First ride on my RR for more than a year. It had to be the Col de l’Espigoulier (723 m.), my favourite ride local to Marseille with quite enough challenges over its 14 km ascent of over 600 metres of altitude from the Provençal village of Gémenos. All the gear of course - AGATT safety principles - even for a short session to practise skills.
Riding my CBR600RR after so long wasn’t quite like riding a new bike, but after a few rides on my Ninja Z250 in Keswick that’s great for little Lakeland lanes, my RR just rides fantastic. So tight on the curves, stable on the braking and very much point and shoot in terms of forward power; the red line on the RR is up at an almost unimaginable 15000 revs. And it’s easy to adore the physicality of Honda’s engineering on the RR, it is so elegant and efficient and sounds so sweet.
My RR being “in jail” in my garage here and not running for over a year did cost a new battery, the rejuvenation programme on my charger couldn’t bring the old battery back. The new battery charged up slowly overnight and was ready with another colourful Marseille dawn - crimson before the sunrise then blinding orange.
Noticeable also that, despite plenty of mildly obsessive time in the gym in the meantime, actually riding a sportsbike on challenging roads is still a noticeable physical effort.
