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Whenever I visit a place or go traveling I wonder how the roads are for riding and if they have any spot which is great for riding and cruising. As soon as I get from traveling I want to go riding right away. That is what I did when I arrived, but there was a special reason to go riding. Pyro is in the second stage of his evolution, I have been waiting for the past year for the carbon fiber fairing parts and as soon as Tristar called me, I went for them.
I am extactic with the way Pyro looks, it took about a week to get it on and fitting right. These are highquality carbon fiber pieces, but I think that they aren’t the perfect fit, but I am still very happy with it. I would give the front fairing an 8.5/10 for the fit and 9/10 for the carbon fiber tail piece. But I am very happy with the way it came out to be, Tristar did an excellent job with the finish.
I went riding and it felt like I was on a different machine and I was really enjoying it. It was cold so I was wearing my black draggin jeans, black top, black leather jacket, black helmet, black gloves, and black boots. I was the knight rider of motorcycles at that moment, it was fun.
The closest any man can get to owning a Moto GP motorcycle. Ducati has built a machine to destroy everything possible on the track, and that is only if you have the skill to get the full potential of this machine. The Italians have beaten the Japanese to the punch.
I think Ducati Rider Vito Guareschi said it perfectly, “If you have a scale of one to ten on how easy a bike is to ride with a Ducati Monster 620 at one and a MotoGP bike at ten then this is an eight and a half.” And as for reference point the 1098 would fit in at five or six.
One of the main things that every person that has ridden this machine keeps saying is the brakes are phenomenol. The frame seems to be twice as stiff as the 1098, and the 1098 is a pretty stiff bike. Its a pure and simple machine made to race with 200 bhp at the twist of a wrist. Ducati has said that they have sold all 1500 versions of these machines, and they are all selling for £40’000.
Its comes with a few very interesting extras:
- Three years free servicing
- The Race Exhaust and CPU
- Cover and Paddock Stand
Both Pyro and Robo have been under the knife for the past 10 Days, one machine is damaged while the other was recieving a face lift.
Robo Update:
- All panels almost fixed, the tank has been repaired and repainted
- Parts left to be ordered are the levers and engine crash protection
Pyro:
- Rear tire changed for the new Perille SuperCorsas
- Front and Rear fairing changed to Carbon Fiber
I hope to get Pyro before this weekend so that I can get some riding in over the weekend, I always miss riding if I don’t go for a few weeks with out it especially when the weather is this nice in Kuwait.
Pyro is out of commission for at least the next two weeks, this is a nice nail that has safely entered my rear tire.
I’m going to call Tristar when this vacation is over to see how fast they can order a new rear tire for me.
Thankfully vampire noticed the nail I had while we were stopped at the last gas station, and I was lucky it entered at a sideways angle. It was probably entered the tire while I was on a turn, its the only way it enters.
Now they will fit the carbon fiber front fairing and tail piece while they get a new tire.
It was a funny ride this day, we had a slow start to the morning and it seems everyone was groggy. We wanted to start riding from 9:30 am onwards but even with all the phone calls we didn’t start riding until 10:20 am. We weren’t sure of the direction we wanted to go but Monichum wanted to head towards the beach houses.
So we headed out in that direction going straight for the Starbucks to get warmed up. It was windy and we were shivering to death, but you could see the smiles on our faces on that cold morning. Monichum and I were riding at a constant speed, then we entered from Mina Abdulla to enjoy the inside roads. We were having a blast on this ride, and the roads were relatively empty on the way there.
Then vampire called us and we convinced him to join us, and we was there extremely faster then we expected. We all ordered something warm to drink and to eat. I had a lot of hot chocolate which wasn’t goo at all at starbucks, for some reason its either too chocolaty or too milky for my taste.
Then we started heading back after relaxing their and warming up for a while. When we headed out we took our time, and we were enjoying the ride in an orderly fashion, we kept in formation most of the way which was a good thing and you could see improvements in people’s riding. Then there was this one idiot in Kia who was going nuts on the road.
