I've just moved back to Bristol last week after being away for 16 years. Spent most of that time in London and Surrey so not had great roads to ride on. Done lots of track days at Brands and Cadwell to make up for it though.
Got a 2007 Superduke 990 which I've had from new - it's pretty much set up for the track and modded to SDR spec. Been a great bike for nearly ten years now and I still can't find the motivation to change or trade up. Tested lots of other bikes including the 1290 but the performance advantage is just not worth the ten grand it would cost me.
My other bike is a 1975 Kawasaki H2c which I usually choose to ride if I'm not going too far. More and more I prefer to ride this on public roads because it's more fun. Owned it for about three years now and got it all running sweet with expansion chambers, modern ignition and jetting so it goes and stops better than when it was new.
I guess I'm the typical 50+ biker who grew up with mopeds, 250s on L plates and then progressed onto Japanese fours. By the nineties I was into Ducatis and when I was in Bristol had a '91 900ss Superlight which was great bike. Five years with that got me well and truly into big twins but then when I moved to London I got caught up with the Supermoto thing and had a series of big KTM singles until I realised that I was always getting points and would loose my licence if I didn't change my ways. My then I was a committed KTM fan so got the Superduke.
Now I'm getting on a bit and not as fit as I used to be - the obsession with race bikes and speed is tailing off and I find I just want to recreate my youth with the simplicity of older bikes that I can do all the work on myself. I've never really liked the advancement of electronics and tuning a bike with a computer. I'm a mechanical guy and the old H2 just ticks all the boxes for me.
Anyway, I'm sure that I will try and come on one of the ride outs to meet people. I see there is one tomorrow to Wales which I will try and make if I can get away from the housemoving/unpacking nightmare.
