From: andersen@che.udel.edu (From the jumbled mind of Steve Andersen)
Subject: Summit Point Ride/Ducati Update
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords:  Rotsa Fun...
Organization: University of Delaware/Department of Chemical Engineering
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 19:59:00 GMT

	This is a report on my most recent trip to Summit Point
Raceway for WERA races.  It was my longest trip so far on my new
Ducati 907ie, 320 miles total for the day...

	I awoke around 6:30 (on Sunday, Yuck!!!) and prepared for 
my adventure.  It was overcast and quite foggy, but it appeared that
the rain was holding off.  I clipped my tank bag, filled with extra
layers of clothing and raingear, onto the Duc.  I kissed the dog and 
patted my wife on the head and i was off.  I stopped to fill the tank
and headed out toward Baltimore to rendezvous with Mike Fennell and a
large group of B'more area motorcyclists.  It was quite cold (below 40 F)
and the fog was so thick that I had to wipe the condensation off of my
face shield every few minutes to see.  I had decided to avoid the slabs
and continued down some nice two-lane through Maryland.  After about 
20 miles I stopped to put on more layers of clothing, as I was beginning
to feel quite cold and uncomforatble.  I got back on the road feeling
much better and continued on my way.

	The ride was quite boring and uneventful until I reached a 
turn off onto a "road to granma's" a friend had recommended.  The 
road turned out to be quite interesting and provided me with enough
excitement to keep my tires, and myself warm.  I reached the cycle
shop where the group was meeting just after 9:00 with just
over 60 miles on the clock.  

	Mike Fennell came over and introduced himself and we discussed
a few composite bits I had brought with me.  We decided to not ride with
the group, as it appeared to be filled with a large number of neon coated
squids with parkinson's disease in their throttle hands (recognized by the 
bwaaaaaaa, bwaaaaa ,bwaaaaaa sounds emanating from their bikes at idle).
The group pulled out in a blaze of aftermarket pipe noise and redline
powershifts and we were glad of our decision.  We headed out a few minutes
later and headed to rendezvous point number two, where a few other bikes
would be joining the group.  At this point two of Mike's more responsible
riding friends decided to ride with us, as we planned an interesting, but
"safe" pace.  Again the group pulled out and we waited.  We headed out in
our small pack and picked up a pace that was fun, but the road itself was
quite boring.

	We had a few brief moments of excitement practicing roll-ons
while passing cars, however most of the ride was straightforward
cruising (albeit at reasonably high speeds).  I was quite enjoying
the comfort and feel of my new bike, especially when the roll-on
car pass opportunities presented themselves.  As we reached Frederick,
MD, we got onto a slab to cut over to route 340 which would take us to 
just a few miles from the track.  The on ramp to the highway was our 
first "real" curve for quite some time, and the line of four bikes
explored some decent lean angles through the sweeping turn onto the 
highway.  I am still quite new to the level of performance that my
new steed is capable of, and I was astonished at how the bike simply
laughed at the lean angle and the speeds at which we were traveling.

	We continued on the highway all the way to Charlestown, W. VA,
keeping our speedos steady around the 90mph+ mark.  We pulled into 
Charlestown under some ominous clouds and stopped at a 7-11 to get some
grub.  Before leaving we pulled on our rain coats and also had 4 high
school age kids on brand new sportbikes sporting only helmets and 
windbreakers latch onto us for the ride to the track (now around 8-9
miles away).  The road to the track is quite twisty, quite slick in
spots, and even contains a few speed warning signs which don't follow
the "double-it and add ten" rule.  I had decided to bring up the rear,
as I knew that Mike was planning to 'wick it up' somewhat, and I did
not want to be tempted to override my current limitations and stuff
my new $9000 machine into a wad-o-shit.  

	As we got on the road, the leaders (Mike and co.) pulled 
around a few cars and disappeared up ahead.  I ended up getting held
up by a guy who was working quite hard on a Yamaha XT350 dp bike.
He was doing a good job with his bike, but I was getting bored
so he waved me by.  I got around a few cars and caught up with 
one of the teen-squids we met at 7-11.  I followed him for a mile
or so, but I then backed off since he was swinging turns wide and 
looking kinda twitchy.  i didn't feel like getting sucked into an
accident with him.  

	Well wouldn't you know, about a minute later I came up over the 
top of a small crest to see the teen-squid and two cars stopped right 
in front of me.  I plowed on the brakes and got stopped about 3 feet
behind teen-squid's rear wheel.  It was then that I looked into the adjacent
field to see the remains of teen-squid's buddy's bike in the middle of 
the field, and teen-squid #2 lying on his back in the grass.  I pulled
up about 50 feet into a small driveway into the field and hopped off
my bike to go check on the rider.  A few others had stopped and we sent
someone to the track (now about a mile away) for an ambulance.  It 
turns out that the crasher was basically okay, with perhaps a broken
ankle or leg (boogered knee) and maybe a collarbone.  It appeared that
he just missed the turn and went straight off the road.

	On his way into the field, his bike hit a telephone pole guy-wire
and pulled a 4.5 foot long stake out of the ground.  He then went off the 
back of his bike, and the bike cartwheeled across the field.  From the 
appearance of things after the accident, I think this kid got quite lucky
considering what would've happened had he hit that wire with his body instead
of his bike, and also his lack of safety equipment.  The kid kept trying to
get up to look at his bike, but I told him "look, your bike is totally
trashed (it was), it's not going to get better, and it can't get worse, so
just sit down until the ambulance arrives".  The kid just looked at me
dumbfounded for a moment, and then he relaxed and sat back down.

