From the Department of Better Late Than Never; I was obviously delighted to see Nick Ienatsch's piece on Cycle World's on-line edition and with the chaos of my life these days (I ain't complaining), I've only just now had the time to post.
Many thanks to Nick for the kind words, Palmer for building the bike, Bar for offering it to Nick and Alex Bilo for the great pics. More on the event - and additional pics on my Flicker page.
Bar's offered Nick another ride - this time, at the VRRA Vintage Festival at Mosport in August, so the Yellow Bike is back on my lift for a belly pan and some lock-wiring...
Enjoy the read!
Dennis Curtis achieved a good bit of notoriety in the 60's & 70's as a Vincent road racer and builder of frames for the Stevenage twins. In fact, Jay Leno has a Curtis Vincent in his collection and my friend Bar Hodgson has the makings of two.. Dennis moved away from frame building when he began his career with Honda, but about 8 years ago, reopened his shop (CMR) and achieved superb results with his TZ 750 frames. His workmanship is incredible and with a strong racing background, his stuff tends to work really well.
Over the past few years, Dennis has been banging around the idea of doing a Ducati frame and in the past couple of months that discussion (with me) has gotten pretty active. Last week - based on a couple of long discussions over the phone and a visit to my shop, he decided to take the plunge and build a copy of Palmer's amazing Yellow Bike F1 racer. For those of you who don't know why Palmer's Yellow Bikes are so special, here's the scoop: Over 10 years and close to as many championships in the CCS series, Palmer developed a very potent F1-based racer that could run with the modern middleweight superbikes. I rode an early version when we met at Grattan some 10 years ago and when he decided to sell the racer back in 2010, I jumped on the opportunity. I spent the winter making it look like a loudbike and taking some of the edge off of it - and when I rode it at Grattan in '11, I was blown away by how much faster it made me. Palmer made two very important changes to the geometry: Taking the steering angle in (a lot) and running a longer swing arm. This approach has the effect of moving rider and engine center forward about two inches - giving the Yellow Bike entirely modern, front-end biased handling and feedback. It's stable as hell, turns on a dime and gives you $0.09 change. The front end feel is well beyond what were used to with even the best of the vintage TT1, DB1 and Harris frames. Palmer made another copy, I sold mine to Bar (intending to build another one) and then I built #3 for a customer in Australia who jumped on it and immediately beat his best lap times (on a Bayliss) at Philip Island.
We knew the package was really potent, but when Cycle World contributor Yamaha Champions Riding School owner Nick Ienatsch rode YB#1 at Mosport this year, he came back to the pits and raved about it. On Sunday that weekend, the only person lapping Mosport faster than Nick on the Yellow Bike was mufti-time Canadian Superbike Champion Jordan Szoke on his works BMW. To quote Nick: "...a bike that can be described simply as: A weapon."
Dennis would like to do a run of five kits: which include the frame (dimensionally identical to Yellow Bike I), CroMo swing arm and rising rate linkages, axles, adjusters and engine mount bolts. $5,200.00 USD is the target price. The frame will be 2V Ducati engine agnostic - accommodating everything from the small-blocks to the Dual Spark big-blocks. There will be an alloy tank available for about $1,100 and glass bodywork at competitive prices as well. He'ls open to making the battery and breather boxes and tach/fairing bracket as well - and already makes a nice set of rearsets. One of the cool things about the package is that you can pretty much bolt anything to it in terms of accessories/wheels/suspension/brakes. As long as you maintain the prescribed triple clamp offset, axle center to steering head distance and swing arm angle, it'll work just as well as the other Yellow Bikes.
These things make killer vintage racers and outrageously competent track bikes. If you're getting ready to build for the new Australian twins class, Canadian Period 4 Vintage, or CCS / AHRMA in the US - then this would be the chassis of choice.
We have two people committed to buying a kit as of today and need three more to start production. If you're keen - or simply want to know more, just hit me at steve@loudbike.com
I have NO COMMERCIAL INTEREST in this venture - I'm just keen as hell to work with Dennis and agreed to give him a hand getting the project off the ground. ...and maybe build another Yellow Bike for me in the process...
Comments and feedback (and orders) welcome and appreciated!
No one who attended 2013 Ducati TT & F1 Symposium would argue that it would be hard to top last year’s Jimmy Adamo Memorial celebration, so this year we’re not even going to try. Back to our roots for 2014, with a more laid-back approach that simply focuses on Ducati TTs, F1s and their variants. Expect to see some freshly completed projects, a few more works in progress and the usual collection of purpose-built, hard-edged Ducati Pantah based racers from the 80s.
