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DUCATI DESMO DAZE -- First time in Canada!

Arrive August 6th and then play August 7th and 8th.

It's a little bike festival and all riders and bikes are welcome --> They have demo rides for desmo fans, food, drinks, camping, music , plus Doug Polen (former World SBK Champ - aka fast nut), Gary Eagan (holds north american travel record - aka touring nut), Stunts (Canadian Chaos, what what what? more nuts), etc. Fun! Fun! Fun!

If you see and hear a ratty Fila Replica 999R with carbon fibre wheels, 160HP, 365 lb package, just smile and wave! or if going into turn one, it's a good time to play catch...

Mike will likely have an official press release on this soon, but the important stuff is all on the desmo website anyway:

http://www.desmodaze.com/

Wikid!

I'd love to get 'into' a Duke for a Blast!

I hope to hear more on how this event panned out....

Don't forget the Photos if you go QM!

With some luck, later this week I should be doing a little nearby road trip... first a couple hundred miles north to the Reynolds Museum for the "Life and Times of the Motorcycle" exhibit (where Buzz and some of the other locals were earlier in the year)... then i'll go north-west to Jasper National Park, through the Rocky Mountains and into British Columbia for a few hundred more miles and another few days of fun... with a little vigilance I can sail back home in one day through the scenic twisties JUST in time to freshen up and land at the Desmo Daze.



and yes, the camera is coming along on the trip. likely i can manage photos all along the way, except during the twisty blitz back, but i'll probably stop to eat at some scenic spots, shoot pix and chat with interesting people... hmmm... maybe i can make a little handlebar mount for the camera... hmmm... OK.. i'm off to the store now to search out on-bike cam solutions! (that's break time. work now ceases to exist. vacation thoughts are upon me. oops)

WAY 2 GO!

I'll look forward to your 'Camera Solutions' Fix....

resting up back from (the all too brief but very fun) vacation, which was full of surprises each day, and JUST managed to catch the last bit of the Desmo Daze yesterday afternoon (as a very tired traveller)... caught pix of Polen, etc. and then it rained cats and dogs... more news later...

two pix:

http://tinypic.com/aaf3p1.jpg

http://tinypic.com/aaf3wp.jpg

more later - once i catch up with work -- could be months, since i only did half my planned vacation and will just have to take another mini vacation ASAP

//monkey

YOU LUCKY MONKEY!!!!!!

ahh, quite fun, but don't envy a monkey's luck too much, as with every lucky banana there is always a slippery peel.

some good memories can be counted by the number of bodily injuries and how easily forgotten they were at the time... the real fun was once we arrived in BC and i was loaned a dirt bike to play with on some twisty asphalt for a few days along with 50 other riders let's see... i noticed three bruises on the left leg when i hopped in the shower upon my return, and although the two boo-boos on the left arm were more garish and erm, thought provoking, they now match my purple shirt very well... oh and this right thumb is still a little larger than the other, but returning to normal one buddy has a right hand that is twice the size as the other... we think it's broke... but he's a bit of an ironman.

good memories indeed, and i am the mellow guy in the group, by far - heck i even took off by myself just to stare at the starry sky the second night while most of the gang partied it up. The next day one of those oddly familiar occurences happened and someone appeared and disappeared as if she were never there... odd.

CentralOzzy, it was a great opportunity to ride the Duck's. When I was there the lineup was short and considering you were taking the bikes directly onto the race track(!), it seemed too good to be true. I was just too tired to even think about it... well, almost... i thought about it,
but was just too tired to do much more than that [stupid stupid stupid! how can one be too tired to ride a 999!???]...

The ticket taker at the entrance looked at me and said "boy, do you ever look tired!" which was probably a good reminder. it made me chuckle a bit. sooo... I wandered around instead and was kindof happy it rained after a bit, because I needed an excuse to go home and sleeeep). Ducati North America certainly are trusting of we Canadian's... i just can't see someone renting Phillip Island to let a bunch of you guys test ride Ducks... every club racer in town would show up to thrash them

heres a few more Desmo Daze pix:

http://tinypic.com/ae8fis.jpg

999 and Aprilia RSV1000
http://tinypic.com/ae8fth.jpg

996 and Mini999
http://tinypic.com/ae8g10.jpg

OldnNew
http://tinypic.com/ae8heg.jpg

rain! yikes! Mini999 closeup
http://tinypic.com/ae8hhw.jpg

well gotta get a little work done (shovel, sweat, hammer, chisel, tap tap tap, dig dig dig) but it's warm and sunny outside so i can
probably sneak out and take in some music and fun too in a few more hours at the AfrikaDey festival in town here!
(http://www.afrikadey.com/lineup.html)

//monkey

Your weather sucks!

But then....you knew that!

At least it wasn't all bad.

Yet more bikes to add to the imaginary aircraft hangar in my back yard of my mind.

I was there on Sunday and there was 20 people there.....not quite the turnout they were expecting. I did get to ride the 620 Multistrada while there, which made it worth the discounted $10 entry fee.
I doubt that we will see this event again in Calgary. I was surprised to see the other (non-Revoluzione) dealers represented there, especially the one I bought a new duck from this year. No tickets came my way .....
I'm sure that the average bike fan in Calgary thought that $35 was a little steep for what was offered and after being there I tend to agree. The band was setting up as I was leaving on Sunday and I was one of the last 3 (non-event related) bikes to leave the parking lot.
I know the guys at Rev really wanted to make something special, but I can't help but think of what it could have been for Ducati North America. It was a great marketing opportunity, let down by ticket price and a lack of bang for the buck. Too bad really....
The S2R with the full Arrow system sure sounded awesome though.....