DeeKnow’s Grotto

Have just got home from a quick day trip (an overnighter really) down to Christchurch in the South Island. The reason for the excursion was to check out a bike I've been keen on for some time which has popped up for sale down there, and not having ever seen one locally, but desperately keen to get my hands on one, I coughed up a measerly $300 and blasted down to check it out.

Stayed the night with friends, Rover and Jodi last night and they kindly dropped me in town this morning near the bike shops. There's a row of four dealers all heavenly positioned adjacent to one-another on Manchester St. I popped into the other three before taking a deep breath and waltz-ing into Casbolts to check out the '98 Ducati 900SSFE (Final Edition) that they've recently listed.

I spoke to the dealer about the machine a couple of times on the phone last weekend and had the feeling that it wasn't in quite original condition, but I love the styling of these single-seater 90's air-cooled 2-valve Dukes, there are only a handful (if that) of these FE models in the country, and the price seemed OK, so I was lookin FWD to getting out for a blast.

The guys in the shop gave me some directions to get out of town which would have resulted in me pissing about on straight flat and boring cantabrian roads, but I wasn't having that. I took a left and headed for the hills. The Port Hills to be precise. Up and down a supremely twisty, wickedly surfaced valley at the base of the hills, a great test for the bike.

The handling was familiar (its basically the same geometry as my 600SS after-all) but the torque was noticebly beefier and the sound of the twin-upswept mufflers was nicely meaty. The brakes were much more impressive than the wee 600 single disk of course. Basically the bike shared all the good character of my 600, just in bigger or better doses.

I was really impressed, and the only thing stopping me handing over the check when I got back to town was the unkown history of the machine (its an import) and the unexplained absense of certain standard FE model features, which suggests that its had a reasonable sort of spill in the past. The alignment seemd OK tho, it was tracking well, but I just felt uneasy about it. There was something not quite right.

The other confidence eroding influence was the bike I rode in a shop down the road immediately after. It was a totally different fish, and something I've been keen on for awhile now. I'm still smiliing about the experience now. Dont wanna write too much about it yet, but here's a clue....

9:03:43 PM