All entries for Friday 08 December 2006

December 08, 2006

My GS is still in the garage in bits. So I have time to reflect upon the experience of motorcycling. Here’s a list of highlights and downers…

The good:

Just going around any fast and wide sweeping corner with excellent grip and visibility.
Heavily scented country air being forced through the vents at the front of my helmet.
0-60 in 5 seconds on a 15 year old trail-bike, 0-60 in 3.5 seconds on a new Ducati.
Overtaking a Porsche Boxster out of a right hand bend.
Every time a complete stranger on a bike signals hello (nod of the head in the UK, wave in SA, shake of the leg in continental Europe).
Filtering past a Maserati stuck in a mile long line of cars, millions of pounds worth of vehicles, all going nowhere – fools!
Riding a twisty mountain road with an incredible view, locations including the Pyrenees, Montserrat, Auvergne and Chapman’s Peak Drive in Cape Town.
Crossing France in a day on back roads.
Riding dry dirt roads in southern Europe or South Africa.
Kick starting a BMW 1000cc transverse twin.

The bad:

Being hit on the head and knocked out by debris at 85mph on the motorway in Catalunya (glad I wasn’t driving a car, it would have come straight through the windscreen).
Hitting a dead swan at 80mph in the middle lane of the M40.
Dodging past sheets of glass falling off the back of a lorry on the M40 (I passed the lorry and stopped it).
Being blown off a motorway while riding an F650 in heavy wind.
Exhaust valve burn out in the outside lane of the motorway.
Riding on motorways, especially the Paris Peripherique.
Falling off in deep mud, glamorous locations including Salisbury Plane, the Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and the Karoo desert.
Riding at 90mph in the outside lane of a French motorway, and being overtaken by a car with half of its wheels off the road.
Diesel spills, especially around Warwick University (blame the bus company?)
Car drivers, van drivers, caravaners.