Coming soon, to an East Coast FJ Rally Near You...

[Pat Conlon]

Thank you Bill....that post should be in a magazine.....an excellent piece of writing.

I've never ridden a Duc, but after reading your post I think I will find one to ride, somehow.

Don't think I will ever own one, but stranger things have happened. The closest Ducati dealer is 150 miles away in Riverside, and wants stupid money(~$700) for a valve adjustment on the desmodromic valve train....needed what...every 7500 miles on the 916?

For hot twins and bang for the buck,  Klavdy's and Gazza's Aprillas are the way to go....

[Firehawk068]

I've never thought of owning a Ducati, but damn Bill..........................Sure makes me want to go for a ride on one!

[TexasDave]

One of the best looking motorcycles ever. It looks fast just sitting there. If I owned one I would put it in the living room just to admire.  Dave

[carey]

Knock it off you guys!!!  I'm trying to get Andrew thinking he has a crap bike and I will get him to trade it for some magic beans.  I will have to use my Jedi mind tricks on both Bill and Andrew to agree 

[airheadPete]

"... it's just like that dream you had as a kid where you're flying.

And because of the looks, and the noise, and the anticipation, riding it is kind of an event....  You're a bit of a rock star on one of these, just by the way it looks and sounds.  And when it comes on the cam and vaults you forward with a howl from the exhaust, you sort of become the god of speed, and of thunder, and you start to feel the need to coin a phrase that amounts to "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" only it should ideally last longer and get progressively louder and more vehement, like the engine as it pulls toward the big end of the tach. I don't know, maybe "Holy fucking fucking FUCKING FUCKING FUCK!!" Man, I need to find some more swear words to come at the end of that.   Riding Dave's, even without the extra racket, I never wanted to stop riding it, "where are we, Memphis? Where's the ocean? Let's go ride to an ocean."  Riding Andrew's is like surfing a wave of outrageous thunderous speed... "

You lucky bastard!!!

That's one of the best descriptions I've read in a loooong time. One of my "someday" bikes has always been an early '90s 900ss, (916's are nice too), or nowadays, the unloved 999's, which look MUCH better in the flesh than the magazine! Every time I hear a Duc at a trackday, I'm afraid I'm going to make a mess in my pants.

I will ride one, someday. Good job man.

[Dan Filetti]

I've ridden two different modern day Duc Monsters, the 696 and the 1200.  While they are no 916, 999, 1098 etc. they are clearly rider's bikes.  The attention to detail for things like road feel, suspension and braking, even the little things, like the feel of the throttle and exhaust note were, seemingly thought out with the rider in mind.  It's hard to explain, especially since general ergos seem to fall behind appearance (form over function) yet they still work well, as a package, they both 'made sense'.

The too expensive, (prohibitively?) complicated, and too short service intervals are not to be missed or bad things can happen -or so I'm told.  This fact alone would keep me from buying one.  But they were both fun, almost playful to ride -as I said rider's bikes.

Dan     

[carey]

The too expensive, (prohibitively?) complicated, and too short service intervals are not to be missed or bad things can happen -or so I'm told.  This fact alone would keep me from buying one.  But they were both fun, almost playful to ride -as I said rider's bikes.

Dan,

Recently, a friend of mine bought a Hypermotard.  I've learned that the newer Duc's have a long service interval and the cost of a valve check is about the same as a Jap in line 4.  As with many bikes, an adjustment may be needed during the first check, but after that the engines seem to go a long time before there is a change.  Sounds similar to my experience with an FJ.

It can't be that much worse than the valve adjustment I did on my ZX9.  Removes all the fairings, tank, airbox, carbs, I had to be a contortionist just to get the valve cover off, and then remove the cams. 

My big concern would be the quality of the dealerships service tech doing the work.  With my ZX9, my dealer didn't have any valve shims in stock.  When I asked him how they did valve adjustments, he said they've never done on.




Bill and Andrew,

Ducati's are crap.  Magic beans are good. 

[Klavdy]

A Hyperstrada sounds good too, there's bigger aftermarket tank available as well.




Light, nimble,very fast & responsive 30,000 KM service interval?




Light is good.

[mst3kguy]

NOICE!!!!