Category: Motorbikes

I got my bike back today with the new exhausts installed. The bike looks a lot cooler now with the new raised exhausts and it sounds really incredible. I recorded the sound of the stock exhausts and new Termignoni ones and created a small clip which I uploaded to YouTube. I figured it would be useful in case a Ducati rider somewhere in the world wants to know how the bike sounds with the Termignoni exhausts. I will take pictures tomorrow of the bike when I go riding and post them here also.

[YouTube]

Yesterday night Tristar came and picked up my bike so they could install my new slip-ons. While the bike was being put on the truck I realized I still haven’t come up with a name for the bike. So after some thinking I have decided to call my bike Starscream.

Marzouq just posted about the great service he has been having with Tristar so I figured I would post about what happened with me. Last Saturday I passed by and ordered Termignoni carbon racing silencers for my motorbike and I was told I would receive them in 2 to 3 weeks. Yesterday I got a phone call telling me to pass by and pick up my silencers since they had arrived! I called the Tristar garage today morning so that tomorrow they can pass by and pick up my bike so they can install the silencers. Really great service. Also I found out that anyone can join their bike club not only people who purchased bikes from them, so if you are a biker and are looking for weekly activities give them a call.

The Kuwait BMW Motorcycle Club launched their website a few days ago. The club is run by TriStar and is open to Ducati riders also since at the moment there is no Ducati club in Kuwait. I think its actually open to all riders no matter what brand of bike you have. They usually have weekly rides and events so its a pretty active club. The site is blog like with a forum that currently has no activity but overall the site does have potential. Hopefully it gets updated often and riders start participating in their forum. [Link]

Today morning I went riding with Marzouq on the Gulf Road. The weather is great so I am trying to take advantage of it as much as I can. Other then riding my bike I am going to be taking the roof off of my Wrangler (after National Day due to foam season) and I will also be going out riding.. on my bicycle. I haven’t ridden my bike since early last year way before I got my motorbike so I figured I would start again now since the weather is good again.

I went to Ace Hardware, picked up an electric air pump and came back home to pump some air into my bicycles tires. After filling it with air I decided I would take it for a small spin around my parking lot just to see how it felt.

It felt incredibly strange. Because I now ride a motorbike, riding my bicycle just feels completely way off. The seat is uncomfortably hard, the bicycle is super light, the riding position is different and the strangest thing of all.. I have to actually PEDAL! After taking the bicycle for a few spins up and down the floors of my buildings underground parking I was exhausted and had a headache. I couldn’t even ride properly! Since my motorbike weighs around 170KG and my bicycle like 12KG I was literally throwing it around turns.

Tomorrow I am going to try riding my bicycle around Salmiya, if it turns out to be a crappy experience like today I will probably end up selling it. The whole point of the bicycle was to go urban exploring but now since I have a motorbike license I can just go get myself a dirt bike.

I was with Nat and had just parked my car near Shoo Shawerma? which is located near Sultan Center when I heard the sound of motorbikes. I looked towards the Gulf Road and saw three Harleys zoom by probably going around 80km an hour. I continued walking when I heard the loud sound of the bikes suddenly down shifting and then what sounded like a skidding sound. I told Nat it sounded like a bike skidding and she told me it was probably just their engine sound. I looked towards where the sound came from and noticed a car had put its emergency flashers on. I told Nat it was the bikers and we ran towards the scene.

When we got to the scene cars had already stopped and people had gotten out to help the bikers. There was one rider lying on the grass on the side of the road being looked after. He had a broken nose and was in pain. One of the bikers who was riding with him was next to him talking to him while the third biker was moving the bikes off the road with the help of some people. Around five minutes later an ambulance arrived. Four other bikers (sport not cruisers) who were passing by realized it was a biker who was injured and parked their bikes and got down to see if anyone needed any help.

I spoke to one of the guys on the scene and it turns out a woman came out onto the Gulf Road from one of the side exits behind Sultan Center and she went from the far right lane across all the way to the far left lane. She hadn’t seen the three bikers and all they could do was brake suddenly trying to avoid her. At first I thought only one biker slid but I think a second biker had also slid because there was another bike that was damaged.

