Barber Vintage Festival.  They seem like simple enough words.  “Barber.”  “Vintage.” ”Festival.”  Words….just like “Scottish Woods Resort”, “Cherohala Skyway”, and “Chinaco Reposado”.  Somehow, though, over the last few weeks those three simple words, “Barber Vintage Festival”, have acquired a deeper, more somber meaning for me.

Bill Ballon's MH900e at the Barber Vintage Festival

I left Albuquerque, NM on the morning of October 1st, 2011 with the intention of riding a lot, chatting a little, watching some racing, and viewing some of the most desireable Ducati motorcycles ever built.  I and three Ducati mounted friends loaded our bikes into a trailer and headed toward George Betzhold’s Scottish Woods Resort outside Murphy, North Carolina.  We arrived on the evening of the 2nd and went to sleep with thoughts of twisty roads and great weather on our minds (after sipping a bit of George’s Aha Toro tequila and watching the day’s MotoGP event).

DesmoPro's "Cafe 31" at the Barber Vintage Festival

I won’t bore you by raving about the riding in western North Carolina.  Either you’ve experienced it, or you should.  You either know it’s sublime, or you’ve never been there.  There’s really nothing more to say about it.  However, what I got, more than I thought I would, was a dose of great comraderie!  George is an excellent host.  I knew that going into the endeavour.  However, I didn’t know that my compatriots (Tom Rolland, Scott Metcalfe, and Jim DeBlois) are more engaging and interesting than any man has a right to expect of any friend…much less of three of them!  These four guys, accompanied by George’s fabulous wife, Pat, and several other riders who showed up over the next three days made drinking George’s premium tequila more pleasant than I expected….and I expected a lot.

Paul Smart (left) and George Betzhold at the Motorcycles By Moonlight dinner

We left the Scottish Woods on Thrusday and headed to Birmingham.  We checked in at the event hotel and immediately began renewing old friendships and starting new ones.  I finally met Harlyn Jenkins of Ducati.net fame, Bill Ballon from MH900e.org, the Bellissimoto crew (Lyle, Randall, and Amy), Ted from NED (the New England Ducati club…who rode his Ducati in from New Hampshire), Rich Lambrechts from DesmoPro, the guys from EMS, Phil Hitchcock from Road and Race in Australia, and tons of people that it would take me pages to mention now.  Additionally, I got to renew acquaintances with Vicki Smith, Doug Barnette, Scott Turner, Mark Turner, Rick Booth, Dave Hedden, Jim Calandro, Peter Bonner, and literally hundreds of my favorite people of all time.  If no bikes had been present at the event, the personal relationships would have made the trip worthwhile in my book…..but there were bikes, too!!!!!

Ducati F1 at the Barber Vintage Festival

Mh900e?  There were three that I saw.  The sad part is there were more “green frame” SSs there than that!  (I counted six including the one in the museum!!!)  F1s?  TTs?  Supermono?  You betcha!  The first Ducati was on hand (the best being Mike Cechinni’s exemplary Cucciolo, I think), as was the latest NCR offering…and virtually everything in between.  GTs?  Check.  Superbikes?  Check.  Mountaineers?  Yup.  Scooters?  Even a scooter!

A pair of MH900e at the Barber Vintage Festival

I took tons of photos at the Festival, and you can see them at http://photobucket.com/tscloninger-barber2011

Heck…I haven’t even mentioned the Motorcycles By Moonlight dinner, or the Barber Museum, or that I met tons of cool people who are also famous like Paul Smart and his lovely wife Maggie, Cook Nielson, Jason DiSalvo, Kevin Schwantz, Dave Roper, Jay Springsteen, and several others.  I also got to watch Kevin Schwantz race a ’60s Norton single to victory in a Sound of Singles race!  Then there was the swap meet….and the auction….and the Wall of Death…and Cafe Racer Magazine…and Classic Bike Magazine…and the Guzzi show….and…well…you get the idea, don’t you?  It was a weekend that is indelibly etched into my memory. 

A pair of "green frame" SSs at the Barber Vintage Festival

So, what do the words “Barber Vintage Festival” mean now that I’ve gone?  Well, that’s easy!  They mean great friends, great bikes, great times, and a must-attend event for the forseeable future.  If you haven’t been, there’s always next year, so don’t let another year slip by without attending this exceptional event.  You won’t regret it!

Mike "The Asshole in the Van" Cecchini in the Ducstock area

The Barber Vintage Festival (see below) is currently the largest vintage motorcycle gathering in the United States.  However, in 2011 it will also be the official Ducati.net National Ducati Rally and EVERYBODY with a Ducati is invited.  I’ve included Vicki Smith’s description of the event, below, for your perusal, but I thought everybody in our group ought to know what’s happening and should start planning NOW to make this happen.  If we can do it, I’d like to make this this the official U.S. MH900e Rally, too!

I’ve already booked a room at the “official” hotel,  so get yours today to share the air.   

From Vicki Smith, the Ducati event organizer….

Event date - Oct 6 (track day) 7/8/9, 2011 event weekend

Plans are rapidly forming for “Ducstock”, the Ducati.net National Ducati Rally. It will take place during the huge Barbers Festival event weekend, and will contain at its core the do not miss Ducati TT1/TT2/F1 30th Anniversary celebration, which has outgrown its NY/NJ yearly location and
will for this year be open to all the Ducati lovers instead of by invitation only.