As usual, you can find us in Garage #26 - South Garage, Infield Paddock, New Hampshire Motor Speedway - and we’ll be mixing racing with parade laps, static displays and some serious bench racing.
Schedule
Saturday, August 30th 6th Annual TT & F1 Symposium set-up. LRRS racing
Sunday, August 3st 6th Annual TT & F1 Symposium, Parade Laps. Jimmy Adamo Memorial Twins Race - LRRS.
Monday, Sept 1st 6th Annual TT & F1 Symposium, Parade Laps. Vintage/Classic Races, USCRA
Accommodations
Concord New Hampshire is located 15 minutes from the track has an array of hotels at different cost levels. Camping also available at NHMS.
Travel
Direct national/international flights into Boston Massachusetts – approximately 1 hour drive to Concord.
All Ducati and Ducati-powered vintage racers welcome! In fact, we’re nuts about anything raced during that period, so if you have something interesting from the 80s, bring it along.
About the TT & F1 Symposium
Lou Saif held the first Ducati TT & F1 Symposium; an informal gathering of Ducati TT and F1 aficionados and machines at his shop in Queens, NY. While the event has grown to attract an International audience, it maintains the grass-roots flavor that has made it so popular and continues to celebrate Ducati's 2V belt-drive racers from the turbulent 80’s period of the Ducati's history.
Past TT & F1 Symposiums:
1st Annual TT & F1 Symposium Gallery (Marcus Lara)
2nd Annual TT & F1 Symposium Gallery(Vicki Smith)
3rd Annual TT & F1 Symposium Gallery (Vicki Smith)
4th Annual TT & F1 Symposium Gallery (Scott Kearney /Bobby Kuhl)
5th Annual TT & F1 Symposium Gallery (Scott Kearney /Bobby Kuhl)
6th Annual TT & F1 Symposium Gallery (Steve Munro)
More info and updates at www.ducatittandf1.com.
The last mile on any project is always he toughest, but yesterday I breathed an immense sigh of relief as I glued the seat pad onto the freshly painted tail section and marked the completion of a four month project to convert my old Ducati TT1 to street trim for its new owner (based in Miami).
The whole process seemed to be counter to my usual style - converting street bikes to race and track machines - and there were times where I felt like I'd lost my way, but the finished project put a smile on my face when I rolled it out into the sun yesterday afternoon.
Lotsa drama, plenty of set-backs and no shortage of stress - all good fodder for a story at a later date.
What I love about the finished product is that it's still a capable track bike - the lights and tag holder/tail light/indicators all come off in less than 10 minutes.
Plenty of hi-ez pics on my Flickr site.
Long term readers will appreciate how remarkable it was that I didn't pack in the rain.
But I did head off westward with some trepidation knowing that I'd have to explore to source of what might be a serious oil leak in the not so dry clutch of Bar's new motor for Ducati 750 F1 based Yellow Bike #I. At last year's DOCC event, the old motor completely destroyed itself at the top of Mosport's back straight, so Gary Palmer had put together what was essentially a "blue-printed" 800 motor with a dry-clutch conversion, slightly modified stock pistons and the repaired (by J Precision) F1 heads from the old motor. The repaired heads now had the smaller valves, ST2 cams and CNC porting used on the converted heads - and the milder, 11:1 set-up dyno'd in at 85 WHP with ample torque from as low as 3,500 RPM.
However, in the 5 week period between the time that I picked-up the bike from Gary and early last week, Bar had reported that a couple of drops of oil had worked down to the bottom of the clutch cover and I feared the worst. The plan was to warm it up, drop the break-in oil, check the machine over and then dig into the clutch to see where the leak was coming from.. Gary's process for doing the wet clutch conversion is pretty slick (no pun intended), but there are 3 opportunities for potential oil contamination - and I'd had to deal with this back when I originally put the newly restored motor back into service about 5 years ago. Sure enough, when I got the clutch basket off, I discovered that I was going to have to load the back of the inner spacer, shaft splines and base of the clutch nut with 3-Bond to (hopefully) seal-up the odd collection of parts and seals that were keeping the clutch dry. We wouldn't know if I was successful 'till we fired the bike the next day at the track.
