So today I set the alarm for 5am and wake to the sound of hammering rain.

The day after the summer solstice it's almost fully light and I go out to the garage and wheel the bike out for the 150 mile ride out to Bristol where I work during the week. Chosen the full-on wet weather Rukka kit because motorway speeds will just tear through leather in 20 miles.

I push the bike down the road a couple of hundred metres because the full Ti Akro system will wake the dead and I value the neighbours friendship. Get to a spot and swing my leg over the dripping saddle and into position. Set my odo so I know how many agonising miles I have to go and thumb the starter. Bike fires and even though I have ear plugs in the sound is immense and my half-asleep mind is shattered into full consciousness. I love this feeling, even with the rain pelting down into my visor and dripping down the back of my neck. It's still a good three hours before I have to be a at work and I have all of those minutes riding the bike I love and doing this thing that I've been doing for over 35 years.

Let the clutch out and power off. Now I'm old, and have a laugh at every chance I get, I use the throttle to overwhelm the cold back tyre and sort of enjoy the first few miles with the back end sort of squirming and sliding in the wet. I used to shit myself when this happened but 5 years riding a Supermoto cured me of this.

By the time I get to the motorway everything is warmed up and I'm feeling the difference between running summer track tyres, (Racetecs) and these new street type Metzlers. They are sooooo much better in the wet and I'm experimenting with the new found confidence that they give. I've only just scrubbed them in so still learning. As predicted after 20 miles I'm feeling the first signs of wet penetrating my gear. Fingers, neck and maybe through the boots a bit. But it's June and not half as cold as this trip in February so I consider myself lucky!

On the journey back last Friday I just took all the back roads, no motorways, just fast, slick, awesome bends. Through Somerset villages and Wiltshite hills. The journey took me over 4 hours and more than 60 miles longer but it was a hot summer night and the tarmac was hot and the ride was awesome. But this morning it's fooking pissing down and I just want to get some miles under my belt before I start to dissolve with the wet and spray and bad visibility.

But I want to tell you about how great this bike is doing the shitty motorway commute. The boring way for me is up the M23, onto the M25, round to the M3, down a bit and then cut across to join the M4 to head west to Bristol and then down the M32 into town. It's a shit ride on a bike really. No fun, just hard 150 mile slog against traffic and in this weather altogether miserable.

But only if you make it so.

Me. I just hunker down into the rain and think myself lucky to be on this great bike. I love the power and the torque and the brakes and the precision it cuts through everything I present it with. I love the way it gobbles up the empty parts of the motorway and propels me from the boring 70's up to 120/130 at the flick of a wrist and consumes other traffic leaving them behind in a blur of spray and exhaust. So what they have heated interiors, so what they have Capital radio and bags of crisps and mobile phones and furry dice and air fresheners. I have a 990 Vtwin power and I'm loving it!

I like the way the engine booms, even with ear plugs in. I like the way the quick shifter works the great box in a seamless surge of acceleration. I like the way the slipper clutch gently pulses the lever into roundabouts to let me know that in the old days I'd be hopping the rear. I like the way I never know whether I'm in top gear because this engine just seems to pull and pull.( I have a gear indicator fitted but I can't see it because of the tank bag!)

My legs are wet now. My back and crotch are soaking. Feet wet, gloves sopping. Don't care, I've done half way and Newbury services are near. I flip off from the fast lane and fit into the peel off lane for the services and stretch my leg out to ease the pain in my left knee down the slip road. Go real problems there, I'm waiting for surgery on a complicated combination of old bike injuries and old age, so I need to get the knee flexed so it doesn't collapse when I come to a stop at the car park. What an old fooker I am! Ha ah.

At the services I park up and really start to feel the cold and wet throughout my body. Unclip the tank bag and sat nav and limp off to the warm and shelter of the cafe. It's still absolutely chucking it down, the rain hammering into the miserable wet black parking bays and shattering off the glass roof of the entrance. I'm a sort of outcast shambling through the hubbub of newsagents and coffee stops and mobile phone franchises full of warm, chattering car bound people. I head straight for the toilets and the hot air dryers.

Back on the road again after a brew and a bacon sandwich and I have another 80 miles to go. Still chucking it down and there was no chance my gear dried out so it's just on with the wet and hunker down again. But as soon as I'm on the road again I feel the warmth of the engine and the thrill of the ride so I don't care.

I've had this bike since 2007. I bought it new at Christmas so I got a real good deal because they weren't selling at that time of year. I've had loads of bikes over the years, mostly sports bikes, mostly two strikes until the end of the 1990s and then V twins. I hate inline 4s. This bike is the bike I've owned the longest ever, and done the most mods to. It's the first bike that I went on a track day with. It's the first bike I truly understood fuel injection on. It's the first bike I perhaps understood suspension setting on. I think I really want to own it for ever. I probably will because I've put so much effort and energy and expense into it that I'd never recoup my investment. And it still does the job. Every day and every weekend and every time I need it to do something. I have a Kawasaki H2 and that often beats the 990 for attention on a barmy summer afternoon to hoon down to the local bike meet. But most times the 990 wins.

I pull into the garage at the studio I work at in Bristol. The bike is steaming and ticking as it cools down. Puddles of water pool off the bodywork and my clothing drips as I remove the keys. Filthy muck covers the once gleaming engine casings and carbon panels. My trick Wilburs shock and Scotts damper are smeared with hundreds of miles of damp and grime and motorway miles. My iron brakes are already starting to rust up and seize into the Brembo M4 callipers and the tank is running on empty.

But I'm feeling good. Another adventure completed on my bike. Another time I've escaped accident, crashes, loony car drivers and the ever present British police and their abominable speed cameras.

And head into the office for the 9 0'clock monday meeting.

I would always sing (usually doors songs - riders on the storm worked well) to myself while completing long journeys in the wildest weather. There was a feeling, especially if it was also dark, of living slightly outside of the reality seen by fellow road users. It was a nuanced experience but had a quality I have never experienced doing anything else. Been a long time for me but your post bought a taste of that back, think I might put some music on

I have to say for the most part I hate riding in the rain, but in a strange way I also find it very relaxing. I find I get into this mental state of intense concentration, coupled with a steady pace on the bike mile after mile after mile and the exhaust note in the background helping to shut out any unwanted thoughts it becomes like meditation.

Great write-up...enjoyed that journey with you and never felt a drop of rain !!

Wow great write up.....I had one of those never forget journeys back in 1982

Such a good read. I was smiling for most of it because it's how I feel about mine.

My friends all call me Mr 50/50 because I don't own anything for more than 5 minutes,I just get bored.

I've had my superduke now for 6 months (yes the longest I've ever owned a bike,car anything other than my wife and kids)

I just love it, and for basically what you've written about here.

Great write up, you should consider writing a book. I think I actually got some rain on me while I was reading...like I was there. Good stuff

Although I got a little side tracked when you said "bacon sandwich" mmm bacon

Thanks. I know all the feelings you described.

Once you're out in the rain, it doesn't matter that much