Die-hard Harley-Davidson people—from the Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda era—used to admire Italian V-twin Ducati engines, with distinctive bevel-gear-driven cams, and the bikes they were propelling. That was long before today’s baby-boomers in the throes of midlife crises, split the superbike crowds into today’s enormous cliques.
That was the case in 1972 when Gregg Rammel started working for Blackie’s Custom Motorcycles of Detroit, a place where you could order a Norton PR (production racer) motorcycle new from the Thruxton, England, factory. You could also get a Harley dirt-tracker, a Triumph, or a Ducati from Blackie’s. Rammel had been introduced to mini-bikes when he was 11 years old, and hasn’t stopped dreaming of life on two wheels since then.
Rammel, who now fixes, restores, buys, sells, and rides Ducatis, Aprilias, and Bimotas, explains, “I just got turned on to the good stuff at a young age. I was 16 and I was working in a Ducati shop. Not too many people knew what these bikes were.”
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