[Ducati] Newbie

Tue Jul 31 20:51:45 EDT 2007

Go get a blue, man lifes too short and I cant have one so take my place,I know you,ll appreciate it.

John Whiting <jvwhiting at palomaresources.com> wrote:  Well, I have only one Ducati: a 1993 Superlite, yellow with Marvic 2 pc rims. 41 flatslides, V2 cams, a little headwork; I ditched the airbox and run UNI filters, made it run cleaner in the middle and top. As far fast-ME???, that is a relative term: I am a perennial midpack novice in the 600 class in the CMRA, but my partners at work asked me to lay off racing until we get our present business plan up and running. Maybe when I turn 55 (another year), I can cut loose and see what I can do in the F40 class. I really go pretty slow on the road; racing took away the reasonable thrills available there, so I just tour on the roads.

A couple of years ago, I got interested in going back to my dirt bike roots, so I took my 16 acre back yard and built a 1.2 mile TT style MX track and a couple of very short flat tracks suitable for dirt mini's. I have enjoyed getting back to riding something that moves around a lot underneath me, and it has improved my riding on pavement, IMO. I have been working with the motorcycle club at Texas A&M, too, trying to get them onto the world of dirt training and avoidance of higher output bikes for the street until they are really capable of riding them. Got a slew of dirt mini's: CRF 150R's and TTR 125's, some with knobbies, some with street rubber for the flat tracks. I have 2-3 gatherings per year to ride, burn wood and drink beer with those so inclined....but summer is pretty brutal and I usually go for fall, spring and winter as my chosen seasons. Most of the riders that come out get all of the satisfaction of a track day and more for no cost. And a bunch of the kids at
 A&M have taken their bikes off the street to do track days and bought mini's to start racing TMGP, as it is affordable with lower speeds.

I have several small displacement street bikes that are fun to ride, because you can basically wring their necks: a 92' VFR 400 and a 95' RVF 400, both little jewellike, V4 four hundreds, they weigh a little less than a modern 1000 I-4 now, but they are sweet track day bikes and twistie road fun. I also stole the 316 2 stroke out of my Aprilia RS 250 race bike and put it in a 95' Biaggi Replica, which is another lite, sweet handling track bike that I occasionally take out on street rides, as it has lights, turn sigs, and 'looks' legal, FWIW.

I have a couple of Woods Rotax 676 road racers: a friend and I just made the No 1 frame street legal, so it is going out for the next hill country ride. They are tiny chassis, vibrate like mad (I am designing a protoype Loctite livery for the bodywork), weigh under 260 pounds, and make big torque, so I am looking forward to riding mine in some canyons. The other race bike (frame 15 or 16?) was campaigned by a competant rider (not me, for sure: a veteran racer I sponsored) and was amazingly fast, but expensive to race, and it is about to become a museum piece for my house. There were only 16 made, so at least I am keeping one running like it was meant to be. I have enjoyed working with Ron Wood in Costa Mesa...he was a big help on putting #1 back together.

My sickness gets much worse, but I will stop here. The rest of my stuff is production bikes that I have just made handle right for my weight....some 450cc motards, modern Triumphs, an MV, a YB8, etc. 

When I go out on the 900 SL, I realize what a great machine it is: visceral, fast enough, handles well at street pace, sounds GOOD, beautiful to my eye, functional to an engineers eye, simple and doesn't break. I'll have it when I'm ninety. Oh, and I saw New Blue at Laguna: I shredded my credit card before I added another hole to my head. It may be bling to some, but it blows my skirt up, and you know it would rail in a canyon....but I don't do that anymore. Much. If ever.

________________________________

From: ducati-bounces at ducati.net on behalf of Peter
Sent: Sun 7/29/2007 12:57 PM
To: ducati at ducati.net
Subject: RE: [Ducati] New to Ducati.net

Welcome John!

John has a bunch of bikes for sure, and he is a fast rider (and racer with
CMRA), as I have seen in several Hill Country rides we have gone on. Altho I
have yet to visit him in College Station, TX where he lives, but hopefully
will do so this fall.

C'mon John, tell us about just a few of your neat bikes!!!!

Peter

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