Winter blues banished!

[JayB]

Hey guys and girls, hope you all had a good christmas.
 
The bike had been sat down the end of the garden in it's barn for 2 weeks and I couldn;t bear it anymore, so Saturday I went out for a 40 mile spin, even though we had gusts of about 40mph down here in the South East. Had a blast, bike felt good, having seated the spark plug cap, it's definitely more responsive on part-throttle and through the mid-range.
I also went out again yesterday, roads damper, but much less windy and did an almost identical route.
Bloody brilliant. I have been having dark thoughts about selling it for something with a fairing again, but the past 2 days' riding have put a smile on my face, fresh Pirellis, engine running much better and having got used to my lower bars and clamps.
Can't wait to fit the BMW shock to get more weight on the front and more control at the rear.
 

[hotmetal]

I know what you mean about just having to get out. We went for a blast down to Brighton (from Bagshot) yesterday. It was great just to get out, roads were damp and sketchy to start with but got better. I was also very glad of my Gerbing gloves!

Unfortunately (I noticed you mentioned brand new Pirellis), one of the lads on a brand new Street Triple just lost it on the way into a roundabout. No brakes, no diesel, the front just washed out and he wasn't even going quick. We had only been going 5 minutes, so the tyres were stone cold. He'd done about 800 miles on these tyres (Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa), but due to the crap weather they weren't properly scrubbed in, and the "chicken strips" on the front were like most of the tyre. Anyway, they looked and felt like shiny hard plastic so I'm kind of not surprised he lost the front. Just saying, be careful out there!

[JayB]

Oh no, poor guy. Yeah, know what you mean, I am always careful for the first few miles, more so when damp, my front is probably 1/3 worn, the rear one was new about 150 miles ago, I have a standard Diablo front and a Diablo Strada on the rear, feels a different bike compared to the Maxxis it had on it 1000 miles ago! Once these are warm they are great, ANY damp patches combined with ANY amount of throttle used to have the rear twitching with the Maxxis, but you could really hang it about in the dry, now I don't have to nurse it through damp patches etc.
Was too hungover to use the bike yesterday even though it was a glorious day,.. never mind, weekend will be here soon.