And mine too.:excited:
Now im not going to bed until I know.
JustJoey,
I believe I met you over at Red Bluff. If I recall, it was your Mick-O-Pegs I was checking out. I was the one that spanked the crotch rockets that day on the stretch of twisties...on my Wing...unfortunately, no trailer in tow. Six of them were cranking up leaving the Bluff and heading for the twisties. I heard one of them jokingly say to another..."maybe theres one you can handle" referring to me, my Wing or both.
They were relatively young and all decked out in pretty leathers, knee pucks and colorful boots. Before I knew what I was doing, I was stomping out my smoke, loading my helmet and firing up the bike. I let them all file out of the Bluff entrance and out on to the main road. Once out on the road, they were clustered up behind a farm truck pulling a trailer. We followed the truck through the first curve and they started working there way around the truck on the next little straight and the pace improved. I got the last guy in the pack with little difficulty. He was doing a serious set up going into the corners but was just dead slow. Once he was out of the way, I quickly caught up with the next guy in the rolling turns.
I saw this rider looking in his mirror and he seemed perplexed that I was behind him and not his buddy. I followed this cat through a couple of turns which I could tell he didn't like and determined he was just holding me up. He kept drifting around in the lane as if blocking me. In the next corner, I showed him my front tire on the inside line of the turn. The guy cut in on me to block me from passing. I don't know if he was trying to protect his buddies ahead from me or his own pride. Following him into the next corner, I dipped to the outside and let him see my headlight in his outside mirror and when he thought he had me blocked, I cut back over and took the inside line to pass him. Within a few turns, I was nipping at the next guy.
By then, we were getting into the section with longer straights and I was having to drive hard out of the corners and taching high in the straights. Naturally, I was getting eaten alive on the straights but offset alot of the damage by late braking in the corners as if I were going for the money. Got back into the tighter sections and I was all over the guy. When we got to the first 90 degree right-hand turn, while he was hard braking standing it on its nose in the center of the lane, I was backing it in carrying some speed on the inside line and was in front of him exiting the corner. It was getting interesting.
I pushed it hard until I caught the next two riders who were running neck and neck with each other. I pushed on them and intimidated them through the next series of turns. When we came to the 2nd 90 degree right-hand turn, they were hard braking, bunched up both fighting for and hogging the inside line. While they were pre-occupied with and on top of each other, I passed both of them on the outside line at the same time. Driving hard up the hill coming out of that tight corner, the hunt was on. Four down, two more to go.
I ran hard for the next series of turns and as the road began to calm down on the north end, I noticed the first two riders had pulled over in a gravel patch on the side of the road and were looking back (I guess for their buddies). They were obviously better riders than the rest of the pack based how much further up the road they were. I slowed down coming by them and made sure I flipped my modular open as to let them see the big smile on my face and gave them a little acknowledgment wave. They just looked puzzled. I continued down the road a mile or two at a slow speed watching my mirrors waiting to see if they wanted to continue the session...trolling I suppose. No show. I turned around to head back south and saw all six of them grouped up in the same gravel patch. As I approached them, some were laughing and most were not.
Once I passed them and cooled it down, when I was down the road a mile or so, I started laughing and laughed so hard I thought I was going to have to pull over. I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed until it hurt. Seriously, that was the best laugh I've had in many years before or since. I rode back to the Bluff to finish that smoke I didn't get earlier and the crotch rockets pulled back in 10-15 minutes later. By this time, I had stopped laughing and had re-gained my "lone wolf" composure. Although not much was said to me other than "that thing does alright" or a nod, (probably due to the size of the crowd there), the attitude was certainly different and there was alot of loud-mouth razzing going on. There were a couple of them that wouldn't even look me in the face as if I invalidated their need for a sportbike or fancy gear. Without trying to be too obvious, I fixated on trying to see how many of them really had scuffs on those pucks but couldn't tell much from where I was at.
I know many frown on this behavior but if you could bottle that feeling, you would be a rich man by tomorrow evening. If you have ever been competetive on a motorcycle of any kind, its hard not to be whe a good opportunity arises. My only regret is not having a video camera rolling.
Joey...if you weren't aware of what was going on, being familiar with the area, I knew you would enjoying knowing and appreciate it was done on a Wing. I guess we all thought we'd never be old pharts...but some days we don't have to be. The Wing gives an out-of-balance edge, whereas, if a sportbike outruns you on you Wing, he really has nothing much to brag about and its a hollow victory for him, but let the Wing outrun the sportbike and they play he11 ever living it down with their peers. Either way, its raw fun.
Z