Dessert X

[Fatfatboy]

Ducati has entered the adventure bike game in 2022. I don't recall ever seeing this one.



CW has a ride review.

https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-reviews/ducati-desertx-first-impression-ride-review-2022/

Not that I could ever ride it, even with it's 33.something inch lower seat and suspension setup, but it looks like a good effort from the Dukes.

Dakar and Petrucci??

[motogrady]

Cool pic.

I tell ya, I’ve gotten a lot of respect for Petrucci.  
Riding different venues, pretty well I might add,
I dunno.  You just don’t see a lot of that.

I’m waiting for him to give American flat track a go.  

[oldironnow]

motogrady wrote

Cool pic.

I tell ya, I’ve gotten a lot of respect for Petrucci.  
Riding different venues, pretty well I might add,
I dunno.  You just don’t see a lot of that.

I’m waiting for him to give American flat track a go.

Flat track Petrucci !
Love it !
I remember Troy Bayliss did sometime in US flat track.

[oldironnow]

It’s a tall machine.
I like everything except the black sticker affect on the windscreen.
It seems like the single nod towards marketing cowardice.
Just let a machine be itself.



.

[Mad4TheCrest]

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[hacksaw]

Ugly bike.
Ducati should stay Ducati . Watering down the brand sucks.

[motogrady]

Mad4TheCrest wrote

"...I remember Troy Bayliss did sometime in US flat track..."

Yeah, and I think he ended with a badly broken leg, and didn't come back to try again. He probably should have, cause he broke his neck later back home downunder riding (racing?) bicycles. 😳

There was a Frenchman, Juan Michal Bayle(sp?) that tried
back in the 90s I do believe, winning 3 championship’s.
AMA Motocross or Supercross.  Motogp road racing.  And World Trials.  

He got the Supercross, I think after 2 seasons actually placed a 4th in one event in motogp, and was a bust on World Trials.   And he was one hellova smooth rider.  

Ahhhhhhh……the Grand Nationals.   When men were men.

[motogrady]

Here’s Bayle.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Bayle

[hacksaw]

No IOM so as good as he was he was still French.

[Fatfatboy]

I like Fortnines review of the DX.



"Who puts a rocking chair in a Ferrari?"

Petrucci stated he preferers the 75HP riding mode.

[hacksaw]

Fort Nines is this persons name?
The dessert x must be Ducati’s
Subaru Forester.
Not that I actually care .
I don’t think the seat height is for u, F2.

Who is buying all these bikes?
Is there that many Star Wars Ducatista out there.
Isn’t Ducati competing with their own scramblers with this?

[motogrady]

Here in WVA I see quite a bit of them, ADVs.
It’s usually older guys, 40s to 60s maybe.

Had dinner in Oakland, Maryland maybe 2 weeks ago.
There is a hotel/motel there that has a diner we visit 2 or 3 times a month. 2 guys were on ADV bikes. Spending the night in a room.
They were from Ohio. They had been on the road for 10 days, just riding town to town down and up the East Coast.

The one guy, he had stickers from a lot of places.  Mexico, South America, and his bike looked it. It was, or looked like a daily rider for sure. The other guys bike, even though they both had panners and all the camping gear strapped down, was in much better shape.  I kinda got the feeling he was following his friends lead.

Nice as heck, both of them, but they were ready to sleep in their own beds.  They planned on making home the next day.

I dunno.  Off the top of my head, it’s still mainly HD and metric cruisers around here.  Sunday afternoon spinners.
You can tell. Most are clean as a whistle.  The ADV guys, second for sure. Those guys, almost always look haggard and worn out.  Same with their bikes.  They go places.
Then it’s the crotch rockets.  In reality, lately, not a lot of those guys seem to be around.

[hacksaw]

well guys whom ride them like your travelers are one thing. and thats what i am asking, how many of these ADV guys are there to justify the market ?

here in ct its 4X4. there are enuff rich people to buy 60k off road trucks with very few if anyplace to take them off road. i am not going to take a 60k truck out to get scraped up. yet these behemoths are everywhere.
and after obama paid out to have the earlier versions scrapped.

