[Geeto67]

So, Anybody have an expirence with a road troll?

for those who need clarification a road troll is a local who stakes out a nice piece of road and lays claim to it as his road by being the fastest on it. He/she lies in wait for anything resembling a sport bike to come down that road and then he engages - engaging the invader whether they want to play or not.

So sunday I was out for a spirited ride in Montauk. It was a band of 4, My buddy joe out front with his bumblebee k1200s BMW (BTW, if anybody doesn't think that bike is farkin fast they are flat wrong), MI was on the yellow Sport1000 ducati, My brother on his DOHC cb750 hotrod, and my father in tailgunner with the supercharged harley. We were bombing some backroads when we passed a drive way and I saw a kid in baggy jeans, t-shirt, ac-12 Carbon, sitting in his driveway on a running black R1. just sitting. pointed toward the road. ROAD TROLL.

In the 1/4 mile straight line before the first curve he managed to overtake the harley and the cb750, neither bike a slouch. He catches me at the first curve and passes on the outside (on a two lane country road). At this point the only one who knew we were in the hunt was I, and I was already breathing down the pipe of that big as hell beemer. He crosses over in front so close I feel the exhaust heat and comes around the outside of the beemer on the opposite switch back. At this point Joe gets the hint and sets that k1200 on kill. If anybody thinks that bavarian shitbox can't handle, they are wrong. there were plenty of spots were we could have overtaken him in the curves but that kid was making his r1 the width of the road (go on the outside and he would run wide - come inside and he would cut in really quick).

I will say that the kid, despite his gay as hell boxer's showing over the top of his jeans (didn't that trend die out like 10 years ago?), was pretty fast. we were all set to ovetake him when we come around a blind right hander and there is a jeep lumbering along at 35mph in our lane, and a chevy pickup in the opposite traffic lane coming toward us. We had plenty of room but joe and I back off while the troll rides the yellow between the two cars and disappears. After a few minutes and the heart rates return to normal we see the troll coming back the other way giving us the onehanded finger gun salute as he was almost knee down in a sloping left hander.

one thing that surprised me about that expirence is that while I could see the bastard on the edge of his tire in plenty of turns, I was not off his pace at all and I had yet to scrub into my chicken strips. The other thing I learned from this is that while it is really easy to see red - a road troll knows his road and is willing to do acts beyond stupid in the name of bravado. I am not. I aspire to the meerly stupid.

beware your local road troll....

 

[joe c]

my buddy patric rides a k12002. the thing is really fast.

jc

 

[TonyDanger]

I know quite a few guys that talk about getting rid of chicken strips and lean their bike over as much as possible trying to go superbike racer status. I think its funny how worked up some sportbike guys get when they start talking about chicken strips and watching them try to lean the bike over as far as they possibly can while getting on on-ramps to the free way. Its fun, and usually all that effort is pointless as they aren't going that fast to warrent the lean angle.

While the guys was a troll and a douchebag looking for a way too look cool in his tshirt, you had fun, right?

 

[Geeto67]

oh...don't get me wrong it was tons of fun. the only time is stopped being fun when he did something dangerous enough for me to wince at, at which point I realized I would rather be the guy explaining it to the officer as a witness than the guy explaining it to the paramedic as to where it hurts. No accident resulted this time, but that kid with that kind of riding...it is gonna happen sometime.

I don't really ride with sport bike guys too often so I don't get a chance to push the ducati. I have to say that bike really shocked me as to how well she handled. Although the R1 is a much much much faster bike I felt I was carrying more speed into the turns and with less lean angle, but then again I wasn't showboating like the guy in front.

the only reason I want to get rid of my chicken strips is because at some point in my ownership of the bike I am going to have to cross into that section of the tire, and I would like it to be scrubbed in rather than be slick new tire. Although I am a firm believer of riding your tires to scrub them in, I may just have to take some sand paper to these because the kind of lean angle required to get them scrubbed will require knee pads, and I don't own any.

