Road trip....

I don’t get around much these days.  Certainly not anywhere near the traveling I was doing in my past life as a high-tech exec and I don’t miss the endless steam of airports, rental cars, hotels  and boardrooms even just a tiny bit.  But I had to make a business trip last week and it took me deep into the mountains of New Hampshire to BCM Ducati – where I was to meet Mike Cecchini with his bike for a custom exhaust fitting by Doug Cook of ARC Fabrication.  Doug’s working out of the BCM facility now and I took along another customer bike for a custom Ti exhaust as well as a trucklod of sample systems ranging from the stock Contis to a set of Spaggiari meggas, an old high pipe system by Syd Tunstall and a piece of the old Original Loudbike system left over from the crash.  I had mocked-up Mike’s bike with his 608mm forks and clip-ons, new Works billet Trackers, Patrick’s front wheel, Rob Marshall’s back wheel, a prototype rear seat and a gas tank and empty motor borrowed from Fran McDermott.  Not pretty – but complete enough to agree on things like ride height and position as well as to design two custom stainless exhaust systems.

I finally managed to get on the road at about 1:30 on Wednesday and rolled into US Customs at the Vermont border by about 5:30 PM and braced myself for the potential hassle.  True to form, I got the royal treatment and was sent back to the Canadian Customs folks for a “green slip” that would declare the two bikes for re-entry on my return.  As I rolled back into US Customs, I was greeted by a different agent and quizzed again as to my mission.  This time though, the focus was on me and not my cargo and I was shocked when he put me through a series of drug related questions and sent me inside for a secondary interview.  This stuff harkens back to “The Dark Period” and my first crack at a brutal alcohol and Valium addiction.  Back in 1990, the Ontario government funded rehab centers were oversubscribed so they pushed the overflow to private facilities like the one I attended at Beech Hill in New Hampshire.  I barely remember the intake process (of course), but no doubt a visa was arranged on my behalf and it stated the purpose of my 28-day stay in sunny New Hampshire.  Two years and three more treatment centers later, I was finally sober and working for a software company and clearing customs in Miami for a business meeting.  US Customs denied my entry ‘cause under Section 212 of the US Immigration Act, I was now deemed EXCLUDABLE given my history of alcohol and drug abuse as deduced from my visa of 1990.  Lumped in with the axe murderers and terrorists, I had to go through a lengthy and expensive process that produced a temporary visa that would allow me to enter the US (but only after a lengthy interview).  When that visa expired, I had to undergo a medical and psychological examination that resulted in a Class A medical status that supposedly would allow a normal entry process.  And for the most part, it has – although an agent in a bad mood could still demand a fresh medical and deny entry.    Which is what almost happened last week.  Other than the fact that the process makes me feel like a fucking criminal, what really pisses me off is that the hassles will continue now that my record has been freshly flagged and I can look forward to about another year of ugly border crossings.  With almost 13 years of sobriety this kind of nonsense is completely unnecessary and downright degrading.  ***RANT-MODE OFF***

So, I finally met up with Mike at a bar just outside of Laconia at around 8:30 and we spent a delightful couple of hours catching up and planning our visit with Doug.  Thursday morning we rolled into BCM around 10AM and were greeted by Doug, Leslie and the gang and spent about an hour or so socializing before we unloaded Mike’s bike and got into the process of measuring it up for Mike.  It’s cool working with someone as enthusiastic as Mike and a relief that he has a sense of vision (‘cause the bike really did look pretty ugly). But, at the end of the day, the riding position with the clipons mounted above the top clamps worked well for the man and with about a half inch of seat padding, he’ll be able to put both feet on the ground.  To accomplish this, I have the bike set-up a tad more conservatively than the Original Loud Bike, but I’ll be able to quicken things up a bit by raising the forks in the clamps another 6mm.  While Doug finished off a tasty silencer for a Ducati single vintage racer, Mike and I continued to go over the fine points of the bike design and ultimately decided to ditch the Darmah front fender in lieu of the traditional ’78 900SS style.  We also discovered that we needed to lower the footpegs for Mike by about a half inch.  By about noon, we had moved into the exhaust system realm and began by fitting the standard Contis - which looked fabulous with the now pushed forward rear sub-frame.  This also gave us the opportunity to start measuring clearances so we could design a set of custom stainless headers that would hug the frame and covers more closely and worked up a megaphone approach that very closely replicated the NCR Endurance system (although now Mike has Doug working on a replication of the 70’s MV Augusta meggas).

Somewhere in the afternoon, Christopher Godfrey from Georgetown, MA dropped by the shop with his very tasty Harris-framed TT1. 
 

By the end of the day, we’d finished off Mike and Neville’s bikes and the bevel went back into the van for the trip home.  I had a chance to hang around the shop over a few brews with the BCM gang while we alternated our discussions between the Paul Smart Replica awaiting PDI and an S4R with the newly installed Arrow full-system.  Great crew, who made me feel welcome and right at home thoughout my visit.  In fact, I’ve nothing but good things to say about the BCM group and kudos go out to Leslie Grossman for creating such a cool and welcoming environment.

Mike and I spent the evening reviewing the project over an excellent dinner at The Black Cat Café and then regrettably ended up at Goodfellas to continue the conversation in an environment amenable to chain-smoking.  Regrettable, ‘cause Wednesday night was Karaoke Night although the selection of music was far from the traditional fare.  Can you actually screw-up a Karaoke version of any AC/DC tune?  Hey!  Turn it up!  My ears aren’t bleeding yet!  Am I getting old, or what?

Back on the road early the next day for a breathtaking drive through the mountains (not just the scenery – it was -24 and I had the wrong thermostat in the van).  Canada Customs had their shot at me as well; complete with a total search of my van by a stunning looking French Canadian agent.  No body cavity search, though.  Sigh………

Content: 1987 Ducati 750 F1, 1974 Ducati 750 Sport, Ducati Harris TT2,  loudbike, Steve Munro

Comments

[Will Ritchie]

Nicely written you may like to have a look at the bike stories on http://www.umgweb.com