[Ducati] Newbie

[John Whiting]

Aggieland.....so type slow when you respond (College Station for those not acquainted with Aggies and their stomping ground). 
 
I always noticed the heavy accumulation of FZR400's on the west coast and in club racing out there, as well as the Honda VFR/RVF and inline 400 gullarms.  The Brit rags are full of them, as they were sent there w/ the 33 HP user in mind.  The Honda's were actually shipped through Asian countries to be greymarketed into Britland.  They are cheap and plentiful there.
 
My 92' VFR 400 came via japan: it was a backup endurance racer for OKI racing, with a Kiss frame, and full of HRC goodies.  NOTE:  When I researched OKI Racing, I was surprised to see the list of Americans that rode at Suzuka on their endurance team in the 90's.  Anyway, it passed through a couple of hands in Minnesota, where it was titled, and Michigan, before I bought it.  With a single headlight upper and a halogen fender light, it casts a strange pattern to oncoming vehicles at night.  
 
The trackday RVF came through Mototek to a CMRA racer back in 98':  He crashed it in T3 at TWS on his first time out, and left it to his garage floor until I came along and resurrected it from the scrap pile.  It had nothing but cosmetic damage to the race bodywork. He was told the forks were bent, so he let me have it for $1500.  I traxxioned the forks and they were good.  He had a full set of perfect street bodywork that came with it, and I strung the bike out on my flat steel layout table to determine it was straight as an arrow.  It rails at TWS and I have more confidence in the front end of that bike than any I have pushed that hard at track days. Wish CMRA had a 400 class.  I rode it at Oak Hill Raceway twice and it was as fun as it gets.
 
Uh, sorry for the Honda blurb on the Ducati pages.  I mean, really, they are just Hondas.  With a cool gear drive cams whirrrrr, all the way to 15,500.  
 

________________________________

From: ducati-bounces at ducati.net on behalf of Ducman
Sent: Wed 8/1/2007 7:18 AM
To: Ducati Owners Group
Subject: Re: [Ducati] Newbie 



Hi John, thats an interesting collection you got there. I used to 
race fzr400's before moving on to racing my 748 in prothunder years 
back, they certainly are fun on the track, I am still trying to sell 
off the bikes I accumulated during that period of moto-madness. What 
part of texas are you from?

Paul