Where did it go?
Most of it on the highway – with more 10-hour trips to Montreal, Toronto , and Ottawa than I care to remember. Some of it disappeared in the strange fog that came with a failed attempt to switch away from the medication I’ve been on for the past 10 years. A good chunk of it was spent on the keyboard; doing weeks of analysis and business planning.
On the upside, I enjoyed an almost weekly ride on the ’57 Triumph with my local buddy Peter on his ’56 BSA. We developed a one hour route that, on good days – rewarded us with laughter and scraped foot pegs and on bad days, left us frustrated but somehow mostly fulfilled.
But most of my summer lies on the highways north.
I forgot to post about an excellent encounter with a talented builder during my time at the Show-up, Shut-up and Ride event at Calabogie this past June. Walt Siegle fabricated this astoundingly unique and capable Ducati Monster-based custom last winter – and the happy new owner spent the three days beating the snot out of it on Calabogie’s three mile course. You see a lot of Monster-based customs, but most of them stay true to the donor bike’s naked origins. Counting Robert Trottier’s Canadian Thunder ride, this is the second Monster I’ve seen that looks more the Supersport part than cruiser and like Robert’s racer; it gets around a racetrack in a big hurry. What really set this bike apart though is the amount of custom fabrication, attention to detail and overall visual impact. It plays to the early bevel-twin Ducati theme and does so in a way – in my opinion – far more faithful to the original than the Sport Classics.
The tank is handmade by Siegl as are most of the brackets and fixtures as well as the exhaust. It’s fast, it handles and it looks like no Ducati I’ve seen. Oh, yeah – it’s loud too.
There’s an obvious edge to it that you don’t normally see with Ducati customs and given Walt’s focus on Harley-based customs, it’s no surprise. And while the Monster doesn’t fit the stereotype, neither does Siegl. After we chatted about the bike for about 30 minutes, we decide to hit the track together; he on his 996 and me on the F1. I didn’t have a chance. He simply disappeared once he got some heat in his tires and I almost tucked the front twice trying to stay with him.
Not your typical Harley custom builder...
Walt has a shop up in New Hampshire housed in a heritage factory, where he meticulously crafts one-off customs for a growing clientele. Check him out at http://www.waltsiegl.com/
And Me? Back on the road tomorrow to complete a summer’s worth of planning by starting a new business.
The plot thickens...
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