Wish I was on CB1100 on the Dragon!!!!

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Compared to what the guys I used to ride with did to each other on Mosquito Ridge and on the freeway, Yellow Snow's video is like an MSF Safety Training Course. These guys actually tried to shove each other off onto the shoulder while racing up there, and they were literally racing, on slicks-shod, track-prepped GSX-R1000s. They weren't just riding fast. They were flat-out racing, Isle of Man style, doing 150 mph through the alpine section of Mosquito Ridge, except these maniacs would do things like reach out and hit each other's kill switches, mid-corner.

They were also professional racers, and one was a professional stunt rider, as well. They could get away with it.

They buried a few of their friends, though, and I never did engage in any of their crap. For one thing, I wasn't good enough, plus I was never ballsy and/or stupid enough. I did have to bury my best friend, but we weren't riding anywhere near as crazily as those guys rode. Rather, he had a diabetic seizure which made him run wide and clamp down so hard on the brakes that he stoppied himself right into the grill of an oncoming river-rafting bus.

These days, I'm fairly worthless as a rider. I've lost the vast majority of my aggression.

I've ridden with and known plenty of guys who were supposedly great riders, racers, who thought they could get away with it.

Many are dead now. Because that stupid stuff does catch up with them.

I think a lot of riders believe that certain other riders just have some kind of magical skill that lets them ride idiotically.

I used to believe that myself, until we started scraping people off the pavement.

It was always the guy out front, the fastest guy, who bought it. Almost always anyway. Three of them come to mind right now.

No one can ride like that all the time and not have it eventually get them. Maybe not today, but someday, because the odds are not in their favor at all.

I cannot think of a single so-called "fast guy" on the street that has not had a serious or fatal accident over the last 35 years. Not one.

Speaking of racers, I have known, and worked closely with, racers at every level, from Formula One (now MotoGP) World Champions (three of these gents, with ten championships between them), AMA Pro Racing Champions (several), to club-level champions.

None of these had any special incantations to prevent them falling.

I would say ALL "racers" (any moron who managed to get a racing license with some club) who do this on the street are lousy racers and not very good people. That's been my experience.