This is my Duc story
I live in Knoxville, TN and I have lusted after Ducatis for as long as I can remember. I always thought they were the Ferraris of the motorbike world, and I originally had the typical fear of maintenance costs. I also did not really start riding until about 2 years ago. I commute by motorbike about 60 miles total a day. So I initially started on a 2007 Kawasaki 650R, I needed something bigger than a 250 because part of my commute is on interstate, and wanted FI since I used it year round. The Kawasaki started out like this (which doesn't look half bad in the photo) but the plastics on the other side were totally fubar'd from the PO dropping it and then letting it sit outside in the sun and get all faded. The original seat cover was torn so I also redid that at some point. I added the topcase, heated grips, and new tires and then put 7k miles on the bike.
I didn't pay a lot for the bike and didn't want to spend a lot on it fixing the plastics so it eventually it looked like this
This summer my coworker moved and asked me to watch his Honda 919 for him, where I proceeded to put 1k miles on his bike... What it did was really make me want a naked bike, just not the 919, and I really wanted a project, so I picked up a 1973 Honda CB500 that needs some work. This is what it looked like when I got it:
And how it looks right now:
Riding the Kawasaki was nice, it did everything it was supposed to do, but I didn't have a love for the bike. They say (best Jeremy Clarkson voice) that you can tell you picked the right car/motorbike by if after you park it and as you are walking away, you turn back to look at it. I never turned to look at the Kawi.
So I put it up for sale two weeks ago. I know not the greatest time, but at the bottom of the ad I included a line like "Will consider trades for most models Ducati" Lo and behold a guy hit me up and wanted to trade. We swapped straight, and I am now the proud owner of this 2003 Ducati Monster 620, 14k miles, new tires, recent service, and in spectacular shape. Sorry I don't have any good pics of the Duc yet:
That's about it. I'm here to learn as much as I can.
