I'm a nice person. I have friends and family who care about me. I don't lie, cheat, or steal. Once you carve out vehicular-related infractions, I am a very law-abiding citizen.
So, I have to admit, I am a little surprised that I seem to have been blacklisted by the Mid-Atlantic Ducati Owners Club. Or MAD, for short.
Granted, I am not normally a club-joining sort of girl. Growing up, I played a solo instrument, the piano. My sport, figure skating, was definitely an individual endeavor. I should have been kicked out of my college sorority for failure to show up at meetings and other mandatory events. I would have made for a lousy cheerleader.
I had a great group of guys who I used to ride with when I lived in south Florida. Joining a group was not a necessary prerequisite to making their acquaintance.
Granted, while we met because of motorcycles - we all actually enjoy getting out and riding them - we had a friendship that went beyond that. And it had nothing to do with brand, which included Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Ducati, Aprilia, and Suzuki. And, more importantly, none of us had paid money to join the crew.
I prefer my friendships to form more organically than paying money to hang out with a bunch of people I don't know, and with whom I likely have nothing in common except for, in this case, a particular brand of motorcycle: Ducati.
Because, you know, I really want to sit around while we all congratulate ourselves on our impeccable taste in motorcycles.
So yeah, when a friend suggested I join MAD when I moved up to Washington, D.C., to say that I was skeptical of the idea would be, um, putting a very diplomatic word to my reaction.
But, after I had thought about it for a while, I decided that one of his points made sense: the club would be a good resource for finding about up-coming events, track days, and locating qualified mechanics. I would be paying a $20 fee for Public/Ducati Service Announcements, and a t-shirt. Not for friends.
But if I did meet some riders I liked, all the better. And I did meet some great people through the Ducati Owners Club of South Florida (DOCSF) which was a very active group that participated in, and planned, a variety of very cool events.
I could swallow my pride and indignation and join the club. Just this once.
(I exempt my membership in the DOCSF as an exception since I worked for a Ducati shop and by default was associated with all things Ducati. Rationalization? Yes. Humor me.)
Dutifully, I looked MAD up on the computer, filled out my on-line application, and hit "Submit." Then I printed out a hard copy of the application (the one with all the legal jargon on it) wrote out a $20 check, and dropped it in the mail.
And waited. And waited some more.
And waited some more after that.
I probably should have taken the hint when I looked up the Event Calendar on MAD's website and it was completely, totally, event-less. Although somewhere, someone deposited my $20 check.
Then finally, an email from MAD!
Except it was another copy of the application. There were no instructions. No acknowledgement that my previous application was received, although the emailed version appeared to note I no longer owed $20. No "Welcome to the Club!"
I saved the email and waited some more.
Fast forward a month and I finally replied to the email, asking if my prior application had been received, what I should do with this form, and if there was anyone at all on the other end of the cyber-divide.
I have no idea regarding the first two questions, but apparently the answer to the last one is "No" because I never heard anything back.
Fast forward one more month. Normally, I would have chalked this experience up to a lesson in why I should ignore advice that includes paying $20 to a group that admits to being MAD. But I'm now in D.C. and I am missing terribly the bike scene and riding buddies I left behind in south Florida.
Not having someone to hold me accountable for showing up for an outing, coupled with a 20-minute trip to pick up my Ducati 848Evo and then an hour of traffic to get in and out of the city for the good riding, has made it far to easy for me to simply not take the 848Evo out for a ride.
I am turning into one of those once-a-month riders, who would rather wheel their machine out to the driveway, clean it up, admire it for a while, and wheel it back indoors. The horror, the horror!
So, I just tried again to contact the mysterious Mid-Atlantic Ducati Owners Club. This time, I filled out another on-line application, but wrote in the "Notes" section an outline of my history of attempting to join MAD with no response or t-shirt to show for my efforts.
Am I blacklisted? Has my reputation of being a lousy Ducati owner preceded me? The 5,300-miles on a six-month old 848Evo alone may be enough to disqualify me from membership - Superbike abuse!
Maybe it will help if I tell them I had barely put 350-miles on it in the past month? (So embarrassing)
The next MAD event is in September. A Cornerspeed Track Days weekend at Virginia International Speedway. There are two definites, so members must exist somewhere?
In the meantime, I guess no one was interested in putting together a ride to VIR for the AMA Road Races in August? Or heading out for a ride through Shenandoah in July? Or meeting each week for pizza dinner, a la the Ducati Owners Club of South Florida?
