Back to much nicer tales now though. As Sarah and I were looking at the rather lovely Ducati branded clothing, I heard a familiar voice and Tim Maccabee, head of Ducati UK came over to say hello.Tim is one of the nicest people Ive ever met in the bike industry and always comes across as a perfect gentleman. We chatted about a few things for about 10mins and he told me that a very special guest will be appearing at the Ducati stand to look at the 1199 Superleggra. It turned out to be none other than Heir to the throne, Prince William. Now that's not something you see every day.
I headed back to Birmingham today and as Sarah and I didn't have a huge amount planned, we thought we'd head off to the NEC and split the day between another trip to Motorcycle Live and the Good Food show. I wanted to pick up a new helmet and had my eye on the Shoya Tomizawa Shoei rep. I'd seen it at a few shows and was available on the web through Helmet City at £389.00, which was the same as the show price. I tried the helmet on a the fit was good and I wanted to barter a bit about the price, especially as the helmet was made back in 2011, but the man behind the counter was possibly the rudest person I have ever encountered in retail. Now I will put my hands up and say that I offered a price about £50 below the asking price, but was happy to meet somewhere in the middle. The response I got was shocking. When 'talking' to me, he was looking anywhere but at me and he didn't even try and make the sale with me, so I walked away. The bloke must be made of money as he just turned his nose up at an easy sale. After being treated so badly, even if he had matched the price I don't think I would have wanted to give him the money.
Back to much nicer tales now though. As Sarah and I were looking at the rather lovely Ducati branded clothing, I heard a familiar voice and Tim Maccabee, head of Ducati UK came over to say hello.Tim is one of the nicest people Ive ever met in the bike industry and always comes across as a perfect gentleman. We chatted about a few things for about 10mins and he told me that a very special guest will be appearing at the Ducati stand to look at the 1199 Superleggra. It turned out to be none other than Heir to the throne, Prince William. Now that's not something you see every day.
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Finally, the Motorcycle Live review is up, check it out here www.headbehindthebubble.com/out-there-riding.html
Well, I'm pretty much halfway through my write up of Motorcycle Live. Its taken a bit longer than I had planned as 'real life' has been getting in the way. Hopefully, I'll make the time this afternoon to finish it off and get it published. I have posted some further photos on my Twitter profile, so if you fancy popping over, here's my profile https://twitter.com/MattMccabeBrown. You can follow me if you want as any increase in numbers is always good for ones self confidence
Well I've just got back from spending the weekend in Birmingham, where I spent a few days at Motorcycle Live at the NEC. I won't go too far into it tonight as I'll be writing a review of the show, which i'll publish in the Out there, Riding section of the site, either tomorrow, or Tuesday. Needless to say, the show was excellent and really well supported. The only major manufacturers that seemed missing was MV Augusta, which was a little surprising, especially given that they have recently launched several new models this year. I met a few familair faces at the show, which is always nice and ended up chatting with the 2013 WSBK Champion Tom Sykes in the queues at Starbucks before heading home. So here are some photos from the show
I had my blog post all sorted today. I was going to talk about not being able to buy one of those little Lego toys from Shell as the tank on my motorbike isn't bike enough to fill up with £30's of V power petrol. I did ask, but there you go. Instead I'm just going to mention that when I got home I disturbed a burglar as he was trying to rob my house! I walked in the front door, the dogs were acting strange and then this low life came barrelling down the stairs. He looked right at me, all 6'3 of me, still in full bike kit, helmet the lot, so one can only imagine what he thought. The very least would be 'oh no!' Anyway after chasing him out the house and kicking in the side of his car I called the police and went though the usual process. Thankfully nothing seems to have been taken. This middle aged 'man' if that is the most suitable word for him, had rummaged through a few cupboards and things, but found nothing that interested him. It could have been a lot worse, but I'm okay with the exception of a sore right foot, the house is now secure and the dogs are fine. The Met Police were great and arrived very quickly and they were soon followed by a man from the forensic team. I got a really good look at the gentleman, so cross fingers, he'll get what's due, which I hope is pain and discomfort.
On a much nicer subject, I'm heading up to Birmingham after work tomorrow for Motorcycle Live on Saturday. I'll get a some pictures and a review up as soon as I can. I'm really excited about seeing the new Ducati 2014 bikes and much less interested in the new Kawasaki Z1000, which looks awful. I'm taking the car with me, which means I'll need petrol, so it looks like i'll be able to get one of those Lego toys after all. In an attempt to diagnose the problems with the monster at very slow revs I took the bike down to Metropolis. A few of the suggestions from the UK Monsters Forum www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster were problems with the spark plugs, problems with the idle or possible de-sync of the throttle bodies. Well the bodies had already been balanced and today the lugs got changed, but still the problem persisted. Artur tried changing the idle speed, but the adjustments being made were having little or no affect, which in turn led to an inspection of the rubber air intakes. The image isn't all that clear, but what it show is that both rubber intakes have split. This must have also been the case when I test rode the bike, as it was already displaying the symptoms of poor fuelling. Looking at the left side of the engine there also appears to be some sort of leak, possibly a gasket failure. Really not a great start to my Monster ownership. What I really wanted/needed, especially as we head into another UK winter, was a bike that I didn't need to think about, one that would work when I need it to, so this little event has annoyed me somewhat, but like most things, it can be fixed. The parts have been ordered, but the bike will have to go back to the shop again to have them fitted.
