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....
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....