Sorry I've been so quiet of late, there's just been a fair amount going on and I was away for a few days last week, spending time with Sarah. The weather, as all UK residents know, has stayed cold as the winter has totally outstayed its welcome, delaying the start of Spring. It was warmer in the first week of January than it was during the entire month of March, which is confusing the plants as much as the rest of us. I think we're all hoping for a great summer to dispel the memories of last summer and this long winter.
When out and about, I wandered into a toy shop which was selling reproductions of old tin toys and found this. When I saw it I just had to have it. Waste of money? Maybe, but everytime I look at it, it makes me smile.

After popping down to Action Cameras down in Chiswick, I now have all the bits for my Drift Ghost camera and will be testing it this Easter weekend on a drive down to Poole where I'm attending a wedding. Looking outside and the lovely sunshine I almost wish I was riding down, but that sun doesn't detract from the cold wind and still low temperatures. And besides, I cant carry a suiter on the back of the Ducati.
I recently picked up the Motovudu DVD by Simon Crafer. I've watched about half of it and will be writing a review up for the site in due course. The season is just around the corner and Brands Hatch is hosting its first track evening of the year next week. If it stays dry, despite it being so cold, I plan on popping down just to clear away some track cobwebs. I don't intend of thrashing it, just riding around at a nice pace. Cross fingers 

As some of you may know, my other job is compiling traffic information for the radio/sat navs etc and on Friday there was an accident that closed the A1 in Hertfordshire. I found out today that somebody I used to play a lot of golf with a few years back, a motorcyclist, was killed in the accident. He was a team mate and a friend, but when I left the club, as is often the case, we lost contact. He was a very brave man and a fireman by trade and he would have seen his fare
share of incidents. He was part of the first fire crews on the scene to the Paddington rail crash and said to me once 'you never expect to see that many dead people at once'. After over sixteen years in the industry I have become very tired of reporting on news stories of this type and hate myself for at times being so blase about the death of others, but this was the first time that I had actively reported on an accident which claimed the life of somebody I knew. I am saddened that we lost contact, but I guess it takes two people to do so. All I can hope is that it was quick and he felt as little pain as possible. R, my thought are with your family and friends. Thats about all I have to say
about it really

Being an English motorcyclist is really an international affair. If I'm riding to work, I'm a Brit on a Japanese motorbike, wearing Italian leathers, gloves and boots with an American helmet. However, if I'm on the track or just riding for fun, I'm a Brit on an Italian Bike, wearing American leathers and gloves, Italian boots and using a Japanese helmet.

Back in November of last year, I was lucky enough to receive a ten year service award and this it turned out worked out to be £500 in vouchers. I had always had my eye on getting a GoPro camera and was waiting for the Hero3 to hit the UK shores. In typical tried and tested ground, before I made the decision to purchase the camera I did lots of internet research. Now I know that the internet is 75% BS and 25% fact, I was still really alarmed at the amount of negative press that the GoPo was receiving, especially considering the Hero2 was universally claimed as the best camera on the market. For every review that claimed the Hero3, which was launched in the US several months before the UK were able to get hold of one, I was reading reviews that said it was a piece of crap and when it went wrong, the after sales service was dire. It seemed like the thing to do, if I wanted a Hero3 was to wait until July or even August to allow for any bugs a clitches to be ironed out of the software. There was however an alternative. Drift have also been making some very exciting cameras and their latest the HD Drift Ghost really grabbed my attention and after doing some more research I bit the bullet and ordered one using some of my vouchers

The plan is to get some video footage on on the site, which will probably require a slight re-arrange of the menu bar at the top of the screen. I intend documenting at least one lap of each track I go to, but apart from that, just playing around with it and adding some differing content. We shall see, but the first problem is where to mount it. Helmet? Bike?