	Moments later Mike and the other two guys we were riding with came
back, thinking perhaps that i had wadded when i didn't get to the track.
The kid's bike was a 1992 FZR600 with 1500 miles on the clock.  Both 
the front and back ends of the bike were squished into the middle, and 
most or all of the bodywork was trashed.  One totalled bike, and one more
negative statistic for the insurance companies...

	When we left the accident scene and headed back towards the 
track, I was following Mike, who this time was taking it a bit slower
than before :-).  Through the one last bad turn on the way to the track,
I went into the turn (a sharp right hander) at about 25 mph (the sign said
20mph).  I was keeping Mike in sight and the bike was leaned over 
quite far even at the slow speeds.  As I hit the apex of the turn and 
began to roll on the throttle, I felt the front end beginning to lose
some grip and slide toward the outside of the turn.  I held my 
lean and kept the throttle steady, knowing that if I did anything
dramatic that I might become non-teen-squid with a wadded Duc.  I rode
the turn out and relaxed slightly, realizing that I had just experienced
my first front end slide of my riding career.  It was exciting, but 
not something I'd like to repeat on the street, especially on THIS
bike.  I can hardly afford it as it is, but affording to fix it
after wadding it would definitely not be possible.

	We went to the track, and enjoyed a nice day of racing.  The weather
cleared and the racing was decent overall, however track times were relatively
high due to poor track conditions.  I spoke to a few other netters, including
Rich Sturges and Mike Tiberio.  I looked for others (Mike Green and Janet Gunn),
but alas, they could not be found.  I saw a few other Ducs at the track
(a 907 and 750 Paso, and two 900SS's), and also attracted some attention
of my own, having several people talk to me about my bike.

	We left the track around 5:00 PM and headed back into Charlestown
for dinner.  After we ate we went to gas up and head out.  I had pulled 
into a different gas station than the rest of the group (now around 9 bikes),
and the group left without me, thinking that I had already pulled out.
They had a 3 minute head start, but I was determined to catch up :-).  I 
got out on 340 and put the bike in cruise missile mode at Warp 5, keeping the 
Duc at DoD minimum speed until I caught up to the group.  I got a few funny
looks when I pulled into the back of the pack, as they thought I was long
gone.  We cruised for a while and then Mike and one of his buddies took
off.  Myself and another guy accelerated up to about 115 or so and then
backed off, thinking the potential trouble we might attract was not worth
it.  Several minutes later we saw Mike and his buddy pulled off to the side of
the road, and Mike was in the woods relieving himself.

	We pulled over, having covered about 50 miles by this point, and 
took a few minute break.  When we pulled back out, we had to accelerate
back into traffic.  I tached the Duc out in the first three gears, finding
the rev limiter for the first time in first gear due to some unsuspected
tach lag.  When I went to merge into traffic I ended up having to get
hard on the brakes to match their speed.  I'm still amazed at what this bike
can do...

	We had said that we were going to slow down now, but within minutes
we were back up to cruising speeds of 90+ mph.  Several of the group
had slowed down and been lost behind us, and now we were 5.  We cruised
for a while until one of the bikes broke off just outside of Baltimore
to head home.  Myself and another guy (can't recall his name) pulled somewhat
away and left Mike and Colin to not see them again.  We cruised onto the 
beltway and rode until it was his turn to peel off and head his own way.  

	I remained on the slab the rest of the way home, simply wanting
to get home and crawl into bed due to exhaustion of the day.  I was still
experiencing no discomfort on the Duc save for some muscle tension in 
my right wrist from the throttle.  I continued home at a somewhat
restrained pace at about 80mph, slowly drifting through traffic without
attracting too much attention.  I pulled into my Driveway at 8:45 PM,
exactly 2 hrs and 15 minutes after we had left Charlestown.  I had 
traveled 146 miles in about 2 hrs and 5 minutes on the road.  As I shut
off the bike I heaved a sigh of relief that we had been fortunate enough
to avoid the MD revenue enhancement authorities.  I have never traveled
this far this fast on a bike.  The only thing that scares me about cruising
at the speeds that we were doing, is the fact that it doesn't scare me!!!

	The Duc is just as happy and comfortable cruising at 120 mph
as it is at 55, perhaps more!!!  I was quite happy with the comfort, as I
experienced no stiffness, soreness, or numbutt, save for the aforementioned
throttle wrist.  All the while, cruising at speeds between 80 and 110mph, the
Ducati returned no less than 46 mpg, topping 50 mpg on the tank used on the 
way down.  I also noted that the unscrubbed region on the edge
of the tires had shrunk from its previous .5 inch down to less than
a 1/4 inch.  Just another few millimeters and I will begin to wear the 
little michelin men off the edge of the tread :-) :-)

	Happy to be home I patted the bike and thanked her for the 
wonderful day, covered and locked her up, and went in to dream about
the day's adventures.

Steve
(not Brucer, but it's better than chain lube, DoD stuff, countersteering,
and flame wars...)

______________________________________________________________________________
 Steve Andersen                                   andersen@oscar.ccm.udel.edu
 (302) 324-0888                                     andersen@zr1.ccm.udel.edu
 "I own two bikes, brand unimportant"  -- Jeff Kaskey 
 DoD #0239