A lion among leopards

February 19, 2008 - Tuesday

Well, Löchen's got himself a new and second bike. It's a 1995 Husqvarna monobike with a new 630 ccm engine and the ugliest blue, white and yellow paint job you could imagine. (He wants to paint it black, though.) We don't know how many km it has or how well the new engine was driven in, but it has a nice sound, and Florian says it pulls well. 'Sides, it only cost him 2750.- Peanuts. That leaves me and Selim as the only bikers in our big group without monobikes. And it makes a difference, what kind of bike you're riding when you hit the curves and serpentines. Even if I were a great driver, my big Buell could never take the curves like a monobike. Besides, the one-cylinder machines have way more power and pull in low rpm than mine. I could beat 'em all on a straight stretch, but we don't do straight much. Not to mention the monobikes are all open, legal or not, which my poor Beastie is still limited to a wussy 34 PS. It's not an option for me now, but I'm thinking that after I get the Beastie "done" - airbrushed plastic covers, titanium Termignoni exhaust system and possibly a F.A.S.T. air filter system - I might look into getting my own monobike. (Yeah, peer pressure. On the other hand, curves are made to be raced around...) It wouldn't be anything 15 years old, though, so it would cost. Just something to keep in the back of my mind. But as I said, Beastie definitely gets precedence. In one sense I've got the better deal, with my streetfighter among the supermotards - namely when it comes to the parking lot. My Buell stands out in the crowd already, and will even more so when I'm done customizing it. (It made me think of the lions and leopards I saw in a National Geographic documentary during my last babysitting job. The leopards are small and fast, but the lion just dominates. So does my Beastie.) Finally, I don't think the guys mind if I'm a bit slower. Like Kev said in MSN yesterday - you always stop at the top of the pass to enjoy the view anyway. Speaking of Kev, I ran into him on the way home from work yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny evening. I wanted to used it, but I knew Florian had ELATS and would be late. I also knew that Kev would drive around a bit if the day was nice, so I was hoping we might pass each other. We did, though it took about ten minutes to finally end up in the same spot. We checked out a speed trap just outside Birmensdorf, refueled, did the Buchenegg-Albis circle together, and then went to our respective homes. It's much more fun to drive with somebody. Last point: On Sunday I finally mounted the blue reflector strips on my wheels. Originally I'd planned to get blue wheels for the bike and mount them on there, but I decided blue wheels would detract from the airbrushing, so I'm sticking with black. The strips look nice - so long as you don't scrutinize. I got a bit close to edge a couple times. But they seem to be sticking fine and it's a nice touch. (Florian, the ol' critic, called it cheap tuning.) Monobike is a German term for one-cylinder motorcycles, predominantly applied to cross machines and supermotos. For example, you wouldn't call a KLR a monobike.