So, I rolled into our pit Friday evening to find Paul Murphy setting up his stuff in our area and putting finishing touches on his stunning Aprilia 125-framed KTM 640-powered creation that Cycle World contributor, Yamaha Champions Riding School and Sport Riding Techniques author Nick Ienatsch had flown up to test. 'Stunning' doesn't do Paul's bike justice. A talented millwright by trade, he made everything required to marry all the components together to form a well-balance and effective weapon that looked the business. I gave Paul the run of my canopy and left the Bimota DB1 in the trailer.
Nick turned out to be an energetic, down-to-earth character with a wicked sense of humor and some great ideas that he shared with us in his opening talk (Five Reasons We Crash) after the riders' meeting Saturday AM, but frankly - I was stressing over Bar's machine and anxious to see if I could pick-up where I left off last July. While my first session was kind of ragged, I could see potential for the weekend and after starting up the Yellow Bike and finding no evidence of an oil leak, I set out looking for speed and rhythm in the second session. Two things were apparent: The little DB1 and I were rockin' and the track had developed some pretty serious on-line bumps during the winter. In the 3rd session, I discovered that, for the first time in maybe 5 years, I had my good friend Fran McDermott in hand and after trading spots a couple of times, I was able to shake him off and put some distance between me and his TT1. Cool.
I finished the morning by setting off on Bar's Yellow Bike to see if I could puke oil all over the track or break the motor. Neither happened and I was pleasantly surprised that the new 85HP motor Gary built had great power and torque everywhere and was a blast to ride. The sun was shining, the DB1, Mosport and I were bonding and Bar had a solid ride in his future. Lunch was served and life was good.
But not for Paul. The little Aprilia was running lean despite a series of jetting changes and after lunch we were starting to look at the float level as the culprit. …Or maybe the FCR needed a little vacuum operated fuel pump (as used on my TT1 and on the Yellow Bike). Theories we knocked around, and between rides on a ZX and an Aprilia RSV, Nick suggested expanding the float bowl capacity with a meter long length of fuel line downstream of the fuel tap (great idea).
Towards the end of the afternoon. Bar noticed Nick eying the Yellow Bike and offered him a ride on the machine and, with an enthusiastic “Yes, please!” I went through the basics with him and we set off together in the next Green session. When we were flagged out, I put my head seriously down and tried to cut the smoothest, fastest laps I could and was surprised that Nick stayed behind me for 2 or 3 laps. When he did go by me, it was on the outside of turn 3 with a happy thumbs-up as he whistled by (..sigh..). He then simply ran away and hid.
I came in after 15 minutes (‘cause I’m an out-of-shape old guy after all) and was in the pit when he came back in - and after he popped the bike into the Baxley, let out a “Holy Shit!” loud enough that Bar could hear it inside the motor home. He liked it. Actually, he was totally unprepared for the handling Gary Palmer had developed over 10 years and 7 championships and simply amazed that it worked so well. As a bonus, Nick sat down with me and gave me some excellent feedback on my riding – stuff that would make me even faster the following day. Double-cool!
While Nick and I were out on the track, Bar decided totest the Aprilia’s fuel flow and discovered that the tank had no vent. Looking at the trick little billet fuel cap, I noticed that there was an outer o-ring sealing the cap to the flange and an inner o-ring sealing the twist/lock mechanism to the cap and realized that pulling the inner ring would create a vent very similar to that used on the DB1 tank. Paul looked to be back in business and we finished the day optimistic on just about every level.
I went over the Yellow Bike and the DB1 before dinner and was delighted to find absolutely nothing requiring my attention. I was fast again, Bar was happy, Nick loved the Yellow Bike, Paul’s problem looked to be solved, dinner was served and life was good.
Nick’s presentation Saturday night was a revelation. So, what’s the Kool-Aid he’d have us drink? More than my aging brain could fully absorb, but the two big takeaways for me were this: Slowing the bike down with the throttle affords the rider little control. Slowing down and TURNING the bike with the front brake is the best way to make the right stuff happen. The guy said he was breaking in every turn at Mosport. Hell, I only really brake for T5. Body position WILL make you faster. Does it work? Sure does. After following me for a couple of laps Saturday, his observations were that I was smooth, that I hit my apexes consistently and that I had good corner speed. And that I was lazy.
The bumps in T3 and T1 were slowing me down, so I started applying the body position stuff late Saturday afternoon and it was making a big difference mid corner and surprisingly, on my exits. As for the braking, I began the process and saw the potential. But that was gonna be the hardest of the two to implement. It comes down to feedback.
