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.
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Ride safe & eat cake
Lardy🧈