Italian bikes are all about emotion.
If you want a sensible commuter or a bike to leave parked downtown, buy Japanese and follow the crowd.
If you want a bike to stir you every time you open the garage door, a bike you'll spend hours cleaning just for the sake of it, a bike that will make you shudder every time you hit the starter button, and grin like an idiot behind a dark visor on the open road, then you’ll be wanting a Ducati.
Remember, these are the same people who brought you Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Lamborghini, lunch time snoozes, red wine at lunch time, and Gucci style and class…
Our Ducati adventure started with a misty, early morning two-up ride on a Ducati GT750.
60 miles of open Conti mufflers, open carbs, and a speedo waving between 70 and maybe 100. Miles of course.
Sensory overload.
Enter that first Ducati 851 - for the price of a modest house in 1988, reading Performance Bikes magazines, and watching them bring an 888 to NZ for the summer road race champs.
Enter the 916. Has there ever been a more beautiful motorcycle?
And now, Ducatis are completely affordable, loads of fun, and much easier to own.
Based in Southland, the backyard of the original speed legend Burt Munro, we source parts from the best suppliers in New Zealand, Australia and Europe to keep your Ducati running like it should.
We’ve imported and parted out over 80 used Ducati’s, to keep your bike on the road.
Now our focus is to bring you all the new parts, the consumables, and the upgrades you’ll want - to keep your Ducati 100%.
And if you want a read:
You’ll find in our blog section some of the adventures we’ve had. From quality shed time making brake calipers as good as they can be, to upgrading clutches and fitting quick throttles.
From building Inappropriate Race bikes out of crashed touring bikes, to adding performance and servicing engines.
Mid-winter we’re refurbishing a low km Ducati 748SPS which is on its way to be an art installation for a year.
You can read about the rescue of a NZ Championship winning Ducati 748SP and its history, and how we got it back to the race track. Completely unloved, it was found in the back of a leaky garage with flat tires, and an even flatter battery.
There’s also the original water-cooled Spondon Ducati found in a barn in the UK, that’s due recommissioning and some gentle summer rides.
Or the rolling wreck of an 851 that looks like its lived in a swamp, water spouting out of the plug holes upon turning over the motor. That’s likely to be a post classic race bike.
Racing is the ultimate test of a bike. It’s thrashed to the red-line, revved non-stop, slammed down through changes, and upshifted hard. Racing challenges the brakes, suspension, chain and tires to the limit. If anything’s going to fail, it’ll fail at the track. And we’re talking racing with bikes that are near 30 years old.
We do love a challenge.
And if you’re here, and you love Ducati’s as much as us, maybe you do too.
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