This guy in the Kia thought he owned the road so he was tailgating every car on the road on the left lane. Then he came up on vampire and he almost hit him when their was a lot of traffic. I was going nuts, luckily vampire avoided him and fell back to us, when I saw that vampire and monichum were together, I made a signal meaning I’m taking off. I flew like a demon with a vengence towards that bastard in the Kia, I was so pissed I wanted to kill him. He was trying to go faster but I was easily following him, and I was in the right light doing things which aren’t considered sane just to keep up with him in all the traffic. I was side by side to him from Manguf all the way to Fintas, it was a chase and I was going to stop until either I run out of gas or I beat this guy senseless. At fintas he took a quick exit and I still followed him, then I was expecting him to stop we headed I started shouting at him to get out of his car so that I could beat some sense into him. He was wearing some pyjamas and said “Whats wrong with you?!?!?” with an attitude while he was creating havoc on the road. I told him to get out, then he took off again and I was stopped with Monichum and Vampire so we decided head back to civilization, but I still wished he stepped out of his car. What an adventure of a day.
So after the little incident with Monichum he was ready to ride the next morning, and we had group ride planned with some other people we just weren’t sure how big the group was going to be.
It was supposed to be a ride to Abdilli, then lunch their and back. Me and my friend had other plans but we wanted to enjoy the ride so we decided to join them, but we would had back at the first stop point.
We filled up with Gas at the Miseela gas station, and then headed towards the Bida’a starbucks and as we were riding in we noticed the large number of motorcycles their. It turned out to be over 30 motorcycles parked and ready to go.
What surprised me was seeing two other 1098 motorcycles at the meet, I was the only 1098S but its fantastic seeing other Ducatis on the road, but one of them was a yellow one and it looked extremely nice. There was also a Ducati 998R and another Ducati Supersport, and Ducati Monster 695, so for a non-Ducati event their were quite a few Ducatis. And there were quite a few MV Agustas which are very beautiful machines. One motorcycle I wasn’t expecting that did show up was the KTM Superduke which is a fantastic motorcycle, I told the owner that he made a great choice with this motorcycle. Just a great number of motorcycles, it was like a candy store of motorcycles.
We started riding around 9:30 am, we took the Gulf Road until Shuweikh and then took the inside roads from their to head towards Doha, the ride was really fun and it was great keeping line. I prefer to stay in the back so that I can spot the nut cases in the group early on and avoid them, and I managed to find them very quickly. We were really enjoying ourselves, and it got colder as we rode, dropping to about 10C.
When we got to the last stop before making the destination which was a Burger King we stopped for a quick break, and we were all talking. Then we decided to head off and head back, on the ride to the Abdilli we got a light drizzle so we knew rain was on the way.
When we started heading back we were three motorcycles, two Ducatis and one BMW, the BMW rider is a guy I met before and he is really a nice guy and a good rider so we were taking our pace as we were riding back. We got onto the 6th Ring Road and cruised at 150 kph the whole way back, and then it really started raining on us while riding. The rain got more intense as we got close to the our destination, but it just felt really comforting and odd at the same time. When you get comfortable in your skin in this type of weather, something just clicks inside of you. Throughout the ride the temperature dropped to 8C so were freezing the whole ride and by the time we got home, then we managed to relax over a cup of tea and some Halo 3.
Today’s ride was cut short, we just filled up at Miseela Gas station and were heading down the Gulf Road. As we were riding we decided to make a U turn at the Bide’a round about to head towards Julai’a to avoid a lot of cars. I was watching Monichum from my rear view mirror and the round about was relatively empty and we were taking it easy, so I looked back and saw him following me.
Then I headed down the road, and I couldn’t see him in my rear view mirror. I waited for a minute and then I knew something was wrong so I made an illegal U turn and flew back to find him pushing the bike to side walk. I parked the bike, and I asked him what happened since he was going so slow, what could have happened.
He told me he slipped on a stain on the ground which turned out to be a large oil stain. He said suddenly the back end of the bike was going out from under him and before he realized it he was spinning on the ground. He let go of the bike which is an important part of him not being hurt much except for a few bruises and a bruised pride. Lucky for him the car that saw him blocked off the round about with his car, so that nobody would hit him which was great of him.