I just got back from a weekend in Birmingham with Sarah. The bikes stayed at home and I took the car instead. On the Saturday we decided to take in The Library of Birmingham www.libraryofbirmingham.com which is incredibly impressive. Seven floors of books, seats and work stations, silent rooms with the odd coffee stall all dedicated to the celebration of knowledge. The top two floors are admin, with a Shakespeare room at the very top, hidden down a few low corridors. Its an amazing place, really amazing and if I lived in Birmingham, I'd be there all the time. What has this got to do with motorbikes? I hear you ask. Well, on the second floor, just by the down escalator (its so big it needs escalators) you come to two rows of shelves dedicated to automotive repair manuals. Now, every library I've ever been it has had a few moth eaten and utterly battered Haynes manuals from the mid eighties covering a few old Fords, but these shelves were filled with every manual you can think of for a huge array of cars. It appears that if it was published, it could be found on these shelves. This impressive coverage encompasses motorbikes as well. I found manuals covering Ducati singles, twins, Bevels, that lot. It was brilliant. I checked under 'K' as well and as expected, I found manuals covering all the Kawasaki models. I did however notice that the manual for the ZX7-R was missing, which made me smile as somebody out there likes those bikes as much as I do.
Well I spent nearly all day in the office yesterday wearing my new boots, mainly just to help break them in a little. Due to their internal construction, they are a little tricky to get off, but I don't mind as the boots seems very good. Warm too, which is lovely at this time of year, especially as its only going to get colder over the next few months.
I'm a little worried about my Monster at the moment as well. This misfire at very low revs can't be right, so I've put a few questions out to the community to see what the general opinion is. My only experience of riding a twin is that of my 1098. That, as you well know, is an absolute dog below 4000rpm and under 30mph. The 1098 isn't designed to be ridden slowly, but the Monster is. It's supposed to be a City bike, so anything I can do to make the ride smoother will only be a good thing. I decided to concentrate on hard guards instead of bar muffs for the Monster. There are some professional options, but I really like the look of some that are made by a member of the Monster UK forum. I'm all for supporting the little guy so as long as they fit, I'll pick up a set to help cut the wind chill across my hands. As I didn't have too much to talk about in today's blog post, I was all prepared to talk about fuel economy and the difference in performance from 'normal' petrol and the premium alternatives. That was until I decided to pop down to the Vauxhall branch of Metropolis Motorcycles. Keen readers will be all to aware at how much I go on about the Barnet branch, Frankly there are a good reasons for that. Anyway, since riding the Monster, I have been using my Sidi Vortice for the first time since I rode my ZX7R in June. Now these were a well worn pair of boots. I had worn down the toe sliders and the front part of the sole at a visit to Rockingham and even had these re-soled too with an official replacement. I have to say thou, that the idiot who did the job should look for another profession, because frankly he just about got the job done right after the second attempt. I wear my Supertech R boots on the 1098 and the Sidi boots used to be very comfy, but they were just uncomfortable when riding the Monster. It was mostly my middle toe rubbing on the top of the boot when changing gear, so couple this with my feet getting soaked every time it rains and my other Sidi boots also being a fraction small, I looked into getting a new pair of boots. I checked their online website and it said that they stocked the Alpinestar SMX Plus boot www.alpinestars.com/s-mx-plus-boot.html#.UoPOzfm-2m4 so the plan was to make the ten minute journey after work and head down to try a pair on and then order the Gore Tex version through Barnet. So after looking at the impressive showrooms down at Vauxhall, I found the clothing section and low and behold they had the exact boots I was after and in my size. On trying them on they felt nice and comfy and so after a little chat with the sales assistant I had myself I nice new pair of waterproof boots. He was even kind enough the get rid of my old Vortice for me, which was very handy. I'll give the Sidi B2 Gore Tex boots to the local charity shop as despite being several years old, there are still a few seasons left in them. As you can see, my mobile phone takes really bad photos, so in a few weeks, I'll review the boots in the My Kit section and I'll make sure I get a decent photo up.
Well of the three rides that I've taken on the Monster, two of those have now been in the rain. I was thinking about what to say about the Michelin Pilot Road 3 tyres that I've got on and all I can say is Wow! I certainly wasn't hooning it around like a crazy person, nor was I bobbling around like I was sat in a mobility scooter, but not once did it feel like I was short on grip. Okay the bike isn't super fast nor super heavy, but I was always confident that the front would stay exactly where I put it, and the rear didn't spin up once.
As I do more and more journeys on my mini Ducati, I'm noticing new things on each and every ride. Today's revelation was just how tricky it is to fine the rear brake pedal as its nestled right under the clutch, which caused my big size 11's a few minor problems on the way back from work today. Really thou, its not that big of an issue |
MeMy name is Matt Brown and I'm a UK journalist formerly based in London, but now calling the South of England home. I've been riding bikes since 2007, but got hooked straight away. Nothing gives me the feeling of freedom, even when stuck in a city. In 2010 I became a RoSPA gold rider, but when it comes down to it, I'm Just a normal man, riding his bikes as often as he can. Archives
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