View From The Porch: Crazy Ivan.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Crazy Ivan.

I commuted on a motorcycle 100 miles a day in Atlanta traffic, every day, for several years: Virginia Highlands to Cumming to Lawrenceville and back to VaHi, for y'all familiar with the geography of the ATL.

In all those miles in some of the worst traffic in the nation, I frequently had the bejabbers scared out of me by an inattentive cager. Further, I'm sure my occasional boneheaded, desperation-born stunt scared and/or startled the occasional motorist, for which I am heartily sorry.

However, this crazy Ivan does more dumb stuff in traffic in six minutes than I did in any sixty thousand miles of my riding career:

My palms dripped with cold sweat just watching that. The parts where he'd loft the front wheel for a couple hundred yards while on the wrong side of the double yellow actually made me a little queasy.

(H/T to TJIC.)

69 comments:

Anonymous said...: Shal'no!!!

Shootin' Buddy; 8:00 AM, October 01, 2010
DaveFla said...: One must be either young enough to feel immortal or uncaring enough to not care...

As lame as most of these vids are, the engineer in me always wishes the author had skipped the inevitable tekno-metal soundtrack in favor of unmasked engine sound.; 8:09 AM, October 01, 2010
Roberta X said...: He may have visited Indy yesterday: http://www.wthr.com/video?clipId=5157873&autostart=true; 8:15 AM, October 01, 2010
Weer'd Beard said...: I just wake up a little early and beat the traffic...; 8:28 AM, October 01, 2010
og said...: High speed stupid.

Having rowed a (cage)clutch through Chicago traffic for many years and many thousands of miles, I feel for your hands. Plus side is your "weak" hand probably isn't. And I'd hate to thumb-wrestle you.

We have a bunch of those idiots in our neighborhood. Little suburban circle where it's apparently necesary to exceed 70 mph.; 8:37 AM, October 01, 2010
Jay G said...: Heh. I saw it too, and commented that I was glad for my bigassed touring bike.

Because I would do that. Or at least try something similar.

Man's got to know his limitations...; 8:43 AM, October 01, 2010
Joe Sankey said...: I don't think I've ever wished so hard that someone would open their door...; 9:05 AM, October 01, 2010
Miguel said...: Joe.. you read my mind; 9:17 AM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: Hey! That crazy bastard was on I-4 last week, how the hell did he get to Russkieland?

Can't even call those death-defying - make that death-wishing - idiots organ donors...nothin' left to donate unless somebody is in need of a greasy spot.

AT

wv: answre...I have no idea; haven't even got the question straight yet.; 9:18 AM, October 01, 2010
Tam said...: "I don't think I've ever wished so hard that someone would open their door..."

Because having a red-hot brake disc dropped in your lap as the forks go through your windshield would sure show that biker?; 9:18 AM, October 01, 2010
Brad K. said...: I don't ride two-wheelers. I made the video to about 1:44.

The phrase back in the day was "thinning the gene pool".

So-called modern, protective laws are based on an assumption of affluence. As communities and states cut back (or eliminate) "the only ones" I expect enforcement of nanny - and other - laws to become even more spotty, or be dropped. Thus I expect to seem more head-inserted-in-lower-orifice activity in public, and especially on the road.

Aside from automated, mail-you-the-ticket enforcement for purposes of generating revenue (the way some cities looked at shortening yellow light timing to generate more tickets for running red lights), I also expect insurance companies to drop out of the market place, or raise premiums too high for average folk to afford.

Behavior like this invites road rage - any one of a bunch of cars in the first 1:44 of this video could have chosen to "bump" the pumpkin headed idiot - and eliminate risks to drivers and traffic for years to come. I can hear the "Oops!" now.

I can't imagine this motorcycle rider heading for a good end, that doesn't involve injury and disrupted lives for a large number of people.; 9:23 AM, October 01, 2010
Bram said...: I rode dirt-bikes through my teens. When riding hard, I would dump the bike fairly often. Despite my perceived indestructibility, I came to think of street bikes as suicidal, or as my brother calls them, organ donors. Maybe I just knew I would do something this stupid.; 9:24 AM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: Well, I guess he collected on the bet...this time...

cap'n chumbucket; 10:32 AM, October 01, 2010
Less said...: Well, on the plus side, I guess they don't have traffic cops in Russia!; 10:32 AM, October 01, 2010
1911Man said...: I commuted for years in the SF Bay Area on a bike. The CHP had fought to keep lane-splitting legal, but there were rules: no exceeding the speed limit, no going more than 10mph faster than the cars (yeah, right!), and no using the shoulder.

