How fast have you driven?

These immature boy racers are too bloody dumb to realise that even monkeys can be taught to drive recklessly.

 

A diesel spill only took me down once and that was in a roundabout at a relatively slow speed. Because it was a roundabout I slid out to the edge and onto the grass so there was no damage other than scuffs and scratches.

The scariest near miss came on a rural road where a car pulled out of a side street right in front of me and then stopped dead when it saw completely blocking the lane. There were oncoming cars in the other lane so I was hard on the brakes but I could see that I was still going to hit him so I lifted my one leg up onto the tank so that I could jump over him just before impact.

Then I realised that the oncoming car in the other lane would pass by just before I hit him so I swerved around the front of him instead still with my leg up on the tank. His eyes were like saucers! Certainly had my adrenaline going and yes, typical car driver not seeing a bike even though I had my lights on and was wearing my bright yellow helmet!

Coming off a bike isn't a problem as long as you don't hit anything or have anything hit you.

 

Bike riders make better car drivers IMO because they are way more aware of road conditions and other vehicles on the road at all times.

And you don't survive on a bike for very long unless you learn defensive riding tactics. You just have to assume that cars won't see you and take the appropriate precautions. For instance you always keep on eye on the car's front wheel nearest to you because you can spot the wheel changing direction before the car will move over and you cannot rely upon the driver either signalling or checking their mirrors.

 

I started riding in dirt fields, and then dirt tracks, then desert, starting with a mini bike, then a tote gote, Suzuki 125 enduro something, then a Yamaha YZ175, YZ250, Bull Taco 350 [I think] Suzuki RM370, RM400, all dirt, desert, hill climbing, and motocross, before I ever rode a street bike. Had it not been for the fact that I started riding at age 8 and had years of experience riding off road, I doubt I would have escaped a serious accident on the street. The first two incidents described took every bit of what I had to stay up.

 

We used to go riding around El Mirage dry lake. It is two miles wide, six miles long, and very flat.



If the moon was bright, after getting really drunk, we would go out late at night and have a contest. The goal was to ride all out with your eyes closed as long as you could stand it. We would space ourselves out sufficiently so as to avoid hitting each other. And we could gauge the distance to everyone else by the sound of their engines. So on our honor we rode at full throttle until we couldn't stand it and opened our eyes; to see who could go the longest.

There is nothing quite like the feeling of flying through the warm desert air at 90 mph, with your eyes closed. It was nuts! But it is also one of the more memorable experiences of my life.

 

Many decades ago there was a study done on which sports make you the fittest overall. They compared all of the most common including on and off road motor cycling. The final conclusion was that off road motor cycling was the most demanding and therefore made you the fittest.

My brother, who has always been into sports and largely ignored my interest is bikes recently took up off roading on a competitive basis. He uses a 4 stroke for training and a 2 stroke for competition and he says that gives him an edge because the latter is lighter and easier to handle after training with the heavier 4 stroke.

 

I've only ever been drunk once, and I swore 'Never again!'

 

160 km/h (100 mph). I don't see any point of going beyond. After all I'm not a race pilot.

 

Might be nuts but it is actually good science and fitness. A physical trainer that I used to work with would go around to old age homes and ask the people there when was the last time they worked on their balance and their core strength. One of the leading causes of death in old age is falling and breaking bones and subsequently being immobolized. Maintaining your balance is the nerve connection between the muscles in your feet and your balance in your ears. If you stop using that you lose it which is why those core and balance exercises are so vital. And no, you don't need your eyes to balance. I sometimes close mine when doing balance exercises in the pool while standing on my toes.

Getting back to what you were doing you were relying on the gyroscopic effect of the bike wheels and your ears to maintain your balance. Being drunk could have compromised your balance but the gyroscope effect could have compensated for that.

 

Haha, yeah, there were no 4 stroke dirt bikes when I was riding. 2 Strokes are ugly because so much oil is burned or passed out the exhaust. But you can't beat the simplicity of 2 stroke.

I had a Suzuki Gt 380, 3 cyclinder 2 stroke, cafe racer - a street racer! I could take 750s off the line. Just crank it up to 10krpm, dump the clutch, and hang on! For only 380 ccs it was crazy fast. Course mine was bored to about a 400, ported... but the 2 stroke gets twice the bang for the buck by design.

