Oh, what fun it is to ride a understating bike!

yes Sven,..I too have had some fun like that,,...being an amature racer in my younger days,...hard and hot on the high bank at 200kph was an old hat for me,..especially along the 20kms of snake-backed country road near my chilhood home on my sport bike, I would run this route up to 10 times a day,....occasionally with my wife to be on the back gripping for dear life with more faith than fear,...last season, while on a leasurely ride on the hack,..my wife and I ran up the tail of a trio on sport bike who had no idea of the road ahead of them nor the fantastic knee scrapping corners they could enjoy , as I had to keep pounding on my brakes to avoid bumping these clowns,...I got mad and passed them going into a gradual left hander,..my wife knowing full well that I was giggling inside my helmet,...gripped hard and fell into the comfortable roll of full blown race monkey,.. with her hanging off the pilon like a champ,..I proceeded to lead the trio for 15 kms or so through the twisties coming to a stop at the main intersection a full 10 seconds ahead of them . trying hard not to laugh at their inept riding abilities on full fledged racing guage equipment,..I was commended with shock and awe at the fact an 800cc twin driven sidecar, with his wife on the back and an empty chair,.. could embarrass them with such ease,..to this day I still giggle at the look on that 17 year olds face while sitting on his GSXR 750 wonder where the heck he was and how could he dissappear into the blacktop,..hehe...somedays I just hate myself,.. cheers crawf.

Sven: I had an opportunity to ride my 250cc 4-stroke dual-sport** with several 800-1200cc adventure bikes a couple of months ago. To their surprise, I could "hang with them" up of 60mph -- and on the smaller roads they had no particular advantage.

Crawf: A lesson I learned a long time ago: Never mess the locals on their own roads. Seems these young fellows should should've been learning their skills on a much less capable, and demanding, bike. Just last week I was trying to steer a 20-year-old prospective rider away from a high-strung 600cc sport bike for his 1st motorcycle. And I'm always amazed at the $$$$ spent on suspension, intake, exhaust, etc. to make a motorcycle faster, when the rider's skills are what needs developing.

** Sidecar content: I acquired the KLX250S from fellow sidecarist Oldtimer over in East Texas.

I must agree swampfox,..I obtained a handshake sponsorship to ride for team Cagiva/Ducati when I completed a ride on the same strech of road outrunning a MotoGuzzi SP1000 with my CB 350 at 17 years old,..the fellow on the MG was amazed that I repeatedly lifted the rear wheel dragging the pegs so hard that he bought me a coffee and made some phone calls to secure a track day try out ,...but alas it was not to be , as 3 weeks later I T-boned a car at 80 mph and spent 12 months layed up after a serious back, neck and leg injuries,..my racing career ended before it started,..but in my mid forties now,...I can still walk LOL!!! so the right decission was made for me .... several of the boys I hot rodded with are now certified riding instructors, and we are all amazed that we not only we survived our youth, but that the equipment available today doesn't kill more kids every year , half the weight and double the horse power we had,..zero to 100mph in 6 seconds,..WOW! ..cheers crawf.

Dave and Lee,
myself I never had been a speeder nor a hot shot on the bike (my first one was a 125 and the second a year later taught me within the first 5 minutes to respect laws of physics and snow did the rest). My best time was and is to pull out in the dark and enjoy the sunrise somewhere in a strange area. And when the tank gets empty I decide where to go.
That has to do with where I grew up. North Germany is flat and only the small roads are twisties. There you find branches, sugar roots, leaves, bore and deers and you only can drive as fast as far as you can see. So each time I came into the mountains I was helplessly lost with the locals. No way to keep up with them. But until now I met only one person who would have as much saddle meat as I and he neither does have to have a break every 50km/30mi as all those coffee racers.
Sad experience for me was to predict the dead of a neigbour who's father thought it would be a good deed to give his son a 750 after only 2 years a 80ccm and 2 month a 400ccm. His best buddy had to pick up the pieces of 3 persons...
For me it is amazing how nowerdays pure race bikes are available to public, but if you compare nowerdays bikes with those frames and poor brakes on the heavy metal we had just 30-25 years ago, they do represent a great step forward in framework and safety...
I remember still my useless attempt to become a testrider for Lukas Girling in Manchester when they published their first results of a hydraulic ABS for bikes (long before BMW).

What I am trying to do with the friends of my children is to give them at least one training day in safe riding when they make their licence. In two cases it helped already to avoid a tragety 24 years ago and a few month back.
Dinner just came in. I continue later.
Sven