So,
The twins are ten days old and Amy's parents are up to stay/help. So it's a nice weekend of family and children and playing the perfect father role.....
NO!!! I'm finally free for a couple of hours to go blow the cobwebs out of my bike and brain in yesterday's glorious British weather! Yes, I leave at 8am and by nine am tearing through Klink and Shade's favourite Essex roads, Ongar, Fyfield and onwards through the new green hedgerows and blossom and early morning air. Got to test a lot of things so keep it pretty easy for a while. New triple clamps, Brembo Monoblocks, hydraulic system, clutch slave, etc. All this means that just about every bolt and bearing has been off the front end over the last few months and I don't want something coming loose and dropping off while I'm going full chat.
But after a few dozen miles everything seems fine so I start playing with the quick-shifter and red line and exploring how much more effective these brakes are than my memory of the standard ones, (which weren't bad). They are truly awesome and the limit is always with the M5 tyres and the road surface - feeling though is really good and it's a one finger jobbie for most riding needs.
Catch up to a 916, follow him for a while then get bored and pass him. Keep on ragging it through the bit where the new tarmac is laid like a race track and as I hit third or fourth - must have been doing well over 100mph - a duck kind of creature, long legs and flapping wings - breaks from the right hand verge and flies across the road trying to gain altitude and moving away from me in the same direction I'm traveling. It's doing about 10 mph but my closing speed is so fast I haven't got time to do anything. For and instant I'm Tom Cruise in Top Gun and I'm calculating trajectories and collision courses but at the last second I just think, "fook it" and bury my head in the tank. Think I might have shut my eyes too! There's a massive SMACK across my helmet and the sound of exploding feathers and meat - nearly knocks my head off it does! But I guess I'm lucky 'cos when I stop to view the damage the impact has smashed the air vents and stuffed all the holes full of feathers and stuff. There's a weird powder all over the helmet, (vapourised duck???) and the paint is scratched in quite a few places. I reckon that, had I not ducked, (geddit!!), it would have hit me in the visor and probably gone straight through and into my face. Gawd knows what would have happened.
I went to look for the offending bird but couldn't see it anywhere. Wanted to get a photo.
Ironically from what I remember was it was black with orange legs and beak. KTM duck!
The twins are ten days old and Amy's parents are up to stay/help. So it's a nice weekend of family and children and playing the perfect father role.....
NO!!! I'm finally free for a couple of hours to go blow the cobwebs out of my bike and brain in yesterday's glorious British weather! Yes, I leave at 8am and by nine am tearing through Klink and Shade's favourite Essex roads, Ongar, Fyfield and onwards through the new green hedgerows and blossom and early morning air. Got to test a lot of things so keep it pretty easy for a while. New triple clamps, Brembo Monoblocks, hydraulic system, clutch slave, etc. All this means that just about every bolt and bearing has been off the front end over the last few months and I don't want something coming loose and dropping off while I'm going full chat.
But after a few dozen miles everything seems fine so I start playing with the quick-shifter and red line and exploring how much more effective these brakes are than my memory of the standard ones, (which weren't bad). They are truly awesome and the limit is always with the M5 tyres and the road surface - feeling though is really good and it's a one finger jobbie for most riding needs.
Catch up to a 916, follow him for a while then get bored and pass him. Keep on ragging it through the bit where the new tarmac is laid like a race track and as I hit third or fourth - must have been doing well over 100mph - a duck kind of creature, long legs and flapping wings - breaks from the right hand verge and flies across the road trying to gain altitude and moving away from me in the same direction I'm traveling. It's doing about 10 mph but my closing speed is so fast I haven't got time to do anything. For and instant I'm Tom Cruise in Top Gun and I'm calculating trajectories and collision courses but at the last second I just think, "fook it" and bury my head in the tank. Think I might have shut my eyes too! There's a massive SMACK across my helmet and the sound of exploding feathers and meat - nearly knocks my head off it does! But I guess I'm lucky 'cos when I stop to view the damage the impact has smashed the air vents and stuffed all the holes full of feathers and stuff. There's a weird powder all over the helmet, (vapourised duck???) and the paint is scratched in quite a few places. I reckon that, had I not ducked, (geddit!!), it would have hit me in the visor and probably gone straight through and into my face. Gawd knows what would have happened.
I went to look for the offending bird but couldn't see it anywhere. Wanted to get a photo.
Ironically from what I remember was it was black with orange legs and beak. KTM duck!
