Its early evening and the road is clear, the weather isnt cold but it is a crisp night and its been an exhilarating ride. You are now homeward bound and full of the joys of the experience gained from being out that day. Your thinking about getting home to recant stories of stunts performed, near misses, and the stupidity of other road users. Mainly those that are using the roads alongside you but in four wheels instead of two.
You approach a roundabout and position yourself for the upcoming negotiation of the said roundabout. You want to turn right. (Third exit). All goes smoothly, you enter the roundabout at three quarter lean looking through the corner for the exit. As you straighten up all you can see is an empty stretch of road disappearing into the well lit distance and you go for it. Your throttle hand tentions up as you twist the grip towards you, and you feel the machine that you are straddling leap forward, the breeze in your chest starts fighting back at you as if trying to dismount you from your ride. But you are having none of that. You lean forward into your double bubble screen until you feel your chin settle onto the your petrol tank, pretty much in the same manner as you would sink into your favourite sofa. Game on… Catch me now sucker you think to yourself to that invisible force trying to destabilise you and rid you of your fantasy.
You look down at your instrument panel and smile to yourself as you see the speedo looking back at you and reading 35…40…45… A quick glance at the rev counter shows you are nowhere near the redline so you can crank it a bit more, but as you gather pace you look back up at the oncoming horizon and think… Should I or shouldnt I? Nah better not, safety first you tell youself as common sense takes back the helm of your enthusiasm. So you back off.
You go through a couple of traffic lights and notice that the roads are getting a bit busy along this stretch, not so much in your direction but coming the opposite way. Nothing to do with you you tell yourself and continue on your journey.
All of a sudden out of your perifferal vision your attention is held by a set of headlights in the distance, there really isnt any real reason for this because they are too far away to be of any danger to you, plus the fact that you are both going in the opposite direction. So you give your clocks a quick glance just for comforts sake and to confirm that you are not doing anything stupid, then on with the ride.
Just as all seems well, you have occasion to notice these headlights again, only this time they are not in your periferral vision they are almost in front of you. F*** !! your brain screams at you as you realise whats taking place. Your brain is now processing information quicker than the speed of light. You envisage an accident taking place, with you as the victim. This car wants to turn right but he’s going to take you with him. S***!! I got to stop you tell yourself as you slam on the brakes.
You feel yourself slide forward in your seat as your front forks compress, you cant go fully as you will lock the front wheel you so pull as hard as you dare. The pedal for the back brake seems to sqeal in pain as you put 14 stone in weight of pressure down to bear on the back wheel in order to counteract locking the front. As the bike levels you put more force into the front brake but all the time your running out of room to manouvre. Decision time, lay it down controlled? lay it down uncontrolled (crash)? Or try and out manouvre this idiot in front of you? As I said… Decision time?
You go for plan C, all the time knowing time and space are running out rapidly… You swing the bike to the right in order to go by the unwanted obstacle in your path, much like the final moments of the RMS Titanic, and just like that tragic ship on that fateful night your worst nightmare is coming to pass. Just as you think your going to make it you hear inside your helmet that involuntary scream from your mouth F***!! And then you realise… Too late Biker Down.
fek any book will do with this kind of explanation… I wanna see a technical manual done by you:)