Desmopro News

The Grand Australian Roadtrip, put very simply and honestly, is a ride celebrating the innate desire that we riders have to ride a motorcycle on open highways under a blue sky. About having that freedom to stop when we want, where we want. The feeling of opening the helmet lid to let the cool wind hit your face and the scent of the pines invigorate you. That’s what it is, this road-trip. That and because it is cool to think you are MadMax for 23,000 kms! If you dont know who that is, read here!

For Charity? No sir. I believe that charity is a personal thing; I will do good to feel good. I will not to do good to be judged as a good person by my audience. I also do not believe in casting what my underlining objective of the trip is within an altruistic cocoon. And this is not to demean the plethora of good motorcyclists who ride for charity. My best wishes to them, and Godspeed.

But then there’s much more to this road-trip beyond the basic instinct of riding and taking corners on a motorcycle. It is a personal challenge, like all my previous road-trips have been, only tougher. The challenge is to be on the road for days at end. The challenge is to find my breaking point as I ride, take photos, take videos, blog, update social media, meet the expectations of sponsors, of my audience, of friends and family, and to manage my ‘office’ back home in Delhi (the xBhp HQ), which by itself is one of its kind in India where many a motorcycling ideas, events and motives have taken birth.

I will try to produce the best photos I can, posting them regularly on the blogs of this website. And posting them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and 500px. I will also be hopefully Instagraming a bit....

For the rest of "About The Grand Australian Road Trip, click HERE

We come from all over. We speak different languages. We share one passion. Ducati is all we have in common and it’s everything. The obvious purpose of the World Presidents Meeting is to give the people who wave the flag the highest, a chance to live the dream. Ride Ducati’s in Italy, eat the food, experience the history and see the red,white and green glow that is Italy and it’s people. But what we take home, besides these memories is friendships, alliances, respect and camaraderie, with Ducati staff and other clubs. We hear stories of the price some have paid for their love of the brand (one President, who lives in a country that has become increasingly dangerous, was shot 4 times by thieves trying to steal his Ducati. He drove himself to the hospital, and now rides in a bulletproof vest). Maybe it’s not all so dramatic but these are the people that drive a car to the meet, with tents and boxes, so others can ride. For us, there is no explanation needed why we do it, if you have to ask, well, you probably wouldn’t understand.

It’s hot here. No problem as long as you keep moving, and stay off the highways. We get up early and hit the back roads, today’s schedule is an easy one on roads made for enjoying – good pavement, gentle curves and light traffic with sunflower fields and ancient architecture to look at. I am riding along mentally house shopping – oh! look at that one! It’s perfect! One perfect house after another every few minutes.

 We are expected in Assisi and have been invited to park in the town center, in the shadow of a huge Botero sculpture. It’s high season here in Italy and the town is busy but the sound and sight of more than 50 Ducati’s pulling in to this peaceful place stops every one in their tracks....More here

The odometer spins easily through everyday life, accumulating tens of thousands of clicks on workaday commutes and grocery store runs. In contrast, motorcycle journeys are personal mileage, forging more intimate connections between man, machine, and road. They remind us of who we are, and during the best of rides, who we will become.

This particular thousand-mile ride unfolded in Tuscany aboard a definitively Italian motorcycle over the course of a week. The excursion was organized and executed by Edelweiss Bike Travel, the Austrian outfit whose 30 years in the touring business has previously focused on BMWs and Harley-Davidsons.

The inaugural run for the Ducati/Edelweiss collaboration kicked off in Bologna. Known as The Red City for its crimson-hued roofs, Bologna is also a metaphorically apt place to begin a motorcycle adventure. Its labyrinthine colonnades radiate from a central wheel, a hub - not to mention it is also home to the manufacturer's global headquarters, where every Ducati is born before being shipped to dealerships around the world.

For the rest click HERE

By now we have established a pattern – early up, get the luggage to the truck, see what’s for breakfast and be on the bike and ready to ride by 8:45. Today’s route is one I know, in the opposite direction, from a past Motogiro d’Italia and we are looking forward to it’s complexity. The group seems to have settled in and the road marshals are outdoing themselves. At one point in the am one of them had somehow managed to collar two tractor trailers going in opposite directions and was letting the Ducati’s thread in between the two stopped trucks so we didn’t have to work to pass then on the road....More here