Around twenty years ago I was at a road race at Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisc and I ran into a buddy of mine that owned a bike shop. He told me about this hot new Italian bike he had. Something called a Dew-cat-eye 916.
I had never seen one before, but one (two hour) test ride and I bought it on the spot. Keep in mind 14 grand was a lot of money 20 years ago. I think the top line Japanese bikes were going for half that.
I rode the crap out of it when I first bought it, but over the years (and a couple of race crashes later) I kinda lost interest in street riding and relegated it to my garage.
Well, this weekend I was cleaning out my garage, and look what I found
:-)
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The 916 is a dam fine machine. I have many friends who still have theirs and ride/race the regularly. Heck, my friend Beth (the Wolverine) is very well known in Ducati circles for doing over 5K miles in 3 days on one. She's still one of the go-to for people rebuilding the engine. Nothing quite like valve adjustments every 500 miles, eh?
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Back in the day, I was really into it. I put 25,000 miles on that thing from about 1995 to 2000. I even went to the Duc factory a few times.
I wonder if the tires are still good (or if my leathers still fit)
:-)
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What are your plans? Restore, I'm sure it will need some work after sitting, racing vintage? I'd love to try it, though I've only driven on road courses.
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