My Sunday Ride

[FJ_Hooligan]

This is variation of the waving at other motorcyclists discussion with a small dose of Harley bashing thrown in.

Like most, I try to wave to everyone no matter what they're riding.  When I see someone coming the other way on a motorcycle, I raise my hand in a gesture of camaraderie to a fellow rider out enjoying the sport that I love so much.

But recently I've noticed something else that has always been there but never really articulated in my conscience.  I wave at riders moving in the opposite direction; however, all riders going in MY direction are treated as competitors.  If I see a bike in the distance, I wick it up a little to try to catch up.  Not only to see what it is, but to gauge the rider's skills.  If I see a bike in my mirror, I try to not let him catch me.

This is nothing taken to an extreme and I don't ride recklessly in this situation, just take it up a notch since I'm usually not pushing it on a typical Sunday ride by myself.  When a rider catches up with me, I'll always wave them past, as I would hope others would do for me in the same situation (female cage drivers are the absolute worst at letting motorcycles pass, but that's a different rant).  It's not a race, but there is definitely a feeling of competition.
 
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way because I've had squids fly by me at MACH 1 on the straights only to park it in the next curve (but that's another rant also).

Anyway, here's my story from last Sunday.  It was a nice day and I somehow finally convinced my wife to let me take our 13 year old daughter for an extended ride (versus a slow crawl around the neighborhood streets).  We geared up and headed out to about a 80 mile loop on some decent roads. But first we stopped at a gas station to fill up the FJ tank.

As we pulled into the station, I noticed there was a group of Harleys parked on the shady side of the station.  We went directly to the pumps and I proceeded to fuel the FJ.  About halfway through, the Harleys all fired up and rode by us (what an annoying racket), headed off in the same direction I was planning on going.  I turned to my daughter and said "Don't worry, if they're going our way, we'll catch them soon enough."  She just laughed and I could tell she was pretty giddy about being on this ride.  We finished fueling and headed for the turn-off to the good roads with no sign of the Harleys (they had left about 5 minutes before us).  I was taking it easy so I didn't scare my daughter and there are quite a few homes on the first section of this road.  I try to stick to a respectable speed through any residences.

We clear the houses and I turn up the volume a little for the twisty sections.  My daughter is loving it!  About 10 miles into it, I look ahead and see a bike disappearing over the crest of a hill.  I yell back to the daughter "I think we caught them."  Sure enough, we come swooping up on them in no time without really trying.  There's about 10 of them and not only are they riding painfully slow, they're also stretched out for what seems like a half mile.  We endured a few miles of torture at the tail end, but fortunately we were just about to hit a nice extended straight with very good visibility.  I pull out and start moving by them.  I can tell it's going to take most of the passing zone to get by since they're all stretched out.  The one thing working in my favor was their loud exhaust and vibrating mirrors.  I don't think a single one of them knew I was there until I was just a blur streaking by on the left.  I had to tap into the triple digits to complete the pass on the entire group, but the FJ was just loafing at that speed.

The best part; I could hear my daughter half screaming and half laughing the whole way.  I backed it down to a sane speed for the next few miles until we came to a stop sign.  We sat there for a minute or two, but I guess there were just too many curves as the Harleys were nowhere in sight.


What goes around comes around.

We continued on the loop where the end stretch has about 5 really nice sweeper curves that the FJ rails on.  We turn onto the sweeper road and get about half a mile down it when I see headlights in my mirror.  I can tell they're sportbikes and they're coming fast.  Since I'm 2-up with my daughter on her first real ride, I decide to turn down the competitor feelings and will simply wave them by.  Unfortunately, they didn't reach me before we got into the first sweeper.  We lean over and let the FJ run through a right-hander followed by a left-hander.  I rolled off slightly on the straight and here they come.  I move over to the right side of my lane and wave the first guy by.  I barely get my hand out and this prick comes flying by me IN MY LANE!  He was only about a foot away from me going by. 

This kind of pissed me off!  I rolled back into the throttle as the second guy comes by; at least he passed me in the opposite lane.  The third guy is a little farther behind and we're coming up on another sweet S-curve sweeper (my favorite set of curves on this road).  #3 makes the pass, but by this time I'm accelerating toward the curve.  We actually pull right up on the back of this squid in the first curve.  I'm contemplating passing him on the following left-hander but decided against it since tailgating him 2-up hopefully communicated my displeasure at our encounter. 

On the other hand, my daughter was loving it!  We continued on home without further adventure where made the "Don't tell mom" pact between us.  I then explained the subtle differences between passing someone and disappearing from them (the Harleys) versus strafing someone on a straight (squids) only to be run back down in the first curve. 

It was a great father/daughter bonding experience.

[FJmonkey]

Awesome story mate, and some father daughter bonding while bashing typical HD riders and squids.... Not to mention some self restraint while carrying precious cargo....