Take me to the edge of heaven. 6/14/2005
I went for the CTYV ride on Saturday morning. I rolled out of bed at O-dark-thirty, and thanked gawd that I had gassed up and everything else the night before because I was late. I suited up, debating between putting on a touring jacket or full leathers, and opted for leathers.
We met up at the R&R, and 23 bikes appeared, with Flying Horse the road captain. I was a little surprised to see Rave there, because Rave rides a 150cc 2 stroke. I had my doubts whether that little bike could stand the pace, but shrugged my shoulders, since The Road Captain decided who could go and who wouldn’t, and I was only along for the ride.
We blasted off down the highway, in the darkness. I tucked in behind Joe on his Varadero, because he had headlights like a locomotive, as compared to the feeble candles in the twin lights of the Silver Lady. We set up a good pace, in the order of about 200 km/h, blasting past assorted cars and lorries. I was, by this time, getting bored. The lights boring a tunnel into the darkness surrounding the highway, just aiming for the distant taillights of the car ahead, coming up to them in a heartbeat, waiting for the pass.
And then, I felt a slight vibration. I was contemplating slowing up, when the fairing on the Silver Lady suddenly exploded, like a giant beetle about to take off. The fairing lowers blew away in the slipstream, and whacked my knees on the way off. The uppers followed shortly after, ripping the nose cone in the process.
The Lady wobbled, and I had an “Oh Fuck!” moment, but got everything under control. I slowed up a little to check and see if anything was grossly wrong with the bike, but everything seemed ok, with the controls responding, and the engine not missing a beat. So I whacked the throttle open to 250 km/h and carried on.
We stopped for the first fuel stop, and I assessed the damage. Aside from the missing fairing, everything was ok with the Lady, so I made the decision to press on, and head up into the really twisty part of the road, after we left the highway. At which point, Rave’s bike decided to stop working. We held a rider’s meeting, and since Rave was going to ride bitch with Beaujarle, we decided to abort the rest of the ride and head back to the city, leaving the main group to continue on for the CTYV.
We headed back in the rain, with Chong joining us because his Ninja 900 had a malfunctioning clutch. There was nothing mechanically wrong with the Lady, and I guess I could have joined the main group, but decided that discretion is the better part of valour, and went home. And the only corner I managed to actually have fun on was the absolute last corner, just before coming off the toll plaza, going close to knee down in a left hander, at 200 km/h. And that was it, the edge of heaven.