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:

Riding gear is very improtant to me since its the one thing protecting you when needed and I think bike gear is extremely cool. I have been using my Daytona Racing Boots over 7 years at this point, and I was thinking about getting another set for quick use. Protection to my legs and ankles is very important to me so I have always been a little bit skeptical about getting different boots. I saw the Sidi Streetburner a little while back and decided to try it out. These more like quick riding sneakers and not full on boots, they will protect to a degree but not to the extent that I am used to. These boots get a four out of five because they are extremely comfortable, slip on very easily and its a simple mechanism to tighten it, and I love the aggressive look of the boot. One major point is that they are very easy to walk around in, it feels like normal shoes rather then the armor lined biking shoes that I am used to, and the cool ventellation on the shoes is excellent and I can feel it when I’m riding. For $250 I think they are great boots but keep in mind that they won’t protect your ankle or shin in a crash, thats the only reason it gets a four out five. Other then that I really do enjoy using these boots for a quick ride around town.

Link: Amazon Sidi Streerburner
Rating:

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 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.

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.

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.

Last year it didn’t get cool in Kuwait until the end of November, and now things are cooling off towards the end of October which is fantastic. I have been riding when ever I can for the past few days, and I’m certainly not getting enough and now your seeing all these riders when ever the sun is going down. As long as I am on the move I’m enjoying the cool breeze by the seaside but it gets a little warm when stopped at a light for too long. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden and I just love it when I’m on the bike.

I took my bikes to Tristar service and when they were brought back everything was perfect. I got on the BMW last week, started it up to get warmed up but when I got back there was a puddle under the bikes, turned out to be a gasoline puddle. I quickly switched off the bike and called Tristar, so the next morning they took the bike and turns out the fuel pump cracked due to the dry heat and use over the years. They replaced the unit under the “Good Will” Warranty which is fantastic since my bike has been out of warranty for two years now. As soon as I got it back I took it out for one hell of a rough ride, I tried riding calmly but I was kidding myself, I was like a kid with his new toy, flying all over the place when I could. Nothing beats riding.