What was he thinking?

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DaveKamp

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
563
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Location
Argo, Ia
Yep, it's old. '84. Dirty, like I commute 25 miles each way to work, with a mile and a half of gravel at the start and finish of each day... some cracked and missing plastic here and there, one saddlebag cover of alternative color.... Stumbling a little, dropping the #1 cylinder at idle... grey hair under a half-helmet, and a windshield with substantially more bug guts than clear glass....

And yes, a Barbershop Quartet on the stereo. Keepsake was the name, the track: South Rampart Street Parade. Not very loud, but I'm singing along. The older couple in the Audi to my left actually rolled down the windows, smiled, and gave me a wink of approval.

Pulling up in the other lane... driving a Mustang... mebbie '12 or '13 model year, V8... big sticky tires, hood pins, and the only thing competing with the racket of his exhaust was a thumb-fart stereo full of four-letter rap. I see a floor shift automatic, and he's looking at my lane...

This is an obvious light- it's pattern is simple, so watching the light to your right, tells you exactly what will happen overhead. There's two lights ahead, and they're timed such that you cannot 'legally' make it from this, through that, to the next... they're purposely timed so that unless you can go from stopped, to the full legal speed limit in under 40 feet, you simply will NOT make it... and if you make THAT one, you'll have a really tough time making the second light without being at least 20mph OVER the speed limit.

My ramp was halfway between those next two lights, and I know what he had in mind- I saw him cross two lanes behind me, and cut off a bunch of people to do it- he wanted around me, ahead, and take that ramp.

What he apparently DIDN'T learn in his most-likely-truncated secondary education, was simple physics... and in his study of automotive technical skills, didn't study history either. He apparently excelled in unsubstantiated optimism, and failed miserably at math.

Let's say that after all the stripping of unnecessary stuff, he had 3200lbs of car and driver, and underhood, 425hp... that equates to a smidgen over 7.5lbs per HP. Assuming he could get 90# of his total weight transferred to the drive wheels, at a high enough coefficcient of friction yielding 9% or so tire slip...

...With that, he SHOULD have been able to stomp my 928lbs 94hp 9.46 lb/hp combination with 100% weight transfer at less than 13 slip. Yeah, it's a big, cumbersome looking, old-man's touring motorcycle... uh-huh...

I stayed right alongside, taking 2nd gear halfway through the first intersection. A few feet after, his tires started spinning wildly. I cleared the second light as it turned yellow, held my ground, snapped the throttle shut at the last minute, scrubbed off 40mph, then gently turned onto the ramp. He had no choice but to go straight... cleared the high spot in the overpass, went through the third light at almost twice the speed limit. It was still green, but the lights on the policecar in the median on the other side were red and blue. Yep, I saw it while I was coming down the hill before I got to that first light... I was up three feet higher, with unobstructed vision. He... was not, and clearly did not see.

:wave:

I'm certain that even if he COULD have had my vantagepoint, he would still not have seen the speed trap- he was too absorbed in finding his way around all the traffic 'in his way'.

:popcorn:
 
It does bring to mind an eerily similar situation I experienced. I wasn't going to say anything, but what the heck. Mine turned out differently.

I was on my last <sniff> Vmax a few years back. A modified, well-sorted, 128 RWH, screaming Gen 1. 10.8's all day long. At a red light in the left turn lane headed onto the 101 freeway south, a Fox body Mustang pulled into the adjacent left turn lane. I could hear him, but didn't give it much thought. Kinda ratty looking. Aforementioned opposing light goes yellow and I hear him blip the throttle a coupla times. Tach'ed up RIGHT NOW both times. Built. Uh oh. Being on four wheels, he cheated a bit and was on the throttle before we straightened out. I laid into it as soon as I could, but it was too late. Couldn't reel him in. He beat me up the ramp. The one and ONLY time that ever happened to me on that motorcycle. A cage. Sheesh. But, he was a runner.

Thanks for the memory.
IMG_0342_zpsvb5ksbsd.jpg
 
It’s hard to find anyone around here that wants to try any more. Guess I’d have to become a night owl and join the late night street racers. Even then, tickets and insurance too damn expensive already to risk getting any points on record.
The last time I guess was with my brother, he on a rented GL1800, me on my 83 GL with an 81 engine and trans gears with the ‘83- 16” rear wheel. The 16” wheel made it a damn quick bike. Surprisingly I took him on an on ramp. Not by much but I did it. I was giving mine everything she could do. That motor did well with the early 1000 cams and C5 ignition, and stock 1100 carbs.
 
Awesome....all,... my best story is seeing joedrum grab 2nd as he went by me and pull the front wheel up for a bit. Makes you remember that saying about judging books!
 
Well, he didn't exactly 'goat' me... more likely that I surprised him by denying him from taking what he thought was easy. By the way he was treating everyone else, he'd accumulated a superiority disposition, and assumed that his machine and right foot gave him some divine right to rule the road with rudness.

I figured that a consultation the constable would be an opportunity for roadside rite of reconciliation, and commensurate humility...

As if having his pride stomped by a grey-headed dork on a dirty plastic rattle-trap touring pig wasn't enough... :smilie_happy:


But my other motivation, was to find out just how strong this thing really was... although I'd had it wide open, it was always in a lugging condition, not in a nose-to-nose pull. I really wanted to know what it could do, so that I can get a good determination of my loaded expectations when I get a trailer hooked on. So, in a ghoulish way, I allowed him to sacrifice his adolescent pride as part of my experiment.

No animals were harmed in this filming of this movie!
 
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