I have always liked Motorbikes, and over the years have owned a Kawasaki Z1-R , a Suzuki GSX-1100EX, a Suzuki GSX-R1100 and in June '98 I became a Ducati owner. I now have three and a half Ducatis, "Spacy" is the 996SPS that I am currently racing.

Yeah, yeah, all you want to know is "how fast does it go?" and "have you had any crashes ?"

Well, the answer is "around 170mph", and "yes two crashes, the "Luge" and "Bowling pin"

Luge was fast, Bowling pin caused a lot more damage (the metal pictures are there)

I decided it had to be done after riding one in the Santa Cruz mountains, The sound, feel and looks just won me over. I tried out an R1 a few weeks later, and although the R1 was cleaner, it felt like a computer on two wheels. Since I ride a motorbike to try and keep myself in contact with the human race, I decided to buy the most evocative motorbike commonly available. I moved to Santa Cruz in the US in June 1999, and bought an R1 as a commuter bike, the R1 was later renamed "the bitch". It was used, abused, passed on to a friend, who also used, abused, and crashed the bitch several times. Eventually, the bitch was retired in December 2003 after her last serious crash. It still rode though, a good testiment to the quality of Yamaha machines.

I currently have 5 bikes, but at one point I owned 8 bikes, spread across 3 continents. Nellie will show you a quick list of them

I ride a bit fast on the road, and recently picked up a speeding ticket for passing an unmarked police car at +200kph (but we negotiated down to 165kph, one of the many good things about Belgium)...

... but ride even faster on the track, when I can get time to do so ....

I took out a racing license with the AFM in 2002, and raced my 916 as a "learner" bike. I had an enjoyable year, over the winter, I converted my 996SPS into a race bike and am currently racing on that

.

I'm getting a bit more serious about the racing this year (2003), I bought an '86 Dodge van to use as my race bike transporter. It has been given the nickname "Thunderbird 2", for obvious reasons.

I have a few notes on some of my earlier bike events in Europe

Assen 1998 Track day (getting proficient)

Assen 1997 Track day (The big red bus hits the street)

A long weekend to the Nuremberg Ring with the boys.

I had planned to take out a racing license in 1999, but circumstances changed and I had an overwhelming desire to move to Santa Cruz, so it didn't seem practical to try and start racing at the same time. However, I still have the urge to ride fast, I managed to reach 170mph on Hwy 17 in Santa Cruz last summer. Adreneline is not in short supply !!

This is the Ducati Club Vlaanderen that I belonged to in Antwerp. I enjoyed a few rides with them to the Ardennes. A Brilliant place to go and play. In fact the Spa Francorchamps circuit is there, and on the 11th April 1999, I rode on the circuit, with the 916, intermediate wet tyres. Quite a memorable day.