I don’t know if the biker is fine and what injuries he has but hopefully he will be ok. Even though it was the womans fault I am glad she at least stopped her car and didn’t drive away. She was crying at the scene and was very apologetic and kept yelling she hadn’t seen them. I had another friend who also slid and crashed when a woman ran a red light and he had to brake to avoid her. That woman never stopped and kept driving off.

I forgot to post this yesterday but its still not too late.

TriStar Motorcyles and Corniche Club are pleased to invite you, Saturday 27th of January (meaning today) for an open day test riding the latest BMW, Ducati and KTM motorcycles. The location will be at Corniche Club from 2PM till 9PM. If you are interested to ride please come with your gear.

Just got back from my ride today morning. I first cruised around Salmiya for a little bit and then headed off to Marina Crescent to see if their were any bikers there I knew. I ended up finding Marzouq who earlier in the morning had been out biking with Nat. We decided we would ride to Green Island where a bunch of Ducati and BMW bikers were gathering up for a ride out to the desert which was organized by TriStar.

As we were approaching the gathering area I spotted the new Ducati 1098s from far. There was no way to miss it, it was parked away from the rest of the bikers and it was sparkling under the sun. We parked our bikes, said hi to some friends and then me and Marzouq went over to the 1098. Its a really tiny and light bike weighing around 170KG and producing around 160HP! Thats nearly one horse power for every kilogram.

Anyway we hung out for a little while and then headed out for a ride. One thing I did today was go back to the intersection I had my first crash in and take the same route I took that day. Might not sound like much but after I had my accident I went through the whole incident in my head over and over and then I kept visiting that route with my car just to go over the spot and try to figure out how I messed up. So today I decided I couldn’t avoid that intersection for ever and I took it with my bike. I think going through the turn gave me a boost of confidence which is what I needed.

One issue I realized I had today was accelerating from a traffic light while I am with Marzouq. I usually know how much throttle to give and how much clutch to let go of using the sound of my bikes engine. But the problem is Marzouqs bike is bigger and much louder and so when I am with him I can’t hear my bikes engine anymore. I swear I think I messed up at like 6 traffic lights today, it made me feel like such a newbie. This is why I decided I am going to either upgrade the mufflers with some really cool louder ones by Termignoni or, try and convince Nat I “need” a Ducati 749.

So I came in to work today on my motorbike and I was planning on parking my bike in the underground parking lot where I usually park my car but I was stopped at the entrance. The parking people told me I couldn’t park my bike inside. I was like why? I am still going to pay you. They were like they aren’t allowed to let bikers in because bikes are “light” and “small” and “anyone can come and carry them out”. They don’t want the responsibility for having my bike get stolen. I was like huh???

So now my bike is parked outside the entrance in front of the parking peoples office. I told them to keep an eye on my bike and they were like fine… which contradicts their earlier argument. Weird people.

The newly released Ducati 1098s Superbike will be launched tomorrow at Applebee’s on the Gulf Road at 12:30PM. Its one of the hottest and meanest looking bikes at the moment.

I also just checked and it seems TriStar (the Ducati and BMW dealers) finally got their site up and working. They have pictures of their new and second hand bikes but I couldn’t find the prices anywhere. www.tristarkw.com

Got up at 9, gave Marzouq a call and woke him up. We decided to meet at Marina Crescent at 9:45. I got dressed and left the house at 9:15 and to kill time I rode all the way to the end of the Gulf Road passed Kuwait City and then came back down Marina Crescent to wait for Marzouk.

Once he came he was like we are going to Hilton in Mangaf. I was like sounds cool and we headed out. After a quick stop for gas we hit the Fahaheel expressway. It was my first time on a highway so I was pretty excited.

The roads were practically empty and the weather was just amazing. Since the expressway is just a long straight line I opened up the throttle to see how fast I could go. I hit 170KM/h before I decided to go back down to the our cruising speed of 140KM/h. The bike could easily have flown past 170, I was only in 4th gear (out of 6) and the more throttle I gave it the more the bike would pull away. In the end I decided to throttle down because the wind resistance was just too much. The speed cameras all didn’t seem to be working today. I tried to get one to fire (no front license plate on bikes) but none wanted to go off.

After getting to Hilton we decided to head back to Marina and have breakfast. The road back was pretty quick and when we finally got to Marina it was a lot more packed. We parked our bikes and had breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. First thing we ordered was hot chocolate to warm us up a bit. That was quickly followed by a bread basket and omelets.

