Recently, DUCATI HQ announced the allocation of exclusive numbers for D.O.C. clubs worldwide.
Our official number is... 21!
What does that mean?
It means, we were established in 2002, and based on the date of each club's first affiliation, we’re proud to be the 21st approved D.O.C. club in the world. How awesome is that?
We’re part of a pretty awesome crew that’s all about the fellowship of riding, building bonds as we share our adventures, and the pride of being connected to DOCNZ and Ducati’s legendary heritage.
Every ride, every event, and every member has helped build our fantastic journey.
Now keep reading as Greg, DOC NZ's founder, takes us on a trip down memory lane to the BEGINNING...
When, Why, and How Did I Start DOCNZ?
✍️📸 Greg Monahan, Member #1
This story is part of a much larger rabbit hole. Where to start… I guess we should go back to the start, back to the 90s, just after I moved to Palmerston North from Nelson. It was 1994, I was a sales rep heading up towards Taihape, sitting at a picnic spot at the top of the old Hunterville uphill and passing lane, having my sandwich when a Ferrari Testarossa roared by, and in hot pursuit was a bright red, fully-faired motorcycle, that was even cooler than the Ferrari!
We had no internet, no Google, just next month’s bike mags. So I waited and searched for any images I could find of my new red dream bike. Finally, I found out what it was… Ducati’s new 907IE, and it was $20,000. I had to have one. So I started a plan… We would eventually start out with a Suzuki (GSX-F 600) and then a sportier Honda CBR600F. Then the unthinkable happened… Mike Carr in Wanganui bought a Ducati 906 Paso.
OMG, what to do? For reference, Mike was my (now ex) wife’s uncle, and that carried some bargaining power at home. You all know what I mean.
Somehow, in a stroke of luck, I was in Christchurch visiting ChCh Motorcycles, which were an unofficial/controversial (read slightly dodgy) Harley Davidson and Triumph dealer with the odd Ducati on the showroom floor. A couple of questions later and I found out that a guy from Dunedin was bringing in American pickup trucks in containers and could also put a bike on the back and bring in almost anything I’d like. So I asked about a Ducati 907IE and they said, “We’ll get back to you…”
Well, you know what it’s like when you deal with people possibly on the edge of the underworld. When they phoned and said, “We’ve got one, it’s a ‘94 model,” (moulded seat, gold Brembo semi-floating disc brakes with two-pot Gold Brembo calipers, and the locking aircraft-style fuel cap), oh, and it had loud Staintune pipes, I had to say yes!
That’s when my Ducati love affair was fully ignited.
907IE - the Ducati love affair fully ignites.
WTF has this got to do with starting a club? Well, as you know, once you get something exotic, you want more of it all, so I joined the Italian Motorcycle Owners Club (IMOC) and went to the legendary yearly events in Taupo and Waihau Bay.
It didn’t take long before I put my hand up to be the President at my first AGM. I also produced the first digital (not photocopied, with photos stuck on the pages) club magazine, and continued to do both roles and also run the Summer Italia events for five years.
During that time, Ducatis were growing fast in popularity, Moto Guzzi was slowly coming up to speed, and MV Agusta was just launching the new F4.
As a nationwide club, we had a diverse group of members with all sorts of bikes, but at the events, it was 95% Ducati. These numbers kept gnawing away at my subconscious until one day, at one of the many Summer Italia events, I was speaking with our special guest, Ducati legend and world-famous Ducati author Ian Falloon. Over a beer or two, while we were looking over the Supermono that I’d arranged with Dallas Rankine as a display bike, he mentioned to me, “Do you know, me and Dallas (Dallas owned British Motorcycle Spares, and was also a retired Ducati racer and now the Team Manager of Robert Holden and the BMS Racing Team) started this club way back in 1973 in our university days in Dunedin when we bought new Ducati 750 Sport and Ducati 750 Supersports and called the club the Ducati Club. But in the 70s, the workhorse Moto Guzzi became more popular due to reliability issues with Ducati, and the club morphed into the Italian Motorcycle Club…”
Hmm, I thought… It’s the mid-90s, Ducatis were everywhere, the 916 had just been released, and legends like Troy Corser, Carl Fogarty, and Robert Holden were winning everything on them. NZ was getting RED FEVER...
I suggested to Keith Burrows (previous IMOC Pres), “Should we change the club name back to the Ducati Club?” And he said, "No, we can't due to the constitution."
So I now had a plan in my head… we needed a Ducati Club!
How do I go about it? Will people want it? Will IMOC be upset?
At the next AGM, I stood down as President, Editor, and Event Co-ordinator for both Summer Italia and the South Island Turismo tours. I’m now a free man!
