I much prefer wearing full leathers to textiles for a number of reasons. Of course there's the protection question, with leathers undoubtedly providing better impact and abrasion protection, but leathers also hold you in a better way. With additional levels of support available to your limbs, riding is far less tiring and enjoyable. It also helps that the leather a far less exposed to turbulence, making the whole riding experience more streamlined.
It may not have been the warmest, but yesterday was the best day of the year. It was definitely Full Leather Weather and I headed out in vented gloves for the first time this season. I much prefer wearing full leathers to textiles for a number of reasons. Of course there's the protection question, with leathers undoubtedly providing better impact and abrasion protection, but leathers also hold you in a better way. With additional levels of support available to your limbs, riding is far less tiring and enjoyable. It also helps that the leather a far less exposed to turbulence, making the whole riding experience more streamlined. The forecast for the next few days is pretty positive, but they are reporting a colder snap may be returning by the weekend and into next week. I guess I had better make the most of this weather then. Now, where is my helmet?
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The long way home. Are there any words more emotive in motorcycling? Those four words mean so much and often lead to new experiences or reaffirm long standing feelings and beliefs. 7 days ago, my neck of the woods was buried under 6 inches of snow, which within 24hrs had turned to sheet ice, trapping Carolina and I in the house. Today, this was my view at lunchtime. Looking out across to Charminster, I was greeted by a blue sky and high clouds and no indication of the cold temperatures from last week. The roads were dry and the temperatures had surpassed double figures. Lets just say this afternoon seemed to last an exorbitant amount of time.
After finally being released from my financial obligation, I embraced those four magical words and let fate dictate the route. At key junctions, if the vehicle in front went one way, I went the other and I soon found myself carving along the light grey tarmac, getting a bit of a sweat on in my full winter kit in the process. Despite the sun and blue skies above my head, the roads, as you would imagine, were still far from perfect. Mud dragged on from the fields by local farmers, combined with rows of small stones that rains had pulled from the banks made observations skills earn their keep. The forecast is for rain tomorrow, mainly in the afternoon, but that won't stop me from taking the bike. Dripping a bit of water on my hard wooden floors will a small price to pay. With the cold weather peaking this week with 6 inches of snow where I live, biking was pretty much an impossibility. Couple this with a garage with no heating, meant I'd barely laid eyes upon my bikes this week. So today, with free time on my hands, I showed the FireBlade some love and changed up the front pads in readiness for the great 2018 and gave her a clean to boot. There is no getting away from it, but riding a bike in winter takes its toll on the exposed components as you can clearly see from my front right caliper. I'm not overly precious about the FireBlade, using it as more of a work horse than a cherished possession, but seeing the calipers like this made me feel a little guilty. There had been no discernible dip in braking performance, but I could have probably cleaned the bike more. It's only when you take bits apart that you can really get into the deepest recesses of the machine. Thankfully is all superficial and not structural. The pads that came off weren't too bad, with a few mm of life left in them, but even seeing that, I wanted to get some new pads in there. Being a fan of EBC brakes for both their price and quality, I ordered up a pair from Sportsbikeshop and they arrived quickly and safely. After a clean, I had a slight issue fitting them this time as the backing plate on each caliper was an extremely snug fit over the lower pad mounting. What followed was a few choice words, a bit of persuasion and eventually two fully fitted calipers. I really must invest in a workbench for the garage as working so close to the floor is a pain in more ways than one. The weather this week looks to be okay, with half decent temperatures for good measure. Following the Siberian blast the UK was exposed to this week, it will feel positively balmy out there. Not quite vented leathers time yet, but soon dear friends, soon. I feel I should apologise to every biker in the UK. In my last blog post I talked about how the cold weather was in the past and that we were on the brink of the new season. How wrong was I? Arctic Siberian winds are due to bring snow and freezing conditions to the UK this week and it's all my fault. I'm genuinely sorry. Please forgive me! Before news of the cold weather came to light, I was able to take a somewhat rare ride out on a Saturday. Carolina was at work and I had the day free to explore, so explore I did. After a nice ride out into Wiltshire and back into Dorset, I found myself outside Bournemouth Kawasaki, the home of the BSB JG Speedfit Kawasaki team. Well renowned in the local area, the dealership had a lovely array of bikes, including one of James Hillier's Lightweight TT machines and an ex Chris Walker BSB ZX7-R racer. Also pretty cool having a H2, just casually parked by the door. Riding on Saturday is a bit of a strange one for me, mainly as I've always seemed to get a lot of my riding done just commuting to work. Whenever possible, its the long