Good morning everyone! Well this weekend was a really big weekend for my Monster and me. The story leading up to this weekend started way back on 05/23/2007 on the original incarnation of the Monster Forum.
I purchased my 2003 Monster in early April of 2007 from a forum member in Denver and took ownership of it on the 21st. As soon as I got it (shipped to Phoenix, AZ from Denver), I really fell more in love with it than I imagined. The look, the sound, the way it felt to ride it; it was just amazing.
At that time. it was nearly stock with only a tail chop and reflectors removed. Already being 4 years old, I was really pleased to have found it as at that time it only had 1,200 miles on it. It was like a brand new bike and exactly what I was looking for.
Here she was before she left Denver in 2007:
And here she was after I got her and had her all cleaned up from the shipping container:
I started riding everywhere. But I still was relatively new to the Ducati community and certainly as this was my first motorcycle, I was new to the riding community entirely (aside from lurking on the old forum until I found my Monster).
I began to make local friends and started meeting people at the local car/motorcycle gathering every Saturday at a place called the Pavilions. It was there that I started to get my first look at what not so stock Monsters looked like and that sparked my interest! I realized that I was very interested in changing my exhaust and going with something that sounded really nice but kept with the look of my bike.
I listened to every exhaust that I could find on a Monster, checked out the look too since that would be an important part of the upgrade. Then after much thought, I decided that the Leo Vince brand had everything that I wanted in a new set of slip on exhaust pipes. But the big question was to go titanium, aluminum, or carbon fiber.
I just couldn't make up my mind. So on 05/09/2007 I started a thread on the old forum to gauge other peoples thoughts and impressions. There was so much to consider: sun damage, cost, sound, high or low mount, and the fact that I had never seen the carbon fiber ones on a Monster.
The first person to respond to my thread was SheMonster. Who promptly responded with only one word: "Titanium". The thread went on for 6 pages and I still wasn't sure. Though the months went by and much debate over which were the ones that I wanted went on for a long time, I always felt like the carbon fiber low mount exhaust was what I really wanted. Ultimately, things came up and I never got them.
It was in June of 2007 that SheMonster and I fell in love and started our own adventure on our Monsters. She always new that getting my Leo Vince exhaust was high on my priority list, but things just kept getting in the way of me being able to get them. So I never did. Though I still love my Monster, I just never let it out of the back of my mind that some day I wanted to have them.
With all things though, as time goes by, manufacturers move on the accommodate newer bikes and stop making add-ons for older ones. This became sadly evident recently when Leo Vince stopped making the one and only version of their pipes that I had wanted for so long.
This brings us up to this past weekend. My sweetheart and I recently celebrated our 2 year anniversary together and have just been so very happy together. But for this particular weekend, I had decided to focus all of our activities on her, so that she would feel pampered and very much loved. The one thing that I needed to do was drop my Monster off at the local shop to have an oil change done. We decided to leave it there and just come back at the end of the day so that we could spend the day out having fun in the sun.
At about 3:30 we returned to the shop where the guys who work there (who are also personal friends) informed me that they were able to do the oil change with no problem but when they gave my Monster a safety inspection they came across a major "problem" with my bike and that I needed to come and take a look at it.
Low and behold my sweetheart and love of my life had worked with the guys at the shop on an anniversary surprise for me and had purchased and had them install the exact set of exhaust pipes that I have been wanting for 2 years!!! I couldn't believe it!!! I didn't know what to say - I am still smiling from ear to ear!!!! The sound is amazing and it looks so nice and clean with my Monster's color scheme.
How amazing it is to look over the history of all of this and to know that she was the first one to respond to my original thread, before we even had met, and that although her preference was titanium, not only was it she who got them for me, but more than anyone else, she knew what I had been dreaming of and got them for me. For that, I still haven't found the words to express my gratitude and appreciation.
Well now without further ado, I'd like to share with all of you my "new" monster:
And one other little mod:
Two years later with 26,000 miles on the odometer, she's not the stock Monster that she was a few years ago!!! Though other little mods have been done, the exhaust has really been a dream come true for me!
Thank you sweetheart soooo much!!!
