The lack of blog posts attests to the way life has been these past five months; the loudbike store consumes an immense amount of time and the work in the shop eats up the balance.
It’s been a brutal experience pulling the Yellow Bike together and at times I wondered whether I’d actually get it ready for the beginning of the season. I thought I’d gotten over the hump last month; only to discover that I needed to relocate the starter solenoid. Then the dry clutch became wet. And then when I was installing the front fender, I noticed the small pool of fork oil. And finally, the weeping Pingle (and no one wants that writing on the wall..). And that’s how it’s been for the last 5 months.
But last weekend, I pulled it out in front of the loudbike World Headquarters for the first time since I took delivery last fall and snapped a bunch of pics – which means we’re done. Yellow Bike Flickr Set
Mosport – only 11 days away – looms menacingly.
But we’re close. The Yellow Bike is about done, with only the final suspension tweaking left –although I’m finding the seat/peg relationship too tight for my knee, so another inch of padding is needed.. The BMW (what BMW?) needs only the mirrors and center stand off, and numbers on. The ex-Sears BOTT Pantah runs well and should be as ready as it’s gonna be by the end of this weekend. And although I’m still fiddling with carbs and electrics, the ex-Mertens TT1 is ready to go.
The Sears Pantah is an amazing package. Gary Wolf did the rising rate monoshock set-up and frame mods and Tim Speigleberg built and maintained the motor as it morphed from 500 to 600 to 705 to 750. The combination won two AMA BOTT championships (1984/85) It looked different back in the day and is by far the tidiest package I’ve had the pleasure of working on. When Bar picked it up Roger Sears had converted it to street trim and I prefer this set-up over the original fairing and tail. Sears Pantah Flickr Set
Paul Robbins (new owner of my old 853 F1) took to the track at Shannonville last week and as the pictures show – he and the machine bonded well.
The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1 and the 853 on a 1987 Ducati 750 F1. loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles .
Which would seem natural given that it's Sunday and all - but with all the activity preceding and immediately following the loudbike store launch, there hasn't been much time off. But I did manage to get up about 90 minutes early most days and get into the shop early enough that I could spend a little quality time working on the 3rd loudbike - the ex-Gary Palmer racer that we've taken to calling The Yellow Bike. Which is kinda weird 'cause it's not yellow anymore.
But it sure is shaping up nicely and today I was able to get the tires mounted and the wheels installed – making it look a lot more ready to turn a wheel in anger than it has to date. I should get the clip-ons, battery box, breather box and rear brake rod finished this week and when I do, I can bleed the brakes and head into the wiring. I don’t remember ever being so psych’d about riding a bike as I am with this one. Gary’s done all the hard work; developing it into a very potent racer over the last decade. So there’s none of the angst usually associated with this type of project – it’s all been simply about making it more civilized…
To add to the fun, Gary must have been feeling a bit of remorse when he sold it ‘cause he’s building a more civilized copy out of his street F1. Which creates sort of an F1 hot-rod build-off being chronicled in the TT and F1 Forum… It won’t be yellow either.
Promises to be a very cool season with Gary on his new one, me on The Yellow Bike and Paul on my old 853.
The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1. loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles.
If you have a Ducati TT1, TT1, TT2, F1, hot-rod bevel-twin or Pantah (or you wish you did and are in the process of putting one together), you should be hanging out at the new Ducati TT and F1 Forum..
At the TT Symposium this past April, Lou Saif and I were chatting about the lack of an open forum where TT and F1 owners could congregate to trade lies and share photos. What we felt was missing in the community was a venue that would help us all connect the various dots and learn more about the machines that we are so passionate about. Those of us with TTs, racing and track day F1s, hot-rod bevel twins and Pantahs are spread far and wide in small regional networks - and our only chance for interaction is on more generally focused forums, boards and lists. I approached John Ross; President of the Ducati Owners Club of Canada (DOCC) with the concept of a TT and F1 Forum and he agreed on behalf of the club to provide a hosting environment with club member (and former TT2 owner) Dan Arnold providing the technical skills to develop and launch the forum. We pulled together a team of moderators to share the board administration load - they're guys who've been playing with these machines for decades - and our hope is that we can build a fun place to learn more about how to take these bikes to their full potential and to meet like-minded enthusiasts from all over the globe.