way which invariably takes shape, which may explain my feelings towards weekend riding. It's not that I'm averse to it, on the contrary in fact. I just seem to have other responsibilities at the weekend. Strangely, riding at the weekend seems to be a matter of timing. Getting up early and logging three hours of riding in before the shops open has, in the past, proven to be the way forward for me as riding later on can be a frustrating and dangerous affair. But, as with everything in life, it's finding the right balance. I'm prone over the bike. The sun is covering everything in crisp bright light. The trees are still. There is no wind. The bike is reacting to every bump in the road. I move my body weight to the inside of the bike as I move her across to maximise my vision, taking up the line I want for the upcoming corner. There is a crest. I'm travelling quickly. I attack. I take the corner and crest in top gear. The front of the bike goes a little light and I move my weight over the front to keep it all in line. I pass a small red car coming the other way. The road is clear. The road is dry. I'm in heaven. Its 08:50 on a February morning in 2018. This week, the overnight temperatures haven't dropped as low and the rain has, for the most part been absent. Rain on Sunday night left the roads wet for Monday morning, but since then, its been dry and clear. Although not here fully, Spring is making its presence known. The 2018 biking season is almost upon us. As you can see, the ride on Monday morning was a mucky one. The overnight Sunday rain had mixed beautifully with the farming traffic on my rural commute, resulting in a patchy muddy route, leaving very dirty FireBlade. The Pirelli Angel GT tyres performed perfectly however. I know I harp on about these tyres fairly regularly, but its for good reason. They are astonishing. Even in the worse conditions, they maintain great levels of grip. The ride home was drier and these conditions continued into Tuesday. No longer needing to worry about icy and unexpected damp patches, I'm back to taking the long routes too and from work. With the hedges still fairly barren and cut back, what I can see from the saddle has vastly improved, allowing me see and do more. Its just been great. I'm fairly sure it won't last. This is the UK after all and rain is never too far away. For the meantime, its been great to know that we are leaving the cold short days of winter behind. Hopefully 2018 will be just as good as these last few days. I hadn't been to the London bike show for a few years. The last time I went I was left disappointed by its scope and scale in relation to the far superior Motorcycle Live show in Birmingham. So, I headed up to London with my riding buddy Dean, with a certain sense of trepidation. I'd won two tickets through social media and felt it would be rude not to make the trip, so with the alarm set, we headed up in the car just after 7am. Making short work of the sub-three hour journey, we got to the show just after it opened and immediately I could tell it was a vast improvement over previous versions. Walking through the entrance you were greeted by an amazing display of Grand Prix bikes and that set a nice positive tone for the event. Heading straight to the Ducati stand we checked out Shane Byrne's BSB winning bike as well as looking at the Ducati Tri-Options bike on display, but like so many, the real reason was to have another look at the new V4 Panigale. From there we made our way round to explore what the show had on offer. In the middle of the show was the Thunderdrome, a short oval track where a range of pros, including Carl Fogerty, Ruben Xaus and Neil Hodgson would race against each other during the day. I have to say I liked this feature, not because I wanted to see a few quality riders muck about on tiny little bikes, but because it meant the crowds were drawn there, clearing a bit of space around the rest of the show. As expected, probably the best stand was Kawasaki. They always seem to put in that extra level of effort with their stands. This year their stand resembled a retro record shop, with their new Z900rs sat in the middle on a revolving turntable record player. You can see from the below, this bike was getting a great deal of interest and it really is a beautiful bike. The H2 and the new H2-SX were drawing a lot attention as was the ZX10R-SE and the Z900rs Cafe, the sister bike to the Z900rs above. With a limited amount of space, Kawasaki didn't present their full range, but were able to show off the new Ninja 400, the Versys X 300 and a few race bikes. By lunchtime the show was packed and it was proving to be a touch difficult to really get close to the machines by the big manufacturers. The crowds around Honda and Yamaha were notably bad, with the new Goldwing at Honda drawing a great deal of attention. BMW had their stunning HP4 Race on display and with the benefit of being displayed away from greasy hands, the carbon was glinting under the show lights, adding something a little extra to this rare piece of exotica. Norton were grabbing a lot of attention with their V4s in their prominent display again. I've seen this same display now at three shows over two years, and despite reading how the bikes would be launched in 2017, as far as I'm aware (I did search the web) that still hasn't officially happened. There is no doubting their allure and they are stunning looking bikes, but these were first announced back in 2016 and if it was me looking to buy one, I would have given up by now and headed back over to Ducati and put the money down on the V4 Speciale instead, or bought a Aprilia RSV4 RR or RF, which in essence, carries the same engine as the Norton.
