Today I managed to notch up about 250 miles on the FireBlade as Dave and I headed the very long way to Enysham in the Cotswolds. The day started off pretty badly as I managed to pick up a parking ticket whilst I was having a morning coffee. My own fault. I parked on a double yellow line on a side road and the only parking warden working a Sunday in North London filled out the relevant paperwork. I'm going to appeal if only to spend the actual money the council will be getting from my bank account. £55 still stings a little though. 
The 'Blade ran really well, but there appears to be a high frequency vibration from the front of the bike. I'll look into that when I have some time.

As you can see from the picture above, there are still lots of bugs about. On the homeward journey I hit something so large that it pretty much blurred out everything on the right side of the visor. Bit of a shock really, but thems the breaks. I survived, the bug didn't. Man 1 - Bug 0
All in all it was a good biking weekend. I got out on both bikes and met up with some friends but looking at the calender, it's unlikely that I'm going to be a able to do this again before next summer. Next weekend is the BSB at Silverstone so that may result in at least one long ride, but until then, its a commuters life for me.

The plan for this weekend was to dedicate my time to my bikes. So yesterday I took advantage of the warm evening to give both of the bikes a little clean up. For some reason, don't ask me why, I decided that I really needed to take off the exhausts for the 1098s and give both of them and the undertray and damn good scrub. Turns out, it was a pretty bloody good decision. This is what I found.

From my estimates, this is a nice mix of baked on chain lube and general filth from the ride to Italy earlier this year. Since I got back, I've only really used the bike a handful of times, but bloody hell, this is terrible. I'm almost embarrassed.
With the exhausts off, I covered the pipes on the bikes with freezer bags which I rubber banded in place and gave the bike a good scrub down, cleaning up the cans separately. Thankfully, they went on as quickly as they came off. 
With a nice clean bike ready to go, I headed off to Box Hill this morning to meet my friend Martin who was kind enough to pick up a book from the Ducati Factory in Bologna back in July. I didn't have the space in my bag and if I did, it would have been ruined by the weather in Switzerland. Its a lovely book in both Italian and English and is filled with some wonderful photos from the museum. I'll have a read and get a write up in the next few weeks.

Whilst down in Surrey, I was able to say hi to a few friends and enjoy their tea. The coffee at Rykers really isn't that nice, but the tea and for that matter the chocolate brownie really hits the spot.
All in all it was really great to get out on the Ducati today. The bike felt good underneath me, even when having to ride through the London traffic. Its really a wonderful, albeit expensive bike.
I'm meeting up with my mate Dave tomorrow, who, if you read RiDE magazine, had his photo in this months issue. He was the silver fox with the ZX7R on top of the mountain. The photo is two years old and he's gone through four bikes (a ZX10r, a GSXR 750, a Ducati 1198 and V Strom) since then. Good old Dave. I'm going to take the chance of finally giving the 'Blade a proper run as so far she's just been used for commuting, so it will be good to get out in the country and scare the local wildlife.

Okay, here's a little video that I've put together to demonstrate the difference between the OEM exhaust and my new Scorpion exhaust.

Today after work I took the FireBlade up to the guys at Metropolis in Barnet for the final part of the great tyre transfer of 2014. Off with the track focussed Metzeler and on with the Pirelli GT Angels, which are far better for the winter months ahead. When the bike was up on the ramp, Artur noticed that the head race bearings were a little notchy, which a bit annoying as when I bought it, it was one of the areas I asked them to check. Im sure they were fine when I got it, but have clearly gone off over the last three months. A job for the end of winter me thinks.
When I got home, I was glad to see that my Scorpion Exhaust has finally arrived. Was four weeks worth it? Well it seems so. The transplant was easy enough, taking 10mins at the most. So off with the OEM 'Scud Missile Launcher' (TM - Ben Pullenayegum) and on with a more shiny and slightly smaller neater end can. I've already taken the baffle out and its certainly a visual improvement, lets hope that the pedestrians can actually hear me coming down the road now. Well, one can hope.

This morning I also realised that there are few things in this world brighter than the fuel light on this 'Blade. Its seriously dazzling at night and it actually hurts to look at it. The only things I can think of that are brighter are those red LED hotel alarm clocks and the Sun, so I guess there will be no excuses if I run out of fuel...again.

