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.
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.
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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. There is something very distinct and unique about the smell of a motorcycle when ridden after it has been out in the rain. Its the strange sickly smell of debris and dirt suspended in the rain water being burnt away by the heat of the engine and the exhaust. I have never liked it which is funny because I have no problem riding in the rain or poor weather conditions. High winds maybe, but certainly not rain. As the saying goes 'there's no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing'. This mornings ride was the first ride in the rain that I've had to make for several weeks, but the wet greasy conditions often leave me with no confidence in my tyres, nor the condition of the road. I have often talked about the amount of diesel and oil I see when riding around London and my constant amazement that fewer vehicles seems to break down. This morning wasn't any different.
The Pirellis that are currently on the Ducati are a superb dry weather and track day tyre, but as the summer fades into autumn and winter I'd rather have a bike shod with Michelin's excellent Pilot Road 3s which would give much better wet/cold weather grip. Saying that, its pretty much a moot point because as soon as the temperature drops down close to freezing and the council decide to spread the road salt about, the Ducati will stay tucked up in the garage on a charger. Hopefully I'll get the second bike sorted by then, as I really hate using the car in London, but then again, who doesn't? Where have you been? I hear maybe two of you asking me, well I've been away for a week and I didn't have either a computer with me, nor more importantly a motorbike for all but one of those days. My holiday all started with the Ducati trackday at Brands Hatch last Monday. I got there a little later than I would usually have liked and by the time I arrived there were vans everywhere. So I parked up and went to sign on. This was only the second event that I have attended that was run by Focussed Events and I have to say that although the first went reasonable smoothly in terms of organisation, this one was a shambles. Firstly they were unable to sell out to a purly Ducati audience, so it was opened up to other types of bikes. Then they started dropping the price to entice more people in. So on the day there were people who would have paid the £220 sitting next to people who paid £170. That in my book isn't fair, or right. Anyway moral ethics aside, I effectively queued to sign in three times. I was told that there was a sign on the door explaining the slight differences between Ducati Riders and the others. This sign was a piece of A4 paper stuck on one side of the door way (the wrong side as nobody had to pass it to get in) so I missed it. Anyway once I had finally signed in I got some food and a coffee and sat and chatted with some other riders. The safety briefing was supposed to be at 08:30 in the briefing hall, but then, when everybody was already in the briefing hall, they changed their minds and had it in the pits at 08:45. There was no way that the first group will be in a position to be on track at 09:00. After a few introductions we went out.....late. I spoke to a few riders who had missed their sighting lap sessions, didn't have time to be noise tested, so they just left. This is customer service at its worst. Below are a few pics from the day. As you can see, it was pretty damp out there, so I'm pretty much bolt upright everywhere. I'm going to writing a full report in the next few days. The rain had pretty much stayed away and a dry line was making its presence known, but then just before lunch, it started raining, only lightly, but that was enough to soak the track, making it pretty much pointless to go out. After lunch the only people on the track were on full wets. I went out to test the conditions, but realised I was going too slowly and was a danger to myself and the guys on wets, so I came it and got ready to go home. After a quick dash back, I parked the bike, got changed, picked up my car keys and drove to Poole to spend my birthday weekend with Sarah and her family. Tuesday evening on Poole Quay is bike nirvana. Every Tuesday during the summer, the local bikers descend on the Quayside, so as it was my birthday, it was fairly easy to convince Sarah into letting me go. Here are some pics. Whilst down in the South I took full advantage of being close to one of my favourite after market suppliers. Conquest Carbon www.conquestcarbon.co.uk down in Wimborne supply as the name suggests after market carbon fibre body part replacements. In the past I've ordered a replacement key guard, front mudguard and full belly pan all of which are excellent. If you can think of it, they can supply it. Have a look at the site and see if they can supply your bike. Its an Aladdin's cave of wonder. Tell them I said hi
Well I'm fairly angry with the brake light switch in the Kawasaki. The very day that the new switch arrived (the day after I ordered it) the 'faulty' switch started to behave itself and work properly. Now if only busted light bulbs would work the same way.
