Today, London was crippled yet again but a bloody tube strike. Last time this happened it was back in February and it was cold and damp. This time the temperatures were up, the sun was out and from what I saw, many bikers took the opportunity of riding into work. I saw the usual mix of scooters and hacks, but also a lovely Honda CB1300, a few Triumph Tigers, a Harley Davidson 1200 Sportster and a Ducati 1098s....okay that last one I saw in a big shop window as I rode past, but I did see it.
Hopefully people will see the real benefit of riding to work instead of relying on the tube, the bus or their cars. With a motorbike, you get your own seat, you're not a slave to trade unions or other people poor driving abilities and if you approach it with the right mindset, its incredible enjoyable and rewarding. The fact you'll look cool, is also not a bad thing.

More good news. My 1098s sailed through its annual MOT this afternoon with no advisories. Excellent. I knew it would be okay when Rob the tester at Crystal Autocare crystalautocare.co.uk commented on the bike calling it 'a lovely machine'. That's about it for today really, not a huge amount else to say. Which is handy...I guess.

To quote the always enjoyable Mr James May 'Good news!' I managed to get the 1098s booked in for its MOT tomorrow afternoon. This means that my usual Thursday schlep to the gym will probably be delayed, but more likely postponed, especially considering the way I've been feeling this week. Normally I'd be jumping at the chance to work out and de-stress my day, but so far this week, I just can't be bothered. Don't know why, but, hey, it's just one of those things.
So, as an alternative to running in a large circular route from my house, I decided to wash my bike in preparation for tomorrows inspection by Her Majesty's secret police.  

I know there are loads of picture just like the above of my bike on my driveway after I've washed it, but...well, I can't help it. I also need to get a mate to take some pictures of me out riding it. I think that will make a nice change

Despite working both of the bank holidays this Easter, I was determined to get some riding under my belt, so yesterday, I headed out mid to late afternoon just to ride. Having nowhere to actually go or nowhere to actually be is a very freeing experience and it just allowed me to enjoy the moment and the bike. When out, I got myself some food, but in all honesty, I probably went a bit far and stayed out a bit long. About an hour from home, I got caught in the mother of rain storms and I got totally soaked through, the rain even ran down my arms and filled up my gloves. To be honest I'm amazed my phone worked when I got home. But get home I did, which is the main thing. It could have all too easily gone pear shaped in those conditions.
So this morning. My kit was still damp, especially my gloves, which I will upgrade and officially call wet. As a result I went to work in my one piece Arlen Ness race suit and had to use a pair of summer gloves. Thankfully it wasn't too chilly, so I didn't suffer too much with the cold. So all in all, not too bad, although I did look a bit stupid walking from the car park.
I still had the Ducati Performance tail pack attached from Mondays ride and took the opportunity to test its compatibility with my Kreiga rucksack to and from work. I was planning on using this combo, along with a tank bag for the trip to Italy in July (God that's getting close!) and when in the riding position, the clearance is fine and its only when sat upright on the bike, do the two bags clash.
Successful test I think. 
Finally I checked my MOT today.....errrrr, better get that looked into asap I think.

Happy Easter to one and all. In typical fashion, today being Good Friday, I had to work. The only real saving grace was that I got to start a bit later and the roads on the way home were a bit quieter. As a result I took different way home, which although along much bigger roads, is normally significantly slower that my usual route.  To be honest, even though it was in the City, it was a pretty decent ride, especially when I was joined by two chaps, one on a Monster and the other on a Moto Guzzi. When stopping at a junction, I looked down between the forks and noticed this flapping about.

It's the brake line clamp with sits around the right fork leg, but the nut and bolt holding it together have gone AWOL. Bit of a pain, but easily fixed.
I've been doing a lot of reading lately, mainly two books. The first is The Fast Stuff by Mat Oxley, which is an excellent collection of articles and interviews from the GP paddock. I haven't quite finished it, but to be honest, it's so good that I don't want it to end too quickly. The second, which was bought as a present by Sarah, is Bonjour! Is the Italy? by Kevin Turner. This is a very short book, and covers one man month long journey to Italy and back after being made redundant. All in all its pretty good and its length is actually a positive, rather than a negative quality. A better more detailed review is up in the Motorcycle Media section. If your out on the bike this long Easter weekend, enjoy it, stay safe and savour every moment. This is what you work for.