[motogrady]

I wasn’t even throwing the 4x4 thing in there.
It’s the same around here.
The trucks, it’s always been like that.
Living in a 30k singlewide trailer with a 70k
pickup in the driveway.

The side by sides, that’s a quad with the 2 seats up front,
have all it killed the dirt bike scene around here.
They’re dropping 20, 30k easy on those.
And they are everywhere.

[oldironnow]

motogrady wrote

I wasn’t even throwing the 4x4 thing in there.
It’s the same around here.
The trucks, it’s always been like that.
Living in a 30k singlewide trailer with a 70k
pickup in the driveway.

The side by sides, that’s a quad with the 2 seats up front,
have all it killed the dirt bike scene around here.
They’re dropping 20, 30k easy on those.
And they are everywhere.

Same around here with the vehicle to housing ratio.
It’s easy to get an auto loan when one lives with mom.

Can one drive around in a sideXside in WVA as is done in Arizona?
Around the Central Coast, it’s not possible. And it makes me see the trailer costs associated with the ‘cage’ purchase.
I could make statements about superior value of a motorcycle purchase, but I’m likely not feeling the attraction people have to safety and companionship, and by golly, this is a car country…. and who among us wouldn’t want to roam around in a vehicle from the Mad Max collection?

[motogrady]

The big thing I see is you can take your wife or girlfriend along.  With the sides sides that is.  

They passed a bunch of laws a few years back about the rules for 4x4s.  You had to wear a helmet. You had to have insurance. Lights, horn also. Inspection sticker too.  

It was they could ride any road that did not have a double yellow line in the middle. Now, it’s pretty much anywhere if you meet the above criteria.  

Which half don’t, but unless they are being total jerks, they generally get a pass.

It’s West Virginia!

oldironnow wrote

motogrady wrote

I wasn’t even throwing the 4x4 thing in there.
It’s the same around here.
The trucks, it’s always been like that.
Living in a 30k singlewide trailer with a 70k
pickup in the driveway.

The side by sides, that’s a quad with the 2 seats up front,
have all it killed the dirt bike scene around here.
They’re dropping 20, 30k easy on those.
And they are everywhere.

Same around here with the vehicle to housing ratio.
It’s easy to get an auto loan when one lives with mom.

Can one drive around in a sideXside in WVA as is done in Arizona?
Around the Central Coast, it’s not possible. And it makes me see the trailer costs associated with the ‘cage’ purchase.
I could make statements about superior value of a motorcycle purchase, but I’m likely not feeling the attraction people have to safety and companionship, and by golly, this is a car country…. and who among us wouldn’t want to roam around in a vehicle from the Mad Max collection?

[Fatfatboy]

In the Midwest cruisers are still the biggest segment of bikes.
The adventure segment is growing. Many cruiser owners own both.
Starting to see more and more standards popping up and small scooters.
The race replicas are still covering but I don’t seem to see as many as there used to be. I think many of these have switched to adventure or standard bikes.

The SXS and UTV segment looks to be having continued growth by the looks of the amount I see being pulled down the highway on their way to the cabin or lake, running around town and from what I noticed at the local UTV, motocross and street bike dealer I have gone to a couple times during riding season. Parking lot was full of trailers connected to trucks with UVS being brought in for service and repairs.

I was looking at the few street bikes they had ( some Honda CBR’s, Kawasaki 900, Yamaha 50th anniversary 650, and the M109). Both times I went I didn’t get one “Can I help you.”. I guess I should of bait and switched them by starting at the behemoths.

I was reading an in-depth article with stats on segments at MCN but their pop up ad for an EV car kept stealing the screen so after the 8th time I split and looked elsewhere and found a article at CycleNews from February 2022

According to them street bike sales are up 21.8% across the board.
Scooter sales up 19.6 since 2020
On highway bikes are up 12.9 since 2020
Dual motorcycles up 18.5 since 2020. 2020 actually saw a 42.9 over 2019.
Off road motorcycles went up 42.9% since 2019. No 2020 data.

The most promising stat is that people going to motorcycle safety classes raised 48% since 2021.

