my name is mwd

So, I guess for a while I’ll be playing random catch up with events in my life now I’ve got this blog up. First up is the fact that weekend before last I got a motorbike. not just any motorbike, but I have the most red bike one could possibly imagine (no, it’s not a commie bike… perhaps I shouldn’t read so much La Carre ;). I’ve got my Dad’s old Ducati 907 IE. Don’t fret too much about Dad though, he still has the Ducati 996 :) You can see the pair of us out at new year briefly here .

Anyway, I learned to ride last year as a bit of fun. Partly because it seemed exciting, and partly as I was getting itchy feet and knew I wanted to travel a bit at some point, and doing it by bike seemed a good way to go. Then my Dad lent me The Long Way Round, and that was it – clearly a bike was the way to see the world! Amusingly, unlike most parents I suspect, my parents were very encouraging and in fact gave me my leather jacket to get me started.

So, having passed, I needed a bike. Whilst I lust after various bikes, I was fairly focussed on getting one that would be comfortable for going long distances on. I knew my Dad had been trying to sell the 907 due to running two bikes at once being a pain, and the 907 is a sports tourer bike, which means it looks sporty (which I can take or leave – I’m quite into the BMW GSs) but is set up to be a very comfortable ride. I suspect, as nice as the 996 is, you’d not want to pull a few hundred miles on it in a day, let alone do it again the next day.

Thus last weekend I flew up to Glasgow to collect the bike and drive it down.

I split the journey to break me in gently, first driving over from Glasgow to Edinburgh on the Saturday, and then from Edinburgh to Cambridge on the Sunday. On the way down from Edinburgh I took the scenic start to the trip, going through the Scottish Borders down via Jedburgh rather than take the direct route down the A1. You can see the bike parked up at the borders here:

So, if you spot a Ducati 907 in Cambridge, it’s probably me. The next trip is hopefully to Ireland next weekend. I need to head to Dublin for work on the 29th till 30th, so I’ll get the ferry to the southern tip of Ireland and drive up to Dublin (which isn’t that far – it’s longer to get to the ferry terminal at Fishgaurd, Wales, than to get from Rosslare to Dublin). After that I’d like to take some time later in the year just to head into Europe for a couple of weeks and drive around seeing places randomly.