Then - 1973

This was my first new motorcycle, a 1973 Ducati 750GT. I was 19 years old. The picture was taken at my girlfriends house. (We have been married 37 years)

I had looked at a lot of bikes and my next stop was Franklin Motors in Hales Corners, WI. I walked in and there it was, a black Ducati with chrome fenders and a V-twin engine. I didn't know much about Ducati's (no internet) but it didn't matter, this would be my next bike. I bought it because it looked cool!

The Ducati was fun, very few people knew what it was. "What is that?" "A Ducati." "Who makes it?'

I never saw another one like it then or since I owned it. It is one of my favorite motorcycle memories.

The same thing happened when I bought my Vision 8-Ball. I hadn't planned to buy a new bike but I saw the Vision 8-Ball, couldn't stop thinking about it and went back and bought it because it looked cool!

I haven't changed at all.

SongFan - 2012-08-28 10:42 PM Ahem, I hate to break this to you Steve, but you've changed a little.

dan camarco - 2012-08-28 10:42 PM Nice. do you still have that bike? people ask me when I ride my 74 Moto Guzzi eldo who makes that ? do they still make those?(answer well not the 74's)

No. I wish I did. After I sold it I never saw it again.

I did have a few more Ducati's since then. A 2000 750SS and a 2002 Monster S4. I sold the Monster S4 when I bought my 2004 Vegas.

rainryder - 2012-08-29 6:15 PM August 28th, 1974. Went to Bouncin' Bob Malley's on South Tacoma Way and on the floor was a black livery '74 Norton 850 Commando Roadster. I put a buck down on it and hauled ass home in my '65 Plymouth Sport Fury, 383 Commando with a 727 TorqueFlite and pulled my year old '73 Honda 450 DOHC out of the living room where it served as furniture along with a folded up mattress and traded it in on the Norton. My dad had died and left me a little dough, and I wrote a check for the balance after Bob was through administering a thorough financial reaming to my ignorant butt on the trade. But he gave me the '73 Guiness Book of World Records, and there was the Dunstall Norton in it, as fast as you could go at the time. I rode it around for a few hours, and pulled into a bar called "The Cloud Nine Tavern", also in South Tacoma, WA, where the Harleys lined up like cordwood. Back then you could get your tail whipped for riding into the wrong joint on a Jap bike, but the crowd was around the Commando in no time, and after awhile, someone handed me a schooner of beer. I drank it and went in and ordered another. The bartender asked what I was drinking, and I said "Rainier." About 9:00 or so it started to get dark, and this Joan Jett looking chick came up and asked if I'd take her for a ride. Oh yesss. No helmet laws then, and I got her home from my place about daylight. I swore that after a first day like that, I'd NEVER sell that bike. I was nineteen. I'm riding that thing to this day, took it out for dinner last night, my 38th anniversary, and ya know what? It still draws a crowd. A lot like my Vision. 38 years from now, I'll take it out for dinner too.

That does sound like a great memory!

I never saw an Italian or British bike growing up in Tucson.  Those are so cool!!  Everybody in my world had Hondas and Yamahas.  The guy next door had an old Harley he was restoring but I never heard it run.

It's a miracle that any of us made it through the 70's!

Really neat pic you have there Steve of you with your Ducati. You must have been a bit of a renegade in the Milwaukee area Harley country.

I lost some old pics in a trailer porch flood years ago. I do remember owning a 1970 Kawasaki Mach lll back in the mid '70's. The Mach lll was a three cylinder oil injected 2 stroke.

johnnyvision - 2012-08-30 6:40 PM Rollin Your amazing man. You ride to Alaska all over the country and some time in the past not the best touring bikes and you have been married for 37 years. All is very rare in this day an age. My hats off to you

Thanks Johnny!

Looking back I think it's been a good like. Good days out number bad days, very few regrets, happy and healthy.

Cometman - 2012-08-30 1:22 PM Here you go....

Story?

 Rollin' - 2012-08-30 10:00 PM I had a 1969 H1. My first high-side off a bike, that hurt.

 Steve, I bet it did.

 I had a 1973 Honda Elsinore (not my picture but the same bike I had) that I broke my ankle on, wearing tennis shoes when jumping berms.

rainryder - 2012-08-31 5:17 PM Rollin: What kinda oil didja use in yer Duck? ;0>

Olive!