LIVING TO RIDE; Motor City bike guru creates a center for exclusive, timeless motorcycles.(Revs)

Byline: PHIL BERG

Die-hard Harley-Davidson people-from the Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda era-used to admire Ducati riders and their motorcycles, with their mechanically marvelous V-twin engines. That was long before today's baby boomers, in the throes of midlife crises, split the superbike crowds into today's enormous cliques.

But it was still 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 also could get a Harley dirt-tracker, a Triumph or a Ducati from Blackie's. Rammel was introduced to mini-bikes when he was 11 years old, and he hasn't stopped dreaming of life on two wheels since then.

Rammel, who 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 they were.''

They are "timeless bikes,'' says longtime Cycle World writer Peter Egan. "Those old Triumphs, Ducati Singles, ...