Run-in, not out (unfocus motorcycle based rambling)

Well, thanks to bad weather, child-minding duties and how short my commute
is it's taken me a week and a half to get the Prilly run-in.

Aside from nearly getting taken out by a bus yesterday[1] it's been a pretty
uneventful time.

This afternoon the killer combination of working from home and sunshine
tempted me out to stick the last few miles on it to knock it over the 600.
I've been gradually building up the revs over the last 100 miles, nothing
mad, just up to 7k or so, and now I've started pushing them a little higher.

Over the 6k mark the Aprilia is a different bike. I thought it was a bit
faster than the 6R, but it's not, it's faster by a very wide margin indeed.

Faster and so much better in the corners. It's completely wasted on the
road[2], I'm going to have to get it on some track-days in the spring[3].

Anyway, I headed out this afternoon on the
too-straight-for-this-sort-of-thing A68, Northbound. Then, when I started
to worry that I really should be doing some work, I picked up the altogether
twistier A696 heading back South again.

As I joined the A696 a biker went past who I was sure was the guy who took
me for the on road portion of my rider
training/why-you-shouldn't-pass-police-cars-in-the-left-lane[4] course back
in March. I followed him down the A696, watching him using the lines he'd
taught me[5]. It must be said he was a pleasure to watch. His cornering
was incredibly smooth, overtakes were perfectly planned, his observation
faultless and all of this is leading up to explaining how my brand new
sports bike couldn't keep up with a 9 year old Pan Euro, but you'd already
guessed that.

Our fun came to an end when we came up behind a police driver under
instruction and neither of us felt like overtaking. By this time I'd done
60 miles and was starting to ache a bit (it really is a very, very
uncomfortable bike), so I headed off home.

I'd forgotten the simple pleasure of riding a bike just for the hell of it.

[1] Coming home from work, yesterday, me and a courier sat at the light
controlling the big junction at the bottom of Westgate Road. Lights turn
green a we head off, but bus coming down the hill decides that red lights
don't apply to him and ploughs straight through the junction, causing me and
the dispatcher to do emergency stops. Git.

[2] And with me, obviously.

[3] Because, by then, SWMBO will have forgotten that it's a new bike and
that she told me I was never, ever taking it on a track-day.

[4] Because it pisses them off, that's why.

[5] As wide as you can until you can see the road ahead is clear, not just
the exit to the corner, and then tip in and gas it.
--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Aprilia RSV-1000R, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

AndrewR wrote:

[snip]

Indeed. For various reasons, mine has not turned a wheel in 10 days.
I will hopefully remedy that at the weekend, if not before, although if
it is before, it will be just getting to work and back.