I bought a 748 after 3 months of learning on a 1000cc BMW airhead. The Ducati's not a death sentence if you're careful. It's beautiful, the sound is intoxicating, and the ride is a thrill. Within two years I was doing track days on it and the bike gets attention everywhere it goes. Extra creds for losing the chicken strips, too.
That being said, considering what you're going through with the 930, you'll want a more reliable, inexpensive bike. I mentioned vintage bikes earlier, and I'll post examples of vintage cafe racers below (from
www.caferace.com). Clean vintage street bikes are easily converted by installing low clubman bars or clip-ons, a solo cafe racer seat, loud pipes, and better shocks. Start with a Honda and you've got a pretty reliable, relatively cheap bike with lots of style that's fun to ride.
Alternatively, and less of potential headaches, is to go down to Bellevue Kawasaki and look at the Korean 250cc V-twin sportbikes that they're starting to sell. It think they're less than 4K and look like a lot of fun. I'm considering one as a dedicated track bike. I'll add a pic of that as well. This stuff's fun to think about, eh?
I race one of these (just not as pretty!):
BMW airheads make for simple, reliable cafe racers:
The holy grail, a 72 Ducati 750GT:
A Honda CB750:
And here's an awesome bike on Ebay that would look grreat as a cafe racer, the classic '67 Honda CB450 "Black Bomber":
[img]
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads8/Black+bomber1157962824.jpg[/img]
And finally, the Korean sportbikes I mentioned:
