That really makes it hard. Can you take some baby aspirin for a couple days so you can ride on occasion.

I have a car like that an old convertible e-46 M3 I have had some work done on. My wife hates sitting on the ground and feeling every bump in the road and how I drive it.
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That's a lot of friggen miles brother.
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That's a horrible story. So sorry to hear that. I think I would fix it and sell it and get something else. If you love riding though you gotta get back on soon or this will be it.
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Hmm. Not sure. Last time I talked to my doc he was sort of indifferent with riding in thinners. He sort of had the approach of riding with thinners is no more dangerous than riding a motorcycle to being with lol. But, he did say there’s som obvious risk.
Who knows. I still love Ducati monsters. Lol. Helluva dilemma. Lol
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It’s nuts. He was on his way to my house when it happened, too, so his wife blames me. We will never know why it happened. He was an experienced rider and went off a minor curve into a shallow ditch, then rode about 50 feet of 2” pipe fence along the horse farm up the road. It’s lovely driving by the spot every time I go to town. I picked up the orange flags marking the route after 5 days and threw them in the first dumpster I saw.
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I too went on a Ducati Monster fixation until I started talking to owners who talked me out of it. Almost all of them tried to talk me out of it and some even offered to sell me their bike.
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You can't own that brother no matter how much she tries to put it on you especially since he was experienced. I went through this with a guy in high school who let his brother take his kz900 for the day. He was very experienced too. Some lady decided to do a u-turn. It was about as horrific an accident as they come. It could just have easily been any of us. It's the risk we take every time we go out there. he was a man, he made a decision. Hopefully he didn't have any young kids
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His daughter is grown, but she has two little ones. I’ve been staying in touch with them, but his idiot wife can fuck off. She’s one of those that we only tolerated because he loved her.
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These are hard decisions. All the guys I once rode with have hung it up. They keep saying they will ride again but I know better. Only one of them has young kids. I give them a hard time but I think I will quit doing that.
The other side of the coin is I have a young son who rides on the back and I see the way people look at me when he rides with me. To me life is filled with risks and you have to decide if you really want to live your life or just play it safe. He also does martial arts competitions where kids get hurt all the time and that can be a real life changer. There are always those taken out on stretchers. I get the same look when people know he does that but he loves it so I support him the best I can and pray for the best.
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yeah, I've always been a fan of Ducati's, but not so much their maintenance intervals back in the mid/late 90's / early 00's. over the last 10 + years, they've steadily improved in that regard; I think the latest Testastretta motor (the one currently in use by the Monster 821, 939, 1200) has the first valve check/adjustment at 18,000 miles. Way better than back in the day when they were generally every 5500 miles or so.

If I were to buy one, it would probably be a 2010 or newer.I think that's the year they went to that motor. They've even improved the timing belt longevity (on the Testastretta, anyway) to 18k miles or 60 months. Which blows my mind .Used to be every 7500 miles or 24 months if I recall.

Nostalgia wise, I have a YUGE soft spot for the 748 / 996. but those were the days when Ducati's earned their maintenance reputation (intervals, chrome flaking off the rocker arms, glitchy electronics etc). But I've seen a few locally here with good maintenance history for like $5k. Maybe not as a primary bike, but as a 2nd bike, I would love to have one.
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riding in thinners? whats that?
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I have a 2011 ducati monster 696. I dont really have many complaints? What are peoples complaints? I dont ride it for long periods. Just to work and misc rides. Work roundtrip is like 30 minutes. I wouldnt want to ride it for long periods or rely on it as my main mode of transportation. Not comfortable enough. Shifting isnt super smooth but again its enjoyable enough for what it is. Cheap - easy to maneuver - looks good.
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blood thinners.


luckily, when I went down in '16 and rashed my arms and shoulder, I wasn't on them at the time. Even though I should've been but was waiting to get the medicine 'approved' by my new insurance etc, so there was a lag of a few months where I wasn't on them.
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Comfort was one. It didn't handle as well as they thought it would was another. Maintenance was the 3rd and the expense that came with it. I was looking like 10 years ago approximately. As Dayze said it may be a completely different bike now.

Speaking of Ducati that new X Diavel S sure is a sharp looking bike. Sure like to take one on a test ride.
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yep.

*edit...Nevermind...BD covered it before my post**

I think Big Daddy's comment was from the older generation Ducati's that were known to have frequent and costly maintenance intervals, that made them almost cost prohibitive to ride if you didn't have deep pockets. Beyond the initial cost of buying a beautiful Italian bike, we're talking probably $1k service every 5k miles if the shop were to do it (check valve clearances / adjust, timing belt replacement etc).

Once they went to 7500/15k intervals for the belts & valves (starting with the 696/1100 2v motors I 'think'), things started to improve from a $ maintenance standpoint. Now they're up to 18k on the 821, 939, and 1200 motors. Which, compared to where Ducati was at 15 years ago or so, is amazing to me. The cost of the dealer doing these major intervals is still expensive, but the frequency is much much less / more in the ball park of the Japanese bikes etc in terms of frequency of valve clearance checks/adjustments (I'm not sure what the Japanese manufacturers are for their I4 motors, but I would 'guess' probably around that 20k-24k range? Big Daddy probably has a better handle on that).

But, if you had a 2v air cooled Ducati, the maintenance is alot easier than a 4v S4R (if we're talking that same time frame of 2004 to say around 2009)

I test rode a 696 and 1100 back when they still had the 2v motors and both were a blast to ride. especially the 11100 :-)

the 696 might be too small for my frame in terms of weight/ suspension. but nothing a new shock with correct spring weight/rate wouldn't fix. power wise, it was a blast. The usable power / street-ability (If that's a word) of the Monsters are what make them a hoot to ride and can be picked up relatively dirt cheap $.
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