Because I am foolish and hate money: I just added a Ducati Desert X to the stable.

When I was a teenager I fell in love with cars. Very shortly thereafter I fell in love with motorcycles.

For about 10 years I was motorcycle-only while living first in South Korea and then the United States. I have ridden through virtually every conceivable weather condition save tornadoes; I've ridden through typhoons, snowstorms, ice storms, hail, haboobs, 120F heat, -30F cold, whatever. I've probably owned 60 motorcycles over the past 25 years. 

In late 2019 I was in far north Queensland, Australia, and spent a day off-road riding on a couple Africa Twins. The AT is a special bike to me: When I lived in Korea a buddy owned one of the originals and I'd swap bikes with him occasionally and ride that one and really quite liked it. Thus when it turned out that I liked the new one too, when I made it back to the US I bought one. It has been great to me for over 5 years now and continues to be a champ, but... But.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Ducati. I've owned a few of them now (including my current SFV4) and, even though they're more expensive and finicky than their Japanese counterparts, just cannot dismiss the "soul" of the bike. I've said for a couple years that if I were to sell my Africa Twin it would be because I bought a Desert X.

Since jet lag is a cruel mistress I found myself browsing Craigslist before 04:00 this morning. Lo and behold: After months of looking, a nicely-appointed Desert X just popped up locally at a very reasonable price. The seller answered my email by 6AM and I made plans to go look at it.

Well, the deposit was paid and in a couple hours I'll get a ride to go pick it up and bring it back home.

Anyone want to buy a nicely kitted-out DCT Africa Twin? 

I've seen that listing. You got a cracking deal.

I'm honestly pretty shocked. I missed out on one for $12,500 because I was out of the country and I'd been looking for the right one since then. Unfortunately everything has been $15k+, with a couple in the 13s but way out of state (requiring either a long FIDO or expensive shipping). This one popped up at $10,900 with an excellent service history and virtually all the modifications I'd want. We settled on $10,500 and I was happy to part with the cash and take the keys.

This one's going to be in the stable for a good while, I feel!

Ducati has done my wallet dirty a couple times now. I loved the original Streetfighter but the 1098 engine wasn't my favorite. Then Ducati built that absolutely brilliant V4 and I said that if they put that V4 in a new Streetfighter I'd be a buyer. Well, they did and I was.

Then I sold my MTS1200 for the Africa Twin but wished that Ducati had something to go toe-to-toe with the AT, particularly if it brought back the Dakar styling of the Cagiva Elefant. So here we are. Maybe I should get some Lucky Strike decals made for the DDX. (Actually, shoot, I just might do that. Looks like there are even ready-made decal sets.)

Wow, a Desert X for under $11k, enjoy!

I'm calling the authorities... You stole that bike for 10.5 and are bold enough to post your crime on the intranet! 

Nice get. Ducati makes really appealing motorcycles. I might need a multistrada some day.

Big fan of the DX. I wish we had better trails for a bigger bike like that in the NY area, but it tends to get tight and techy pretty rapidly. Still love em.

I don't think you hate money, per se; you just really like spending money.

I also have this problem. 

In reply to fatallightning :

Bike nap aside, I love that you've gone for the Cagiva Elefant throwback decals. I'm strongly considering them for my DDX. I loved the Elefant in the '90s when it was CaGiVa rocking the Ducati engine and winning at Dakar. I once saw one for sale locally (about 14 years ago) but didn't have the budget to buy it. Regardless, I think it's splendid that Ducati took styling cues from the Elefant and it would be super fun to go with the Lucky Strike / Lucky Explorer livery on the DDX as a tribute! 

In reply to clutchsmoke :

The MTS is a really excellent machine. I had an MTS1200 and loved riding it but it didn't do offroad stuff well; I wanted more trail flexibility, which led to my Africa Twin. That being said, the MTS is a brilliant sport/touring bike with some DS capacity and I'm given to understand that the newer ones are much more competent off-road. I remember well when Carlin Dunne won Pike's Peak on a Multistrada and set lap records on the way; that's kind of what sold me on that model. (Of course, he later met his end on Pike's Peak while riding a Streetfighter V4 and I bought one of those too.)

I mounted the Mosko soft bags on the DDX. While I dig the simplicity of just having a Rotopax mount, I regularly use my DS bikes for errands and like to be able to carry stuff in saddlebags. 

It might be nice to have hard bags like I have on the Africa Twin. I can buy a set of Mosko back frames and mount them on a set of Tusk boxes, I'd imagine. That would do the trick.