Well as most of the UK will attest to, the unusual weather continues. When its not chucking it down, its actually still really mild. Yesterday London saw light winds, no rain and more double figure temperatures so I took the opportunity to take the big bike out again. The riding position is so different to the Monster that I questioned how I managed to commute on it for five months. For me, this has really highlighted the 'problem' with having two bikes that are so different. It didn't take long to get used to the riding position thou and I'm very aware that my body isn't necessarily 'bike fit', but that can be easily sorted. Since the New Year, I've intentionally started concentrating my gym work on my upper body and core. Running has been taking care of my legs for ages now, so I'm not too worried about that, but what I really want to do is be strong in the right places in time for the Italy trip I have planned for the summer. That will entail long days riding a sportsbike over some fairly large distances. The last thing I need to be at that point is unfit. That could be seriously uncomfortable, but more importantly, dangerous too.
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The weather forecast for the last few days was claiming that today was going to be warm(ish) and sunny. The day didn't disappoint, but annoyingly I had a meeting which delayed me at work for nearly an hour. By the time I got home, there was still enough warmth and sunlight to take the big bike out. She didn't start first time, which was a little alarming, but eventually she fired up filling the garage with the sound I had become so familiar with throughout last year. Moving the bike around however was weird. The handlebars on the 1098s are thinner than those on the Monster and a hell of a lot lower and I even stalled it when pulling away the first time. It also didn't help that for the first 2 miles the bike felt alien to me. I didn't want nor expect to be out long and to start with the tyres seemingly had no grip at all. Thankfully though they got some heat into them fairly quickly. I had a route I wanted to take, which was nothing special, but it gave me a chance to ride and not sit in traffic. Today I just wanted to take advantage of the break in the weather and ride my bike. Isn't that the point in owning one of these things. It really is such a different bike to the Monster and I'm not ashamed to say it, but I love this bike more than any other I've ridden or owned.
So after nearly a week house bound with the flu, today I went back to work, which more importantly meant I was able to ride again. Since the theft of the Ninja I have been using my Kreiga backpack to carry stuff too and from work, but personally I'm not a huge fan of carrying stuff on your back. Yes, sometimes it's the only option, but I worry about landing badly on it in the case of an accident. Negative thinking I know, but I wouldn't really want to break something in my back on my glasses case. With this in mind, I went back to using my tailpack today. Also by Kreiga, but a fraction smaller at 20 litres.
I mentioned before that I wanted to remove the baffles from the Monster exhausts, so I bought some proper external circlip pliers after finding the combination set I already had not up to the job at hand. The clips came off fine, but the baffles remained firmly in situ. I even warmed the cans up by running the bike for a bit. I'll have to investigate as they could simply be rusted in place. Tad irritating to be honest. The Monster was supposed to go into the shop today to have the problem with the intakes sorted, but I got a call asking for the job to be put back until next week. Not too much I could say, so I agreed to bring the bike in next Thursday. Speaking of servicing, I have confirmed the date (weather permitting) for the 1098s to have its major Desmo service. 5th Feb next year. I had better start saving. This afternoon I finally got around to fitting my new visor, with pinlock, to my HJC helmet. I managed to pick up the pair from Motorcycle Live for £30. The previous visor was quite badly scratched so this new visor should help, especially in the rain.I realised today whilst riding home that I'm still not 'in to' my Monster. I'm not sure if if was because when I took delivery of my ZX7R, I was house bound following my nasty accident, but I fell in love with that bike the moment I started riding it, but I don't feel that with the Monster. Maybe that's a good thing as the bike's main duty is getting me into and out of Central London. I don't understand it thou. The bike is comfy, has a good engine; which sounds great by the way and it has Ducati on the tank. That is normally enough for me, but there is definitely something missing. I'm thinking that its because I haven't personalised the bike in anyway. Everything is exactly as when I bought it and the only thing I've bought for the Monster is a new keyring.
I look at my 1098s under its cover in the garage and just yearn to ride the bloody thing, fast down sweeping corners, but I look at the Monster and feel nothing, nothing at all. It's a little unsettling. Well today didn't quite go exactly to plan. That's to say nothing seriously bad happened, but I think I would have liked it to go a little differently.
