Went down there Saturday early and told the guy signing up people for demos that I had talked to Jeff the previous day. Guys says "I told him not to do that, @!#@#$!"
(wow, I think to myself, THAT's how I would talk to a stranger).
btw, can anyone describe what Jim Callahan looks like? I am thinking that this is him...
So I am trying to be nice, smiling, friendly, and this guy's still being a jerk. What is this guy's problem? Don't matter, I am going to ride a Rocket III at 10AM!!! We go through the safety briefing and I find the lead and tail riders are very nice. Ride consists of 8-10 miles around the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Not a bad ride, has some nice S turns, couple of straights. I figure it will let me feel out the bike...
We get on the road and man this thing sure has some power! Just burping the throttle, the whole bike is torquing sideways
. I am the last but two riders and everyone behind me gets stuck at the light
. Guess who is now the tail rider?
We get over to the first straightaway and I let everyone get WAY up ahead. OK, what can this baby do? I punched it and ran up to third as the road is rapidly running out. A glance down at the speedo and I am at 105, in THIRD GEAR!!!! Holy crap! Hung back again and now I want to see what happens from a very slow roll. Punched it again and now I've got the front wheel off the ground! WooHoo!! Again to over 100 in third!!! OK, I better settle down before I get in trouble (and no more straights
). Kept getting on it though, in short bursts. One more interesting note. I managed to scrape the hero pegs on a hard left turn. The guy in front of me on a Rocket did the same thing and darn near lost it! He pulls over and starts looking at the bike like there's something wrong. I pull up and explain and away we go. When we got back, the guy says "I thought I broke it!" I asked him what he usually rode and you know THAT answer!
Go back up to sign up for the 10:30 ride and there's the gruff bustard again being short and nasty to everyone and 10:30 is full. Crap, how about 11? Nope, full too 11:30? Again, no. Now I have to hang out without much to do. I made sure I got signed up for the Thruxton at the 12. Oh yeah, when I got back from the first run, Phil (
Agentorange) was there and HE got to ride the Thruxton first (dammit)!
Finally on the road with the Thruxton and I knew right away, I was not going to enjoy it. Having to support myself on my palms and the feet slightly back position was NOT comfortable. No big deal, it's not like I was riding up to Pat's place! I even tried leaning back a bit to shift my weight but it did not help. Halfway through the first straight, it sputtered and died. Flipped it to reserve and it took a minute to start. This time the tail rider was with me and everyone else had checked out. We get going again and he asks with a smile if I want to lead. HELL yeah!! So now I have the whole road to myself and I am running it hard. For being uncomfortable, that Thruxton sure moves nicely!! Very nimble. Only thing I noticed was in that hard left again, the tip of my boot caught a little. No big deal. Got back and the crowd had increased substantially. Looked at the 12:30 list, nope. Looked at the 1PM list, nope. OK, time to go!
Overall, had a great time, got to ride a couple of bikes I have been itching to ride for a long time. Met one complete a$$hole who I believe might be Jim Callahan...
