Uphill battle....not!

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

A few years ago when my CB was still somewhat new to me I was coming back from a visit to the Oregon coast. Heading back east on State Highway 26 there are some big sweeping turns as you head fairly steeply uphill over the coast range complete with a veryyy long passing lane. So I used that opportunity to take advantage of the much needed passing lane. (There are always plenty of RVs and big camper trailers coming back from the coast.) Before I knew it I was WAY over the speed limit as I was trying to get ahead of the last of the large slow moving vehicles with nothing but open road ahead and plenty of other motorists behind me hoping to do the same.

That was about the time I saw the state trooper sitting on the other side of the road. I was certain that he had seen me. After my heart dislodged itself from my throat it proceeded to sink into the pit of my stomach. I had already intended to slow down after making that final pass, but now I contemplated just pulling over. I cruised along for quite a long while before I realized that there was to be no pursuit. I enjoyed the rest of the ride home with a normal heartbeat intact.

To be honest, that was very much out of character for me. I just don't tend to speed in an aggressive manner very often. I've never owned a radar detector in my life for that matter. But in that particular case I got carried away as I was just plain having fun experiencing the CB1100 pulling me up that steep pass all lickity-split with no problems at all. While it's no excuse, it was all so effortless that I really had no idea just how fast I was going. It is true that there are plenty of faster bikes out there than the CB1100, but this bike is more than fast enough for me, speed limiter and all.

This reminds me of an incident: Back when I was riding an H-D Sportster Roadster, I was on my usual road, PCH, heading south into Newport Beach. I was at a light, and when the light went green, I was away. This bike had been modded with an aftermarket exhaust, before I bought it, and hadn't run well. I rejetted it, and what in improvement! So, leaving this light, I was on it, running it up through the gears and had just hit 5th, when on the side of the road ahead of me, behind some bushes, I saw a cop on a bike pointing something at me. I thought it was a decimeter, to measure decibels. All the local beach towns frown on loud exhaust, but this one wasn't real loud, but louder than stock. I immediately backed off it and went by. Sure enough, here he came after me. I pulled over and he came up to me and showed me the device. It was a laser velocity tester, and he had me at 75 in a 45 zone. Well, I said, can't argue with that. He was writing the ticket when I asked him for some consideration. He wanted to know why he should provide any consideration. I said I was just running up through the gears, and didn't know I was going that fast. He looked at me, paused a moment, and said, Well, since you didn't try to run any bullcrap story on me, I'm going to make this ticket for having no insurance card, a $10 ticket, rather than a $400 speeding ticket. I was good with that!