Subj : RE: This Month's Camping
To   : MIKE DIPPEL
From : Rob Mccart
Date : Sun Mar 30 2025 01:44:00

MD>My only bike was a Honda 350 cc that I purchased new in 1974.
  >The bike that seemed the fastest back then was the Kawasaki 500
  > I always wanted one, but after seeing what can happen on a bike,
  >I no longer want one.

I can understand that. That was the claim for the Kawasaki 500 but
I had a Triumph which would do 135 mph, near as I could tell.
The speedometer actually said I was doing near 160 mph, but I wasn't
buying that so I went with engine RPM's at lower speeds vs RPM at
the maximum speed I could get out of it to work out the speed.

I rode bikes for about 16 years and had 3 accidents in that time.
Very early on (age 16) I was doing 70 mph down a road I didn't know
which topped a hill and suddenly turned to loose gravel and I dumped
it with minor injuries to myself and the bike. A few years later I
got racing (again on a road I didn't know) and I came over the top
of a hill at 105 mph, wondering why my competition behind me was
suddenly slowing dowm, and discovered at the bottom of the hill a
gravel road (darned gravel roads!) crossed the road and there was
gravel all over the pavement. I managed to get it down to about
60 mph before I hit the gravel and went off the road into the trees..
More damage to the bike that time but a big rock probably saved
my life as it propelled me (and the bike) UP into a tree about
10 or 12 feet which ate up all that momentum. I came down no worse
than falling out of a tree and just had some bruises on my back.

My slowest (worst) accident happened in a city at 40 mph when
someone cut off the car in front of me which I was no doubt
following a bit too closely. Unable to stop I ended up sliding
the bike on its side to wedge under the back bumper of the car.
I ended up with the weight on my bike on my leg and a lot of the
car's weight on top of that. I tore most of the skin off the palm
of my hand on the way down and I shattered my kneecap, which still
bugs me in some weather 50 years later..

Ironically I was a lot more into hot cars than bikes but never had
a collision driving a car.. Well, once a low speed accident in my
mothers car on black ice when I was 16 when some idiot abandoned
their car totally blocking the road..  But I spent a lot of time
driving a car at well over 130 mph on 'sideroads'..    B)

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 * SLMR Rob  * Study art & logic - learn to draw your own conclusions
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