MotoGP champ Nicky Hayden had the honors of testing the newly paved turns at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Our cameras were rolling as the Ducati Superbike 1198 SP came in and out of the garage for adjustments made by Ducati Indianapolis’ mechanics and techs.
In the Spring of 2008, we attended Nicky Hayden’s inaugural lap of the new MotoGP circuit at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Here’s a behind-the-scenes vid of that special day.
Thanks to Mel Harder, Senior VP of Operations at IMS, we were able to show up with the Media to film this little memento and take a lap on our motorcycles. It was a goosebump-inducing trip down the straightaway and over the yard of bricks. The first lap on a motorcycle was reserved for the Kentucky Kid, which helped set the stage for the following years of MotoGP racing in Indy.
Vintage motorcycles and scooters are sometimes best experienced with the phone number of an honest mechanic handy. Some motorcyclists don’t mind twisting off bolt-heads and chasing finicky carbs for weeks and there are always those guys who say, “I work on my own stuff.” For us, we can understand trying to save a few bucks on some fixes, but a mechanic whose life’s work is decoding the varying innards of aging European motorbikes? That’s a priceless contact.
We like to find motorcycle shops that hearken back to the good ol’ days where there’s a familial vibe in the air…and maybe a dusty jukebox in the corner. Shops that don’t have to adhere to corporate requirements are usually charming, in a concrete-floor and exposed-rafters kinda way. Even more unique is a shop whose owner is also the head mechanic. Chicago’s ACE Motorcycle & Scooter Co. is such a place.
Every Father’s Day weekend for the past seven years, Larry Fletcher and the Ton Up Club of Chicago have hosted one of the coolest motorcycle and scooter gatherings in the country. If you haven’t attended Chicago’s Mods vs Rockers, watch this video for a mere taste of what you’d experience on North Lincoln Ave and the surrounding areas.
There’s an artsy little neighborhood just north of downtown Milwaukee that annually welcomes an entertainingly diverse range of motorcycles. Riverwest has an unassuming vibe with its patinated random architecture and flip-flop clad residents who walk their dogs on buckled sidewalks.
