Strictly speaking, it is not "after lockdown" at all it is just the first phase of the de-escalation but it was still my first outing for many weeks. The plan was simple my son needed a lift to the garage to pick up his ailing scooter and I could either drive him or take one of the bikes, simple choice really.
It felt great waking the KTM790 Duke out from its slumber, it has been moved around over the last 10/11 weeks and washed but not started or ridden anywhere.
We did a quick pre-ride check as normal and off we went, it was at this point that I realised that my son was the first person to go on the back of the KTM in the 11 months I've owned the bike. Not a problem in itself but another thing to be careful of. He is an experienced rider having his first bike when he was about 6 and being a scooter rider for about 6 years and 60,000km, so no worries of leaning the wrong way or any other pillion hilarity.
Out of the village, we went taking a slightly longer route, just for fun. It was a fairly sedate ride to Benissa to Mille Motos to pick up the scooter. It had a new barrel and piston, drive belt and a few other small parts to get it back up and running. Great job as usual and off I went on my return journey on my own.
The return journey was a little brisk as I was on my own and enjoying the newfound freedom that biking brings, lovely weather, great roads and an awesome bike to ride, what more do you need for an hour of fun.
Going through Parcent and heading out on the Tarbena road towards home the KTM wouldn't turn into the drive, I regularly have this issue, it wanted to do a few more miles and so we headed off up to Col de Rates. It's a great piece of road with tight twists and turns right up to the lookout at the top. I arrived with a huge smile before the downhill return to home.
A great ride out of around 30km.
