Well, you know what they say : Pics or it never happened!
Congrats! DT
), not because you pay less at the shop. So just go with your heart, and evidently you did it 
I gotta thank the BARFers who told me to go for it; I had doubts about purchasing another liter bike since I figured it'd be like having 2 of the same type of motorcycle. Boy was I wrong! The Ducati is an entirely different beast: for one thing, the sound of the bike gives me & anyone within a 10 mile radius chills; the V-twin grunts like a Maserati supercar on steroids (sounds absolutely nothing like my R1). Most notably, the low-end torque of the 1198 makes my R1 feel like a Vespa with a tank of bad gas.
Now this might just be because the bike is new, but the gear box is butter smooth & the clutch is completely intuitive. That's not to say the 1198 is some kind of a newbie friendly bike; the massive low end torque & wheelie-happy throttle response will either put you behind bars or in a hospital bed if you don't respect it / know what you're doing.
I don't really have to say much about the styling - it's a well known fact, both, inside & outside of the motorcycling community, that Ducati sets the standard in sex appeal for motorcycles. The only complaint I have is about the mirrors which seem to have more of a form over function purpose- maybe they were intentionally designed so you could only see yourself; as a Ducati owner you wouldn't really be interested in anything else.
Overall, to motorcycle-lovers, all I can say is: buy a Ducati; it will change your life.
I gotta thank the BARFers who told me to go for it; I had doubts about purchasing another liter bike since I figured it'd be like having 2 of the same type of motorcycle. Boy was I wrong! The Ducati is an entirely different beast: for one thing, the sound of the bike gives me & anyone within a 10 mile radius chills; the V-twin grunts like a Maserati supercar on steroids (sounds absolutely nothing like my R1). Most notably, the low-end torque of the 1198 makes my R1 feel like a Vespa with a tank of bad gas.
Now this might just be because the bike is new, but the gear box is butter smooth & the clutch is completely intuitive. That's not to say the 1198 is some kind of a newbie friendly bike; the massive low end torque & wheelie-happy throttle response will either put you behind bars or in a hospital bed if you don't respect it / know what you're doing.
I don't really have to say much about the styling - it's a well known fact, both, inside & outside of the motorcycling community, that Ducati sets the standard in sex appeal for motorcycles. The only complaint I have is about the mirrors which seem to have more of a form over function purpose- maybe they were intentionally designed so you could only see yourself; as a Ducati owner you wouldn't really be interested in anything else.
Overall, to motorcycle-lovers, all I can say is: buy a Ducati; it will change your life.