So, consider yourself invited to join us at our new home: www.ducatittandf1.com. Let's fill up the Photo Gallery and get to know one another.
Yup. A new website soon to be chock-full 'o vintage racers and collectable machines dating from 1929 (a Harley JD police model) to 1991(a TZ 250). It's been an incredible experience photographing these machines and getting to know them - stop in and have a gander at www.vintagemotorcycles.ca.
Toronto vintage racer Paul Robbins needed a new racer – and it had to be a Ducati.
CCS Series racer Gary Palmer was hanging it up and put his highly developed F1 up for sale..
And I was in the middle; wondering what to do next.
So I sold my F1 to Paul and I bought Gary’s bike. Which for everyone concerned, was - and is the happiest of all possible endings. You know; the kind of very personal transactions where everyone comes away from the deal with a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling and the opportunity to open a new chapter in their motorcycle lives.
Gary’s going to turn his other F1 into a serious track day machine that could be ridden on the street (when the mood stikes), Paul gets a fully developed and prepared VRRA Period 4 F2 racer that he can win with, and I get to spend the winter civilizing what has to be the most potent and highly-developed F1 in North America. As a bonus, I get to play with Paul (we’re both at about the same level) at the Mosport and Calabogie events next year.
Last week, I set off for Port Perry, Ontario en route to Bellville, Michigan and delivered the now VRRA Eligible 853 to Paul after spending about 12 hours fixing all the niggly (but non-essential little issues that had accumulated over the years.. Things I could live with, but had planned to address at some point – and a couple of issues required to make the machine fully VRRA legal. Gary was kind enough to make the 5-hour drive from the Chicago area to a suburb just west of Detroit and we spent a couple of pleasant hours in a parking lot catching up and going over his (now my) bike. Then back to Ottawa..
My new F1 is very, very cool. When I lay identical shots of my old 853 and the new 800 on top of each other in Photoshop, the work that Gary did on the chassis really becomes apparent. Gary had tucked the steering head in and converted to a rising rate rear with the longer 851 swing arm and although the wheelbase of both bikes is the same, the center of the motor and rider has been moved forward almost 3”. Our seat and top triple clamp heights were near identical – which surprised me.. The machine is Spartan, light, and wonderfully scarred from 10 years of hard (and very successful) racing. I took the opportunity to weigh my old bike just before it went out the door and was delighted to see that the new one is 26 pounds lighter.
The motor’s a different approach to the big-block 853 I was running, but makes about 5 more horsepower – although at the expense of 5 less ft lbs of torque. All the good stuff happens 800RPM higher than I’m used to, so it’s gonna be a different riding experience.
You can see from the pic that Gary abbreviated the bodywork quite a bit and when I asked why, he told me that his knee was getting trapped between the fairing and the pavement. Under no circumstances to I ever plan to replicate that condition, so the full faring upper’s going back on. The seat was trimmed ‘cause he needed somewhere to tuck his foot out of the way (by now you get the picture…), and although this is another condition I plan to avoid, I like the way it opens the bike up, so it stays. I have to make some changes on the controls to suit my somewhat crippled body and I’m going to do a whack of the usual cosmetic stuff and hook up a charging system.
I rode this bike in an earlier iteration at Grattan years ago and came away impressed with the handling and steering precision. Since then, the machine’s been through a few motors, a change in swing arm and a couple more weight loss programs. As far as Gary was concerned, it was at the end of its development cycle – which is about how I felt about mine. It’s funny how the two bikes are heading into different directions with their new owners.. My old one’s going back into the heat of competition and the new one’s getting toned-down for track day service.
But they’ll be on the track together a lot next year. Paul’s going to run most of the track days I attend and we seem to be lapping at about the same pace.
So, what was the first thing I did when I got the new loudbike up on the lift? Remove the silencer Gary had to run and fire it up.
