Italian motorcycle magazine - modern - vintage - specials - home built - cafe' racers - scooters - design - people - heritage - meets and events - racers -tests - products
Italian motorcycle magazine - modern - vintage - specials - home built - cafe' racers - scooters - design - people - heritage - meets and events - racers -tests - products
8 comments:
It was really terrifying for an American to see this video... He appears to be on the wrong side of the road as cars start coming around that corner!... and then I realize, oh, this is the UK... all is OK.
It's a bit of an art riding like that AND avoiding cars coming the other way, even if they are on the other side of the road. MInd you when I lived in Italy if often didn't matter which side of the road you drove on...
Everyone is saying similar things to me, in regards to Italian drivers. I'm moving to Naples in a week, and just tuned and repaired my BMW, in the hopes of three years of sport touring bliss. Let's all pray for each other, huh?
Well, you'll certainly need a full set of wits about you. I was in Tuscany, in the 'north'. Naples is a different matter, and a law unto itself as far as traffic goes. But then you'll prabably get into a groove after a while, and do as they do (though maybe not wearing a helmet isn't a good idea). But once you get outside Naples, the countryside is great. You'l have a great time, just don't ever be complacent on the road..
*Man desperately hangs off motorcycle and fleetingly touches knee on ground in possibly the worst circumstances*
I hope this was a one-off for the benefit of the camera. Otherwise get to a track, Nick, or at least get to a roundabout for this sort of fun and learn to do it properly (unless you really have nothing more worthwhile to live for).
Of course it was done for the benefit of the camera - oh come on, just a bit of brief silliness, Nick's an ex-racer and knows what he's doing, and besides, motorcycling's dangerous whether you've got one knee on the deck or sat stopped at a zebra crossing letting an old boy cross over
As Adam had stated, yes it was for the pictures only. It was just for fun, isn't that what bikes are for :-) The place for getting your kneedown is on the track, and most definitely not the local roundabout!! As Adam has stated, I raced in the late 80's and early 90's, knee down to me has no interest I'm afraid. Been there done that, over 20 years ago, but hey, thanks for your input ;-)
I suggested a roundabout as an alternative to that sort of situation. I contend that roundabouts, provided you choose and time'your visit well, are some of the safest places to corner hard on public the road in the UK, regardless of whether a knee down blows your hair back: traffic is going same direction, you have right of way, positive camber, good vision. Run off is still a bit of an issue but certainly better than Armco, ditch then trees.
It's why so many action shots in (UK) bike magazines are done on them. Most days Fastbikes would have more staff at Oxshott roundabout than the office and one MCN test rider got permanent curvature of the spine from doing laps for the camera at their preferred roundabout in Kettering!
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