The Ninja is still off the road and after driving into and out of Central London on Friday, there was only one real option this morning. I would have to ride the Ducati to work. I have found a much better place to park the bike and it turns out its better in every single way. Its secure, underground, patrolled, dry and a very short walk from work. The only annoying thing, is that is has taken me so long to bloody well find it. Riding in was fine, although it was raining when I rolled the bike out of the garage, the roads were dry further South and the number of comatose drivers seemed to be at a minimum. Riding out was a different matter however. The Ducati doesn't like the stop start traffic and the new stiff clutch gave my left forearm a decent workout. I noticed a few looks from people, which made me feel a little uneasy, but maybe they also like the look of my bike.
I got two interesting pieces of mail today. The first, in digital format was from my new insurers who were requesting some documents from me. It turns out I hadn't got around to sending them off and they weren't best pleased, which is totally understandable. The second in the form of a more traditional letter was from the Met Police, who simply stated that there was little or no chance of catching the little bastards who f-ed with my bike on Thursday afternoon so they have closed the investigation. I hate London, I really do. Its dirty, smelly, the roads are crap and scum wander the streets trying to nick peoples bikes and don't get me started on public transport otherwise I could be typing away all night.

Well that was possibly the most stressful afternoon I've had in a long time. The working day went well enough, but when I got to my bike It wouldn't start. I turned the key a few times, checked the kill switch and then saw this

Some utter scumbag or scumbags decided to try and nick my bike while I was at work. To do this they cut through most of the wires sticking out of the ignition barrel and yanked the final one straight out. Yeah, thanks for that. Anyway I called to police and the AA. The AA turned up first about two hours after I called and the mechanic gave it a good go, but couldn't get enough of the final wire to splice together. I found out to get the bike recovered I would have to upgrade my AA membership to the tune of another hundred quid. Awesome
The Police turned up next and PC Taylor was one of the nicest blokes Ive met. He took my details and as he was a fellow biker we chatted about bikes for a bit, right up until John the Suzuki mad second recovery driver arrived to collect my bike and take it to Metropolis in Barnet for me.  We also had a really good chat which made the journey go faster. I finally got home just before 19:00, nearly eight hours after I found the bike wouldn't start. What a shitty afternoon.
On a more positive note, I got the new tyre for the Ducati and now I have a nice new MOT. Hopefully that is the end of the drama for this week. Its enough to make your hair fall out

I rocked up to work today at the usual time, took of my bike jacket and back protector, set up my desk, did a bit of work and went to get changed. It was at this point a realised that I didnt have my jeans with me. Normally I bring in a pair on Monday, leave them at work and then take them home on the Friday. For some reason I took them home on Monday and didnt even think twice about not packing them on today. So there I was sat at my desk wearing my leather biking trousers my Sidi boots and a t shirt. Thankfully it wasn't to bad and it could have been a lot worse had I chosen to wear my one peice suit. Now that would have been interesting

I knew it would fail and low and behold the MOT man wasnt exactly happy about the state of the right side of my rear tyre. I was also annoyed that it took him an hour and half longer than he said to have it done. I got there early, gave him my keys and came back 40mins later after sitting in Starbucks talking to the lovely Sarah on the phone. When I got back he hadnt finsihed and was faffing about doing about three other things. I got talking with a really nice man who bought down his 1974 Porsche so the time passed very pleasantly. New tyre ordered, will be here later in the week.
The failure wasnt to only annoying part of the day. City of London has suspended my bike bay, but I didn't realise so I was lumped with a £60 fine. I could start going on that I didnt see the sign because it was dark and I didnt see it, but these things happen, especially when working in a big city. My annoyance was put into perspective on my way home when I passed the scene of an accident when Suzuki Burgman had crashed head on into a white van which was turning right. I've been there and at the time I wish that all I had to worry about was a parking ticket.

Its been a great sunny weekend down here in London. On Saturday I had some work to do so I couldn't really head out on the bikes and anyway, I was going to head out with a mate and head off to Box Hill on Sunday. Sadly I got a text around 11:00 to say that he couldn't make it, so I went on my own. I'd never been to Box Hill on my bike before, but I'd been there in the car a few times so I pretty much knew where I was going. There's no easy way of getting from North London to Surrey, so I had a filter and play with the traffic on the A406 and the A3 on the way down. 

I parked up and had a quick look around and went to get a coffee where I got talking to a ZX6 rider. We talked for about half and hour and then I went and had a closer look at the car park. This bike meet is so much nicer that the Ace Cafe and I see myself making the journey more and more this year. Even the coffee tasted nicer. The ride back home was fairly uneventful, but I am still horrified at the quality of the driving in London. Frankly its shameful. I want to move to the South West

I finalised my insurance this morning so that is one thing off my mind. Tomorrow I will be taking the time to replace my rear light (again) after the current one developed a fault with the left indicator. The bike will fails its MOT, which is a UK road worthy test for all my non UK readers, unless I get it fixed, which also segues nicely into an issue with my rear tyre. This is what happens when you take a powerful bike with a nice soft grippy tyre to a race track and have some fun.

