Subject: Re: [Ducati] Longest, First

[Justin]

Hahaha I said writing instead of riding. Epic fail.

On May 13, 2008, at 12:42 , Justin wrote:

> Hahaha, with everyone talking about how they've been writing since  
> the Fillmore administration, I can't help but say I bought my first  
> bike about three weeks ago!  I just rode it for the first time about  
> a half hour ago.  The last time I rode anything motorized was 20  
> years ago when we had dirt bikes at summer camp, so I took the MSF  
> class last fall and spent most of the winter looking for a 748 and  
> bought a yellow 2001 748S in late April.  I was out of town at the  
> time so my brother picked it up for me and it's just been waiting  
> for me in the garage.  It's obviously well maintained, and the  
> previous owner did a clean install of a manual switch for the  
> cooling fans which was basically the only modification I had any  
> interest in.
>
> I took it out for a spin since the weather is nice today and it's  
> going to rain most of the week.  I didn't leave the neighborhood  
> since it's not tagged yet, but got it up to about 35-40 on a couple  
> short turns of the wrist.  Goddamn, this thing is a rocket!  I  
> didn't even let it get into the real power band from about 7k to 10k  
> rpm and it was pulling like w00t!  I can already tell this is going  
> to be a hell of a lot of fun once I get it registered and get some  
> practice in.  I imagine it's going to take some time being careful  
> but I had that in mind when I decided to get a sport bike for my  
> first throw.  I'm hoping that around the end of the summer I'll be  
> comfortable enough to try some track instruction.  It's been a hoot  
> in cars all these years and this just seems like it will be fantastic.
>
> It seems like most of the motorcycle class stuck, I am very glad I  
> took it.  I had no problem riding it, turning it, and stopping it  
> though I barely dented the bike's envelope in any respect and had no  
> desire to attempt such.  I did manage to honk the horn a few times  
> when trying to turn off the turn signal.  Braking is extremely  
> aggressive compared to the bikes from the class and I found myself  
> moderately surprised every time by how much load I had to soak up  
> with just moderate squeezes of the brake lever and pedal.  Handling  
> is extremely crisp, and the bike was nothing but confidence  
> inspiring in the turns - even if my low speed u turns at the dead  
> ends left something to be desired in terms of elegance.  I need to  
> get used to the clutch and shifting, none of my shifts were very  
> smooth, though I managed to avoid anything terribly ugly as well.
>
> As I anticipated from finding one to sit on in a local shop and  
> reading about it online, the riding position is completely, totally,  
> and in all other ways uncompromising.  Trying to ride it semi- 
> upright rather than completely hunched over it applies a ton of  
> pressure to your forearms.  My forearms are weak enough after about  
> 15 minutes of tooling around that my typing is suffering.  Too bad I  
> lost an auction for risers last night, I suspect that would have  
> made upright riding a lot more survivable.
>
> Previous owner left me with a set of stock pipes, but the ones on  
> the bike are cored out stock.  It sounds glorious.
>
> *****
>
> Ducati.net is sponsored by Oncycles.com, who has the largest  
> selection and
> lowest prices, on the finest motorcycle products anywhere, all  
> served with
> world-class customer service.  Check them out!
> _______________________________________________
> Ducati mailing list
> Ducati at ducati.net
> http://list.ducati.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ducati
> Mailto: shadow at darksideresearch.com