It’s a sad day in the White Dalton Offices today as we wave goodbye to my Ducati 600SS (I finally had to agree with others that I really wasn’t likely to ever ride it again as it was no match for the Triumph 675).

The bike was sold to Dave Wood Racing who specialise in road and race preparation for motorbikes as well as literally everything else motorbike related.

Dave is a great, straight-talking kind of guy who has done several bike MOTs and servicing through the years for employees of White Dalton and he has crazily now agreed to sort out the mass of electrics John is hoping to add to his beema.

I am pleased the Ducati has gone to him for resale, and I hope it then goes on to a deserving new home. Meanwhile I will continue to enjoy getting out and about on my Triumph

Winter linings zipped back into all the gear and lobster gloves on again … happy biker
Now contemplating some highly attractive thermal base layers for the REALLY cold months

This week I have had to hang up my summer air-flo jacket for the last time, and switch back to the familiar old leather jacket ready for the winter.

I can’t believe how sudden the drop in temperature seems to have occurred; the last few days have been quite bitter at morning commuter time … although bright and sunny and still needing my dark visor , I have also needed my winter gloves! And after getting off the bike at work this morning, I did start to wonder where I might have stored the additional lining for my jacket .

Oh well, good thing I’ve got decent winter gloves, neck tubes, and plenty of jumpers to layer up in when going out on the bike. Now all I need is a good deal on a waterproof over-suit.

Watch this space for more winter kit reviews as the weather gets worse!

Since yesterday, I have learned two new things about my ear-plugs.

Firstly, when a house or car alarm a few streets away goes off in the middle of the night, and the sound feels like it is piercing your brain and you’ll never sleep again, these moulded ear plugs block out the sound completely. They are too uncomfortable to sleep in, but you can at least stop having to listen to the alarm.

Secondly, if you get your order of getting ready to leave in the morning wrong, and you put in your ear-plugs prior to using an electric tooth-brush, the noise is immense and feels as if you are drilling into your brain.

Happy plugging

I have long been aware that wind noise contributes massively to the fatiguing effects of riding a motorcycle; pretty understandable given that at motorway speeds the volume inside a helmet is apparently the equivalent to having a pneumatic drill pounding away at you.

So I had been toying with the idea of getting some personal ear plugs rather than continually nicking from the office stash of disposable freebies we give out at shows . At the Aberdare Road Races I decided to utilise the time spent waiting for it to stop raining by finally acting on this idea, and I had casts taken of my ears to have plugs made which fit me and me only.

The sensation was simply the strangest thing I have experienced in a long time; it is neither natural nor pleasant to have goo injected that far down your lug-holes.

The jury is still out on whether it was worth it. I did get a pretty good deal cash-wise, and I did get to choose bright blue to match my bike and satisfy the girliness in me. However, I’m just not sure .

They are quite solid, which surprised me – I think I expected softer, more malleable rubber. This means my ears now get bashed by my helmet each time I pull it on or off. It also means after a long journey my ears can feel quite tired – really not something I would call ‘normal’.

I have also found them quite a hassle to insert, although I am hoping this is just a matter of technique improving over time. It is definately a two-handed affair, and it is all too easy to get the angle off just slightly, and you will be fumbling for ages, cursing (a lot) and getting less and less likely to fit them with each mini-tantrum. On the other hand, sometimes I manage it within seconds, and wonder what the fuss on the previous ride had been about. Which just confuses me further.

I think the conclusion I am almost at is that when i’m out for a decent spin on my bike then yep, genius, cuts out almost every last bit of wind noise (I chose the filter level for race & motorway use rather than normal road use), and I can hear my bike’s engine crisper than ever, which is great. Definately worth the hassle.

However, when out as a pillion? Or on just a short run-around? No thanks, I think i’d rather just have a little noise and get to where I am going without the extra palarva.

On Sunday John and I rode the 150 mile round trip to see the last MotoGP race to be held at Donington Park.

It was a classic English day for these types of events – and by that I mean rainy

The atmosphere was great as always at MotoGP, the crowd a competing sea of colours for Rossi and Toseland, plus spattered banners for each of the other racers too.

It was one of the most unusual races I have watched, with the two Ducatis making a fatal error by choosing wets over slicks, ending up in a sight I never would have expected – Stoner being lapped by Rossi! That was actually quite a sad moment in my book … I know Stoner is not the most popular of riders on the circuit, but he is the only guy who has tamed that Duke and boy has he done it with style – when he is on form he is a stunning rider to watch – especially when in fierce 1-on-1’s with Rossi.

It was also made memorable by the offs – Lorenzo and Rossi being the main ones. Totally unexpected, the two main contenders for the podium both (but individually) managed to wipe themselves out of the race for first place (and Lorenzo out of the race entirely), giving a chance to others who usually don’t get a look-in. Dovizioso came in for his first win of his MotoGP career, Edwards came in second, and de Puniet third.

We travelled home en masse afterwards, wondering how/why on earth drivers still try to change lane through hundreds of bikes filtering in turn down the M1 … I could just hear the trial in my head … “yes Your Honour I did have 95 bikes go past my window in quick succession but I just didn’t think to check my mirrors for a 96th!”

I did discover that race leather pants and an air-flo jacket whilst brilliant for the ride up in the dry were a pretty rubbish outfit for the ride back in the rain! By 20 miles in I was soaked, but warm enough not to be too bothered by it … although I did start eyeing up other people’s rain suits with rather green eyes!

