Control

Machines fascinate me...
To be in control of an intimidating machine is EXCELLENT!!
I loved MX, rode my bike everywhere as a kid, but when I saw a kid riding a wheelie without pedaling, and coming to a complete stop on the rear wheel...I had to learn how!!
Turns out, he was using the coaster brake to balance the bike, just lean back, if you go to far, just apply more brake until the front wheel starts to go down, then use less brake to get to that sweet spot! A big hill provides forward thrust!
It took me 6 months to master this skill, but eventually, I could wheelie my bike down any hill, no matter how steep (The rear brake must have gotten really HOT!)
Eventually, I learned how to go around corners on the back wheel of my bike, just lean in the direction that you want to go!
I got to the point that I could wheelie all the way down our street at Alcazar, lean around the corner, and coast all the way to the end, without a single crank stroke!
You can feel the sweet spot.
I soon got a unicycle at a garage sale, too slow!!
After I got my drivers license, I soon took the big blue Ford to a certain Sea World parking lot (gravel) and drive it at 45mph, and initiated a spin by rocking the steering wheel back and forth...
The tail would sway left, right, left, and then swing all the way around in a lurid slide that seemed to take 20 minutes for the tail to pass the nose, gravel flying everywhere, all forward progress halted, we were eventually looking at where we used to be!
The Datsun roadster I had, was a drift machine before such things were popular...
I removed the front swaybar to make it more tailhappy, and I used to drift it at the bottom of the quad hill turn (and everywhere else!), going west, with the left front tire over the double yellow line, the rest of the car in the correct lane, the vehicle pointing at Sam Snead drive, foot to the floor, looking out the right side window...
I could recreate this feat time and time again, the car was totally predictable...except in the rain!!
In the rain, the Datsun would first push, that is, I would turn the wheel, and nothing would happen, and then as the chassis finally started to twist and load up, the tail would come out, which was something I could work with!
One dark morning at 5:30 am (going to work at Jack in the Box), I was driving in the rain at 50MPH, and when I went to turn, and the steering went limp, no resistance, the front end was not listening, like the front tires were in the air...No control whatsoever, I was along for the ride...
I travelled across 4 lanes (two of them mine!), and by some miracle, I "drove" into a gas station on the opposite side of the road, right where the curb reduced into an entry way!
I stopped the car, thanked my lucky stars, and went on my way.
I later found it necessary to buy a motorcycle with the inheritance from Dad ("You'll never own a motorcycle as long as I am alive"...RCB) and I went for the one bike with the narrowest, steepest powerband I could find...a two-stroke, piston-port 1975 Kawasaki S3a 400 triple with little brakes and a little less handling!
When I first bought this bike, I let everyone ride it, and they all did wheelies!
I vividly remember Steve rushing into the culdesak in Linda Vista at full speed, and my relief when he came around ok, somehow making the turn unscathed...
The very next day, I pulled the bike out, pulled on the brake lever, and it went limp, right to the handlebar...no brakes!
The brake fluid was so old, it turned to jelly, there was no reason that the brakes should have worked the day before, when everyone I loved was riding the damn thing at WFO (Wide FU^%KIG OPEN).
That bike never hit the ground with me on it, I never dropped it despite the steep powerpand...I would ride it through corners, and for no reason, the back tire would suddenly jump out a few inches, just to show me who was boss! Once, it did this to me on a hard right hand onramp, and I kicked the ground with my right foot to right the bike, and I saved it!
I had a bruise on my foot for three weeks...turns out the freeway is nothing but a big file, just waiting to scrape you away!
On a wet freeway, the bike was fine until I hit 6000RPM in 5th gear, and then the noise went up, and I would start to slow down...turns out, at 6000RPM, the motor would suddenly gain 30 or so horsepower, and the back tire would start spinning at 67MPH, I would only realise what was happening when I would look at the tach and see 12,000rpm!I learned to feather the throttle at 6 grand on the wet freeway!
Compared to a modern motorcycle, which propells you to 100MPH in an unreal, almost video-game manner, the 400 was forever trying to throw you off the back of it! I had a few requests from folks to learn how to ride a motorcycle using my little 400...I would always discourage them, sighting that it only took 1/4 of a mile for this bike to hit 100MPH.
I did learn that if you keep the revs at 6000rpm from a stop, the bike will ride the rear wheel through 3 gears, and nothing could catch you from a stop sign!
I beat a brand new Honda 500 interceptor in 1988 4 time from 4 lights on Beach blvd this way, all riding on the rear wheel! the 400 triple, like the Datsun, was totally predictable.
The Mustang GT is another animal altogether...
My old MR2 toyota had no torque, but I learned to drift it like the Datsun, but the Datsun would slide like it was pinned to the ground at the front tires...The mid-engine MR2 would pivot behind me, like the pin was behind the rear window...
You have to be there...
One day, I drove a BMW 325i with posi-traction (both rear wheels getting power) in the rain.
I hit it hard, and was amazed as it travelled up the road at a 30 degree angle, spinning both tires, all the way to 60mph, which is when I let off the throttle!
I tried this trick in the Mustang GT in the rain, but I started at 45MPH, again in the rain, and it too went sideways, both rear tires spinning, roaring at 6000rpm, but stable in a crooked way until 75 when I again cried "Uncle"
It's one thing when the machine tries to get away from you, but it's another thing when you can take control and keep your snotty machine on the road!!
I finally got a major dose of reality when I was in Montana, visiting Tiffani's relatives, and we all went to a rodeo...
There was a class where 15 year old kids would ride 800-plus pound bulls...they looked like rag dolls riding twisting, jumping, DROOLING pissed-off black tornadoes of fur as they rode thier ten frozen seconds of doom, when the infants would finally leaped off safely!
I quickly realised that a machine, no matter how powerful, can be learned and mastered...
Those bulls had no such learning curve...they were fuzzy logic in the most dangerous way!! These kids were riding smart, reasoning, unpredictable, very HEAVY animals!
Nothing like a little reference!!!
Considering my station in life, and the fact that a dad with broken limbs would find it difficult to make a living, I now fly R/C airplanes to get my control kicks...You ought to see my fast Jet with on/off elevators, that stalls and rushes to the ground at every opportunity...