After spending lovely late morning and early afternoon with Carolina, I needed to get up to Conquest Motorcycles and have a chat about a few of my options. The 'Blade is due for a valve clearance check and I wanted to take the opportunity to check on a slight clicking sound I'm getting. After After getting there about twenty mins before they closed and with both time and light on my hands, I decided to take the long way home.
It's very unusual for me to get out and ride at the weekend, unless I'm due to meet up with some friends, but this was great fun. It was just me, the bike and the road. The way it should be. The bike felt good and I felt really comfortable out there.
On the way home I stopped very briefly at Badbury Rings, a local landmark. Being honest, it would have made more sense going there when not wearing a full race suit as I could see a little, but not much from the car park and certainly wasn't dressed to go walk about. It did however, give me an excuse to take some photos.
The bug level was really high and something very large exploded all over my visor, reducing my visibility, just enough to be annoying just after I left the car park. All I can say is, I'm really glad I wear a full face visor.

After work yesterday I went out for a ride to, what turned out to be, a 'classic' car show. After dashing home, parking the FireBlade and taking the Ducati, I rode north towards Warminster alongside my biking buddy Lucinda, who, having lived in the county a lot longer than I, knows the road network a lot better than I do.
Riding there along some of the county's quieter roads, it made me realise just how little of the county I've actually seen. There so much more to be gained and seen that just going to the odd bike meet each week.​

The car show, was in fact more of just a vehicle show with a variety of machines from across the years. Some classics, some, clearly not. Walking around the car park you could see anything from big american Cadallics to Mk 2 Golfs to mid nineties 320 Mercs, which arn't the rarest of the breed. Bikes and even lorries and busses were well represented and it was a good evening. As its only an annual event, I think that next year I'll be getting it into the calendar and heading up there a little earlier to explore whats on offer.

The ride back was just as good, if not better than the one there. There was much less traffic on the roads and I was able to stretch the bikes legs a bit, really enjoying the bike and the road. For me, it was also a really good example of the difference between commuting and riding and it made me realise that I really need to do more of the latter.

I ordered one of these recently as I wanted to secure the bikes when parked at work. I had assumed that these locks were universal, however, the bar isn't long enough to hook it around the front disc of the FireBlade, which is a bit of a pain. Silver lining though is that I just use it on the Ducati instead. Smashing!

Finally for today, my copy of Dreamracer has arrived from Australia. This is a story of Christophe Barriere-Varju, a business consultant who decides he wants to do the Paris Dakar rally...on his own. I plan on watching this over the next few days, so will get a review up in due course. Stay safe

I managed to get myself over to Thruxton today for the British Superbike races. The weather, which has been amazing recently, took a bit of a break today, with much cooler temperatures and overcast conditions. The sun did shine a few times, but it was certainly in the minority. I'm actually glad the sun wasn't beating down to be honest. After a few races I was able to head over to the pits and was introduced to Nicky Wilson who races in the Ducati Tri-Options cup. I've been a Facebook 'friend' for a bit, but this was the first time I was able to actually say hello. The man is super fit and fast too and I was honoured to be able to say hi. Top bloke and you can find some more information about him here on his Facebook profile www.facebook.com/wilson48forever/ If you do pop over, tell him I said hello.

Despite being a little nervous about parking the bike on the grass, it was good to have a little look and some of the machines attending the event. A free puck by the organisers was a welcome addition after leaving one of mine at home.
After having a little look around the retail area, we took our places by the chicane and saw lots of action throughout all the classes. Its a great place for overtakes too, which you can see coming up a mile off due to a long clear approach up to the corner. 

Thruxton is a very unique circuit. Similar in layout to the Goodwood Circuit, its a super fast circle, broken by a few chicanes, but has no infield section at all as it doubles as a live airfield. Due to very strict noise restrictions, you can't actually do a bike trackday at the circuit and by all accounts, the only way you can ride a bike on the circuit in anything close to anger, is at a IAM day. This makes it one of the very few circuits, including the aforementioned Goodwood, in the UK that you cant actually ride, although Mallory Park could see be falling into this category soon if we're unlucky. To be honest, I'd love a ride around, but am not sure its worth joining the IAM for the privilege. I have a few connections with BikeSafe as you know, so I may see if I can pull some strings.
Apart from that the other option is to start racing...not sure I can really afford that.

