First, the confession. Yesterday I took my '99 R1 out for a run, the first she's had since being taken a few miles to the testing station this time last year. No big deal, except that this is actually the first time I've ridden at all in the last 12 months.
With the Soup Dragon spending most of 2016 in and out of hospital for some pretty serious issues, I just didn't feel like riding and at the back of my mind was the nagging thought that the way our luck was going, I'd end up in A&E for good measure. Two of us out of action wouldn't have been too clever under the circumstances.
Next, the decision. Well, decisions, in fact. Although I love the R1 to bits, she's just too much of a missile for me to ride properly on the road these days, so I've decided to put her into mothballs for the next couple of years. With only 16k miles on the clock, in totally original condition and absolutely mint at that, she's worth around £3.5k according to ebay. No point in paying insurance, tax and MOT only to ride her for a couple of hundred miles each year. So full service, drain carbs and fuel tank, up on the paddock stands and polish every few months.
The second decision is to get the Fazer out more. Now, that wasn't so difficult, was it ... ?