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I studied Ducati´s since when I was 15 years old...
With 18 years old I was close to buy a GTL 500. Fortunately I did not get the money. Finally a few months later I had the money to buy my first Ducati. It was a 500 Pantah. Even when it was this the time of the big engines, my engine from that time one was always the Pantah. This bike at that time could allow you to go faster than the most of the Japanese bikes which did not have the stability and have been much heavier. The 2nd season it went really fast... After two seasons with the bike I finally crashed it hard. Next season I spent the summer in the garage of Rob to build my own bike: A TT2 production racer. This bike was a toy: about 150 Kg. Fun pure... Disadvantages: Lots of problems with the day to day usage of the bike: You better don't ride when it starts raining, ... & the biggest problem: I tried some month to convince the German TÜV to allow me to ride this bike legally... Without success:-( I sold the TT2 via Rob to a guy in Holland and got by that enough money to buy 1986 a brand new 750F1. This bike was beautiful. It was in fact the day to day road version of my self made production racer. If I still would have it in my collection, today the price would be higher as at the time went I bought it. But also this bike had a real disadvantage. I was never really fast on the F1. The reason was simple: It was the first bike with a 16 inch wheel on the front and 18 inch on the back. With every other Ducati you need to force the bike in the corners but this one needed a complete different way of handling. After one season unfortunately a girl in a car knocked me off the bike. Result: I was ok but the bike was dead. I got the insurance money and bought ...of course a new Ducati. 1987 you had the choice between a 750F1 (beautiful but hard to manage) or a brand new bike that Tamburgini (just escaped from Bimota) developed from scratch for the Casteloni brothers. The 750 Paso was more a Bimota than a Ducati. Of course it had the same Pantah engine as the 750F1 but its fairing that covered 99% of the bike including the engine and a Bimota like frame. I did not like the design in the beginning but I did not get disappointed by the quality of riding this bike. It came stable as one of the old Ducatis but it was as easy to manage as a 500cc Grand Prix bike. Even if the engine of the bike crashed twice (both times because of a mechanics guy messed it up) I did never sell this bike. - When my brother died in 1990 on his bike I had a few years break. - Some years went by and I bought by accident a Ducati bike in a pub in Diekirch. The new bike was a SSJunior. It was comparable to my 750F1 but nice to ride because it had (like the Paso) 16 inch on front and back. I did ride on this bike not a lot of km's but I did ride with a great pleasure. The engine was not powerful enough but it was a bad idea to sell it when I finally bought a 996. I bought the 996 in Feb. 2001 at the Motofestival in Schieren. Actually I did not buy a 996 but a Monster S4. Irene am myself ordered two Monster (600 & S4). She got her bike delivered after about two months but there was no sign that Heng could deliver the S4 before the end of the season. When Irene got the bike the weather was already beautiful. Some friends like Ingo and Gio tried already since quite a while to convince me that I was still not old enough for something else then a real Superbike. One of these days when a was in the shop Heng to ask about delivery I spontaneously raised the question if he would be able to deliver a red 996. The answer was straight: Next week! I did between 2001 and 2005 still the most Kilometers per season with the PASO from 1987. That bike needed a replacement which was first of all a street bike and not a 100% race bike. It would be really useful to have a "comfortable", "simple" and "reliable" bike for larger holiday trips like Luxembourg-Sardegna. The only comfortable, simple and reliable Ducati in my collection was still the Paso - a Ducati with the age of almost 20 years... In theory everything was crystal clear. It should be a Monster with latest Desmodue 1000 DS engine (like Jane) but the latest chassis like it was presented it 2005 with the Monster S2R. End of season 2005 I was waiting for "my S2R" to be presented to the world at EICMA in Milano. When I saw the bike there it was exactly what I expected but ... I saw as well an other new bike which completely messed up my plannings - the S4RS: 100% high tech Superbike technology in Monster frame. Everything was perfect: Öhlins front and rear, Monoblock radial Brembos, 10 Y spoke wheels, Testastretta engine, colors and design... The only problem - this was not really the bike that I have been waiting for. The bike is in fact to powerful and to complicated for larger holiday trips. The big cooling devices are not what you need on a Funbike. And the Testastretta is a real track engine where you don't want to think about service intervals and costs. Resume: This bike was absolutely cool and it was clear that I would like to have it - my precious ... I did order it together with Irene's S2R end of March 2006. This was exactly 5 years after our last new bikes order, which we thought at that moment was acceptable.
I could imagine to ride a 4 cylinder engine but I guess it would be an MV (or a Desmosedici). |
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