Best days? Tricky. There have been so many. 1. On a day in 1985, I bought my first Ducati, a blue 500 Pantah, from Oxford Motorcycle Engineers. It wasn't really planned. I'd come back to the UK from Switzerland to get an MOT for my Honda 400N, but this had started weeping around the base gasket (again). So suddenly, I found myself with a bank loan and a Pantah. Picked it up from Oxford in the morning, rode it to my parents's place in south Oxfordshire, packed my luggage into my new soft panniers, and headed for the Channel. Suddenly I could lope along the motorway at 140 kph, protected by my fairing, the whole bike felt unbelievably fast and sure and sophisticated after the Wet Dream. Rode into Paris in the evening and spent the night at a blonde Air France air hostess of my acquaintance's flat. That was a top day. 2. Went for a bit of a scoot for the day on my 851 once. It ended up being 500km of Alpine swervery with 12 passes done, just for the hell of it, before I got home again in time for dinner. Mind you, my wrists were killing me by then (all that braking for hairpin bends downhill - god knows how many of those I did in the day). 3. I think the first time I consistently got my knee down on just about every corner at Ledenon in the South of France would also definitely qualify. I decided that you just can't have any more fun on a bike, and quite possibly any more fun with your clothes on. To be able to cane the thing everywhere and finally use its engine and handling is just a revelation.
this needs to be done for the forum bash!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im in, a summers day trackday at cadwell is about £150 anyway and there was a link to Italian trackdays on here a few days ago but if we org'd our own at £8000 grand ??? just need 60-80 peeps
UKMOC trackday 2011 has to be in my top 3 - perfect weather, surrounded by friends, confidence growing throughout the day. My Route Napoleon ride at the end of June on the way back from WDW was another corker - great roads, great weather, great scenery, and stopping to comparing notes with a random friendly Belgian biker over an Orangina or two. Although it wasn't my best day's riding, I had a rather lovely couple of hours on the way down to WDW when I somehow slipped into a super-chilled mindset and enjoyed the St Bernard pass (even though I normally tense up and hate hairpins). After a wet miserable start to the day in Switzerland, I stopped for a coffee at a Joe Bar Team themed cafe halfway up the pass, the sun came out, there was no other traffic and I just went with the flow - the biking gods were smiling on me.
Have to say the Ducatisti track day at Pembry stays on my mind I gelled better with my bike My journey all by myself from Hereford to Dartmouth was a big achievement and very proud of myself I was too
The cost of 8k was at April 2010 ,I know it goes up a bit each season,one other thing to bear in mind is the cost rises with the temperature so summer months are very expensive. If you want to organise a forum day I would suggest doing the Bzumph rally trackday at Anglesey about July time,they have a class for non Jap bikes the day before there big event I have entered a couple of times and can recomend it 100% If you try to do a Ducati only day it really limits the entries and I would be very suprised if you attracted any more than about 30 riders from the forum,please someone prove me wrong and put my name down. If anyone wants any help to organise a day I am available and have a good working relationship with MSV having booked exclusive circuit use several times since the April 2010 event
A day on the Nurburgring riding my Gixxer thou on the way back from Mugello with 10 mates on sportsbikes... Brilliant
Mine has to be riding my Ducati F1 from Assen to Bologna in one hit. 850 miles on a piece of thin foam isn't something you forget easily. We were at the WSB races at Assen, and if Foggy won race 1 he'd be World Champion, which he did. It was the year the Brit guy with the large Union flag jumped on the back, I was right next to them when he did! We left the circuit and rode to Italy arriving at a friends just outside Bologna at around 0500. We were up a few hours later for a factory visit where everyone was celebrating! After a few days in Italy we rode along the coast to Paul Ricard for the Bol the next weekend. Happy days and great memories!
Too many good times but the one that sticks out the most, is when i took my son and my daughter on the pillion. My ex wife was totally against bikes hated them, i already had a bike when we met. Along came the kids and she was adamant when they were old enough they would never go on the bike, over her dead body ( the thought did spring to mind several times ). We got divorced 8 years ago now, and the kids ( then 10 & 13 ) dearly wanted to go on the bike, so without a minutes hesitation i went and bought all the gear and over 2 weekends i took them on the back of the bike, WOW i can tell you i was choked, riding out with my kids is all i ever wanted. Now i have the best of both worlds my partner is a biker and she loves it when the kids come on a ride too.
For me its simple,every time i get on the bike is special,I have a grin on my face every time i get off,sometimes the grin can last for days depending on the ride,but even a humdrum commuter type journey gets me grinning. Ofcourse I love my wife an kids,but there is nothing that gives me the pleasure my duke does.having now ridden for so many years there are so many special rides,far too numerous to mention,and the best I would not put down in writing as certain public servants could have a problem with that,so I have to thank the Lord and smile every time I open the garage door and see my gorgeous bike.
Would love to say it was a trackday or a lap of the Nurburgring etc. but I don't have the skill to ride at that level, so it comes down to a choice of something from 11 years and about 80,000 miles of pre-Ducati or the last 14 years and 130,000 miles of Ducati-only road riding. Been lucky to have ridden in France, Italy, Switzerland and New Zealand, but I will settle for a ride from the early 90s that started on a drizzly Sunday at Nairn Harbour. (I had set off from Lincolnshire around midday Saturday to see how far I could get before heading home again on the May Bank Holiday weekend, and Nairn was the turnaround point). Met and had a brew with three Scotsmen, two of them were heading back South and I agreed to join them and do my best to keep up. Phil was on a Harris GSX1100, and Neil was on a Harribox EXUP and I was on my Moto Martin GSX1100. The pace was comfortable for them and they managed to fit in a couple of fag breaks whilst I caught up, but for me it was flat out for the next couple of hours and by the time we got to Crianlarich via the Fort William, Glencoe route I was seriously buzzing but mentally drained, so I bid them farewelll and wandered off to find a comfortable B&B in Crieff before heading home the next day.
The day I spent with Neil Hodgson at almeria in September.35 degrees following a former world super bike champion around the circuit and learnt so much that day.cant wait for next year.
