It has been an interesting day, a bit on the sad side, so I thought a change of venue would do. Called up Monichum to see if he was up for a ride right around sunset, he was up for it. So we got ready, and 20 minutes later we were at the Miseela gas station filling up our tanks, mine was almost empty. We knew that everything was shutdown for the day, and Monichum told me the 2nd ring road and the sea side are packed every inch with cars so we should avoid that area. We decided to head down Bida’a for bit, and when passing by the palms it looked dead up front then heading down the street the it looked like traffic was at a complete standstill, we decided that we would head back at any sign of traffic. We took the U-turn and came back, even at Arjan/Chic everything was shutdown.
He said he heard that the Starbucks at the airport was open, since we just wanted something cold to drink we might as well try. We kept getting texts from people to avoid certain areas from traffic, but the 6th ring road was fun as usual and the airport road was lots of fun. We got to the airport parked our bikes in an open area. I think they should start fining people for parking in handicap without a plaque, just like the states a $250 fine would keep you out of that spot for sure. We even told two people not to park their cars there, it pisses me off.
So we went inside the airport and it was packed, it even smelled bad at the entrance. Once you get in you can breath, and to our surprise the Starbucks was open. As we were walking to it we kept saying hello to people we knew, and they were just going there instead of staying home. We left after finishing the cold drinks, the funny part is I think we spent more time saying hello to people then sitting there. We wanted to be riding but we needed a cold drink and a quick stop, and as it turned out the Starbucks at the airport was the only one.
I haven’t been able to ride for over a month now due to the orange sand storms we have been having recently. The last week and a bit I have been tempted to go riding, but I haven’t had the chance. Monichum has been running his errands or going to the gym at night for the last couple of days. I had one thing to do before riding, so I headed towards TriStar, I wanted to check something.
I haven’t been on my 1098S for a while now, but Pyro started right up. I rode like a demon to the showroom, I think its because I missed riding so much. With a twin like the Ducati you feel a little heat between your legs, but its worth it because I was having so much fun. I was having fun and being a bit reckless, but I calmed down after a bit. There is nothing I love more then the torque of a V-twin coming out of a corner. After Tristar me and monichum had something cool to drink before heading home, there isn’t a lot of riding we can do at night during a work week. The one thing I get annoyed with is trying to take good pictures at night, I would need a tripod and I can’t really carry a tripod with me in my back pack.
An 1190 CC bueaty that has been causing the people and press to be in awe of it. I have been reading review after review of this machine, and they all say the same thing. After four years in development, it seems KTM has gotten it right from the get go. A precise machine which is fun to ride and beautiful lines which makes it stand out from the crowd. I do like the the color scheme of KTM and they type of power they have with their V-Twins. In the words of many from the press “Comfortable as a Beemer, Rides like a Ducati”. I can only imagine how that feels, you know something is wrong when you dream about this machine.
Link: KTM
Having the right protection when riding is essential for your long term health. A life threatening injury can be reduced to a bruise or a recoverable broken bone just by having the right type of protection. Those who ride without any protection are putting themselves at risk thinking that nothing will really happen. Minimizing that risk even if its a small amount is the main reason to be wearing this kind of armor.
Going into the product itself, Forcefield are known to be one the best manufacturers of rider protection in the market. I picked up their Limb Tube Armor for my knees since the Alpinestars I had felt very uncomfortable around my knees and would get itchy after a while.
The design of the armor itself is very smart, you slip it on like a sock so it is around your knee the whole time. It does move around slightly when you are walking but you can strap it even tighter to make sure that doesn’t happen, but I prefer to use it without the strap since the back of my knee might get itchy. Right now it I wear it everytime and I have gotten used to its comfort around my knees.
The protection is made from an impact resistant honeycomb design which spreads the impact so that your knee takes the least amount of damage. The protection is from above your knee, half way down your shin and it fits snugly on to you. The is one of the highest quality armor I have seen used and it is well worth it.
Price: £45
Link: Forcefield
Rating:
Up at 6:30 am trying to get out of bed to enjoy the nice cool Friday morning. My phone kept ringing since Monichum and Vampire were up earlier then me as usual. I tend to stay up late when they sleep in to wake up earlier, I’m always the last one to get there. We had a full day planned ahead of us, I filled up gas at the Miseela gas station as usual, and you could see a few bikers on the road. Then headed straight to Bida’a Starbucks which seems to be open at 6 or 7 even on a Friday morning. It was perfect start to the morning, I get my Raspberry Frappacino and doughnut since I was starving.
We were heading to Bnaider to meet up with a friend, we were supposed to go have lunch at his beach house but we all had things to do. So we decided to take the route there and enjoy the ride, we were having a blast flying around at such a high speed on the empty roads. The funny part is that I haven’t been to Bnaider in sometime to visit someone. We got there in 45 minutes taking our time, we got there around 9:20 am and it took 10 minutes to find the Beach House based on his elaborate directions. Finding the beach house wasn’t too hard, but we got to the sea side he was sailing with a friend. Now that looked like it was fun, they were on this sail that was moving at a good pace.
We talked for a while, and it seems he will be getting a bike very soon, so we might have a fifth join us very soon. We left the Beach house around 10:15 to make it to our breakfast appointment at 11:00 am at Marina with some of the guys, we took off flying down the highway. I switched bikes with Monichum, he took Pyro and I rode his 749S, Ducati knows how to make Sports Bikes. I was enjoying the ride and I lost 95% of my restrictions riding like a nut case on this light machine, it made it very easy to turn and cut around traffic. We were flying to Marina, and it took us about 37 minutes to get there from Bnaider, we would have gotten there faster if it we all didn’t run out of gas and had to stop at Manguf to fill up gas. I’m just happy I remembered that they had green gas. When we stopped at Marina the BMW Motorcycle Club just got there, so we joined them for a bit before changing table to order our food. After all that intense riding all morning we were starving.
