So the other night, I’m chilling with some friends in a cafe in Germany at night and notice some bloke outside checking out my bike. Turns out he’s a fellow Honda fanatic and has something like 4-5 different CBR1000F’s. He also just moved to this town for a new job, so his bikes are still sitting about 200 miles north near Frankfurt.
His plan was to get up there by rail, grab a bike, and ride it down the Autobahn in the middle of the night and be back in time to go to work in the morning. I suggest “hey, since I have my kit on already, why don’t we go up there and ride back two?”
Not much later we are on the train to Frankfurt and arrive at his house at about 3am. Unfortunately, one of the two bikes we were going to ride keeps stalling, and we can’t work out why in the dark, so I have to ride back pillion on the back of one that works. Yes, ride pillion, with a guy I’ve met 4 hours before, on a litre bike, down the Autobahn. A leap of faith for sure! I figure if I die it will be a swift, instant kind of death, and fold out the passenger footpegs.
We go down some twisty A-roads on the way to the 'Bahn and my worries are quickly defused. This guy knows how to ride, and he isn’t doing anything overly stupid. And off we are: here comes the on-ramp… I look over his shoulder and see the bike barely ticking over at about 160-180km/h.
Traffic opens up a bit and the bike surges forward. Swoosh! Lorries fly by as my cheeks start flapping in the wind and we see about 230-240km/h. Really, really good fun.
The best bit was the part of the A8 between Karlruhe and Pforzheim that is smooth like a baby’s ass, 3 lanes, and really windy and up and down hills. Going an easy 200km/h (120mph) through the fast bends at 45deg lean angle as the sun dawns over the horizon and the sky turns pink has got to be some of the best fun you can have with your clothes on… Even sitting on the back!
The adrenaline rush kept me awake for another 2 hours before I managed to get some kip. It was a blessing because it made me not notice how frigging cold it was out there in the middle of the night.
That was two days ago, and my arm and chest muscles are still stiff from holding on… maybe this weekend we’ll go back up, sort out the other one is stalling, and bring back the last 2 bikes. I’m assured that the one I was going to ride does 280km/h once you get it going… I can’t wait to check it out 
Catching, ain’t it. 