Yeah I’m a week overdue. But with the start of a new school year, several new consulting clients, and little time left, I’m behind on my blogging. Seems like a trend!
I’ll start with some updates on the Ducati. Paul spent some serious quality time with the machine and rebuilt the carbs. While the leaky carb problem was fixed, and the low rpm drivability of the bike has been improved, it still runs very rich. Seems the bike is jetted very aggressively. I’ll be working to get this fixed soon. Many thanks to Paul at the Sports Car Shop for the work on the Ducati!
While the bike was in Paul’s care, he discovered an issue with the steering that was causing the total steering radius to be greatly diminished. Yep, that little mishap I had was due to mechanical issue. The steering is now so… useable!!
Now that I had a machine that was maneuvering more like it should, it was time for a real ride. We planned a great ride from Eugene to Sunriver to catch the annual Sunriver Exotic Car show. A late season ride, but incredible weather. Mid 70’s the entire day!
Here are some highlights from the show:
Getting the bikes ready for the journey
Stopped for a break to get some coffee and gas
Sunriver Exotic Car Show 2007 Pictures
A killer Porsche 356 Speedster Outlaw
A Porsche Carrera GT, natch
A very low mileage and well maintained e30 M3 that I was drooling on
The cleanest BMW 2002tii I think I’ve ever seen
A beautiful Mercedes SL
When we arrived in Sunriver, Steph called and invited us over for the Beaver game against Cincinatti at their place in Albany. How could we refuse?! After all, it led us straight through the Santiam Pass and some fantastic corners for 30 or more miles on Highway 20. While I was remembering how to negotiate medium speed corners and how the Ducati likes to be handled, Freddie Spencer (aka Paul) was setting the world on fire with his cornering prowess on the VFR. He made 10 minutes on me in 10 miles. So much time in fact, he had time to pull over and set up for pictures:
And yes, that’s the historical marker for the first Transcontinental Automobile Race in 1909. How ironic that Paul had so much time on me that he could take a break at this marker for me to catch up lol!
Here’s some of the late afternoon shots from Paul’s bike. Not bad for one-handed-while-riding(!):
As you can tell, a fantastic day covering 300 miles. Picture credits go to Paul with his handy P&S HP camera.
The entire 2007 Sunriver Exotic Car Show pics on my Flickr.
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