Back in July, I featured a drop-dead gorgeous custom Moto Guzzi. It was a mix between a cafe racer and an endurance racer replica, and it’s one of the coolest Guzzi’s I’ve ever seen. The builder/owner, George Dockray, ended up reaching out to discuss this bike and some of his other motorcycles. I instantly knew that he was someone that you should know about. Interview time!
How did you get started with motorcycles – how did you learn, and what was your first bike?
In 1971 at 19 years old, I had a job working as a cook at Everybody’s Pizza across from Emory University in Atlanta. Phil, the other cook (and owner) rode an R69S and had a stack of bike mags handy to read between orders. I got curious and just happened to need some transportation. A car was a bit much for my finances, but a bike was within my budget. Lots of Phil’s friends who stopped by the pizza place had bikes and after considerable discussion, it was decided that I should get a Yamaha 350 R5.
Unrelated R5
I bought one out of the classifieds and rode it home (no special license was required back then). Even with my lack of experience I could tell it was not running too well, so I took it up to the gas station / Volvo repair shop where my friend Leon Bass was a mechanic, knowing that he used to have an R5. He told me that we should start by giving it a complete tune-up – or should I say I should. He would let me use his service manual and his tools. So I started to follow the instructions and in a couple hours & with a few helpful pointers from Leon I fired it up. It was TRANSFORMED! And all I had to do was just do what the manual said – just like a cook book only with a 13mm socket and ratchet instead of a garlic press.
A few months later I was working at a Yamaha shop and then a Brit / European shop and owning Triumphs and Guzzis (mostly).
What bikes do you currently own?
I’m limited to three bikes by storage space and the fact that more than that leaves some (to me) too neglected. At the moment my touring unit is a 2001 Triumph 955 Sprint RS.
From http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/
The daisy-picking ride (though with big carbs and a cam) is a Guzzi Loop Frame registered as a ’74, but with components from ’67 – ’79 models. [Editor’s Note: This isn’t just any Loop Frame – his specific V700 was featured in Motorcycle Classics.]
From Motorcycle Classics
The third is a ’73 Ducati 750 GT that I bought as a basket case in July ’13 – wrecked with bent forks and frame, but the previous owner ride it until it threw the chain through the engine case. It’s now completely re-done.
George’s beautifully restored 750GT
Assume for a moment that money is no object, and importation laws aren’t a problem. What’s the next bike you’d buy, and what would you do with it?
Boy…this is a tough one. I’m drawn to dual-sports a bit lately since I ride with a friend a lot that has a BMW GSA. Being able to incorporate some gravel roads into the route opens up a whole new range of possibilities. The Triumph 800 Tiger looks like a nice balance – competent at gravel and pavement and not so heavy like a GS or Stelvio.
From http://www.tiger800.co.uk/images/2011-triumph-tiger-800-xc-adventure.jpg
What’s the most memorable motorcycle trip you’ve ever taken?
I love touring, but have not been able to go further than southern BC, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and a little bit in Montana. Just covering the best parts of those will take you a while. I just got back from a week long trip on the Sprint around Washington and had a chance to explore the Palouse region in SE WA.
Palouse, WA – from www.myscenicdrives.com
Fantastic, almost deserted roads, not spectacular, but pleasing scenery and 100’s of wineries! My favorite area to ride in though is Eastern Oregon. Endless twisting and curving though beautiful country. Plan for next year is to put the Ducati in the van, drive it to Baker City, OR and post in a motel for 5 days and ride a different combination of roads every day – heaven!
Do you listen to music while riding? If no, why not? If yes, what are some of your favorite tunes when you’re on your bike?
Riding music is comes out of the ends of a pair of Conti mufflers on a Round-Case Bevel Drive Ducati!
What’s your favorite piece of gear?
For touring:
1. Electric jacket liner
2. Radar detector
3. Sheep skin butt-pad
4. The Destination Highways bike map guides.
5. Roadside Curiosities and Roadside Geology books for the states I’ll be riding.
You have $25,000 to spend on anything in the world of motorcycles – 1 new bike, several old bikes, track days, a trip, you name it. How do you spend it?
