We had an early morning ride planned for Friday, and as soon as I woke up I realized how cold it was and I was going to enjoy it. Put on a sweatshirt under my air jacket, just in case if it got hot in the afternoon. We decided to stay in the city this time, and we met up at Starbucks Bida’a. As soon as I got there I could see at least 30 Harley Davidsons and customs choppers of every kind was parked in the lot and just three Ducatis standing out between them.
We decided to head out and it seems that the Harley Guys had the same thought at the time. So you had three colorful bikes heading out between a bunch of Harley’s, we were zipping around getting to the front, these guys are extremely organized and hopefully they keep this up, its great work and they are enjoying their rides.
We headed out down the Gulf Road and zipped around and all over Kuwait, it was an interesting ride we even had a new rider with us but he was doing a decent job. We even faced a few crazy people and an oblivious old man on the road who nearly took us off the road but luckily that was avoided, you run into those people every once in a while. He needs a lot of work on the corners but it seems he has the natural ability to riding so thats always fun. And the weather was fantastic.
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This is the second year running for the Ride 2 Save event brought by Dar Al Shifaa & BMW Motorcycle Club. We went last year to the event with over 150 riders of different kinds donating blood and saving many lives. I know that I will be attending the event as last year, hopefully even more riders will show up. Donating blood is a very important issue in Kuwait as not every blood type is readily available and many lives depend on the availability of blood at the blood bank. I hope many people join this event this coming Friday, and looking for a big turnout.
Date: Friday 20th November
Meeting: SHIIK Resort parking On Gulf Rd Bedi3
Timing:
- 2.30 pm Start of Registration & Blood Test
- 4:00 pm police escort from the resort To Hospital
The Thalassemia group also will be there to welcome all bikers and thank them for saving their lives by donating blood @ Dar Alshifa hospital all donors will donate from 4.30 to 7.00 pm and Beverages will be served @ Parking of SHIIK then the same @ Dar Alshifa Hospital
In the morning @7:45 am in Mishref, we had a very long ride planned out and all the machines came out that day. Its been too long but Robo also came out after all this time, so the KTM and Ducati were out. Three of us wanted to do a lot of riding, we had one planned all the place and with three experienced riders we decided to take long fun routes.
Route:
- Bayan Gas Station
- Julai’a for a bite to eat
- Back to the city
- Taking the GulfRoad starting @ Miseela
- GulfRoad to KPC
- KPC to the 2nd Ring Road
- 2nd Ring Road to the GulfRoad to Salmiya all the way down to Bida’a
- Bida’a to the 6th Ring Road then to the Airport
- Airport to Sabhan then to Mubarak Al Kabeer where we almost ran out of Gas
- Filled up at Malik Fahad Gas Station in Al Qurain before heading home
We got in over 4 hours of riding, my odometer added over 350 Kilometers that day and I had a lot of fun, whenever we made a stop I would switch to another playlist to listern to. The feeling of those corners that we were enjoying were fantastic, I wanted to go knee down into some corners forgetting everything but the riding and the machine. What felt odd was that I was riding the KTM and Monichum was riding the Ducati and even when it was over 7 meters away from me I could clearly hear the exhaust tone of Pyro over the music and sound of the machine I was on, I need an exhaust for Tango. What an amazing day, the weather was fantastic, the roads were mostly empty, we saw other riders and as soon as I was done I felt that my day was fulfilled, I felt satisfied with this accomplishment, and it was still early in the day with so much to do, nothing beats a good day out riding.
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KTM RC8-R RedBull Eidtion
EICMA is the motorcycle show that takes place in Milan Italy, and I for one do enjoy when they unveil new machines. These are some of the machines that look interesting. First off is the KTM RC8-R Red Bull Edition, this machine looks damn nice and it has some performance upgrades to go with the look so its a little bit peppier then the rest.