And, you know how mates can convince you to do what you’ve been thinking about... Wayne Lyons (748R), Bob Lench (748SP), Brad Evans (916SPS), and I (916SP) met in Palmy and set off on a trip around the South Island. Brad left us in Wellington, and Bob, Wayne, and I caught the ferry over Cook Strait.
On the three-hour trip, I kept thinking, should I say something about my idea? That night, we stayed in Amberley (just north of Christchurch), and after a few beers at the Amberley Hotel, I asked Bob and Wayne, “Do you think we should start a Ducati Club?” “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Wayne, and Bob agreed. At every stop on the trip, the enthusiasm grew, and over every beer, I got more encouraged.
When I got back to Palmy, I asked Chris (Marer) and Molly (Meldrum) if they thought it was a good idea and if they would help me. Without hesitation, they said YES!
Feck, now what do I do?
Through my contacts accumulated over the IMOC and Summer Italia years, I reached out to the local Ducati dealers. They all suggested I get in touch with Warren Lee, the CEO of NF Imports.
OMG, me, contact the biggest man in Ducati NZ and Australia? I’d only read about him and his Ducati ‘parts department’ special bikes in the Aussie Streetbike magazine. This man was a legend.
So, I pulled up my big boy pants and emailed him. To my surprise, he emailed me back saying he’d love to talk. He also asked if I knew anyone who could organise and run a “Ducati Turismo” in NZ for them.
Well, what do you know… I can do that, I’m in! He said I should come to their event and see what I think. I offered to present to the Turismo on the final night about what we would be doing in NZ (a sort of tease).
I went over to Sydney, stayed with Warren and Liz, and went shopping at NF Imports, the NZ/AUS Ducati Importers warehouse. I was shown the Ducati I would be riding for the next week on the 2002 Ducati Turismo from Canberra to Thredbo.
Of course, as soon as I talked to Warren about starting a Ducati Club in NZ, he gave his unconditional support.
Greg on Warren Frazer's borrowed 996R during Turismo AU
Man, what a week!
When I got back home, I had one mission: to get a club sorted asap. I knew I had to set up a club bank account, but to do that I needed an IRD number for the club. To get that, I had to decide if we should be an incorporated society (like IMOC Inc.) or just a non-profit club.
What’s the difference?
An Inc. needs to be audited by an accountant yearly, and that report is presented at the AGM. Whereas a non-profit club just needs the financials approved by its members yearly at the AGM.
Ok, we’ll do the latter.
Now, you need a constitution!
Oh crap… was this getting too hard?
I emailed every Ducati Owners Club Secretary in Australia and got copies of their constitutions, then modified the best bits to suit NZ. I presented that to IRD and awaited their approval. There were a couple of changes required, but hey, we had a constitution that was approved. A non-profit tax exemption from Inland Revenue was also approved.
Next, we needed a club logo. I wanted to “fit in” with the Australian clubs, so I went with the Ducati Wings logo. However, Ducati was going through changes and didn’t want the old logo used anywhere, so the Desmo Owners Club Logo was created for clubs to use.
At this time, Ducati was starting the Desmo Owners Club as a worldwide entity, and we had to register our club to become an official Ducati-affiliated club. Oh crap! We needed 100 members. I got on the phone and called everyone I knew, inviting them to join the club, and started putting people's names in a spreadsheet.
When I got to 100 names, I completed the online registration for our club in NZ to be part of the worldwide group of Ducatisti.
I’d done it!
For the first year, I was the president, Desmophiles editor, and event organiser, with Molly Brent Meldrum as club secretary and Chris Marer as our treasurer. We had a committee.
Now we needed an event…
Even though I was living about 3 km away from the famous Summer Italia site, I wanted to hit the ground running with a more comfortable style rally versus the tenting version of the 80s and 90s. I decided on having the first National Ducati Rally in 2003 in St Arnaud, on the shores of Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park.
We booked out the entire Rotoiti Lodge, had a band, and lots of prizes at prize-giving, and everyone had a great two nights. We held the first DOCNZ Concours d’Elegance bike show on the lake foreshore, which all needed to be approved by the Department of Conservation since it’s in a national park. We had around 72 people at the first rally.
The first AGM was encouraging, and the plan was set to have a National Ducati Rally every year, alternating between the North and South Islands.
South Island Turismo - 📸 Greg Monahan
WE ARE NOW THE FULLY FLEDGED SUCCESSFUL DUCATI OWNERS CLUB IN NZ.
We had 72 of our 100 members come to our first rally. And it's only grown from there…
Greg with Troy Bayliss at NDR2016
📸 Greg Monahan
There have been some really great National Ducati Rallies, and I am very pleased with the way Ange has picked up the ball with both hands, growing the club and the events. There is so much work that goes on in the background; get out there and support your committee and this awesome club!
the 'not so good' times 📸 Greg Monahan
Greg's 848Corse SE 📸 Greg Monahan