It was 12PM by the time I got home.I am off work now for 2 weeks starting tomorrow so I think I will be riding every morning. Its really a lot of fun.

Picture by Marzouq

Its Friday morning and I just got to work. Its been one hectic week. Actually its only 11AM and its already been a busy day. Nat went off in the morning riding with some Harley bikers. She will be posting about it later today plus she has some really cool pictures.

I also took Geo to the Marina Crescent beach. He spent the whole time jumping into the sea and me yelling at him to get out. Now I am at work, I rode in on my bike which was fun.

Its going to be a busy busy day.

I had my riding test today and I passed! Like last time my test was easy. The cop just told me to do a large circle and when I came back he told me I had passed. The whole process took like 10 minutes.

Nat on the other hand like last time ended up having problems. She went in and they made her wait behind cars for like 30 minutes. Then when it was her turn the cop told her to make a couple of 8’s with the bike. Once she was done the cop told her she had passed and she drove out.

We then left the testing area and went inside to the offices to pick up our papers. After waiting for another 30 minutes we got them. I had passed, Nat had failed. She was completely shocked, she went back into the room to talk to one of the cops and she told him the guy had told her she had passed. He just took her learners permit and gave her another date for the test.

I am happy, she is really pissed as you can imagine.

The picture above is of Nat on the Bajaj training bike while leaving the testing area.

After going to sleep early last night I woke up around 9AM today and decided I would go out for a ride. By 9:30 I was downstairs in full gear warming up my bike. Today I even put on my Alpinestars Knee Guard which I should have worn the day I had my crash because it would have saved my knee from getting road rash. Its kind of bulky but its not about the looks, its about the protection. One thing I forgot to do with all my excitement was brush my teeth which was a big mistake because I ended up spending the whole ride smelling my Friday morning breath inside the helmet.

I had 3 rules for my ride today:
(1) Keep off the Gulf Road
(2) On traffic lights, go straight or right but not left (since I had my accident while going left)
(3) Stay clear of roundabouts

Well I broke one of the rules. I ended up going out onto the Gulf Road but just for a tiny bit. My bikes gas light came on and I figured I might as well fill it up with gas, something I hadn’t done before. But before I got onto the Gulf Road I rode into the AUK parking lot and decided to do some riding exercises which involved lots of driving around in circles and braking and accelerating. Once I felt comfortable with the bike I rode out of the parking lot and headed towards the Gulf Road. I ended up going to the gas station opposite Pizza Hut. I was hoping I would find some of that ultra super high octane gas (the green one) but turned out they only had the regular and super versions. It was my first time filling up gas in my bike and I felt awkward. First I didn’t know how to open the gas gasket, the key wasn’t turning in the gasket lock so I called up Marzouq who told me I needed to push the key in and turn which worked. Second I didn’t know how much gas the bike would take but I kept filling it slowly until I could see the gas line in the tank. I filled up 550fils worth of super gas and rode back out onto the Gulf Road and then back into Salmiya.

In total today I rode for around an hour and a half. I would have stayed out longer but my wrist started hurting so I had to come back home. The weather was amazing and I spent most of my ride riding with the helmet visor open so that the wind blew in onto my face . I really had a lot of fun, can’t wait for my next ride.

I just came back from a short ride on my Ducati. It was my first time back out on the public roads since my crash 2 months ago. I was kind of nervous which is natural but not afraid which is a very good thing especially after a crash. I rode in Salmiya in the area around my building but there was a bit more traffic then I thought there would be. For my first ride I think I did fine.

Before I rode out on the streets I rode my bike a bit in my buildings underground parking. I did some 8’s with the bike and also some braking and moving, braking and moving. I still need to get the hang of my bike.

My wrist by the way still hasn’t heeled healed. I passed by Razzi Hospital two days ago and they told me I had a torn ligament in my wrist and still needed two months to heel heal. They told me I should rest my wrist for these two months and I shouldn’t ride the bike. Thing is in Kuwait there are only like two months of the year where you can actually ride the bike so I am not going to waste them giving my wrist a rest.

I am going to do a bit of riding everyday, small sessions not to kill my wrist but also just enough to get me the hang of the bike and give me some practice before I decide to go back out onto the main road again. Can’t believe I am riding again, it feels amazing..