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Hammerwoman says hello!

3K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  JAM614 
#1 ·
Well, hey! This racing thing is getting to be fun. . . and since all my new friends seem to play here (and ducati.ms is about belly-up) thought I'd come over and see what's up. So. . . I'm Gail, usually known as Hammerwoman, USCRA #837, racing in F2 on my little red Ducati TT2.

Now, before ya start in on me, yes, I do know how illegal my little darling is. USD forks, big ol' flatslides, yadda yadda. I bought the bike last year, with no intention of racing- just had to have it. Got talked into racing in mid-April, and when I dug the trailer out to look at the bike, the rear wheel was sitting in a pool of oil from a blown rear shock, just for starters. Getting it sort-of-ready for the mid-May event was a helluva scramble. Besides, those flatslides aren't jetted for crap- won't hardly run on the main jets.

Lessee. . . I've been riding for nearly 40 years (nagged my parents until that Honda Mini-Trail was under the Christmas tree in '68). Finally learned how to go around corners in '02, scaring the hell out of the BCM boys at track days. . .a bit heavy-handed on the throttle, I was, and have the scuffs on my leathers to prove it. Of course, after six years of track days, I still have no idea how to pass. I'm finally making friends with my TT2, though. . .a couple of good sessions last week with Fishtail (before the USCRA days) and raising the seat on the TT2 so that I can move around a bit on my old hips made us much happier together.

I'm hoping to be around a while. . .I'd like to get the USD forks off her (not even Frank has tubes for M1R forks, though), and I've got a set of Dell'Ortos awaiting rebuild. I've got an SR500 that may wind up on the track, and I've been offered a barn-fresh CB. . . so expect to see me!
 
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#5 ·
What is a TT2? Very few have penetrated the myths, legends, rumors, and lies surrounding the TT2. . .what we do know is that Dr. T designed it, and Verlicchi built the frames, and they're very, very special little bikes.

Ducati built the TT2 in '81 and '82, specifically for the then-new F2 class. They built a total of somewhere between 42 and 50,although I've heard totals up to 80; there doesn't seem to be an accurate count. NCR had a lot to do with building them, and they won everything, often lapping the field. The frames were immediately copied by well-known bike builders like Harris (whose frames are still available) and lesser-known builders like Werner Maltry, a Swiss framebuilder working in Italy making works scramblers for Motobi. Oh, and after the production run, Verlicchi got the jigs back.

Shortly after that, of course, Ducati went bankrupt, and Cagiva was presented with a couple of warehouses full of Pantah engines. . .and the great giveaway began. In my neighborhood, you could buy an Alazzurra 650SS for $3495 in '86; this made it possible to build a TT replica fairly reasonably. In Europe, a fair number of TT2s built from Allys were actually built for the road, the VIN plate having magically migrated along with the motor, wheels, front fork, wiring harness, brakes, etc.

My TT2 is a bit of a mutt, with a dry-clutch Pantah motor, Maltry frame, Verlicchi swingarm, Harris aluminum tank (oh prize of prizes), Alazzurra wiring harness, Lockeed brake calipers. . . and so help me, a Buell/WP USD fork and wheels, a pair of too-big Mikuni flatslides, and a Ducati F1 fairing. We have no idea who made the very proper 2:1 exhaust. With the fairing off, you can see that the frame has been altered, crashed, and repaired, over and over again. Even a tatty TT2 replica like mine, however, goes for at least $6K, and were you to build one yourself, assuming you can still locate a dry-clutch straight-ahead Pantah engine (both exhaust ports facing forward), prepare to lay out $8-10K for the parts to build a nice-looking and riding bike. To duplicate the "real" TT2? With all the NCR parts (and carbs) and Ducati Magnesium engine cases? It doesn't bear thinking about. Suffice it to say that it would far surpass the value of the most pristine Supermono. . . as well it should.

Well, I'm not totally sure I'm still making sense, so I'll stop here, except to say that there's something fascinating about the TT2. . .the first time I saw a bare frame sitting on the floor of a shop years ago, I knew I'd have one someday. . .

BBG. Get used to it.
 
#6 ·
well... as a 1980 TZ350G owner.... I can tell you that you don't want an expensive racebike. All I think about as I ride it is "damn, I hope I don't crash this thing..."

I wanted a TZ750 for a while. I started to save up, and was contacting racers and restorers in the USA and UK. Then I woke up.

Nice bike, but be ready to throw it in the dumpster if you ever highside it.
 
#8 ·
Hi Gail,
You and that pesky EX500 were giving me fits on my BMW in the last Eurocup race. It was fun passing you entering T9 and you were repassing me entering T1 as I recall. I thought about doing it for a third lap in a row but figured I had annoyed you enough already and backed off a bit and waited for a better chance to get by you two. Anyways, I was thinking you are doing pretty well for a so called newbie. In fact I was thinking "sandbagger". Nice bike and welcome to the USCRA and the lunitics of Caferacer.

So come on over to FCB where the playing field is level. We need some easy pickings.
 
#9 ·
I don't think "easy pickin's" would be the term. . . more like "chum." My bike is about 90% of the team out there, I'm pretty much just enjoying the view. I've spent the last five years doing track days on a '99 SS750ie, the TT2's direct descendant, so I'm already pretty used to the motor and handling. Dunno how you go so fast on those wheezy little buggers with their bendy forks and make-believe brakes. . ! However, you do seem to be regularly getting BBG in FCB- and a far younger G than I.

I have no clue who the guy on the EX was. . .but he was completely unpredictable and kept looking over his shoulder to see where I was. Creepy. Every time my carbs hit the main jets she'd sputter, so I couldn't pass him on the straights. I went over the storm drain in the chicane one lap. . . he was wicked slow into turns, but every time I'd get alongside he'd do something spooky, so I just backed off to see if he'd just totally blow it somewhere. As comfortable as I may look out there, I really am a newbie when it comes to racing!
 
#12 ·
Hammerwoman is just a nickname I acquired along the way, referring to the fact that sometimes it seems that everything I do involves a hammer of some sort, from little goldsmith's hammers to blacksmith's hammers to carpenters, sledges, nail guns (sort of a modern hammer). It also seemed to suit my riding style, where it was not always a compliment! Not a white-supremacist reference, which has been asked before.
 
#14 ·
I'll get some pics up in a bit. . .I've never done the photobucket thing, and it's too nice a Saturday to waste! But about the "X" on my leathers. . .at the school in May, the USCRA officials were concerned that I'd shown up for my first race entered in F2, which, they informed me was For Experts Only on Big Powerful Bikes and Someone will surely Eat You Alive Out There. . . I was also restricted to "medium" practice, and both were supposed to last the season, as I understood it. This wasn't anything I particularly had a problem with, except that we did seem a bit overpowered for medium practice.

After Saturday's race, Bill S. (another TT2 rider, whose bike is somewhat disassembled right now, and who spent the two race days in the treehouse above Turn 8), came by and said, "I see you finished third. Take the X off your leathers."

"But Bill, I'm supposed to wear it all season."

"No. That's just over."

So, at the awards ceremony, I asked the group assembled, and the consensus seems to be that I ride without it. Either way, I don't mind. . . except that the "X" is permanent anyway. . . even though I carefully peeled it off at the end of each day, it's totally ruined the finish on the leather.
 
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