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Friday
At the lights, eyeballing an approaching Aprilia Falco in my mirrors, the ground vibrating as he drew up along side me.

I’m quite sociable when it comes to bikes I like so I instantly start up a conversation, as I also noticed that he was giving my R6 an appreciative glance.
I make the first friendly overture and state that I love Falco’s. (Cos my mate Nooj has one and I reckon you can hear him coming from at least 10 miles away).

And so the chit chat flows (long light change) and Falco owner used to have an R6 and although he loves the rumble of the Aprilia, he misses the top end scream of the 600. Looking a bit more critically at mine, he says "It’s in really good condition – how old is it?"
"Seven years, it was mint when I bought it"
"Looks bloody good now"
"Yeeeeessssss... you aint seen the other side". So the lights change and I pull away, Falco drops behind and comes up on my left hand side. Points. Laughs. Shakes his head and he’s off. Cheeky bastid.

Ok – so she’s a bit battle scarred down one side – so would you be if you had rear-ended your mate on his VTR…. dropped it when you took it for a test ride… dropped it on a Porsche at Vauxhall… pulled away with it still chained up… twice…

Monday
TRACK DAY!!! BRANDS!! WOO BLOODY HOO!!!
On a hire bike – no way I’m (completely) trashing my own. I can manage that with it standing still.
Got there not so bright nor particularly early, but in time for breakfast.

Met up with my colleagues for the day and some familiar faces from when I did Mallory last year.
Found my faithful steed and signed up for the novice group.
First session out onto a slightly damp track and Matt totals his hire CBR at Paddock. Miffed; goes home and comes back on his Tuono. Totals that at Druids.
I’m actually a bit tasty around this track when I get the hang of it and find myself starting to overtake some of my fellow novices.

Checking out my tyres at lunch time and much to my delight they’re all bobbled right to the edges, however, I still can’t get to grips with this hanging off and getting yer knee down malarkey.

I like to think my style (not speed) of riding is much like that of Bill Ivy or Mike Hailwood – good enough for them, good enough for me.
During the afternoon sessions, I decided to get my road bike sorted out with the correct suspension set up, so I asked the boys at Race Lab to take a butchers at it.
Once they had stopped laughing, they got down to business. Because it’s been lowered incorrectly on the dog bones and not through the shock, the suspension is completely bolloxed.

I had the front end dropped 10mm through the forks and the shock softened up slightly and what I can only assume were some dark incantations and hocus pocus to do with rebound and damping. Truly, it’s a black art.

It was explained to me in great detail what had gone on, and although I nodded sagely, it was all white noise to me.
The bit I did understand was that my bike was very grubby.
Afterwards, I had my tyre pressures checked and re-inflated my tyres as they were considerably under and again, it was commented on how dirty my bike was.
"It’s very unusual for a girls’ bike to be so dirty"
Dirty? I like to think of it as urban camouflage.

two wheel passion

www.theridersdigest.co.uk

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Six and the City 121

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