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I have seen the Future…

June 15, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

….and it goes “whirrrr”.

I spent today at meetings in London: it was hot, dirty and noisy and I was contributing both considerable decibelage and a fug of semi-combusted hydrocarbons to the ambience by whomping around on a 1000cc Ducati. At regular intervals the phrase, “there has to be a better way to do this”, kept springing to mind. Of course, my bicycle would have been perfect for the job. Had I been able to get it there: with a despairingly predictable lack of joined-up thinking on transport and the environment, the UK government has allowed the rail operators to ban bicycles from most services. Which has rather put a stop to that.

This evening however I’ve found that better way: I went somewhere else in space and time, to where the whole future arrives, not with a bang, but with a muted whirring – to my first close encounter with the ENV — the world’s first dedicated fuel cell powered motorcycle.

DesmoSedici RR, Oh my…

June 1, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

I’m not impressed by power. No, really. If I were, I could have bought any of the current crop of Übersportsbikes for less than I paid for my Ducati, had another 45bhp in my right hand and a license in the shredder. I’m much more interested in handling, real-world performance, and maybe a little bit of cool engineering style. However…

The Zen of Sports Touring

June 1, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

The UK’s Bike magazine recently asked for contributions to a story about the why, the how and the myth of “Sports Touring”. Which prompted me to put together a few random thoughts, and here they be:

The Why?

There’s something very basic here: you don’t need some full-blown mile-muncher to tour on: what has been done on a Gold Wing will, I guarantee you, also have been accomplished by some nutter or other on a Honda 90, probably whilst wearing wellies. They may have been a bit slower, carried fewer changes of clothing and been rather more numb of the fundament at journey’s end, but they’ll have gotten there. The fact that the current round-the-world record holder, Nick Sanders, did it on a Yamaha R1 is indicative both that you can tour on anything and that he really is quite mad. Mind you, if he’d done it on a BMW 1150GS, as per Kevin & Julia Sanders, the previous holders, he probably wouldn’t look quite as shagged out as he does in every picture I’ve seen of him. But he did it. And there’s nothing quite like barreling across Europe on a sporting motorcycle, accepting the slight-to-monstrous trade-off in comfort for for the sheer joy to be had from being able to make full and focussed use of the really fun bits: the hairpins of the Alps, the fast sweepers of the Eiffel Mountains or the cliff-hugging nadgery of the Amalfi coast. That’s what it’s all about.

Now for a little of the how and what…

Random Act of Idiocy…

April 27, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

This picture is of a Toyota Corolla, registration number M381 HPG. I took it at about 11:40pm last night, 26th April 2006. The reason I took it (Toyotas being not, by and large, objects of desire) was that the prize git driving it had just overtaken me on the A287 in Wey Hill in a 30mph limit, whilst doing, at a rough guess, 70mph. To make the overtake, he used the oncoming right turn lane to the Midhurst Road. I felt particularly sorry for the poor sod who was entirely reasonably occupying that lane at the time, waiting for me to pass before turning right. Quite how the situation didn’t become an expensive and painful snooker shot, I really don’t know. And if the driver of the oncoming vehicle (I think a Vauxhall Omega estate) happens to read this and wishes to contact me, I’ll very happily join him or her in making a statement to the constabulary. Whether that would serve any purpose or not is another matter altogether…

Dear Ducati…

March 14, 2006 / Richard / 2 Comments

I’ve owned your bikes since 1982, albeit with a longish break along the way. My current machine is getting a little leggy and, despite its so far consummate reliability, I’m looking for a replacement. But here’s my problem: you simply do not make a motorcycle that meets my desires. And a quick glance at your 2005 sales figures suggests that many people feel the same way — your motorcycle revenues worldwide were down 13.1%, with total unit sales down 5.5%. Margins were also down, occasioned by a 40% collapse in the sales of your higher margin Superbike models. The only ranges that increased sales were the Multistrada (up 57.9%) and the new-retro Sport Classic range.

