Meet Eric Bostrom at Austin Ducati 01/17/04

[Tourmeister]

FYI!

Meet Eric Bostrom at Austin Ducati's Open House January 17th
BIG NEWS = BIG PARTY

Holiday hangovers are wearing off so its time to celebrate Eric Bostrom joining the Ducati Austin racing effort for 2004. On Jan. 17th we will host an Open House and backyard cookout featuring Eric Bostrom signing autographs and hanging out at the store with the new 999 he will race in the AMA Superbike series.

The all new 2004 models from Ducati including the ST3, S4R, Multistrada and 749 Dark will be on hand along with our new, larger apparel department. We have recently added Alpinestars, Draggin Jeans and more bike accessories from Cycle Cat and STM. We added new goodies from Ducati with Ducati Performance sunglasses from Oakley and watches from Breil. The very first pieces of the new Historic Logo collection are available as well. If you have not seen this stuff firsthand, this is an opportunity you do not want to miss.

The Open House will be all day Saturday 9AM - 5PM. Help us spread the word so we can give Eric a Texas-size welcome and let him see all the fans he has at Ducati Austin. We will have free food in our backyard with the Ducati Austin race transporter. Ride your motorcycle for the best parking and we look forward to seeing you and all your friends.

For more info go to www.ducatiaustin.com or
call Jeff at (512) 291-5100
email jeff@ducatiaustin.com

[Tourmeister]

:tab Anyone heading out for this event? I think I may try to get over just for grins. I've got the weekend free. If can get all my honeydo's out of the way, I should be good to go.

Adios,

[buck000]

I'll probably be going, some time after 1:00 or so...

[VFRinAustin]

I was planning on trying to get there. Got a lot of #@*# around the house (ie new baby room stuff) to start working on, but heck, I can take a couple of hours off to meet E-Boz

[VFRinAustin]

So, anyone going to this? Paul, Scott, Irondawg?

I was thinking about heading over after lunch. Should be interesting.

[buck000]

My Weatherbug says:

Saturday
Cloudy with a 60 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s.

In other words, same as their open house last year, though a little warmer.

I'm still up for it, though. As I said, probably around 1-ish or so.

I wouldn't mind meeting up with other TWTers (and even Andy ;) ) for lunch, on either side of visiting DucAus.

I'm curious about the 749 Dark (http://www.sportbikez.net/picture/1421), yum.

[Tourmeister]

:tab Well it looks like I will be a homebody this weekend and not come out to play. We're still getting the house put back together after all the remodelling. I have closet doors to hang. I have to do something with the garage because it is about to be full of motorcycles! The clutter has reached critical mass and I have got to do something with it before I lose my marbles :? Please give Eboz a hearty handshake and pat on the back for me! Oh, and spread the word about TWT ;-)

Adios,

[irondawg]

I'll be heading out prolly after lunch. I'll be on the dirty GS.

[Chirpy]

I'm planning on being there. Wonder if he'll sign Kawasaki shirts :-D ?

Doesn't look like the weather is going to be worth a ****, so I might cage in from the northern counties. Besides, the wifey mentioned how cool it would be to have a picture of the kids with EBoz!

My wife, I think I'll keep her :wink:

later,

Daryl

[buck000]

I'm not letting my cute-ish daughter get anywhere near EBoz... :-D

[VFRinAustin]

I am in the office right now but am planning on heading up at 1:00. Anyone else going to be there around then?

With the weather turning out so nice I might be up for a little run around afterwards. Anyone else hip to it. 8)

[Chirpy]

Went up to check it out...

The only thing not trick on that bike is the zip ties! It's Xaus's old bike, in the transporter the spare bodywork still had "Reuben" and "11" on it.

Eric seemed okay, I was between "signing" sessions so I didn't really get to say hi.

Worth it just for the transporter. Wow! I wish my garage looked like that, much less my bike trailer. :chug:

Nice turn out, hopefully he'll stick it to all those pathetic Dunlop teams.

