When Donny asked me to help promote Rockwell Cycle's trivia night in Hoboken a couple months ago, I was pretty pumped to participate.
Unfortunately, the weather in January is pretty dismal, and I was fighting off a cold, so only a handful of people showed up.
But did see some old friends, and meet up with a handful of new ones, like Christian and Ryan of MotoXT (photo credit: above), a motorcycle apparel store in Lyndhurst, NJ.
Apulia, the restaurant hosting the event is owned by Ducati fanatics, and have some pretty awesome pizza, not to mention a classy family-feel and awesomely helpful wait-staff.
And, representing Gotham Ducati, I took home first place in trivia, taking home the DUCATI dealer sign for first place.
In 2006, Ducati teamed up with famed racing parts manufacturer NCR to build an extremely limited run of its SportClassic line, that went on sale at the time for $50,000. Built as a homage to Cook Neilsen's Daytona win on the Phil Schilling-built Old Blue that many experts thing single-handedly saved Ducati and propelled the Italian firm into 20 years racing glory,
this cafe racer was actually built to race and displayed at EICMA, only to have NCR S.r.l. homologate 50 bikes for the street in 2007.
The New Blue SportClassic was built by Ducati North America and NCR, celebrating Cook Neilsen riding the first Italian motorcycle to ever win a Grand Prix in the United States at Daytona in 1977, on a 750SS "Old Blue" Ducati.
However, the new model is exquisitely designed, with the exhaust alone weighing lest than 10lbs.
At 116hp at under 320lbs, this bike is more than just eye candy,
And if you find yourself in Alabama, I highly recommend stopping by Barber to see New Blue in all its glory.
I've met Charlie a couple times over the years, but somehow had never been to his annual toy drive, where supercars and and the super-generous convene in Astoria to collect gifts for children.
So Tommy met up with my girlfriend and I at the Jackson Hole in Queens before heading over to Charlies Chop Shop.
Toys for Tots is a philanthropic initiative begun by the Marines I believe, who collect gifts for underprivileged kids,
and it's an awesome thing to be able to participate to give back to the community.
At the same time, the event is nearly as much of an urban car show, as the entire block is shut down, lined up with custom Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Aston Martins, Benzes and obscure grey-market cars, like this Nissan R33 Skyline, shipped in from Japan.
Great night in Queens, and there was in fact even one Ducati faithful fan who had ridded through the cold to stop by!
Ducati New York invited Gotham members and customers out last night to preview the 2019 Ducati Panigale V4R, a homologation superbike with 231hp and winglets capable of delivering 60lbs of downforce at 150mph, perfect for the West Side Highway of course.
Jason Chinnock, the CEO of Ducati North America flew his team into town, and Steve and Marcos of Ducati New York unveiled the bike in anticipation of the International Motorcycle Show this weekend.
The bike is straight-up nasty, with a look that's even more aggressive than the Panigale twins.
But at the same time, the bike already seems more refined, and is clearly much wider and comfortable than the original homologated racebike.
We had an awesome time hanging out withe the Ducati New York crew,
and checking out some of their custom builds, like this Copper Scrambler, which Marcos attributes at least $7,000.00 worth of copper was used to build the bike.
Can't wait to check out this bike, and the rest of the 2019 lineup at the show this weekend
which starts tonight at the Javits center in Midtown.
Chuck is an awesome guy, and is picking up my bike at another friend Masis's house in Greenwich, Connecticut, en route from Duxbury Mass down to Telico Plains, Tennessee.
So, super lucky that I am, I'm going to have my bike chauffered along with several other Ducs, an Aprilia and of course several MV Agusta motorycles down for one of the most fun weekends of the year.
I was already out on Cape Cod this week at a swanky wedding at the Chatham Bars Inn for one of my girlfriend's girlfriends, and arranged to meet Ted Gooch, the President of New England Desmo DOC. #wpmneverends
I ended up getting stranded (as my gf thought the event would last several hours later than it or my cell phone would), but there were some amazing bikes to check out!
The featured brand this year was Laverda, but I could not help to start ogling some of my favorite Ducs, like this 70's Imola replica 750S,
I had actually though about purchasing this MH900e, as it was going for 16-17K a couple years ago,
This totally custom 900SS was also sort of a Mike Hailwood replica, but designed from scratch by the owner.
And of course who could forget
the timeless Desmosedici.
The coolest machine in the whole place was also owned by the same guy who had the Desmosedici.
I'm a big fan of Bimota, but here was a 500CC two stroke Bimota,
Unfortunately, the weather in January is pretty dismal, and I was fighting off a cold, so only a handful of people showed up. 
