WHITE HEAT

The next new thing I learned was that my new baby warns me when she's getting too hot.  Almost all bikes are air-cooled, and it can be hard to prevent overheating as a result. If you're stuck in traffic, you're stuck. (Yes, this is a plea to motorists to please let us through).
The UK is in a heatwave (yippee!) and while stuck in traffic on Saturday, I heard a strange noise while idling. The trademark stutter of an HD engine seemed not louder, but somehow more pronounced. It ceased when I put the bike in gear and moved. Every time I idled, the strange noise started. Fine. OK. I wasn't far from home by then, so I tried an experiment and turned off at the next red light. This didn't do much for my burning jeans, but did stop the noise for 2 subsequent idles.
Of course, 2 days later I had a very clear view from the office of an overheated car combusting - literally - on Blackfriars bridge, and could thus thank my lucky stars that my little baby taught me how to avoid that on her. Before setting fire to my jeans.

SOMETHING NEW EVERY RIDE

They say you learn something new every day. I certainly seem to learn something new every ride.

Recently, I was waiting at a petrol station meeting point, when a vintage Triumph rider came over to admire my bike. I'm always happy to chat about how lovely she is, but at the time, she had melted tar and cover marks on her exhausts, which detracted somewhat.
I mentioned the need to try WD-40, and he pointed out that I'd lose the shine of my pretty chrome.
He suggested an old armourers' trick: soft steel wool and oil.
Steel wool? On my pretty shiny pipes? What?!
But I did some fairly intense googling, and then I tried it. If you use the very ultra soft extra fine steel wool (not all that easy to find in the UK) - the stuff that feels like stiff candy floss - and baby oil, then the marks come off and the pipes stay smooth and shiny.  You just have to be careful to do this when the bike is cool, and also to ensure there are no little bits of oil-soaked wool hiding on the bike before you start it up again.

COMPANY

Riding is something of a solo pursuit, in many ways: there’s you, the bike, the road. It’s not exactly a situation that promotes conversation, other than swearing at traffic. But when you stop, it’s good to have company.

Recently, I arranged to meet up with a friend for a short one, mainly to introduce each other to our respective new bikes and have a mutual admiration session for said machines.  It’s nice when you’re talking to someone who doesn’t think you’re nuts to give your bike a name or refer to it as beautiful, or snarling/ growling/ purring (the stages in which mine wakes up when you turn the key. Like me, she’s not much of a spring-out-from-under-the-blanket type).

Besides, it gave me an opportunity for a photo shoot with the bike.

INCLINATIONS

One of the joys of biking is twisty roads. And on the new one, it turns out that the safe lean angle is far greater than on any bike I’ve previously owned. This is fantastic, as it means I feel safe at more inclined angles, and can take the curves with far more confidence – up to a point, as I recently discovered.

That point is defined as the angle at which the bike is perfectly safe and happy, but the footboards are scraping up sparks (and scraping off their paint) on the asphalt… Which, for some strange reason, doesn’t make me feel very secure at all. (Because? Wah! My pretty paintwork! My beautiful unblemished new baby! Sob. Scowl).