I haven’t been able to ride Robo for some time now due to the small issues I have been having with it. Everything was running perfectly except for the gear box and I didn’t have a clue why that was happening. I got a call from Tristar telling me that they made claim with BMW for my gear box since I got the first generation K1200R, and the gear boxes have had three revisions.
They got a new gear box this week after a two week delivery from BMW Motorcycles. I got back my bike on Thursday afternoon after they picked it up on Sunday, and I took the machine out for a spin as soon as I got home. The gear box is so much smoother and I loved pushing the machine hard around corners, the gear box is still a little clunky but that is what BMW motorcycles are known for, a slight bump when changing gears but so much smoother then before. With the old gear box I wouldn’t be able to shift if I was riding a long distance in one gear for a while, so I would have to pump the clutch lever to force it to change, but not its a lot better. I can’t wait to go for a long ride on Robo.
Monichum wanted to pick up a jacket from Tristar since it is getting hot these days and I remembered they had some good Dainese Air Jackets available. We headed over there checking out all the machines, gear, helmet, and accessories, that is when I found out that they will be having 50% of a lot of items and big discounts on bikes. It would be a good time to pick up what you wanted at that time.
It was nice of them to give the discounted price for the Jacket at the normal since, and a lot of these items are for this season. There is an interesting selection of machines available, but they have sold the Ducati Pearl White 848. The 848 is a beautiful machine and especially in that color, then there are all the accessories available for it. I just can’t wait until they get the KTM RC8, I’m not sure how many they will be bring and the one thing I know is that I would want to get my hands on one.
Woke up with a things in mind to do, I saw a missed call from Monichum which meant that he probably wanted to go riding. I had a few things I wanted to do, so I called him up to see when we would meet up. I went to Thuraya Complex which I haven’t went to in over 8 years to go to shop to get my watch fixed, for some reason a waterproof watch got water inside of it and I’m surprised that there was a dealer for it in Kuwait. Then I went to Salhiya to drop another thing off and I haven’t been there in a while, it was funny seeing all the moms and daughters who were there early in the morning. I was in and out in 10 minutes before meeting up with Monichum at Tristar.
It didn’t take long to get to Tristar from Salheya, I just took Al Soor Street all the way down. We had a few things to pick up, I wanted some chain lube and he wanted some gear. I was driving there since I was running those errands earlier, and it was fun driving in the empty streets. After finishing up at Tristar I was following Monichum and snapping away, it is different since this is the first time I am not the one riding. I managed to barely keep up with him, motorcycles are extremely faster then any vehicle made. I wanted to get more action shots, but its difficult to drive and snap pictures, but I managed a few. It was a fun start to the morning before heading home for lunch. Continue Reading…
While I was in Infinity Motorcycles snapping away I couldn’t resist picking up a few things that I was looking for. Its nice that they always have a wide selection and they could probably get whatever your looking for very quickly. There were so many helmets but I was going to order a few online, then there were all the jackets and I held off on that as well, but I picked up the items that I usually don’t find so quickly.
- Draggin Jeans
- Oxford Maximizer 360T
- Forcefield CE 2.0 Knee and Shin Armor (Very nice)
- Optix Muck Off
Wide awake at 6:05 am on a Friday morning the first thing that comes to mind is riding, but I wasn’t sure after the dust storm from the other day. I thought it was going to be horrible, I crawled out of bed and saw that it was sunny and clear outside. I called Monichum until he picked up the phone to tell him we are going to ride. We both took our lazy time to get up, but by 7:20 am we were both at Starbucks Bid’a, and I was surprised they were open that early in the morning.
We spotted two riders at Miseela gas station, and as we were sitting at Starbucks two more motorcycles showed up. We said hello and headed off to KPC on our usual route, there were a few cars on the streets but it was mostly empty. You could see all the different groups of motorcycles as we were riding, its funny it seems all the motorcyclists decided to get up early that day to go riding.
The cool breeze from the sea side, the empty roads, we were compelled to push our luck on the bikes that day. I could feel the growl that was coming from the Italian machine. At each corner I was going lower, I could feel that I was tuned to the machine, I was pushing on the bar as well as sliding off to get faster on the curves on the Gulfroad. It just felt exhilarating with the cool breeze, rumble of the machine, and music in my ears.
We took a different route then usual on this trip, we stopped at KPC but since it was still 8:30 am we decided to continue to Entertainment City. Neither I nor Monichum knew the way to Entertainment City, but I remember a bit of the route from the GulfRun drive back in November. So we tried our luck and we were enjoying the ride, there is a good stretch in towards Doha without any lights which was great but we weren’t pushing our luck since the roads weren’t familiar to us, we kept cruising at 100 to 120 kph. We got to Entertainment City, but the parking was closed to our luck. It was the first time in over 15 years since I have even come this close to Entertainment city, it was one hell of a fun trip and we were reminiscing about our times there when we were kids. I think the last time I went was in 1993, hopefully next time the gates will be open so we could get a little closer. When we were heading back, we wanted to go the GulfRoad bu around 9:30 am the dust came back with a vengeance, we were caught in the bad weather. We decided to head home from the Malik Faisal Highway, luckily for us it wasn’t too far.
