While motorcycling from Hahn AB, Germany on a late August day in 1991 towards Traben-Trabach, I found that a rider's biggest adrenaline rush comes in merging the entrance, midcorner, and exit into the perfect corner. My favorite turn is the first hairpin while coming down this hill towards the Mosel river. I started setting up for this switchback in the upper part of third gear and approaching rapidly. I used a little front brake, but mostly let the engine revolutions slow the bike. I love to hear the four cylinder 600CC engine scream through that sweet exhaust note. Then, after blipping the throttle to match engine speed to tire speed and down-shifting to second gear, that high-pitched howl started again and wound down. Next, the heavy braking started and continued through my rev-matched downshift to first. With the start of a little lean, my entrance to the corner was looking pretty good. This is where the fun began. I released the brakes and rolled on the throttle to maintain a constant speed. The suspension settled down from the dive of the front forks caused by such massive braking forces of two large disc brakes on one small front wheel. Once the bike was stable, I slammed the bike over into full tilt as quickly, but as smoothly as possible so I could use every bit of available traction from these ultrasport tires. As I stuck out my knee, my ears were allowed to hear the beautiful sound of the plastic puck velcroed to the outside knee of my racing leathers scraping the concrete for about fifteen feet. This sounded an felt like an excellent midcorner to me. Finally, to finish off this corner in sheer bliss, I applied heavy throttle that was rolled on perfectly. I really started to feel the G-forces when this modern Japanese sportbike screamed over 7500 RPM (revolutions per minute) and hit its real horsepower in first gear. While still turning and decreasing my lean angle, up to about 30 degrees from straight up, as if to preclude me from wasting any drop of pure adrenal, the front tire lifted free of the Earth at 9000 RPM into a power wheelie! I rode this out all the way up to the Ninja's 14,000 RPM redline. That was the perfect corner.


This was a anecdotal/descriptive paragraph that I wrote for an English class while stationed in Germany in the US Air Force (I got an A). My bike was a two-tone blue 1990 Ninja ZX-6. The road was a back road in farm country with little traffic full of hairpins, switch backs, and long sweepers that I would burn a tank of gas on almost everyday after work for that summer. Enjoy!

Tim-St. Louis

 

knee down in first gear... interesting

 

It was a hairpin turn that just about doubled back on itself. It was the most difficult turn to master on this particular road. There was a small gravel parking spot near the inside of the turn. This was a good spot for bikers to watch other riders take this hairpin as you could see the whole turn.

As you can imagine, throttle control and smoothness is imperative in a first gear sharp turn. The most fun part is the practice!!

This road went from a plateau down to the river in this valley and probably had about 15-20 turns of all varieties.