Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 12:14:19 -0400 (EDT) From: gayathri To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: little rant. Sunday mornings, I like to have breakfast at Newcomb's Ranch, about 29 miles up the Crest from my house. Its a nice ride - lots of curves and sweepers - I've taken Steve Moonitz, Jason Shramko and Bill Jennings up there when they've visited my neck of the woods. Usually, I get up 'round 8, and head up to avoid the sunday morning rush of squids and racers. The roads rated at 30-45 mph, and I generally take it at an average of 60 -65, which is slow compared to many of the other LABikers, but hell, I know where we're all going to end up, so I dont really care that I never really see any of them after the first three turns. We were sitting at the Shell station at the bottom of the hill and noticed a 250 two stroke. We left. about 10 miles up, as I was setting up for a turn, the 250 passed me on the outside with no warming. He was going a lot faster then my 55 mph, but I didnt hear him 'til he was right next to me. wah! Its a little disconcerting, and I noticed that it affected my turn, since it distracted me, forcing me to push the bike over harder then I really like to, and that resulted in a Very UnHappy Gayathri. I went looking for him when I got up to Newcombs, to perhaps explain to him that I thought it was rather rude to get passed like that, not to mention dangerous. I had NO IDEA he was behind me, he pretty much zooomed up and zoomed by without slowing down at all. Now, I keep my eye on the rear views and I certainly pull over to the side to allow faster bikers to pass me, and this turn was JUST BEFORE a really obvious straight, so the SOB was just being rude. Fortunately for him, I didnt find him. Asked the other labikers if he'd passed them, and was told "yea, didnt see him 'til he was by me." On the way back down, same thing, I was passed by someone on a red bmw(?) in the same way. Out of nowhere, and zoom. His friend behind him, I let by me by pulling to the side, but again, I looked for 'em both at the shell station... *sigh* Someone tell me the proper etiquette for passing like this? What makes sense to me is to pull behind someone, and either flash your brights or put on your turn signal so they notice you want to go by. This getting 'stuffed' in the corners is disconcerting and annoying and rude and f**king dangerous for those of us getting stuffed. I guess I wanted to point out to mr 250 twostroke, that the crest ISNT the track. */rant off/* Sorry, it was a wonderful ride otherwise - Upper Big Tujunga was totally clear on the way down, and I really spent a lot of time avoiding use the brakes at all. Going up, I used them twice (once in a construction zone) and once when I was passed. Gayathri ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, SquidWannaBe Triumph Sprint 900, Jezebel Independence Day 1997 - Earth Invades Mars! http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mpfmir/ http://planetary.org/ Forwarded: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 16:31:39 -0400 Forwarded: "steve_moonitz@wdi.disney.com " Return-Path: Received: from linus.mitre.org by world.std.com (TheWorld/Spike-2.0) id AA04191; Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:05:27 -0400 Received: from localhost (daemon@localhost) by linus.mitre.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id UAA12643; Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:05:05 -0400 (EDT) Received: by mitre.org (bulk_mailer v1.8); Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:05:05 -0400 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by linus.mitre.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id UAA12629 for nedod-outgoing; Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:05:04 -0400 (EDT) Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by linus.mitre.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id UAA12624 for ; Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:05:02 -0400 (EDT) Received: from world.std.com by europe.std.com (8.7.6/BZS-8-1.0) id UAA01181; Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:04:54 -0400 (EDT) Received: by world.std.com (TheWorld/Spike-2.0) id AA03356; Thu, 9 Apr 1998 20:04:53 -0400 Message-Id: <199804100004.AA03356@world.std.com> To: nedod@linus.mitre.org Subject: Re: Wanker of the Apocalypse ? In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 09 Apr 1998 08:02:11 EDT." <199804091201.IAA21756@gate3.fmr.com> Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 20:04:53 -0400 From: gayathri Sender: owner-nedod@linus.mitre.org Reply-To: nedod@linus.mitre.org X-Copyright-Header: The contents of the NEDOD mailing list are copyright by Dean Cookson (The List Maintainer) and the individual authors. Reproduction in any form is forbidden without the express written consent of the article authors (in the case of individual postings) or The List Maintainer (in the case of any compilation, archive or digest). Precedence: bulk >>Check out http://www.mother.com/~eastrup/gregg.htm for another horror >story. > >That is horrible - he had a Concours and then bought a Triumph Trophy? Oh, >the humanity! Why do they insist on buying overweight bikes? :) Actually, a long time ago, I used to blame my slowness in riding on my Ascot, Pickle, since youknow, its ONLY a 500cc vtwin, and its small, and has no power... Then, I met a squidboy who took that bike and kept up with a cbr600f3, and a zx10, and a yzf600 - tho he said he had to keep the throttle WIDE OPEN in the turns (at a whopping DOD nominal - the bike topped out at 110mph) and while the zx10 would pass him on the few straights we were on, he quickly caught up to him in the corners... Then, like an idiot, I figured my lack of speed was 'cause I owned a barcalounger with a CA engine that had that weird flat spot at 5K and its NOT MY FAULT, see, its the Triumph that's slow... and this guy who had previously thrown his VFR down a cliff came to visit and I lent him the Sprint, and he and the squidboy on his VTR went off to play with the Honda Test riders ona trip called "Mr Toad's Wild Ride." I was on an 'f3. You know, one of those fast light machines. and a Valkyrie passed me on the curves. (no, really, he didnt, tho I kept waving him along) but the guy leading when I last caught a glimpse of the VTR and Sprint was on a fully faired 'Wing. yea gods. I swear, I was watching the clouds, the hangliders, the ... I was riding bitch to the racetrack a few weeks ago, and realized that we were going faster thru those corners on lower big tujunga then I did with just me rider. Two up. I finally had to admit to myself at the end of that ride when I saw how the sprint could be whipped along, even with its soft front end and barcalounger seating and grossly soft brakes.. I finally had to admit... I'm just SLOW. Its the rider, not the bike. and while size matters with equivalent riders, most of the time, it just doesnt matter... *wah.* *wry grin* we'll see how bad it gets when I get on the race track. Gayathri ------------------------------------------------------------------------ gayathri@world.std.com Calamari Club #002, SquidWannaBe Triumph Sprint 900, Jezebel "I wish _I_ was a tiger." "A common lament." -- Calvin & Hobbes