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June / July 2011 DESMOPHILES

#50

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DESMOPHILES

The Newsletter of DOCNZ

Ducati Owners Club of

NEW ZEALAND

June / July 2011 Issue 50

COMMITTEE

REGIONAL CONTACTS Auckland Chris (Haldane M/C’s) 09-303-0624 Wayne Lyons 027-4728-343 Waikato Heath (Hamilton M/C) 07-849-1919 Manawatu Trevor Smart 027 727 1883 Hawkes Bay Nigel Taylor & Claire Miller 021 273 9450 Wellington Todd (Motomart) 0800DUCATI Chris Marer 027-447-4299 Motueka Richmond Grant 03-528-0086 Nelson Greg Monahan 021-851-916 Marlborough Graham McDonald 03-578-2490 Christchurch Craig (Casbolts M/C) 03-366-4401 Phil (Desmocycle) 03-344-1916 Dunedin/Deep South Gary Winter 03-476-7515 021-206-9866

the above members and also the

Ducati Dealer Network

All Magazine contributions and Membership Enquiries to:

DOCNZ

P.O.Box 91-612 Auckland 1142 NEW ZEALAND

Email: secretary@docnz.co.nz

www.docnz.co.nz

President

Chris Marer 027-447-4299

Secretary

Nigel Taylor 027-828-9355

Treasurer

Nick Brandon 021-974-487

Editor/Publisher

Jamie Littin editor@docnz.co.nz

Webmaster

Nigel Haworth webmaster@docnz.co.nz

Communications Coordinator

Greg Monahan docnz@docnz.co.nz

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Hi folks, Recently we sent out an email poll asking for your opinion on the fu-ture of your club magazine. The idea was to go electronic—make the magazine freely available on the web site (www.docnz.co.nz) and only print a handful of copies for dealers to hand out to prospec-tive members, and for those still stuck in the 20th century and short on loo paper… We’ve heard vague grumblings about the reduced numbers of printed copies, but only a couple of you have got in touch with Nigel to say you still want to receive one. If you do have an opinion one way or the other, or do want to re-ceive a hard copy please contact Nigel and let him know (contact details are on page 3). Otherwise we’ll assume silence means con-tentment, and the internet will re-place the postie in one more as-pect of our lives. All this will come up again at the next AGM at NDR2012 (have you booked your place yet?!) because the bulk of your subs go to pay for the magazine. So obviously if the cost of producing the magazine is reduced should subs be reduced too? Or should the money be used

for something else? Lots to dis-cuss, so get your thoughts in an email to Nigel, and come along to the AGM and have your say there too. We’ve passed the midpoint of win-ter, and the days are getting longer again. So hopefully you’re all out enjoying the fresh air and lovely sounds of Desmo. When you’re out there and you’ve stopped for a coffee, or just to ad-mire the view, how about getting out your phone and taking a snap-shot of your bike (and you if you can) with some spectacular piece of New Zealand behind you. I’d like to put together a “Ducatis in New Zealand” album in an upcom-ing issue of the mag, and I’d like your photo to be in it. Jamie

EDITOR’SSAY

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6 LYNDA AND HAMISHGO TO AMERICA—Part 2

Following on from the article in the last issue (which thanks to the joys of modern technology I managed to get to Jamie in time), here is the story of the rest of our trip, after we had left Las Vegas. We left Las Vegas on Tuesday morn-ing, planning a two day trip to Salt Lake City. It was only 420 miles (675kms) but we wanted to make a leisurely journey of it. We headed north on Interstate 15. At some stages of the journey the posted speed limit was 80 miles per hour! We detoured off into Zion National Park. What absolutely stunning scenery – we were blown away. We spent a couple of hours there – we could easily have spent more time but we’d booked ourselves into a ho-tel at a small town called Beaver, equidistant between Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. We arrived there late afternoon, settled in and then found a lovely family-run café for an evening meal. Wednesday morning we left Beaver and headed north. The terrain be-came more mountainous as we trav-elled, with much more snow around. It is simply stunning scenery. We ar-rived in Salt Lake City around lunch-time. We were too early to book into our hotel, but we took advantage of the free train that ran around town and headed into a big shopping cen-tre, the Gateway. While we were there we bumped into the BMW race

team so we said g’day to them. After eight months of planning, Hamish and I finally arrived at Miller Motorsports Park just out of Salt Lake City in the USA early in the morning on Thursday 26th May, for the World Superbike round. It also included a round of the AMA Pro Racing series. Wow. What a fantastic complex – so many permanent buildings and grandstands, and such a huge paved pit area. The panorama of the snow covered mountains surrounding the track is even more breath-taking in real life than it is on the television screen. It was this scenery that made me decide to travel to the USA, and I certainly was not disappointed.

