[Mr.R]

Hi again Lucas,
As I said before I've owned and been riding Ducati's since before they turned to belt driven cams.
When the 1st 500cc Pantah's arrived I rode quite a few of them, I thought that they were smooth revey and lacked the torque/feel of the big 900cc Bevel twins...
In short if you closed your eyes while riding one you could easily have thought that you were actually riding a 550cc Honda four.
The lacked the character/feel of the singles or the big V twin bevel bikes that had come before them.
Now these Pantah's were the 'Daddy' of all of the belt driven camshaft Ducati's that followed right upto the latest 1098R.
If they'd never been built you'd never have got to ride the modern V twin Ducati's that you so enjoy today.
My point being that Ducati introduced a more modern design back then and they've just introduced another!
If I come up on the lottery the only modern bike (available today) that gets into my dream garage would be the V four Desmosedici Ducati, I'd also love to own and ride a Honda VFR 750 RC30 and a Yamaha TZ750.
In fact the only bike I'd swap my owned for 0ver 29 years 900SS Bevel special for would be the Yamaha!
I'm no snob when it comes to bikes, a good/fantastic bike is a good/fantastic bike no mater where in the world it was built and I own four classic Ducati's...
A bevel driven camshaft 250cc Desmo Single, 900SS Bevel driven camshaft V Twin, Rubber toothed belt driven 4V per cylinder 851/888 and another 851/916SP.
I love all of these bikes, but I can't deny that the Testastretta motors of the latest 749/999/848/1098's are better motors they are!
But I don't want to own one, for me they lack the character/feel of the earlier motors.
They're still Ducati's just not ones that I want to own!

Steve