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Tuesday, 07 September 2004 |
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Escaping with ones life by Mike Emery ~ Ducking for cover by Fonzie
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It was a dream date really, an invite to participate in a shootout with Motorcycle.com. The use of eight open class motorcycles representing the finest that motorcycling has to offer, in terms of power to weight, ridden on some of the most spectacularly twisty roads in the universe and topped off at a technical track that demanded respect. Looking back, I don't think I've ever spent two days so worried for my life and some of the lives of the riders around me. The problem was, not only do you have to bring your best game (and riders) to an event like this, you also have to bring 100% concentration too or things can turn ugly in a second. |
| Coming into the test, I had a mental picture of how this would stack up, and having ridden most of these bikes, I figured I knew where each bikes strengths and weaknesses fell. Time beat us down with a stick and we were chasing our behinds from the moment we started this test. Things also turned ugly in that above mentioned second and we quickly went from 1112 horsepower down to 837. Consequently I didn't get to ride the Suzuki, street or track and the Ducati on the track, so the outcome is tainted somewhat. However, here's my (short) stack in some semblance of order. |
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First off, many thanks to Robert Pandya from Aprilia who went far and beyond Aprilia duties. He helped with tire changing and supplied us with lashings of cool and throughly conditioned air. Also to Dustin Coyner for showing me the fast way around Buttonwillow Raceway and for giving us a safe venue to test these machines. Finally a big thank you to Pirelli Tires, for supplying us with their excellent Diablo Corsa's on all the bikes. |
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