On the top step of the podium

7 By Lynda Blair

We spent most of the day wandering around the pits, taking it all in and watching the teams set up - everyone we met was really friendly and help-ful. Not many of the World riders were there, but we recognised a lot of the teams from our Phillip Island vis-its. Hamish decided he’d like to try out the go karts, there is a go kart track which is part of the Miller complex. I thought it was very reasonably priced at just $16 for 12 laps. Hamish had a ball, despite being a bit tentative for the first few laps. There was only one other punter out there at the same time – it just happened to be Paolo Ciabatti, the Director of Infront Sports!. All that matters is that Hamish had a huge grin on his face

when he drove back in to the pits. I couldn’t get over the number of huge transporters for the AMA Pro Racing teams. It’s very different from our racing in New Zealand and even Australia. The setups they have is amazing, with the big awnings on the sides of the trucks for their riders and teams to rest and relax. The view from above the pit garages is just amazing – you can seem virtu-ally all the track. Almost everywhere around the circuit has a great view- it’s a great spectator track. After we left the track in the late after-noon, we visited the local Ducati dealer, Salt Lake Motorsports. It was like being in an Aladdin’s cave…all the Ducati merchandise available…

Lynda chats with Carlos Checa

8 LYNDA AND HAMISHGO TO AMERICA—Part 2—cont.

Smrz and Guintoli in

their DOCNZ

beanies

Lynda and Carlos after his double win

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so different to our shops here in NZ (though to be fair, NZ is such a small market that the dealers simply can’t af-ford to hold much stock at any one time). I was very restrained and only spent a couple of hundred dollars on some t-shirts, keyrings and mugs. My impressions of Salt Lake City are very favourable. It’s a very pretty city, with lots of trees and parks. The streets are very wide and well laid out, we found it very easy to get around in the rental car. The scenery is just stunning – the city is surrounded by tall mountains, which were snow-covered during our visit. On the Friday we spent most of the day at the track. There were no bikes on track yet but we still had a ball. The manufacturers were setting up in the back of the pit area and first up we had a good wander around looking at their displays coming together. There are some different model bikes, colours and graphics available in the US to what we get in New Zealand. Hamish was particularly taken with the bright yellow BMW S1000RR (one of his bikes is a BMW R1100S) and the yel-low/black Yamaha R1 special edition (his other bike is an Anniversary Spe-cial R1). A bonus was that we got chatting to the gentleman setting up the BMW display who was sporting an All Black (the New Zealand rugby team) shirt!

We also had a lovely chat with a State Trooper on his BMW R1200 police bike. He very kindly let us take some photos with him. I am still so humbled by how friendly and kind everyone is to us. Throughout the day my eyes kept moving to the lovely snow covered mountains surrounding the circuit - I just cannot get over the majesty of the scenery. At lunchtime the inaugural MMP Ce-lebrity Kart Race took place at the Karting Centre adjacent to the track. We ended up rooting for Blake Young (one of the top AMA Superbike riders) and Jonahan Green’s team. They did-n’t get on the podium but still had big smiles on their faces. It was a hilari-ous time, albeit with everyone deadly serious about posting good qualifying times. The race was won by Troy Corser’s team, with Melissa Paris’s team in second place followed by Car-los Checa. It was so good to see the riders having some fun, and the good natured banter between the teams was amusing! The trophies were very seri-ous though…each member of the three winning teams received a trophy exactly the same as the winners would get on Monday. The afternoon was spent wandering the pits. It was nice to catch up with the two Sadowski brothers, Matt and David, who are racing Ducati 848s in AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike class.

10 LYNDA AND HAMISHGO TO AMERICA—Part 2—cont.

Matt and David spent a season racing in New Zealand a couple of years ago. We also met up with Jason DiSalvo, who I’d met at Phillip Island last year. Jason is racing a Ducati 848. I had brought some DOCNZ caps and bean-ies with me and gave one to each of them – it’s good for them to know that they’ve got support at the bottom of the world. One of my heroes for many years has been Ben Bostrom. Ever since we started planning this trip, I was hoping that I might get to meet him. Well, that dream has come true, so I can now die a happy woman. I went a bit shy and stupid but Ben is such a lovely young man – he was so easy to talk with, he put me at ease very quickly and it was just wonderful to chat with him. He very kindly signed a model of his World Superbike Ducati for me, along with a couple of photos. We bumped into Pippa (Eugene Laverty’s lovely partner) who re-membered us from Phillip Island - we had a lovely chat and then Eugene arrived so we were able to congratulate him on his double win at Monza. Pre-season the Ya-maha riders had been two of my picks for top of the championship table come mid-October. Saturday 28th May we arrived at the track bright and early to see bikes on track for the first time.

The first hour or so of the morning was spent wandering around the manufac-turers displays and the trade stalls. While we were in the middle of that we

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were asked if we would help out by manning one of the marshal points un-til a replacement marshal was located. Would we? Try and stop us!!