In all that time, I only ever had one close call, caused by an older car's non-functioning brake lights, coupled with superbly bad timing of a glance at my speedometer. No time to brake, swerved hard, armored knee ticked rear bumper on the diagonal pass.

Had innumerable ciggie butts and loogies and a few cups of coffee lobbed at me, evidencing nothing more than jealous envy that I was making better time and wasn't stuck behind the guy in front.

Doing it carefully, it's not actually very dangerous at all. But this Russian guy (and countless other wannabe racers like him on the intartubes, e.g. the Frog on the ring road in Paris) give us all a bad name, and should have their license revoked and maybe spend some time in the pokey.

The stupidest moment, to my eye, was the sweeping right-to-left pass of the large delivery truck. The rider had NO clue whether there was a car on the left side of the truck, until long after he had committed to occupying that same space and at a pretty impressive closing speed.

But opening a car door?!? That's possibly the single stupidest thing I've ever seen posted on Tam's site. If I survived the no-doubt-hideous crash, there's a reasonably decent chance the driver should pray that he, too, is well-armed and well-trained. That there is attempted murder, my friends.

And, yes, brake rotors can literally be glowing orange hot from this kind of riding; you can see it during night-time events but juuuust not quite during the day. At the track, guys often have their leathers branded rather impressively during crashes. And corner workers know not to touch 'em even if that appears to be the best way of moving the bike.; 10:33 AM, October 01, 2010
ExurbanKevin said...: A couple of things:

1. The dudeski driving the bike was probably inspired by Claude Lelouch's "C'etait un Rendezvous", except said Frenchy had the brains to make his balls-to-the-wall driving video on a sleepy Sunday morning when almost nobody else was around to plow into.

2. The music in the video is a remix of "Mona Lisa Overdrive" from the Matrix: Reloaded soundtrack.*

If you've seen the film, it's the music that plays during the over-the-top chase sequence on the freeway which involves a sport bike doing some CGI-enhanced stunts similar to what this дебил was doing without the benefit of AfterEffects.

* Yes, the title was stolen from a William Gibson novel. That's how you can tell the Matrix movies were/are Serious Pieces Of Cinematic Artwork. **

** Yes, that was sarcasm.; 10:39 AM, October 01, 2010
Montie said...: Tam,

I thought you might be exaggerating about the sweaty palms and all until I watched the video. Sweaty palms...check,slight feeling of nausea...check, ominous feeling of impendng catastrophe...oh yeah.

I commuted to work a mere 20 miles for about a year on my Honda CBX back in the mid-80's until I worked a fatality accident where a guy ran a stop sign across a highway and was t-boned at about 65mph by a rider on a Honda Goldwing, who never got the chance to touch his brakes. Goldwing and rider were strung out for a couple of hundred yards.

I sold my bike a few weeks later.; 10:49 AM, October 01, 2010
DaveFla said...: Followed Roberta's link and saw a helmetless dude in Icon Field Armor riding a BMW twin. Even allowing for the fairing on the Beemer, that's not your average bike chase!; 10:59 AM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: There does not seem to be a direct translation of the phrase road kill in Russian.

