You know how it is when someone posts some sort of crash video but it is 13 minutes 23 seconds long and hosted on a service where you cannot fast forward the video or you have a shitty connection so it is always rebuffering? Yeah, like that, you suffer through it, windwhipped cheap on camera mic, crackly fizzy sound, bad music, pixelated and boring, waiting for that one juicy bit of schadenfreude clusterfuck and when it finally gets that it is just......underwhelming and kind of a bore? Anyone relate to what I am saying here? Yeah, that kind of video on teh intrawebz.
Anyway, this video was not that kind.
This video was like the part before the "cool" part, but we never got to the cool part.
Now, I had to chuckle about Ernie on the 696. I guess he wasn't real familiar with the properties of SF, if that is where you were headed, because I gotta believe that just about any time of the year that SF on a bike is going to call for something a little more warm and a little more windproof than a hoodie.
That said, when I was a similarly young fucktard, when we busted out the camera it was a more elaborate affair, as the camera was larger. Thus it had to be good, as VHS was the distribution method.
Didn't have any skills, and the thre fastest bikes on hand were an original CBR 1000 Hurricane good for 160 at the magazine, a 1984 900 Ninja good for 150 at the news stand and a first gen 1983 750 Interceptor along with some other stuff that would be viewed as old junk. No skills, but we did have t-shirts, jeans and helmets at least. In Kansas there was far more emphasis on ultrahighspeed straights work and lots of flat open spaces in which to do it. We all did high speed passes, going about as fast as we could get up to in about 3/4 of a mile. I still remember how cool that CBR was blasting by at 140+ just feet away. At that speed the passing of the bike itself through the air makes a distinctive sound. Of course the motor makes its contribution too.
Anyway, I somehow survived being at least as squidly and probably a fair bit more than the folks in this vid, but guys at least get jackets. Leather is cool. I imagine a fair amount of ER work is inspired by guys making motorcycle videos, but it really is more interesting if there are wheelies, stoppies or some kind of fun wreck.
