Chris Blankenship's Ramblings

A couple of days ago I was at a motorcycle event that featured several motorcycle vendors along with several hundred privately owned motorcycles.  While perusing the Ducati tent I performed a double-take when I noticed what appeared to be a Desmosedici motorcycle.  I couldn’t believe my eyes that here, in this somewhat small event, was such a magnificent machine. This piece of art costs a mere $72,500 and there were only 500 out of 1500 produced shipped to the United States.  Even with the sky high price tag and only 500 units available the entire lot sold out in only five hours.  To see one of these beauties on the street should be statistically impossible.

What was almost as astonishing to me was that this bike had an interesting sticker on the front fender that said “Palomar Mafia”.  If you are unfamiliar with the Palomar Mafia then you wouldn’t know that this particular reference is to a group of fast moving riders who ‘own’ Palomar Mountain’s south grade. While talking to Balz with Moto Forza in Escondido I casually mentioned to him how I found it strange to find such an expensive bike being used as a mountain racer.  I specifically asked, “Why would someone use a $80K bike to ride up and down Palomar?”, to which he replied, “Why not?”…

Well my friends, I would have to answer his question with the statement…  “Because it’s a $72k motorcycle, and because there are only 500 in the entire United States!”.  Couldn’t the owner be happy riding a Ducati 1098r for $33k, or a Ducati 1098s for only $21k?  I’m not saying that a Desmosedici shouldn’t be ridden, I just think it’s silly to risk crashing out a spectacular bike in an uncontrolled environment like this silly hill.

To this whole business of riding a $70k motorcycle on Palomar Mountain…  I’ll just say that the owner of this bike has more dollars than sense…