Gerry; 11:09 AM, October 01, 2010
Rustmeister said...: They ride like that in Greece, too, but on Mopeds.; 11:14 AM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: a truely failed suicide attempt!!!
Here in ALT. some of the idiots try to ride 285 late at night like this. They bet several hundred $ with each othe r that they can run the loop faster than the other riders. Having heard and seen these idiots late night escapades this ivan would seem right at home.; 11:22 AM, October 01, 2010
Alan J. said...: We always hear about how crazy motorcyclists like this one are called organ donors, but frankly that's not all that can happen. When my mother was recovering from a stroke, I spent a lot of time at our local hospital with the best rehabilitation clinic in our city. I was saddened to see more than one young man in his 30s-40s that was missing an arm, a leg, or both because they had been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time while doing a stunt like the one in this video. I hate nanny state laws, but young riders need to be aware of all the possible consequences of this type of behavior.; 11:34 AM, October 01, 2010
fast richard said...: The Russian title at the beginning says something about one minute of a motorcyclist's life being more interesting than most people's entire lives. I couldn't look away. I just sat there, wide eyed and slack jawed, and used up an entire month's supply of expletives as I watched.; 11:35 AM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: That out stupids anything I ever did on my RZ or Ducati, but the back roads of FT Bragg don't have quite that much traffic.He should score a ticket to Sear's Point.Guy must be a fan of the Goose.(From Mad Max, not top Gun); 11:40 AM, October 01, 2010
Sebastian said...: It looks to me like there are some queues in the film that might indicate it's time lapse. Granted, it's still some crazy ass shit even if it is, but it might not be quite so crazy ass.

Take a look at some objects that aren't on the road, like his keychain. It's swaying faster than one would expect. One thing to do is see if you can notice any blinkers going at a faster than expected speed.; 11:43 AM, October 01, 2010
Blackwing1 said...: I've logged over 300,000 miles on black GoldWings (hence the moniker), plus another 150,000 or so on various other bikes. I've never intentionally done something anywhere approaching this magnitude of stupid, simply because I'ld like to live out the rest of my life in one piece, and without more pain than I've currently got.

If you ride, eventually, somewhere, somehow, you're going to go down. I've been run off the road by cops (mistaken identity issue), I've been run off by cage-drivers deliberately, and much more often by lack of situational awareness, both theirs and mine...as a rider, I've not only got to watch for what I'm doing, but also for what everyone around me is doing, and is going to do.

You can only do things this stupid for so long, since eventually it WILL catch up with you. I just hope that this maniac learns an easy lesson instead of a final one.; 11:44 AM, October 01, 2010
Sebastian said...: Cues in the film, even. Given your recent post on this topic that's a rather amusing error. I guess sometimes even if you know the right form, your fingers just do something else.; 11:45 AM, October 01, 2010
staghounds said...: "Motorcycles are everywhere. Including under people who just escaped from the suicide precautions ward."

I have done stupider things, but on a horse, not a motorcycle!

I have seen this sort of thing fairly often on the road in France. The first time a motorcyclist blasted past me and the car beside me at about 50 while stopped in freeway traffic startled me to death!; 11:51 AM, October 01, 2010
Billy Beck said...: I got tagged for two hit & runs in two years, on my Sportster in metro ATL. That was enough bikes for me for the rest of my life. I just didn't want to die under the wheels of some bloody ignoramus, and I could see it coming.; 11:56 AM, October 01, 2010
Bubblehead Les. said...: So Helmet Cams are legal in Russia? Good thing he wasn't trying that in Maryland!; 12:24 PM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: I've noticed over the years that riding a bike in traffic requires the same amount of awareness, attention and way-forward-thinking that piloting aircraft does; in both cases you absolutely, positively have to have your head way in front of where you are at the moment.

The prudent among us endeavor to keep as much X,Y,Z and T as possible in reserve because when any of those reach zero, likely so do you. Like 1911Man I did a double take on the truck pass.

This guy, well, words fail me.

As for the "open the door" comment, I can only assume the commenter has never seen the result of that action. Even at low speeds it's rare for either party to walk away; the open door tends to direct the bike's mass into the driver's lap. Even with an edge-on impact the amount of bike shrapnel generated into the car driver is pretty impressive.; 12:27 PM, October 01, 2010
BenC said...: I guess the same can be said of motorcycle riders as pilots. "There are old riders and bold riders but there are no old bold riders."; 12:35 PM, October 01, 2010
Rabbit said...: I see several riders like that on my way home here. The big thing these days is to ride in packs at 30 or more mph over the flow of traffic, making full use of not only the (unoccupied) HOV lane but up to 3 other lanes as slaloming permits. Late at night, when it's still and humid I hear several bikes at a time running around The Bush near the redline; my ears and the Doppler shift would indicate they're running at least 150.

