Ductalk

Ductai is coming to Daytona Bike Week! Come see us at Ducati Motorcycles of Daytona for four days as we welcome the all new Diavel Strada to North America.

Read Days 4 & 5 of Billy's Daytona Bound ride on his Ducati Diavel as suits up to ride to the reserved swanky Hotel Modern in New Orleans, 760 miles away.  

Tired of delays, I woke up a couple of days ago in the Texas Panhandle and decided I needed to make tracks. It was Friday, and I'd heard New Orleans was a good party town. More importantly, I had a hotel reservation at the city's swanky Hotel Modern. But 760 miles is no joke, and the Weather Channel was calling for one of those "Storm of the Century" things directly across my path. It was a good thing that I prepped for it appropriately - and then some.
I got up early to beat the start of the storm, and suited up all the way. I donned double liners (including the heated ones), thermals, and a Tourmaster rain suit over my waterproof Alpinestars gear. Every stitch of luggage was covered too. I wasn't fooling around, and apparently the rain gods can respect that -- while I encountered some real drizzle on the way, real rain was nowhere to be found

Read more: http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/newsandupdates/1203_crup_ducati_to_daytona_days_4_and_5/index.html#ixzz1owQuCkEp

Sometimes one little thing can cause a chain reaction you'd never think possible. The bikes we press guys get from manufacturers are usually unregistered, coming only with a dealer/distributor/manufacturer plate, and sometimes not even that. It's not a big deal; in California frequently people drive around without plates, sometimes for months without ever getting stopped. If we do get stopped on a press bike, we have the backup of a loan agreement from the OEM, which 95% of the time allows you to skip away from the traffic stop without even a warning.
However, because the arrangement is so casual, things can easily get sloppy. When the Ducati Diavel seen here got dropped off at my house, I forget to ask for the loan agreement. No big deal -- it's got a plate. Or at least it had a plate. Somewhere in western New Mexico it fell off, and I know this because I took a picture of it in New Mexico with the plate still firmly attached. Actually, the plate itself is probably still attached to the mount, because that's what ejected itself. As evidence, I've got the stub of the wire that powered the light that lit the plate before they both left the building.

Read more: http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/newsandupdates/1203_crup_ducati_to_daytona_day_3/index.html#ixzz1ogj5g2nY

Some nice shots of the "750 Daytona"  Ducati custom from Spanish builder Radical

Former AMA champion Jake Zemke makes a welcome return to the AMA grid running the Ducshop 848 in Daytona SportBike.

As AMA Pro Racing kicks off the 2012 season at Daytona, one of the most welcomed additions to the paddock is Jake Zemke. The 2006 Daytona 200 winner and 2008 Formula Xtreme champion returns to contest the 2012 Daytona SportBike series for Ducshop Racing. The 36-year old returns to AMA Pro Racing series after being unable to secure a full-time gig for the 2011 AMA season, despite placing third in the 2010 SuperBike series. Instead, after a one-off Daytona 200 ride for Project 1 Yamaha (where he claimed pole position and a third-place podium), Zemke kicked around until landing across the Atlantic in British Superbike. The American raced four rounds in BSB, campaigning a Honda in the EVO class to impressive results.

Jake Zemke claimed a third-place podium in the 2011 Daytona 200, but was unable to secure a full-time gig, forcing the Californian to cross the pond for BSB
Now that he’s back, Motorcycle USA caught up with Zemke to ask about his return to the AMA, racing across the pond, and his expectations this week at Daytona and for the season beyond.

Tell us a little about how the Ducshop Racing deal came about?

It sounded like a pretty good program. They wanted to go racing, and a lot of their goals and ambitions met with mine. For me to go out there and race, at this point in my career, it’s not worth it unless I got a team behind me that can go out there and win. And they’re definitely willing to put in the effort and dedication it’s going to take, so at that point it was a pretty mutual feeling to go out there and try and win some races....more

Read Days 6 of Billy's Daytona Bound ride on his Ducati Diavel as he talks about his success dodging the general mayhem on I-10 by bypassing it on US-90 and arriving in Florida with a detour into the Ocala National Forest.

I know I've been talking about Bike Week the whole time, but the plan was always to relax over the weekend in South Florida with friends and relatives first. Problem is, I took all weekend getting there. The previous day I'd had success dodging the general mayhem on I-10 by bypassing it on US-90. It was a nice, relaxing ride through what passes for hills and turns in North Florida, but I wasn't covering enough miles, so I gave in and hopped back on the 10. Then down I-75...
The thing about freeways is that when they're good, you can't beat them for making tracks, but when they stop, you're screwed. I hit late afternoon traffic near Ocala and panicked, checking for a hasty re-route on my phone, and it ended up costing me a couple hours... My ride through the Ocala National Forest, while lovely, ended up costing me a couple of hours by the time it popped me into the western suburbs of Orlando. Back roads with occasionally low speed limits aren't too bad for travel times, but back roads with lots of lights are horrible. And bad for gas mileage.

Read more: http://www.motorcyclecruiser.com/newsandupdates/1203_crup_ducati_to_daytona_days_6/index.html#ixzz1oxJyxlNu

Motorcycle USA is heading to Daytona Beach with a full list of plans for Bike Week 2012 from racing GNCC and the Daytona 200 to hanging out on Main Street the Speedway and everywhere in between.

The time is nigh. The exodus has begun. The spring pilgrimage of motorcyclists to the white sandy beaches of Daytona Beach is in full motion as it’s time to kick start the rally season. Daytona has been the honorable host of Bike Week for 71 years now. With the first signs of spring announcing their arrival, bikers are itchin’ to ride. Bike Week beckons. It motivates us and gives us a reason to get our motorcycles prepped and ready for another riding season. As if we needed much motivation!

First off, though, it feels a bit weird not to be there already. Bike Week is usually going strong right about now, but as we reported in our Bike Week 2012 Pushed Back a Week article, the event is starting a little later this year so Daytona International Speedway has enough time to convert the track from cars to motorcycles. NASCAR bumped its opening race, the Daytona 500, back a week, starting this domino effect. No worries. Hopefully this equates to even better riding weather.....more

Bike Week 2012 will be roaring into Daytona Beach before you know it so Motorcycle USA decided it was a good time to put up this Bike Week 2012 Schedule to help you plan out your trip ...more