The Yellow Bike communicates traction status to the rider in a loud, well-articulated voice. The Bimota on the other hand (particularly the front end) gives it to you in a soft mumble – like an Italian lover whispering sweet nothings in your ear. And in my opinion, the DB1’s a step up from the TT1, which in turn is a big improvement over my old 853 F1. But old guys like us have tuned our ears to the sweet murmurings of our Italian mistresses, so Nick’s braking principals can be applied.
And with this in mind, it’s no surprise that Nick didn’t go as fast on the DB1 as he did on the Yellow Bike F1. On 4 year old Pirelli slicks he was passed only one rider in the fastest Green group; 7 time Canadian Superbike champ Jordan Szoke.
On the DB1 – with more power and fresh rubber he was still awfully quick, but held back by a lack of clear front end feedback.
But I’ve gotten ahead of myself. The reason Nick was riding the loudbikes was that Paul’s Aprilia was continuing to give him fits. With the fuel issue sorted out, Sunday’s session saw him coming back in with a coolant leak – which was traced to a couple of pin holes in the rad caused by solid rubber mounts. I sent him off to Canadian Tire for the only fix I could think of; Rislone Liquid aluminum rad sealant. And it worked, but when Paul went out just before the lunch break, something let go in the motor and the day was finished.
Which sucked for Paul; but I couldn’t help admire the way he kept his cool under pressure and continued to methodically work though the issues. Paul’s pronouncement left Nick wondering where the feature story was. He looked over at me a few minutes later and told me that the Yellow Bike was now the story and asked Alex to start shooting the two bikes and over the lunch break, I gave Nick the background on the Yellow Bike and Gary Palmer. As I was talking about why Gary did what he did to the F1 geometry, it occurred to me that a ride on the DB1 would provide some insight and a solid baseline for 1980s handling at its best.
So we managed to perhaps salvage the weekend; with a story about a Vintage Ducati 750F1 that handled like a modern sportbike and an entertaining trip down memory lane on a well-sorted, old school Bimota DB1 track bike.
For everyone but Paul, the weekend was outstanding. Bar got a bunch of quality laps on the Yellow Bike and a session on his Vincent, I learned a bunch from Nick and saw a return to my old form, Fran & I got a long overdue rematch and Nick seemed to enjoy the track, the club and the experience of riding a couple of loudbikes. The DOCC ran a clean event with only a couple of caution flags and the ambulance only rolled when Jen Waterland slipped and sprained her ankle during the riders meeting.
A special thanks to Paul Murphy for bringing Nick Ienatsch up to Mosport and to Nick for showing us all how much riding potential we were leaving on the table.
Plenty more hi-resolution pics (by Alex Bilo) on my Flickr Page
Well, not me at Phillip Island - but the Yellow Bike III (840cc Ducati 750 F1) made its debut at the island yesterday with new owner Basil in the saddle. By all accounts, bike and rider bonded nicely and the machine performed flawlessly.
So I breathed a great sigh of relief as I read Basil's email this morning.
It's crazy building a bike like this for a guy who lives on the other side of the planet, but immensely rewarding to get feedback like "I love the bike; it's raw and intoxicating to ride. Held a line well and finished corners nicely. The suspension set up was near perfect. It sounds magnificent and didn't miss a beat."
Kudos to Gary Palmer for building an amazingly civilized 103hp motor to power the package!
Hi-rez pics of the machine HERE
It's 2014 and I still don't have a flying car.
Or a household robot or a teleporter for that matter.
No. We have smart phones so we can snap selfies and type barely intelligible messages of dubious importance with our thumbs while we eat, drive, walk and socialize. We check ourselves out at the store, pump our own gas (and they've disconnected the auto-fill mechanism lest we drive off while texting yet another earth-shatteringly important, unintelligible message without returning the nozzle to the pump) and spend countless hours arguing with automated attendants: “English! ENGLISH!”
No ray guns (not necessarily a bad thing), no space colonies, no jet packs and no goddam flying cars. High speed travel? We suffer the tedium and humiliation of airport security overseen by TSA employees who couldn't catch a cold; let alone a terrorist - and then jam ourselves into a pressurized tin can with a couple hundred over-stressed travelers intent on furiously typing barely intelligible messages of dubious importance with their thumbs on the personal electronic devices.
