You wanna talk lite bikes? My friend has an 85 Suzuki RG 500 Gamma. On the street nothing touches him

sidenote, It was a beautiful sunday for the Slimey Crud run. I enjoyed seeing all the bikes and riders even the painfully-stock, because of the variety in one place.
But, you know what was best about that day?

the ride.

9.53 sec. 1/4 mile is not slow, I don’t care what anyone says. It is slower than the average speed of a satellite orbiting the earth – it’s faster than walking. Everyone wants more regardless of how much is available now but their only point of reference is what was available yesterday. There is no point at which we all say, “finally it’s perfectly fast, it weighs exactly the right amount…” If your point of reference is lower your expectations are lower. Then again, why do things need to get bigger and faster anyway? Does this mean it’s getting better?

I’m not discounting the great amount of fun it is to take something and make it faster. I think it’s impressive what Yamaha has done with the New Max to make it what it is under the constraints that there are. Same for VmaxGuru: Great job. Why do people buy 600s when there are 1300′s available? Why bother putting go-fast goodies on a 600 or 250 when you can just get the bigger bike? It’s not to achieve the Mythical Perfect, it’s for the fun; the satisfaction of the challenge of working with what you got.

-todd

-todd

What you’re remembering are the pre-computer days, no fuel injection, no computer controlled electronic ignition, … it is what it is. Today it takes a new type of knowledge and skill and many old hands are not comfortable with it, trust me, I understand. It takes new tools and equipment and often what you do will run afoul of emission laws anyway. The world is changing.

What these guys did, was work with the current bike in the current technical environment and make it go fast, not like in the old days because the old days are gone, but it’s still pretty darn quick. And so is Jay, for that matter.