You don't always have to have the latest, greatest & newest technology to win, have fun and show off at the same time.

Just for fun...



The German translates roughly to:

"A BMW 2-valve GS boxer beats a BMW R1200R 4-valve boxer in a drag on the Neustadt airstrip." The laughter and cheering is obvious in any language. That qualifies as a little bit of schadenfreude, I'd say.

(Satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune).

Speaking of Schadenfreude, I was a half a mile from home, on my way to work across town, rounding the corner onto a major four-lane city street with a speed limit of just 30mph. As I accelerated my K13 to just about 35mph I spotted a blacked out Chevy Blazer SUV with dark tinted windows and plain wheels parked parallel to the road on the opposite side. I squeezed the brakes ever so gently and maintained low 30s as I passed. But coming the other way, and clearly clipping along, were two naked sportsbikes with riders in full leathers. I attempted a subtle 'caution' to the lead rider who was 50 metres ahead of his mate, by tapping the top of my helmet (a fairly universal signal in my estimation). He rather foolishly waved his hand back and forth at me in a girly manner, and blasted on past, seemingly mocking my attempts to warn him of impending doom at the hands of the local constabulary who make an occasional effort to slow the 50+mph customers on this 30mph stretch of urban road. His mate paid no mind and as the light we both passed under changed to red he launched into a beautifully done cross-up wheelie and accelerated into the sudden and blinding blueberries and cherries of the fully aware po-po parked by the roadside 100 metres back. I smiled and continued on my way while the officer pulled out behind them both. I supposed they became all humble and contrite in that instant of realisation of the fine they'd be paying.

But it smells like the 2V was on ether and sounds like the commentators were too.

In my many years of drag racing I saw many a rider of very high powered machines go home with the tail firmly between their legs and saying "Humph just a load of crap this drag racing anybody can ride in a straight line anyway"

Torque and clutch. I used to take great delight in p*ssing on the local big Jap riders off the line on my Guzzi V1000G5. It only lasted about 20 metres but the point was made...

PeeWee Gleason was a tiny little American bloke who knew how to use the clutch and would quite often smoke more powerful bikes next to him. He is probably most famous for getting the original (stock) Yamaha VMax into the 9 second range back in '86, then again on the new VMax in 2009. I have seen him do runs on all sorts of bikes, and years back read an interview where he suggested it was clutch modulation and timing (the fractions of a second sort) that helped him get where he wanted to be; well ahead of the other guy at the end of the strip.

And the original Kawaski 900R Ninja though 150mph, stock.