Its been a little while since Robo has been out, it has taken about two months since Monichum’s Slide. The engine guard and levers took some time to get, that delayed everything over a month but now everything is done and finished. I only changed the mirrors to bar end mirrors because they are cleaner, look sleeker and do provide me with a good amount of view with almost no vibration at any speed or acceleration.
The moment they took Robo out of the Tristar van I was ecstatic about it. The aggressive look of the machine that I missed, I wanted to ride right away and that is pretty much what I did. I dropped everything I was doing, geared up and headed out the door to catch what little was left of day light. There were a few riff raffs on the road but I was enjoying myself too much to care, and I missed the pure brute strength that this machine has, so much torque on this heavy machine.
After our long day of riding two of the bikes were pretty dirty. So we headed over to Al Fallah Car Wash, they wash bikes as well as cars which is different then most washing places.
They took the bikes to the right and started washing them right away. There was a huge line of cars behing us when we pulled up. The que backed up to the road but two bikes were getting washed, I was parked to the side since my bike was relatively clean.
The mist from the water felt very nice in that breeze and hot weather. They gave my bike a wipe down since it was parked next to theirs, they all looked nice and clean.
We were supposed to meet up around 8:30 am at the Miseela gas station to go riding but I overslept and my phone died. Even with all the phone calls I didn’t get up until 9:30 am and by that time the guys were close by. I got up, showered very quicly and was out the door in 10 minutes.
The weather was amazing outside, I knew it was going to be a fun ride. We decided to stay in town so our route was simple, down the sea side to the end of the Gulf Road at Shuweikh, then to Marina for Breakfast. It was fun in and out of traffic, the weather was perfect. This was the first time in 4 month I have worn the summer jacket, I had to wear a t-shirt this time since it was hotter then usual. I hope the weather stays this way, I don’t want it getting to hot too quickly.
It isn’t as bad as it sounds but it was as bad as it looked. We were riding last Friday as posted earlier, and after breakfast we wanted to continue down the Gulfroad to KPC then to our friend. There were a few nut cases on the road, but this woman topped it off. After Al Seef Palace we saw this black Honda Civic driving a little fast, after the round about monichum went ahead and I was right after him when she swerved in my way, I back off a bit and K was behind me in his car.
When there was an opening, the road was empty except for the black Honda Civic, I took off to catch up with Monichum and K right behind us as usual, but she was driving like a maniac or rally car driver we couldn’t figure it out. We were going at a fast pace but we slow down for the red light, we were taking it easy after the last curve before the light. I saw K behind me and Monichum already at the light in the left lane, I stopped in the right and K in the middle.
After stopping at that light for at least 8 seconds I heard this loud braking screech. Only to see the black Honda Accord stuff herself between K and Monichum, K moved his car into my lane to avoid getting hit and I saw that Monichum managed to move and was still standing. All four of her tires were still in smoke, when the light turned green we moved and wanted to stop up ahead but Monichum didn’t move, I could see him in my side view mirror something was wrong. We both stopped to go back, and we wanted to check on him.
Turns out she didn’t miss Monichum, her side view mirror was hanging off her car, she broke her side view mirror on Monichum’s elbow. He was pissed but very calm, the women was about to cry but he told her to leave. He kept calm even though he wanted to blow up, she was driving like an idiot and to my “surprise” (I’m being sarcastic) she turned out to be muhajabah. Why is it always that case, do muhajabaat really hate bikers to the point they want to take them out. Lucky for Monichum the jacket took a majority of the impact at the elbow protection point, but still. We were stopped at a light and she almost took him out.
Since our flight got rescheduled without notice we decided to leave the airport and take full advantage of our early morning. We headed back home to get in gear and get ready, two of us in bikes and two people in one car. It felt like a scene from a movie, we were all hungry and ready to eat, the weather was amazing so we headed to Marina Mall. We were flying down the roads, the bikes felt like an escort for the car or an early recon because we were flying down the road or riding next to each other.