A bit of engineering trivia: The distinctive sound of a Harley is a result of both pistons firing simultaneously. That is why you get the thumping effect and so much vibration, instead of a smoother "Japanese" sound where the piston firing is staggered - a much more efficient engine but not as "torquey". In effect, Harley is famous for a bad design.

 

Not exactly certain.

My folks had an Oldsmobile Toronado, with a 455 V8. Instead of the standard dial and moving needle, it had a stationary needle with a cylinder that rotated to show mph. The markings went up to 135 mph, and I had it significantly past that, so I'm guessing somewhere between 140 and 150.

A few years ago, I also got to drive my brother's Audi A4 on the Autobahn, and got up to 140 mph.

 

Maybe 110 in father's Chrysler sedan.

18 years old. Narrow black top road. Miracle I didn't kill someone or myself. Stupid ... Hormones....

 

While stationed in Germany, a bunch of us gear heads would get together and rent some of the higher end cars. There was a formula one track in Belgium that was open to the public when not in use...top speed was around 220 km/hr on the way there on the autobahn...never broke 160 on the track.

 

Funny that you go crackpot on that post. None of those situations were my fault.

My guess is that you never even read it.

 

I was talking with a work associate today. He told me he hit 160 on his bike last weekend. Funny, I noticed that just thinking about it made my heart start pounding.

 

In a car my top speed was about 115 mph. They almost caught me crossing Nevada.

On a motorcycle my top speed was about 150 mph. They caught me around Ojai Calif. with a helicopter. Since I was military with an out of state driver's license all they could do was remand me to the Provost Marshal. I got my ass chewed out by the General who made me promise not to do it ever again.

 

Haha, a slap on the hand. Whewwww!!!

Something cool I hadn't thought about in a long time. When I was in my early twenties, a close friend of the family, a woman about the same age as my mother whom I'd known most of my life, was fighting a battle with her health that she lost a couple of years later. At that time she was still fully in control and wanted to take a ride with me on my bike. She had never ridden a motorcycle. So, early one Saturday morning I took her for a long cruise on my café racer. On the last leg of the run we were on a wide-open freeway and it was still fairly early. I asked if she wanted to see how fast we could go. She gave me a big smile and a thumb's up. So I opened it up. I don't remember how fast we went but it was up there with my top speed on a bike; about 135 I think. She LOVED it. From what I was told later, she talked about that for a long time afterwards. It was a neat thing to be able to do for her.

 

That's a great story thank you for sharing @HereWeGoAgain .

I have a somewhat similar but funnier story than that.

I was dating this USN nurse (female of course) and had taken her for several rides in my British convertible sports car which I kept parked next to my motorcycle.

One day she asked me, pointing to the cycle, "When are you going to take me for a ride on that ?!"

I said, "Ok we can go right now but you will need to change into levi's and a heavy jacket and some boots." She had the levi's and the jacket but not boots. So tennis shoes had to do.

I took her on my normal circuit from Pendleton to Escondido to San Diego and back again.

When we got back to the BOQ and went to the bar to eat, several of our friends were there too and we all ate together.

Then she said while sitting down, "Dammit Karl my butt's really sore again!" right in front of all my friends and her friends and Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

 

LOL!!! What was the reaction?

What was the perfect come back given the situation...? Perhaps, "Next time we'll go slower".

 

Oh I turned beet red and my face got really hot.

My silence was proof of guilt enough.

The others were roaring.

 

She was paying me back for another time at the bar when I got her by answering her question, "What can a man do that a woman cannot do?"

My answer was, "Stand up and pee."

 

...and hit a target four feet away!

Total sidebar: When using the urinals at Schiphol Airport, in Amsterdam, I noticed a fly in the urinal. I was driven by some primal instinct to hit that fly. And I did. But it didn't react. It was etched. It was fake! Knowing that men can't resist a good target, they trick you into peeing in the perfect spot. This resulted in a reduction in splatter of something like 80%,

 

Now you @HereWeGoAgain are reminding me again of @robini123 's pet fly Ralph -- who died.

Very sad story.

(Actually not -- more like a joke.)

If I am spraying my car with a hose and a wasp comes flying by then I will spray the wasp as if the hose were a 50 cal BMG.

But I leave bees and flies and ants alone. They are hard working insects with lots of work to do.

Wasps on the other hand have stung me more than once in my lifetime and it will always be a vendetta with them.

 

Yeah, right.im sure you never did it again.

 

I have lots of vices, mostly involving alcohol and sex and women, but lying is not one of them.