Since getting back from Italy, my biking has consisted of going to and from work and nothing more. I have taken a slight detour on the way home a few times, but the roads I find myself on are more suited to a supermoto than to a sportsbike.
I did make it down to a local bike night though. Its a very small affair, but the Manic Monday meet has the potential to be a good one as its at a great location.

​Before I went away, I dropped the Ducati off at the shop to have a fault repaired. I called today and despite it being three weeks and being told they could do it, they haven't touched it. As you can imagine, I am not happy. I like them, but I've had enough now and am going to source a different shop to get tyres etc, but first I need to source somebody to fix their mistake. To solve a problem with the fan, they cut into the loom and added an addition thermostat, which was then attached to the rad. Since then, a fault light has remained on the dash and we agreed that they would fix it. The question is full on Ducati dealer Moto Rapido or find somebody a little more local. Im leaning towards the former because I want it done right. This machine has cost me a small fortune and with the belts needing doing, I could start saving now and roll it all into one job come late winter. It kinda makes sense and with the time of year, I may be able to get a discount. 
Owning the Ducati is a long term thing, so I can wait.

Hi there, long time no speak. The reason for my absence these last few weeks is that I've only recently got back from a holiday to Italy, where, thanks to Carolina, we got to see the MotoGP at Misano. What an experience! You have to see it to believe it. Over 100,000 people crammed into a very small circuit with very limited access, 99.9% of whom were there to see Valentino Rossi at his home race. It was yellow everywhere - mostly adorned to semi naked Italian men. Me, I was wearing red. Well, I had to really.
As you can see, the weather was good and it was really hot on race day. To think they were out there racing really brings it home as to the level of fitness these riders need to have.
With the bike at home, Carolina and I rented a car, which was both a blessing and a curse. After the race, we needed to be back near Milan and in the end, the journey, including getting out of the car park, took nearly ten hours. Thankfully, the company was great, which made it feel like a fraction of that and we had air con. Gotta love air con.

Unlike my last visit to Italy, we headed over on the plane. A very quick and easy flight, followed by a bit of driving down to Bologna where we were based. Being so close, we were able to get a look at the revised Ducati Museum and with a slightly different line up of machinery, it was more than worth the nominal entry fee.

Apart from that, its been pretty quiet. I managed to take the 'Blade out for a spin after getting back and it was good to get out riding, especially as 'Winter is Coming' and I'll soon need to wrap up warm just to go to work.

Another fairly quiet week in my biking world. The only punctuation was an Emergency Services Day at Poole Quay, bringing together emergency bikers from Police, Fire and Ambulance. 
It was a great turn out with representatives from across the South East, including our very own DocBike. The crowds were really interested in the machines that were on display and took a great interest in the life saving skills they provide. Thanks to Carlos Ares for the photo of me. He's an extremely talented young and exciting photographer and you can find him on Instagram. His account is @arescarlos. Go check him out. 

Today I went exploring a noise on the FireBlade. A suggestion was that the exhaust flap was loose, but when taking off the cover, it all seemed fine. The valve opened easily and smoothly when the throttle was opened as well, so some further exploration will be required. Sadly, this won't be this week, but I'm sure I'll make time to explore the problem as soon as I can.
I'm going to have some exciting updates coming up soon and this week I've been continuing the work with Docbike and Bikerdown Dorset.
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Their first date is Oct 05th and more details can be found on the website www.docbike.org.