On 75, I've seen packs of a dozen or more with half the riders standing on the seat with the front in the air. At least one per week makes the news/traffic fatality reports.; 12:50 PM, October 01, 2010
Joe Sankey said...: It obvious that my 'open the door' comment struck a few nerves.

First things first: My apologies; no offense intended.

Allow me to rephrase - While I knew that this guys was going to get through this cleanly (otherwise, why would anyone post it), it would've been satisfying on some level to see him get a bit of instant karma, via the most convenient method.

I agree that someone *intentionally* opening the door would probably be attempted murder (or negligent homicide, anyway) but I defy anyone on here - rider or not - to suggest that at his speeds, any of the majority of these cars could possibly have seen him coming. He probably scared the shit out of most of them, but he *absolutely* put them at as great a risk as he did himself (except maybe the trucks), and they didn't have any say in the matter.

So do I hope he gets his? Damn skippy, I do.; 1:33 PM, October 01, 2010
Ed Skinner said...: Darwin.; 1:33 PM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: Sebastian,

I don't think it was sped up. The key ring is vibrating and bouncing like I'd expect it to at high speed.

The only blinkers I can see are when he's right up on someone. They seem at normal speed. Doesn't mean the editor didn't time shift to normal on the slow parts.

The biggest thing to me is the control handling. It doesn't seem choppy and looks to be in normal time while the key ring is bouncing like it had too much coffee.

I think Ivan is as crazy as advertised.; 2:14 PM, October 01, 2010
Popgun said...: Love it! Personally, I don't want to die of stupid.

However, once upon a time,... I had that Kawasaki 750 triple two-stroke...

-Popgun; 2:21 PM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: This left my palms sweating, but it's an interesting exercise to visualize the traffic not as cars and trucks, but large boxy obstacles. Still not something I'd do...; 2:36 PM, October 01, 2010
Blackwing1 said...: Joe Sankey:

I was in traffic on a California freeway a few decades back, when it turned into a parking lot. Being from Minnesnowta where lane-splitting isn't legal it hadn't even entered my mind to try it. I was touring, anyway, and not in a hurry.

A guy on a high-horsepower/low-weight bike went by doing at least 50, splitting right down the middle of the lanes...apparently legal, there and then.

Only a few minutes before, in this 5-lane parking lot, I had seen a guy open his door and dump out the contents of his ashtray. As the bike went by, the only thought the crossed my mind was that I sure didn't want to see the results if somebody did the same thing, only with that bike milliseconds from impact.

I hope that if he does go out on a bike that he doesn't take anyone else with him...but I'd rather he learn a less-than-lethal lesson.; 3:10 PM, October 01, 2010
Kristophr said...: Crazy Ivan also rides bicycles ... with two-strokes.; 3:12 PM, October 01, 2010
Kristophr said...: Oh, and Joe: Wishing for instant karma for some idiot is fine ... but don't wish an assault on someone.

That riles us wookie-suiters and conservatives.; 3:13 PM, October 01, 2010
Sebastian said...: I downloaded the video and played it back at half speed, which makes some parts of it look slower than normal, but makes other parts look normal. There was something about weaving between cars that seemed to defy the laws of physics, but at half speed it looks more normal. I don't think the entire video is speeded up, but parts of it are, at least that's the way it looks to me.

Here's one that's obviously not speeded up:

http://www.spike.com/video/yamaha-r1-vs-porsche/2795850

That bike is pushing 160kph (100mph) before it starts to look close to Crazy Ivans. It's just that I would think the gyroscopic force at the speed that video shows at would prevent a driver from banking back and forth as fast as he in some parts of the video.; 3:32 PM, October 01, 2010
NotClauswitz said...: It really just makes me want to buy a Vespa and go slower than normal, smelling the wheatfield and olive-trees of Tuscany and the high alpine meadows of the Engadine...; 4:45 PM, October 01, 2010
Unknown said...: The thought that kept popping into my mind was "Organ Donor".......; 4:50 PM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: I knew when and where I could get away with riding above the posted speeds like that and they usually occurred early on Sunday mornings before people in vehicles were moving.

I also knew that I'd never survive a drive like that in prime drive time so I didn't cowboy my ride very often in traffic although it did happen from time to time to escape idiots out to kill me.