First the ride into work this morning on the 1098s was fine. It was dry enough to be able to ride and I made it in without incident (with the exception of the blind van driver plodding along around Smithfield meat market) to the car park and locked the bike for its usual stay. On the ride back the roads were just packed, certainly a lot busier than I have experienced on a Friday lunchtime, which meant I got stuck in it. This resulted in the bike and myself getting really hot; the bike however wasn't taking it out on the surrounding drivers. Anyway, shortly after getting home I was able to get a lift to Metropolis to pick up the Monster. I was there for about 20mins just chatting with the guys before handing over the money for the bike. The new tyres and fitted grips were both on, although the original R&G grips had been substituted for a different set. To be honest, I wasn't that bothered as the grips that were fitted on the Ninja showed signs of serious wear after only a few months, so lets give these a go. The weather at the time was good enough and to be honest, I wanted to the ride the bike I had just bought, so I headed off for St Albans to have a coffee and make a few phone calls. As I pulled up, the sky was getting noticeably darker and rain drops were starting to fall. By the time I left it was raining a little heavier, but nothing serious....well for the first 5mins anyway, because no longer had I hit the main road out of town, the heavens opened. I don't mean it started to rain, it flippin chucked it down. 'Real wrath of God type stuff...fire and brimstone coming from the sky, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice...dogs and cats living together...MASS HYSTERIA!!' I was quickly soaked and again, my boots filled with water. Really not good. It got to the point where my feet were so cold and wet, they hurt. Gotta get some better boots soon. So my first ride on the Monster turned into a wet ride of endurance. The plan had been to take a few photos and do a nice little write up of the first ride, but that's pretty much gone out of the window now. That lovely valet that the bike had doesn't mean anything now, which is annoying. The Monster is now just as dirty as the 1098 its parked next to in the garage. Handy I'm home alone this weekend, I've got lots of scrubbing to do. Hi there, sorry for the lack of updates the last couple of days. Real life has been getting in the way and I've been off the bike for the start of the week. Handy really judging by the rain I drove through both Monday and Tuesday.
Very briefly then, I'll be picking up the Monster on Friday, so I'll be updating the site with a new Monster section. I've got my pictures back from the frames, so tomorrow if I have time, I'll get some photos of them up on the site. I think they look great. Expensive, but the quality of the work shines through. Still haven't heard back from my RoSPA examiner, which I'm less than happy about and staffing issues at work have placed a spanner in the works for my visit to Motorcycle Live. I wanted to go during the week when it would be quieter, but it looks like I'm going to be going at the weekend instead. Oh and finally, the Ducati reached 12000 miles today. That means the Desmo service is due. Damn. Its now only a few days from the start of November. The clocks have already gone back, but today the sun was shining bright in the sky; almost in defiance to the inevitable. After taking so getting started, the great summer of 2013 that burnt so brightly this year doesn't seem to be giving up without a fight, but annoyingly, nobody explained this to the night time. Leaving the house this morning, it was proper cold and it was the first time my fingers have hurt by the time I got to work. Sadly we all know that this will soon become the norm and any ideas of leaning through some quick corners will just be distant memories.
The 1098s isn't suited for winter riding. There's nothing physically stopping me riding it in the winter that it, with the exception of the tyres, but that could easily be sorted. The engine would still work, the wheels would still roll and the brakes would still clamp onto those two twin Brembo discs at a mere moments notice, but this Ducati is just too good to introduce it to sub zero temperatures and the dreaded road salt. This is why, today, I called up Mike and his team and told them I'll have the Monster. I know that it too is an Italian bike, but with liberal coatings of ACF 50 www.acf-50.co.uk it will be fine. To fully 'winterise' it, I've already arranged for a set of Pilot Road 3 tyres and heated grips to be stuck on and although it already wears a hugger, I'll look at getting a shock tube too and probably some bar muffs. Now I know I mentioned all this before, especially about bar muffs being possibly the least cool modification you can make to any bike, but warm hands are a must in winter and I'm too old to care what anybody else thinks. Well today, to and from work, I experienced two very different rides. The way back with warm, dry, sunny, easy and fun. The sort of ride you wish every ride home from work was. However the one first thing this morning was, how shall I put it, eventful.