A two stage trip:
1. Rent a Vincent Rapide from an outfit that does tours in Mallorca. [Editor’s Note: Oh my god, this is a real thing!]
2. Onward to rent a Ducati Multistrada or Guzzi 850 Norge in Tuscany and ride the Croatia coast then through Eastern Europe and back over about a month.
How did you first hear about DECCLA? It’s one thing to enjoy a race series, it’s a whole different beast to fly out and check it out yourself, especially with a relatively unknown competition. What inspired you to travel to Spain just to see a race bike builder?
I was flying a Beaver float plane for a corporate operator in Vancouver and had a much modified Guzzi 850T hot-rod when the operator decided to get rid of the flight dept. & me with it.
George’s modified 850T
It was a bit late to pick up a seasonal float flying gig, in Alaska or BC, but I got a job as a pilot flying a Beaver for a remote fishing lodge in SW Alaska. It was four months straight with no days off and my only entertainment was looking at bike stuff on my laptop (lucky the place has satellite internet). I happened across something about Manel Segarra who was building and racing Guzzis in Spain and being pretty much unbeatable. It all looked amazing & WAY too cool and I got to be a bit of a fan up there in the middle of nowhere.
In a remote place, looking at the same faces day after day after day and doing nothing but work, I had to have something to look forward to. One fishing guide said about how you start feeling after about the third month regarding your co-workers: “If I see him holding a pencil like that again I’m going to bury an axe in his head”. So I told myself, if I can just hang in there, as soon as the season finishes, I headed to Spain to check out the vintage bike racing scene and visit kindred Guzzisti Manel. I sent him and email telling him that I was in nowhere Alaska and coming to visit Spain & could I stop by and check out his shop and do a bit of Guzzi gear-head jabbering. He wrote back and said, sure – stop by. I imagine he thought I was some sort of crank.
I DID stop by though. Not only was he a wonderful host, but he was happy to talk about the details for how he made a Guzzi so damn fast (aside from the fact that he was an incredible talent and could have cleaned up on an R60/2 if that’s what he’d had to race). It was a sad thing that he was killed a couple years ago test riding a customer’s Guzzi LeMans near his house.
You’ve built your “Segarra Replica”, a V700 Special, and a Ducati 750GT. What’s your next project going to be, and will you be restoring or customizing it?
Gawd…I really can’t see doing another bike for myself anytime soon. The projects keep coming, but as outside work. My garage-mate Tom Mellor & I do vintage and antique car engine restorations, mostly Rolls Royce and Bentley though with some others in there too. This winter we have a 1928 Rolls Phantom I engine basket case to bring back to life as well as a Sunbeam Alpine engine.
From http://www.thornleykelham.com/
I have a Custom Ducati (’99 1000 SS engine with special English frame and bodywork) coming in to have an electrical system designed and installed. Also an original, un-restored 1948 Guzzi Astorino that needs a top end overhaul and other misc. repairs and maintenance. So, projects? Yeah, I think I’m well stocked.
From www.craigcentral.com
What do you expect from the future of motorcycling, good or bad?
Both good and bad. On the bad side of the ledger, I think that new bikes will become increasingly electronically controlled (have you see the number of computers on a BMW K1600 GTL?) and doing any sort of maintenance requires specialized knowledge and equipment.
BMW K1600GTL Cockpit – from Motorcycle.com
Increasingly, independent shops and owners will not be able to maintain them. This is a win for the manufacturers, but (for instance) “Ducati, turning riders into mechanics since 1948”, being no longer the case is in some ways liberating and makes the sport / pastime more accessible is a good thing, there is something that will be lost (see “Shop Class as Soul Craft”).
On the plus side, among the new bikes there are machines that are capable in ways we might never have imagined a few years ago. There is, and as long as there is a ready supply of gasoline, will continue to be a place for the old machines that require good old-fashion mechanic-ing and the recent interest in them among a new, younger cadre (hipster jokes aside), makes me think that there’s a future for the old iron yet.
Cover photo from Motorcycle Classics.