A beautiful day - barring gale force gusts - which kept many cars at home. Shot the loop from Auckland NZ around the Coromandel Peninsula (anti-clockwise); about 470km round trip. Lovely way to get better acquainted with my new Italian girlfriend
Nice pic .. I had to google the 659 monster as I’d never heard of it before . I see that it was built for the Australia market only
Great picture, Great ride. Having done both, I certainly prefer riding the Coromandel on a Ducati to walking over that bridge in the Gorge. Enjoy the summer.
Yeah, we get it too. Only downside of these limited market bikes is trying to find a dealer with parts info. It's a great bike but at 100kg I'm pushing the fork springs enough to cause mid-corner chatter on the goat tracks that pass for our highways. Auckland dealer can't help with uprated springs unless "you bring it in, we'll strip the forks, measure them, and see what we can find". Um... no. Turns out this bike shares all but its top end with the 797 so I have to do research when I want anything. She's worth it though as in some of the really twisty roads we have her wheelbase etc is perfect
I have visited your country on a couple of occasions and found the people and country fantastic, much friendlier than those knuckle headed cousins across the pond! My cousins late husband opened my eyes to Ducati when I was a youngster, he used to race them, often at the Wanganui races, unfortunately he died doing what he loved most. I plan to visit again, once all this Covid nonsense is over.
Yeah, it's part of that cycle/walkway that threads the area. Almost worth getting off a Ducati to do... almost
I spent much of the 80s in Wanganui - never missed Cemetary Circuit once. Yeah, we have our challenges like everywhere else - but overall we're pretty lucky here. Living in Auckland now, the Coromandel area to the east/south-east is within an hour's ride and brilliant. If you get over and plan to hire a bike or something let us know - if it suited your plans the Mrs and I'd be happy to play riding tour guide on a weekend
Oparara arches in the north west south island, with my happy wife! Castle Point, east coast wairarapa, north island. The beautiful Hokianga harbour, 1hr from me with the monstrous sand dunes on the other side. You can get a boat ride over there to go sand tobogganing into the water if you are game!