I love these ads by Pirelli Tire which is very creative, who wants to burn out there tires. I think that all men at a certain level love to burn out his tires and Pirelli’s advertisement plays on these words to get the Ad across.

Pirelli’s genius ad company, Y&R, is behind this bevy of spots, and with excellent photography and a little clever word play, they’re sure to stick in your mind. So, the next time you go to put your tires through some serious punishment, remember Pirelli’s words on the subjects. Think of the tires.

Link: Autoblog

Be part of Al Seef Hospital & BMW Motorcycle club – Donate blood

Friday January 14th 2011

From Green Island to Al Seef Hospital

Time: 2:30PM

Blood donation starts at 4:00PM on 15th floor in Al Seef Hospital

I can’t make it this year but I’m hoping for a huge turn out! I already donated blood towards the end of last year for someone in need but there is always a need for blood at the blood bank.

Link: Ansam518

Water scares me when I ride because hitting the ground isn’t pleasant, and snow isn’t something I want to think about. But this guy is stunting on snow with spiked tires, that is something that I can’t even think about let alone try. I wouldn’t mind trying it out if I can get my hands on a bike like that, the fall doesn’t look too hard!

Italian vs. Italian! This has been a long time coming, and I love it! I’m happy that someone has gone ahead and did it!

“The Ducati is not as forgiving, make a mistake and it will bite you… hard”

Ducati 1198 – 0-60 mph in 2.7 seconds

I love Ducati, bikes are amazing machines, but the Ferrari 458 is one mean machine, Ferrari have perfected the Exotic Super Car! But even on the track with the right rider and driver, the Ducati beat the most menacing machine from the Italian Stable! 1 minute 19 seconds on the 1198s compared to the 1 minute 22 seconds in the 458. The one huge difference here is that any person can get behind the wheel and pushing this exotic supercar, but to push the 1198s you need to skills of a master to push it to its limit and any mistake is a risky one. Beautiful machines.

Now its a reality with Valentino putting on the new colors for the Ducati Desmosedici. The fully carbon fibered GP11 ready for Valentino’s testing even though it went through a bit of a rough spot, he is just getting his leg around the machine and Ducati will work out the kinks. “The Doctor” has taken his usual style changed it up a bit with the black with yellow accents on the Dainese suit, with a new AGV helmet design which has a Question Mark set between the Italian’s Sun & Moon logo.

These amazing pictures from the behind the scenes photographer Gigi Soldano. Valentino Rossi’s personal photographer Soldano is privy to all those insane and quiet moments in a MotoGP paddock. The new helmet is appealing to me, if only it was available from Arai or Shoei I would snap it right up. Rossi is off to a new adventure I just hope they perfect the GP11 so its ready to be ridden this coming MotoGP season, I want to see what Rossi can do on a Ducati, I think everyone is ready to see him riding this season.

Link: Asphalt&Rubber

I very much look forward to riding in the early mornings on Friday! Empty roads lots of bikers cool weather, it couldn’t get any better then that. I met up with Kubayashi at Starbucks Bida’a and saw a lot of familiar faces but even more bikers then the week before. There was at least 200 + bikes in Arjan that morning and even more kept pouring in as time went by, it was an amazing site, there wasn’t even much parking for people to park there cars.

We didn’t stay too long, just about 15 mins before heading out. There was the red bull flugtag and people were meeting up there. We were supposed to participate but due to technical difficulties and our pilot being out of commission we weren’t able to make the deadline. At first we were three guys riding together, but then we decided to meet up with last week’s group and they were a bunch of wild hooligans, I won’t it was a hell of a lot of fun but this time we knew what to expect.

Our first stop was Marina Mall so we headed there and waited for a few of the guys to catch up after filling up at the gas station. There were even more bikes there waiting to see the RedBull show, I felt bad for the people who were going to fall into the Marina since the water by the boats is filthy but we are off on the bikes.

