i was riding thru the fine dining district in Richmond and had a couple quiz me at the light a young Italian woman and her mate, she knew what it was and called out excitedly "a SUPERDOOK!", he asked the size and when i told him 990 he just whistled.
some time later i had a mom in a car complimenting me on the bike, said she loved it. she had a young man that i assumed was her son who just shrunk down to nothingness in the front seat like he was embarrassed! i wheelied away!!
in Texas i had a young chick in traffic roll down her window admiring my 748, i gestured to the back seat but she just shyly rolled up her window and drove off. that same night i was riding on 6th st in Austin. 6th street is where all the clubs are and it was before they closed it down for the night (i used to play there with my band and on friday nights they would close it to traffic and people would walk right down the road, great city. it was hard to load out though because you couldnt bring a vehicle in for the equip. had to carry it out!!). there was some function going on and there was this group of like 60 yr olds in tuxes. they were loving the duc and one of the dudes made the international wheelie sign. cracked me right up but there were so many people crossing the street just wasnt safe.
oh one more Texas story. i was on the duc again, another friday night 6th st. there were 2 dudes (i think!...) one on a 900SS the other an old Hawk GT650 beat to hell shagged tyres (tyres for those across the pond...). they asked me to join them for this Ducati breakfast the next morning. well i met them in the middle of nowhere at this outdoor eatery, there must have been 100 or so ducs. so we are eating and in walks Lyle Lovett in full leathers with his entourage. so we all eat then after maybe 30 of us went for the actual ride. it was fantastic.
it turned out that the fastest dude was the honda hawk dude/chick ( he was nice as hell and either a chick or a very effeminent dude, didnt even get a slight gay vibe though, never did figure it out) he/she was riding the hell out of the bike though and was way out in front so i went from mid pack to the front to chase him figuring if he could ride like that then surely the 748 could. i stayed right with him/her and learned a lot that day about lines, and not braking. the rest of the pack would be like a mile back and we had to wait for them at the lights. at one point there was this right turn, a crazy scarey, sharp decreasing rad and we were flying, it was sooo tight that i was totally caught off guard, man i just kept leaning and praying but made it thru to find the guy stopped up ahead off to the side of the road. well one by one the other guys made it through but all thinking we werent gonna stay upright. Lyle rode pretty hard, was impressed, he had a tricked out 916, we all stopped for lunch at this cool little place, and he was a really nice down to earth guy, absolutely passionate about bikes. a great day and ride to be sure!
