Lordy dordy, I really don't know where to start.
How about this then. Come last Thursday I was shocked to see the weather forecast for the coming weekend, it did not please me one little bit seeing as I knew that an outdoor expedition would be on the cards. All that time spent fixing up little odds and ends on the bike which will take me on my first ride and the weather has to completely disagree with my plans. What justice is that?
With a little hope in hand my father and I stick to our plans and get the bike VINed on Friday during working hours. I've never waited much longer in my life for it to arrive back home road legal. Many hours later it did... almost. Small issue of the front brake dragging which prompts a total clean of the front calipers. Back to the testing center Saturday morning and it's a just a matter of spinning the front wheel freely and filling in the paperwork. Oh, did I mention that all of this was done in the rain? Yeah, bollocks to you Saturday seeing as you didn't get any better until it was dark and not exactly suitable for my first trip out.
Sunday morning looked a little promising so it was up early to check out www.metvuw.com for the forecast. Looked even more promising! Running up to the top of my street to the hill I looked northeast at our planned destination. Brilliant! Bit cloudy but nothing suspicious. Glad the rain decided to go over Rangitoto and the city instead of out east. Ran back down the street to get home to finish breakfast and it was time for us to suit up with the father figure's Ducati on charge. With little delay (sorting out rules, stages of the trip etc) we were away. Now, please realise that except for my basic handling skills I had never actually taken a corner at speed with the bike leaning over. Been told how to make the bike do it in theory but never in practise. So, a little nervous about that (and the fact that the bike is a two-stroke) it's down the dip to zip past Howick beach to head up past Howick College and off to Whitford. That's where my grin began really. Going through those corners the bike just exudes confidence. Didn't think about a thing really, the bike just did what I wanted it to do. That in mind the trip went from slightly daunting to ICAN'TWAIT! Corner after corner, no problems. Any speed I wanted, any angle I wanted (bar hanging off the bike, I'm not that confident yet). It just happened.
Leaving Whitford there was a slight hiccup as the bike decided to lose fuel pressure and die. Well, that's fan-fucking-tastic. Pull over to the side and wait for my dad to come back the other way to figure out what happened. At this stage I find a new hate. I'm never ever wearing jeans under my cordura pants again if it's going to be sunny and there's even the slightest chance of me standing still. Pushing the bike to the next turnoff didn't help that. After little discussion we realise that there's a little problem with the fuel tap. Switching it to reserve it gets a kick and it starts again, huzzah! (edit: big thanks to whoever you were in the 4X4 who stopped to see if we were okay. Nice Ducati jacket you were wearing too) There's plenty in the tank so no worries there. Confidence renewed, it's off to Maraetai to then out to Clevedon for ice-cream and a chat about how it's going. Convincing the father figure that I'm ready for more, much much more took little work. We both grin and plan the route back home. Toddling off to a back road he suddenly stops and I pull alongside wondering why. "Well son, you see this big long straight road with no traffic on it? Kick 'er in the guts, see what she goes like." ... "Well, if you insist!" Having not touched the powerband (the *real* powerband) I was dumb-struck. This thing had power. Power I would never had expected given the mild nature of the mid-range, which I might add is very forgiving and pleasant. Got her up to not exactly legal speeds with very little effort and with quite a bit more to go. I only really stopped because I was catching up to my Dad a bit too quickly. Mild mannered road bike to stonking 250cc powerhouse in a couple thousand rpm's. Love it. Being tired (lack of sleep the prior morning) didn't do anything to stop me from giggling when I saw the signs which said there were twisties for the next however many kilometres. Things just got better and better until I arrived back home quite safely after my first ride which ended up being 58km long through some rather pleasant countryside. Can't ask for much more than that can we?
Oh yeah, during our travels we came across a few other bikes (though to be honest I expected more, those eager to get out at just about the only time the weather was clear during the weekend). Guess how many waved? ... all of them.Even when overtaking a person with an L plate on!
Finally, a picture of my new love:
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