Yes – I’m getting old… And speaking of old and decrepit; where’s all that bio-tech that was to replace my broken and worn-out body parts?
I mean – Blade Runner was set in 2018! That’s only 5 years from now and by then we were supposed to have flying cars (and really bad pollution, rebellious replicants and a population problem). We’re not even close to realizing most of the cool tech people envisaged back in the 80s. Except maybe some of the computer stuff - but there’s a concept that’s gone sideways..
I know my computers are way more powerful and faster than I ever imagined, but all that power shrunk into this impressively compact package and what passes for hi-speed internet service are being horribly degraded by the sickening amount of badly formed Java scripted advertising we’re forced to wade through on 90% of the websites we encounter on a daily basis. That and the hundreds of little apps that track our every move as we attempt to navigate our way though the garbage dump that was once the brave new World Wide Web.
The future ain’t what it used to be..
Unfortunately some of the darker visions have come to pass.. Big Brother is indeed watching us – as are Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, eBay and just about everyone else with enough folding green. And Fukushima’s showing us that maybe the China Syndrome wasn’t such a far-out concept after all.
Given my age, the future did look kind of Jetsonian, and I read enough sci-fi to really believe that teleporting, mass space travel, and robots (“Danger, Will Robinson!”) were going to be accessible to me in my later years. And being involved in the tech industry as early as 1979, I wrongly believed that computers would give us such massive productivity gains that our lives would be far easier with them than without.
Yeah, it’s 2014 and I’ve become a grumpy old man bitter about a future promised but never delivered. But you’d be bitter too if you were promised a flying car.
So, what does this have to do with loud, fast Italian motorcycles? Nothing. There weren't any motorcycles in my childhood vision of the future.
Who needs a bike when you've got a flying friggin' car?
Damn, I’ve had a lot of bikes in my life. In order of appearance:
...The Dark Period...
I still have the TT1 and the DB1 and will likely hang onto them for a while.
But the bike that changed my life was the 900SS that I bought for myself as my 1st year sobriety reward – and shortly after I made the purchase I met Fran McDermott, saw his 750 desmo bevel vintage racer and decided that I needed to take a trip down Racer Road.
Both the process of transforming the machine and the experience of learning to race at the ‘podium’ level rewarded me with a whole batch of new friends, a commitment to a higher level of mechanical skills and a new level of confidence and humility. The bike and I spent the first 8 years of my new life together and it seemed that we both improved at the same rate. Christened ‘the loudbike’ by the tribe I ran with, the moniker has stuck to me and my bikes to this day. But after I rode Fran’s TT1 in the first of a series of vintage endurance races, the old bevel twin seemed a heavy and slow steering antique. So I bought a 750 F1 and began to transform it into a full-on racer and a year later; sold the loudbike to another racer. When he crashed it in Mosport’s turn 2, it flipped at least 5 times before bursting into flames and burning to a crisp.
I thought it didn’t affect me but by the end of that season, I had started to write about the bike and my connection to vintage Ducati hot-rods. The loudbike blog was born. The bike still affects me and I miss it horribly. Maybe it was that period of intense personal growth; maybe it’s tragic demise.
What’s left of the right-hand exhaust (shown flying through the air in the crash photo) hangs on the wall in my workshop; reminding me of one of the most intense and rewarding periods of my life.
For the uninitiated, the original Yellow Bike was a Ducati 750F1 racer that Gary Palmer raced to seven CCS Lightweight Superbike championships and over a ten year period, developed into the most potent F1 racer in North America (if not on the planet). 93hp on tap, radically altered fame geometry and engine/rider placement, light weight and very yellow, the machine was too good to pass up when he offered it for sale 3 years ago. I bought it without even knowing what the price was. I set out on a six month project to civilize it, give it a cosmetic makeover and for my old 851 F1. Gary was so inspired by the new Yellow Bike I that he began building Yellow Bike II before the paint was even dry on my project.
I let Bar Hodgson ride it the first time out (at Mosport) and he had to have it. I got to run it the rest of that season and the machine blew me (and everyone else) away when I took it out to Grattan Raceway and Barber in its new 840cc configuration. Big power, tons of torque and brilliant handling in a 309lb package..
Yellow Bike III was supposed to be my bike. A replacement for the one that went to Bar. I had the original frame from my first F1, a seat and tank from Gary Palmer’s original spares collection (authentically yellow) and a few other bits stashed away waiting for the right time. The frame had already been modified by Palmer and I figured when I was done with the TT1 and DB1 projects, I’d start accumulating all the bits required to complete the project and pick away at it for a few years.
