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.

Saturday 10th April 2010: 22.00am

Okay, so the bike's running well. Rumour has it that the parts for the first upgrade will be around by sometime next week, and we really need to get the first service and that upgrade sorted out before Rich takes the Fat Bob, rather than having to continually swap bikes. So, where to go?

Adrenalin Moto are having an open day in Darlington. That'll put a good few hundred miles on it. Okay, so 311 to be precise - or about 300 if I stick to the motorways. So 311 it is.

North to Preston, cut across the A59 to Harrogate and up through Ripon onto the A1M. A slight detour on the way back, picking up the more challenging Pateley Bridge road out of Ripon, down through Skipton for fish and chips and back via Rich's on the east side of Manchester for a magazine debrief and to find out when he'll be ready for the Fat Bob.

Highlights? The sheer number of Harleys out on the A59 in the morning sunshine. Low points? The endless roadworks on the A1M that made me regret not knowing the roads better and taking the country roads further North to Leyburn.

An excellent cross-section of roads, with motorways, fast A-roads and hairy twisting B-roads, the Fat Bob dealt with them all ... far better than it had any right to. I keep banging on about this being the first FL Dyna, but even with the balloon tyres front and back, this rides like a streetbike. It truly is the European streetfighter of the range and you can easily see why it is the best seller that it has turned out to be among the performance-oriented Brits.

The seat is wearing after 150 miles in the saddle - a tank's range is do-able but only with the last twenty-or-thirty miles shifting from cheek to cheek: the touring kit is coming with a touring seat and a couple of circulation pads and I'm looking forward to seeing how they work. Still, better news for a pillion. Amanda went all of five miles the previous evening on the small styling flourish that masquerades as a pillion seat and has made it very clear that she's not in a hurry to repeat the experience.

It's the first time I've needed to put fuel in to the tank, and I've determined to keep a log of mileages. Filled-up it shows a range of 197 miles which is bloody impressive. Not as impressive as it will be if it delivers that but my hopes aren't high. At least not until the engine has bedded in. Dullard that I am, I'm going to put those numbers into a spreadsheet and produce a graph off the back of it showing fuel consumption, which I'll link into here, reproducing the exercise that taught me how to use a spreadsheet all those years ago.

I take it pretty steady on the way North, cosseting the engine and with an eagle eye on the speedo, but as I get increasingly confident with the bike I push it a little harder. On the bright side, as the miles accumulate, the engine will take a little more, and I happen to know that 80mph is about 3,000rpm in top so I know I'm not going to hurt it providing I don't race or rally it. What I don't account for is just how happy the bike is to do 80mph in 5th without breaking sweat, which is thankfully identified easily in the dark by the lack of an illuminated '6' on the white-faced speedo, but it's hard to see in daylight and all-but invisible at dawn and dusk.

The engine feels really happy. Crisp on the throttle with the revs decaying quickly when it's shut down, and the only concern is over-revving the motor at this early stage. You start to get used to when you're in the wrong gear, and it's typically as you run across slower moving traffic, cog down to make sure you've got plenty of passing power without  lugging the engine, and then forget to change up again afterwards. Easily done: the engine is that happy.

More disconcerting, however, is when snicking back up the box you realise that the tell-tale is still not lit and you were running in 4th ... and it was just as happy. It might well be happy, but while 80mph corresponds to 3k in sixth, it's closer to 3,300rpm in fifth from recollection and 3,600 in fourth, which isn't best practice when running-in, At least not over protracted distances.

While the motor is still a long way from being run-in, I've settled down with the bike and can pronounce myself content. The low fuel light came on before leaving Darlington, which means the 197 mile range is closer to 157 at this point of its life, but that's only to be expected. It was slightly worse on the return journey, which I've attributed to a couple of longer stops: stopping and restarting the motor, especially when it's had chance to cool down, has some impact on the consumption, which is either the instruments having had chance to recalibrate themselves, or else needing a little more choke.

The last  experience of the day was something of a surprise: I'd started the day with incoming on-line comments saying nothing positive about the twin diminutive headlamps, and finished riding down known but unlit fast sweeping A-roads and surprised at how good the headlamps were. We're still looking into why that might be the case and will keep you informed.

PS. Thanks to Debbie at Adrenalin for the pic: inexplicably, I spent all my time avoiding getting the Fat Bob in the shots.

PPS. watch the main blog and the magazine for more details on the Cafe Racer, 'cos I took that out for a blast round the country lanes ... well, wouldn't you?