By late 70's I'd had enough of Triumphs leaking and self destructing. Jap bikes didn't appeal so I looked to Italian. Test rode a LeMans but didnt like it then tried a silver 900SS. Loved it but couldnt afford it. A mate who was into ducs suggested looking at 750 Sport. Found 1 in mcn 200 miles away got on the back of my mates Bonnie and bought it. On that ride home I knew I'd found my ultimate bike buzz. I crashed that bike a couple of years later and couldnt ride for a while then got married etc. Had a couple of jap bikes GPZ600r and yam SRX6 but my mates had stopped riding so I did until about 20 yr ago when a couple of the old crowd started getting 2wheels. After waiting for a T160 Trident with minimal crash damage to clear that never happened, in 98 I bought a 750 Paso that I lusted over ever since seeing one in 1988. I killed the Paso and got a 907 to replace it, then a 888 to keep it company which I sold to get a SSie then another 907 to replace the 1st 907 that I'd killed, then a 999 cos I couldnt resist it.
I hired a Multistrada in the US two years ago. I was intending to hire their K1600 to try out as a potential replacement tourer, but I remember thinking that this would probably be my only chance ever to ride a Ducati, so I switched. I loved it (but it deserved better roads) so I bought one new. Always thought that Ducatis were very pretty but impractical bikes and, whilst I had an earlier urge to buy a 748, it was never going to happen. Funny thing is, when I bought the MS, the dealer said to me something like "Isn't it a looker?". I don't think the Multistrada is a pretty bike (it has character and presence, certainly) at all and told him so. He seemed slightly offended. They have a 888 in the showroom and that is one of the nicest looking bikes ever built. I still think that all bikes should be red - always have.
In my early teens around 1990 I read a book about a kid that used to visit a track and watch people racing. And over time he bought a Ducati ss and went on to race it himself. Always been hooked since the read but only been able to afford a Ducati in the last couple of years. Despite owning bikes for years.
I was never a member of that particular club that considered a 916 to be an improvement stylistically over an 888. Still aren`t.
In my mid/late teens late 70s I experienced the heart shaking sound and utter cool of a black and gold 900ss whilst filling up a can of 25:1 petrol/2T for my £25 ported Mobylette. Similar to the second attachment but with ironic go faster stickers. You can imagine my reaction. 4 years later we had a red 500 Pantah in the garage and I was on a GS550, still lusting
I can understand that. It's something of it's own time. When it was new, it was the best looking bike there was. Before that, I liked the Suzuki Katana, but that has not aged so well.
I'm a country boy and didn't know much about European bikes when I was growing up. Then, in the mid-80s, I moved in next door to someone who had one of these. I've lusted after a Ducati since. Never thought I'd end up owning a Ducati, but now I do. Maybe I'm getting old, but I like their old stuff more than the new stuff, except for maybe the Scrambler and the Monster.
1978, I wanted a bike. I really fancied a Guzzi Lemans but as I was still at school I could neither afford one nor legally ride it - I lived in Italy and although you could have a bike licence at 16 you needed to be 21 to ride over 350cc. A friend of my Dad's had an old Ducati 250 Scrambler under a sheet in his garden and whilst I was looking at it one day he asked me if I wanted it! he hadn't ridden it for a while and it needed some TLC. A few days later it was mine.
