I've had sports bikes in the garage of one sort or another for the last 25 years without interuption. 15 years ago I moved to France, one of the reasons was the amount of traffic and speed controls on UK roads made sports bike riding pointless and dangerous. When I first came here I could ride some of the best roads in the world on a sunny Sunday, especially during the winter months without seeing another vehicle for 50 miles at a time. The occassional speed trap set up for cars and revenue raising would only get a wagged finger for double the limit.
By 2003 things had started to change with much more traffic and a new policy of nicking Bikers, including potential custodials for over 40kph over the limit. The days of throttle to the stop from Calais to the Bol at Paul Ricard have long gone (anyone else remember rolling off to a ton, for the free tolls? lol). So I went retro, but an unfaired Z1000 will still top 160mph and if you don't use it whats the point?
Unlike the UK though, there's another choice; off road, here proper long distance off road is possible and brilliant. But even that has it's risks, after hitting standing water at 70 mph and surviving barrel rolling a MX quad, I reckoned my 9 lives were up. So now you can measure the depth of dust on the bikes and quad and we race karts.
And my point is? Well after all that, I still reckon that all the stress created by the B*llsh*t that surrounds kart racing is far more likely to kill me, than riding ever was.
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