Greetings from London!

[Gunsoku]

First blood has recently been shed by a soldering iron and some aerosols of paint, so I suppose it's about time to raise my hand and tread forward from the comfortable shadows of lurking...

Bike-less
About a year and a half ago, I sold my Monster-dised 1989 Honda Hawk GT/BROS (see below) when I moved to London (CR4), intimidated by traffic mostly. It wasn't safe and in this British metropolis, public transport was fantastic anyway, so I wouldn't need it.

Ha. Ha.

Alfred
Having resisted the urge for as long as I did, last April I finally gave in and bought myself a beautiful S2R 800. I've always wanted a Monster and I can't explain in words how good it feels to finally own one. The first week it felt really weird, staring at it in disbelief of the fact I 1. actually owned a bike again and 2. it was a Monster.

The first month I was rather reserved in actually riding it - I took it out for spins and managed to put nearly 2K on the clocks in two months, but I wasn't a hundred percent comfortable on it yet. Even now, confidence is still growing and every time I go out for a ride, I'm amazed by how planted it feels, whilst being enormously agile and quick off the line. Over the last few weeks, I find myself opening up the throttle more and more and attacking corners more aggressively confident every time - it's a relationship between me and the bike that is steadily becoming more solid per mile. It's even got a name - Alfred!

Sorry
I promised myself to keep it short, so I suppose I need to apologise already - nobody likes a wall of text. In any case, I'm happy to join the DMF and can only hope my newbie questions and mistakes will entertain as oppose to annoy.

So thank you in advance, for your patience and knowledge!

Here are a couple of photos of Alfred and his predecessor - for more information feel free to check out the mini-blog (http://thingymadoodle.com/monster/) I created to keep all the inevitable changes and mods that will be, documented.


1989 Honda Hawk GT - Fireblade front end, radial brake mc, ABM triple + bars, Acewell clocks, custom paint, Ducati Monster seat and rear light...


Alfred. Yes, I've painted the covers...


...and the headlight. Lot more mods to come...

I've also started a to-do list, to keep things manageable.

Anyhoosle, time for me to shut up - thanks for reading this far. Any questions, remarks, insults or compliments may now be dumped below.

Cheers,
Ferdi.

[somegirl]

Welcome Ferdi, nice intro and blog!

I enjoyed your pictures and your to-do list.
Sounds like it will keep you busy for quite some time!

We will welcome your questions so please don't be shy.

Looking forward to seeing your updates.

have fun! [moto]

[Gunsoku]

Thanks for the welcome, even at what must be an odd hour for you!

And yeah, the mods don't have a deadline, but there's plenty to do and it's good to keep the momentum going...