With the UK currently basking in some glorious early summer weather, yesterday Carolina and I headed down to Poole bike night. Partly due to work schedules and prior commitments, this was the first time this year we have headed down to the Quay and it turned out to be a great day to head down there.
The Poole 'Dream Machine' Bike night is a regular fixture in the biking community, drawing riders from across the South East, bringing with them a variety of machinery.
The 'gate' opens at 17:30, but in reality if attending on a bike, you need to be getting in the queue before that, especially on days where the weather is being kind, if you want to ensure a space on the quay. If not you risk being asked to park in the overflow car park and walk half a mile back to the Quay in bike kit.
On a good day you will see everything from re-purposed WW2 machinery, to classic Nortons, Yamahas, Trikes - including a regular visitor on his Tuk Tuk, to the best Superbikes of the last 20 years and a few oddities along the way.
Each night, a judge, randomly picked, chooses the Bike of the Night, which proudly gets parked in the middle of the Quay.
If you like bikes, or even good food and beautiful vistas, there are few better places than Poole Quay in the summer. Its well worth the trip.

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that my 1098s is my favourite bike. I've had it the longest and I've invested time, money, blood sweat and tears into it. But my garage is lucky enough to be the home of two bikes and having had a riding itch for a few weeks (long story), I felt it was time that I took the FireBlade out to treat her a little bit. And by treat, I mean thrash her across sun drenched South Coast tramac.
With a destination in mind, I headed out and was immediately reminded as to why the FireBlade was such a good purchase. It just feels right! There's plenty of room on-board and compared to modern machinery she's a slow bike, more inline with current middleweights rather than range toppers, but its the way it delivers the power in a controlled and systematic way that makes it such a good bike.
Carving up along my favourite local road, all I had to concentrate on was my line and it was glorious. Position the bike, pick my speed, look to the vanishing point and the bike did the rest, all the while being serenaded by that familiar high pitch scream of an inline four being blasted out of a Scorpion end can. 
In my years of ownership, I've struggled to form that genuine connection of rider and machine that comes with ownership. With other bikes, such as the ZX7R and Z1000, that connection formed quickly and stayed with me all the way to the end, but with the Blade, it never came that easily. I've done a lot with the bike; trackdays, commutes, winter and summer riding. The only thing I've never done with her, is a European adventure. If the ride today was anything to go by, I just know it would be an absolute riot abroad. All day comfy and with handling and enough power to push it through the more technical sections of road the FireBlade would be all the bike I'd need.
Its taken a good few years now to fully bond with the bike and if my garage no longer had the space, I'd certainly miss her little yellow face greeting me when I opened the garage door.

How could you not love motorbikes? They are the perfect vehicle for exploring your surroundings as they let you traverse an area as fast or as comprehensively as you want, while still maintaining a tactile connection with everything you find. 
Today was one of those days where, having spent far too long wondering what was down a particular route, I took the opportunity to find out for myself.
Rising early and out with some of the Monday morning commuter traffic, my route of exploration took me deep in the rural heart of the county I live in. Once away from the larger towns, traffic levels dissolved leaving practically empty, twisty tarmac. Riding the perfect bike for the journey, I was doing my level best to get the very most out of the final miles of the Pirelli Rosso 3 tyre that has been holding me on the road.
The Pirelli's have been really great; offering a nice stable platform in both wet and dry conditions. To say that they're a three season tyre is a bit of a stretch, with their performance in colder conditions a little behind that of the Angel GT, also by Pirelli. When hot however, they are absolutely on it. They have worn fairly quickly, but evenly, with my rear being toasted in about 6 months of riding during the end of last season and the start of this one. I'm interested to see how good the new Rosso Corsa 2 tyres, recently released, stand up to the performance of the Rosso 3's and reading through the spec sheets it appears they are placed between the Rosso 3 and the Supercorsa, which is a much softer tyre more suited to the track than the dual carriageway.
Finding a lovely local coffee store, I sat down and had my breakfast and looking like a Power Ranger, struck up a conversation with a local, who was also enjoying his spare time on this sunny Monday morning.

Now, well past 09:00, I headed back home, taking in a slightly amended route. The ride, only interrupted by the all too familiar orange fuel light, was swift and precise as I cut my way through corners, some of which still presenting a challenge as recent rainfall and traffic had pulled stones and debris into the centre of the lane.
Days like this are sometimes few and far between. The pressures of work or other responsibilities often take priority, but having the time and the opportunity to act of the question 'I wonder what's down there?' is at the heart of what biking is to me and I wouldn't have it any other way.