For those not familiar with the Barbers Festival, it’s a huge 3 day weekend celebration of all things gearhead including AHRMA and vintage motocross races, a huge used parts swap meet area, vendors, a Bator auction, an air show, a number of bike shows, vintage fire trucks, vintage motocross races and of course, that incredible, literally best in the world, motorcycle museum. Add to that a big Ducati hotel, Ducati only camping, a Ducati only track day and a special area for the Ducati show and activities, with a great view of the track and lots of ultra rare Ducati’s already committed to attend and display. In addition, because of the bonus of the first time ever back to back Barbers AHRMA and Biketoberfest Daytona AHRMA, groups are coming from Australia, New Zealand, the UK and more. So please pass the word. Any clubs that would like to be involved contact me directly. It’s going to take a village to pull this off but it will be worth it.

This is the link to book the Hampton Inn, Colonnade in Birmingham, AL that will be the main Ducati Owners hotel for the Ducati.net national Ducati rally at Barbers Vintage 2011. It’s close to full already, so if you plan to stay there, please book immediately.

There will be a special Ducati camping area as well, within the track, which will accommodate tents, trailers and motor homes, and will be in a premium area, not part of general camping. Information on how to book that area is not available yet.

All rooms are $99 plus tax, we have 100% of the rooms so it’s the Ducati Dorm . Those that stayed at the main Indy DOC hotel can vouch for the special camaraderie this creates. There will be special Ducati parking at the entrance, space for trailers in the back, lots of restaurants within walking and the road out of the hotel is a lovely, tree covered ride down a pretty 2 lane road that goes straight to the Barbers gate (12 miles or so,about 15 minutes ride) The hotel is at the freeway entrance if that is your preference. A shuttle to shopping and the airport will be available as well.

Event dates: Track day is expected to be on Oct. 6th, event dates are Oct 7/8/9, 2011

Some details about the area: Barbers Motorsport Park is located in Leeds AL, which is in close proximity to some of the best riding roads in N. America.

2 hours from Atlanta International Airport, airfare and rental cars are remarkably reasonable (my trip to this year’s event was $110 r/t on Delta and $120 for 5 days rental car)

To book the hotel:

1. Contact the Hampton Inn Colonnade directly 1-800-861-7168 referencing the group name “Ducati “.

2. Our Hotel website www.birminghamcolonnade.hamptoninn.com
<http://www.birminghamcolonnade.hamptoninn.com/> using the group code DUC.

3. Your personalized link for your group block listed below.

http://hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/groups/personalized/B/BHMCOHX-DUC-20111004/index.jhtml?WT.mc_id=POG

Regarding the event: There will be a special area for clubs that wish to have a display area. If you just want to be involved, bless you, contact me directly J If you have a Ducati that you’d like to show off, you will never find a more appreciate audience, and there will be plenty of area to display it. Start/finish those restorations! If you would like to volunteer to help, display merchandise or act as a sponsor of this event please contact me directly.

That’s it for now, more details as we have them..

Vicki 

….for racing!  As MotoGP, World Superbike, and seemingly every other racing series in the world is kicking off a new season, I thought it was time to get back on track after a 20 year hiatus, so I’ve decided to go racing.  In fact, being an old racer, I figured I should race an older bike, so I’ve built a ‘67 Aermacchi to race in the local SMRI Historic Vintage Ultra Lightweight class.

The old girl is up and running, so I took her out to Sandia Raceway for the licensing class this past weekend.  A few adjustments are in order, but the bike seems strong enough to be competitive in its class, and if nothing else it should make for an entertaining summer.

This really has nothing at all to do with MH900e, but as the site administrator I’ve taken a bit of license in the hope that my adventures will, at the very least, be interesting to a few readers.

Look for updates throughout the upcoming race season!

After a few months of hiatus, the MH900e Owners Club is finally back.  Far from finished, but ready to serve the community of loyal Ducati MH900e aficionados.

I’m Brian De Groodt, and I guess I’m now president, ring-leader, or something official here.  In any case, it doesn’t really matter to me.  I’m just happy to put the community back together and get our group served with information and conversation about the MH.

This site is definitely still a work in progress.  I have literally gigs of information from the old site (Thanks JohnC!) and will be uploading it over the coming days, weeks, months.  If you have a specific request, please email me and let me know.  If I have it, I’m happy to share it and put it to the front of the line.

For now, here’s what we have right now.  We have this blog/main page.  We have the Forums page for all things considered.  What we don’t have right now is direct integration between MH900e.org (blog) and the forums.  So if you post a comment on the blog, you won’t need a password, but you also won’t automatically be logged into the forum section.  Everyone needs to register to participate in the forum.  It’s easy.  I think the forums give us a little more functionality than we had previously, but are still pretty basic. If there’s a reason to move to something more advanced in the future, we’ll discuss it as a group and figure out what makes sense.

I’d really like to see us get back to the same or better level of participation we had previously.  That includes owner registration, which I’ll start working on as a next step.  Ideally we can record the whereabouts of all 2,000 units.

Finally, welcome to your home! If there’s anything you’d like to see, I’d love to hear it.

That’s all for now. 

BD #760