My biking life has been fairly quite this last week. The short journeys to work have been uneventful and as it stands, both bikes have been behaving themselves. In reality I only know that the 'Blade has been behaving as I haven't ridden the Ducati at all. I nearly took it to work this morning, but for ease, it was the Honda key that I reached for.
Today has been proclaimed as the hottest day of the year so far and it certainly feels like it and with Poole Bike night taking place, I popped down there very briefly after work. My mates weren't around and in reality, I just wanted to get home and relax after a long day so I didn't stay long. Quick ice cream, look at a few bikes and then make my way towards the exit.
Getting there early I was able to see Bournemouth Kawasaki bring two bikes down. The first a pristine H2R, which was amazing in its own right, was put to shame by the Superstock machine they ran at this years Isle of Man TT, ridden by James Hillier. You see lots of pretenders at the Quay, but these bikes are the real deal.

However, these were, for me, upstaged by something I'd never seen in real life. Oft maligned and very rarely seen in the UK, I watched, with a massive smile on my face as on old gentleman rode a genuine Tuc Tuc down the Quay, transporting his wife in the back seat. It was brilliant and even had a yellow roof. Seeing that really made my day. I wish my girlfriend Carolina could have seen it, she would have loved it.

I had a quick chat with them and they seemed like genuine good hearted people and were happy to chat about, what for me was easily the bike of the night.

This past Thursday I took a ride over to The Haven, just on the eastern side of Salisbury in Wiltshire to attend their Bike Night. I rode over with Lucinda and met up with a few friends when I was down there. It was a bit overcast but the riding there and back were both good, despite wearing my textiles, which made making process a little tricky. Just too much buffering.
The Haven, which used to be called The Hilltop, is a well know biking cafe, but despite this, the turn out was less than stellar. Maybe fifty of so bikes, which for The Haven, is probably a good little turn out for a weekday evening, but it did get me thinking. I see lots of signs around for bike nights at various places, but what is it about them that makes us turn up? Friends? Food? Decent ride there and back? In reality its probably a combination of all three. There are monster bike meets, like those at Loomies, Box Hill and indeed Poole Quay and it sometimes feels like there are loads going around. I wonder if the organisers of these events see them as a quick and easy way to make a little extra money. In effect, exploiting riders who are often, just looking for somewhere to ride to. Nah, cant be like that surely.  

This weekend, its been a case of Hired and Retired. My red and white Alpinestar GP Pro gloves finally succumbed to the years of riding. They had survived two track crashes, and several years of commuting, so all in all worth the money. They finally had to go however when the stitching on of the fingers went. As I was so pleased with these, I just replaced them with a new pair. Different colour though.

The second part of Hired and Retired came thanks to a new set of brake pads for the FireBlade. I'd been running some Ferodo pads since last year, and despite really good initial feel and bite, I've been really disappointed with the feel just before coming to a stop and the audible screeching they were giving out. So, despite having more than half the life in the pads left, I changed them out for a set of HH EBC pads. The Ducati already wears them and I'm very happy with them. Good initial bite and they certainly do what they say on the tin and these should work well with the EBC Prolite discs already on the FireBlade.

Thinking about it, the FireBlade is really due a bit of a service, at the very least at oil and air filter change. Must really get onto that as soon as possible.

Apologies that I haven't updated the blog for a week or so. All in all there hasn't been a huge amount worth writing about. As you can see from the picture above, the first Poole Bike Night of July was held under bright blue skies, supported by half decent temperatures. Coming off the back of a disappointing June, the place was packed.
I'd agreed to meet my mate Lucinda, who I haven't seen in ages and it was really great to sit down over a coffee and catch up as bikes of all shapes and sizes rolled past.
Last Saturday I had to pop over to Smart Riders in Christchurch to try on a pair of replacement Alpinestar GP Pro gloves, before ordering them in the colour scheme that I was after. A little vain maybe, but I didn't fancy a pair of jet black gloves, preferring a dash of colour to make them a little more visually interesting. The team in store were really helpful and friendly and made me feel really welcome. Highly recommended.
I was hoping that my current pair would last out the season, but when the stitching on one of the fingers started to go, I knew it was time for a replacement. Readers may remember that back during last summer I had bought a new pair, but these turned out to be fakes. That transaction taught me a valuable lesson and now for safety equipment, I'd rather pay, what appears to be a little more, for the peace of mind of knowing the garment will do its job as designed when I need it to. 
Speaking of garments, I had the central zip on my two piece suit repaired by the Zip Yard in Winton last week and they did a great job. With a reinforced zip in place, its much easier to tie the jacket and trousers together and it feels really secure. They even extended it a fraction, which has helped. The biggest problem is, well, I'm fatter than I was when I last wore them. They still fit, but only just, so I've got to cut down on the doughnuts. I said down, not out. I love my bikes, but I'd rather buy new leather track pants than cut out the treats in my life.