Short ride report, since I'm back aboard

[Falcopops]

So I'm back to riding the Falco instead of endlessly fettling for the sake of it.

Due to losing my job I couldn't justify the bike expenses for about a year, but Mrs Falcopops reckoned I'd become a grumpy old git 'coz I wasn't riding, so encouraged me to get back on the road, so I did.

I've set the sag on the Ohlins front and yellow sachs rear and set sbout finding a fun road to tune up the rebound a compression settings.

Found one about 23Km long between Gembrook and Launching Place that fits the bill and a mix of really tight corners, tight corners and sweepers. Being a rural road the surface has it's irregularities, but pretty consistent grip, so all pretty good for my purposes.

I went out a couple of weeks ago in the sunshine only to end up riding the fun bit in the wet to very wet. I'd be the 1st to admit to riding like a big girl in the wet, but found it a great lesson in weight transfer through the pegs, smooth transitions between corners and smoothness withthe throttle and brakes.

I was surprised when I caught up to and passed a few Ducati's until I got to the group leaders on 1098's. I was amazed at how bad they were in the corners given the machinery they were riding. The bloe right in front of me was running wide all over the place and the leader infront of him was only a little better, but only 'coz he was so slow on entry.

I didn't want to stick a pass in on the bends and the straights are few and short and they out accelerated me.

Just as well really as towards the end of the route there was a police rider in a side road who followed us the last few K's to a point where he could pull us all in. It was just for a chat and "be careful out there" warnings.

So the point - none really, I'm just happy to be riding again, happy with the bike and happyish with my riding.

The moral - It's not what you ride it's how you ride it.

P.S. Big thumbs to the cop who didn't even mention my loud pipes and dodgy rear indicators (integrated in to the rear lenses so too close together).

[Viking]

Don't know that bit of road, but there are some good rides out that way.

Might have to grab hold of you and a mate and show you some good rides (if you haven't found them already!)

Congrats for getting back on the road, too. (Commuting around Melbourne is very straight, very boring, and the car drivers are idiots.)