Hectic

It’s been a busy weekend.

There was the trip to B&Q to buy paint.

Then there was the painting.

There was the trip to the datacentre to pick up a few things that will enable the local Girl Guides to have a film show on Tuesday.

Then there was the Girl Guide Film Show dry run.

Obv.

There has been something of a reorganisation in the garage.

There has been a huge amount of geekery on datacentre-related tasks.

Automation in the datacentre is now down to a fine art. And the sign-up email that new users get is personalised to their domain/account, and goes so far as to tell them how to access their webmail, and how to set up an email client on a computer, and how to set up an email client on their smartphones.

Big thanks to Manuel for helping set up a replication server which will failover to a secondary datacentre, in the event of something critical happening at the primary datacentre.

And there was the trip down to Northampton to buy a new bike.

The ZX9R has been my faithful commuter for the last 14 months.

In that time the clock has risen from 18,750 miles to just south of 50,000 miles.

In 14 months we’ve:

• replaced her front indicators, ‘cos the LED ones developed a short
• gone through two sets of tyres
• and two clutch cables
• given her three extensive services
• had two new chain and sprocket sets
• had a professional spend a good five hours on her, tracing, finding, and fixing a break in her wiring
• and had various parts replaced, as they’ve been worn down.

In an average week, she does 600 commuting miles, plus whatever the weekend brings.

And while I admire the bike for its nimbleness (we filter like we were born to it, on the heaviest A-road and M1 logjams), its brilliant turn of speed, and its blunt, no nonsense attitude in all weathers…

I’ve never really liked the ZX9R.

The key words there are *really liked*.

I’ve enjoyed her.

I’ve liked her.

But I’ve never *really* liked her.

Not in the same way that I really liked my first car.

And not in the same way that I really liked my first big bike.

And definitely not in the same way that I really liked the Daytona.

But (apart from the two clutch cables snapping) she’s been a hardy, rough, tough, motorbike that has never left me feeling unsafe.

I’m amazed at how big she looks (or how small she makes me look), when I see photos of us in motion.

But we’re heading in to winter now.

And motorbike prices are easing down from their summer high.

For the last two weeks I’ve been trying to buy an Aprilia RSV4.

But the vendor twatted me around and messed me about until eventually I gave it up as a thing that just wasn’t meant to be.

So on Saturday I went down to Northampton and bought this:

She’s not quite identical to my last Daytona 955i.

Being a year older, she’s got twin swing arms.

And that adds to her overall weight, which is disconcerting somewhat, as I have to work much harder against the increased centrifugal force, when I want to bank her over.

And she’s got an aftermarket gear display (which is quite odd!).

And a Triumph burglar alarm (which my more modern Daytona didn’t have).

But she’s passed an HPI check and, with just 22,000 miles on the clock, has loads of miles left in her.

Apart from the run back from Northampton, I haven’t taken her out yet.

But even that one trip left me smiling so much more than a trip from Northampton on the ZX9R ever would.

I really like her.