A pleasant surprise this morning

[arkline]

So, let me set the stage for y'all...

It's getting darker earlier and staying that way lots longer here in the uppermost left corner. And the clouds have rolled in to blanket the sky most days, all day long. It hasn't been raining a lot by our usual measures, but threatens to constantly. It hasn't been all that cold, down in to the upper 40s in the morning at the beginning of the week, so I haven't moved up to the FirstGear jacket just yet. It is just getting light when I get to work, but only just.

With the change in season, there is a definite change in the number of bikes you see on the road. When I leave in the afternoon, all I usually see in the lot are scooters, 'cause the scooter trash around here are crazed kamekaze types who'll ride in any conditions. Don't know what that says about me, 'cause I'm parked there with them...

This morning I make the turn into the lot and my headlights scan across a very distinctive motorcycle front end. Here's a hint. It is RED. I move to my usual spot and park the R, take off my gloves and helmet, pull out a cigarette, light up and mosey back to that RED bike to have a good looksee.

It is a brand spankin' new Duc 999, Testastretta. Clean, clean, clean. With its stacked headlights and dealer gleam. It has a little "don't try to steal me" light flashing from the instrument cluster. The tires are just barely scuffed and it is absolutely immaculate. There isn't enough room to fit a playing card into the space where the panels come together. The trellis frame appears to be spit out by a spider 'cause the welds are so fine. The pegs are clean and all the rubber has that "I'm new" look to it. What a great looking bike...Then I wonder...where do you hide the raingear on something like this? 'Cause the forcast is definitely for rain this afternoon...

Oh, well. At least someone else was out on two wheels this morning.

[dallara]

Hey, Ron...

Is there anything much better than "Ducati Lust" in the morning?

(Well, I can think of one or two other things... But not that you do with your clothes on... )

Just something about them Eye-Tal-Yan moter-sicles... MV Agusta's and Ducati's in particular... Personally, I think if everyone were completely honest, *EVERYBODY* wants one... *BAD*!

That are not only incredible riding machines, but also spectacular works of art... and only the Italians can seem to do that consistently.

Ah, yes... The fantasy... Rolling up to an Italian villa after a day of spiritedly floggin' a Duc or an MV... Having a raven-haired, dark-eyed Italian senorita serve you up some good Italian red wine and lusty Italian cheeses... all while listening to the sweet sounds of your Italian metal sculpture as it plays like a wind chime - tinkling and ticking melodiously during cool-down - while watching an Italian sunset...

Could it really get better than that?

Cheers!

Dallara

[fnfalman]

Sorry, I want neither an MV nor a Ducati. I prefer my Italian lust to be Aprilia powered by Rotax. That way I know the engine won't puke on me.

[arkline]

Just something about them Eye-Tal-Yan moter-sicles... MV Agusta's and Ducati's in particular... Personally, I think if everyone were completely honest, *EVERYBODY* wants one... *BAD*!

Oh, yeah! And I'd throw the latest MotoMorini and a Aprilia Futura in for good measure.

I could be suave, thin and taller, charming and confident, wear a little more gold, speak six European languages fluently, and work in the north where the really good roads are. Do the Cento Passi twice a year.

Oh, lord, I have to stop thinking like this...Or hit the lotto...

[SimonD]

Oh! Nicely put MrDallara sir, welcome back.I for one have missed your command of the english language."Wind chimes"indeed!
There is a certain quality about the best Italian motorcycles that is very hard to put into words, difficult to describe in sheer engineering terms.Somehow the passionate nature of Italians generally shines through the metal and plastic and captivates the viewer (well this one, anyway!) Cheers all Simon.

[jim]

When I leave in the afternoon, all I usually see in the lot are scooters, 'cause the scooter trash around here are crazed kamekaze types who'll ride in any conditions.

forget the Duck, it will break your heart and leave you pennyless.

instead, join the "Scooter Trash" and ride something that lives to please.

jim
04R1150RA Silver
05 Vespa ET4 Milano Red

[dallara]

Ah, yes... Italian bikes! They do bring passionout of each of us, one way or the other, eh?

For Fnfalman...

I appreciate your point about Aprilia, and I lust greatly after one of their new V-Twin 450 dirt bikes... But I'm afraid their big street crawlers have never raised the heat in my loins like a Duc or an MV... Too "industrial" looking overall, and to me the big Aprilia/Rotax powerplants look more like stationary water pumps than motorcycle engines. No passion, no lust, no sex there for me...

Besides, no Ducati has ever given me any mechanical grief. From my own personal experience the yoke of unreliability saddled around Ducati's neck is more the stuff of myth than of truth... But then, Ducati's tend to respond to passionate co-conspirators, like any thoroughbred, be it a horse, a woman, or a motorcycle - basically any spirited mount prefers a partner in crime that has the same verve for expression, and for tender loving care - both ways. After all, a tender and caring mechanical touch is as appreciated by a mechanical Mona Lisa as a warm, soft caress is by a loving woman...

For Arkline...

Have to agree with you about the Moto Morini (sad we will probably never see the newer ones on these shores, despite their claims...), but the Aprilia... Well, see my comments above...


For SimonD...

Thanks for the compliment, but I cannot take credit... When I ponder Italian motorcycles my heart sings and the passion rings making my fingers fly across the keyboard like an original Ducati 750SS dancing through the Dolomites...

You are so, soooooooooo right about Italian steeds being so hard to describe, and rationalize... There is all at once an ethereal magic of art mixed with a deadly dedication of purpose that seems to permeate Italian engineering, and it seems to stem from designers who appreciate the asthetic with the same reverence they obviously must have for the last measure of performance... Just look at Ducati's Moto GP rockets... They not only perform to the high standards of the class, but still set the highest mark for consumate beauty among all their protagonists.

How do they do it? And do it decade after decade after decade?

They grab one's soul like no other motorcycles throughout time...


For Jim...

I dunno', Jim... I've owned even an older Ducati (a 1980 900SS, with Imola cams, big Dellorto pumper carbs, and Imola pipes...), and it never let me down in the slightest mechanically... In fact, it was a paragon of reliability. I have a friend who has a 998 Bostrom replica and has over 25,000 miles (!!! !!!) of completely trouble-free giggles and grins riding it all over creation... And I know others who call their Duc's the most reliable bikes they have owned... Of course, they all love and care for their mounts as though they were original works of art (which they are...), despite the fact they all ride them as though they were cheap Italian trollops or orgasmic bliss... Working themselves and the bikes until both are hot, steaming, sweaty, slickened masses of carnal clairvoyance peering into each other's souls...

The only time a Duc ever broke my heart was when one beat me, or when I sold it...

But to each their own...

Cheers!

Dallara

[arkline]

As predicted by those fine meteorological people on the little glowing screen:

The Duc rider will become a Duck rider today...Hope they don't spin that new rear tire up...

[Paper]

Edited, and moved on...