1993. I loved the 916 the moment I saw it.
It was a seminal moment for me: I'd always
liked bikes, a lot, but I'd never experienced the full on "I
must have one of those" effect that this work of art had on me.
Unfortunately, I had just bought the 2nd, and most trick of my ZXR750s, I was mortgaged up to the hilt and there was no way I could afford to sate my desire for the Italian temptress whose picture adorned my living room & office walls.
The years rolled on and so did a bigger mortgage, a couple more ZXRs & a ZX9R (a machine which was the eventual cause of my divorce from Mrs Rob Mk1 and so I hold fond memories of it), the millenium, yet another mortgage, remarriage, a child, another mortgage to extend the house, another kid, but that elusive 916 stayed just out of my financial reach, as did it's equally beautiful successors.
2006. I loved my 998 the moment I saw it.
It was a seminal moment for me: I'd finally got to the stage where I could afford to indulge myself a little and I could at last sate my desire for the Italian temptress whos picture
still adorned my office wall (not my living room wall any more though, Mrs Rob Mk2 made me put her in the hallway, where she wouldn't have to look at her rival so much!)
I spent many hours lurking on
Ducatisti, reading horror stories of flaking rockers & soft three spoke wheels and so decided the 998 was the bike for me. The fact that I thought it looked even better than the 916 had absolutely nothing to do with my decision. Honest.
Although I was desperate to buy a 998, I was equally prepared to be picky about it: this was going to be the most expensive bike I'd ever bought after all. I looked at a few, saw some truly horrendous bodging (oh the false economy of 3rd party fire & theft!).
And then, one lovely summer morning, Autotrader alerts came up with the goods. 2003BP, 1 owner, 900 miles, Termis & chip and only just up the road. She'll do. Went up to see it straight away. The guy was selling it for his brother, who lived on the Isle of Man, had bought it as his first big bike, scared himself silly & promptly put it away in his conservatory and polished it for 2 years. I could tell the tank had been resprayed, so did wonder if he had dropped it, but HPI was clear, and his story that it had happened in the dealers seemed plausable. (I had the frame etc checked later & everything was straight, so no matter!). I managed to knock his price down by all of £100, and wrote him a cheque!
A week later I was back, with Mrs Rob (mk2) and my riding gear. Mrs Rob made all the right noises, so did the bike & off we went!
First impressions: She fits! By some freak of nature I actually find the bike comfortable, Ooooohh whatalovely noise, brakes are bloody good, needs a bit more of an effort to get it to turn than I'm used to, and woah, that motor has a lot of grunt!
The OE tyres (Pilot Sports) were the only bit of the package I was worried about. 3 yrs old, left in a conservatory to absorb all that nasty UV light, and they did feel "hard". Lo and behold one day the back stepped out, scared me silly and hence I have 15mm of chicken strips each side to this day (too tight to replace them till I wore them down!). However, tomorrow I shall have 190mm of chicken strips, as my Pilot Power 2cts go on! Then, I'll see what she can do!
The last 2 years have been a nice learning curve for me, I love the bike & she's only let me down once; when she spat her coolant out on New Brighton Prom. She's been treated to some nice bits of carbon (hugger, front mudguard, exhaust heatshield, key guard & heel plates) , with some more jewellery planned: open clutch cover (been on order from Italy since Xmas eve), DP Red pressure plate (been in the garage for 6 months due to lazy Italians not making clutch cover yet), Corse rearsets, DP Carbon air runners). And then I'll stop. Maybe. Although radial brakes
do look tasty.
And I will never, ever sell her. Ever.
