Hello from Buckner MO

Old guy who is new to Ducati. Truth be told I started riding in the 60s Drag raced my first Honda 350 and later on a Kawasaki H2. Mechanic at a Kawasaki shop during college. Built a HD 52 Panhead chopper - happily that stage in my life is in the distant past. Spent 20 years flying for the Marine Corps and owning various Japanese liter bikes plus one Sportster. None of them handled worth a darn. Always thought Ducati was an exotic bike that cafe racers owned. I've always wanted a street tracker but the factories wouldn't build a decent one that didn't weigh too much. Went almost 20 years without a bike in the garage until a couple of years back the wife said it would be okay to get one so I started building a street tracker using a 03 Sportster. Then Indian marketed their FTR1200 Custom and eventually a production model - that was the bike for me! Until they began ratcheting up the price after announcing MSRP. I decided that was not the company I wanted to do business with so I landed at our local Ducati Dealer. I have my sights set on an 821 Monster and will use the extra 5K from the Indian deal to finish the Sportster build. I'm looking forward to my test ride - as soon as some of this damn snow melts. Other hobbies: guns, bird hunting, english setters, wood working and model trains.
Robin