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BiteSize: For a short time, many years ago, I worked way over on the other side of the city. By car the journey could easily take two hours or more; on my motor cycle I usually managed it in under an hour, and every day I tried hard to get down to my target of 45 minutes.
One cloudy morning I was moving fast to beat the clock and get to work before it began to rain. Once across the river the road emptied out and snaked across tracts of abandoned docks and industrial wasteland. I opened up the Ducati and started to enjoy the ride while the roads were still dry.
As I passed a junction I saw another bike preparing to join the road I was on, and in my rear-view mirror I saw him accelerate towards me. Now, call me immature and foolhardy if you will, but anyone who's ever enjoyed riding a bike knows how hard it is to resist a challenge: I eased off a little to allow the other bike to draw closer then, once he was a hundred yards or so behind me, accelerated again and started riding for real. It's a great feeling when everything comes right, braking hard, getting just the right line on the bends, throwing the bike over and powering through - and the guy behind me was obviously enjoying himself too. And then... he passed me. The fucker passed me! A nod and a wave and he was out in front and riding like he was on a racetrack, knees scraping on the curves, tyres at the limit, popping wheelies as he hit the straight. Man, he could ride. I was riding at ten-tenths just to keep him in view. Then we got to a red light. I drew level and we just had time for a quick appraisal of each other's bikes and a nodded greeting before the lights changed.
(Sorry if this seems irrelevant. It's essential background and, as I say, anyone who's ever done this sort of thing will recognise the feeling.)
One cloudy morning I was moving fast to beat the clock and get to work before it began to rain. Once across the river the road emptied out and snaked across tracts of abandoned docks and industrial wasteland. I opened up the Ducati and started to enjoy the ride while the roads were still dry.
As I passed a junction I saw another bike preparing to join the road I was on, and in my rear-view mirror I saw him accelerate towards me. Now, call me immature and foolhardy if you will, but anyone who's ever enjoyed riding a bike knows how hard it is to resist a challenge: I eased off a little to allow the other bike to draw closer then, once he was a hundred yards or so behind me, accelerated again and started riding for real. It's a great feeling when everything comes right, braking hard, getting just the right line on the bends, throwing the bike over and powering through - and the guy behind me was obviously enjoying himself too. And then... he passed me. The fucker passed me! A nod and a wave and he was out in front and riding like he was on a racetrack, knees scraping on the curves, tyres at the limit, popping wheelies as he hit the straight. Man, he could ride. I was riding at ten-tenths just to keep him in view. Then we got to a red light. I drew level and we just had time for a quick appraisal of each other's bikes and a nodded greeting before the lights changed.
(Sorry if this seems irrelevant. It's essential background and, as I say, anyone who's ever done this sort of thing will recognise the feeling.)