Back in the Saddle Again
Yes, after a couple of years without a bike of my own, I now have one again - and I have a big perma-grin to go with it.
Thanks to Dean, I managed to get a deal on a 2008 Ducati Monster S4Rs, the monster with the 999 Testastretta superbike engine in it.
Of course, as I was picking it up on Friday, the weather forecast called for 5 days of rain, which would curtail my enjoyment of the new bike. Indeed, it was trying to rain as I walked home from the pub on Friday night.
Saturday dawned foggy and wet, but it soon looked like it was going to be a nice day. A quick check of the forecast indicated it would be clear in the morning then cloud up and rain in the afternoon an evening. By 10:30am, the roads were more or less dry and the sky was blue - I needed no more excuses.
The plan was to ride down Highway 1 to the Condor hang out and then come back - if the weather or roads looked too iffy, I'd turn around earlier.
The roads were fairly damp for the first 20 miles or so, which mean I took it even easier than I had originally planned (hadn't ridden for about a year and I had new tires) - but once I got to the dry roads, I started to learn to ride again!
The weather was kind - there was a strong gusty wind that was blowing me around a bit, but otherwise it was lovely - an the threat of rain seemed to have kept most tourists off the road too.
As the above photo shows, I made it down to the condor hang out - saw five of them flying quite high up - and one made a low pass right past the bike (checking it out I assume).
Besides being very fast and handling very sweetly, the bike has another effect that I'm not sure I can explain just yet - as I was catching up cars, they were pulling over to let me past before I even caught them up - not sure if it's the big headlight or the mainly white profile from the front maybe fooling folks into thinking I'm a cop - or maybe it was just the speed I was catching them up at (and I wasn't going that fast). Whatever it is, it's most welcome - hopefully it'll continue!
Now, I wonder what the weather forecast holds for tomorrow??
Thanks to Dean, I managed to get a deal on a 2008 Ducati Monster S4Rs, the monster with the 999 Testastretta superbike engine in it.
Of course, as I was picking it up on Friday, the weather forecast called for 5 days of rain, which would curtail my enjoyment of the new bike. Indeed, it was trying to rain as I walked home from the pub on Friday night.
Saturday dawned foggy and wet, but it soon looked like it was going to be a nice day. A quick check of the forecast indicated it would be clear in the morning then cloud up and rain in the afternoon an evening. By 10:30am, the roads were more or less dry and the sky was blue - I needed no more excuses.
The plan was to ride down Highway 1 to the Condor hang out and then come back - if the weather or roads looked too iffy, I'd turn around earlier.
The roads were fairly damp for the first 20 miles or so, which mean I took it even easier than I had originally planned (hadn't ridden for about a year and I had new tires) - but once I got to the dry roads, I started to learn to ride again!
The weather was kind - there was a strong gusty wind that was blowing me around a bit, but otherwise it was lovely - an the threat of rain seemed to have kept most tourists off the road too.
As the above photo shows, I made it down to the condor hang out - saw five of them flying quite high up - and one made a low pass right past the bike (checking it out I assume).Besides being very fast and handling very sweetly, the bike has another effect that I'm not sure I can explain just yet - as I was catching up cars, they were pulling over to let me past before I even caught them up - not sure if it's the big headlight or the mainly white profile from the front maybe fooling folks into thinking I'm a cop - or maybe it was just the speed I was catching them up at (and I wasn't going that fast). Whatever it is, it's most welcome - hopefully it'll continue!
Now, I wonder what the weather forecast holds for tomorrow??
posted by Tim H at 6:14 PM
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