The weather is lovely at the moment here in London, perfect conditions for riding or driving out in the country. I really hope this weather holds into next week as I'm at Brands Hatch again with Tim and Ben on Thursday. Brands Indy in the dry is a serious workout for body and bike An earlyish start this morning saw me heading down to Kempton Park to meet Kevin. By the time I left the house at around 06:15 is was bright and a bit chilly, but the roads were deserted. This means I was able to get across town in around 35mins, which is interesting when you think that the same journey on any afternoon will take nearer 90. After filling up we headed down to Goodwood, passing Sandown on the way, which meant that by the time I got home, I'd seen three race courses. The ride down was great, except for some fool in a Lambo who had no idea what the speed limits were, or what a solid white line meant. What was doubly annoying, was when he was driving down some of the quicker parts of the road, he would slow down to sub 30mph to get a bit of a gap between himself and the car in front, pull into the middle of the road and nail it. Idiot. Nice car thou.
The breakfast club at Goodwood itself was magnificent. It was like a mini Festival or Speed or Revival with the Paddock filled with some lovely machinery. Riding into the paddock on the Ducati, I felt totally at ease, feeling that this was where the bike should be seen. Kev's bike on the other hand needed a clean and is somewhat battle scared. Nice bike thou. After a lovely breakfast and a wander back, we headed home and encountered some serious queues on the A3 heading back to London. It was closed through Guildford, which cause havoc on the local roads. If we hadn't been on the bikes, it could have easily taken three hours just to navigate the queues. Crazy. Thankfully I got back home just in time to watch the MotoGP at Mugello. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning. Will I be going back? Absolutely. Its my new favourite bike meet. Earlier in the week I had quite fancied the idea of riding one of my bikes up to Birmingham to spend the weekend with Sarah. I wouldn't have been able to get enough stuff in the backpack I use when on the Ducati and I didn't relish the idea of taking the Ninja up there having not ridden it for two weeks. Sat here on a Sunday evening, looking back in hindsight, I'm glad I went up in the car instead. Friday was really, really windy and today is rained all day. Neither of which are ideal biking weather. There are still plenty of weekends to use the bikes, so losing one isn't the end of the world. In a little bit of good news, I got home to find two new bike magazines sat on my doorstep. Excellent.
It looks like finally the long winter of 2012/2013 has been pushed to one side and the summer of 2013 is ready to make its presence know. Last Friday I met up with a few guys from the Ducati Forum down at the Ace Cafe for my first bike night of the year. On a 'normal' Friday I'm either making my way to Birmingham or waiting for Sarah to come down to London so I don't really get much chance to taste the flavours that the Ace Bike night presents. It was still fairly chilly and was therefore more of a subdued affair. There were still a few riders showing off on the road outside the cafe, which is to be expected, but once the sun went down and the temperature dropped it calmed down further as people made their way home early. I did manage to drop me keys, which were thankfully returned to me fairly quickly. Goes to show it really helps to have a Ducati keyring on the keys.
Sarah and I drove down to the South Coast on Sunday afternoon/evening to spend a week away together. I took advantage and promised to buy Sarah some fish and chips if we went down to Poole bike night down at the Quay. The weather was damp and grey, but there were still around twenty bikes down there ranging from a Z1 to a nice Panigale. Again, at the height of the season, the place is utterly rammed, but the weather put pay to any serious numbers. I'll be making a point of doing a run down from London a few times this year as I feel that the last few years I've hardly been. Oh and the food was almost as lovely as the company. I'll be back on the bike on Monday just in time for a trip to Snetteron for my first trackday of the year on Tuesday. I'll be taking my Drift HD ghost camera and I plan on getting some footage to post up on the site. I'm sure it won't be as polished as I would like it, but I know it will improve in time. The temperature is due to peak at around 18 degrees on Sunday and I hope that Tuesday is warmish and dry. I hate trundling around a cold wet track. Cross fingers |
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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