FFS,,,,,,,,  Its January, Thursday, day one of 2009, its absolutely ball-freezing but dry. The R1 hasn't been out in over two weeks now, Mike L called over yesterday and gave me a hand to remove the rear shock, give it a good clean and inspection , and put it all back in the same place again. It looked ok, nothing leaking or too badly corroded.

So, got up early this morning  ( about 10:00am) went out into the garage ,checked my tyre pressures and found that there was only 21psi in each......  so corrected to 36 psi all round... long johns donned along with an extra tee-shirt and a jumper, the R1 was fired up and I headed off for Newcastle.

The weather was dry, but the roads were greasy with rock salt, the air temperature couldn't have been much over freezing!  note   (must get the wife to buy me new gloves)

All the way from Belfast to Newcastle I never saw another bike,, but really was enjoying being out in the fresh air again, the increased tyre pressure definately makes a big difference to the feel of the bike, much more positive into corners.

On arriving at Newcastle I was relieved to see two other motorcyclists, I wasn't the only idiot out on a day like this.

The two guys had been on a ride out organised through a  NIBIKERS forum. Turns out both were from Belfast and one only lives about a mile up the road from me....  nice to meet you guys!

That's all from me for now, my New Years Resolution is that I intend to get out more this year and clock up a lot of quality miles .