One of the officials took us to Sunset Bend (I love the names of the corners!) and we met up with some really friendly marshals, one from Canada and two lo-cals. Once again I was blown away with the friendliness of everyone that we meet. We donned hi-vis vests and stood to attention as the FIM cars with the FIM offi-cials drove past (Dodges this round,

not the usual Alfa Romeos). We must have looked okay, as before long the World Superbikes were out for their first session of free practice. It was a real privilege to be so close to the ac-tion. The sight of the 2011 US flags flutter-ing in the breeze in the infield, with the mountains in the background, was once again so much more spectacular and stirring than seeing it on the televi-sion. We passed by Jason DiSalvo’s pit and met his wife Bethany, who asked if we had any more New Zealand Ducati Club caps…she liked Jason’s one so much she wanted one of her own! I still had a couple left so of course we gave her one.

A chocolate malted at Dr

D’z Diner

Hamish and Elena Myers

Lynda and

Ernesto

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We had decided that hiring a golf cart would be a much easier way to get around the track than walking. Once we’d sorted that out, complete with a little New Zealand flag flying from the roof, we headed around the track. What great viewing spots – some places the spectator viewing spots are so close to the track. We sorted out a few good spots to return to over the weekend to get some photos, then headed back to the pits to get some lunch. After lunch we found ourselves a seat in the media centre (in return for me doing a blog for their website, we’d been given media passes by the kind folk at Miller) and proceeded to watch the afternoon’s events. It’s a great view of the track from up there, with the live timing screens to see who is doing what. WSB practice was dominated from start to finish by Carlos Checa. Camier and Biaggi were next followed by Sykes. But it was early days as qualifying was-n’t until Sunday – and the weather forecast was for 8 degrees with 60% chance of show-ers. I was so glad I had packed my beanie, gloves and winter jacket.

We headed away from the track after practise had ceased. It had turned quite cool, with spots of rain – and it looked like it was snowing on the sur-rounding mountains. We headed back towards the centre of Salt Lake City, to our hotel. On the Interstate 80 we were following a couple of bikes, one of which suddenly started smoking. We didn’t know what was going on, but it didn’t look good. We came up along-side the bike and gesticulated, hoping he would stop. Luckily he did – there was an oil leak from the engine putting oil onto the muffler (which produced the smoke we had seen) and all over the rear tyre. Had he leaned over he and his pillion would have been dumped on the road without knowing what had happened. We left the bike

LYNDA AND HAMISHGO TO AMERICA—Part 2—cont.

Lynda with Tom and Johnny

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on the side of the road and took rider, pillion and the pillion from the other bike into Salt Lake City to collect a pickup vehicle. There was a concert at night featuring Creedence Clearwater Revisited (some of the old CCR with a couple of new faces) fol-lowed by a firework display but we were too tired to go…I needed to save my strength for the racing! Overnight on Sunday 29th May the weather closed in and we woke to a cold rainy morning. Despite the low cloud, we could see that there had been snow to

low levels on the mountains, and I was very glad that I had my beanie and gloves. We arrived at the track, found our golf cart, and headed around the circuit. Our cart had a roof and a screen, so although it was raining we stayed dry. Around the perimeter of the circuit there’s an area called the Midway with food concessions and

stalls, and a whole heap of things to keep the young ones amused. One of the stalls was run bySalt Lake Mo-torsports. We’d been into their city shop a couple of days earlier, but I couldn’t resist going in to the stall at the track, and boy am I glad that I did. They had some quite different stock to what was in the town shop, some of it at a very good price. And to top it off they gave me a 10% discount card as I walked in…it would have been foolish to not make the most of the discount, now wouldn’t it! A quick trip on the golf cart back to the carpark to leave the rather large bag of

(Continued on page 36)

