East Coast Ducs Photo Credit: Alex

I didn't sleep too much last night, and had to get up early to be at Columbus Circle at 7am.  I'll write separately about the motorcycles at the 2015 IMOC rally, but this is how the ride there went down:

 Last year, about 40 DOCNYC members had RSVP'ed, but only three other people showed up to IMOC (The Italian Motorcycle Owner's Club Rally) besides me, when I was riding down from a college buddy's wedding in Boston.
 But, now that I riding with a new crew, the East Coast Ducs 11 people signed up to come, and 11 people showed up.
 About half of us left from NYC, and I may or may not have eluded the police (mostly by accident),  as everything is on high alert with both the pope in town AND the UN General Assembly in session.
 We met the other half of the group in Stamford, Connecticut, and began the 150 mile trek up to Massachusetts.
 The weather was actually a bit chilly as we hopped on the Merrit Parkway, and we attempted to find some back roads in northern CT and southern Mass, but without too much luck.
Good riding with good friends though, and eventually we rolled up to the Hamilton Rod and Gun Club.
  There were many fewer bikes than last year, but still an amazing collection of motorcycles, mostly of the Italian variety.

Photo Credit: Alex

 Last year I got stuck on I95 for several hours, and a few of us were determined to get home somewhat early.  Suzy and Erik and I were hoping to take the ferry back to Long Island, but unfortunately they were booked, and we all at least started out planning to leave together, even though we ended up breaking up into a couple groups (as usual) to get home.
© 2015 Tigh Loughhead

DESMO 14th Annual Ducati BBQ

 The DOCNYC (The DOC's local chapter, based in New York City) met up at 8am on 61st Street and Central Park, by Columbus Circle.
 Gathering the urban crew for a little pre-BBQ pep talk.  Riding with 30+ motorcycles in NYC is fairly dangerous, so the club coordinators laid out some ground rules as it began to rain.
 After a bit of debate, we took off up the Palisades Parkway, and the skies cleared up.
 We stopped for gas about an hour into the trip, where I got a chance to admire the new Ducati Monster 1200S (below), which is a hell of a Monster, but a totally different design from the classic Monster I know.

Ducati 4 Valve SuperBike Section

 We took some twisties, but got up to the Park a little after 11am.  Perhaps it was the rain, but there were far fewer bikes than last year, and less bikes entered in the bike show (below) as this year we were required register before parking.
 The 749 was immaculate, and had been rebuilt from the ground up.
 The bodywork was filled with touches of carbon fiber, and custom painted as well, from both the pearl yellow to custom, hand-painted lettering to match the Ducati red highlights of sprockets, steering dampers, bolts, etc.
 This Ducati 1198S showed up a bit later, but was sporting a ton of mods, including a complete Akrapovic exhaust, Carbon Fiber EVR air intake, a kevlar tank, super-light cams, flywheel and sprockets, dyno-tuned at ECS.

Ducati 2 Valve

 There were at least five or six 900SS Ducatis that showed up; some fully, some half-faired.
 Included in this section were two GT1000's.
 The red GT1000 was a beautifully modded machine, with tons of Rizoma parts including clear belt covers.

 The silver GT was a Paul Smart GT1000 with a full race fairing, sporting a eggshell teal colored frame.

Ducati Naked Bikes

 This hypermotard had also had extraordinary care given to detail, with blue accents everywhere, from tire stem caps, to a complete titanium bolt set, to sprocket and wheel nuts and much, much more (though the picture doesn't do it justice).
 This Ducati M1100EVO had also been heavily modified, and won best naked bike. Dyno-tuned, with a a complete exhaust and race map, I bet this motorcycle has some serious power.

Vintage Ducatis

Unfortunately, there were only a couple vintage Ducs this year, including the '75 850GT above
 I'm pretty sure this was actually an 848 and not a $70K motorcycle someone was throwing around at the track, but you can see "Desmosedici" fairings on the side.

Post BBQ Run back to Bear Mountain

© 2014 Tigh Loughhead