I was happy as hell nothing happened to him, he just kept apologizing since he was riding Robo. Robo took the fall like a champ, because of the armor at the bottom it kept the bulk of the fall off his leg, which is the exact reason for the protection and so that bike doesn’t get harmed. A few parts were broken or scratched, so they just need to be replaced, it will take a little while to get all the parts so thats all its going to take to fix them.
I called the Tristar guys, but it was slim chance since it was 9:30 am on Thursday morning on Eid. Luckly for me I got one of the guys and within 30 minutes the Tristar van was there to take the bike. The most amazing thing was that two police cars passed us by for the hour and half we were there and they didn’t bother to talk to us or ask if anything is wrong. I’m honestly shocked at their lack of help, and even if nothing was wrong we were stopped illegally and they didn’t say a word. One of those police cars stopped on the round about for 45 minutes and didn’t say a word to us, I was pissed. Tristar reacted better then the damn Police!
The funny part is Monichum wanted to go riding, so he wanted to go get his bike. I told him his enthusiasm is great but he shouldn’t be riding for the rest of the day until he gets it in his head exactly what happened. He felt like a new man later in the day, but he felt the bruises. He was happy he was wearing his jacket, now he wants more gear and real racing boats not the shoes he was wearing. Now he wants to ride more then ever, and I’m just happy that he is fine and nothing bad happened. Robo is out of commission for a little while.
The best time to ride is when there isn’t a lot of people out on the roads and the cool weather just makes it better. I get worked up on the bike when I hear the engine roaring and the right type of music in my ears, it just couldn’t get better then that. I got used to riding with others, and I haven’t ridden solo for a while now, it was different since I’m used to looking for my friend and others riding. This time I was going a little nuts, as long as the roads were empty.
As I was riding I saw one idiot riding without a helmet, then he started hitting on a girl as he was riding. That sort of thing is insulting to me since he is the type of person to ruin riders’ reputation and giving us a bad name. Its fine enjoying the ride and going fast, but its stupid what they do, so I flew by him like a demon to scare him crapless and then at the light I would take off knowing that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with me. It boils my blood seeing idiots like that, but at least I made him look like an idiot a couple of times on the road.
I tend to really like the look and feel of Carbon Fiber, and I have been trying to get the Front Fairing and Tail piece for the 1098 in Carbon Fiber since the first day I got the machine.
After exhausting all my options I came to find out that it is in shortage and in very limited supplies in the US and Europe, and due to the demand we wouldn’t be getting any pieces anytime soon. I ordered with one manufacturing company, and it turns out they were having a problem with the molding so they refunded me the money before I even knew what was going on with the order.
I tried ordering through Shift-Tech or Ducati since I knew they would be high quality carbon fiber and not the cheap kind but I just couldn’t seem to get my hands on them.
It seemed like a lost cause until they get everything right, and to my luck Tristar texted me they have some parts for me. When I was informed of what they were, I wanted them on Pyro yesterday but alas I have to be patient since they have to prepare the parts before installing them which I said is fine, I told them its ok but I would like it installed as soon as they can. I love the combination of red and carbon fiber, Pyro will look very sinister and evil.
Went riding early Saturday morning as well as Friday, since the weather has been perfect the past couple of days all I want to do is go Riding.
This the boys are out on the town, I have a friend who has improved greatly over the past two months so I have offered him the chance to get on Robo with one rule, which has to be adhered to and then rest is good go.
This time Robo and Pyro were on the streets of Kuwait, and I have to say that it was really good seeing my friend improve dramatically over the course of the day and you can see the confidence build in his riding but was taking it easy because this a hell of a machine that he isn’t used to riding.
The first thing he said to me was “Damn You… what hell is this beast.. damn.. for once I could keep up with you”
We were really enjoying ourselves through out the day and our riding was in sync. I was giving him pointers in his riding, and I keep telling him points to keep in mind when he is riding which will improve his ability to control any type of machine.
A fantastic day of riding, but the traffic got a little too much later on in the day.
