Hello everyone. I recently purchased the bike referred to as "Gina", the Ducati Hurricane that was featured in the latest issue of Superstreetbike in the January 2006 issue. I first saw Gina several months ago and was very impressed with the overall lines and nasty Streetfighter look. I sent Norman Brown, the owner of The Bike Center, Inc a deposit and the bike arrived a month or so later. Well, I'm sorry to say that while she photographs quite well, basically she was a pig and having given the Bike Center, Inc. a healthy deposit, I felt compelled to receive her. I mean it was either take her or lose my money. I figured I could clean her up and maybe Norman Brown might help contribute to rectifying the matter especially if he considered the infancy of his business. She came in desperate need of a paint job that was obviously never any good, the tail section was very crude and in need of some bondo and a trained hand. The tail section was also crooked as was the muffler, a Cherry Bomb, those things you used to put on your car as a teenager. The speedometer that I viewed while the bike was on the Motomaxy.com website mysteriously disappeared so I had no way of knowing how much mileage she had and in retrospect, Mr. Brown avoided many of my questions and would never talk to me or supposedly anyone on the telephone. His reasoning being that in his old age, he's become "reclusive". He's in his mid fifties. In one email, I asked him what year motor the bike had to which he conveniently didn't answer but you know how email is, sometimes you get so many that you just delete them and I just figured he was busy. I had to find out later from a dealer that the motor was from 1992! So far, Mr. Brown has not been able to tell me how much mileage is on Gina although I bought her as a "demo" and in many of the pictures that I was shown, the bike had a speedometer and I assume an odometer. Norman's son, who delivered the bike, put a bicycle speedo on for me but after he left I discovered that it hit the fender so I had to remove it. Since the weather was very cold here I never had the chance to take her for a ride until last weekend at which time the bike refused to start. After a few battery recharges and jump starts I finally managed to get an idle out of her if you'd even call it that. So, I took advantage of the fact that the bike was actually running, bundled up and headed straight for the local Ducati dealer. Although the bike stalled several times during the trip to the dealer I managed to keep it running as long as I kept the revs up and she backfired and sputtered like a car from an old black and white comedy film She was fun to ride through corners, very agile but in a straight line was unstable. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt and was probably in denial so I kept telling myself that I'd get these details straightened out and I was certain that given the severity of the problems that the "manufacturer" would see to it that these issues were taken care of especially since it's a small world and word spreads fast. Upon my arrival at Rockwell Ducati, there was quite a lot of excitement when I pulled up on this rather unique bike but as I sat there gasoline poured from a line coming from the motor. Within a few minutes, the once jubilant crowd became rather quiet and I started to get looks of sympathy, especially when I told everyone what I paid. Nick, the owner of the shop, a very reputable Ducati dealership ([URL="http://www.rockwellcycles.com"]www.rockwellcycles.com[/URL]) agreed to keep her there and look her over. An hour or so later, I received a call from Nick Rockwell at which time he informed me that the rake on the bike was 17degrees which is unheard of and too dangerous to ride. Upon breaking, the front wheel hits the valve cover and oil cooler. I like to get a variety of opinions so I emailed the picture of the front end and rake to four frame builders and in a nutshell they were all appalled. One rather famous, top of the line bike builder who prefers to remain anonymous but who's name you'd know without a doubt told me that he emailed Norman when the bike first hit Motomaxy's website to ask if it was a joke. Apparently it was not a joke and he told me that he could never sell it and live with the fact that an accident is inevitable on a bike with such "irresponsible" geometry. The rake is so radical that it's not even an option to get a custom set of triple clamps to compensate or even mill down the valve cover. Mr. Brown's solution is to use a smaller tire on a bike that already handles so hyperactively any shrink would admit it to a psychiatric ward and immediately medicate it heavily with Thorzine. Norman Brown refuses to take any responsibility at all and I'm stuck with a ,000 piece of junk from an out of state bike maker. The quality and overall workmanship of this motorcycle is terrible and even though I've offered to split many of the costs with Norman since I really like the way the bike looks he still refuses to contact me. I don't believe Norman is a bad man but having only made four frames in his life, you think he'd at least talk to me to see what we can work out. For your readers, take it from someone who feels seriously burned, before laying out any serious dough, please do extensive research before making a purchase such as this and until Norman accepts that there is a learning curve, stay away from Motomaxy.com. Present owners of Norman's bikes or accessories should have them checked out. I'm having my frame checked by Computrac before we hit the courtroom and I have two offers to buy her but under the circumstances won't sell her. The whole thing is such a shame because Norman is obviously above average in the creativity department but unfortunately the bikes pose a serious threat to the riders and if he just did a little more R & D he'd have some serious winners. Any suggestions, comments, or hate letters can be sent to me at [email][/email]. I also have pictures for the asking. Thanks very much. Phil
