I was just thinking of what a pain it is to have to remove the fairing bottoms on Stephanie's 800SS just to add engine oil, when I had an idea: what if I just removed the engine breather hose and added oil through that instead?

Not that the engine has needed any - it's just gone through its first 10,000 kms without needing to be topped up once, but if it did need oil, especially while travelling, it would be a pain to do it the "normal" way.

Anyone see any reason this might not work, or be a bad idea?

There is a reed valve on the bottom of the breather.You would have to remove the breather itself to get the oil in.I have often wondered why ducati didn't at least make it easier to put dzus fasteners on the lowers of the ss model.