It’s loud.
The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1 and the 853 on a 1987 Ducati 750 F1. loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles.
Leaning on the concrete barrier beside Mosport's front straight, the only sound I could hear was that of my bike being run hard through the gears as it tore up the back straight almost a mile away. It was eerie hearing a solitary and very loud Ducati on the track and as Paul dropped down a gear to set-up turn 8, I set my camera on standby and prepared to grab a short video/sound bite as he came through Turn 10 and nailed it for the run up to the blind, downhill Turn 1. It was the beginning of lap 4 of his noon hour demonstration at the VRRA Festival and as he approached Turn 2, I knew instantly that this wasn't going to be the brisk but cautious laps we'd heard so far this weekend. Nope. As he went through Turn 3, I could tell just how fast he was going by the rpm and position on the track - and it was obvious that the man was comfortable on my bike, and completely in his element.
Ducati legend Paul Smart's beating on my Ducati 750F1. Cool. Very cool.
This adventure all started with a call last January from long-time VRRA member Kevin Fletcher (who sponsored the late Adam Bennett in his last years). He was trying to bring in Paul Smart as the guest of honor for the VRRA's 30th Anniversary - They needed a hot, presentable and reliable vintage Duc for him to race at the event; could he use mine?
Um…. OK.
And I thought nothing more of it until four weeks ago when Kevin called to confirm my offer and run through the logistics. With this season interrupted by knee surgery that's taken forever to heal, I didn't have much seat time on the bike and although it ran well at Mosport in May, the VRRA event pressure was all I needed to register for the DOCC's mid-July event. In my last post I talked about the harsh ride I experienced with the new Bridgestone slicks and the perplexing hi-rpm misfire, and I dealt with the former by swapping back to the Pirellis and the latter by making a detailed list of everything I'd done to the bike after the TT Symposium. I spent a couple of very tense mid-week, mid-mornings at a quiet country road I knew making subtle changes and sneaking out for a few rips up the road. But nothing worked. Then I remembered the spark plugs.
I'd fouled my last set of NGK JR9Cs running the bike in the shop and switched to a set of D8EAs that were close at hand. The bike was OK with them in May temperatures, but loaded up with anything less than the slides completely out of the way in 5th and 6th in the July heat humidity. Chalk it up to the inefficient combustion we're getting with a hemi chamber and pistons designed for bathtub heads. The bike was dyno-tuned with those plugs and the dual electrode design seems to work best with my set-up. I made the swap, loaded up the bike and ran back out to my quiet road to find that it now ran like a rocket. However, in the middle of this mechanical thrash, Kevin advised me that Paul was not going to race the bike after all; but would be parading it during the lunch break. Sigh..
So, lock-wired, shined and fully prep'd; the F1 was ready for the main event. I on the other hand, was simply overwhelmed with work when I headed off down the 401 for Mosport, and that had me grumbling to myself about the dubious benefit of all the effort expended just so some famous old racer could run some sedate parade laps on my machine. I'm getting older - and grumpier…
I arrived Friday afternoon, in time to see Paul getting ready to do some orientation laps on Don Gosen's 888 racer while Don led the way on his potent 900, so I set up my pit and got to work synching the carbs, setting tire pressures and fueling my bike for his final session of the day at 4:30. I got a chance to chat with Paul and Maggie after his session on Don's bike, and was immediately struck by their easy-going, enthusiastic nature. Seriously down-to-earth folks. So around 4:30, I fired the F1, briefed Paul on basics, sent him out on the track with the F1 and then walked up to the pit wall - where I got into a bad case of projecting every possible thing that I might have forgotten to check… I have never, ever been so stressed about the fitness of my bike. But he came in all smiles and liking the machine, so I (with just a hint of ceremony) applied the "16"s I had picked up on the way up to the track and figured we'd survive the weekend.
