly at Tattooed Mom's on South Street, a punk-bar with graffiti-ed bumper cars.
© 2014 Tigh Loughhead

For the past three weekends running, I've made the commute down to PA to work on my 2004 Ducati ST3, trying to fix or even find a presumably electrical problem with the bike. I finally got in touch with the previous owner of the bike (his dad sold it to me), and discovered the issue of the EOBD (check engine) light, error sensor messages and a jittery throttle, all which apparently stem from an unresolved issue he neglected to fix (or even inform me about).


And sure enough, when I flicked the highbeam, the light flashed and the whole instrument panel started flickering dangerously.  Although I have several family members and friends who excel at Ducati maintenance, I've officially given up on troubleshooting electronics and decided to take the bike to a dealer, and was advised to go down to Fast by Ferraci in Willow Grove.  I borrowed my dad's truck and my brother in-law's enclosed trailer, and hauled the bike down to the Philadelphia suburb (above).



© 2013 Tigh Loughhead