So what have you done today..?

Today I had a very nice one-half of a bike ride and a very comfortable ride back in a recovery wagon.

Chain let go a few miles from West Meon but no dramas, could have been oooh so much worse

 

lucky lucky

 

I was owed a lucky one, the last chain break effectively totalled the bike in question.

 

Well you could consider replacing your chains more regularly.

 

Way ahead of you, Pete. After the regrettable incident that killed my 750, which was my fault, I keep a more than critical eye on my chains and sprockets.
Which makes today's breakage more a case of bad luck than bad judgement or sloppy maintenance. Both chain and sprockets looked to be in very good condition.

Thanks though for believing the worst in me, you give me a warm fuzzy feeling.

 

Getting sun tanned on a hill in the cotswolds. Now for beer and food...

 

Had an early ride out with a mate of mine and a very pleasant breakfast. Spent all day painting the last (but largest) of our 1980's stained windows white inside, has taken 4 bloody coats of primer/undercoat and it's such a boring job, however well worth it, looks so much better and makes all the rooms look much lighter and more contemporary, another early breakfast ride out tomorrow and then the top coat!

 

Gave the car a good clean then fired up the BBQ. Not sooner had I lit it and opened a Stella, a spitfire flew overhead doing a fly by over the national arboretum. It sounded awesome!

What a good end to the day!

 

Just fitted Brembo RCS 16/18 clutch master cylinder to 848, to accompany Oberon slave and Sigma Slipper... Don't think clutch can get much better than that

Now to drink wine, read bike mag and post occasional nonsense on here...

Apologies in advance...

 

Well, the early start didn’t quite materialise as I had intended. This was due to two things: one, I went to bed very late after watching the snooker I had recorded; two, I noticed on the weather forecast that the temperature wouldn’t make 10° before midday, and I’m not keen on biking much in those temperatures. I finally got my arse to the event at 1:30pm.


The sign-in process was ridiculously long. There were only about 10 people in front of me, but it still took 40 mins before I was out of the queue. As far as I could see, this was because the people doing the sign-in were fat kids with nascent beards, no sense of urgency and the ability to only type with 2 fingers. All they had to do was take your name and address, phone number and email, look at your driving licence and get you to sign a form. It wasn’t any better last year.


Then off to the tents to book my test rides. The Ducati process was that your time of arrival and the bikes you wanted to ride were noted on a card, then when the bike came back from a test, they shouted out its name and the person with the earliest time on their card got to take it out. Somewhat suboptimal, as each test was about 20-25 mins and you had no idea how many people were before you in the queue. I signed in at 2:10 pm and managed to get a ride at 5:30 pm. I also booked a ride at Triumph and MV.


First up, the Triumph Thruxton, because the Daytona 675 was booked out. It’s a handsome looking bike in the café racer style. I hadn’t even checked how many cylinders it had or what brakes, but I did notice it had comparatively skinny tyres with lots of tread – not quite what I’m used to. It’s actually very well adapted to congested roads. It’s very comfy although there is no suspension wallow in bends, and the ergonomics are great. Even with the clip-on bars and rear sets, it is in no way as extreme as what we latter-day sports bike riders are used to. There is quite a bit of torque for “real world” motorcycling, but you can’t say there is any great urgency in acceleration. Heading into the very strong, cold, north wind, it seemed a bit reluctant to rev up to much over 90 mph (er…), although I didn’t try to see what it could really do. It’s pretty agile, but having seen the tyres, I wasn’t going to attempt knee down on a couple of the corners around my way that I can achieve on the 999. And I wasn’t about to start trying to scrape the pegs either in my 30 mins with the bike. There is only one disk at the front, but I hadn’t clocked this before setting off and the braking seemed perfectly adequate, if unremarkable. There is a fly screen, of a sort, but it wasn’t man enough for the wind. This alone would restrict you to licence-friendly speeds. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed it and was easily able to keep up with a GSXR 1000 mounted bloke in the twisties, although this was more due to the fact that I know them like the back of my hand (being a local boy) than anything much else. But the suspension was excellent. That bit of road is quite bumpy and you can’t really use any advantage you have in chassis, but the Thruxton was very confidence inspiring. If you wanted a good looking bike for scooting around, or for a lot of low-speed urban-style riding, you could do a lot worse. With double discs and about another 20 bhp, it would be stonking.


I then moved on to the MV F3 800 – a somewhat different kettle of fish. You are seated quite high on it, although it’s probably less tough on the wrists than the 999. The screen is very low; the bike is very light. It looks great. The 3 cylinder motor is very rev-happy and given the beans, takes off like a scalded cat. It’s meant to have about 150 bhp and it certainly feels like it. Given huge handfuls of throttle (and I was feeling generous), it makes a superb, extremely angry noise, so that although it sounds unremarkable on tickover, when you ride it, you find yourself accelerating needlessly and blipping the throttle aggressively just for the exhaust sound. The brakes are phenomenal – loads of feel, but massively powerful. The dashboard is utter shite. Its full of LCD information that you can’t read on the move, the speed is written in quite small numbers, and the tacho bar is illegible as the figures are written in such small print that you almost need glasses to read them (and I don’t even have reading glasses). But it revs like nothing else. It seems unhappy below about 4’000, but by 10’000 you are doing a serious rate of knots and it revs way, way beyond that. I can’t tell you want it revs to, as I couldn’t read the numbers and in any case, by that stage, you’re better off looking at where you’re going.


