[Ducati] Ducati Daze/Danbury

[Steve Abramson]

I rode out to Cliff's BMW with a couple of friends yesterday. I hope some other listers had a chance to go. It was such a nice day-great crowd, very well organized, free food and drink. Always great to have the opportunity to have an uncrowded environment to examine bikes like New Blue and the NCR Milona race bike. Learned a lot of interesting facts about both bikes from Joe Ippoliti (sorry if misspelled, Joe). He was a very pleasant fellow to meet. The highlight of my day, and for sure a lifetime memory was meeting and talk to Cook Neilson for about an hour between two conversations. I introduced myself to him by shaking his hand and saying, "Well, you sure pop up all over the place!". I have seen, but not spoken to him at Daytona, Laguna, NY bike show, and other places. He said, "Yea, NCR asked me to come on out, and am always happy to oblige." Within a minute or two, he said he was going to get a hot dog, and could he buy one for me. When I pointed out that they were free, he offered to buy me two. We ate and spoke together for a while about things like longevity as it relates to a passion for something like motorcycling, his days at Cycle magazine, ( I couldn't help mentioning that I never got my bag-some of you older folk will know what I mean.........) He shared many personal insights into the development of New Blue, which were priceless to listen to. Later, I had brought out an NCR Ti clutch cover to my bike to hold it up against the engine and see if it would win out on the contest between it and one of the Cycle Cat covers that I have on order, (and how generous and trusting of Joann at Cliff's to let me take it out of the showroom unescorted), Cook and I spoke again. We talked about the different methods of fabrication between the two covers. The Cycle Cat is billet, the NCR part a stamping, and although the NCR part was exquisite, we agreed that the hogging out of a chunk of metal held a higher regard than a stamping, so I would be waiting it out for the billet. I described to him some of the detail in the building of my 1982 one off Eddie Lawson superbike build years ago, like buying the bare frame, and grinding off each frame weld one by one and re-tig welding each one to give it a hand built frame look. How I slotted and drilled my own stock discs, including drilling radially around the edge of the disc. His bushy eyebrows were way up there with sincere interest and appreciation, especially when I mentioned this was all done in a vise down in my Mom's basement. Since I have experience welding a lot of metals, including Ti, I was explaining to him some very special information regarding welding technique exclusive to Ti only, and he was as captivated by what I was saying as I was hearing him speak of his own exploits. I think the best moment of the day with him actually came before I had met him. There was a active dyno on site, with a very nice man running it. I kind of came in during the middle of a conversation between him and Cook, so if I read this wrong, then apologies to the dyno technician. They were talking about how much power a given bike might make, and how frictional losses affect the final tally as read by the dyno. Cook mentioned some percentage numbers that he thought were valid regarding losses associated with those frictions, and although he was not directly disputing what Cook said, the tech was going around the bike he had just finished running on the dyno and pointing out things to Cook like wheel bearings, chain, and other things that contribute to the overall losses. It didn't seem like Cook totally agreed with what he had to say, yet he didn't say a thing to try and impress anything upon the tech, like, "Well, you know, I'm Cook Neilson, and my shit doesn't stink, and how could you presume to tell ME anything about something like this." (The tech was about 25 years his junior...) I kind of thought it would have been like me telling Kevin Cameron how to port a two stroke or something. I'm sure all of us have seen people who are not satisfied unless they let everyone around them know that they have superior knowledge to the rest of us. Anyway, that little incident, plus my personal talking with Cook showed him to be a great gentleman of the highest order. Someone who has the capacity and who cares enough to make those around him feel good. He is truly an ambassador of our sport, and it was a great honor and privilege to have the opportunity to share my day with him. My time with him is logged into my landmark motorcycle memories. Thank you to Cliff's for putting together the day. I hope it becomes and annual event.

Steve