Way back in January I was writing about the possibility of selling my 1098S. I was very conflicted about it at the time and I waffled back and forth quite a bit before tentatively deciding not to sell it. I think I'd finally decided that I had the right mix of bikes: the Multistrada, a great workhorse and distance bike, good for day-to-day riding, and the 1098S that was, well, a 1098S.
Well, the crash back in May changed all that. The first effect that the crash had was destroying my Multistrada completely. Given that I only had liability on the bike I was pretty much just out of luck on that one. So there's one bike down. That left me with a 1098S as my only bike and a knee that wouldn't bend any where even close to enough to ride the thing. Not only that, but it was looking at the time like it was going to be quite a while before my knee would be in shape to ride much of anything. Fortunately that turned out to not be the case. More on that in a minute.
While I was laid up in the hospital and later at home recuperating I thought long and hard about the situation. There I was: in the process of relocating to a much more expensive house, had essentially just had the value of the Multistrada stolen from me, and had a 1098 I didn't know when I'd be able to ride again as my only bike. From that point of view, selling the 1098 was an easy choice. I posted it a few places, had some interest, and finally the right guy came along and gave my beautiful Sophia a nice new home. Just like that I was bikeless for the first time since I started riding again in 2004.
It's funny: selling the 1098S didn't bother me that much. Watching her new owner ride her away didn't bother me that much. But walking out into the garage later that night and seeing an empty spot where a motorcycle used to sit bothered me a lot. A whole lot.
By the time the 1098 sold it was beginning to become apparent that my off-bike recovery time might not be quite as long as originally predicted. I had no idea what I wanted next (other than some type of Ducati, of course) but I started thinking that I wanted to have that still-bothersome empty spot in my garage filled prior to the VIR round of the AMA Superbike Championship in mid-August. With that goal in mind I made a tentative plan to start looking for a bike seriously in mid-July.
By the time I arrived at this plan it was the middle of June and I needed to start thinking seriously about what I wanted to get if I was planning on starting to look for it a month later. But what to get? Another Multistrada? Tempting, but it didn't feel quite right. A Hypermotard? Again, tempting but I didn't like the teeny gas tank and it's not exactly my style of bike. As a second bike maybe, but whatever I bought was going to be it for a while. Sport classic? No, again not right. I'd decided I didn't want another full-on sport bike as my only ride. Then it hit me: a Monster. Me being me, I immediately gravitated toward the top-of-the-line and started thinking about that beautiful pearl white and red Monster S4RS I saw at Matison Motorsports a while back. I immediately started grinning. Then I remembered the new-for-2008 S4RS Tricolore. Now that, I thought, had serious possibilities.
What I didn't realize at the time was that the ONLY S4RS model that Ducati is producing in 2008 is the Tricolore, and that they're only producing 400 of them. I went to Matison Motorsports and spoke to the guys there about the possibility of getting my hands on one. I was told that I could still get one but that if I was serious about it I'd better move pretty quickly because they probably wouldn't be available for much longer. I left Matison that afternoon with a lot to think about and decided to head down to Barnett's Suzuki Ducati to see if they still had the left-over Monster 620 that my fiancee was lusting after.
We walked in the door at Barnett's that afternoon and I was completely blown away to see a Monster S4RS Tricolore sitting on the floor. Not only that, but a look at the number plate on the left side of the engine told me that they had bike number 14 of the 400 produced. I knew immediately that I'd found my next ride. That was late on a Saturday afternoon. I went back Monday after work and bought the bike. I wasn't able to get it home until the following Thursday and then it sat in my garage waiting for me to gain the strength and flexibility to ride it for several weeks, a week ago. I was eager to ride her but the truth is I was just happy to have that empty spot in my garage filled again.
I'm loving the Monster. I'm not a huge fan of only having one bike again, but that's the way it's got to stay for a while and that's alright. The Monster is a great bike for the bulk of my riding, much better suited to where, when, and how I ride that the 1098 would have been. It could be debated that a Multistrada would have been better still, but it's just not what I wanted as the only bike. I think there will be another one in my future though.
For now, the one bike is good. It's a bit different from what I've owned in the past, it suits me, and I'm enjoying it. But I'm also starting to think about what going to eventually join it in the garage.
