After a week of not riding thanks to a mixture of extremely high winds and, well, feeling a bit shit, I took the 'Blade out for a spin yesterday, meeting up with my friend Alistair in the process. Before I did that I had to make a quick trip over to Conquest Motorcycles in Three Legged Cross to get an update on my 1098s. As I expected, the frame is indeed bent; its about 10mm out to the left, caused by the impact at Silverstone, but this is being addressed this week.
The team at Conquest come highly recommended and clearly take an interest, unlike the 'team' at Road and Race Performance, who frankly, couldn't have cared less. With a few questions answered I headed over to Winchester to meet up with Al, who I've know for a few years, meeting him a few times through Ducati Forum meets, but until yesterday have never been out riding with him.
By the time we got together, it had been raining for about an hour, soaking everything as expected, but as it was forecast to dry up, we stuck with it.
Following Al to Loomies in Hampshire, on the junction of the A272 and the A32, it was clear to me, just how good a rider Al is. Even in the rain, he was quick and smooth and appeared totally in control. It was great to watch.
So we get to Loomies, grab some food and just chat about everything from jobs to garages for about an hour and from there he took me over to Snells Performance in Alton, but as the roads were now dry, the blast up the A32 was a great blast. Snells is a great looking place and I've only ever heard good things about them. For me, it sucks as they are still the best part of a 45min fast ride away. Great as a destination, rubbish if I need a service.
By the time we got together, it had been raining for about an hour, soaking everything as expected, but as it was forecast to dry up, we stuck with it.
Following Al to Loomies in Hampshire, on the junction of the A272 and the A32, it was clear to me, just how good a rider Al is. Even in the rain, he was quick and smooth and appeared totally in control. It was great to watch.
So we get to Loomies, grab some food and just chat about everything from jobs to garages for about an hour and from there he took me over to Snells Performance in Alton, but as the roads were now dry, the blast up the A32 was a great blast. Snells is a great looking place and I've only ever heard good things about them. For me, it sucks as they are still the best part of a 45min fast ride away. Great as a destination, rubbish if I need a service.
After exploring some more great roads around Alton and Petersfield, we turned for home. It was agreed that Al was going to head off at Eastleigh, leaving me to head home at my own pace. I didn't really want to go home, so instead headed down through the New Forest to grab some food and read my book in Lymington.
Its such a lovely little place with a lovely harbour, which just gets far too busy in the summer. Victim of its own success I guess. They're building some additional flats by the looks of things down by the harbour and railway line, which are already an eyesore.
After a horrible ride back through Christchurch I got home utterly shattered. The last time I felt like that was after my first day of riding across France. I'm not sure if was the distance, the cold I've still bloody got, or a combination of both, but it still felt great to be out exploring.
Its such a lovely little place with a lovely harbour, which just gets far too busy in the summer. Victim of its own success I guess. They're building some additional flats by the looks of things down by the harbour and railway line, which are already an eyesore.
After a horrible ride back through Christchurch I got home utterly shattered. The last time I felt like that was after my first day of riding across France. I'm not sure if was the distance, the cold I've still bloody got, or a combination of both, but it still felt great to be out exploring.
RSS Feed