The weather over the last few weeks has been a little...different. The overnight temperature has dropped a fair few degrees so I've been using my winter gloves on the way into work, but with temperature during the day back up around 20 degrees, I have to use my summer ones. Yes I know, not exactly the greatest revelation, but with limited space in my bag, having to carry a spare set of gloves just for the commute is a pain.
In other news, the exhaust that I ordered from Scorpion still hasn't arrived. It was supposed to be here on the 9th, but following several emails, it turns out that that it should finally be leaving the factory tomorrow. I knew there would be a two week wait, which I was fine with, but doubling that without a descent excuse is a bit poor. 
I picked up the Ducati today after dropping it into Metropolis to have the front discs replaced and tyres changed. As the Pirelli Angel GT tyres that I used to ride to WDW in July would be the perfect winter tyre, I want to get them on the 'Blade to replace the track focussed Metzlers that are on there at the moment. The Ducati uses a 55 sized rear, but the blade wants a 50. It shouldn't make too much difference, but I didnt want the waste the tyre on a bike that is likely to be sitting out November to March. The Honda goes in on Friday.
Finally, I thought I'd share this with you. Sarah took the picture a few weeks ago and I was just mucking about and well, I don't need a reason to act like an idiot.

So for the last few days I've been riding around on the 'Blade on the standard suspension settings and, coupled with the new chain, the bike has been perfectly easy to ride, predictable on the turn ins and altogether not too firm. I'm still going to soften things up gradually over the next few days and see if making it marginally softer has any real affect on the commute. The bike still feels a little rattly, but I'm not sure if that's just the bikes character. There are also a few little jobs I want to get sorted as well, but those will have to wait until I have a free weekend I think.
You may remember from a previous blog post that I ordered up a Scorpion exhaust, well, two weeks later it still hasn't arrived. I knew that it was made to order product so I didn't mind waiting, but today I contacted the distributor to see if they have an update on its arrival. I was told Friday, so cross fingers. 
In other news, check out the awesome rechargeable Bosch screwdriver that Sarah bought for my birthday. A little lazy it may be, but it'll take some of the tedium out of taking the fairing panels off both bikes. Oh and i'm 38 by the way....which sucks!. I'm going for a ride to make myself feel better.

This weekends entire motorcycle based tomfoolery was setting the FireBlade's suspension settings back to standard. I know, real Rock 'n Roll type stuff in the Brown household. Except I couldn't adjust the flippin pre-load setting on the rear shock with the somewhat Mickey Mouse tool that came with the bike. I tried a few times, but the collar wouldn't shift and if I forced it, I could see the tool slipping and me smacking my knuckles hard against the rear foot hanger. No thank you very much!. The standard settings are clearly quite hard on the FireBlade so over the next few days, I'll soften then up one click at the time until I find a result I'm happy with. 

Its funny that after only a few months of commuting on the FireBlade, I realised just how hard it was to commute on the 1098s today. Bloody hell was it hard work. Admittedly on the longish straight stuff it was its normal brilliant self, but having to pull away from the junctions, slipping the clutch, was a massive pain in the rear end. Thankfully I was just for one day only as this afternoon I picked up the 'Blade from my local Honda dealer, with a freshly fitted chain and sprocket kit attached. I went for OEM as it was the cheapest on offer. I like DID chains and Renthal sprockets as much as the next man, but if the original kit is cheaper, then that's fine by me.

I had to drop off the FireBlade this afternoon as she's having her chain and sprockets changed tomorrow. Yes, I guess that I could have done that myself, but I would have needed to buy some tools and well frankly, I was feeling lazy. As a result I'm having to take the Ducati back into Central London tomorrow, which will be the first time I've actually ridden it since returning from France in July. I guess I should apologise in advance to my neighbours for what is about to wake them. But hey, look at the bright side. The garage gives the exhaust an awesome upgrade to the bass.

Before I start, just a quick question. Why do some drivers insist on flashing the lights at you, when you're either filtering or overtaking? Yes, I can see you already thank you very much. No, I don't think I own the road and what does it matter, you don't own it either. Do you think that trying to blind me is going to help? Improve my safety perhaps?or maybe, you think that I need to be taught a lesson. I have a teacher and it ain't you I'm afraid.
Anyway, today was the first day in a little over two weeks that I took one of my bikes for a ride. Sadly it was only to work, but them's the breaks and today had a little bit of everything.
Knowing that I wasn't going to be...and I hate this phase...in the zone, I made a conscious decision to pretty much just poodle along today, which is ironic because despite this very leisurely way of riding, I was still pulled over by the Police in Islington. Now, I have said it before and it seems only right to say it again, but I have no problem with the police stopping me at all. They're doing their jobs and that's fine with me. When I ride to work its very early, like 04:30 early and I'm riding a very fast Sportsbike, so there is every possibility that its been nicked. After a quick little 'did you know why we stopped you' chat I was on my way, but now ten mins late. Again, them's the breaks.
My ride home wasn't much fun either as it was raining, which resulted in a lovely greasy slippery ride home, with the aforementioned flashing car driver for good measure. Ultimately it was good to get back on two wheels and in biking terms, thats all that really matters.