My 2004 Ducati Multistrada got stolen 7+ years ago, exactly one year to the day that I'd gotten it. The Philly police detectives assigned to the case laughed at me when I brought them video footage of it being stolen; I figured I'd never see it again...
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FFW to July 5th, '26, I'd just gotten out of the hospital and I found it on Facebook Marketplace:
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The tank grips, luggage racks, melted rubber mark on the exhaust all matched my old Duc. I reached out to the seller and got crickets. A couple days later, the listing disappeared and I figured it was again gone for good.
10 days later and it shows up again, this time, with a new seller and he's asking $1500; I reached out and got a response:
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Long story short, I got it back, wit no shortage of drama.
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I've started writing again (I worked in motorcycle roadracing & flat track from 2010-2017 as a writer, digital media consultant and PR hack) and started a substack to chronicle its restoration:
Maverick's Substack | Substack and fired up all of my old social media channels. I've been critically ill and unemployed for the past year and a half & it's unclear when or if I'll be able to return to work, so a friend and former industry colleague started a Spotfund to
Save the Ducati and I've started reaching out to former industry contacts and colleagues to see if they'd be interested in partnering on this project. It's going to need quite a lot. Fortunately, the bike had an immobilizer and the thief was never able to hot wire it; he only put as many miles on it as it took to wheel away from my flat. Unfortunately, it's been sitting in the elements for 7+ years and is thoroughly trashed from exposure and neglect. I've made a spreadsheet of the parts I'll need to replace and it's going to need to be refinished, as well as have a new key set, ecu and who knows how many electrical components replaced, as well as several body parts that are now missing.
I'll start working on it this weekend and give it an initial cleanup, then I'll start ordering parts and work out a game plan for the finish. For the latter, I build and finish guitars currently, so I can keep that in house. I just need to decide if I want to keep it in stock, PPG 473101 Ducati Red, or mix it up and give it a little pizzaz. I haven't had a serious motorcycle project since I worked in racing, so this should be fun, as long as my broken body allows me to do the work.