Text 14769, 56 rader
Skriven 2014-05-01 21:56:37 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 14734 av Björn Felten (2:203/2)
Ärende: Right up your, errrr, all
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Hello Björn,

On Wednesday April 30 2014 12:44, you wrote to David Drummond:

 BF> When I got into the usual 40 year male crisis, I went "biker again".

My 35 year crisis was my Porsche time. Lovely car that 911T. Then came
compulsory yearly inspections and that was the end of the by then 18 year old
Porsche. Getting it through the inspections was to great a strain on my wallet.

Plus of course that if I still drove it the way I did back then, I would not go
very far. My standard cruising speed on the highway was 160 km/h. I diod not
mind pushing it to 180 ior even 200 on occasion . Today that is impossible.
Firstly the roads are far too crowed for that and secondly there are cameras
with license plate recognition and speed detection everywhere. Going more than
50 km/h over the speed limit and your license is suspended... So that is
history...

It was the 60 year crisis that made me go biker again. When I was 18, I had a
BMW R25. That is the one cylinder version of the famous boxer motor series. I
rode it for just over a year and then I realised that youthful hubris, a
motorbike and a long life do not go together. So I sold it and got a FIAT 500.

But there was the itch.. And then in 2008, I saw this Honda 750. An old lady,
but the price was good and I thought: "now or never". So I got back in the
saddle after 40 years. Had you asked me "first gear is that up or down"? , I
would not have known. But to my surprise, when I got into the saddle, my left
foot still knew.... ;-)

The book says the Honda can go well over twice as fast as my old BMW.
Fortunately I have lost the urge to try that out ;-)

 BF> I bought an old Matchless 350 (or maybe it was 375), one
 BF> cylinder, 17hp bike and rode it for about five years.

 BF>    What a wonderful machine that was. It leaked oil from the
 BF> transmission like all UK bikes do, and my right leg was almost twice
 BF> as big as the left one, after all the attempts to kick the damn thing
 BF> in action.

;=)

 BF>    I'm seriously thinking of getting another one or two cylinder bike,
 BF> I just love the sound of it -- fuck the Japanese 10k+ rpm wasps...

I love my wasps. The Honda goes into the red at 11000. The Bandit at 13000.
Never pushed them that far. The Honda cruises nicely at 2500. With legal speed
at the motorway (130 klicks) it goes up to 6000. I seldom ride the motorway.
The Bandit is bit more nervous. Smaller enigine, 600 cc vs 750 cc, but it has a
bit more power.


Cheers, Michiel

--- GoldED+/W32-MINGW 1.1.5-b20110320
 * Origin: http://www.vlist.org (2:280/5555)