Lynda and

Scott Russell

14 PRESIDENT’SPRATTLE

NORMAL Who are you calling normal!! To be honest I’ve never been one to follow the crowd, always done it my own way. I guess it started back at kindergarten when we had our nativity play. Being a boy I was supposed to be Joseph or one on the wise men – but nah I wanted to be a cow!! When it came time to start buying motorcycles in the late 80’s things were much the same, my mates had Honda XR’s – but I had to have a Kawasaki KLX. In the mid 80’s road bikes became the thing to have, my mates had Suzuki’s & Honda’s – but I had to have a Ducati 750F1 (still got it). As time wore on adding an adventure bike to fleet was the way to go, my mates had BMW’s – but I had to have an Enduro ver-sion of KTM’s 950 v-twin. Business is doing ok now, time to add an-other toy to the shed, my mates are getting into 1098’s – but I have to get a hand built 1080cc Ducati powered NCR. Roll on 2011 & I get myself one of them new Multistrada 1200’s, before you say “That’s a normal type of bike”, let me explain. I own & run a roofing business in our nation’s capital & most roofers around here drive a late model Ford or Holden Ute, most are V8’s – but I have to have a Turbo-charged one. Well my day is mostly taken up with driving around meeting clients, measuring their roofs. Doing site visits to check on my contractor’s etc. It got me thinking……my weekends are tied up a fair bit of the time (family stuff, which is all good), but how can I fit some bike time into this life of mine??..........then I had a eureka moment, If I could find a ladder that I could mount on a bike I would be quid’s in!! Kill two birds with one stone – Bikes & work!! I discussed this with my ever supportive wife & she asked “are you mad?” I nodded vigorously, she rolls her eyes, that way only wives can & says, “I know you well enough that you will find a way”, and I nod vigorously again. Well a bit of internet time later I find a telescopic ladder, able to extend out to at least 3.8 metres in height, yet compact & light enough to fit to fit on a pack rack that I designed & had made up. A week later we’re off on our maiden voyage, Multistrada 1200,

(Continued on page 16)

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16 PRESIDENT’SPRATTLE—cont.

ladder & me, off to conquer the roofing world!! All my contractor’s took one look at me when I turned up at our yard that first Monday morning & said “mate you are not normal”, I grinned & nod-ded vigorously again. To be honest, It is fantastic I get to ride over the Paekakariki Hill about 5 times a week, get through the traffic way easier. I actually can’t wait to go to work in the morning & when I get a customer ring from the Waira-rapa, it doesn’t take too much arm twisting to get me to ride over the Ri-mutaka’s to pay them a visit!! Onto some club matters; Regalia; We are in the process of getting our new range of stuff sorted out & hopefully come spring time we will have this available to purchase, watch this space. Welcome kits from Ducati; I have contacted Ducati a few times about these, the last reply I got was “they will be shipped out early to mid-July”, I’ve been waiting, but nothing yet. Of course it is now August & Ducati have closed for the month (holidays) so I’m sorry but I guess we will have to wait some more, Thank you for your patience. Well the phone has just rung & someone from Napier has a leaky roof, so I better jump on the bike & go and see if I can help. See you all out there. Ciao Chris

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Below is a summary of income and expenses for the period 1 May - 30 June 2011.

 

The Club’s finances are in good shape – there are ample funds available for anticipated expenses through to early 2012 when subs are due for next year. I also expect that NDR 2012 entries will continue to trickle in for the next few months. The bike has now been serviced and the weather is warming up so been getting out for a ride most weekends lately. A new set of tyres will be needed soon and it looks like a return to Pirellis this time after a few sets of Continentals. There is nothing like a fresh set of rubber to restore the handling as it gradually deteriorates with tyre wear and I am promised that the new Dablo Rossos are perfect for the older super-bikes. In the meantime - keep the rubber side down.

Nick

   Cheque account  Savings account 

Balances of accounts as at 30 Apr 2011  $       5,603.30  $         409.21 

Less expenses for the period 1 May – 30 Jun 2011  $         (983.76)   $               nil 

Add income for the period 1 May – 30 Jun 2011   $      1,565.00   $            0.70 

Closing Balances 30 Jun 2011   $      6,184.54   $        409.91 

TREASURER’SREPORT

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DUCATI SPECIALIST Dave McDonald

NZ agent for ‘Vee-Two’ performance parts Bel-Ray and Penrite Motorcycle Oils Over 20 years Ducati experience and

expertise! Bevel Drive and

Belt Drive Two Valves a specialty 28-30 Joseph St

Palmerston North 027-682-7083

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Greetings to all Well that was an interesting exer-cise. In response to anecdotal evi-dence that there are a few disgrun-tled members out there in Ducatiland who are not happy at having this wonderful missive available for some of the following reasons, and I quote verbatim: “Required for doing jobs in the small-est room of the house” “A great way to start conversations about motorcycles with unexpected visitors” “My dial up connection is too slow” I duly conducted an informal email poll to see who would like to con-tinue receiving hard copy of the mag. The split of those who re-sponded was about 50/50 for the new technology over the old so those that want to continue with the old paper version, we at DOCNZ HQ will bow to your wishes and you can sort out the funding requirements at the next AGM. Please note this was

not an exercise to chase up on those of you who have not paid your subs, although there were a few who came out of the woodwork and coughed up. I will now throw myself open for sug-gestions in how to go about publicis-ing NDR2010 at Hanmer Springs in March 2012; I know a lot of you are looking forward to this event but to put it out there for the widest possi-ble audience we need a bit of public-ity. I have a swag of posters here for distribution and will forward these to the area reps shortly so please chip in and offer to spread them far and wide and reserve putting them up in the shed till after the event. You can also help out by asking anyone you see with a Duke “Are you going to NDR nest year, Steve Wynne and Ian Falloon will be there along with the biggest selection of Ducatis to be gathered at one place in NZ”. Catch you there. Nigel