It was fun since the roads were relatively empty. As soon as we got to Marina, we decided to eat at Zaatar and Zeit. That was a very good decision, and we all got to eat what we wanted from cheese with bread to kufta, it really hit the spot. I had some of their hot chocolate and it wasn’t that good at all. It was cold but the food really hit the spot. It was funny how empty the whole of Marina was, it seems most of everyone was out of town.
We headed out after a little while to go enjoy our day. We got off to a fun start flying down the roads since they were empty. Our next stop was the KPC parking and then we headed over to our friend’s work who was working on Saturday where we planned even more for our ridiculous trip. There was an incident but I will post about that later.
I have been looking forward to this ride for two weeks now, a lot of us didn’t get a chance to ride due to the weather and some busy schedules. This week we all agreed to meet early in the morning to head out to Julai’a and then meet up with the rest of the guys. I was up by 7:45 am and calling everyone before I got out of bed, the only person awake was vampire as usual.
We met up at Miseela Gas station by 8:45 am, we were a little late since one of our friend’s bikes’ battery was dead, he jumped and came over. We had a plan and we were going to execute on it. We took off to Julai’a and the weather was perfect, sunny and clear. We kept in our group the whole ride there, we even took off a few times enjoying the curves on the highway to Julai’a.
We got to our spot and relaxed for a little while. Around 9:50 am the wind kept picking up, 10:15 am it got dusty and 10 minutes after that it looked like a scene from The Mummy.
We decided to take off before it got worse, but even then it did. We kept the pack tight, in staggered formation in the right lane. We were getting blown around in the wind and getting wipped by the sand. We couldn’t go over 100 kph, for most of the ride we kept going at 80 kph so that we could react to anything on the road. At one point there was broken planks of wood on the road, then there was a tree across the highway we also managed to avoid that. It was a battle, and the one thing going through my head was all the Will Smith songs I had on my MP3 player.
By the time we got home we were all covered in layers of sand. My black rim was brown by the time we were done, and we all got home started playing Call of Duty 4 right away.
It was a bit of windy and cloudy morning, got up to a few phone calls around 8am. We were going to keep our ride in town since the wind could pick up, but we still wanted to ride.
As vampire said he had a surprise which was an upgraded Ducati, a very interesting one at that. He got a Monster S4R which is a very fun motorcycle, it handles better, more power, and a lot more fun then the regular Monster.
We took off down the road and this has turned into an interesting ride. Since now all the machines are quite capable of going fast and handling this turned out to be an interesting ride.
It was a fun day, the best was the sun was coming out as it got closer to the afternoon. The streets were empty which is the best part and we ran into a friend who was driving to the gym as we were riding down the road, we waved and kept going down the road.
The last weekend was a short ride since we were all caught up with social obligations and the weather didn’t help what so ever. It didn’t feel like a fulfilling weekend if I don’t get to go riding for a few hours, every time we go riding we have to finish at least one tank of gas because we ride around so much.
It was only me and Vampire riding since Monichum had to work on a presentation so we headed out, but we didn’t have so much time either. We just managed to go for a short ride, but at least we rode. It wasn’t completely satisfying since we didn’t get to go as far as we wanted, and there was too much traffic since we started late.
Riding is risky business but it doesn’t mean you can’t take precautions when you ride. One of these precautions is having the right type of protection, that lessens the affect of an impact during an accident. Knox is a specialty company that makes protection apparel for riding, and one these products is the new Chest protector. This Chest protector integrates with the Contour Back Protector so that you can wear both as a combination for front and back protection. There are very few companies that make this type of protection for the chest, and it is designed to spread the pressure from the point of impact. I think that this is a very important product to have with the back protector. I will be picking one up when I have a chance to try it with the back protector.
Price: $60
Link: STG
I think that the Hypermotard is one of the most entertaining and unique machines Ducati has come up with yet. I have been wanting to try this machine for some time yet, but it is hard to come by.
Like any other biker you always enjoy some good stunting, in the right enviroment, not the idiots you see on the roads in Kuwait. But getting full control of your machine like Ernie Vigil. I wish I just have 25% of his skill, if my front tire comes off the ground even 10 centimeters I got this strange sensation in my stomach, but what he does is amazing on such a fun bike.
Link: YouTube