GreyMamba

Thinking Allowed … (under construction)

Thinking Allowed … (under construction)

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things.
John Appleseed

I learned to ride in the antediluvian ages when the test involved 2 trips around the block and an emergency stop. Unfortunately I never took my test, relying on the relatively lax power/capacity limits required for a learner. I think the most powerful bike I had was a Susuki GT 185 (2 Stroke) which I accidentally wheeled onto a busy roundabout by inadvertently raving the engine and dropping the clutch - happy days. I survived all that but an early family and responsibilities put a stop to riding until 1996 when, on a whim, my mate and I signed up for a crash course (unfortunate term really) culminating in the slightly more difficult test. I've seriously never, ever been so nervous in my life - even taking my flying test which, after all, could have been fatal :-). This involved being followed around by the examiner communicating via a radio and crappy earpiece. Having turned out of the test centre, all I heard was a scrambled, scratch, insect like screech, and the examiner disappeared down a left turn as I carelessly barrelled on. I stopped, ran back, got a blocking and sorted the radio. I then had to do an uphill U turn in a narrow road - which amazingly more by luck than judgement I pulled off without foot down, crashing or ending up in some grannies back garden. Anyhow, now pretty sure I'd cocked up and failed, the rest of the whole thing was easier and incredibly he passed me - even happier days!

Ducati Supersport S 2017

What a beautiful bike! Small, sexy, very red and full of Italian charm - and idiosyncrasies. I guess I bought it because ... well ... it's a Ducati and I could afford it at the time. And as a PS, many years ago, an incredibly attractive Italian lady (a colleague's wife, so strictly off-limits) said to me 'You are like ice - hot ice'. I've had a soft spot for anything and everything Italian since then :-). As always though, I've felt the need to tinker with it and I may go into some of these changes in more detail later but here is the TLDR version.

1. The gearing as stock is, in my opinion, a little long if you spend any length of time in traffic queues - especially if you're stop-starting on a hill!. So I swapped the front sprocket from 15 teeth to 14 teeth. Much better, not perfect, but much better. I guess acceleration is a bit sharper and top speed lower but I don't notice the first and don't plan on testing the second on UK roads.

2. Crash bungs - or sliders. I was petrified, quite unnecessarily as it turned out, about dropping my Italian lovely. So I've fitted 2 sets of sliders - Ducabike (which are pretty) and Evotech-Performance (which look much more up to the job). Think I'll remove the Ducabike ones soon because I don't really need them - bit like training wheels on a push bike I suppose.

3. A Datatool Stealth S5 tracker, for peace of mind. I've got a BikeTrac equivalent on my Tiger.
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