SECRETARY’SPRATTLE

20 SUPERBIKEWORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2011

February 27 Phillip Island, Australia March 27 Donington, United Kingdom April 17 Assen, Netherlands May 8 Monza, Italy May 30 Salt Lake City, USA June 12 Misano, Italy June 19 Alcaniz, Spain July 10 Brno, Czech Republic July 31 Silverstone, United Kingdom September 4 Nurburgring, Germany September 25 Imola, Italy October 2 Magny Cours, France October 16 Portimao, Portugal

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The Sights

WorSuper

Champi

USA RMay 30

Lynda with Jason DiS-alvo’s bikes

State Troopon his BMW

Smrz wearing his DOCNZ

beanie on TV!

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s of Miller

rld rbike onship

ound 0 2011

per

Banners and snow at Miller

Motorsport Park

Manuela and Pippa leave the boys on the grid

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25 MOTOGPWORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2011

March 20 Doha, Qatar

April 3 Jerez, Spain

May 1 Estoril, Portugal

May 15 Le Mans, France

June 5 Montmelo, Catalunya

June 12 Silverstone, Great Britain

June 25 Assen, Netherlands

July 3 Mugello, Italy

July 17 Sachsenring, Germany

July 24 Monterey, USA

August 14 Brno, Czech Republic

August 28 Indianapolis, Indianapolis

September 4 Misano, San Marino

September 18 Alcaniz, Aragon

October 2 Motegi, Japan

October 16 Phillip Island, Australia

October 23 Sepang, Malaysia

November 6 Valencia, Valencia

26 BOOK REVIEW: THE DUCATI MONSTER BIBLE

This is available for $75.00 (normally $95.00), plus $5.00 P&P if required, to DOCNZ members until 15th September 2011 from:

Octane Books 57 Nuffield Street Newmarket 1023 Auckland www.octane.co.nz ian@octanebooks.co.nz

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Most of you who have been around Ducatis for a while will recognise the name Ian Falloon as being syn-onymous with publications relating to this legendary marque. The Ducati Monster Bible is the latest in a fine body of works that pay homage to a number of Ducati’s outstanding bikes. The Monster is the most successful motorcycle produced by Ducati to date. This publication captures the whole story from the first iteration of de-signer Miguel Galluzzi’s inspired design at the Cologne Show in 1992 through to current Evo mod-els. This was the bike that turned Ducati’s financial fortunes around and helped the company to be-come the successful organisation it is today. The story is told in Ian Falloon’s matter-of-fact style with full details and statistics covering the full range of models produced all the way from the first generation 900cc and 600cc machines through to the current crop of Evolution models

that can be found on any Ducati dealer’s floor today. But it’s not just the story line that makes this book very readable, it’s the stunning col-lection of photos, from the simple and easy to ride 1994 600 model though to the fire breathing S4Rs that burn up the tarmac at our local rallies. Some of the more unusual models, such as the Chromo and Elaborazioni colour schemes, are featured as well as all the standard (if that word can be applied to this product range) models; all in glori-ous colour. As a member of a household that has had one of the humble 1994 600M through to the S2R currently in the shed I would have no hesitation on putting this book into the coffee table collec-tion. If you want a chance to win this particular copy, kindly donated by Octane Books, you will have to bring your own Monster to NDR2012 and enter it in the Con-course, we could even get Ian to sing this in person. See you there.

By Nigel Taylor

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DISCLAIMER Unless expressly stated, the opinions and comments in this newsletter are those of the contributors only, and are not club policy. Nor does the club guarantee any advertisers products or servicing suggestions

made. Although all material is checked for accuracy, no liability is assumed by the editor or DOCNZ.

Our Advertisers and Sponsors Support Us Support them and Support your Club

Whenever you see the services of one of our advertisers (and isn't that all the time?) let them know that you saw the ad in DESMOPHILES. That way they will know that their advertising dollar is being spent

wisely. It will help your club, the service provider and above all it will help you (there may be a club mem-ber discount available).

Auckland Headquarters Restaurant and Bar, 132 Beaumont St, Westhaven

1st Wednesday of each month from 7.30pm

Hamilton Hamilton Motorcycle Centre, Te Rapa Road, Hamilton

3rd Tuesday of each month from 7.30pm

Wellington The Featherston Bar and Grill, Corner Featherston & Johnston Streets, Wellington

3rd Tuesday of each month from 6.00pm (although Lynda is usually there from about 5.15pm)

Nelson Mapua Village Inn, Nelson

3rd Tuesday of each month from 7.30pm

Christchurch Dux de Lux on Montreal Street. Start time 7.30pm—1st Tuesday of each month from

7.00pm

29 RUMOURMILL

From our roving reporter in the race pits: A certain Club member has very recently replaced his 749 race bike with a 999. He only bought it a few days before the Vic Club round at Man-feild in July, and he didn't have time to set it up properly, but he's very pleased with it. Watch this space!!

