A Fun Weekend With an Familiar Friend
When I took Frankie on as a project bike for a friend, she was in rough shape. My friend had made a very simple error and dropped her on the right side. It broke the fairing where the right mirror attached, it destroyed the right side of the wind screen and scratched the fairing. But the worst of the damage was the clutch, it was completely destroyed, all the pins for the springs broken off and the seats for the springs in the flywheel were damaged as well. Frankie had seen better days and it was my task to (for the least amount possible) put her back together again and make her ridable. Sadly, the accident damaged the owners hand, so he was out of service and with no real rush, Frankie sat in my garage for months on end. Finally with in the last week, the owner was up to the challenge of buying a new clutch and getting his bike back. Last weekend, we put in the new Motowheels purchased Surflex slipper clutch, one of my favorite street slipper clutches and now the bike was ridable. During the week however, I spent a tiny bit of time on the body work, literally gluing pieces back together, so it would at least be complete and ridable, all it needed was a rider. In appreciation for the work done, the owner gave me a chance to ride her all weekend and I jumped at the opportunity.
I have a short history with street bikes, starting in November of 2006 with a CBR600F2. I learned how to ride on 2 wheels with that machine and eventually sold it to buy my first Ducati a 748S in spring 2007. My 748S was turned into a full-time track bike at the end of 2007 and I was back to driving my car again. Meanwhile the 748 turned into a 748R and I started racing it. I eventually sold my car and bought an 848 at the beginning of 2008 as my "daily rider" as I continued to race the 748R on the track. At the end of 2008 I bought a 749R and parted the 748R in order to fund the purchase. When I was strapped for a bike to race in 2010 after the 749R was parted and sold off, I turned the 848 into a race bike, loosing my last street bike and driving my POS track van around everywhere. Sadly, the 848 was parted not long after (due to medical bills from crashing it) and I've been street/track bike-less ever since. Mind you, I do still ride motocross a lot, so its not like I had completely stopped riding motorcycles.
Saturday morning was like christmas. I finally had a reason to be a nerd and raid my closet which contained all my old roadracing gear. I wasn't gonna go out for a ride in jeans and a jacket, no way! I was gonna ride in style! Grabbed the cleanest set of roadracing leathers, grabbed the least beat up set of boots/gloves and found the cleanest helmet. I reached into my desk drawer and way in the back was a box of ear plugs, grabbed to of'em and threw my helmet on. The moment I put that helmet on, everything fell into perspective. It was at this point where I realized, in all of my exuberance, I had forgotten to walk the dog. Ohh well, with all my gear on, I took her outside for a quick walk (lots of people saw me LOL) and in a delight that a 5 year old has christmas morning, I opened the garage door to reveal a beast waiting to be abused... ohh sorry, did I say that? I meant ridden.
I didn't really have a destination in mind on Saturday. So as I swung my leg over Frankie, whatever direction I pointed the front tire, is basically the direction I went. Highway riding was first, a nice long stint to a friends house who had mentioned something about watching some motocross on TV. WOW, did this bring back memories of my 748. The riding position, the chatter of the motor, I felt such at home. Immediately I started riding like a pro, left hand on the tank for support, right hand on the outside of the bar just lightly twisting the throttle like a door knob. When I had to pass someone on the highway, I'd drop a gear, tuck in and grab a fist-full of throttle. Ohh did it make me gitty to feel real, raw horsepower and speed again. There is nothing more raw then a lil twin between your legs, screaming to give it more throttle!
The 748R is the epitome of a race bike with a license plate. Having never ridden a "real" 748R on the
street before (many on the track) it was a whole new experience for me. The gearing was all wrong, the brakes were impeccably perfect, it has lots of grunt up at the higher RPM's and pull's till redline as if its going to explode. Wanna go slow? Nope, it doesn't know what cruising is, you gotta go fast to appreciate the machine and sadly that was the biggest problem with riding Frankie. She had some worn street tires that accentuated the slow steering problem the bike already has, so on the highway she performed great, in the canyons, not so much and most of that was tires and me not wanting to go too fast. Of course, if you wanna sit at a traffic light for more then 2 minutes, you better be prepared to sweat. Yep, I was in perforated leathers on a super hot weekend, but still my legs were super hot, can't imagine how hot they would have been with jeans on.
Sunday was met with a live MotoGP race at 11 and then F1 right after, so it took me a while to get out of the house. Plus having ridden the whole day prior, I was a bit sore! Sunday I decided to do a late ride, sunset style. Went over to the canyons in Malibu, did the full circle. Met some nice blokes at the rock store and did my PCH Highway 1 sunset ride, ohh was it sweet. There is nothing like riding the PCH at sunset on a bike, visor up, wind blowing in your face, on a beautiful Duc. Almost had a tear in my eye from being in such a happy place.
As I turned Frankie off in my garage after the ride sunday, I realized something very important about superbikes. I had been so focused on making a superbike my everything machine and they're just never going to be that. I raced them on the weekend and rode them all week long. I've spent more time riding a superbike in the last 5 years of my life, then I have spent in any cage over the same period. Seems as if too much of a good thing burned me out. I lost favor with riding on the street because I just didn't LOVE it anymore. But having a weekend with Frankie was just enough to remind me how enjoyable it really is.
Its gonna be hard getting into the truck tomorrow and heading off to work.
Mike, thanks again as you can tell I had a great time!
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