BMW Concept 6
Now this is an interesting machine from BMW, its a 6-Cylinder concept meant to be for touring but it looks more like a semi-naked sports bike that I wouldn’t mind trying. Others were mentioning it as a cafe-racer and that seat does look appetizing, wouldn’t mind getting my leg over that machine.
Ducati 848 Dark
This is the same as the 749 & 748, the evolution now takes place with the 848 and surprisingly this is a lower cost then the regular 848 even though I think it looks better. At least they would gain more of a crowd with this machine, it does look mean and I do like it.
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Chris Pfeiffer is a stunter that I have spoken about again and again, he is an amazing rider with amazing skills. Seems like he took those skills to the snow, and he is handling this Snowcat like an off-road machine in the dirt. Looks like a lot of fun, he is controlling that machine like its a walk in the park, even when he falls in the snow it looks like fun. I want to see more of this guy doing those amazing stunts, and I hope BMW keeps pushing the limits and making interesting videos and machines.
Link: Asphalt&Rubber
Its been a little while since I have had a ride like this, woke up around 7 am and called up Monichum to find out he was out since 5:30 am. I got up showered, checked my iPod Nano, took my camera and headed down to my bike, checked the 1098s to find out the gas was really empty so I took Tango out for some fun. Filled up gas on the sixth ring road and headed to the freezone starbucks and that was a fun ride with the highways and streets mostly empty all the way there.
There was only one other guy sitting at starbucks looking at architectual drawings that early in the morning, he was even asking us what we were doing up that early in the morning, usually young people would be sleeping at this time on a Friday is what he said, our simple answer is we take advantage of the empty streets. We headed off after having a nice cool drink, and headed down the Gulf Road starting from the KPC side only to find out there is so much construction and there were a few police checks but they were bothering the bikers, mostly a few sports cars, and we kept on ahead all the way to Bida’a and enjoying the ride, we saw a lot of Harley’s on the way, a lot more then other kinds of bikes, Harleys not my cup of tea but they I always admit they are a dedicated group in any country. After making it all way around Kuwait back to the Bida’a, we headed back in the other direction, towards Salmiya, then towards Kuwait Towers, and all the way back to the city. After a few hand signals, we decided to head to Prime & Toast for an early breakfast around 9:30 am and a few friends decided to join us, that place fills up face. I was enjoying the ride but the humidity was ridiculous, luckily we found seats inside and I asked for a bottle of cold water and two scoops fo strawberry ice cream for breakfast, that was it, Monichum had an assortment of Pancakes which I’m not really a fan of. That was such a refreshing feeling, I haven’t had a ride like this in a long time, and I need to have more, luckily Kuwait is cooler this year then last year so we can enjoy the cool weather and so are a lot of other people out walking and enjoying a nice drive.
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Things aren’t so great with the Big H.D. they have had to take some thought steps to go forward. Their sales are down and it seems they are looking to cut costs and become more liquid. Buell just hasn’t fared so well over the years even with the best effort put forward by them, H.D. just held them back. With MV Agusta they are already trying to find potential buyers in the market to take their stake in it. All this is a bit of a shock from Harley Davidson and the motorcycle industry will be affected, MV also have a new motorcycle to unveil so I’m curious as to how its going to look.
Link: Autoblog
Now this turned out to be an interesting ride, it wasn’t anything that I expected except that almost nobody showed up but I thought to post it up anyways. I planned for about 6 people based on some feedback but that didn’t work out, Adrenaline couldn’t make it until 7 pm, Vampire got caught up with the night shift at work, another guy was in the states, and Monichum was late. AM texted me that he is on the way and Monichum did the same but he would be running a bit late. It was interesting to be visiting that Starbucks at that time, I sat next to the fan spraying water because it was perfectly cool, and the crowd kept increasing as time went by. I felt so out of place since I haven’t been to Starbucks or sat in one at night in a very long time, but I had my bottle of cool water and waited. AM showed up, we talked and got to understanding of each other’s riding skills, Monichum showed up 15 mins later and so we headed out.