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It all started with a relatively inno-cent question to Todd at Motomart in March earlier this year…”Hey, let me know if you get a Diavel demo, they look cool”. Aside from checking out the odd Diavel vid on Youtube, nothing more said or done until an email ar-rives from Todd in June…”Steve, our new Diavel – sorry, YOUR new Diavel – arrives next week. Stan-dard red. Talk soon. Todd”… mmm. Some serious online research started and a discussion with the Home Executive Committee con-firmed (a) I was keen on a Diavel and (b) there was a green light. One week later I’m standing with the keys in my hand and my wallet lighter. One quick mod, setting up the number plate beside the chain with the plate mounted vertically, so it doesn’t cut the view of the rear tyre, and I was away. Okay, so I’ve had just two rides and what do I think – SIMPLY AWE-SOME! I’ve ridden Superbikes for as long as I can remember, but the Diavel is something else. Part cruiser, part traffic-light drag rocket, great looks (especially in the flesh)

and above all, it handles! The tech on this thing is amazing - keyless start, a colour screen, and plenty of info and stuff to play with. It has three riding modes – Sports, Touring, Urban – but I’ve only tried Sports (with 162 HP to unleash) and that suits me fine so far. When I picked her up I headed home up the Kapiti coast with a grin a mile wide. The things I noticed immediately – she’s light and easy to move at slow speed. Despite the run-in need, she pulls like the pro-verbial, and although there’s a dirty great 240 section rear, she turns surprisingly easily. I’ve never ridden anything like this before, so shelling out without a test ride was a risk. My only ad-venture into anything that wasn’t a sportsbike was a Harley Softail, which I hated. The Diavel is NOTHING like a Softail. My second ride was 200 clicks around some great back roads in the Horewhenua. Beaut afternoon, no wind and sunny. First test – my favourite twisties – she handled them well. Sure, it’s no 1098, but a little nudge on the bars and she falls into bends beautifully. Overtak-ing is easy in any gear, and road

DIAVELFIRST IMPRESSIONS

31 By Steve Ferguson

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handling overall is superb (especially once I set up the sus-pension) I’m lanky and 6’3” but I find the low seat height fine, the reach to the bars and pegs all good. But, this bike is the most comfortable I’ve ever ridden – period! Heading home I didn’t want the ride to end, just the loved the power, feel and riding position. One thing with these things is they draw looks everywhere. Each time

DIAVELFIRST IMPRESSIONS—cont.

C P

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I stopped someone always asked “what the hell is it?” A lot of bikers also take a second look on the road. I guess that’ll happen for a

while until a few more hit NZ shores. So, my first impressions are great. A couple of niggles – I found a cou-ple of false neutrals (put that down the gear bedding in), I can’t get the right hand mirror to adjust where I want it, and the suspension needs to be set up for me. I’ll always have a sports bike in my garage, but I already love this bike, and I’m looking forward to running her in and spending the summer playing. Steve

Even in winter, we often have hardy souls turning up to our Wellington drinks nights on their bikes. Tim Campbell in particular is a regular who travels over from the Wairarapa on his bike - one night last winter he had to turn back at Featherston as the Rimutakas were closed with snow and he couldn’t get across to Wellington. Now that’s keen. Anyway, when those who ride to our drinks arrive, there is a convenient motorcycle park right outside the pub. Very handy, no worries about parking. So when I turned up to July’s drinks and saw a large space cleared of tables and chairs in the middle of the pub, my brain went into overdrive. The barman let slip (before the waitress said “shh, it’s supposed to be a secret!”) that the space had been cleared for a bike that would be joining us in the pub. My guess was that it would be a Diavel. And I was right. But what I didn’t know is that it was not just any Diavel, but that which had been purchased by Steve Ferguson! Motomart brought the new red baby into town in the van, and she was wheeled up a ramp and into the pub where she took pride of place in the cleared space. There was a lot of interest in the new baby, and the proud father was happy to answer all manner of questions about his new pride and joy.

Congratulations Steve, your new baby is lovely. PS: you must talk with Stu Jordan about how wonderful the full Termi system is….

Lynda

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CLUBREGALIA

SALE NOW ON!!

Anyone interested please contact

secretary@docnz.co.nz

Due to the change of club logo we are selling off our collectable caps. T-shirts

are already sold out, so get your cap now!