It’s pretty comfy too, the suspension being well-sorted. The low screen was a bit of a pain when heading into the gale. The only other niggle was the clutch which is, amazingly, cable operated and wasn’t very well adjusted, so that there was a notchiness at the lever. Surely the clutches on Ducatis have been hydraulic since the 851? I can’t remember the last time I rode a bike with a cable clutch. It seemed like stepping back 30 years. But otherwise, I thought it was a very impressive and fun bike – one of the best I’ve ridden and much more fun than the F4 1200 which I tried a few years ago.


Trying the MV F3 and owning a 999 gave me a great point of comparison for then trying the 899 Panigale. The first thing you notice is that the 899 is pretty loud even in stock trim. Well, I’d sooner that than the farting Multistrada, but it’s not a great exhaust note, in my view. It’s a bit louder than the 999, probably, but lacking in bass and sounds a bit raucous. It doesn’t sound as nice as my 851 did, which also had stock pipes (albeit somewhat “opened up”). My 916 only ever had carbon pipes, so it’s not a fair comparison. The riding position on the 899 is probably a little more upright than on the 999, but it’s fairly marginal. A tourer this isn’t. The somewhat unsightly mirrors on stalks still seemed to give me a good view of my elbows. They might be better than those on the 999, but they look extremely naff and they weren’t any better than those on the MV which looked fine.


The suspension was fairly comparable to the MV, and more comfy than that of the 999. Mind you, I’ve never played with my suspension, so maybe it could be improved compared to what I’m used to. The seat’s a bit more comfy than the 999. The brakes are good and powerful, but they weren’t as good as those on the MV. They felt quite wooden. I remember trying the brakes on the 1098 Streetfighter and being really impressed by the progress they had made over the 999. Well, on the 899, I can’t say I massively preferred them – I was a little bit underwhelmed.


The motor may have 10 bhp over the 999, when you really wind it up, but once again, it didn’t seem much faster. It’s a rev-happy motor – not MV rev happy, but much keener to scoot up the rev counter than the 999. But then it doesn’t have the torque of the 999 either. You can ride the 999 all day without exceeding 7’000 rpm and still be making very rapid progress. You might not be going any faster on the baby Panigale, but you will be using more like 10’000 rpm. It’s just how it likes to be ridden. I couldn’t help feeling that you might not get anywhere much faster, but you’d be using more petrol to get there. The 999 is definitely lazier and, I suspect, not much slower. The MV felt quite a lot faster, but if you look at the speedo, this might not be the case. But the MV delivers a kick in the arse that the small Panigale doesn’t, despite not feeling flat low down. I have to admit that considering that the 999 is now 8 years old, you can’t say that it suffers much compared to the modern stuff.


The handling on the 899 is probably a bit more agile, but it’s marginal on the road. The 999 is hardly a barge.


It’s very interesting trying different bikes. I suppose I was pleased to see that there is really no urgency to chop in the 999. It remains a superbly handling, fast bike that is oodles of fun to ride and quite relaxing on a long trip. The Panigale 899 is no doubt an improvement on the 848, which I haven’t tried, and a lot better than the 749 I owned for a year. But compared to the 999? I’m not really convinced. I prefer the motor character of the 999, the wind protection is better, the dashboard is miles better and the handling, maybe a little less nimble but frankly, a lot better than I am and confidence inspiring.


After these tests, I come back to the idea that if I was going to buy another bike, it would be more likely to be something like the Paul Smart Replica. More stomp than the Thruxton but not trying to be the fastest, most handlingest thing whilst remaining classically beautiful. At the end of the day, it’s all about fun. But the MV was quite an eye-opener. I think I’d sooner have it than an 899. Sorry!

 

Today I've walked the dog in the glorious sunshine, thrashed the Speed over to Abergavenny, had a great session in the gym and i'm now sat with a cold Cider and my little man watching the BSB

 

Roads any cleaner today ?

 

Yeah they were a fair bit better today, loads of bikes out early. I had a great play with a 636 Ninja then a 1000 blade on the way back too.

 

What's your route back of choice? Usk road in reverse ( as it were) or wye valley ?

 

Just back from a ride out with a stop at Silverstone to watch some track day action. Bumped into Kope (great guy and bike, as is his mate and his bike) and Matt Dwrecker with his Alstare paint scheme 1199 (great bloke and bike too) . There were many Panis there today plus Joelipol with his 749R but I did not see him, just the bike.

It would be interesting to note how many forum members were there but not knowen to each other. I also met another guy with a trick track Pani who I think said he was on this forum but cannot remember his name.