Goodwood Festival of Speed blog update - After a few years absence, yesterday I headed off to Goodwood to revel in the Festival of Speed. I've been many times before and knew what to expect. Lots of seriously impressive metal, both bike and car, lots of people and lots of dust. This year, didn't disappoint. 

This year both Honda and Yamaha have really supported the event. Yamaha are celebrating 60 years of racing and will have a certain Mr V Rossi riding on Sunday morning. Honda brought a long (at the time) 23 time TT winner John McGunniess, Casey Stoney and Freddie Spencer, riding the new RCV213, Caseys last MotoGP bike and the 1984 NSR500 respectively.

It wasn't just Yamaha and Honda however, with classics from Suzuki, Kawasaki, Norton, Proton, to name but a few all on show. There are really too many bikes to list here, but what makes the festival so great isn't just the machines, but the riders as well. You interact with them, talk to them and in some cases catch up. This year the biking community was well represented, with riders like Sammy Miller, Ryan Farquhar and Kenny Roberts riding up the hill. I was able to say hi to Tommy Hill again, who is an absolute gentleman, but also managed to grab a few snaps of Maria Costello, Troy Corser and Casey Stoney 'paparazzi' style.
If you've never been to the Festival, you really must. It the F1, MotoGP, WSBK, BSB, WRC, Le Mans and classic racing all rolled into one. Shame I could only really go for the one day. Oh a word of advice...get there early. Trust me on that one.

After spending at least half the weekend decorating (a nice bluish grey now that you ask) I wanted to take advantage of the summer solstice and the sun yesterday afternoon, so I took the bike and pointed it East. I wanted to grab a cup of tea at Loomies, but with no specific timescale holding me back and nowhere specific to be afterwards, I was able to time a fairly relaxed approach.

Following the obligatory dose of tea and sausage sarnie, I headed back out and just enjoyed the ride, burning off two tanks of petrol in the process.  I stopped for about an hour to grab some food and then turned for home and for the first time in six months I actually ended up riding in the dark, which was fine really as by this time, the roads were so quiet and I was able to make swift progress along some wide trunk roads.
It's days like this, when you can just pull on the helmet, head off and forget about things for a bit, which make me love two wheels so much. 

Good news! The FireBlade breezed through its MOT this morning. That, my good friends, is not the only good news. The repairs to the 1098s will continue on Monday as the bike it now officially booked in to have the frame straightened. It will be great to actually ride it again once all the work is finally done, but before I do that, I should probably replace the clutch. Oh well, who needs money anyway.

Well I did say that I'd keep you updated, so here goes. Turns out the 1098s hasnt been touched since I last saw it, as the the company with the jig, needed to straighten the frame, have been too busy. Hmm, not too sure how to react to that one. Its been over six weeks since I dropped it off, so I guess I just a little disappointed.
Something else that has disappointed me, is, err, myself. I can't ride the FireBlade until the weekend now as my MOT runs out at midnight. School boy error of the highest order, right there I'm afraid and I'm certainly not going to risk it out on the road. 
If I get stopped, that's trouble right there. Besides, the car has air con, so not all bad.

As you can well imagine, my house has taken over my life, but the sooner I get the inside of the house sorted and my stuff all moved in (long story), then the sooner I can turn my attention to the garage. The years of reading motorbike magazines has given me plenty of ideas. Proper flooring, amazing lighting, a workbench, a dedicated bike bench and a laptop to quickly access information and play music are just a few of the things that most certainly will be found inside my man cave as its already been titled by those close to me.
Still no news on the 1098s, so tomorrow I'm going to get an update. Watch this space.
You will remember a month or so back, I was pulled whilst riding, well today I went for my Driver Awareness Scheme assessment day with Dorset Police and Dorset Roadsafe. I was fearing it was going to be a three hour lecture, but I couldn't have been more wrong. What followed was a three hour interactive discussion between the instructors and the twenty participants, which I actually enjoyed. Now I'm not saying that you should go out and break the law and hope you get enrolled on a course like this, rather than having your licence endorsed, but if you do attend, if you arrive with an open mind and a willingness to learn, then you will get a great deal out of it. I know I did.  

Crikey, has it really been a week since the last update. Thats shocking! In my defence, over this last week, I've only ridden the bike the once, but I have been updating the media section a little. Long story short, is that I needed to use the car instead. Simple as that really.
The very end of last week did however prove to be a fairly big moment in my life. Finally, after 'cough' 38 years, I've actually gotten my own place. It's a nice little garage that came with a free house attached, so not only will the bikes have somewhere to live, but so will my leathers. All in all, an expensive, but very worth while transaction. I'll leave you with a photo, which, although I don't usually do this, I will label...'potential'