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purchases, and we carried on around the perimeter of the track. We stopped several times to watch the bikes and take some photos. There really is some great viewing. The rain kept softly falling and it was bit-terly cold, but we were still having a great time. Johnny Rea came along on a dirt bike and stopped just in front of us. I’m presuming he was doing a track inspection before his first outing. I gave him a smile and a wave, and he gave me one of his lovely boyish grins back. We rolled back to the pits around lunchtime and visited a couple more stalls there. I was really chuffed when one of the stallholders said “don’t I know you…haven’t you written a blog about the racing?” Wow, I come from little old New Zealand to the United States of America, and I get recognized by complete strangers!! As we were wandering through the paddock, I spied Scott Russell. I had not met Scott before, so I introduced myself and had a lovely chat with him. He knows Aaron Slight and Fred Merkel well, both of whom live in New Zealand and both of whom I happen to know. The rain had kind of stopped falling though the track stayed wet as it was too cold to dry out much.

(Continued from page 13)

LYNDA AND HAMISHGO TO AMERICA—Part 2—cont.

Max storms

off because

Carlos gets all

the attention

Erik Buell and his latest creation

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We settled into the me-dia center to watch the qualifying and racing. Before this started, the official opening was held on the start–finish line. There were four Military personnel, other officials, and a young lady with a lovely voice, whose name escapes me, who sang the Na-tional Anthem. By the time the World Super-bike Qualifying took place, it was still quite wet but by the time Su-perpole came around it had dried out slightly, though still needing wet

tires. Superpole was very interesting. Leon Camier had a hor-rendous highside early on, but luckily he was able to get back to the pits and get out on his sec-ond bike. His teammate Max Bi-aggi overshot a corner and wobbled through the gravel/muddy grass, only to fall over in an un-dignified heap just as he stopped. Luckily it looked

like it was only his pride that was hurt. And Leon Haslam had an excursion off track too, we didn’t see what hap-pened but from the look of the bike as he cruised back to the pits he’d lowsided on the left hand side. Once again he didn’t seem injured. So the last Superpole session was very exciting, with Carlos Checa claim-ing pole position in the dying seconds of the session. Once again he’s show-ing the consistent form he’s shown all season. I was really pleased to see Jakub Smrz second on the grid, and the two Yamaha lads (Melandri and Laverty) third and fourth respectively. I was really sorry to see Noriyuki Haga knocked out of the top eight, but being further back on the grid hopefully won’t stop him a good placing in the races. After the racing I called in to see Car-los Checa to congratulate him and give him a New Zealand Ducati Owner’s Club cap. I was completely over-whelmed (in the best possible way) when he gave me one of his caps printed with his helmet graphics, and he signed it for me personally…what a kind gesture. I had some Club beanies left, so I found Jakub Smrz and Sylvan Guintoli and gave them one each – they very kindly took us through to their pits and Hamish took my photo with them both. Once again, what lovely guys.

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I spied Ducati guru Ernesto Marinelli and introduced myself to him – he’s a legend to us Ducati fanatics. I gave him a DOCNZ cap – he is a very nice man, very easy to chat with. As we were heading back to the car we saw James Toseland, so we had a chat with him. He is still carrying injury from his crash during testing at Aragon, but is glad to be back on the track. And, as he says, he knows that he will heal 100% given time. We decided to track down an In-N-Out burger store. I must say I was very sur-prised at the small menu – there are only three burgers to choose from. However, I must also say that they were very nice burgers. Thanks to Jonathan Rea for mentioning in an in-terview that he was going to have an In-N-Out burger while in the US…I hadn’t heard of them before. Race day, Monday 30th May, dawned and we saw that there had been more snow overnight – it was down to very low levels on the mountains around Salt Lake City and surrounding Miller Motorsports Park. It looked absolutely fantastic. It was Memorial Day, a pub-lic holiday in the US. It wasn’t as cold as yesterday, but it was still cold nonetheless – 12 de-grees. It was drizzling in Salt Lake City but by the time we got to the track at Tooele the rain had stopped. The track had virtually dried out for the morning warmup, though there was a

wide stream of water coursing across the track over the back – quite a few of the riders had a “moment” as they went through it. There were a couple of support class warmups, then the official opening with the national anthem…then the front straight was turned into the start grid for race one. I always get really nerv-ous/excited when the bikes start up and head out for the grid, and this time was no exception. The race started with much action - two crashes in the first couple of laps – Johnny Rea and Max Biaggi went down together, then shortly afterwards Rueben Xaus and Michel Fabrizio crashed together. I breathed a sigh of relief when everyone seemed okay. I got very excited for the first few laps as Nitro Nori was doing really well, then he dropped back. Mid race he found his form again and ended up 9th. Smrz had a moment and lost several places but rode superbly to take second place to Checa, and his team mate Sylvain Guintoli took the final place on the po-dium. I was stoked with a Ducati 1-2-3, and managed to congratulate Jakub and Sylvan as they came up the stairs to the podium. I couldn’t understand why Checa’s left side was covered in mud – I knew he hadn’t crashed during the race. I found out afterwards that he’d tipped the bike over during a celebra-tory moment on the cool-down lap.