That guy obviously is out in the boonies of Crazyville.

Gmac; 5:29 PM, October 01, 2010
Paul said...: Two things. One it was a two cycle and in the lower gears if you are there to long, it will climb.

Other thing was did anyone hear the scrapes? I heard at least two.

Had bikes that would do it, but I like living to much to acutally do something like that.; 6:00 PM, October 01, 2010
Tam said...: Paul,

"One it was a two cycle and in the lower gears if you are there to long, it will climb."

It was a four-cycle, 4-cylinder 1000cc bike. But it will wheelie with even moderately aggressive throttle anywhere in the bottom half of the gearset.

Sebastian,

Even before you posted, I scrutinized the video for signs of overspeeded framerate. I didn't find anything obvious. I am basing this on being a total n00b in the video department, but having well over 100k miles on a crotch rocket in heavy traffic.; 6:56 PM, October 01, 2010
Montie said...: Paul,

Tam, is right, any of the high horsepower crotch rocket will pull the front wheel up under enough throttle in the lower gears. My CBX did it from time to time when I wasn't expecting it, if I gave it too much throttle in first or second.

Recently, in testing police bikes we found that both the Honda and the BMW bikes both would pull wheelies under hard acceleration (the Harley, however remained firmly planted, as someone said,
"you'd need a tow truck to get that front wheel up").; 8:15 PM, October 01, 2010
Montie said...: Oops, should have proofread, minus one for redundant use of "both".; 8:18 PM, October 01, 2010
Anonymous said...: Sebastian: these things are damn near full-out race bikes and this Ivan (do we know it's not an Ivana?) is apparently a full-out, if wacked-out, racer. Those maneuvers are what that thing is made for, along with multi g-force acceleration; if the rider can handle it, so can the bike.

But that 2-stroke Kaw triple someone mentioned? It, and even more so its smaller predecessor (appropriately called the Mach III), was more like Wile E. Coyote strapping hisstupidself to one of those Acme rockets. With a power-band that graphed like a stalagmite and near-non controllability or brakeability, it's the scaredest I ever was on a bike.

Having ridden since I was nine and got my used $75 '65 Honda step-thru, I rode amateur motocross in the heyday of Maico and Husqvarna, and went through phases of choppers, hogs, the Jap fours, and even a Norton Commando. I did some dumb shit, hardly ever wore a helmet, and the one time I did go down (marbles from road work that weren't there the day before in a tighty righty), a dump truck was right behind me and only that driver's attention, dumb luck, and God's will saved me from being roadkill.

Maybe it's my age, maybe it's a learned compulsion to control my environment, but this kind of thrill-seeking and endangerment of innocent bystanders (bydrivers?) has no attraction to me at all.

Plus, and I'm just admitting this to myself as I write this...these amazing 200-mph racing machines are just way out of my league :O(

AT; 9:55 PM, October 01, 2010
Joe Huffman said...: A cousin of mine, in his younger days, claimed it was safer for him to drive much faster than the rest of the traffic, "Because then you can treat the other cars as stationary objects."

While there is some truth to this it doesn't scale well.; 10:30 PM, October 01, 2010
Joe in Reno said...: So...is any body as surprised as I am that Moscow has real paved freeway style roads????; 11:54 PM, October 01, 2010
Hat Trick said...: No sweaty palms here but that's one crazy Ivan. Even in my younger days I wouldn't have been stupid enough to try that #@$.; 12:16 AM, October 02, 2010
Anonymous said...: Didn't even bother watching the vid. I saw one of these idiots just yesterday on the freeway. I've been riding since 1975, and retired from closed-course road-racing in 1983. I've have spent my entire motorcycling life trying to make up for the negative image beaten into the public's subconscious by greasy-haired, leather-wearing thugs, riding clapped out, unsafely modified motorcycles with straight pipes in an effort to prevent motorcycles from being outlawed, or severely legislated against because of that negative image.

Just when it looked like we'd finally managed to bring some respectability to motorcycling's image, these ****-**** have managed to undo it all.

In just a few short years, they could succeed in bringing the unwanted legislative attention to motorcycling that 35 years of straight-pipe choppers could not.

We need to shun these idiots and make 'stunting' on public roads the height of stupidity (more than it already is). If we don't make these morons see the light, the government will do it for us.