So it’s not all doom and gloom for motorcycle future.

https://www.cyclenews.com/2022/02/article/new-motorcycle-sales-up-two-years-running/

[hacksaw]

well i never have considered more people buying bikes as all that wonderful.
i mean who are they? and why should i particularly care? side by sides in those stats?
electric crap? off road only machines? 30,000$ baggers? those slingshot things?

atv
work trucks i could use on my farm in  the Philippines. but
hundreds of 4x4's ripping up old logging roads , in my not so humble opinion , sucks.

and they should NOT be included in motorcycle sales data.

cruisers (i hate that word. made up by moto scribes trying create parity on jap bikes with harley davidsons. )
cruisers are laid back standards. most bikes one sees around here are baggers.

MSftyclass is fine. however surviving on the street is still a bitch. it takes luck and experience .

scooters here of 49cc dont require registration in Ct. a vintage vespa would be a nice ride. the new vespas are pretty pricey. most of the rest are junk.

gloom and doom. much of that is politics and the resultant effect of socialist greens wanting to control peoples lives. i have no prediction on any of it. at 70yo and daily aches and pains more of a concern then what motorcycle sales will be 20 or more years from now , i say F'em  if they cant take a joke.
where i am located , one risks their life to just go down and get gas. i need my own property with a mile or so of my own trail. Philippines i dont know if i can sit on a plane all them hours anymore to get there. maybe  fly 1st class but the price is in arm and leg territory.

maybe WV in summer and FLA in winter.
my kid needs to finish high school here. and then it will be real-estate market.  
who know about the motorcycle market in the future.

[Fatfatboy]

You know Keith, years ago when I started getting serious about street riding, more than putting around on my CL360 with extended forks and chome open pipes, I bought my first HD. A 73 XLCH for $1500.

I started riding with the HD crowd. Guys with custom bikes like Panhead chops, shovels and raked out hardtail sporties and shovel dresser evey now and then. While riding with these guys I learned about The Brotherhood.
Folks you just met or stopped and help were part of that Brotherhood

They all carried some tools, master links, spark plugs points, condencers, wire, black tape, etc. wrapped up in rags or shop towles either in a tool bag or strapped to the risers, or sissy bar if they didn't have bags.

If a guy broke down he wasn't left behind. Every one would stop and start pulling out tools, spare parts etc.to see what they had to offer. There was as a few that all they ever had to offer was a doobie and that was part of the fun.
If it was bad enough a guy would ride home to get his truck.
One night I remember three of us were out late. My buddy's 78 dresser crapped out. Something electrical ignition that wasn't getting fixed on the side of the road with what we had. The closest truck to us was flat bed F450 at the golf course I was a maintenance guy at. I went and snuck it out the back gate with no ramps.
 I think all three of us busted something internal that night trying to lift that fat hog on the back of that flatbed Ford.
I think the furthest we ever got to actually ride was 110 miles to a weekend rally in a field in the middle of nowhere. We got there with  no issues but two out of the three in our group of bikes came back home in the back of the chase truck after breaking stuff in the biker games. It was one heck of a weekend. I remember most of it.

I guess it was around 1994-1995 I started to see the change. I started noticing more riders riding past and waving at the guy on the side of the road. Had it happen to me a couple times. Once after a wire flame up and once after ignition weights come apart.
The wire flame up I was able to take care of with what I had. The ignition weight come apart I was screwed on. At that time I didn't have the funds for frivolous things like extra weights. Had to borrow a farmers phone to call a indie shop about 40 miles back that sent a guy out to pick me up for gas money.

I think I sold that XLCH in 2000 and bought a modern bike, 2001 XLH and started riding than 110 miles.

The point to this rambling is if it was not for the guys  with extra money and no mechanical skills I don't think Harley Davidson would be building 100,000 plus mile no issue motors giving more people the enjoyment to take a ride across our great nation and helping support the small mom and pop shops off the beaten path.

I do miss some of the fun of the side of the road side social events but riding with a brother across the states with nothing to mess with other than rain can be quite enjoyable too.

I'm glad I've been able to live both trips.

[oldironnow]

Damn glad to meetchya!
That’s a great origin story.