LYNDA AND HAMISHGO TO AMERICA—Part 2—cont.

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After race one had finished the skies turned a threatening grey, and the clouds lowered on the mountains. However by the time race two was ready to grid, the grey sky had disap-peared, there was a lot of blue sky and it had warmed up a bit – phew. The AMA National Guard American Superbike race was a real thriller with Blake Young taking the checkered flag ahead of Josh Hayes and Tommy Hayden. There was action happening in the paddock during the day as well, with the stunt riders Jason Britton, Eric Hoenshell, Chris Pfeiffer and Chris McNeil performing. How those guys do the things they do is absolutely be-yond me. Their skill and balance is amazing. Race two was another great race, with Checa dominating from the start. There were several crashes, one of them being Noriyuki Haga, however once again I believe all the riders were okay. There was some good dicing further down the field between Sykes, Badovini and Rea. I managed to get to Carlos and give him a hug after his double – he rode superbly and I was delighted he’d done so well after his double DNF here last year. We hung around the paddock as the teams were packing up, and Carlos

very kindly invited me in to his garage for a photo by his bike. We also had a chat with Jonathan (Rea), Eugene (Laverty) and Tom (Sykes), who were relaxing with their partners after the racing. They are all so lovely, so friendly and easy to talk with – they are all great mates with each other. The original plan for our trip was that we would spend another couple of days in Salt Lake City/Utah after the racing. However, we found out there was an AMA Pro race meeting next weekend at Road America. It’s only 2,500kms so we decided to head east to Wisconsin for some more great rac-ing. It’s a long drive to do in three days, but we’re able to whizz along on the Interstate and make good time – you can easily average 70-75 miles per hour without breaking the speed limit. Continued in issue #51.

40

NDR2012—cont.

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I ........................................................… ...…….................................................… [first name] [surname] of ......................................................… ...........................................................… [postal address] [suburb / city] ..................................… ..................... ...........… …......................................... [postcode] [Home telephone] [Cell phone] ......................................................... (I am happy to receive Ducati related emails Y / N )

[email]

hereby apply for

Full m/ship [$50.00] Family* m/ship (family members or partners living under same roof) [$60.00] Associate m/ship (non Ducati Owner – no voting rights) [$50.00]

of the Ducati Owners Club New Zealand. In the event of my admission as a member, I agree to abide by the constitution and by-laws of DOCNZ.

I enclose payment of $....................................... by cheque made out to DOCNZ. I wish to pay by direct credit. (Our account details are: DOCNZ National Bank-Palmerston North 060746-0276337-00 Please ensure your name is included in the information. Please note that you must still send in your membership form, noting you have paid directly.)

Signature: .......................................................... Date: ............................................. Please note that memberships expire at the end of January. Applications and renewals received between November and January are registered as a membership for the following year. Particulars of motorcycle/s: ________________________________________________________________

[model and capacity] [year] [VIN / Chassis or Rego #] ________________________________________________________________

[model and capacity] [year] [VIN / Chassis or Rego #] ________________________________________________________________

assoc. [make, model & capacity] [year] [VIN / Chassis or Rego #]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OFFICE USE ONLY Cheque No ____________________ Rcvd: ___/___/___ Amt: $__________ Clearly state name on back of cheque DOCNZ Interim Membership: Received the sum of...……......... from……………….....................................being for membership renewal / application. (to January 31st 2012) Signed .................................................... on behalf of DOCNZ Committee Ducati Owners Club New Zealand. P.O.Box 91-612 Auckland 1142, NZ Email: secretary@docnz.co.nz

DOCNZMEMBERSHIP FORM

42

Cover & centre spread: Lynda & Hamish Blair

IF YOU'RE IN THE BUSINESS OF DUCATI MOTORCYCLES YOU MAY WISH TO REACH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE THROUGH THIS SPECIAL INTEREST CLUB MAGAZINE

SIZE 1 ISSUE 3 ISSUES 6 ISSUES

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Payment is due at the time of placement of advert. Club Classifieds Free classified advertising for club members is available on the DOCNZ website. Registered users can surf to www.docnz.co.nz, click the Forums link, and use the Buy/Sell/Swap forum. If you have any queries or need help please email webmaster@docnz.co.nz.

Magazine Contributions should be sent to: The Editor

DESMOPHILES P.O.Box 91-612 Auckland 1142

Email: editor@docnz.co.nz

Deadlines are the 1st February, April, June, August, October and December for issues due out

towards the end of the month. Display advertising is available for business – please contact the secretary.

Rates above.

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