Took the Duke out for the June trackday. Saturday was forecast to be warm, and for once no gale force winds were expected. While it still was blustery, the breezes weren't too bad for the Prairies. What can I say -- the bike was a hoot to ride around Gimli! The softly-damped bike soaked up the track's bumps really well, and very quickly I was able to have fun and drag knees and toes everywhere! I kept bottoming out the rear shock -- but I still had some more spring preload I could have used, so I am resisting buying a new performance shock just yet. Lap times steadily dropped until I got into the 1:08s. Not bad on a supermoto with a 58hp engine.
I've got some ideas about how to go faster as well. The cool thing was track prep comprised flipping on some new tires, removing 4 bolts to get rid of the licence plate and tail light, and swapping the rear seat for the white cover. I've got a matching setup for the front in the works, so I won't have to tape over any lights. There is more time to be had on this bike, which has got me thinking about racing it. Is this the elusive machine that can actually do everything "good enough"?
As you can see I'm pretty smitten right now. That's a good thing! Next trackday is in mid-July, and I'll have a few more things to try out.
