Dear Cherie, I used to race motorcycles all over the place both road racing\track and Motocross, and of course drive\race on the road! I have always had bikes as due to something that happened in the Army I hate Cars! However when they found out I was Epileptic they took my licence away, which means I cannot drive on the road! You can however still ride on private land, so as I miss bikes terribly, I have been out on them whenever an occasion arrives! Lately I rode a Suzuki 600R and for a 600 that being a sports bike which are more suited to our roads as they are twisty and there is a lot of braking and accelerating and braking. This was fast and if I had not been on a bike for a long time and was having a mid life crisis, I personally think 140 mph is enough till you got used to it!
More recently i had a go for a day around Brands Hatch on different Triumphs a British Bike. That was great fun and they were lovely to ride although a lot different power wise than the high revving Suzuki. They do an American cruiser but it is impractical for British roads, being to slow, heavy and the handling lets that type of bike down on wet and dry corners! The best thing i have ridden was last year and that was a Ducati 999, that is colossal. Huge power and fantastic handling in a very light bike for 1000 cc, but very expensive! It is like a racing bike on the road, you come off that after a day around a race track and you smile from ear to ear!
Brenda the Police use BMW K1000 and K1200s over here and the British bikers call them (nicely) the 'Flying brick' due to their brick like engine! However as two stokes are still allowed here, the mad youngster like to tease them with their RG 500s and Yamaha RD 500s, for on country roads the two stroke racing bikes can leave most things in a swirl of tow stroke moke. They can't catch them!
My friend has a BMW K1000 and it is nice to ride, on motorways it is fine, but on the really small country roads it has to slow down and that is no fun!
It is not that we are all mad, it is just that apart from the Romans building a few straight roads, a lot of the UK is very twisty with hairpin bends etc, that to us is what biking is about, throwing it through the bends. Straight roads would bore me in 30 seconds, I would probably fall asleep and crash!
Just tell him to be careful on a bike as once someone gets in a car they turn their brain off!
Regards.
Neil.
