Ducati maintenance

Oil and filter (easy). Air filter (easy). Front disc pads - down to
1.5mm and the originals, dear God, after 13 years. Easy as well. Amazing
how those caliper pistons still slide smothly, despite having had next
to no attention. They're some sort of stainless material, not chromed,
and just don't corrode.

And fuel filter. One job I really don't like because it's inside the
tank, which means having to remove the entire filler cap assembly, and
find soem way of persuading the giant circular seal to stay in place
while you put it the bastard thing back in the hole in the tank.

A worrying amount of corrosion and crap at the bottom of that tank. I
drained it and removed as much as I could.

And what's the one sound, the aabsolute single sound you don't want to
hear as you're tightening the last of the eight tiny grub screws that
hold the cap assembly into the tank?

Yup.

"Tinkle-clink-splash"

The sound made as you drop the tiny allen key you're using into the fuel
tank.

Anyway, sorted now. It's had new belts, shims checked, and new tyres as
well. Roll on summer.