As you can see there is practically no tread on the right side, so this needs to go as well. So, I popped into see the boys at Metropolis again to order one up. As a result of this visit my range of Ducati clothing has been increased by one as Mike gave me a really nice black Ducati branded polo shirt as a thank you for my continued loyalty, which I was very touched by. He also offered me a test ride on the new Hypermotard that has just joined his demo fleet. I almost couldn't believe the words I was hearing from my own mouth, but I turned it down as I was shattered after the week at work. It was also a bit cold and a bit close to Friday rush hour to really enjoy the bike, but I will take it out in the near future and get my opinions up on the site. I will say one thing, it does look great.
Speaking of great looking bikes, the rest of the fleet at Metropolis is growing nicely, with the latest additions including the Diesel Monster, which although I wasn't knocked over by the press stuff, looks really good up close. Shame it carries a premium over the standard Monster. Finally and speaking of Monsters again, I just finished S4 of the Sons of Anarchy and in one of the later episodes Jax gets on a Monster 1100. You can imagine how I felt when I heard them overlay the sound of an inline four over it. Despite this terrible decision by the production team, I enjoyed this season and have written something up for the Motorcycle Media page. Take care, see you soon

The photos from Tuesday were published today, so I picked a few up and despite there not being that many, there were a few really nice ones. I like this one, despite it showing me utterly blowing the apex. Judging by the gloves and my visor, this was one of the first sessions and I was all over the place. Still a nice photo thou

Its thats time of year when my insurance is due and for the last few years I've been with Carol Nash who I have been pretty happy with. They sent me my renewal and they were asked for £1200+ for fully comp cover for both bikes. Now £1200 is a lot of money in any language, so I went hunting around. I tried Bikesure who also wanted £1200, but MCE and Ducati insurance only wanted £870. I think that I'll be going for Ducati insurance which is a fraction less, but doesn't come with breakdown cover. My car is already covered, so I think it will make sense to expand that to cover the bikes. Not a wasted afternoon afterall.
I've also pencilled in a trip down to Box Hill on Sunday afternoon with Kevin, which I'm looking forward to already.

I've recently got back from a week off work and when I left it was cold, frosty and the roads were still being covered in road salt everynight by the council. What a difference a few days make! This week I needed to remove the thermal liner from my jacket and get the summer gloves out as I was getting far too hot riding to and from work. Finally, time to enjoy to better side of biking.
Today I took the Big Black Tambourine Machine over to Snetterton for my first trackday of 2013. Leaving home just after 06:00 to make the 90min ride, the weather was very typical for an April morning: grey and damp. The bike was already fueled after I took it out for a quick spin yesterday to make sure that it was alright, so I heading straight up the A1. I got there a little later than I expected, but still managed to sign on and get noise tested really quickly as the event was under subscribed. Being a Bike magazine trackday a few members of the Bike team were around and the atmosphere was positive and light like all of their previous events. During the safety briefing we we told that there would only be two groups and that there would be ten, instead of the standard seven sessions. I met up with a few of the riders who I knew and/or had met before and we headed on out. I had my Drift Ghost with me, but wasn't allowed to take it onto the track as the marshalls deemed the suction mount not strong enough, I wasn't going to argue, so I rode back to my garage and put it back in my bag.
For all those who attend trackdays you will know that you have to sign a disclaimer saying that you know motorsport is dangerous. We all know it is, but sometimes events occur that re-inforce just how dangerous that means and in the worse possible way. It was the second or possibly the third lap during the second session and I was coming round into Corams, which is a long sweeping right hander. When everything is up to temperature, it's a fast corner than leads to a very light left hand flick onto the main straight. Before Snetterton was expanded a few years ago, this corner with one of only two left hand turns on the track and was the site of many an off. Anyway, when you start the corner there is a marshal post directly opposite which is where I noticed the red lights and then the marshal frantically waving a red and a yellow flag. A few moments later I am presented with the sight of red Ducati parked on the track, a green Ninja lying in the gravel, the rider lying prone across the floor and his helmet some fourty feet away in the grass. From what we could gather and the information that seeped out during the morning, the rider had lost the front tipping into the corner, but as they didnt do their helmet up, it came off as soon as he hit the tarmac. The circuit was closed for over two hours and the air ambulance was needed. The thoughts of myself and the vast majority of the riders at the track were with him. We were told that we would be running through lunch to make up for lost track time, but that didnt bother me as I felt our tracktime was secondary to the fallen riders health. 
Once the track opened, everybody took it easier and the rest of the day went without incident. On a personal level my riding improved steadily throughout the day as I cleared away a winters worth of city riding, getting back to somewhere near where I finished last year. I got home, tired and very achey. Tomorrow morning isnt going to be fun, but you pays your money, you takes your chances.

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

After testing my Ghost HD drift in the car a few times, I felt that today was as good a day as ever to test the camera on the bike. I used the suction cup mount and secured it to the Ninja by the rear grab handle and just to be on the safe side, I cable tied it to the bike. The weather was pretty grim today, even snowing badly on the way home. Anyway, after about three minutes of London very bumpy and frankly shockingly badly surfaced roads, my Ghost jumped out of the cradle and went crashing to the floor.....at around 20mph. Before I knew what was happening, a courier on a scooter was beeping me and pulled up next to me at the lights. He handed me my camera, which was still in one piece, but now had a few battle scars to its outer shell. In the confusion of the moment and after thanking him profusely I forget to even get his name, so when I got home I checked the footage and found a partial logo on his jacket. Low and behold and after ten mins on the phone, I found out who the good samaritan was. I got the address of their office and I'll be sending out a small token of my gratitude. Its so rare these days, especially in London, to find somebody doing a good deed. If there were more people like Terry, this city and indeed this world would be a much better place. I hope Karma does him an equally large favour, this man really deserves it in my opinion.