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Distinguished Gentleman's Ride | 2014 Unofficial DOCNYC Edition

Tigh Loughhead looking dapper on his Ducati.
I was a bit excited for this year's Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, an official version of the ride, started in Australia, that takes place September 28th across the world, as the photo-ops from last year's ride were awesome.  29 members of our Ducati Owner's Club signed up for the ride this weekend, but alas only seven people showed up.
Gentlemen riding a couple Panigales (an 1199 and a newly decal-ed 899), a couple Monsters (including a pretty new 1200), as well as two club members riding a KTM 890 and a new BMW S1200GS arrived at Columbus Circle, and we waited for the better part of an hour to show up, but apparently the DOCNYC is only about 20% of what we say we are.

DOCNYC Live at The Apollo
Our first stop was up in Harlem in front of the Apollo Theater.
 We tried stopping at a few more places, but traffic was terrible and the weather was really hot for late September, and we lost a few from our group, five of us eventually arriving down in the Meatpacking district where the official Distinguished Gentleman's ride was supposed to end up.
 We parked outside the Standard Hotel, where there were a bunch of really pretty bikes, including these two SportClassics from Florida.
 After a few phone calls, we tried a few places to stop off and get a drink.
The few real Gentlemen of the DOCNYC
 Unfortunately, even the cafe at the Standard Hotel told us we had an hour and a half wait.
 So we hopped back on our bikes and motored over to the Ear Inn, the West Village's most famous and oldest biker bar.
 Still looking sharp.
Ear Inn in the West Village
After a drink, most of us went our separate ways, though I brought a few guys over to a newly opened restaurant in the East Village called Speigel to go watch MotoGP.
The proprietor (whose name I can't recall right now) was a really cool guy, who had actually ridden this KTM 950 down to Panama. Spiegel is planning on showing MotoGB and World SBK races in the future, so it's cool to have another biker spot so close to the Lower East Side.


© 2014 Tigh Loughhead

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