The plan for this weekend was to dedicate my time to my bikes. So yesterday I took advantage of the warm evening to give both of the bikes a little clean up. For some reason, don't ask me why, I decided that I really needed to take off the exhausts for the 1098s and give both of them and the undertray and damn good scrub. Turns out, it was a pretty bloody good decision. This is what I found.
From my estimates, this is a nice mix of baked on chain lube and general filth from the ride to Italy earlier this year. Since I got back, I've only really used the bike a handful of times, but bloody hell, this is terrible. I'm almost embarrassed.
With the exhausts off, I covered the pipes on the bikes with freezer bags which I rubber banded in place and gave the bike a good scrub down, cleaning up the cans separately. Thankfully, they went on as quickly as they came off.
With a nice clean bike ready to go, I headed off to Box Hill this morning to meet my friend Martin who was kind enough to pick up a book from the Ducati Factory in Bologna back in July. I didn't have the space in my bag and if I did, it would have been ruined by the weather in Switzerland. Its a lovely book in both Italian and English and is filled with some wonderful photos from the museum. I'll have a read and get a write up in the next few weeks.
With the exhausts off, I covered the pipes on the bikes with freezer bags which I rubber banded in place and gave the bike a good scrub down, cleaning up the cans separately. Thankfully, they went on as quickly as they came off.
With a nice clean bike ready to go, I headed off to Box Hill this morning to meet my friend Martin who was kind enough to pick up a book from the Ducati Factory in Bologna back in July. I didn't have the space in my bag and if I did, it would have been ruined by the weather in Switzerland. Its a lovely book in both Italian and English and is filled with some wonderful photos from the museum. I'll have a read and get a write up in the next few weeks.
Whilst down in Surrey, I was able to say hi to a few friends and enjoy their tea. The coffee at Rykers really isn't that nice, but the tea and for that matter the chocolate brownie really hits the spot.
All in all it was really great to get out on the Ducati today. The bike felt good underneath me, even when having to ride through the London traffic. Its really a wonderful, albeit expensive bike.
I'm meeting up with my mate Dave tomorrow, who, if you read RiDE magazine, had his photo in this months issue. He was the silver fox with the ZX7R on top of the mountain. The photo is two years old and he's gone through four bikes (a ZX10r, a GSXR 750, a Ducati 1198 and V Strom) since then. Good old Dave. I'm going to take the chance of finally giving the 'Blade a proper run as so far she's just been used for commuting, so it will be good to get out in the country and scare the local wildlife.
All in all it was really great to get out on the Ducati today. The bike felt good underneath me, even when having to ride through the London traffic. Its really a wonderful, albeit expensive bike.
I'm meeting up with my mate Dave tomorrow, who, if you read RiDE magazine, had his photo in this months issue. He was the silver fox with the ZX7R on top of the mountain. The photo is two years old and he's gone through four bikes (a ZX10r, a GSXR 750, a Ducati 1198 and V Strom) since then. Good old Dave. I'm going to take the chance of finally giving the 'Blade a proper run as so far she's just been used for commuting, so it will be good to get out in the country and scare the local wildlife.
RSS Feed