Small and Perfectly Formed…

February 12, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

Here’s a thing: a non-Italian bike, sight of which had me screeching to a halt outside the dealer while going about my business of the day. I can’t think of anything save the current R1 that’s managed that before. So here’s a teaser: My photoshoot of the very new, very shiny Triumph Daytona 675, in tasteful dark grey:

Click here for the Colour image gallery.
Click here for the Black & White image gallery.

Fool to Miss It: Rob Vine Fund Charity Auction, April 1, 2006

February 4, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

Haslemere Motorcycles are running a Charity auction in aid of the Rob Vine Fund on the 1st of April this year. The fund helps to keep the Isle of Man TT races and Manx Grand Prix running by funding medical equipment for the Manx Air Ambulance: quite simply, no Air Ambulance, no TT!

Butting In…

February 4, 2006 / Richard / 0 Comments

The Ducati STx bikes have pretty good seats. For a Ducati. That actually doesn’t do them justice — several 500 mile-plus days without major pain, loss of feeling or feelings of self-flagellation have demonstrated that. However, to be picky, the side ridges of the rider’s perch can start digging into the inner thigh after a few hundred miles, and one 600-mile two-up epic revealed a few, ah, points of discomfort for my uncomplaining pillion — it wasn’t anything she said as much as the very fine John Wayne impression she did on dismounting. So several alternatives presented themselves: the buy-in, from Corbin or Sargent, a new model year Ducati OEM seat (they’re distinctly plusher on the butt) or the full custom route.

Braking and Banjos

January 16, 2006 / Richard / 1 Comment

In an earlier post, I mentioned strange problems with a heavy judder under braking, something I’ve seen reported by a number of people in various fora. It’s been a while, but we finally managed to find a solution. Even better, it’s a very cheap and easy solution. I’d gotten as far as having the the head bearings changed, to little effect – they were rusted and badly worn (traditional on the STs, apparently, as Ducati don’t seem to get around to greasing them at the factory), but not completely shagged — they would however only have lasted another few thousand miles. After that, I was looking at the fork slider bushes and the disks themselves — neither of them being cheap options.

The guys at Snell’s, my local dealer, then got in touch with Ducati UK, who suggested trying the modified banjo assembly for the brake master cylinder that Ducati produced to address similar problems with some Multistradas. So we did, it was fitted this morning and all is now smooth as silk.

So, for anyone suffering from that dreaded judder under braking, one solution (YMMV) is a simple banjo kit: It’s listed as a Multistrada part, number 69922861A. In my case, it was supplied and fitted under warranty, despite the bike being 18 months outside the warranty period. Result, and very impressed with both Snell’s and Ducati UK.

How far? On a what?!

November 19, 2005 / Richard / 0 Comments

&ldquot;You go touring. On a Ducati? — so where’s the tow truck?&rdquot; — if I’d had a quid (Eng. coll: unit of currency) for every time I’d heard that from fellow bikers, I’d be at least a couple of dozen cappucinos to the good. So here’ we are, three years and 31,000 miles down the line, and me and the Stealth Bomber are not only still hanging around together, but doing very well — I haven’t even managed to drop it yet, despite one panic-fuelled deadlift of 210kg — a strained muscle was self-healing, fairings aren’t. So, 31,000 miles in three years, on a Ducati. Without a support vehicle? (remembering that the average annual mileage of a Ducati in the UK is 2,500) Er, yes actually, so it’s probably worth a review of the score so far — let’s see just how temperamental these ‘fragile’ Italian beasts really are. First, the vital statistics:

Number of breakdowns: 0.
Number of no-starts: 0.
Number of not-quite starts: 1 (cold day and dodgy battery – replaced under warranty).
Number of stops on-the-road: 0 (although a worn-out wheel bearing discovered at the Nurburgring caused some nervous twitching).

Ducati Diary