I’m sitting at the US Airways terminal in Las Vegas waiting for my next flight to leave which will take me to Chicago and then onto Indianapolis. I left Monterey for San Jose about 5pm - interestingly enough the hotel took me to the transit center in their Mercedes at no cost… well, except a tip. So travel from 5pm to 11am with some layovers and a three hour time change in there somewhere. Travel is my least favorite part of all of this. I must say that I do hate flying into Las Vegas - it is so turbulent on the way in and this time the pilot touched down so hard he almost bounced us to the next runway.

So what is all the travel for you might ask? The Ducati dealer meeting was held in Monterey this week with the conclusion being a track demo at Laguna Seca this morning. I’ll tell you right now that I’m not going to share any of the information that I learned there so you can stop reading now if that is what you are looking for. I will say though that it was a great time overall with the pinnacle being the new models and of course riding a 1098, Sport 1000, and Hypermotard 1100S on Laguna Seca! There was a photographer there so I should have some images eventually.

Let’s start at the start though. The meeting was at the Monterey Plaza Hotel in Monterey, CA. Actually the meeting itself was at a really cool theater down the street, but we stayed and ate at the Monterey Plaza. The hotel is on Cannary Row and is quite spectacular as you can see by the view from my room as taken by my iPhone.

The flight in was long and quite uncomfortable since my seat wouldn’t recline and the flight was completely full so I couldn’t change seats. I still slept the majority of the way as Hannah and I went to bed around 3am and woke up at 5:30am to go to the airport. She was nice enough to drop me off and she will be picking me up in a few hours and driving us down to Louisville, KY so I can help my brother put a trampoline together for his son’s birthday. Hannah was also nice enough to look after desmoworks while I was gone. Well, at least take care of the shipping and other miscellaneous tasks that I couldn’t take care of with my iPhone and laptop. She is employee of the year for sure… unless she sleeps in and doesn’t get me at the airport when I arrive in Indianapolis.

At the hotel Ducati was continually setting up displays, dinners, cocktail parties, etc… which was nice and the food was excelent. Here is what was greeting us when we arrived for the cocktail party right after we registered. This is the actual prototype that you have all seen… it is non functional and even has a solid tank. I bet that even with the solid tank it is still lighter than the majority of superbikes out there. The specs on this machine are mighty impressive as you all know. To see some more check out this link to the Desmosedici RR. If you look through my photos there is a photo from another angle and you can see that there is a Hypermotard on either side of the DD16RR and they are decked out with Ducati Performance accessories. Oh and check out this video of MCN riding the DD16RR while you’re at it.

Next there were two fairly long days of meetings with all of the new policies, model lineup, price structure, performance parts, apparel, etc… There was also an awards dinner in which Troy Bayliss and Larry Pegram attended and Bayliss helped doll out the awards. He literally stepped off the plane and came to the dinner. They also attended the track day as well as Doug Pollen!

Laguna Seca, but all I can say is that it is quite an experience going up the hill and thorough the cork screw for the very first time. It is so blind through there that you just don’t know what is coming up at all. I took it pretty easy in this session as it was a brand new bike, new tires, cool track, new track, etc… all of the things that tell you to take it easy. Not everyone listens to this common sense though and there were 4 get offs in the first part of the morning. After that a second riders meeting was called to say chill out or the day will be ended early. We had no more accidents after this so I guess it worked - thank goodness! It is not often (ever) that I get to ride Laguna Seca. From what I heard the aftenoon sessions were even crazier with quite a few bikes going down.

Next session out I was on a Sport 1000 which was all stock. What a fun bike, but I kept getting into the rev limiter. I suppose it was since I had just riding a bike that revs so much higher. Also the stock exhaust is so quite that you can’t even hear it at speed. I had to watch my RPM rather than listen like usual. For the last session of the day I was on a HM1100S that had most of the Ducati Performance catalog on it. That bike is so fun on the track! I can’t wait to get to Talladega with mine next week.

While I was on the HM1100S I ended up behind Doug Pollen who was giving out rides on a MTS1100 to some girls that were there. He was hauling pretty good for having a passenger on there! It was good to get his lines too, unfortunately it was my last ride of the day. I wish I would have gotten behind him in the morning as it really helped to see a more proper line from someone who knows how to ride there. Oh well it was a blast and an honor to ride there. I hope to make it back for a proper track day sometime in the future.

Now I’m home and sick as can be with sinus and throat issues. Oh well, a small price to pay for a good week. I’m going to try to rack up some miles on my bike this weekend so I can preform the first service and get it ready for the track next Monday.

After the track day was over I hung out at the hotel and walked around Cannary Row in Monterey for a while until it was time to head home. 15 hours and three flights later I’m back. The trip out was half as long and wasn’t the red eye!