Then Basil called.
He saw a couple of bikes I had for sale on vintagemotorcyclesforsale.ca and talk somehow evolved to TTs and F1s. A couple of calls and emails later, I agreed to build Yellow Bike III for him using the bits I’d already stashed away.
And 10 months later (just last week), the completed bike went into a box and off to Australia.
Palmer and I met at Grattan Raceway back in August to give the bike a good thrashing prior to shipment (it’s going to lead that kind of life anyway) and came away from the day delighted with the bike’s performance. Not that the day wasn’t filled with drama.. Sketchy weather meant that Palmer didn’t really get down until late morning and as soon as he started pushing the bike, wheel-spin out of the slower corners became an issue. The bike still finished the corners beautifully, but he just couldn’t get the power down. So it became a mad thrash of suspension and ride height adjustments as we gradually ran out of time. Nothing we tried worked – but that didn’t stop him from turning some very fast times and making things more than just a bit embarrassing for some fast guys on modern bikes. With 103rwhp and 67ftlbs of torque in a 300lb package that would go anywhere it was pointed, the bike set a new Yellow Bike standard.
Back in the shop, it was my friend Carlo in Italy who looked at the pics of the bike and the tire wear and pointed out that the chain was too tight; making the suspension bounce off the chain at full squat. The ultimate forehead slapper..
I had some work to do with front brake pad drag, an oil leak, the addition of a steering damper and a serious cleaning – and with everything else going on during September, I didn’t get the bike out for a photo shoot until the end of last month. Happy to be done, sad to see it go.
Specs:
Chassis: 1987 Ducati 750F1 frame; reduced steering head angle, removed rear and lower sub-frames, additional bracing
Engine: Palmer built Ducati 800SS
Link to the dyno day post on loudbike
Link to the dyno run on YouTube
Link to a hi-rez photoset on Flickr
The motor build thread on the Ducati TT&F1 Forum
Basil’s going to enjoy ripping around Phillip Island on it while I start (once again) pulling all the bits together to build my own (again)..
And would you believe it? In the panic trying to sort out the wheel-spin issue at Grattan, I never got to ride the damned thing..
For the first time in recent memory, I didn’t pack the bikes up in the rain. In fact, the weather was unseasonably gorgeous and as I rolled through Franconia Notch; taking in the warm air and fall colors, I decided that I’d have to get on the track Friday after all.
The 5th Annual TT & F1 Symposium was wrapped around a LRRS race weekend and would honor the memory of the late Jimmy Adamo with a display of two of his TTs, the final incarnation of the mighty bevel racer and the Cagiva GP bike as well as a commemorative race in the twins class. The Penguin Race School offered an opportunity for me to get out on the DB1 and learn the NHMS course on Friday.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. I was just happy to be able to be there, given the crazy summer season I’ve had. Packing my track gear was almost an afterthought and frankly, I was just looking forward to some time off to chill with the crowd for three days. No laptop, no cel phone – just a guy with a couple of old Pantah-based track bikes.
And that’s pretty much how it worked out.
Lou Saif, Mike Weber, Ralf Stechow and the crew had done all the heavy lifting this year; Mike having scored a couple of garages (including #26) and Seth Wollins sprung for a big tent along the entire length of the outside wall. Ralph brought Jimmy's Cagiva GP bike that he completed last year and just finished the restoration of the final incarnation of the Leoni/Adamo bevel racer in time for the event. Lou barely got the two Leoni/Adamo TTs complete enough to roll into the trailer. Bill Swensen brought the rolling chassis that will eventually become Jimmy’s 851. Enzo Assainte brought an amazing collection of Adamo/Leoni memorabilia and a collection of period videos that would run throughout the event.
