“So when do you want to pick her up”, Dave from the dealership asked me. I wanted go like “RIGHT NOW!” into the phone, but one needs to keep things real. So -after checking the forecast – I told him I’d pick it up the next day. A tough call.

So – last Friday, I picked up my new GT 1000 Sportclassic from the Ducati dealership in town. I got a great deal on a red “leftover” from last year. About $2K below the first quote I got late last fall (same dealer). I also ordered Termignoni exhaust system for a bit more power, a little less weight and perhaps the most important reason: The boooming SOUND of Bologna!

The GT1000 is a 100% pure & naked motorcycle – without any bling-bling. It is built to carve twisties. That’s it. It derives from the classic GT750 from back in the seventies. I think the picture below illustrates where the designers got their inspirations from. (Mine is red btw).

One is from ‘74 – the other from ‘06 – which is which ?

I’ll post some pictures later on, right now I’m busy breaking in the baby.

Oh btw, although if this may looks like an old bike, it doesn’t behave like one. I’m guessing it has around 100 Hp with the new pipes and it’s relatively light. And being a Desmo Twin, it delivers power from around 3500 RPMS and up… It has Brembo breaks installed, so it will stop … like RIGHT NOW … enough to send the rider flying.

And then it’s the handling: below 30 mph – in stop and go traffic – not that good. It’s very “on and off” if you know what I mean. Hard on the old man’s wrists. But take her out in the twisties – keep the RPMs over 4000 – and my God you’ll have oodles of fun. I’ve said it before: This is what motorcycles are all about. Lotsa power combine with nimble handling. Pure and simple. YEAH!

Oh and my old beanie helmet had to be replaced with a full-face. Partly because I want to keep my hearing and partly because a &#$% bee ended up behind my sunglasses the other day … and stung me! Jeezzz that hurt. Diane thought the the Joe Rocket Villain helmet looked cool, so I went for it.

The 2nd sign of mid-life crises: Skull graphics on you helmet

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.