Overnight the heavens had opened and dropped, what can only be described as ' a significant amount of rain' across my local area. Now I'm no stranger to rain, I am after all, an Englishman. I was wearing pretty much the right kit for the conditions, well sort of. I've worn my Supertech Rs when its rained before and my feet had somehow stayed dry. Could be foot position, could be anything, so this morning I thought nothing of wearing them, the rain had even stopped, so the El Nino rain suit I was wearing was to mainly protect me from the spray of other vehicles. As I was riding along, I noticed an area of the roadway, about 40ft long that was underwater. Not severely, just three or four inches. As any good rider/driver should, I slowed right down and aimed for the middle of the water. UK roads taper off to the sides, so are in effect 'higher'in the middle, meaning the water was also at its lowest. No chance of hitting a kerb either. Anyway, so I had dropped my speed to 10ish mph and lined up the move. My plan, which I acted out, was to keep a constant speed through the water and keep it in a straight line. As I entered the water, the front wheel of the Ducati created a wave and a secondary wall of water, about a foot high, out to the side of the bike. Sadly, this wall of water hadn't had time to fall to the ground by the time my feet arrived and my Supertechs, with their lovely venting, acted like a great big sponge, filling up with cold rain water and soaking my feet and socks. Socks saturated with cold rain water are not very nice when you have to change gear as you can feel the water moving past your toes. When I came to a similar 'puddle' about a mile down the road, I change my tack. I lifted my feet, but this didn't help either as I was pretty much just holding my feet at the apex of my own personal wave, soaking them again. Thankfully the Chuckie T's I leave at work are so soft and comfy that I could get away with wearing them without socks, so was able to leave them to dry in the changing room. After over eight hours I put the socks back on for the homeward journey, to find them almost dry, but still disappointingly damp. New Gore Tex boots anyone? Well, Summer has ended, Autumn is here and Winter is just around the corner. Well that's how it felt at 04:30 this morning when I left for work. Crickey it felt cold! But that was it; it only felt cold, it wasn't really that cold in the grand scheme of things. I've ridden to work when it was -7 which I quickly realised was my limit. I could barely open my hands for twenty minutes after that one, but this morning, the temperature gauge on my bike's dash was claiming it was 8 degrees, so at worst it was just 'chilly'. My Alpinestars 365 gloves have never been the warmest of things and my Ninja had heated grips fitted for those cold mornings, but I'm certainly not going to fit aftermarket heated grips to the Ducati. That is the second least cool (excuse the pun) thing to put on the handle bars behind bar muffs. The 1098s front fairing isn't that great at protecting the hands from the wind either, so couple that with the first 'lower' temperature since Spring, it was certainly noticeable.
In bike news, the Metaltech Racing parts I ordered are on their way, just in time for the Ducati to be put away in a month of so. My front tyre is looking a little worse for wear, so I've ordered up a new Rosso Corsa too and I mentioned that I'm going to need a new chain and sprockets, which I'll get installed during the frankly excessively expensive Desmo service due at 12000 miles. Its worth nothing that thats less than 500 miles away. You may remember I mentioned testing out the differences between performance fuels and regular petrol a few posts back. Well I've concluded the first step having burnt my way through several tanks of the new Shell V Power Nitro, which has included lots of town riding and some serious thrashing up the motorway. I'm now back on the normal stuff and as the fuel in the tank seems to last four days, I should be able to get some figures to compare in a few weeks. Finally, I got a lovely email this afternoon saying that I have qualified for a press pass for Motorcycle Live at the NEC at the end of November, which is rather exciting. Pop on over to 'Out there, Riding' to read my review of last years show. I plan on doing something similar this year, so stay tuned. What a fantastic little weekend that was. The weather man told us that the summer would be making its last stand this weekend and I didn't need telling twice, so instead of plumming for the car, I took the bike straight out of London down to Poole and Bournemouth for the weekend with Sarah.