BoxStockRacer; 12:21 AM, October 02, 2010
Ed Foster said...: What Blackwing, Ed Skinner, and AT said.. Jesus, I was almost scary stupid when I was a kid, but I never did anything like that.

O.K., once, on an icy I-84 dicing it with another recently discharged vet who, I swear to God, used to jump out of airplanes with his leg snubbed to a garbage can sized atom bomb. The NucDemo folks made the critter that big so one person couldn't turn both keys at the same time.

So he was crazy, and I was too macho to admit I was scared s--tless, and we came through traffic the cold weekend after Thanksgiving, and crossed the Buckley Bridge into Hartford with the back wheels skipping on ice spots at a solid 108 mph. Put a fairing and a set of clipons on that Kawasaki 3 banger and it was quick.

Actually, what probably pushed him to tweaking it like that was the fact that my terror reaction is a big stupid grin. The more scared I am, the bigger the grin gets.

It has nothing to do with being amused, it's a blatant, cowardly rictus, but Eric saw it, magnified by hundred mile an hour lip flap, and wasn't about to be upstaged.

Thinking about it after all these years was like watching our Muscovite friend practicing his deathwish.

If Ivan had bought it, he would have been a dumb, alienated kid who had gotten his wish.

If I'd highsided that chilly night, I'd have been a dumb kid who had something to live for, a young wife and a baby waiting for me, who ended up smeared because he didn't want to admit 100+ on a slippery road was too much for him with a buddy watching.

Maybe we should just keep them all in a cage until they're forty?; 2:11 AM, October 02, 2010
Will said...: Ed, wouldn't work. My best friend died riding his Ducati 900sssp while following someone with about the same sense of immortality as Crazy Ivan. And left a widow and two teenage daughters, less than a week before his 50th birthday.

Paul,
the noises you heard were clutch and driveline snatch from chopping the throttle. Some rear brake chatter too, I think.

It looks like he gets enough of a look during that truck pass, to see the far lane.

Anyone have a clue why he covers up the camera lens with his hand, near the end?

Statistically, staying in the traffic lane is more dangerous than splitting lanes. In fact, the heavier traffic is, the safer it is for a bike. Gaps invite cars to switch lanes. Rolling traffic is safer than stopped. That's because if a car moves over to block you, the car they move toward will shy away, leaving essentially the same gap.
Still, way too fast for lane splitting. Although, what pisses off people more is a loud bike, rather than speed, when doing that.

I used to borrow my sister's RD-350 when my bike was down. I would know it was time to return it, when I would find myself lofting the front end while splitting lanes. That meant I was getting too comfortable. It actually took more riding effort to keep the front wheel down with that bike!

wv: tatter...ed: after the fall.; 5:41 AM, October 02, 2010
Will said...: Tam,

I was wondering if you had the Russian sub maneuver in mind when you titled this?; 5:59 AM, October 02, 2010
Anonymous said...: @Anon 955PM - back in '73 I set up a Kaw dealership for new owners, and part of the compensation package was a new '72 H3. We had 10 of 'em, I took the best one, and swapped cylinders, heads, carbs and ignition unit for stuff from the Kaw racing parts catalog, including a boxed swing arm made of Unobtainium. Set of Wirges silenced high end pipes, clipons, and Dunlop Trigonics finished it out.

Only bike I've ever been afraid of. Didn't have the power to blow its own brains out below 6500, but between 8000 and 11K it was a different story. Pulling the front end up at 115 in 4th was easy, just roll on the throttle and wait for powerband. Only bike I've been on that had a narrower powerband was the TZ350 Yamaha factory race bike from the same period.

Couple years ago I got a ride on a Suzuki Hayabusa. Stuff way faster than what we spent hours building can be had right off the showroom floor. No respect, I tell ya...; 6:42 AM, October 02, 2010
Tam said...: Will,

But of course. :); 10:02 AM, October 02, 2010
jed said...: You're sayin' there's Reavers down there chasin' Russian subs?; 12:16 PM, October 02, 2010
Anonymous said...: That's nothing. Seen much better European riders than that. Hell they even put out DVD of their exploits.; 7:32 PM, October 02, 2010
Tam said...: Anon 7:32,

1. Last I checked, Russia (at least east of the Urals) is "European".

2. "Better" is a seriously debatable term in this context.; 7:54 PM, October 02, 2010
Stranger said...: I didn't know the Rus had locoweed (jimson weed).