Daryl

[buck000]

I was leaving the house, but a subconscious (or inattentive) part of me decided it would be more fun to drop the bike in the driveway. I think that part of me was wrong.. :(

Argh.

Oh well, since I had to repair my left mirror, I figured it'd be a good opportunity to install the double-bubble windshield I've had for months.

Argh.

:(

[kurt]

Don't you hate stupid crap like that? I dropped my 1-day old Bandit last year trying to put it on the center stand at work. Broke a $27 turn signal so it could have been worse.

[VFRinAustin]

Went up to check it out...

The only thing not trick on that bike is the zip ties! It's Xaus's old bike, in the transporter the spare bodywork still had "Reuben" and "11" on it.

Eric seemed okay, I was between "signing" sessions so I didn't really get to say hi.

Worth it just for the transporter. Wow! I wish my garage looked like that, much less my bike trailer. :chug:

Nice turn out, hopefully he'll stick it to all those pathetic Dunlop teams.

Daryl

I must have been there between signings cause I didnt see EBoz around. Oh Well.

Great turn out though, and yeah, I had to keep from drooling in the transport. Tool drawers galore. You got to know they have every single tool yoiu could ever need and then some. I could use one of those but I dont think the neighborhood would allow me to leave parked in the driveway.

That 999R looks like one sweet ride. I did notice though that it has alot beefier swing arm and bigger exhaust pipes than the regular 999, expect it makes a lot more HP too.

Sat on the new ST-3, pretty nice ride but I think I am glad I got the Viffer instead of waiting. Just a little tall for me (kinda like the Futura) and didnt quite feel as comfortable, but all in all it was pretty nice.

One thing I realize whenever I go to one of these things is just how much I am addicted to motorcycles, I look at all the different rides there, both new and old, crusier, street or sport, I like them all. I would love to have one of all of them.

Paul, I am sorry to hear about your little mishap. I was looking around for you while I was there. Hope you made it later on. Would love the see the RST with the DB screen.

[Chirpy]

Speaking of the "real" 999...

Another thing that we noticed was that the fairing is much slimmer than a stock 999. Probably 4-6 inches narrower than the street version.

Did you notice the rear rotor? Internally vented like a car rotor, and drilled. Shweeet.

More trickness, the radial caliper mounts on the front had a large cooling tunnel to dump air straight to the middle of the pads. Shweng!

Sadly, Pascal Picotte's 996RS sat off to the side without even a rope around it, not even able to draw onlooker's much less a crowd. Sucks to be last year's bike. And it was even for sale! (http://www.ducatiaustin.com/pre_owned_list.asp?sid=08127558X1K17K2004J9I26I00J PMQ843R0)

Yeah, I have to second the addiction. Was the Guzzi 850 Eldarado still there? I even tried out the VRod. Of course, I was thinking about the person changing "lifestyles" by trading in a VRod for a Duc. Sheesh.

Nice little break from babysitting,

Daryl

[buck000]

Paul, I am sorry to hear about your little mishap. I was looking around for you while I was there. Hope you made it later on. Would love the see the RST with the DB screen.

Oh, given my disinclination to all things involving nuts and bolts, it wasn't to be an hour job, and off to DucAus... :?

Actually, the real story is that I got the clear screen, which needs to black masking around the edges to hide some connecting bits. I just put a few coats on a few minutes ago, so it'll be tomorrow or Monday before it all goes together.

Now I'm eager to see how it performs. I'd really like to have a bit more still air at neck level, to make an intercom/bike2bike/etc. commo system a bit more of a sure thing....

[irondawg]

Guess I missed you guys. Got there when Eboz was just about to do the access channel interview. Did get to shake his hand and say hello. Pretty good turn out. I think I got there about 12:30 and left at 2 when a guy I know working the grill told me that Eboz had left and wouldn't be back. Got some nice shots but haven't downloaded them yet. I'll get to it later.

The pocket rockets were something else and that motorized 'skateboard' for lack of a better term was cool, but after watching one of the guys ride it, I think I'd bust my ***.