The other weekend was very fun filled day of riding met up with some of the Ducati Riding Club guys. We started off as a group of 7 then split up into two groups and we were a group of three. Two Ducatis and Yamaha and some very intense riding, I always love riding with people who know how to ride in a small group and pick up each other’s riding styles so they ride smoothly but fast.

We started off in Bida’a as usual, went to Shuweikh, then to the Airport, and loving every corner we get. I was impressed with the Diavel as I am following the Yamaha R1 around tight corners and at times overtaking the Ducati 999. The Diavel has amazing traction and handles like a sports bike and I love that it gives me the confidence to ride as hard as I like. The brakes on it take a nice big bite when I squeeze it, I just plan on changing the levers when I have a chance, and I really need a small windscreen, anything above 180 kph and my head starts vibrating and shaking like its getting tossed inside a dryer.

Its starting to get a bit hot these days after 10 am so we start riding earlier to try to get as much riding as possible in. I think we have about a few more weeks left of riding at best. The good thing about the Diavel is that my legs don’t get burnt when I’m stopped at a light so I can ride it for a little while longer while it keeps getting hotter as the days go by.

I have had the EXO 700s for about 4 years now and needed to get some new helmets, one of them was the EXO 1000. It is the latest update from Scorpion and the higher end from the EXO-700. I got the Matt Black version as I like the Matt finish for the Scorpion Helmets from previous experience. Its a little bit different then the EXO-700s, a little better lining, better airflow, overall a great helmet.

Pros:

• Comfortable
• Good fit
• Removable Lining
• Reasonable price
• Never Fogs up
• Very Good Airflow & Ventilation
• Very Good Matte Finish

Cons:

• A bit on the noisy side
• A bit heavy compared to the Arais and Shoei

Overall:

Scorpion have been upgrading their helmets over time and this time around they came up with the EXO-1000 at the same time I was looking to upgrade my four yearold Scorpion Helmet. The Scorpion EXO-1000 helmet is a great helmet to have if you can’t afford the expensive Arai’s and Shoeis. There is nothing missing from this helmet in terms of quality and features. It fits very well with a comfortable and removable liner, and I love that the Matt Black version with the tinted visor does look very stealthy. What I love about the helmet and I take for granted sometimes is that the screen never fogs up, when I wear my Arai helmet I forget that it fogs up until it happens. This is a great quality helmet with lots of features for its price, there is a bit of problem with a bit of noise at high speed and that its a bit heavy in comparison to the Arais and Shoeis. I wouldn’t get any helmet other then Scorpion in this price range, and if you are looking for a higher end helmet then I would go with the Arais and Shoies.

Link: ScorpionUSA
Price: $300
Rating:

This is a little more then it seems, at the launch of the Diavel there was some exciting news about AMG and Ducati collaborating on a few porjects. At first I thought it was just for marketting reasons but after reading A&R’s article below it seems that Mercedes has interest to buy Ducati but they are feeling things out before proceeding. Ducati has had a spectacular 5 years with the debut of the 1098, they have really worked on the quality of their products and slowly expanding their product line. Ducati have had a bit of rough time earlier but these days they are on top and it seems that Mercedes has noticed, but they don’t want them because they are on top. They want them so that they have another arm of their business which is in direct competition with BMW, with an established product portfolio and distribution line, Mercedes wants to take on BMW. But what Mercedes and Ducati are trying to do is to see how they fit together, they each don’t want to alienate their customer and fan base, and Ducatiests are known to be loyal to the brand and don’t want any interference. I wonder how this would work out? Would they share their technical knowledge? Would distribution lines be streamlined? Would you start seeing Ducaties at Mercedes Dealerships? It is a shocking development and I’m not sure if its a good or bad thing, and it seems to Mercedes that there is a lot of good to take Ducati but they have to do carefully or a lot of damage will be done to either brand.

Link: AsphalyAndRubber

It was early Friday morning! The last day Kubayashi was in town before taking a trip and so we went out for a nice long ride around town. There were the usual morning riders, there weren’t as many as their used to be because of the weather and its getting a little hotter. On our route we went to the airport first before coming back down the fifth ring road and heading towards the gulf road from Bida’a round about. One thing that you start noticing are these new strange looking cameras, and some of them in specific locations. I don’t know how they work but they do seem to be intimidating. There is one just opposite the scientific center making it impossible for any rider to go around the very lovely curve at the speed that he can enjoy, and I don’t know how well it takes pictures or if it can see bike license plates but I didn’t want to try it out just yet.

