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Trial by Fire

Yesterday, I decided to bite the bullet, take my neighbor’s advice na magpalakas ng loob (grow a pair), and take the Monster to the open road.

Call it a trial by fire if you will. And in a nutshell, I was able to cover decent ground: started from Valle to Taguig, then went around Taguig (and McKinley Hill) for a while. Then proceeded to go back north via C5 – to Eastwood area, then to Katipunan, past Ateneo, then took a U near UP then went back home.

Later, I went to Motomarket Libis to get a balaclava – but then it drizzled a bit so I returned home immediately and called it a day.

Hola from Taguig!

However, I did learn a few things:

  1. There are only two types of riders: those who have already fallen, and those who are about to.
  2. If you’re not falling, you’re not learning.

You got that right; I learned this the hard way. I fell, twice! But as the sayings go – I did learn a lot from the experience and I still consider the things I did as accomplishments. 1 And now I’ve got “battle scars” to show for it hehehehe And of course, unlike my previous post, this I can consider to be a legitimate post of real-world riding impressions on the actual bike – from the perspective of a total noob. Read More

Notes

Notes
⇡1 And now I’ve got “battle scars” to show for it hehehehe
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Riding my Monster

Well, after days of finding excuses to put it off, I finally mustered up the courage to ride my new bike. And just to manage reader expectations, I’d like to make it clear that I did not put it through its paces… far from it.

Don’t get me wrong, I do want to ride it, it’s just that the venue is a bit unnerving. I’m a total noob in riding a motorcycle – so I have no idea whatsoever what to expect from a “handling” perspective. I do intend to take lessons, but I still want to be able to ride my bike as I go along.

I wish I still lived in a subdivision, where the roads are wider, the houses are further apart. And the overall area is not so busy as it is in our condo cluster. I want to be able to practice where I can experiment without anyone seeing me make a fool of myself. Obviously that’s impossible in our area. The guards, the maids, everyone is within ear/eyeshot so it’s like there’s so much pressure just not to fall. Read More

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My first Road Bike

Since the trend (fad?) nowadays is that everyone’s getting a road bike – I decided to ride (no pun intended) the bandwagon and get one myself.

Why are you looking at me like that? I’ll have you know that that is is a road bike just as well. It’s a bike, and it’s for the road! What, you thought I was going to allow myself to wear cycling shorts? I’m not yet prepared for that!

Anyways, this post is a sort of review on my latest acquisition. Though I’d more likely say “unboxing” (even if it has no box to speak of), as all I’m going to talk about here is on the modifications I made on it, and not my experience riding it (not yet at least) Read More

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I’ve Fallen for a Monster

Another major milestone in my life: I finally got myself a motorcycle.

Always wanted one but either the time or the circumstance (finances, or girlfriend, or both) didn’t allow it. Coming from the demise of a 7-year relationship, 1 Remind me never to joke about the 7-year itch, ever. this could definitely be an effective part of my [retail] therapy. It would also, once and for all, make sure the next woman wouldn’t have a say in the matter. So there is some half-full thing that could be had in this – like with every other aspect of life.

Anyways, enough with the bickering – let’s just get to the details 🙂

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Notes

Notes
⇡1 Remind me never to joke about the 7-year itch, ever.
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Getting a Modern Ducati [Key]ported

I realized that getting my Monster’s key converted into a Keyport blade cost me a whole lot more than I had expected.

Let’s be clear however, that this is through no fault of Keyport. Instead, it was the simple fact that I was the first customer to ever hand them this particular type of key (high security, transponder chip) – which turned out to be quite a nightmare for everyone. But all has been sorted out and I now have in my possession a properly working Keyport blade that works with my Monster’s immobilizer system.

I figured I’d make my “sacrifice” worthwhile by sharing whatever knowledge I’ve gleaned from the experience and help Ducati owners interested in getting ported blades for their [recent] bikes.

Of course this post wouldn’t be worth its salt if we didn’t have a blow by blow of my experience with this key. So let’s get right to it. Read More