And I can’t help but end on a quick gloat … when looking out into the sea of bikes parked up in the carpark and admiring several bikes whilst walking around (there were some wicked ones there), I did have a little warm glow inside knowing that there was not a single other bike identical to mine there

This weekend, John and I went to Aberdare, South Wales, to man White Dalton’s stand at the Annual Road Race.

The turn out was a bit lower than expected, but given the ridiculous amount of rain which fell over the weekend we were pleased to see there were still a large number of bikers who arrived to provide support to the racers. Speaking of whom, the racers who still continued to compete through the rain were truly hardcore and I take my hat off to them. The bikes still got up to amazing speeds and over so far at corners, despite the wet, making the races great to watch. John got some close-up shots of some of them, so I will get him to post them, and below are some general scenes taken with my not-so-fancy pocket camera.

I was pleased to note our new safety campaign of car/van stickers urging drivers to look twice for bikers before turning went down well, and as usual there was much interest in the CCM Limited Edition Flat-Tracker we are currently giving away.

Oh well, the only thing you truly cannot plan is the weather … I hope we will be back next year in drier climes to properly enjoy this annual event that has built up such a great name for itself.

Having returned last night from the Road Races in Aberdare, I just wanted to pen a big THANK YOU to the (large number of) lads who all assisted John and I manoeuvre the White Dalton Motorhome on the quagmire formerly known as Aberdare Park. I was truly grateful to see real camaraderie, and was impressed at the amount of muscle power offered up from both show-workers and other traders! It was also nice to see that no amount of rain can dampen that welsh spirit Oh – and to those of you who jokingly said we would be lucky to get in for midnight … we made it with an hour to spare!

On Sunday, John and I went on a daytrip to watch our sponsored racer, Jamie Wilkins, storm the track at Snetterton.

The ride there was bright and (very) early, and so we were able to take advantage of the lack of traffic to enjoy some country bends and faster roads.  Before we knew it we were passing signs welcoming us to Norfolk, and we were at the track.

Jamie was pretty highly strung when we met him at the gate … not dissimilar to those cans you open and the springy snakes leap out!  But that’s understandable when you have such a passion to win … as Jamie put it “I just hate losing” – and in his book, coming second is losing!

Jamie’s races were so exciting … the first was a testament to how hard this guy works – to jump from 10th to 7th to 3rd in consecutive laps to make up for going wide at that bend earlier on was just stunning!  The second race was proper nail-biting stuff – I lost track of how many times he and Andy Denyer swapped positions through the race.  But Jamie went all out and bagged another win and yet another interview & photo shoot on the podium.

We pottered around the paddocks in between Jamie’s races, and were really impressed at the friendliness and general fun feeling of the place.  People were quite happy to chat to us about their bikes, vans, set-ups etc, and it was lovely how many racers had family and friends cheering them on.

We got some great photos of Jamie battling with his main rival at the chicane, and have since been sent some stunners of Jamie at another corner further round by Bedford photographer Tony Margiocchi.

The ride home started embarrassingly (stalling in the paddocks ) but it soon picked up and despite some hairy filtering in the Norfolk/Cambridge traffic due to an accident holding up a large section of the A11, we arrived home a couple of hours later with big grins under the helmets, still very chuffed with the Daytona and the GS.  Now I just need to learn how to get my knee sliders more like John’s and Jamie’s and less like the bricks they currently are.

Most bikers I know who have moved on from riding pillion to riding their own bikes don’t enjoy it when they have to later ride as a pillion for whatever reason.

This is something which I am positively grateful not to have experienced.

I was introduced to biking by riding pillion on a Ducati 748, a pretty classic sporty number, and I caught the bug quickly (as some of you know, my first big bike was then a Ducati 600SS).

The thrill of leaning deep into corners together, knowing exactly when your rider is going to overtake or accelerate sharply and then tucking down flat behind them at the right instance as they do the same, and feeling the sheer force created by the speed tug you backwards will never escape me. Maybe its because I had complete faith in the rider’s abilities (a trip around the mountain route at the TT cemented this ), or maybe its because I have travelled faster as a pillion than I will probably ever dare to do as a rider, I have simply always enjoyed it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love riding my Triumph, but the other day I had cause to go pillion again … and it was great fun.

This time it was on the new BMW F800GS and wow what a difference! Now, admittedly there is no excitement factor like there is with the sportsbikes, but there is an additional fun factor involved. You feel as if the bike can be literally thrown around any corner or bend with ease, and regardless of the road surface it’s a pretty smooth ride. The view is incredible – you are seated high up, and therefore feels very safe – like the feeling when you get in a 4×4 or van and you can see over the roofs of the hatchbacks around you. The seat isn’t half bad either, although that has never really been an issue for me – I am not a girl that Freddy Mercury would have described as making the rockin’ world go round – and I only ever took up half of the pillion seat on the 748 (we managed to fit me plus a tent on that seat for a trip to Ireland)!

So I have decided to count myself as pretty lucky … I love riding … full stop … as rider, as pillion, whatever.

Which means my dream, which I thought I may have to revise if I had felt like those in my opening paragraph, remains to ride pillion round a track with JT or Rossi. Sad, maybe, but I just know it would be amazing.