my name is mwd

As a relatively new biker I’m still exploring the advantages of the bike. On Friday I had to dash to King’s College in town, and parking in town can be a bit of a pain at times in the car. The Backs (the bit of land that backs onto the main colleges in the town centre) is usually okay, but assuming you have change to hand, and at 50p per 20 minutes it’s not cheap. Let’s face it, being an old town the centre of Cambridge isn’t designed for cars (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

So, it was bound to happen I guess, but I had my first bike mishap. Before you get all worried, it happened whilst stationary, off the road. Just the kind of moment I guess when you feel it’s okay to be rushed and less cautious. Doesn’t mean I feel any less of an utter fool however.

I was parking up at the Lab, and I was in a bit of a hurry. I pulled up, stopped, put the bike into neutral (which I’m getting better at not forgetting – there’s some change between car and bike which means I forget on the bike when I park occasionally, and suddenly recall as I let go of the clutch…), I then kicked down the sidestand and went to get off the bike whilst putting it down on the stand.

Finally got the Ducati back today, with a hideous bill. It’s nice to have it back, but I’m a little hesitent to call it fixed until it’s ran for a week or two. Already I note that the temperature reading is off. I took it for a small run this morning after I picked it up around some of the local villages, but there’s a certain lack of trust at the moment. Hopefully it’ll be alright though. Certainly at the price I just paid to get it fixed I’ll be pushed to get it fixed again any time soon.

So, the garage let me know (well, I phoned them yet again, as they never proactively give me information (well, I bet they will when they want money)) that the 907 is still needing work, as the alternator they were sent for it is duff too. I’m beginning to think that even if this bike gets fixed, if I have this problem every time it needs work then perhaps I’m best looking for a replacement. I know it’s a classic, and deserving of love and care, but I think at the moment I’d like a bike I can actually ride…

Yesterday I woke up aching a bit, and decided against doing any long journeys that I’d had in my mind. The walking up hills and comfort of the 996 had taken their toll a bit :) However, the best laid plans etc…

I started off with a bike up to the BMW Motorrad centre in Bishopbriggs and the Ducati garage in Glasgow. Although I’m not really in the market for a new bike (I think/hope) I’d have to go to London to try and find the nearest such shops to Cambridge, so I went to drool. Annoyingly all the sales people seemed busy with real customers, so I was disappointed to not get at least to sit on some of my dream bikes. Oh well, another time perhaps.

The other night I watched the MotoGP documentary film Faster, which follows the 2001 and 2002 MotoGP seasons. 2001 was the last year that the world championship was run on 2 stroke 500cc enginers, with everyone moving to 4 stroke 1000cc enginers for 2002. Popular opinion with the riders appears to be that the 500s were more fun to drive, despite the 1000s being faster.

In the intro to the film there’s lots of quotes from various riders, including this one from Valantino Rossi, who happened to win both the aforementioned seasons (and every one since…):

So, I’m clearly a cursed man. Went to take the bike for a short run today and I had problems engaging the gear and pulling off. Turns out the chain had gone. Looking at the failure point it’s clear that the link on one side broke a while back (the break is dirty/corroded) and the link of the other side just went as it’s clean. Gah. I already had to take the bike into the garage, but now I have to figure out how to get the bike to the garage. It’ll all be well, I’m telling myself, it’ll all be well, really. Please let it all be well…

The saga continues… I did a bit of prodding the bike with a multimeter this morning, and the battery appears not to be getting a charge, which means something somewhere is either not connected (if I’m lucky) or burnt out (if I’m unlucky). Either way, means the bike is out of action until i can get someone to look at it, and that appears to be next Friday. Oh well, perhaps I can get them to look at the non-working fuel guage whilst they’re at it. Only ever so slightly frustrated here…

So, the battery charged over night okay, the bike started up the firs t time fine, but on the second start I could hear the starter struggling again and the red battery warning light returned once more. I took the bike for a 20 mile run (and thus missed the gym – no bacon roll for me today then…) to see if that would help remove the red light of doom, but alas not. So my best guess would be that the battery is a bit dodgy, perhaps due to the large number of small runs I do on it (Cambridge not being that big). Now I have the charger that I can leave on over night I have some protection, but I suspect my weekend drive to Ireland is looking unlikely at the moment.

Went to start the bike this morning and alas it failed to start up :( I’d noticed that the battery light was on last night as I headed home, but I didn’t have time to take it for a longer run to see if that would charge the battery up more and remove the red light (another example of a warning system that causes the problem to get worse, albeit very slightly). Anyway, I got all dolled up in my bike gear, wheeled it out, and although all the dash lights came up and the fuel injection system sounded happy, pressing the starter button resulted in a feeble sounding attempt to start the motor, rather than the roar of life I was expecting.