After that enjoyable ride we stopped by Marina to meet up with some of the guys and get a bite to eat. So we went to Casper and Gambini, and while I was sitting down I got a call from my friend that an idiot was sitting on my bike and taking pictures, all I saw was red at that and I was furious. We were parked on the side walked since the parking was completely full and I saw a bunch of idiots taking pictures while sitting on other bikes. Me and Kubayashi walk over there, Kubayashi is a man of few words when he is angry and my mouth is like a bull horn. About from 20 meters away I see one guy get on a Harley that didn’t belong to him to take pictures, I shouted my head off and told the guy to get the hell off the buy and walked right up to him. I told him and his friend that they can take pictures but the next guy to touch an of the bikes will have his fingers broken and my foot somewhere they don’t want it to be. I was very very very pissed, grown men were messing around and touching things that don’t belong to them. Just as I was done with them some other idiot gets on another bike by the parking and so I bark at him, and he apologized, I told him that an apology isn’t good enough, you touch another machine and I will sure its the last he touches. The whole time Kubayashi is standing behind me like an man about to rip other man’s head off. One thing bikers will not tolerate is someone touching their bike in a way that could damage it, then I saw one of the Harley guys come and he was mad as hell too. A man’s bike is something which is very personal and these are grown men, older then me, not kids. Whenever I see kids doing it I don’t mind because they are kids, and if they are nice kids I help them onto my bike for their parents to take pictures. But grown men messing around with our bikes isn’t acceptable. I was angry for a while but cooled off after a bit. It was a great day of riding, got a little hot in the afternoon but still loved the outing, except for the idiots touching the Diavel it was a great day. (What I wrote was the PG version, there were a few words flying around because I was pissed lol)

I can never get enough of Chris Pfieffer, he knows how to pull off these crazy stunts, and he makes it look so easy. He is THE corporate two wheeled hooligan and BMW loves him for it. I for one admit that I don’t have the balls to pull a wheelie, I always think I’m going to flip back but I hope one day that I learn how.

I haven’t had a chance to ride for a little while due to a very busy schedule and traveling recently but I had to make time this past Friday morning. Please welcome the new addition to my stable, the Ducati Diavel, I really do think of my bikes in a stable because they each have a spirit of their own. This is the Carbon Red addition which I think is the sexiest of the bunch. When I heard that Ducati was making a sport cruiser, it peaked my interest but when I saw it, I went overboard, I couldn’t believe my eyes, it is such beautiful machine, and I love it lines, but pictures don’t do it justice.

I met up with Kubayashi at 7 am on Friday morning, his bike was being serviced so I told him to take Diablo out instead, and I found it fitting for the Diavel to be out with his older sibling. The Diavel my be categorized as a Sport Cruiser but Ducati are known for building fast machines and this bike is NOT slow. The first thing whenever you make a purchase is to read the manual, and in my case I was out the door on the road without a clue where the manual was, I was excited like a little kid in a candy store, like any man I pressed a few buttons, pushed a few levers, and assumed I knew what I was doing, then hit the road. I tried to make sure that I kept a level head when riding, I had to ride it for at least 100 kms to break it in initially, and that includes the tires so I get that protective layer of it, and then there was breaking in the engine and the gear box. I made sure to take it easy and keep it under 5000 rpm, and it can rev up to 11000 rpm which is pretty high, I would push it every once in a while and slowly keep increasing speeds around corners.

When I was riding it I was very surprised about a few things, it turns very easily and feels very light, I was taking turns much slower but I wanted to learn how the bike feels and reacts. The best thing about it is the brakes, it stops on a dime and has the brakes of a sport bike, when you squeeze those brakes it comes to a stop very very quickly. Plus those beefy tires give you a lot of grip and confidence around the corners, and to my surprise they were Pirelli Diablo Rosso IIs which are used for sports bikes, and this what Pirelli calls them “The Ultimate Sports Tire For Absolute Road Abuse”, these aren’t cruising tires, they have a lot of grip and they are on this machine.

Then there is computer system on the Diavel which surpassed my expectation, you have two screens, the one above which gives you your normal detail such as speed, rpm, and distance, and the second color lcd screen which is basically a computer. You can change your bike settings from mild to wild, and there three basic settings but you can customize it completely from the amount of Horsepower available to the DTC which is the Ducati traction control system leve, from full DTC to completely switching it off.

Ducati have made a perfect cruiser, I am person that doesn’t like riding slow or a slow machine, and this is a very well built machine, it goes fast and stops quick when needed. I was never really a cruiser guy but this not a cruiser, its a Ducati Diavel and its built out of passion from Italy, I love this machine and the way it looks. The LED integarted signals and brakes, the beefy tire, and the 162 bhp 1200 cc engine. I can’t wait to tweak it with a few parts and enjoy the ride.

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

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.