Wow a thread devoted to me
Normally you are right I would have smoked him, especially had I been on my CBR125R (though the performance is a little less
) unfortunately I had only picked the bike up that day and obviously the change between a sports bike posture and a streetfighter psture left me a little cautious of trying the bike too hard just yet.
The pill away on the bike is quite impressive even at the lower end, had it not been wet then I would certainly have considered shooting off past him, and with heinsight wish I had risked it
Ben, get yourself some bike boots with great, heavy, steel toe caps in them.
Got some
And they ahve been used for that use several times, including when someone thought they would overtake my CBR125R because I was taking longer to get past the lorry I was overtaking than they liked (it wouldn't have mattered if that stretch of the a14 had 3 lanes
)
I have quite a good memory for cars, though not reg plates so if I see him about again and am sure it is him he may find that he doesn't get such an opportunity again.
Gordon: why not go one step further and add outward-facing spikes that can penetrate tyres? Very James Bond
Because if you got close enough to use them the silly b***ard would probably panic and swerve towards you!
The filtering argument always makes me laugh, I regularly get honked at by drivers (Ipswich drivers tend to be grumpy) and I can never stop thinking If yyou could you would. The number of times I have seen drivers shoot up the wrong lane just to try and sneak into a queue of traffic.
My answer to the Why should?? question is simple, we don't cause traffic jams, you never see a 5 mile tailback of bikes, or bikers causing congestion by rubber necking at accidents, so why should we sit in a mess of their making?
Having said that there is one guy I see nearly every morning when Im leaving for work and without fail he always lets me out. Bizzare the differences.
Chavs round here all drive some pretty heavy machinery, there is the odd nova and corsa about but other than that they are all spaceships effectively.
Was an unfortunate incident, had it happened today when I was more used to the bike after a few days of riding (I have only not got back on after and accident once and thats because I couldn't) it would have turned out very differently, I have been round that roundabout so many times on my old bikes, so now that I am more accostomed to the bike I should be able to fly around it (not that I am going to try just yet
)
EDIT: Your figures are correct apart from one slight technicality. the restriction only affects the top-end power so at the lower end the torque is the same as if the bike was not restricted. Does make for a fun time
had my girlfriedn on the back as we went down the A14, because of the wind distortion I though I had a police car behind us somewhere and in fact it was her shrieks - funny though when we got to our destination she wanted to get straight back on!
And yes the XS did look better, mine was the silver with black.