La bella Italiano
After reading a about a 900 Ducati MHR for sale on Ebay Oz in a thread started by Forest and making the following commentI decided I’d browse trademe and to my surprise found a Mille engined one for saleOriginally Posted by Kickaha
After thinking about it for a while I wandered off to organise some money and after a call to the owner I put my money down, after all it’s not every day you get a chance to own one of the bikes on your “wish list”
Now I really didn’t expect to win the Auction and had an upper limit in mind that I was prepared to go to thinking the bidding would easily top that as people were asking about shipping to Australia
But on the 23rd August I found to my surprise I’d become the new owner, after organising flights I hopped on the plane to fly to Invergiggle the following Friday
Arriving at the airport I was met by the current owner and we shot off to his place to fill in some forms and pick up the bike, turned out the owner was a guy I’d raced against in pre82 at Teretonga before (cue it’s a small world after all)
Some things are made to go together and Conti exhausts and a bevel drive Ducati are one of them, he fires it up and that gorgeous sound fill the garage, paper work done and I’m on my way, he really wasn’t kidding when he said it was tall geared
I go for a short 70km squirt out of Invergiggle and back and then go and find the Mcjim household who has kindly offered to put me up for the night, and excellent hosts that he and Chickadee are to
Up early the next day and ready to go Mcjim leads me out on the scenic route avoiding SH1 through to Mataura, the suns up but there’s frost on the ground and I’m feeling the cold, we turn off at Mataura and take the Old coach road which bypasses Gore through to Clinton and is a much nicer road and free of traffic
The fairing provides a bit of protection but my hands are going numb and when we get into Clinton I motion Mcjim to pull over and we stop and warm up, he flicks a txt through to Scumdog to tell him to put the kettle on, however Scumdog thinking it’s CB giving him some chores doesn’t even look at it
Pulling up at Chez Scumdog he wanders out to look the bikes over and then put the jug on and makes us a cuppa, after talking shit for a bit he give me directions to the Clutha Valley road rather than heading up to Milton, I say my goodbyes to him and Mcjim and head off to gas up
I follow the road through to Clydevale across the river and up on the Rongahere road (and a fantastic road it is to) through to Beamount, now if one was so inclined you could easily sit on a steady 130kmh through here but that would be against the law and so would be wrong
There’s snow on the hill all around and although the sun is shining and it’s a clear day it’s still fairly cool, I stop off at Roxburgh to take some pics and find the batteries I bought for the camera don’t work, so after one shot I flag that idea and motor on through to Alexandra
At Alex I’m gassing up and while paying for it I notice a classic bike magazine which coincidentally has a MHR on the cover so I grab that as well and then go and track down K14 and spend a bit of time discussing his plans for world domination of the Bucket racing scene
Originally I’d planned to go through from here to Oamaru and visit 98tls but I was running behind time and changed the plan and decided to go up the middle
The roads through here are made for 140+ cruising and although I may not be travelling quite that fast I’m getting along a bit quicker than the law allows, the bikes sweet spot seems to be 5000rpm which is about 130kmh (closed private road testing of course)
3.30pm and I’m gassing up at Omarama and still got over 300km to go and I’m cold and tired and thinking that maybe doing this in one hit after being off road bikes for so long may not have been such a great idea
A few minutes out of Omarama and I decide to pull over and stick the wet weather oversuit on, this keeps me a lot warmer although the hands and feet are suffering a bit especially as I forgot to take my winter gloves with me, the roads are relatively free of traffic and I step it up a bit, over 130kmh and the wind off the fairing tries rolling my helmet off and it gets a bit uncomfortable even though the bike seems to want even more
Geraldine and 170km left and as much as I like the bike I really can’t be arsed anymore, I just want the trip to be over, the suns going down and swap my clear visor on and head on out,
Sheffield with only about 60km to go and I can’t handle the cold anymore and have to stop and warm the hands and feet up before I carry on, not to long after I’m pulling up the driveway finally home
All I’d have to say is that as tired and cold as I was I FUCKING love it
It’s fucking hopeless at 100kmh in top and a couple of times I found myself cruising at 120kmh in 4th having forgotten to change up, you really need 120 on the clock before it starts to come into it’s own and sustained 130-140 cruising would be a breeze if not for the helmet/fairing issue , the brakes are “ok” and the suspension is a bit harsh but for me it was money well spent
pic 1 The old and the New
pic 2 Mcjim tries it for size
Pic3 Roxburgh
pic 4 errrrrr the fucking batteries went flat it's all over
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well done you have a very very nice bike. look after it well.
If you are behind me
Dont ask as I am lost too.
AWESOME!!!! Great write - up!!
Wouldn't the first time I have had to have the bike held up for me at each end..... I confess it does make the lights a little tricky when they turn red though..
Adding apes and tassels doesn't make it harley ya know!!! (Although I had years of telling my brothers that when apehangers were in fashion on pushbikes...: they scoffed at my disbelief even then!! ...
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