Today was the first of three days that Ducati will be out at Fort Mason. I went early this morning and got to do the first two rides, before I needed to skedaddle. There was hardly anyone there. Both of the rides I did only had two people checking out bikes.
The route is through the Presidio, and it's quite a fun route. The cover many of the fun roads.
This time I rode the Cafe Scrambler. It's an amazingly fun bike--I liked it a lot. It's got just enough power that you aren't really asking for more, but is easy to apply. It handles really well, the brakes are nice because they upgrade them on the Cafe, and the clutch is still super easy. Fueling was smooth, the engine braking doesn't try to buck you off, and the gear box was not quite as smooth as the Panigale, but it was nice.
It's totally free, and the Ducati folks are all really nice (WAY WAY WAY nicer than the Suzuki demo cats--those dude were nasty grumpy bastards!). There are skate boards, guitars, lemonade, fancy coffee, and snacks. Lots of space for hanging out if you have to wait, but it didn't seem very busy at all today, or the time I went there when it was on HWY84. The Ducati demos that I've been on have been way different than the Japanese bike demos. They take you on fun roads, and while you don't get to fully open up the bikes we got to have a good time with them.
One of the guys did a custom job on his, and brought it along. It's the powder blue bike with the gold swing arm, frame, and wheels.