We headed in the direction of Doha for a fun ride and aggressive was an understatement, we were flying. Passing lots of buses for some reason heading into Entertainment City, I didn’t even know they were open in a Friday morning. Then the guys were off again, and they took off, the VMax and the K1300R sliding a bit around the round abouts but cutting tight corners before taking off again, to say it was an adrenaline rush is not doing it justice. We were lucky of course that the roads were semi decent but I loved that ride.

The final images of the Ducati Diavel have been revealed, and its one hell of a beauty. It comes in two versions the Diavel and the Diavel Carbon, the Carbon having more carbon fiber pieces and Marchesini rims which makes it lighter then the base model. The Ducati Diavel is packing a 162hp Testastretta 11º engine, 94 lbs•ft of torque, 456lbs (carbon) / 463lbs (base), radial brakes, ABS, traction control, ride-by-wire, and three riding modes. Based on previous assumption I think the base will be going for 4800 KWD and the Carbon will be around 5700 KWD, that is also assuming where it fits in the Ducati line up but I could be wrong of course. They managed to get that cruiser handling with Ducati charactiristics even though it a 240mm wide rear tire. I think this is one beautiful looking machine from Ducati.

The Ducati Diavel Carbon comes in either “red carbon” or “black carbon”, referring to the color of the paint on the trellis frame. Both versions of the Diavel Carbon will have black forged Marchesini wheels, which shed 5.5lbs off the Ducati Diavel’s base mass. The Carbon will also get Marzocchi forks, whose low-friction diamond-like-coating adds even more blackout to the hotness. Both bikes will get the full Ducati electronics package, which includes Ducati Traction Control (DTC), anti-lock brakes (ABS), rider-by-wire throttle control, keyless ignition, and rider-selectable riding modes.

The tank-mounted TFT display shows bike information such as the current riding mode, gear selection, DTC settings, etc. The TFT display senses the ambient light and choses whether or not to invert the display coloring to aid in daytime/nighttime reading. When stationary the secondary display also handles tuning the traction control and ride-by-wirse settings.

Link: Autoblog

I was so excited to ride this weekend that I woke up at the crack of dawn, I knew it was going to be cool but at 5 am it was 19C outside which was perfect. I update the playlists on my nano, got my camera with me, and got into gear. We met up at 7am on Friday at Starbucks Bida’a, and there were at least a dozen bikers already there. It seems everyone was ready to ride this season and well worth it in the lovely morning. The weather in Kuwait has been fantastic and I hope it stays that way for a while, I am one person that does not miss those dusty days.

As usual there were a bunch of Harleys in the morning and a couple of Ducatis, but it was just me and my friend riding this lovely morning. We said hello to a lot of people, had a cold drink then headed out. They have repaved certain parts of the GulfRoad with what seems to be cheap work so the roads are shiny but slippery, there were few parts where I felt the back end of my bike shake even when I was going relatively slow. I haven’t been on the roads for a while so I thought I would take it easy the first time around to make sure I know where the bad spots are before pushing the bike. We stopped at Sharq Mall to switch bikes, I was riding the Ducati 1098s and my friend was riding the MV Agusta 312R, the 312R is probably one of the most extreme machines out of MV Agusta, Italians really do know how to make their machines look good.

As soon as we switched bikes and got some pictures, we got back on the road only to find a pack of Ducatis that we knew so we dedcided to tag along with them since we didn’t mind modifying our plan. A few hand signals and we were off in a pack of six, and I was riding on a machine that I have never ridden on before, so there was a slight learning curve in the matter. These guys had their gloves off, they were maniacs, the throttle was tied to their adrenaline and they were flying like rockets, and we were keeping up and we know that we could even pass them but we usually go at a more comfortable pace. But we thought we do something different, we went all the way to Doha and back, they were relentless, a couple of Ducati Classics, one BMW, and a Monster, but we were on the MV 312R and the 1098s, so we were flying our of corners, taking any opening. We were lucky the roads were empty and we took the seaside all the way back. By the time we were on Blajat Street I ran out of Gas so we had to fill up, luckily the new station there had Ultra Super gas.

