Part 1

The day I picked up the 848 EVO from Motorcycles of Charlotte it was not a bright, sunny start to the long-term relationship we were about to embark on. Sure, from ten paces the Dark Stealth bodywork looked wicked, and the huge inverted fork with the massive Brembo mono-block radial calipers had my mouth watering. But once up close, the bike looked pretty badly neglected. The wheels, swing arm, and forks were encrusted in road grime, and the chain was dry, rusty, and filthy.

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Part 2

So with a big box full of goodies from Ducati, I aimed the trusty rusty four-door south and headed for Fast Frank Shockley's workshop. For those who don't know Frank, he has built, tuned, and raced his air-cooled Ducatis to a couple of Moto ST championships in recent years, and he now builds, tunes, and fabricates parts for racers who want to go fast. He is still an active racer and certainly lives up to his name. Rolling the bike up on the lift, our first order of operation was to take a look at the suspension.

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Part 3

Fast Frank Shockley, Julian Taylor from All About Bikes, a Sportbike Track Time weekend, and the two hottest Euro middleweights on the planet wearing brand-new Bridgestone racing slicks. Add in a race-prepped Ducati 999 for on-board camera duties by my film crew from Speed.com and rolling south to Carolina Motorsports Park in South Carolina at the end of last year a mad weekend was clearly in the works.

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