The weather is having a flippin laugh. Today felt like an early Spring morning rather than a late winter one, so with dryish roads and mild temperatures, the 'Blade streaked across Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey on the way to work. Sorry Chris Evans, I'll catch up with you on the radio tomorrow.
After having a slight wardrobe malfunction en-route (basically my buff slipped down from across my nose) which required a extremely brief stop at Fleet Services, the Fireblade saw 27000 miles on the odometer just as I passed J3 of the M3.
Since buying the bike back in 2014, I've really been racking up the miles and as I look towards the summer of 2016, the 'Blade is slowly working it's way into my heart. Could it be the bike to bike on my Lands's End to John O'groats run?
The question is, will a new biking love of my life wave at me from afar, drawing me away? Time will tell.
At the weekend with nothing much to do, I did something a bit silly. That, ladies and indeed gentlemen, was firing up the Ducati. Having been on my Oxford battery charger all winter, she fired first time and bloody hell what a racket! Even though it was gone lunchtime, I should really apologise to the neighbours. 
I took a little poodle around my cul-du-sac, nothing special, but enough to get the bike moving. It felt good to be on it again and I'm looking forward to the first proper ride out in Spring proper. Its such a good bike and worth every penny that I've spent on it.  Speaking of which, I need some more fasteners.

What the hell was I thinking? These are the very words that were running through my head yesterday morning on the M3 heading towards London just after both hands went numb due to the cold.
The plan had been a simple one....wear extra layers, wrap up warm and take the bike to work in order to avoid the worst of Friday afternoon/evening rush hour. See, it sounds so simple when put like that. 
When I woke, it was dry and the sky was clear. No clouds, just stars and a sliver of the moon, but bloody hell was it cold. I hadn't seen ice on the windscreens of the cars on my road for ages, but they all had that crystalline look as the bike's headlight struck them in the darkness.
Despite having not rained, the mix of early morning dew and road salt had left, what appeared to be a thin layer of black slime on the roads. This in turn, was flicked up by the cars around me, right across my visor. Yep, splendid.
This is when it got interesting! The start of the journey had been okay, my hands just hurt, but I could feel them and the visor was reasonably clear, but on the M3 it got so bad, that a) I couldn't feel my hands and b) I couldn't clear the grime properly from the visor, leaving me staring through a streaky mess. I had to stop.
My commute is usually achieved in one hit, sometimes this includes a petrol stop at the start, so stopping three quarters of the way to work is rare. The exit for Fleet Services couldn't come quick enough and when I arrived, my first problem was getting my flippin lid off. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey. After about four mins of, frankly, faffing around, I freed my head from its HJC branded tomb and went inside to warm up.
Getting out of work earlier than expected helped and I managed to do the vast majority of the ride home in daylight. The only downside, was the setting sun, but with a semi-tinted visor on, I was able to see well enough to avoid ploughing into the back of some saloon.
Getting home safe, I parked up and sprayed the bike down from the hose in the garage, rinsing off the road salt that was now covering the bike and just sat down, thankful it was all over. 
If there's one thing I can say about using a bike to commute on, no matter how long the distance, its always interesting.

So the Christmas and New Year break has come to its inevitable conclusion and this week, the masses went back to work. For years I was one of those who barely got any time off, but this year, was different.
With dreadful weather conditions and a particularly lovely day spent with friends on New Years Day, yesterday was the first time I was able to ride the bike in 2016. It also marked the first time I used one of my Kriega tailbacks as a tankbag. The adapter was already in place (as previously documented) so it was just a case of getting the straps in and the bag on. All very neat and tidy.
As with any tank bag, its a bit of a pain when you need to refuel, but you can't really do very much about it, so why worry.
The ride itself was thankfully uneventful. As its winter, its pretty much all motorway, but the odd entry slip and exit slip road combination and a few roundabouts help break up the boredom.
These longer regular rides, are highlighting potential issues with my helmet and ear plug combination. I use these kind, which are Guardrite, mushroom styles plugs. 

When I first started riding, I used those soft ones, but I've found these to be a better fit. They're good plugs which are easy to clean and arte better at filtering out certain sound vibrations, namely, wind noise. I can still hear the bike and hear certain vehicles around me, but I know I'm protecting my hearing.
I first started to notice issues with my left ear when wearing my Aria Chaser V, where my ears were getting very sore after about an hour, which was made worse when I moved my head for lifesavers etc. 
It didn't seem to affect me when wearing my collection of HJC helmets, but then I started to get similar pains even with those. I start to feel the pain after about an hour in the saddle, which isn't terrible if I'm out and about on country roads because after an hour or so, I usually fancy a coffee, but on the long commutes, its a bit of a pain (excuse the pun).
At Motorcycle Live I picked up lots of leaflets about personalised ear plugs and I'm leaning towards giving them a try. Yes they cost, but quality often does.
As always, I'll keep you updated.