Its been a month? Wow time does fly when the world is looking worse
for wear. Amongst all the panic and frustration going on, a ride on
my 390 Duke has given me a small respite from the doom and gloom
we’re surrounded with. The weather has been very well behaved in
the UK over the past few weekends. Which is very odd for September
but this has meant that I can get out on the road and enjoy the bit
of freedom.
Just before
purchasing the bike I got made redundant from my job but in a stroke
of luck I walked straight into another and with the COVID-19 pandemic
ongoing I thought I’d done pretty good for myself. I started my new
job on the Monday after I got the bike so managed to take the 390 to
work in the first week but Friday morning came around and I noticed
the brake light didn’t work when holding in the front brake leaver.
“Is this a sign of things to come…?” I thought but it turned
out that a cable had come loose. So I made my first modification to
the bike by wrapping the cable in question and the cable next to it
together with insulation tape to stop them from coming out, I thought
it looked like something that was done at the factory when I
finished.
That same weekend I
went for a big long ride early in the morning, to beat the traffic
heading into the peak district and to get back in time for the FIM EWC 24hrs of Le Mans. I was about 2 miles from home when the oil
light flashed on and then went off after two seconds “that’s
strange” I thought “this should have plenty of oil in it”. This
was not the case. My first action was to throw it at the dealership.
If my bike was a 1290 Superduke I’d be jumping up and down in
anger. Selling someone an expensive unicycle with no oil in it, great
customer service! But topping up oil is an easy fix, buy oil and put
it in, simple. So that's what I did.
I think what annoyed
me was the 390 was put through a PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection) like
all new vehicles and someone ticked a box to say “yes, we’ve
checked there's oil in it”, when in fact they hadn’t. Showing
main dealers can be cowboys when no ones looking! I also got given a
Spanish owners manual in my bike pack. How a bike that was probably
destined for Spain ended up in North Staffordshire, is anyone's guess
so my only real grumble about the bike isn’t the bike, its
everything else that lead up to me receiving the 390.
Aside from my
moaning, loose cables and hardly any oil in the sump, hows the first
month been? I’m really enjoying the 390. Having done 400+ miles now
I’m starting to get used to what the bike is like, I still can’t
decide if 30mph is a 3rd or 4th gear job. And
the 620mi (1000km) service cannot come sooner as I could do with the
extra rpm for getting out of corners, overtaking tractors and doing
70mph. The service isn’t till mid October so I’m limiting myself
to weekend riding so I can munch the miles in large quantities. I
just hope the weather here doesn’t reflect the mood of the country.
Dont forget to check out my Twitter and Instagram
Ride safe & eat cake
Lardy🧈