Saturday morning Paul was simply swamped with autograph hounds, so I took some time to wander the pits, visit old vintage racing friends and try not to focus on all the new things I was beginning to imagine that could go wrong with my bike. And when the moment came for the first lunch hour parade, Paul went out first on a Paul Smart Replica with local Harley 883 racer Paul Robbins on a 2010 Norton, while I sat on the F1 waiting for him to come in after his 5 laps. With the gathered media and fans, this really was AN EVENT - which did nothing to calm my now obsession with the now massive number of things that could go wrong with the bike. Pass the Valium, please…
But once again, nothing went wrong, Paul loved the bike and the world was again a peaceful and somewhat calm place. And by now; with the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group concourse set up behind us, Fans and racers lining up for Paul's autograph, Ducati bevel twins lining up beside us, and the arrival of Bar with the Gunga Din Vincent - our area had become jammed with people. With Canadian GP legend Michelle Duff leading a growing number of ex-racers who stopped by to meet Paul & Maggie the place was really starting to get crowded and it was a treat to wander around through the groups and eavesdrop on the great stories from Back in the Day. It wasn't 'till late afternoon that traffic died down and I felt for all the world like I'd been working the floor at a trade show - far too many hours on my feet yakking with folks. And as I sat under my EZ-Up with my feet on the rear wheel of the F1, Paul wandered in under the canopy and sat on the pavement for the start of an impromptu lesson of what it was really like back when racers smoked like chimneys and body armor was simply a second layer of leather. Bar and Kevin joined what turned into an intimate 90-minute trip back to racing in the 70's that capped an excellent day.
Sunday was more of the same; although when Paul went out this time for his p parade session, he was to start with Don's 888 and then come in and grab the F1. The skies had been threatening all day and while we waited for a green track, it started to spit so we changed the bike order. As he went out for this second session, I borrowed a pit bike so I could whip over to the start of the front straight and grab some video/sound bites, and that was when I realized that with no announcer on duty all I could hear was the sound of my bike. And from my vantage point, I was amazed that I could even hear him go down into Moss's Corner - almost a mile away - and head on to the back straight; hitting The High Notes in every gear. Knowing the bike and the track as well as I do, it was almost like I was out there with him.
Except, I wasn't…
Which suddenly sucked…
Paul joined me at Bar's on Monday for a lazy afternoon spent sitting around on bikes and telling tall tales. And some time lying on the lawn just yakking about life… So what started as a chance to meet the man who so famously put Ducati on the map as a superbike player evolved into a unexpected opportunity to make a new friend - and after all; it's friends - not bikes - that truly enrich our lives. Bikes of course are the catalyst, but at the end of the day it's the people who ride them that give our sport its depth and character.
When you look Paul Smart up on the internet - or read about him in a book or magazine, you likely won't read that he's one of the most humble, energetic, approachable and insightful famous old racers on the planet. Trust me, there's way more to the man than the legend - and I feel honored to have had the opportunity to get to know him on a completely different level.
Thanks to Kevin Fletcher for putting his nuts on the line to make this all happen, to the VRRA for putting on such a fine event that I just might come back and race, and to Maureen Engelmann and Color Tech for the excellent photos.
We don't get many international Ducati legends up here in the Great White North - in fact, I can't remember the last time I saw one of the great names from Ducati's history at a track up here. But this August Paul Smart will be a special guest at the 30th Anniversary Vintage Road Racing Association (VRRA) Festival at Mosport International Raceway.
It's a great opportunity to meet the man and see him cut some laps on an old Duc at one of Canada's greatest circuits, so if you have a hole in your calendar on August 13, 14 or 15th you should consider making the scene.
Paul will be doing some demo laps on a modern Paul Smart Replica (of course), Don Gosen's Tim Spiegleberg-tuned, championship-winning early 90's 900Ss and remarkably - my 1987 853 F1. That is if I've successfully traced the cause of a hi-speed misfire that plagued the machine this past weekend. I think it's a switch I made just before the May DOCC event to a smaller float needle jet. The Mikuni Pro-series flat slides were puking fuel right after the TT Symposium and after chasing down the usual issues, I discovered that ethanol had destroyed the o-rings fitted to the jets. I had a new pair of 1.6's kicking around and rather than swapping the o-rings, I took the lazy route and just swapped out the 2.0s. If it ain't the jets, I'm baffled (no pun intended) - cause everything else that could be causing it is new.
