Ever since I heard about Rossi building a riding ranch in his home town of Tavullia I wanted to ride it. And going to prove it's not what you know, but who you know, in early September this year I managed, being the first journalist in the world to do a lap of Rossi's private test track.

It was all down to my connections with Rolling Stone Italy, for whom I write a monthly column on motorcycle culture.

It was ten years since Rossi was on their cover, dressed as Elvis and the editor, Michele Lupi, wanted to catch up and chose me to write the exclusive interview. The feature was even mentioned on the national 8pm news.

It's out in Rolling Stone Italy, December issue (with Ligabue on the cover). GI

This video makes more sense if you can understand Italian, but the action is worth watching anyway. G

See bits of it at Dainese. It's available through some of their dealers. G

2.40am: Last Thursday morning leaving home for Luton Airport.4.20am: Parked up at Luton airport. My loaner Triumph's twin brother was there. It turned out to be Mark's from the Ace Cafe.
6.40am: cheap flights are early flights.
9.20am: bus straight from the airport to EICMA, the biggest and most important (to the industry), bike show in the world.
10:20am. Everything I shot at EICMA will be on another post (at some point).
20.50: That night, Riders magazine and our friends at Officine Mermaid had organised a huge party, open to anyone who wanted to visit. The street was full of championship winning Yamaha GP bikes. Rossi's was on the counter in Mermaid.
20.55. Zaeta x Sideburn
20.57: Jeff Decker turned up.
21.01: Officine Mermaid's glass floor. Two Deus bikes parked below.
21.07: Two doors down from Mermaid, a new shop is opening selling tasty old bikes and related stuff. The idea is to turn the street into a bike street.
21.15: The party was in a two storey building on Mermaid's street, Via Genova Thaon di Revel. Italians like to smoke so the courtyard was packed, but the upstairs wasn't.
21.16 (and 21.31, 21. 52. 22.07, etc) Bacardi were handing out free bottles of Mojito and Cuba Libre all night. It didn't run out.
22:00: Mr and Mrs Belli
22:08: Riders is a very classy motorcycle/lifestyle magazine. They'd put art up on the bare walls and set up a photo booth to photograph anyone who turned up. They'll print the photos later. Carlos Checa and Giacomo Agostini both attended.
22:11: Bike crowd, no hassle.
Loads of interesting bikes. Mutant BMW.Old Hinckley triple. I think this is an ex-Carlo Talamo bike.
Mermaid Sportster Street Scrambler.