I'm off to Italy in September with a group of friends, 10 in total. It should be a good trip, leisurely, taking in some of the famous Alpine passes on the way there and back. It totals 10 days with a couple of days staying in Venice and a trip to the Ducati museum. But what to take? The only thing I have that I could practiably do the trip on is the Streetfighter S, but it wouldn't be ideal. I haven't yet reached the ripe old age where I'm considering joining the pipe and slippers brigade and going for a full tourer. My criteria was - Practical Reasonably comfortable Flickable for the Alpine passes Decent value for money, around £5k if possible, maybe a little more. Will take luggage Would be a bonus if I could use it for things other than my holiday. Maybe for a little weekend hoon-a-ry. Being a Ducati wasn't a prerequisite, but it'd be nice. So I looked at Tuonos, Monsters, 848 Streetfighters, various Japanese offerings, KTM Adventure, BMW GS etc. But the one bike I kept coming back to was ..................The Hyperstrada 821 So I got Christmas out of the way and started to weigh up the market. There were plenty about starting from 2013 onwards, but almost all were in dealers it has to be said. I quickly learnt about the LS (Low Seat) model before I made an expensive mistake on a nice bike. A couple of calls to dealers didn't really throw anything up, with the bikes not being clean examples or too expensive. An enquiry about a bike on here went nowhere and then I spotted one in an obscure ad on a website from a private seller. 2,900 miles, 2014 bike, one owner and the guy couldn't use it anymore due to poor health, everything else advertised had 8k - 18k miles. Right, fire up Google maps......"Camborne", where's that? ........Bloody Cornwall, 460miles away! But I give the guy a call anyway, get some more details and pics of the bike, it all sounds good and he comes over as a decent fellow. Manage to negotiate a price and I appear to have bought a bike. But how to get it. If it had been a dealer, I'd have paid the money and had it delivered. But even though the guy sounded like a nice chap, I wasn't about to send a stranger a few £k and take a chance. Only one thing for it, go and get it. So last weekend, with military planning, Captain Mainwaring would have been proud of, I set off and drove through the night to get there 1st thing Sunday morning (highly recommended as there was almost zero traffic, even contraflows were nogotiated without turning off the cruise control ) The bike was as described, if a little muddy in places as he lived down a dirt track. Everything checks out, lob it in the van and turn round for home. A lot of fuel, even more coffee and a few rest stops later, and it's back in my garage. In my mind, my trip over the Alps is akin to Ewan and Charlie circumnavigating the globe, so I've put some Evotech rad and engine guards on it today and gave the nooks and crannies a bit of a clean. I have to say, I'm very pleased with it. @Ducbird should be too as I almost bought a white one before this.
Hopefully a bit more fun too. The weather last weekend on the trip back was awful. Wipers on full speed struggled to keep up with the rain. I've tried every brand of coffee that Costa do though. I highly recommend the Caramel Latte.
Very nice that is and the only not sportsbike on my shopping list. I'm keen for the larger engine though as I like wheelies and general hooligan behaviour! Watch out for Venice, (or maybe not if not taking a woman) it's beautiful but you will have your pants pulled down. Mine is insisting that we go back in September and on our first evening she told me that she was ready for me to ask her to marry her. Cue: Silence! There is a Ducati store in nearby Mestre which makes it even more attractive.
REDEMPTION!!!! The guy sent me this picture of it in his kitchen. I do believe that's a bin in the right of the picture. Am I forgiven?
Oh and if you can, take the Col de Simplon which links Brig in Switzerland with Milan, in Italy (Never?)!
The 939 was more than I wanted to spend. The larger aircooled bikes were Htpermotards, I wanted the luggage option. This ticks all of my boxes. I'm not one for having all the bells and whistles, but DTC and ABS are nice to have. I read a story on here about Venice restaurants last week, I'm well aware and will be cautious. How much can the Venetians charge for a Big Mac & Coke? It's the Ducati museum I'm worried about. I have a low threshold for resistance to buying Ducati branded, overpriced trinkets.
New news, I just sent you updates last weekend. Don't try and show off because you had prior information.