The other issue that kept me busy at Mosport last Sunday was the switch from Pirelli slicks to Bridgestones. I left the pits with my standard 29/28 cold morning air pressures and it felt like either Mosport surface had horribly deteriorated over the past few months or someone sneaked into my shop and cranked up all my suspension settings while I wasn't looking. I kept letting air out of the tires all day and ended up with a 27/26 cold set-up, but the bike still didn't have the old plushness. Sticky buns, though...
A quick call to Ripp Racing today today confirmed that I should have been running 29/27 HOT. Tire technology marches on and us old guys on old bikes keep struggling to stay with it.. Who'd have figured?
Back to Paul Smart at Mosport..
If you don't know who Paul Smart is and why he's such a vital piece of Ducati's history, there's a great bio HERE. Kudos to Kevin Fletcher for putting the guest appearance together. Mark your calendars and come see the man who put Ducati twins on the performance map.
The "853 F1" is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1. loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles and an internet store offering more vintage Ducati parts than you can shake a stick at.
I write this post through the haze of post-surgery pain-killers, having capped-off this year's Ducati Owners Club of Canada Mosport festival with a trip to the hospital to get a little pre-arranged repair work on my meniscus. The typing goes slowly, the words flowing though my numbed fingertips like molasses in February. But as I write, I find myself being pulled back to the pictures I took over the weekend of a gorgeous black Vincent called Gunga Din.
Gunga Din. Just the name invokes a sense of mystery and power. One of the most celebrated and powerful Vincents ever produced was strapped-down in my trailer as Bar Hodgson and I rolled through the Southern Ontario countryside on our way back to Mosport with this legendary machine. The plan was to start it up, maybe run it around the pit area for a while and then spend the evening appreciating the machine in the fading twilight.
Built in 1947, Gunga Din was the development platform for the Vincent Black Shadow and Black Lightning. It was a seriously radical and fast machine that unfortunately was reduced to a collection of parts under a variety of ownerships and only recently was restored to its former glory. For a complete record of this storied machine, check out this excellent article in Motorcycle Classics.
Although Bar is a serious Vincent collector, he didn't go looking for Gunga Din; it came to him - and though most of this past May he was focused on a deal that would bring the machine into his collection. I knew about the trips to Boston, but it wasn't until we were unloading the Adamo Mille at Mospot last Friday night that he broke the news to me that he had just picked up the bike the previous Wednesday. Although we spent some quality time running his TT1 and my F1 on Saturday, by the end of the day it was obvious that he was pining for his latest acquisition so on Sunday just after the riders' meeting, we zipped back to Bar's shop with my trailer to pick up the bike and bring it back to the track.
Even if you know absolutely nothing about Vincents, the visual impact of this bike is immediate. It's stunning, small and has features that belie its age. Honestly, this just doesn't look like a mid-'40s motorcycle.. It looks loud, fast and dangerous.
With little fanfare and only a smidgen of trepidation, we fired it up at noon. We had been experiencing issues with the roller starter occasionally sliding out from under the bikes on start-up, so my job was to hang onto the rear of the machine and keep the rear wheel centered on the rollers. Gunga Din awoke with a hammering exhaust note that was loud, crisp and intoxicating. After warming the bike, Bar trundled off for a tour of the upper and lower pit areas leaving me to watch with wonder as it took over 25 meters for him to finally release the clutch lever. Geared a little tall, eh? I'm sure I spent a good 90 minutes snapping pictures f the bike and letting my eyes wander over all of the details. The caliber of the restoration is amazing, but more impressive is the way the whole package hangs together functionally and aesthetically. Bar told me that certain Vincent owners refer to Ducati as the "Series E" Vincent and with that in mind, a Ducati event wasn't completely out of character for the machine's Canadian debut.
And it was a pretty fine event - warmer than any I remember; with temps in the 30s (Celsius, eh?) all three days. Although I was working around a bum knee, I got some dynamite laps in on the somewhat renewed F1 and in particular, had an excellent session banging around with Fran McDermott on his TT1. I think I'm finally getting free of the post-crash fear of this place and looking forward to the July event.
