Well yesterday was my Happy New Bike Day 
After getting a lift up to Preston I finally saw the bike and the deal was struck. I have never seen so many gismos on one bike, before now I only had one bike that even had ABS 
. The ride home was uneventful and many of the gismos were trialled on the 4 hour ride (turns out I have about a 4 hour butt) including cruise control. Itās fairly easy even in Sport mode until I hit 7000 revs at which moment it instantly turned into a bit of a beast, luckily it was a Friday afternoon so the horns could only come out on a very few occasions. Anyway here are a couple of pics from when I picked it up, note the Ducati Lambourgini in the window (sold 
). It will remain a bit of a garage ornament for the next week as Iām on call with work but will get out and about when I can.
Very nice indeed! Happy new bike day!
Enjoy 
.
Helmut, where are you based out of interest?
Congratulations
Very nice, itāll be excellent for a bit of touring. Is it an addition or replacement for something?
Luckily for me itās an addition 
West Mercia
Where on the planet it that?
Far enough away from Yorkshireā¦
///boggles.surprised.rectangular
Thatās a dead end! 
Near enough the middle of west Mercia though, I would sayā¦ I couldnāt find a region that resembles a ācock n ballsā or I would have tagged that! 
Nearer Dudley than not
On a bad day if I look east from the 18th tee at our golf course I can see the TV mast at the top of Turners Hill in Dudley, on a good day I canātā¦
Englandā¦yuk!
Nice machine Helmut, hope you enjoy every ride out on it. Preston Ducati have a good set up and staff, considering they are part of a very large group of Ducati Dealerships. I was seriously considering a streetfighter V2 from them, however a test ride proved it to be very uncomfortable for me, however they had a really nice Monster S4R series, with the powerful and reliable 998 Testsretta engine, gosh it was comfy, however it is an early machine and I wanted something newer. People that think Ducatiās are expensive to run need a re think, my Street 765rs is eye watering in comparison, a 12,000 mile service for the rs is Ā£750 and a further Ā£150 if any valve adjustments are needed, in comparison my sons 1299s Panigale is not much more for the very big service, including the valve check and adjustment. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.
I must admit, that would have been meā¦ but I do my own servicing on my old lump
Like you I also do my own servicing and repairs now the bike is out of warranty, I am just completing the 12,000 mile service, the amount of items you have to remove just to get the cam cover off is huge, plastics, sensors, brackets, throttle bodies and lots more, often than not in my experience not many need adjustment, at least it gives peace of mind, and documented for any re sale, a lot of people get obsessed with a āvalve check historyā when buying a second hand machine, even with a Ducati that have belt driven cams, just change them right away or factor in having the job done and negotiate the price accordingly, personally I always start with the most time consuming job first and work through the schedule like that, at least with the DealerTool you can perform everything the Triumph Diagnostic Unit does, eg throttle body balance, ABS pump valves open for brake bleeding etc etc. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.