Blatherings From The Editor

Fast 

(September 2005) 

Our 1961 Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines speed as the act, action or state of moving swiftly; and fast as characterized by quick motion, rapid, swift, fleet…  There’s a bunch of other definitions but to the motorcyclist who enjoys elevated-miles-per-hour riding, moving “swiftly” pretty much sums it up.  Going fast is the idea and to be fast you have to move more “swiftly” than the other guy.  Anyone remember Tom Swift and his electrical runabout?

     I remember one of my initial sessions on a true race track and my mentor, Kato Shoei of Yoshimura Japan, telling me, “There is fast, and then there is fast…”  Took a couple of times on the track to really understand what he was trying to tell me.  In my class, novice at the time, I was fast in that I could stay up with the other riders in the same class.  We all had about the same level of experience and were running about the same speed and lap times.

     Then there came the day I went out on the track with the professionals.  These guys were riding full factory race bikes.  There were a couple of Yamaha and Suzuki two-stroke fours circulating with other two-stroke triples and four-stoke fours.  All ridden by guys who made their living by going fast.  Their bikes were fast and they rode them fast.

     The first time one of these guys passed me on the inside of a tight left hander, I about did the deed in my pants.  The bike was on me, around me and gone faster than I can tell it.  I felt a bit embarrassed…I thought I was fast.

     The next time out on the track among the novice riders, it just didn’t seem we were going all that fast.  Once you’ve been passed by the really fast guys, everyone else seems to be dragging their brakes.  I wanted to be riding with the fast guys, I learned from them every time they passed me…which was a bunch of times the first year I raced with the big dogs.

     Fast on the street is very different from fast on the track.  Lap times speak loud and clear.  On the track everyone is moving basically in the same direction and hopefully have some riding competence.  More than likely, the surface of the track was swept before the session.  Good tracks have emergency services ready right now if there is a problem, and trained track officials are there to keep the conditions as safe as possible.  You can really go out and scare the you- know-what out of yourself, big time!

     There is a saying that goes something like, “The older I get the faster I was!”  Sounds about right.  I’d add Dick Penick’s words after doing a fast run up to Datil, NM to the list of quotable quotes, “I’m not riding so fast any more.  I’m tired of scaring myself.”  Deryle Mehrten, mildly swift with scattered periods of elevated heart rate.