It's been a while since we've seen new Ducati bevel hot-rod at the event, but this year Paul Hewitt debuted his big-bore NCR replica and after a couple of tentative sessions to get the measure of the thing, he settled into a weekend program of merciless thrashing. I came up on him a couple times when I was out in the Yellow group and was amazed by how composed (and fast) the machine was. Some three years in the making, Paul's done a fabulous job creating something that looks the business and delivers the goods. Look for a spread on this machine in Cycle Canada this summer.
What looked like a nice, mellow event suddenly took an ugly turn Monday midday. After loading up, I stopped at the McDermott pit and was chatting with Gerry when we heard that bike "29 red" was down at turn 9 - which had Gerry trying to remember whether he'd tech'd that machine. What came over the radio next gave us a creepy chill; it was corrected as "92 red" as they called for an ambulance. #92 being Fran, we got into my car and drove down to the tower (just shy of turn 9) and while Gerry waited for someone official, I walked down the track to the incident. Fortunately I found him (although being strapped to the transit board) forming complete sentences and moving important body parts. He'd had his bell rung, but looked to be in decent shape considering... After he was loaded into the ambulance, I picked up his TT and rolled it over to a spot where I could lean it against a bale and check out the cause & effect. Cause was pretty obvious; the rear tire was soaked with oil. Back in the pit with the bike, it became obvious that he'd been spit off the high side, but it wasn't until someone pointed out a crack in the cases just above the left front engine mount that the plot began to thicken... I walked around the other side of the bike and found that the crack ran right across the cases (between) the cylinders and continued past the output shaft. Gerry was figuring that the engine had locked-up, but I disagreed; having pushed the bike briefly while it was in gear. I rolled the bike off the Baxley so I could get it into neutral and - thinking I'd turned the kill switch off - thumbed the starter. I was astounded when the motor fired and settled into a nice steady idle and watched with amazement (and some kind of horror) as the crack in the cases expanded with every stroke of the engine. Oil flowed through the crack like blood from a ruptured artery, but there was no hint of mechanical carnage in the form of clatters and bangs.
Go figure...
Fran's out with a broken collar bone for six weeks. His first crash in the 14 years I've been riding and racing with him.
Which just goes to show you.. er, something anyway...
I'd been driving for 7 hours with the windshield wipers set on high. My night vision sucks at the best of times, but on the unlit Highway 17 to New York City in a rainstorm that had been with me since I left Ottawa, I was blind as a bat. But I was a man with a mission; en-route to Lou Saif's 2nd Annual Ducati TT Symposium - hosted this year by Ralf Stechow at his shop in Closter, NJ. The last 3 weeks had been a thrash to get my F1 rebuilt for the event and Bar's ex-Mertens TT at least presentable (if not track-ready). …All this amid the chaos of the move from DC back to Ottawa and the creation of a business based on the Romanelli Collection. It's been a wild ride these past five months, but with The Hot-blooded Mexican and I reinstalled in our Ottawa house; things are beginning to feel somewhat normal.
Somewhat…
No time for blog posts or much else other than setting up the warehouse and e-store while selling the really shiny bits on e-Bay.
The TT event was a turning point and signaled the beginning of the 2010 season for me – it also forced me to put some much needed time into the F1 and although I was surrounded with a dizzying array of cool stuff in the warehouse that was crying to be installed on the bike, I found myself focused on moving the oil cooler up where it belonged, replacing the fairing, installing a glass tank fabricated and generously donated by Gary Palmer, and making a few changes to my riding position. There was a quiet Sunday earlier this year where I spread all the cool stuff: 300mm rotors, Q-R calipers, M1Rs from a Bimota, 1st generation upside-down Marzocchis, DB1 triple clamps, etc on the floor in front of the F1. After gazing at this techno-feast for an hour or so, I decided that the bike worked brilliantly as it was and any exotica that I might add would only set on a frustrating path of regaining the set-up I’d developed over the last 6 years.