Overall, the show was well worth the drive and both Dean and I took advantage of a ticket offer to visit the Classic car show next door for a brief walk around. If you don't get a chance to head to the NEC, the London show has proved itself to be a worthy companion having grown out of previous year's disappointment. Just as I was about to write a post about it being a mildish winter down by the South Coast of England, we were embraced by a cold snap, leaving overnight temperatures below freezing. Being based in the land that transitions a rural and an urban environment, the risk of ice is raised exponentially and I promised Carolina that I wouldn't ride with the temperatures so low. There is a slight tinge of irony as, when living in London, I found my limit was -4 and freezing fog. I have manage a few short rides, taken for convenience rather than anything else. What can I say? free parking is free parking. Hopefully the mercury will start to rise again so the bike can get a decent workout. This weekend gone, I popped down to the Bovington Tank Museum with my mate Michael, where, sat among the wide array of tanks from numerous different conflicts, sat this: This is the fully restored 1929 Brough Superior SS-100, nicknamed George VI, owned, ridden and subsequently crashed by T E Lawrence, taking his life in May 1935.
Situated in a three sided glass display case, the bike may seem like a strange vehicle to find in a museum dedicated to the tank, but Lawrence was a local man, based at Bovington Camp and his final fateful crash took place less than three miles from where his bike is displayed. A fitting memorial, but I do kinda wish it was right at the entrance with the sun glinting off all that chrome. Today, the FireBlade clicked past 40,000 miles. So what better way to mark this milestone, that to take the long way to work on a dry and unseasonably warm January morning. When I bought her back in 2014, she had just over 16,000 on the clock and had appeared to have lived a fairly sheltered life. I will freely admit that throughout the years I haven't fallen in love with the 954 as I've done with the 1098s, the ZX7R or the Z1000. I have however, much preferred her to the little Monster. It may not be a relationship of pure passion, but it has been one of practicality. The FireBlade has done nothing wrong and despite the odd breakdown (snapped chain etc), she's been reliable. She's taken me to and from work without complaint; into and out of the city and across the countryside whenever asked. She's carried luggage, taken the worst that the UK weather has to offer, been taken to a track and fallen over in the van, but still she has welcomed me back every morning when I've opened the garage door. My 954 FireBlade is a perfectly good motorcycle. Its more than quick enough, comfy and has a decent sized tank to boot. You can't really ask for more, or if you do, it may be considered a little rude. The plan was to take the bike to work all week. However after a particularly long Tuesday, which included drives to and Portsmouth and then, two hours later, a drive to and from Heathrow, Carolina effectively banned me from taking the bike. All I can say to that is, thank you Carolina! The weather conditions on Wednesday were biblical. It was unpleasant even in the car, so who knows what it would have been like on the bike. Extremely strong side gusts, driving rain and vast levels of spray would have made the ride dangerous let alone un-enjoyable. Thankfully the weather yesterday and today were much more agreeable and taking the long way home today in the dying winter light was a real highlight. Dry roads and high enough temperatures meant I could explore the ride and blow a few cobwebs away. With a good ride under the belt and a warm bike parked safety in the garage, I took the opportunity to apply a fresh coat of chain lube to the bike. Since signing up to be an XCP Ambassador, I've been trying out their products and I continue to be highly impressed. Having used a mixture of Motul C4 and WD-40 chain lube for several years, I really like the way the XCP goes on. Where the Motul is pretty think stuff, the XCP is very similar in consistency to the product WD-40 produce. This though, is where the similarities change. When using the WD-40, the underside of my tail fairing has been coated with a fair amount of lube that has flung off away from the chain at speed, which isn't the case with the XCP. Although its thin, its sticks well to the chain and as I don't need to use that much to get a good coverage, it stays put too. Win, win really. A mix of really heavy rain and the need to take too much stuff to work, limited the amount of riding I did this past week. I did manage one really good long ride though and when I say good, it was only really the journey there. An earlier rain shower and damp greasy roads meant the ride back was one of restraint rather than one of progress. In the few rides I've had, I've been able to pull together some further thoughts on my Held Twin gloves. Their construction is good and, despite some contrary opinions, the visor wipe is excellent. As one would expect for the money, they have remained waterproof and there is nothing to suggest otherwise. Using the thicker 'warm' chamber there is still plenty of feel for the controls and I don't feel they are restricting my movement too badly. Yes, if I compare them to my A-stars GP gloves, its like night and day, but for a bulky winter glove, its acceptable. Sadly though, I am disappointed with the amount of warmth they provide, especially around the end of my fingers. Since leaving London at the end of 2015, I no longer ride in sub-zero temperatures. Any signs of a deep frost is too risky, especially if riding on exposed country roads, and doubly so with a safer alternative available. If the temp is above 4 degrees, I'm usually good to go, come rain or shine. I don't have heated grips installed, so when riding out in temperatures of around 6-7 degrees, getting cold fingers is noticeable, surprising and ultimately, disappointing. I'll experiment using both chambers of the glove (they come with a dry and a warm labels) to see if there is any real noticeable difference and its user error rather than the glove and continue to update you with my findings. |
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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