I had a great day and a pleasant evening yesterday. Spent the day on the track and road. Then we all had dinner together in the hotel followed by drinks in the piano bar. After deciding not to join the Triumph guys on a night out in Cartagena city (was considering my head the following morning) Magnus from Swedish Bike magazine and I had a couple of night caps. We spoke mostly about how difficult the online advertising situation is in Scandinavia. It's worth mentioning that if you get a Marketing manager position in any of the Scandinavian countries it's usually a job for life and things change slowly. Anyway, this morning I felt fresh and was awake early to do some more work before my 10 O'clock transfer to Murcia airport. Being on one of these flights to and from Spain in the winter is the same as spending 3 hours in an old people's home. Pretty much an army of white and in some occasions pink hair everywhere. It takes a while to board you could say. Reaching Manchester it was low and frosty fog so we had to circle above the Peak district a couple of times before being allowed to land. I wish I had had my camera out as I got a perfect Birdseye view of the Cat & Fiddle road. I have published the video that I made at the Kristyna Myles gig last week too. You can see the full 1 hour gig below. There's some beautiful music there if you're into soul and even some funk. Tor

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It turned out to be a productive day yesterday after all and I got lots of nice shots despite the grey weather. It did dry up and we all got our knees down. Today we started on the Cartagena circuit again as it's finally a sunny day! So this morning I got the chance to do several more track sessions including a couple of sessions with onboard video that you can see here later. After lunch we did a short road ride where I did some more video on the way. A short action teaser from the first day of riding below. My thanks goes to the Triumph staff that made the whole event flexible enough for everyone to get whatever they needed of footage and video. TS

I am now sitting in my hotel room as the first track day at Cartagena on the Daytona 675 has been postponed until after lunch due to appalling weather conditions here in Spain. So I'm working and have published some pictures from the press kit. I may even have time to publish a short vid from yesterdays press conference. The problem from the hotel seems to be that the wireless connection doesn't like FTP as it keeps stopping the transfer with annoying regularity. More later after I have ridden the bike. If today's weather continues into the afternoon Triumph may change tomorrow's road ride to another track day at Cartagena too which I'm all for! Garry McCoy in the action shots. Tor

Just arrived in Spain at the La Manga Club resort. Watch the Vlog below.

Some great news today too! I have been talking to Backstreet Girl's manager Vegard about using the bands music in a selection of my videos. And after I showed the band the intro Ducati 1198 clip that I'll use for the long version of the launch film (including video interview of Troy Bayliss) they gave me the go ahead. To celebrate I published that clip for all to see as I'll change it again before the full Ultimate film. You can see that clip below. Also, the work on the YouTube channel continues and today I was approached by YouTube to work even closer on new features and more. This should improve the viewer experience further. I have also upped the quality of compression in my films and the result again is in the below first film with that sort of compression. I'm now also ready to pack my bag once again as I fly to Spain tomorrow for the 2009 Triumph Daytona 675 launch. Next report will be from my hotel near to the Cartagena circuit. See you soon. TS

It's all about the video editing from Portimao for me now. I am also transcribing my video interview with Troy Bayliss. Another very good news I received today is that I will indeed attend the 2009 Yamaha R1 and XJ6 world launch in Sydney, Australia in January 2009. Big Bang R1 and Eastern Creek, here I come! But before that, I'm flying over to Spain next week for Triumph's launch of the 2009 Daytona 675. That's a bike I also really like as it's so narrow and agile so Cartagena should be a blast on the 675. Tonight I'm going on a whiskey tasting event here in Chorlton with my friends and then have a lie in tomorrow before full throttle again. See you soon! Tor

Wrote my article today, but still had time to chill out on the beach for a while after lunch. After all, evenings are all work when on a launch. Don't get me wrong, I'm having drinks with the guys and all, but then continue working until 1-2AM before going to bed. I still have a million things to do and soon it's time to edit some of the great video footage I've got too. I had time to say hi to some of my friends from the North Europe and Japan groups that just arrived today to ride tomorrow before transferring myself to a different hotel nearer to the airport. Arrived fairly late so ordered a Portuguese Pizza take away to the room and continued work with images and video. Need to rest a bit tomorrow as I haven't gotten much sleep these days in Portugal. TS

Good morning! It's 06:40 in the morning here in Portimao and I'm watching a beautiful sunrise. Just after breakfast we all head out to the Algarve circuit which is a 20 minute drive from here. At 9 O'clock there's a press conference at the track before we finally get to ride at 10 O'clock. I should be back at the hotel just after 5 sometime for the first update and first impressions of the 1198. The first impressions has been added to the 1198 link and also to the news section. Bike is great! The shower I had after riding today was like heaven for my sore limbs. The 1198 S really pulls and stretches your body as it's pulling so strongly. After shower we all headed into the fishing village for a very nice dinner. Lots of the guys were surprised to see Troy Bayliss having a cigarette with his drink. I don't really understand why, let the man enjoy himself. Had a chat at the bar to Troy and Heather Watson. One of Troy's mechanics is Swedish so the subject as I'm Norwegian went towards what Troy called "Stink" which really is called Snus. It's a smokeless tobacco really and very popular in the Scandinavian countries. I usually bring some when I'm flying long haul, but had some with me on this one too. I offered Troy some, but he wasn't up for it tonight. He still agreed it's good stuff though. Troy's moving to Queensland now and his wife and kids are back in Monaco now packing. I wish him all the best and perhaps a comeback in 2010? Heather is now trying to learn Japanese as her main job next year is to take care of Nori Haga in his campaign for the world superbike crown on the 1098R. Tor

I'm now in Portimao and have already made the first film. It's uploading now as we speak and I'll post as soon as finished. From a rainy day in Manchester to clear skies and sun here in Portugal is great! Had lunch with the Ducati guys earlier and there's a couple of surprises for us journos once again. My bet is on Troy Bayliss being here to show us around the technical Portimao circuit tomorrow. That'll be a great privilege! Tor

What a life! I'm finishing deals and contracts for 2009 right now. I can't hide the fact that I'm doing well, but I want to invest in more equipment and more exclusive European tests next year. I thought I could use a Sales Manager to bring in some advertising to this site and to the YouTube channel. But it just doesn't work well that way so I have to try to do more myself. I am also pleased to be able to announce a new cooperation here at Raptorsandrockets.com with BSN, the voice of British motorcycle racing. So as of from now (or at least when I'm back from the Ducati 1198 launch) we will cover all aspects of roadracing again powered by professional content. They'll get to pick a few sportbike launches in return. So, on Monday I jet over to the Algarve coast in Portugal to test the all new 2009 Ducati 1198 at the brand new Portimao circuit. I am looking forward to both riding the bike and to test on a new circuit that I've already heard fantastic stuff about. Been on the phone with Yamaha today as well discussing launches, flights and all that. I am one of a few freelance journalists that actually pay for most of my flights myself. With Yamaha this is the case as I'm invited centrally and not by a specific importer. The rich advertising fuelled magazines still get most of their travel cost covered of course, but I'm not complaining because I believe in a society with differences based on how different people actually are. So I mentioned the flights again to Yamaha's Marketing boss and said I'd be happy covering most flights as long as it's not to Australia or something. Where is the 2009 Yamaha R1 and XJ6 world launch do you think? You got it, Australia! Anyway, I haven't been promised the spot yet but we're going to do more Yamaha soon. I haven't worked out the 09 R1 quite yet, but it sounds more like a growling V-twin than an in-line four which must be a good thing! My schedule can change drastically from just day to day as the launch invites streams in with the usual irregularity. Expect lots of good stuff in 2009. Tor