Stranger; 9:48 PM, October 02, 2010
Ian Argent said...: No, I'm pretty sure the reavers are FLYING the russian subs; or at least lifted the power plants off them...

WV: bowee. Two meaning. 1) the sound made by a teenage girl who has gotten past opening scene in Labyrinth, or 2) a knife enthusiast who has just been shown a really nice Bowie knife.; 10:14 PM, October 02, 2010
Anonymous said...: Tam,

Never said that Russia wasn't European. All I said that other European riders did a better job. Some even make money out of this hobby.

My brother is a motorcycle freak. He go to the race track at least once a month. He crashed last month going over 200 miles. Nothing serious, just a broken collar bone. He gave me some on DVD on European racers a few years back. Very impressive.

There was one video that was put out on DVD where the rider travel over 200 miles an hour on the highway from one city to another. IIRC 19 minutes riding time and in some part very heavy traffic. At one point he was inches away from getting kill while pin holded between two 16 wheelers.

Ghost Rider and Dark Prince are well known. Youtube videos are a rip off their DVD I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AgzZd8Lr64

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9BofCzc80U

This kind of stuff isn't new. Not in Europe anyway. Very typical.; 3:11 AM, October 03, 2010
Scott said...: Dave FLA said "I've noticed over the years that riding a bike in traffic requires the same amount of awareness, attention and way-forward-thinking that piloting aircraft does; in both cases you absolutely, positively have to have your head way in front of where you are at the moment."
This is very true, I crashed in turn 8 at BIR because my eyeballs got behind the bike after finally getting turn 1 close to right (turn 1 at BIR is taken with the throttle WFO in 5th or 6th gear depending on final gearing, I hit 150 that lap I think judging from my being in 5th at about 9400rpm).
It's amazing just how quickly you can get behind the curve on a modern sportbike and at that point errors lead to doing exactly the wrong things due to survival reactions. Straightening your arms, getting out of the gas midcorner, panic braking all of them need to be trained out of the toolbox but a modest increase in speeds from one lap to the next can have you doing things you know are wrong. Keith Code and Nick Ienasatch both discuss this in their books on high performance riding.
As far as this guy goes the only thing I can say is he's nuts I like riding fast but save it for empty country roads and the racetrack. I won't exceed about 75% of my skill level on the street. That's great plenty fast enough.
Oh and Dave nice Buell I used to have an heavily modded X1 before buying a Honda RC51.; 12:54 PM, October 03, 2010
Scott said...: oops that was anonymous that said what I quoted...Dave's Buell is still very cool though.
Oh and Kawi 2stroke triples were nuts in an age of poorly handling bikes they were noteworthy for being even more flexy than most.; 12:58 PM, October 03, 2010
Anonymous said...: Rabbit,

Sounds like you live in the DF Dub? The video was nice, but living here has rid me of my obsession with sport bikes. I used to want one pretty bad, but then I spent a night with some Poopra and Rotard buddies of mine.

The weaving ability of the bikes is nice, but when your cager with nice seats and full AC is putting a bus length or so on a sprayed Busa, the bike tends to loose its appeal. I'll have to stay happy with my 350Z for the time being, at least it looks fast.

And on that note, Tam, you shoulda kept the 280ZX.

Word verification: smsorti, the sound I made when observing that a 5 inch turbo inlet was considered small on a 2JZ-GTE.; 5:11 PM, October 04, 2010
roo_ster said...: Rabbit:

My wife sees a lot of the bikers who didn't manage to kill themselves cleanly at Parkland. Heck, she not only has lost any taste for MCs, she wants our next auto to be a Suburban.; 9:44 PM, October 05, 2010

View From The Porch

Friday, October 01, 2010

Crazy Ivan.

69 comments:

About Me

Other Media!

Starving Artist Ammo Fund

Blogs

Links

More Awesome Blogs!

Facebook Badge

Blog Archive

Labels

All Is Vanity...