Ignore the blog time/date stamp: this a retrospective update while I get things back up to date: the timings and workload weren't conducive to the real-time update that will follow from this point forwards.

Sunday 11th April 2010: 22.00am

I'd briefly considered staying over in Darlington after the Adrenalin Moto open day, but Amanda was going stir crazy and needed to get out and go somewhere – anywhere – and the weather was set to hold fair for the Sunday. Fine by me, the mileage was cranking up but I still wanted the 1,000 mile out of the way ASAP, so pulling the Buell back from the warehouse – because I really didn't want to end up sitting behind the FT500 for a day – we retraced her rain-sodden training route up to Lake Vyrnwy.

Excellent A-roads all the way were a welcome change after the necessary evils of motorways and a roadwork infested A1M up to Darlington, but the best of it was that Amanda was making good progress on the Buell. Actually, she was making bloody good progress ... she was off! Gone! Brilliant! Bloody hell, that girl can ride! She's reading the road well, and her improved confidence isn't at the expense of caution. It's going to be a good day.

Thankfully, she's happy to stay within posted speed limits so I was able to keep pace relatively easily without compromising my running-in regime - which it turned out was stricter than the one posted in the owner's manuel. Apparently I only needed to cosset it for the first 500 miles, but then it also suggests I should be able to shift into top at 55mph but should avoid lugging the motor, which suggests that either UK bikes have taller gearing, or that I have a different definition of lugging the motor.

No matter: I'm not out to prove anything, just enjoying throwing it around on increasingly tighter bends, practising the outboard footpeg weight distribution thingie, and remarking upon the fact that while I've scuffed my heels a few times, the rubber on the footpegs is still unmolested. That shouldn't be a major surprise, really, as the fat front tyre matched to the wide rear means the whole centreline of the bike moves across when heeled over, and it really seems to make a difference.

The tyre compounds, too, seem to be well-matched to the handling characteristic, or else define them, and I can't help but wonder whether Michelin are developing a specific tyre for next year's Fat Bob, or whether it'll stick to Dunlops. There is one strange thing you notice from the tyres, possibly because of the abbreviated mudguard, but more likely because of the tread pattern: the front of the motor gets a good coating of road dirt. It looks to be more than the regular Dynas get, and something to keep an eye on, and add to the cleaning regime.

There's no doubt that the Buell was the more agile of the two bikes, but the Fat Bob gave a very good account of itself. It might have an FL's wheel fitment, but it is truly an FX in its behaviour, and a sporting one at that. Those twin discs up front bring it to a halt quickly and efficiently, and the only negative side of that is I'll need to keep an eye on the alloy wheels: brake dust is horribly caustic, and it just needs a spot of rain to distribute it further and draw it into the aluminium. We might have missed the salted roads, but that's no reason to scrimp on the cleaning regime.

For all that, though, you're always aware of the front wheel. You know it;'s bigger than it needs to be, and there's a sense of the gyroscopic effect when cornering sharply, but the trade-off is that you know it's not going to skip, and that the tyre's footprint will give you the grip that you want, once you've established full confidence in the tyre's tall, round-shouldered profile, which sometimes makes it feel a little awkward – like getting used to a big rear tyre – until you work with it and let the bike roll through the bends.

By the time we got home, as disk was falling, I was starting to look forward to the circulation pads that will accompany the touring upgrade in May/June, which is probably a result of yesterday's 300 miles as much as the 160 of today, but the bike's first thousand miles were nearly up. Just fifty to go, and Chester Harley-Davidson is thirty-five miles away. Shame I've got another hundred and some to do before I can get it booked in, but I'm told that we're within acceptable tolerances so all's well with the world. Well, except for forgetting to take some pictures