Since it was a bit on the windy side we decided not to go to Julai’a instead we headed towards the Starbucks in the Freezone, and we knew it would be a nice ride. I’m leading the pack, Monichum running the rear, and AM in the middle. We explained our riding technique in a group in a few steps, and we got it clear that we will be keeping a fast pace, we started it off steady and built it up from there. Monichum and myself have been riding for three years together so we have a rhythm going, and AM was picking it up and hopefully with more rides he will pick up how we ride and a few tips and techniques to improve his own riding. We had a lot of fun riding there, we kept in tight formation giving each other the right amount of space, and kept the pace between 120 to 140 kph to whole way. I didn’t realize how packed the Free Zone area would be, we got caught in some annoying traffic but made it there. When we got to Starbucks and the whole place was packed, we saw a pack of Ducatis there, two Mosnter 696 and one 1098 which was fun to see. We sat there and chatted for about an hour about riding, riding in Kuwait, and a few other things. Then we got up and headed home, Monichum got on 4th Ring Road, AM and myself got on the 6th Ring Road to head home. It was very nice ride, and the weather keeps getting cooler, I’m enjoying these rides.
So for a while now I get emails about people wanting organized group rides, usually I refer them to the BMW Motorcycle Club since they are a good group and take everyone under their wing. This time around I’m doing this a little differently, I’m usually only riding with a few friends in Kuwait. This time around its an open invitation to those who would like to ride, its just a simple outing for anyone who wants to try a group ride for once, I don’t think I will be doing this often since I usually don’t ride around this time but I thought I might try organizing it. This is a night ride starting at Bida all the way to Julai’a Starbucks and back to Miseela gas station.
Meet Up:
Location: Starbucks Bida’a Strip
Date: Oct 4th
Time: 6:00 pm (Meet Up Time) – 6:30 pm (We Leave Bida’a to head to gas station and then Julai’a)
*I will be on the Ducati 1098 or KTM RC8, easy bikes to find in a crowd
One note, if you are a novice rider I don’t recommend that you try a night ride in this group. We aren’t a bunch of professionals such as the people from Tristar or Harley Davidson. We are going to keep it as safe as possible, but let it be noted we keep a fast pace.
It has been too long since I have taken a ride out at any point in time, the heat came with those sand storms and very strange weather. It made riding nearly impossible with zero visibility, and lucky for me I came back to the perfect weather, or the beginning of it at least. I can’t believe how nice the weather is early in the morning or after sunset. I came back from work a little annoyed with a few things on my plate and I decided to get a shave and take a ride to unwind.
Before taking my impromptu trip I called up TriStar and asked them to service all the machines, after I took off they came a few days later took the KTM RC8, Ducati 1098s, and BMW K1200R for a full service and check up. They changed the from discs and pads on the RC8 under warranty, they changed the rear tire of the K1200R, changed the oil and filters of all the machines, they changed the battery of the RC8 and 1098s, the chains were adjusted, cleaned and oiled. All three machines were run on the dyno to test it out. Got them all ready for riding season.
I changed from my dishdasha to my riding gear, and damn that felt really good, I’m just a little over weight and that requires adjustment. I had my playlist ready with music topped up on my iPod Nano. And I took off to Salmiya and later on drove down the GulfRoad to Miseela and then back home. It was just the perfect ride, I was in sync with my machine but I have to get my skills back up to par, I felt something was a little off with me and not the Ducati. I need to regain my sense of balance with this machine, I was one very happy rider, I caught myself a few times smiling while riding and listening to the music. The cool breeze was perfect even with the engine boiling my leg a little bit, these Italians knew what they were doing when they built this machine, so much passion, I felt like it was an animal that is happy to be out of its cage. I’m really happy that the weather is cooling down earlier this year, I will be doing some late night or early morning riding for the next couple of weeks, damn I missed riding.
