THE DEAD RINGER

"WHY BUILD A BIKE FROM SCRATCH THAT YOU CAN BUY AND RESTORE? HE WANTED TO BUILD A REPLICA OF A MOTORCYCLE THAT ALL HIS BUDDIES WOULD NEVER HAVE A CHANCE TO SEE."

That fairing on its own has to be one of the most iconic in all of motorcycling.

KONRAD ERIKSEN WAS HAVING the time of his life. Leaning into Turn 10 at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Northern California, he eased onto his motorcycle’s throttle. It was a bluebird day in the spring of 2020. The 650 twin-cylinder launched him forward on a hot lap. He hand-built this 1982 Ducati TT2 replica in his garage and had shaken it down in his suburban neighborhood, but this was his first day on track.

Talk about earning your turns; it took Eriksen three years to build this motorcycle.

His eyes focused in on Turn 11. But dark smoke was fuming off the rear of the bike. “I had no idea,” he says, in retrospect. “I wish someone had blackflagged me. But no one did.” An oil plug had fallen out, and oil was leaking onto his leg and rear tire. Midway through Turn 11, he lost the rear end. The next thing he knew, he was sliding across the pavement in his leathers and the bike was on a trajectory all its own. By the time he got it back to his garage in Reno, Nevada, he was nearly in tears—bruised more emotionally than physically.

Need a book about Ducatis? Eriksen has it.

“I had to order some new fairings,” says Eriksen, 58, a structural engineer who sells giant shock absorbers for buildings to withstand earthquakes. “I had to rebuild the gauge cluster. I had scrapes on the gas tank. It was a mess.” Time to roll up the sleeves, all over again.