Staff Blog: Down to Ramsgate

For the last 11 years, since I moved up to MCN-land from my home town in Ramsgate, I’ve done the 170-mile journey on lots on hundreds of different bikes.

Tourers are, of course, the most comfortable, but they’re a bit boring. Sportsbikes are the most fun, but it takes me an hour to unfold myself from the two-odd hours in the saddle.

My Hyperstrada is different. The riding position is lovely, the ride is smooth and the engine purrs down the motorways. Packing my weekend things away in the topbox, saves me having to wear a rucksack, too.

But when I want to do a cheeky wheelie out of a roundabout, or detour along some twisty roads, my feisty little Ducati obediently obliges and that’s why I love it so much.

I’ve already done big miles on the old girl, riding it down to Portugal, but I’ve never noticed a problem I encountered over the weekend. When it’s really blowy, the wind splays my knees away from the tank. Under 60mph is ok and if it’s not windy everything’s fine, too, but the rest of the time it’s a pain.

I’ve worked out it’s because the pegs place my feet further forward than my knees, so it doesn’t take much of a breeze for my knees to wag in the wind. All the time you’re fresh it’s easy to keep them in, but after half an hour, or so, muscles start to hurt.

The only relief from this is to ride with my feet on the pillion pegs, in a sportsbike-like position. I’ve even thought of sticking my knees to the tank with Velcro, but that probably isn’t a good idea…

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