Instead of taking the usual A3, A272 route, I needed to head past Box Hill so my plan was to take the A24 South to the start of the A272, ride west all the way along this great British biking route, pick up the A31 at Alton and head on into Poole via the M27 and the A31 through the New Forest as per usual. Well that was the plan anyway. I picked up the A272 and headed west, but by the time I reached it, my shoulders and hands were shot. I'd already worked a full eight hour shift starting before 05:00 as usual and having to ride out of London through Wandsworth just sealed it. I was knackered. It was when heading through Petworth when my plan got altered thou. I basically missed my turn as I wasn't paying attention to the road signs as I was making my way through the queues, so instead of heading West to Midhurst, I was headed South for Goodwood and Chichester. I realised this pretty soon, but couldn't be bothered to turn around, thinking that I'd spot a sign leading me to Petersfield or Midhurst, but they didn't come; mainly as they were rapidly disappearing behind me. As I got near the little village of Duncton (I only know this now as I've just looked it up on Google Maps) my fuel light came on and by this time I realised I could head West along the A27 and M27 to get back onto the A31. I'm midway through a self run fuel test, so I wanted to find a Shell garage to be able to continue. Don't ask me why I'm being stubborn about it thou. Anyway, previously I had worked out that I get through roughly a litre of fuel for every nine miles I ride, yeah I know its rubbish, so with four litres in 'reserve' I have a theoretical limit of thirty six miles. I entered Chichester at the start of rush hour in absolute agony, but couldn't find a Shell garage on the A27, so I pushed my luck and kept on going. The miles were ticking by and the fuel kept getting lower and lower. I passed a Shell garage on the opposite carriageway just after the A3(M) and felt positive as these stations are often built in pairs. However, the station on my site seemed notable by its absence. Finally, as my trip meter pushed past the thirty mile mark, I spotted a sign for some services just off the A2030 on the North side of Portsmouth. Thankfully it was the right petrol station and I can remember saying to myself, if they have a loo and a Costa, I'll be a happy man. Well, one out of two ain't bad I guess and I could always get some tea when I get home. So fuelled and emptied at the same time, I made the final push for Poole and pretty much just nailed it down the M27. I briefly stopped at Conquest Carbon in Wimbourne to say hi to Steve, but he'd already left for the day, so I changed visors and headed off, quickly and safely reaching my future inlaws. We were in Poole/Bournemouth so Sarah could run the Supersonic 10k race as part of Bournemouth's Marathon weekend and she managed the course in just over an hour and in the process raised £350 for Invest in M.E. I was so proud of her as she did the run carrying an injury and was very nervous about her ability to finish at all. If you want to donate, have a look here www.justgiving.com/Sarah-Tilley3 So finally it was 14:00 on the Sunday and time to head home. I wasn't too sure if I wanted to simply fly up the M3, or weather I wanted to go back onto the part of the A272 I missed out on on Friday and pick up the A3 past Guildford instead. Now I could sit here and say that I chose the M3 to see how good the fuel economy was using Shell V Power on the motorway, but to be honest, I just wanted to get home. I find I get very nervous about two hours before a long ride and its always a very emotional time parting ways with Sarah as she heads North up to Birmingham and I head East to London. This time she stayed later that usual which freed me up to go at my own pace on the start of the ride back. Allowing the wind to take the weight of my upper body, I reached Fleet services feeling fairly fresh. I didn't really need or want to stop, but I stopped anyway to ensure that I didn't suffer when fighting through the crappy traffic that was waiting for me 45mins up the road. Whilst sat drinking my decaf I noticed loads of people wearing the celebratory T shirt that were handed out to each and every finisher of all the Bournemouth races at the weekend and heard a few people talking about my bike, which I parked away from the cars, up next to a wall by the entrance. Finally, a few hours after leaving Poole I was back inside London and joining the A406. When passing the Ace cafe a rider in street gear (jeans and trainers) riding a Suzuki GSXR joined the carriageway and we followed each other up and out of London on the A41 fighting our way through the traffic. It was a nice way to end a long ride, almost like a welcome home. So here I sit, happy, tired and very content. I had a great weekend and it was probably the last real opportunity to have a great biking weekend before things get a lot colder. I fear its going to be another longish winter thou, but thats not all bad as it will give me loads of time to make sure the Ducati is ready for those first few days of Spring. |
MeMy name is Matt Brown and I'm a UK journalist formerly based in London, but now calling the South of England home. I've been riding bikes since 2007, but got hooked straight away. Nothing gives me the feeling of freedom, even when stuck in a city. In 2010 I became a RoSPA gold rider, but when it comes down to it, I'm Just a normal man, riding his bikes as often as he can. Archives
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