Again, I'm so sorry that I I haven't posted for a while. Long story short is I've been away enjoying some wonderful Dorset sunshine with the family. Sadly I couldn't enjoy it on the bike as I had to transport a wonderful birthday cake from London.
The day before I left I gave the bike a really good clean and finally got around to fitting the rim tape to the rear wheel of the 1098s. You may remember that following the refurbishment, the wheel lost the red line that was so prominent, so a quick and cheap fix was needed. Ebay to the rescue. 

The tape came in sections, which covered a quarter of the wheel, which I then had to trip to allow for the Marchesini stickers. I was very pleased with the result until that is, I noticed a small part where the tape is out of line. When I have some spare time I may fix it, but I'll just have to see how I feel closer to the time.
My Sat Nav from Garmin has finally arrived. A whole month of poor service from UPS and Garmin not answering emails and the unit finally arrived at my door. I've now got to work out the best way to fit it and get around to having a power supply wired into the bike. I was thinking probably through the left ram air cover as that already has a whole drilled for the alarm LED. I'll keep you updated

My mate Dave called me last night to see if I fancied a ride out this afternoon. The weather looked good on the forecast and well, Dave has recently picked up an 1198 so it seemed like a good enough excuse to me. Riding out of London I met him just off the A406 and we headed off to ride, what he referred to as the Charlbury TT, a network of roads in and Bucks, Beds and parts of Oxfordshire. When we got off the bigger A roads, it was pretty clear to me that my suspension is still set up way to hard, but despite being knocked about in the seat, it was still a great afternoon to spend on the bike on some really good twisty roads. There's still a bit to much dust and crap from the fields on the road, but it was dry, so it wasn't too bad, however when we stopped for fuel, I noticed this on my belly pan.

Its builders paint. Some idiot has dropped a can of white paint all over the road and I thought that I managed to miss it, clearly and more annoyingly I was wrong. Thankfully though and I don't know why, but the paint didn't really stick, instead it had turned to a powder and was therefore pretty easy to remove. Which was a good thing as it made its way on to my rear wheel and up onto my exhaust as well. All in all a greats days riding, but did I mention, I had to fill up three times today?

Today was actually a fairly cool day. I woke up nice and early and pretty much just took the bike out straight away. I didn't want to do any big miles, so I pretty much kept it within twenty miles of where I live. I stopped early to grab coffee and breakfast and then fired the bike down some of the local roads before traffic got too heavy. All in all, it was pretty good. With two exceptions, the worst of which is when my keyring got caught up with my steering damper just as I was entering the petrol station. Bit of a heart in the mouth moment that. The second was when leaving a roundabout, I found the quality of tarmac unsuitable for the angle I intended on taking. I basically bailed, sat the bike up, grabbed a handful of front break, stopped mid corner and made it around safely.
During the ride, I stopped off and bought Sarah a little something and I ended up at Metropolis to pick up a new clutch res cap. £3 well spent.

As I was there, Mike took a call from one of his customers who had got stranded in a local high street with a dodgy battery. He had a new one at home, but got caught out with traffic and the bike stalled and he couldn't restart it. As he was really busy and as he knows I'm happy to help he asked me to take the battery booster pack up a restart the bike. I couldn't get that in my backpack so I ended up putting a few miles on a Multistrada that had a topbox. I then couldnt get the bloody thing of the centre stand and then kept stalling it as I wasn't giving it enough revs. Once up and running, its actually a really nice bike. Good riding position and really comfy seat. Still not for me through.
The main star of the day though was an almost brand new 999R that Mike has in the showroom. With only 300 miles on the clock it isn't even run in and if I win the lottery tonight, this bike is mine.

Frustrating. That is the only word that can describe today's riding experiences. The ride to work was damp and greasy after overnight rain (I know, raining in England. What are the chances?) which meant that any possible excitement was quickly eradicated. I even managed to lock up the rear wheel with a slightly over zealous use of the rear brake.....at 5mph.
The ride home was warm, dry and very sunny, but I just wasn't able to get any rhythm into my riding. I had to deal with numpties in big saloons hogging the whole road, pedestrians stepping into the road without looking and some stupid cow in a 4x4 (SUV to my American readers) who when realising she was in the wrong lane 250 metres from the lights, just stamped on the brake, came to a complete halt right in front of me and then indicated. To cap it off, she nearly rolled back into me. I was less than amused. 
Anyway, tomorrow is another day full of opportunity, hope and experience......apparently.