We headed back to Starbucks Bida’a for a drink before riding again, and by the time we got there we saw even more bikes around 9:30 am. I saw the BMW S1000R and its a mean looking machine, even a Corvette group seemed to be out as well. We had some cold water before heading out again, then we met up with some friends at Prime & Toast. This time a friend joined up with us from the Ducati Club and this guy wanted to fly, I won’t lie I was tempted everytime to take off, its a hell of a rush. I think everyone just really loved the day and the cool weather. Some of those guys were riding since last night they couldn’t wait to get on the road. After breakfast I went home and needed a nap to be up the rest of the day. This was my first time riding an MV Agusta and the 312R is a in a class of its own, it has a lot of high end power, I would have preferred a little at the low end but its a big machine and you have to learn how to ride it, if you are over confident its not a forgiving machine but if you learn to ride it, its pure bliss.

So we have a bit of a glimpse of the pricing expected for the Ducati Diavel, you can expect two available types. One is the is the base type and the other is the Carbon version. The Ducati Diavel will start with an MSRP base price of $16,995, while the up-market carbon version will hit the wallet with an MSRP of $19,995. Rumored to make around 165hp, the Diavel is based off the same Testastretta 11º motor as the Ducati Multistrada 1200, and weighs 456lbs according to Ducati. Ducati has also revealed that the Diavel will come with variable riding modes, traction control, and anti-lock brakes. So about 4800 to 5700 KWD, but I’m assuming it will probably sell around 5500 to 6500 KWD based on my past experience of Kuwait’s pricing model, I still think that its a thing of beauty. From the other details they say that the Shock will be mount to the swing arm so you can’t see it in this rear picture below. Then you have to factor in the Termignoni exhaust system which will cost another arm and leg, I can’t wait to see this machine. Only one week left until it is revealed in EICMA.

Riding in California is one of the things that I look forward to the most while I’m in the States. We woke decently early for a morning ride up to Alice’s Cafe on the 9, then back down the 1 after having a bite to eat at Alice’s Cafe. It was Hamdy, Bassim, and myself on the bikes, I was on the Daytona 675, Hamdy on the R1, and Bassim on the CBR 600. All amazing and very agile machines. I haven’t been riding in the states in a while, too long for my liking, and I honestly forgot how nice every one is while you are riding. While riding up the hill there was a Ducati 916 which destroyed us around the corners and made us look like amateurs, he just flew by us on a tight curved which freaked me the hell out, I tried staying in front of him for a bit but at the end I let him pass I couldn’t keep up that speed around the corners. The weather was amazing in the beginning of the day but then it got a little cloudy and hazy so we weren’t sure if were going to continue to the 1.

When we stopped at Alice’s Cafe I was starving, and so was everyone else, we wanted to sit outside and were looking for a table. Two nice older gentlemen offered to share their table with us since they could see the whole place was filled, I loved that, they were old friends talking and chatted with us for it when we sat down before carrying on their conversation, just genuinely nice people. So many bikes all around, I kept looking around different bikes and you could see some mean machines on the road from the BMW S1000RR to the Ducati 1198S, Two mean looking MV Agustas and a couple of Multistradas and lots of Suzukis. So many beautiful machines I just can’t get enough of them, and then it started raining a bit. We were thinking of weather to cut the trip short or continue, after our meal and a little deliberation we decided to just keep on going with it. Its just a little water, but I was unlucky to wear an Air Textile Jacket so I was a bit soaked and freezing cold while riding. We took it to the coast and then the sun broke through the clouds, what a view, what an insane feeling. The roads were amazing, the ride was blissful, this is why I love riding, good people, amazing roads, amazing machines, and good food.