Display Bikes:
Lou Saif’s factory Ducati TT1
Mark Curtin’s Romanelli TT2
Mark Curtin’s ex-Dr. Keifer Harris TT
Seth Wollins’ ex-Dr. Keifer Harris TT
Seth Wollins’ Lou Saif NCR TT1 Replica
Mike Weber’s Harris TT1
Mike Weber’s Ducati TT1 Replica (barely completed in time)
Mike Vogt’s Ducati 900-based TT1 Special (all the way from Oregon)
Scott Kearny’s Ducati TT2 replica
Jenya’s Ex-Bruce Meyers Ducati TT2
George Vincensi’s Ducati Bevel Twin Racer
Ron Spordone’s Ducati Bevel Twin Racers
Steve D’Angelo’s (stunning) Moretti-framed Ducati 350 Racer
Brian O’Shea’s ex-Cooley Suzuki
Brian O’Shea’s ex-Shobert VFR
A gorgeous F1A and a pair of
Dennis Sandrock' s 1991 Ducati 851
Enzo Assainte's 1994 888spo
…and my Ducati TT1 Replica and Bimota DB1 Special
And the P89 racers were pitted adjacent to the Adamo area:
Richie Paxson’s Ducati 750F1 (he’s been racing it since ‘88)
Chris Jenson’s Ducati 750 F1 (ditto)
Bill Swenson’s Harris TT2 (a multi-championship winning bike)
Bill Swenson’s Ducati 750 F1 (raced by Robbie Nigl)
Mike Dube’s Meyers prepped Ducati TT2
Arriving at this even is always great; hugs, laughs and lining up the the bikes while visiting with the group I only see once or twice a year. it's really a homecoming. We spend the year on the phone, trading emails and gathering on the TT & F1 Forum to build these machines, but when we get together I'm always suprised by how little time we actually spend talking about them.
So, I registered for the Advanced Class with Penguin and took a gamble on running the DB1 with the open exhaust Friday AM. While Eric Wood does a phenomenal job with the Advanced curriculum, it was geared more toward riders who know where the track goes and I was hopelessly lost. I simply needed laps, not a discussion on body position or the best line through a given corner. Don't get me wrong, Eric does an outstanding iand I learned some cool stuff.. This was really apparent during one of the track walks.. We were in the bowl – which is at the bottom of a hill and exits through a nice sweep over a blind crest. As I stood with the class at the bottom of the hill and what I wanted at that moment was to know what was over the top of the crest. So eventually I walked up to see that it led to a nice, tight, blind down-hill left. And so it went. Waiting on the hot-pit in my 3rd session, the DB1 suddenly started running funny – just like a switch was thrown. In the back of my mind I thought “a carb came loose” as I limped the bike back to our tent and pulled off the bodywork. Sure enough.. It's a bumpy track.
I skipped the rest of the classroom sessions so I could hang out with the TT gang and focused on breaking the track into manageable chunks so I could have some fun. I like it – in the way you like swimming in rapids if the weather’s hot enough and there isn’t a nice, calm lake around. And as a bonus, the DB1 with the open pipe only received compliments on the sound. A few clicks on the rear shock and an adjustment in my body position had the bumpy surface in check and the DB1 was a riot to ride fast. I’m really warming up to that bike.
What’s interesting about all this is that what NHMS lacks in terms of track surface, it more than makes up for with excellent facilities and great people. With rumors circulating about our days on the big track at Mosport being numbered, the 6 hour trip to go hang out with the always welcoming Northeast gang and ride a decent track starts to look pretty attractive. I’ll be back.
But, for an event focused on light, loud, fast and gorgeous Pantahs this Symposium was incredibly people-focused. With the Jimmy Adamo Memorial ceremony - Adamo Replica helmets presented to Jaime and Dainelle, the Lifetime achievement awards to Pat Slinn & Reno Leoni, Pat's birthday cake, the Jimmy Adamo Memorial Race and the trophies for top Amature and Expert P89 racers, the bikes took a backseat to the people around them. Carlo Leoncini came over from Italy with his wife Antonella took Bill Swensen’s Harris TT out in practice.
Lots of great memories: Watching Jane, Richie, Chris, Bill, Mike, and Robbie do battle on the twins..
Stumbling into a group of racers huddled around another racer who launched into a full-blown TV caliber weather forecast (he was indeed the local TV weatherman), Mike Vogt talking me through his Fiat Abarth scrap book, meeting Enzo Assainte in person after years of email, getting to know '70s superbike collector Brian O'Shea (he brought Wes Cooley's Suzuki and Bubba Shobert's VFR), hanging with Pat, Reno, Carlo & Antonella and the entire Northeast gang that I only see once or twice a year, meeting Jimmy's daughters. We were up talking ‘till Weber kicked us out every night at 12:30 (he was sleeping outside the display every night in his van).
A herculean effort by Mike W & Lou with lots of help from Ralf, Jane and a host of others. And a great way to honor the memory ofa great racer
We always wonder how we’ll top the next year – and Lou always says “never again”.
But we always come back.