Midsummer at Rudskogen Norway.

The more I ride the 1098, the more I like it. Two great days on an awesome racetrack in Norway near Oslo. Not much to report, just plenty of great riding for 2 days. The Norwegian Ducati club, Desmodromene is a fantastic  host and I will for sure be back for their next event  in and of July.

Thanks Mai-Brithfor the picture of me and Dagfinn

2nd outing Swedish Ducati club Club race at Sviestad race track

With my friends in the race committee we planned for 2 days where I could ride day one and be the race director for day 2. The 2nd day we had our first to heats in the club championship. Not much riding day 2, but a lot of fun with friends and 2 superb race heats. Great weather 25-27 and sunny, we actually shortened the last race heat to 12 laps from 16 due to the heat. Lots of riders, bigger grid than MotoGP? 22 starters in the first heat, including riders from 3 countries, a new record for our club in several ways.

The 1098 wheelied a lot down the main straight that is rather bumpy. Others had similar problems and it was just to lean forward and be very loose on the handlebars. For the first time I was able to test the bike in something that was close to my former race speed and it felt good. Easy to find the apex and no drift when exiting turns,. And this with quite some pains in my right hand since my spill with the street bike a few weeks back. Some minor fractures, probably.

Typical family outing with friends and kids? Don´t think so :-)

Anette had some fun riding her Hypermotard too, the red bike to the left

 

Great weekend, lots of friends, track time, races and to top the long weekend we stayed the weekend with some friends in nearby Norrköping.

First track test

First track test went well with only one small incident. My daughter Vendela, 1.5 years old, spends a lot of quality time with her older brother Valdemar (3.5 yrs) and dad in the garage fixing our bikes.

Apparently she wedged a plastic toy tool in between the headers. During the first stint we had some smoke and weird smell from under the engine, exhaust pipes get hot and plastic toys melt easily. Kids….

Otherwise everything went very well. Great start and a great bike!

Thanks Martin for the pictures.

Done!

Finally, all parts arrived from the paint shop and another just in time project wrapped up.  First track outing this Saturday.

Tire pressure

Having the correct tire pressure is an important factor for good grip and long tire life. My friend Casey brought this top quality tire gauge from the US. He almost always have nice gadget for me in his bag when we meet on business meetings. Cold you ask more from a colleague?

Intercomp is supposed to be the best gauge you can get and when I compared to my cheap old gauge to the right the Intercomp showed 1.9 bar and the cheap yellow gauge indicated 2.0. Quite a difference!

Glows in the dark too for night use.

 

http://www.intercomp-racing.com

First test ride

Spring time and first test ride. Hopefully I didn’t annoy my friendly neighbors to much when testing everything out. The power delivery is very different compared to the old 998. I think I wheelied all the time….

 

All that is needed now is the fairing to be painted and then go for the first track outing.