[Ducati] NDC Anti harley shirts

[Peter Bonner]

A few years ago at Rich Lambrechts' pit/garage at Mid Ohio, a bevel guy
handed out tee shirts saying "Ducati, the Thinking Man's Harley". And not
long ago, this list flapped with rumours about a Ducati - HD merger. So lets
keep our options open and just modestly point at the world championship
winner <smirk>.

For those of you that have been around bevel bikes with Conti mufflers, you
know Ducati has made its share of sound. When I bought my 250 scrambler new,
it came with a straight pipe and a little baffle that clearly was meant to
be removed...... And when my Hypermotard leaves the dealership (soon
hopefully), it will be with the two into one racing exhaust. One thing about
the cruiser guys, they seldom rev it up and realy make noise, they just putt
along. If its too loud, you are too old???

It seems like if a person is riding a bike, that is still better than being
in a car, so its all good. Have met some nice HD folks and pissy Italian
bike folks, but that doesn't mean anything, just that folks are individuals.
But if they are on two wheels, its ok with me. Have also met some "rice
burner" folks that dissed everything else, including my "spaghetti burner".
To me however, the very worst offenders are Cycle News and Roadracing World.
These supposedly knowledgeable folks have cranked out a theme all season
long about how it is only the tyres that determined the winner this year.
The fact that the Ducati was so much faster never entered the argument, its
just that Rossi and the rest of the Michelin guys didn't get special tyres,
so they didn't have a chance. Sure didn't hear any sort of talk about how
great it was that the Michelin guys had the best tyres and that is why they
won championships in the previous years. That is why my hat is off to Cycle
World, for being the only US magazine I have read that plain and simple
points out that "Ducati flat outsmarted the big four".

Bottom line is that I don't really care how various individuals feel about
their brand of bike, it is good they are passionate about what they ride,
but I find it really bad when supposedly professional journalists jump on
the excuse and spin wagon for the sake of their big 4 advertisers.

New Years Resolution....  Will not be renewing Cycle News and Roadracing
World subscriptions.

2nd Resolution..... To put at least 10,000 miles on my HyperMotard this
year. (and I don't even have it in my possession yet.)

I hope that today will be the beginning of the best year in everybody's
life! Last year was a great year for me (got 3 new grandkids!), and now I
can look forward to an even better year.

Peter


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <2vtwin at comcast.net>

snip>>>

 There are lots of cruisers with loud pipes,
snip>>>
. At the end of the day, the general public and the politicians put us all
in the same category, motorcyclist, and in my view we need to police
ourselves before they shut us down - which means we've got to get along, get
to know one another, and then just maybe we can influence a few of our
fellow riders to take some riding classes, put some gear on, and tone down
the exhaust just a little.

- Gene