 

[jbranson]

As a modern sportbike rider....with a 190/50 on the back...I can tell you that you can wear off the rear chicken strips much easier than on a older profile tire seen on things like a Honda 750.
Takes about 30 degrees on my RC. Takes about 45 degrees on my vintage race bike.
Now the front is a different story...had the bike 6 years, have never worn off the front....and don't plan to unless I take the bike on a track day.
JohnnyB

 

[Geeto67]

with any of the cb750s I stop leaning over when I begin to grind hard parts. A stock cb750 will grind the crap out of it's stand on the left side before you run out of tire. Actually if you ditch the center stand it will grind the stator cover before you run out of tire. I have dragged the right side of my right foot on the peg at full right turn and still had plenty of tire. I have even dragged the side of the stock 4 into 4 pipes in a hard right hander (with my foot on the passenger peg, the brake handle also drags at that angle - you are literally a cut hair away from crashing at that point).

The ducati?...I will run out of tire before I drag anything. actually I think if the bike fell over the foot peg and the handlebar is probably all that will touch. maybe the turn signal.

with a 180 rear on the duc I have the unused portion of my rear tire down to about 1/4" an inch. However that front still looks like she has a good solid 1", maybe 1.5". Now that I am thinking about it I am more worried about the front pushing in hard conering than the rear since the rear's contact patch is larger than 1/4 inch.

 

[jbranson]

This is what it takes to get the to edge of a vintage race tire.
JohnnyB
PS...note the location of the brake lever...I could reach down and touch the track.

 

[parks61]

i won't go holy-er than thou as i've ridden stupid on the street myself. i don't generally do it anymore (not like i used to anyway). but johnny touched on the actual reality here: no matter how fast (cornering) you go on the street, you aren't even close to what fast is when viewed from the perspective of on the track fast. these "road trolls" are just road tools. i bet most don't have a clue as to what fast is...only what stupid is. you can't do what johnny is showing us here and live long in the street riding world. hope i didn't sound like the old whiner that i probabley am.
-parks

 

[jbranson]

Exactly the reason my RC sits unused in the garage the vast majority of the time. It's only fun to ride like that...and you can't do it on the street and live long. I should trade it on a VFR or something.

I've got a few friends with sport bikes that I've been trying to talk into a school, or at least a track day. I hear them talking about how they leaned over this far or are going that fast. I tell them they ain't shit on a stick until they've been on a track...and that once they have...they'll come back and tell me I was exactly right.

You do more hard, skilled riding on a 50cc in a real race than you do with an R1 on the street. At least you do if you aren't a "Road Tool"....hehe, I like "Road Tool" more than Road Troll
JohnnyB

PS. What's funny is....do you think you can drive your car as hard or fast on the street as you could at Watkins Glen? No freakin chance in hell.... same applies to bikes.

 

[Geeto67]

I wish I could disagree with you on any particular point but...really...I can't.

the only real problem is accessibility. Tracks close to NYC are still several hours away, and the street is right outside your front door.

so...anybody got any good road troll stories?

 

[texmawby]

i love when the road trolls show up at the track...they are the easiest ones to beat into and out of ANY corner....normally on a bike much smaller.

average isn't smart!

texy

 

[bcr]

I'm with Parks on this one. I got away with my share way back when, but i was on old BSA fer crying out loud. Of course my folks threatened to toss me out of the house because it was a death machine. Funny in retrospect. Fast forward 30+ years, the modern bikes have evolved alot quicker than the average adolescent male frontal lobes. When I see a kid on an R6, and he doesn't need a shave, I know the odds are not in his favor. Guys like that, I lettem go, unless they clearly can't ride (i.e. string a few nice curves together into a coherent line) in which case ........ I still lettem go (unless they really suck), 'cause I'm an old guy w/ 3 kiddos, and I know the track is where it's at.
cheers, bcr

 

[joe c]

if you havent done it, youd never understand it. i wish i could ride full tilt on the street. so many great roads, but the consequences are just too big. even if you tos it down, and arent run over by a fuel truck, or minivan.

the track is definitely where its at. and i know so many of those guys who are better riders than i am. Yet they wont touch a race track, at full on race pace. like its too dangerous or something.

jc

 

[jbranson]

When the trolls show up at the track.... at least they are trying to do the right thing. Everyone was slow at one point. The track is the great school...where everyone gets schooled...everyone.

