I bought a Ducati today!

After work I drove over to the Ducati dealer. Tonight I was picking up my new bike, a 2005 Ducati ST3. My first Italian bike, my first sport-touring bike. It was parked outside, waiting for me.

After signing a lot of papers, I got the little tour of the bike, what it does, what it has. Everything was as expected except for the “enricher” or what I would call a “choke” that you are to use on cold starts.

Today was Thursday and I made an appointment for the following Tuesday for the 600 miles break-in service. I was going to break the bike in over this Labor Day Weekend. The guys at the dealership looked puzzled that I haven’t even pulled out of the lot yet and I was already making my first service appointment. I basically said that I ride a lot and want the bike to be serviced asap so I can start putting miles on it. The service guy though that one weekend was too short of a time to brake a bike in, plus what if the weather was bad, what if Tuesday came and I didn’t have 600 miles on the bike. All I needed was one day to break a bike in, but I wanted to do it right. And on top of that I was told to bring the bike in with no more than 800 miles. Wow, I had 3 days to ride but I couldn’t do more than 800 miles? That was going to be tough. Lucky for me that I was attending the Region 4 ST.N meet this weekend which was being held in Richland Center, WI, not too far away.

I had picked up the seat from the ST3 a few days ago and brought it to a nearby boat upholstery shop. The guy had shaved the foam a bit, about 1” around the tank and on the sides, 0.5” on top. I was a bit worried that it was going to be too much or not enough. I placed the seat on the bike and sat on it. It was perfect. I reached down with the balls of my feet, very much like I do on the 954RR.



The only screw up was the dealer ordered the wrong color luggage and even though they were willing to lend those to me, I wouldn’t take them just in case I would end up dropping the bike or something.

I was very nervous about riding this bike home, it was so different from the crotch rockets I ride. I geared up, started it up and went. It felt squishy, the suspension was soft, the seat was very soft. The twin engine was way different from the in-line-four that most of my bikes had, it felt rough, accelerated hard. I was sitting inside the bike and I usually sit up high on the bike. The bike felt huge to me. The first five minutes I think I hated it. Did I make a mistake? Was I going to like this bike? Two miles later I was home, the bike was parked. I looked at it as it sat next to the 954RR. I really like the way the ST3 looks. I’m still in disbelief. I own a Ducati.