My Bikes 

A pictorial view of the bikes I have both past and present. 

First the present followed by the past bikes.  My current steed is this lovely machine .  Purchased in July 2015 specifically for touring around Thailand and my China tour.

A great bike which I have come to enjoy riding a lot.  Very different to my other bikes but a great mile munching machine,  extremely reliable and already with 13k kms on the clock.  I can’t yet say that I love the bike like my Ducati’s but it is indeed a great bike and was undoubtedly the best choice for a 6,000 km plus bike tour across both paved and unpaved roads in China.  This picture taken North of Lijiang, Yunnan, China.

One of the most fun bikes I ever had was my Ducati Multistrada 1200.  This is a bike I can definitely say I loved to own and ride.  The bike itself is great to ride, handles exceptionally well and rides just like a Ducati would be expected.  Phenomenal torque and power coming from it’s L-Twin motor and a great crowd pulling machine wherever I stopped.  This is a Pikes Peak Special Edition which came in the Corse colours and I had the top box and panniers colour coded to go with the Corse scheme.  Typically Ducati in that it had a whole manner of electronic issues during it’s warranty period, but mechanically is very sound.  I brought it with me to Thailand but due to import restrictions and barriers I very reluctantly returned it to Singapore and sold it.

My Ducati 1098 is definitely one of the best bikes I’ve had.  Also the key bike that has led to the current passion and love I have for motorcycles.  It was never the bike I intended to buy as I was going to buy a VFR800.  But when it came out it was too beautiful to not buy, plus a good friend urged me to get a Ducati.  With this within the first 5 years it transformed me as a rider.  I clocked up 72,000 kms rode all over Singapore, Malaysia & Thailand.  Eventually I ventured from road to track and it helped me to be become a much better rider in many respects.  Currently it lives in a garage near Sepang International Racing Circuit and since I bought the Multistrada 1000, it has become almost completely a track bike.  Accordingly then I put on a race fairing and converted it to a track bike.  I love the bike and doubt I will ever part with it.  Therefore it deserves two photos.

After realising the beauty and pleasure of riding Japan, I took an F800 Adventure with a friend of mine.  We planned a ride in October 2014 through Japan, midway attending the Motegi MotoGP.  An exceptionally good bike indeed, it’s typically BMW.  We did the ride, 6,000 kms in all, and had a great time.  The BMW rotax engine is a very well known motor, smooth power delivery and quite nimble through the twisties of Japan.  The tour was so great that in April of 2015, I took my wife on a similar tour of Japan.  We are now considering a tour 2017 or 2018 in Japan centred around the Suzuka endurance race.  This picture with my wife in Kyoto.

In 2013 I was posted to Japan for a year with the company I was working for that time.  Spending 3-4 weeks at a time in Japan, I was introduced to some bikers acquired a motorbike so I could explore the Japanese countryside at the weekends.  I settled on a Triumph Tiger 1050.  Having no idea what it would be like I was more than impressed with this bike.  A three cylinder motor, producing the smoothest power and torque I have experienced.  The bike itself handles particularly well and I am to this day bowled over by how good Triumph motorcycles truly are to ride and enjoy.  This photo taken on a solo weekend ride North of Takayama.  I later sold the bike when my posting ended.

Before the Multistrada 1200 came the Multistrada 1000 DS.  After touring many times on the 1098, and in line with a new job choosing to commute by bike instead of car, I decided to buy my first touring bike and the choice was a used Multistrada 1000.  A pretty reliable bike, great to ride and handled very well on both long open roads as well as twisty country roads. Getting on with age, some increasing mechanical issues, I decided to part with this in exchange for the 1200 S.