Come on, MAD, what's it going to be?
So, I have to admit, I am a little surprised that I seem to have been blacklisted by the Mid-Atlantic Ducati Owners Club. Or MAD, for short.
Granted, I am not normally a club-joining sort of girl. Growing up, I played a solo instrument, the piano. My sport, figure skating, was definitely an individual endeavor. I should have been kicked out of my college sorority for failure to show up at meetings and other mandatory events. I would have made for a lousy cheerleader.
I had a great group of guys who I used to ride with when I lived in south Florida. Joining a group was not a necessary prerequisite to making their acquaintance.
Granted, while we met because of motorcycles - we all actually enjoy getting out and riding them - we had a friendship that went beyond that. And it had nothing to do with brand, which included Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Ducati, Aprilia, and Suzuki. And, more importantly, none of us had paid money to join the crew.
I prefer my friendships to form more organically than paying money to hang out with a bunch of people I don't know, and with whom I likely have nothing in common except for, in this case, a particular brand of motorcycle: Ducati.
Because, you know, I really want to sit around while we all congratulate ourselves on our impeccable taste in motorcycles.
So yeah, when a friend suggested I join MAD when I moved up to Washington, D.C., to say that I was skeptical of the idea would be, um, putting a very diplomatic word to my reaction.
But, after I had thought about it for a while, I decided that one of his points made sense: the club would be a good resource for finding about up-coming events, track days, and locating qualified mechanics. I would be paying a $20 fee for Public/Ducati Service Announcements, and a t-shirt. Not for friends.
But if I did meet some riders I liked, all the better. And I did meet some great people through the Ducati Owners Club of South Florida (DOCSF) which was a very active group that participated in, and planned, a variety of very cool events.
I could swallow my pride and indignation and join the club. Just this once.
(I exempt my membership in the DOCSF as an exception since I worked for a Ducati shop and by default was associated with all things Ducati. Rationalization? Yes. Humor me.)
Dutifully, I looked MAD up on the computer, filled out my on-line application, and hit "Submit." Then I printed out a hard copy of the application (the one with all the legal jargon on it) wrote out a $20 check, and dropped it in the mail.
And waited. And waited some more.
And waited some more after that.
I probably should have taken the hint when I looked up the Event Calendar on MAD's website and it was completely, totally, event-less. Although somewhere, someone deposited my $20 check.
Then finally, an email from MAD!
Except it was another copy of the application. There were no instructions. No acknowledgement that my previous application was received, although the emailed version appeared to note I no longer owed $20. No "Welcome to the Club!"
I saved the email and waited some more.
Fast forward a month and I finally replied to the email, asking if my prior application had been received, what I should do with this form, and if there was anyone at all on the other end of the cyber-divide.
I have no idea regarding the first two questions, but apparently the answer to the last one is "No" because I never heard anything back.
Fast forward one more month. Normally, I would have chalked this experience up to a lesson in why I should ignore advice that includes paying $20 to a group that admits to being MAD. But I'm now in D.C. and I am missing terribly the bike scene and riding buddies I left behind in south Florida.
Not having someone to hold me accountable for showing up for an outing, coupled with a 20-minute trip to pick up my Ducati 848Evo and then an hour of traffic to get in and out of the city for the good riding, has made it far to easy for me to simply not take the 848Evo out for a ride.
I am turning into one of those once-a-month riders, who would rather wheel their machine out to the driveway, clean it up, admire it for a while, and wheel it back indoors. The horror, the horror!
So, I just tried again to contact the mysterious Mid-Atlantic Ducati Owners Club. This time, I filled out another on-line application, but wrote in the "Notes" section an outline of my history of attempting to join MAD with no response or t-shirt to show for my efforts.
Am I blacklisted? Has my reputation of being a lousy Ducati owner preceded me? The 5,300-miles on a six-month old 848Evo alone may be enough to disqualify me from membership - Superbike abuse!
Maybe it will help if I tell them I had barely put 350-miles on it in the past month? (So embarrassing)
The next MAD event is in September. A Cornerspeed Track Days weekend at Virginia International Speedway. There are two definites, so members must exist somewhere?
In the meantime, I guess no one was interested in putting together a ride to VIR for the AMA Road Races in August? Or heading out for a ride through Shenandoah in July? Or meeting each week for pizza dinner, a la the Ducati Owners Club of South Florida?
Come on, MAD, what's it going to be?