Bar’s TT1 needed a good going over that started with stripping it down to the frame and motor and giving it a WD-40 bath. From there, it’s been a slow process of repairing wiring, sealing the tank with Caswell’s magic epoxy sealer and then fixing stuff as the bike was reassembled. Still about 10 hours of work to do, but I was able to get it reassembled to the point that I could bring it down to the TT event.
And the event – this year with the inclusion of F1s – was a huge success and a welcome opportunity to connect faces with people I’ve developed email and phone relationships with over the years. And also to finally get the opportunity to meet the likes of Cook Nielson – a man who so strongly influenced my passion for Ducatis and the original loudbike 750 desmo vintage racer I built and campaigned. The adventure started with a chance meeting with Cook in the lobby of our hotel the morning of the event and we shared a morning coffee and smoke in the parking lot. It was a completely unexpected pleasure that set the tone for a number of great discussions with the man over the course of the weekend. Bar Hodgson loaded with ex-Adamo / Leoni BOTT championship-winning Mille bevel and a machine I hadn’t yet seen (the ex-Roger Sears BOTT Championship-winning Pantah) in his motor home and set-up a temporary homestead in Ralf’s parking lot. The Sears Pantah is going to be our focus this season and after looking it over on Saturday afternoon, I can’t wait to give it a try. It’s all business; you sit on the machine and it just feels as well engineered and sorted as it looks when you take in all the details.
Nothing prepared me for the TTs, though. I’d never seen Lou and Ralf’s machines and they are simply elegant, yet brutal track weapons. The real deal, too. While I’m intimate with Fran McDermott’s TT1, it’s not a “factory” bike and these are. The packaging is impressive and their single purpose becomes more obvious the closer you look. I didn’t count the F1s in attendance, but had I been able to scare up a good-sized stick, there would have truly been more than I could have shaken it at. .. A’s B’s, racers, and a pirate-themed street bike sporting my number.
But, while the event was about bikes it was the people that really became the focus of the experience. Strange, but I was so busy meeting folks that I only had a couple of brief opportunities to actually sit down and spend some quality time just gazing at the machines and talking to the owners about how they came to be. The exception was a good session with Gary Palmer; learning about the development of his F1 racer since the time I rode it almost 5 years ago. Gary’s F1 has to be the most potent example of the breed on this side of the Atlantic and continues to help him win races in a class where he should be running mid-pack. We fired up my bike and Ralf’s TT1 as the sun broke out in the late afternoon and it was at that point that I truly realized what was missing.. More time, and a race track. In fact, I told a number of people that it felt to me very much like one of those rainy days at a (DOCC) Ducati Owners Club of Canada event where there’s nothing to do but wander from pit to pit and socialize. Great fun, but I really wanted to hear “First call for the green group!” over the PA so I could struggle into my leathers and go play with all my new friends and their shiny toys.
And after much discussion with Lou and Ralf, and DOCC president John Ross and Bar, we were able to put an opportunity to do just that on the table for the DOCC Mosport Event in 2011. We garnered enough positive response to announce that we will host a TT / F1-specific sub-event that will offer those who have always wanted to experience their TT or F1 on a racetrack, but were justifiably worried about safety to give it a shot – and those of us who already worship at the Church of Going Fast and Making Beautiful Music to go mix it up at a faster pace as a group. This is the way these machines need to be truly experienced and appreciated and our goal is to offer a controlled environment and an amazing, unique experience. … We are able to announce the venue at the event and will be posting more details to the community in the next 30 days..
And Vicki Smith announced that she has arranged to host the 3rd Annual TT Symposium at Barber in the fall of 2010 as part of the Vintage Festival held there. This venue will truly give the TTs the exposure they truly deserve and the room the event needs. As with everything Vicki’s put together, this should be a grand affair that celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the TT series. She’s put up an excellent 2010 TT Symposium photo gallery at Ducati.net.
Thanks to Lou Saif and Ralf Stechow for putting an amazing event together. And to Ralf’s wife Anita and her sister Chris for putting on a feast that was delicious beyond description.
