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.
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.
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