ST becomes personal water craft, or 100mph 3 miles from shore

[Bill Flowers <waflowers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I exagerate.  Neither my bike nor I got wet.  But I did hit 100mph
(indicated) and the nearest dry land was 3 miles away.

Do I have your attention?  Sure I do!

Last night my ever loving and supportive spouse inquired as to the
current state of my odometer.  With the bike scheduled for its first
(500 mile) service tomorrow she new I didn't have much time left, and
this pesky thing called "work" kept interfering with the far more
important task of getting the bike through the initial break-in period.

I was only at 390 miles, so she told me to take off, ride safe and have
fun.  What a woman!  :-)

I decided to try some highway cruising for a change, so I rode across
Tampa Bay on the Coutney Campbell Causeway to pick up I275 south to St.
Petersburg.  This meant that I'd re-cross Tampa Bay on the Gandy bridge
(sort of the long way around, but I needed the miles).

I was cruising along at 80mph, keeping pace with a group of vehicles
ahead and minding my own business when a pair of headlights came
shooting up from behind.  This small sporty car pulls up in the lane
beside then slows down immediately beside me.  I quickly glance over and
notice the illegal limo tint windows.  "One of those", I think.

Not having anything to prove (I knew that I could smoke him ... if I
wanted to and wasn't still breaking in the bike) I ease off on the
throttle to drop back into a safer position.  He (I assume the driver
was male -- not many women would be such an idiot) surged ahead a bit
then dropped back beside me again.  Before I could do anything he surged
ahead and dropped back again.

Obviously he wanted me to race him to prove his manliness or some such
testosterone-induced insanity.  I just shook my head and eased off on
the thottle a bit more, down to 65mph (which was still 10 over the
limit).  Now the vehicles behind us were starting to gain on us instead
of holding a constant distance.  (Yes, it seemed everyone was doing
about 80 last night, including at least two 18-wheelers I saw.)

The joker in the cage finally gave up in disgust and took off, just as
the traffic in my lane (the inside one) and the next lane to the right
completely opened up.  So I decided to see how fast he was going and/or
how fast the ST would go without exceeding the 6000 rpm limit I'm
currently at.  I wasn't interested in catching up with him, just in
seeing if I could match his speed.

At about 5800 rpm the indicated speed was 100mph.  That cage was still
pulling away from me while weaving in-and-out of traffic.  Like I said:
idiot!

It was a strange feeling to think that I was going this fast while all
around me was water.

The road ahead was still clear but I had better things to do than push
the limits of me, the bike, or the pre-oil change engine, so I eased
back to match the flow of traffic.

Shortly after I left the Interstate, rode out to the beach and made my
way home at a much slower pace while enjoying the fresh salt breeze.

In all another 90 miles and a great end to a nice day.  :-)

- --
Bill Flowers
Clearwater FL
'00 Sapphire Blue ST "Jewel"


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