And yeah Joe...ain't it weird? They seem to think they might get hurt at the track, or mess of their bike. I know some guys that really need to go, but you can just tell, they think they might get served and their ego's won't allow that.
JohnnyB

 

[TonyDanger]

I find it funny how people find the track to be so much more scary than the road. I had a woman (about 30 years old) come into the shop and her parents were buying her all this gear to make sure she was safe as they were scared to death for her. I laughed a bit and said "with all this you're about set to go to the track". Her mother give me this death glare and said "she is never going to do anything that dangerous." I then explained to this lady how tracks don't have curbs, cars, dogs, on coming traffic, etc and when you fall off you usually slide into open area and other safety features of the track vs street despite the speed. The lady then turned and told her daughter to go ride at the track instead of riding on the street!

On the other hand, my old track buddy brought his parents to the track on day and his mother watching him for a few sessions and when he came in after a few, she said to him in a chillingly stern voice "This is extremely dangerous, I rather you'd have been a cage fighter." Fricking lune.

 

[plumbtastic]

i've never ridden on a track, but all this fun track talk makes me wanna take my motorcycle out around for a few laps.

i'm in so cal. can anybody point me in the right direction? i dont wanna race...at least not yet. classes i can take or things i need to do to my bike first?? thanks!

 

[Stuntboy56]

One day me and my uncle were riding our bikes, I had in-transits and my uncle was riding his electra-glide. We were at an intersection and we both heard the roar of some squids about a quarter mile to our right. So I took off and got up to speed to hopefully not draw to much attention but I was horribly wrong. They turned and came roaring up on our tails. I was in front of my uncle and there was about 6 of them. Five of them hung back while some dumbass with a black mohawk on his yellow helmet decided "to show grandpa and jr. how to ride a motorcycle" and proceeded to blow past me at about 70-80mph (I was going 65) on his rear wheel. He then broght it down and drifted over into the oncoming traffic laneand hit the rumble strips. I mainted speed and just stared at him as I lugged by. When he looked back over at me I just slowly shook my head and continued on my ride. Him and his buds blew past us a little later. i think it was just to get back a little of that huge ego he just lost...

 

[ttilghman]

i am an effin road troll. and mostly with my '75 CB400F and before that with my paired down, '01, not-a-real Triumph Bonneville. i don't sit and wait at the end of my driveway but i love sandbagging and then burying the big street-racers in the corners and sweepers on my overly heavy/underly powered machines. or coming up from behind and just shadowing their rear wheel and when they wave me by i'm on this little POS standard-moto....i love it.

but yes, getting on the track opens up a whole other world of riding....there's nothing even close to it to be found on the street. and outriding some newbie or low mileage or just plain safe guy on the street is nothing like really dicing it with good friends and great racers out on the track.

squidly-t

 

[UngaWunga]

Well, around here it's mostly harleys clogging up the roads. They're pretty easy to get around.

Last weekend we were stuck behind a truck towing a boat, and he was stuck behind two harleys.

 

[FR]

quote:Originally posted by plumbtastic

i've never ridden on a track, but all this fun track talk makes me wanna take my motorcycle out around for a few laps.

i'm in so cal. can anybody point me in the right direction? i dont wanna race...at least not yet. classes i can take or things i need to do to my bike first?? thanks!

google socal track days for starters. I'm sure there are several other options available too. You may have to travel a bit, but I gather it's worth it.

FR