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November 28, 2008
Nesting
It would be disingenuous of me to declare that I am grateful that the F1 has not shown up by now. Monday morning the shipper will get a call from me, just as they did last Monday. Hopefully they will know more about when my bike is scheduled to arrive.
In the meantime, I have been using the holiday weekend to clean up the garage make room for the F1. Notably, I moved the espresso machine off the bench, consolidated some boxes, relocated the Battery Tender 4 to the opposite wall (so tired am I of tripping over the 25 ft extensions!) and generally threw or put stuff away.
It will be cramped in there with another bike, but I have a plan: the Trail 90 will go back behind the Miata, and the F1 up on the lift. Net loss of space? Only the former free passage from the garage doors to the double doors on the side, now taken up by the BMW.
Posted by Underblog at 4:53 PM | TrackBack
Narcissism of Small Differences
If it had not happened in reality, it would be difficult to imagine. The Benelli community—fans of a small Italian marque of motorcycles— is riven asunder by a dispute over whether the deTomaso multi-cylinder bikes are copies of the Honda's or not. Or perhaps the dispute is over whether the copying was inspired or due to a lack of creativity on management's part. The dispute is so arcane even I, a card-carrying Benelli and Italian-bike dweeb, cannot keep track.
In any case, feelings are hurt on both sides of the argument and folks feel attacked for sharing their own point of view. As is the case in such matters of little import (this reminds of me of my favorite grad school joke: Why are academic rivalries so intense? Because the stakes are so low!), more time has been spent discussing the hurt feelings and attacks than discussing the merits of the respective sides. Needless to say this sort of thing seldom happens between various brands of Italian bikes, much less between Italian bikes and Japanese bikes. Even the Ducati world is too large to accommodate this kind of strife. Uff da!
Posted by Underblog at 2:47 PM | TrackBack
November 18, 2008
Notes on a Thread from the 851-888 List
This week, a mint condition 851 Tricolore came up for sale on eBay. The early 851's were made for two years only, 1988 and 1989. They were quite the imited-edition motorcycle, with only several hundred being sold. They were tremendously expensive (in the neighborhood of 20 grand at Munroe Motors in San Francisco, if I recall correctly). The bikes had Marvic two-piece wheels, full-floating front disk brakes, and were just about the most exotic thing one could buy for the street.
By 1990, Ducati had figured out that demand was strong for these bikes, and that an economy of scale could allow them to mass-produce the motorcycles at a greatly reduced cost. Consequently, by 1990, the price of an 851 had dropped by approximately half. Moreover, the quality of the motorcycle had improved considerably. Owning a piece of exotica often means putting up with "bleeding edge" technology.
One of the regular listers on the 851-888 List shared that he recalled that the Tricolore F1 (like the one on its way to me from Oregon) was what first attracted him to Ducati's, and that some day he will own a Tricolore 851. Another regular lister recalled that when he test rode a Tricolore he was surprised by the machine's "rawness" in comparison to his 1990 851.
So what makes us middle-aged folks (men for the most part) buy these old motorcycles? Clearly, a combination of factors is at work: the desire to obtain something that was once unattainable, the riding of a motorcycle about which one has dreamed, proof to ourselves that dreams do not die and that we are capable of making them come true.
But how do we evaluate the bike of our dreams? Is it worth it to purchase a motorcycle with 16 inch wheels for which finding appropriate tires will always be a challenge in order to have the very bike we saw at Munroe Motors in 1988? Is rarer always better? A tricolore will hold its value much more so than a later 851 or 888, but how much riding will one do on such a treasure? To what extent does a motorcycle's existence as a "garage queen" diminish its relationship to the rider? If the bike is merely trailered from place to place (some folks are known to disconnect the speedo when loading the bike in order to preserve the lowest possible mileage), then the rider-motorcycle relationship becomes merely an owner-motorcycle relationship. On the other hand, what is the point of compromising on one's dream bike?
For me in my present current financial state, I cannot afford a $20,000 piece of decorative art. Each of my bikes provides me a visceral experience that I simply can't quantify. And I think that for now at least, that visceral experience includes firing it up and taking out in to the real world every once in a while.
Posted by Underblog at 8:29 AM | TrackBack
November 17, 2008
Side Stand Shenanigans
The 750 F1 currently on its way to my garage from a garage in Oregon (by way of Wisconsin) possesses neither a center stand (as it came with originally) nor a side stand. The center stand removal was probably a good idea, since a common criticism of the F1 is that the stand impaired ground clearance. The limited-edition Montjuich, Laguna Seca, and Santamonica machines all came with side stands. Fitting a side stand from a Cagiva Ala Azzura using the frame lugs for the center stand would be an easy fix, but for the fact that those pieces of the frame have been removed from my F1.
Ducati TT1 and TT2 motorcycles (predecessors to the F1) came with no provision for a stand of any sort, since they were all sold as track bikes. The TT2 I rode around Italy had a small cavaletto that one installed between the frame and leaned the bike on. One carried it around to have a stand for places where a wall was not handy. I may end up fabricating a stand to be used in the same manner.
Another solution is to mount a side stand to the right-hand engine case lugs. Several of the roadworthy TT1/2 replicas and factory racing machines have had them added. The hitch in this plan is that almost all side stands operate from the left hand side of the machine. The TT2 solution will have to work from the right hand side since the exhaust exits on the left hand side. So: I will have to find a stand which operates from the right hand side or cobble something together that is wholly custom. Perhaps the old side stand from the Morini can be made to fit?