Tragedy & Triumph

Well, after riding 86 miles around the Loudon track without any faults it seemed the worst has happened. While tightening one of the straps around the fork on my bike in the trailer, the strap on the opposite side gave way and the bike fell over in a blaze of glory. Not knowing what to do, I called my dad over and we lifted the bike back up to her rightful position. All seemed well surprisingly but alas the front nose fairing and bracket had been cracked on the left side of the bike along with the lever. What a travesty I thought, how could this happen to my bike, my prized possession?

                After getting home I immediately went to my dealer to assess the damage of the bike and what it would take to fix it. Careful inspection proved that I would need to order a new nose fairing, a new under fairing bracket, and a new set of levers. I would have just bought one replacement lever from Ducati but I figured why not splurge and get some nice sporty levers while I’m at it. All in all, it came down to about $900 dollars for everything including shipping and handling, which wasn’t that bad in actuality. A few days go by and my parts arrive at Koup’s, so I go and pick them up and bring everything home. Realizing that fixing all of this was not going to be a walk in the park, I waited till I had a full day to dedicate to this task so I don’t have to split it up and risk losing things in the process.

                Finally, the day comes to undergo the process of restoring my bikes previous beauty. Its easy going at first, all there is to do is pull off the left and right side fairing to access the front fairing. Next it’s off with the mirrors and now things start to get a little harder. The nose fairing had quite a few hidden bolts and screws that gave me a little bit of trouble but after a little bit of searching I managed to muscle off the nose fairing to reveal the under fairing bracket. The under fairing bracket was a mess to take off because everything is so well designed on this bike that everything seems to be hidden or out of reach. A nice surprise was that all the bolts on the under fairing bracket seemed to have lock-tight on them which made it that much more difficult to remove them. Also to my surprise I had to unplug all of the wiring and remove the dashboard to be able to take the under fairing bracket off. After taking everything off, putting everything back one was ten times easier because I already knew where everything was supposed to go. Once everything was back together and as it should be, a feeling of triumph came over me. My bike was restored to its original beauty and my back account was $900 poorer. 

                                                                                   

Loudon..again.

            Taking my motorcycle up to Loudon for a track day was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It was amazing being able to open up the throttle on my bike and to use the bike the way it was intended to be. The day started off with signing in at the racing pit and getting all the stickers you need such as your number and class. After all that you have to tape up all the mirrors, turn signals and brake lights on the bike so they don’t shatter in case you crash. After that we took the bike over to tech to have everything on the bike checked out and got the ok to use it on the track. From tech I went to a conference room to be briefed on all the procedures on the track such as what different flags mean, passing rules and how to enter and exit the track. Next we were off to gear up and get ready for our first session on the track.

            The initial feeling of getting ready to enter the track was just pure adrenaline and once I got out there onto the track, the feeling got even better. For the first session it was like a game of follow the leader so everyone could get a feel for the track and get used to it. During the second session while going around an uphill left turn, I scraped my toe slider against the pavement and the first thing that went through my mind was “Oh shit, I’m dead”, but I pulled up real quick and kept on going. The next time I got to that turn I felt my toe slider scrape against the pavement again but this time I leaned into the turn even more, making it scrape harder and thought to myself this time, “Oh shit, this is awesome”. Throughout each session I would lean a little farther into the turns and go a little faster each time around the track. The leader of our session, David Sadowski Jr., was a professional AMA racer and every time I would catch up to him on the track he would look back at me, turn back around and just speed off like it was nothing. Through all the session on the track I got in 86 miles on the track that day and loved every mile of it.

            In between track session our group would have a twenty minute class that would talk about the basics of racing. The first class was about finding the “line” on the track which is the most effective path on the track that will give you the fastest time. The second class was about  how to pass people on the track whether it be on the inside or outside. The next class was about clutch less shifting and how to blip the throttle. Blipping the throttle is increasing the rpm’s right before downshifting to better match the speed of the engine and the crank. The last class was about body position and how to use your body weight to further lean the bike in turns.

    All in all this was an amazing experience that I will never forget. This will definitely not be my last day at the track and maybe, just maybe in a few years you’ll see me on TV racing at the Isle of Man TT. 

        

To And From Loudon

            Part of the deal of buying my 2010 Ducati 848 was that I got a free track day at one of many sponsored tracks around the country with World Champion Doug Polen. One of these tracks was nearby in New Jersey, 1.5 to 2 hours. Now, logically speaking that would be the obvious choice to go to that track since its so close but of course you can’t always decide things on logic. Point being, I chose to go to the track in Loudon, Hew Hampshire which is about 550 miles or about 8.5 to 9 hours away. So, let’s go in depth as to why I would pick to go nine hours away instead or two.

            Now, my dad and I we’re not just driving around 20 hours up and back with little detours hear and there to simply have one day at a track with my bike. First off, my Uncle lives in Providence, Rhode Island and is quite the motorcycle enthusiast. My dad and I met up with my Uncle at his house, took a two hour break, got some food and brought him with us up to Loudon to watch me track the bike and be a part of the whole experience. All of us spent the night at a Red Roof Hotel three miles from the track to rest up before the big day. Six am rolls around pretty fast and we’re all up getting ready to leave for the track. Once we got to the track there we’re Ducati’s everywhere, no longer did I stand out as the young man with the Ducati, I was just another guy with another Ducati. Now I could take some time to describe the experience of tracking my bike but I will save that for another post as to not take away from the subject of this post.

            After the track day was all done, around five O’clock, all three of us packed up the bike got in the car and drove down to Boston to visit my cousin Pam to go out to eat. Driving through Boston we realized that there were not many restaurants with big enough parking lots to pull in the trailer that the bike was in. After searching for a nice parking lot we decided to go to the Marriot Hotel to eat because there was a plus size parking lot there. The restaurant there was very nice, however we may have been underdressed, and the food was on par for being in a hotel. The waiter, if I reall correctly is Carl, seemed to be quite the stern waiter but was pleasantly surprised to find that he was actually comical and caught the duck to order from the pond behind the hotel(inside joke). Dinner comes and goes and we drive Pam back to her apartment in Boston and we continue our drive back to Sharon, Massachusetts where my Uncle’s girlfriend lives to spend the night.

            The road to her house in Sharon was not the easiest since we unknowingly took the back road to her house which goes through an unpaved dirt/gravel road that one would think Thor himself struck holes in the road with his mighty hammer because it was horrific. It took close to 30 min to travel six tenths of a mile to reach her house. We spent the night there and left around eleven am the next morning. After arriving back at my Uncle’s house around noon or so we left again to visit the college Johnson & Wales because I plan on attending this college in a year or two. During the tour of the campus that my Uncle’s friend gave us I learned that there is no real campus for the college because all the buildings are built to blend in to the city, but there is a big enough courtyard at the main office to play Frisbee. Later that night we went out to eat at a very nice restaurant where we all had a different cut of aged beef that was superb. After dinner we went to my Uncle’s house and slept. The next morning we woke up at seven am and were on the road home by eight am. 

            So you see, this was not just a trip to track my bike, it was an adventure that was packed of events. It would be impractical to describe everything that happened and most probably wouldn’t care to hear about it so this is my summary that gives just enough detail to explain why we chose to drive twenty hours all together to track my bike rather than four hours all together.