Technorati Tags: Motorcycles, Ducati
Well, the crash back in May changed all that. The first effect that the crash had was destroying my Multistrada completely. Given that I only had liability on the bike I was pretty much just out of luck on that one. So there's one bike down. That left me with a 1098S as my only bike and a knee that wouldn't bend any where even close to enough to ride the thing. Not only that, but it was looking at the time like it was going to be quite a while before my knee would be in shape to ride much of anything. Fortunately that turned out to not be the case. More on that in a minute.
While I was laid up in the hospital and later at home recuperating I thought long and hard about the situation. There I was: in the process of relocating to a much more expensive house, had essentially just had the value of the Multistrada stolen from me, and had a 1098 I didn't know when I'd be able to ride again as my only bike. From that point of view, selling the 1098 was an easy choice. I posted it a few places, had some interest, and finally the right guy came along and gave my beautiful Sophia a nice new home. Just like that I was bikeless for the first time since I started riding again in 2004.
It's funny: selling the 1098S didn't bother me that much. Watching her new owner ride her away didn't bother me that much. But walking out into the garage later that night and seeing an empty spot where a motorcycle used to sit bothered me a lot. A whole lot.
By the time the 1098 sold it was beginning to become apparent that my off-bike recovery time might not be quite as long as originally predicted. I had no idea what I wanted next (other than some type of Ducati, of course) but I started thinking that I wanted to have that still-bothersome empty spot in my garage filled prior to the VIR round of the AMA Superbike Championship in mid-August. With that goal in mind I made a tentative plan to start looking for a bike seriously in mid-July.
By the time I arrived at this plan it was the middle of June and I needed to start thinking seriously about what I wanted to get if I was planning on starting to look for it a month later. But what to get? Another Multistrada? Tempting, but it didn't feel quite right. A Hypermotard? Again, tempting but I didn't like the teeny gas tank and it's not exactly my style of bike. As a second bike maybe, but whatever I bought was going to be it for a while. Sport classic? No, again not right. I'd decided I didn't want another full-on sport bike as my only ride. Then it hit me: a Monster. Me being me, I immediately gravitated toward the top-of-the-line and started thinking about that beautiful pearl white and red Monster S4RS I saw at Matison Motorsports a while back. I immediately started grinning. Then I remembered the new-for-2008 S4RS Tricolore. Now that, I thought, had serious possibilities.
What I didn't realize at the time was that the ONLY S4RS model that Ducati is producing in 2008 is the Tricolore, and that they're only producing 400 of them. I went to Matison Motorsports and spoke to the guys there about the possibility of getting my hands on one. I was told that I could still get one but that if I was serious about it I'd better move pretty quickly because they probably wouldn't be available for much longer. I left Matison that afternoon with a lot to think about and decided to head down to Barnett's Suzuki Ducati to see if they still had the left-over Monster 620 that my fiancee was lusting after.
We walked in the door at Barnett's that afternoon and I was completely blown away to see a Monster S4RS Tricolore sitting on the floor. Not only that, but a look at the number plate on the left side of the engine told me that they had bike number 14 of the 400 produced. I knew immediately that I'd found my next ride. That was late on a Saturday afternoon. I went back Monday after work and bought the bike. I wasn't able to get it home until the following Thursday and then it sat in my garage waiting for me to gain the strength and flexibility to ride it for several weeks, a week ago. I was eager to ride her but the truth is I was just happy to have that empty spot in my garage filled again.
I'm loving the Monster. I'm not a huge fan of only having one bike again, but that's the way it's got to stay for a while and that's alright. The Monster is a great bike for the bulk of my riding, much better suited to where, when, and how I ride that the 1098 would have been. It could be debated that a Multistrada would have been better still, but it's just not what I wanted as the only bike. I think there will be another one in my future though.
For now, the one bike is good. It's a bit different from what I've owned in the past, it suits me, and I'm enjoying it. But I'm also starting to think about what going to eventually join it in the garage.
Technorati Tags: Motorcycles, Ducati
1 comments:
just some suggestions for your second bike (assuming you want to stay with the italians) - you could pick up an aprilia rsv or maybe an mv agust...of course, if you want to really go get something that will make you absolutely happy when you walk into the garage, nothing beats a 99-2000 zane laverda formula 750!
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