£812.99! Yep you read that right, Eight hundred and twelve pounds ninety ninety pence only. This is how much my new performance clutch, oil change and a general check up cost me this afternoon. Lets break that down

• Barnett clutch set 1098/1098s         - £135.68
  
• Barnett pressure plate                     - £153.92
  
• Barnett Red billet clutch basket      - £168.00
  
• Barnett clutch spring set                  - £30.21
  
• Oil Filter                                            - £8.98
  
• 3.2 litres Motul fully synthetic oil    - £40.26
  
• Drain Plug washer                            - £0.44 
  
• Labour                                               - £140.00
  
• VAT                                                    - £135.50
  

                                                                   £812.99

The work as usual was done to an excellent quality and I have every faith in Artur's servicing so I know this will be running perfectly for years to come. Cheers dude
Just in case you are wondering, this is why I had to change the clutch. This first picture is the OEM basket and you can see the groves that have been caused by the friction plates

and this second photo shows my utterly warn out friction plates and my burnt steels

I knew my original clutch was toast at the end of last season so I knew this day was coming. There are a few little side effects to this new clutch set up thou. Firstly the distinctive trademark Ducati rattle is a lot quieter, and now the clutch action is really, really, really stiff. I'll be playing about with the clutch lever over the next few days to find a span that I'm comfortable with. Hopefully I won't have to think about getting a new slave cylinder to ease the problem. Oh hang on a sec, Oberon do a really nice anodised red one, which would look really cool. Hmmm, when's payday again?

Yep freezing this morning. Minus 2. Not really a very nice ride into work which was made worse by a strong bitter wind. I had the Ducati booked in for today and was a little apprehensive when it started snowing heavily around 10:00. Thankfully it didn't last long and the mornings strong winds had blown most of the dry salt powdered salt from the roads so I was able to ride to the dealer and drop the bike off. I'll go and get it on Wednesday as tomorrow is supposed to be another cold one. Minus 3 first thing. This is just ridiculous, isn't it supposed to be spring?

Typical! After nearly a week of lovely weather here in the UK when both my bikes were in the garage for different reasons, the day when I get the use a bike again, it pisses it down. I got soaked on the way home from work on Friday and then got soaked on the way to the Ace Cafe to meet Kevin in the afternoon. I have to say that it was well worth it, as over two coffees, a sausage sandwich and a muffin we had a good catch up, discussed possible plans to go to the California Superbike School, a trip to Box Hill in Surrey and a possible future trip to Assen to watch some racing. 
The Ducati is all back in once piece and the Ninja now has its new stainless steel pipes attached. I have updated the 'Mod and Sods' section on the ZX7r page. Speaking of site updates I have now updated a similar section on the Ducati page, listing what I have done to personalise the bike, which has resulted in a dramatic change in appearance to the page, but I like the way it looks and matches up really nicely to the other pages on the site.
I have to say that I am a bit of a merchandise fan and I do like my T Shirts especially. Metropolis have started getting some nice apparel in stock and I picked up a really nice olive green Ducati T shirt, sporting a nice subtle design on the front. What do you think?

It's supposed to be flippin freezing again tomorrow and it may even snow again, but unless there is snow on the ground I'll be back out on the bike tomorrow as you know, driving in Central London is doing my head in.

It took me an hour to get home after work today, twice as long as it would do on two wheels. God I hate driving the car in Central London. I had more time this afternoon to look into my leaking coolant problem and after about ten minutes worked it out. Initially I thought it was very bad, but when looking closer I realised that I had tied one of the jubilee clips up at at angle that was pulling part of thermostat away slightly leaving a hole for the coolant to escape. I quick tidy up and its not leaking any more. This week I'll get it all back together and weather permitting, have a quick ride. I booked the Ducati in at Metropolis for next Monday to have the clutch and basket sorted and thought I'd take the chance to have an oil change done at the same time. The season is just around the corner and I don't want to miss any of it

Apart from riding the bike the 2 miles to Metropolis on Thursday, I haven't ridden a bike for ages, and well frankly, it sucks. I spent the weekend in Birmingham helping the lovely Sarah move house and when I got home I wanted to check to see if the Ducati was okay. I checked the coolant level in the radiator, which seem to have dropped a little since last week, which was the first bad sign. I topped it back up and hit the starter only to notice coolant leaking down by the kick stand! Second bad sign WTF! It didn't leak on the first test, the one where I had water in the system, so why is it leaking now? I cleaned up the area, got down on my hands and knees to get a close look and fired it up again. Now no leak? Hopefully it was just some coolant that found its way into a recess in the engine, which then shook loose and sprayed it around when I fired the bike upI plan be checking it again after work once everything has cooled down again. Maybe its only something that happens when cold,but thats not something I'm happy with at all. I'll double check the connections, but I fear that I'll have to drain the system again and check some of the connections. Shit!