Sunday was unseasonably warm here in northern New England, in the low 50's for a good part of the afternoon.
The Patriots were not scheduled to play their game with the Eagles until 4:30PM, which is after dark anyway in these parts this time of the year. So I hopped onto the bass bote red FJR a tad after noon, and covered some of the old favorite roads in the area possibly for the last time this season, especially those that had been recently repaved, because I know after the ravages of old man winter and the frost heaves he brings, they'll never be as good next summer.
Did you ever notice that the bike seems to run so much sweeter in the dense cool air of late autumn and early winter? Yeah, it was like that.
I was getting a fine groove on, dialed up the MP3 tunes from my zumo 550 on random select. When I hit Rte 129 going southwest from Gilmanton to Loudon the afternoon sun shone into my eyes a bit, which made it tricky to see the tighter corners well, but I lowered the internal visor sun=shield in my Scorpion EXO900 just enough to block the rays, and traffic was light. When I transitioned to Hoit Road (you locals know the one) "Pictures of You" by The Cure came around on the MP3 player rotation, and the vibe was nearly magic.
I'd decided to skoot across through Boscawen, then cut across down Water St to Webster and reach the fine fresh pavement on Rte 127 to Contoocook. Everything was great until I came up behind a car doing the speed limit, which I was in a mood to comply with, but every time he approached a curve, of which there are quite a few of, he was hard on his brakes and below the yellow truck warning signs.
I actually waited for a passing zone (which is not particularly a given for me) and dispatched the corner stuffing turd with no downshifting, merely a good sized twist of the right wrist. I had seen a car in the far distance approaching, but knew well that with FJR passing power it would be a safe and easy pass.
Only to find when I reached the oncoming car that it was the local Po-po.
No response from Barney until after both I and the road slug had gone by him, but in my excellent rear viewing FZ1 mirrors, I saw the dreaded blue lights go on. After cresting a rise and the intersection to Rte 127, I had a choice to make: Go left onto the road I had intended, or go to the right, back up north Rte 127. I figured I had a 50/50 choice, so of course I made the wrong one.
My donation was (only?) $124 for doing 60 in a 40., a badly delivered lecture about "not being arrested" for "improper lane changes" (huh?) by officer Killjoy, and a rash of totally unwarranted shit from my loverly wife on my return home. "Why do you have to ride so fast?" she asks. "You're just too impatient" she says.
The worst part is that in retrospect, I think the whole thing was avoidable. Last weekend I ran the slab down to Plymouth for the Annual Ride to the Rock. Out in the highway, my Escort Passport RD was constantly annoying me with false alarms due to the new cars with their radar operated Collision Avoidance Nannies Every time you get near one of those things it sends the RD off into alarm. So I had pulled the plug on the RD, and rode the rest f the way home in blissful silence, but had forgotten to hook the power back up to it on my return. My big mistake not to have re-enabled the RD before this ride.
I don't blame anyone besides myself for my required donation. It was all on me for being such a bonehead and not re-enabling the RD. And I suppose that, by the letter of the law, I am an evil criminal miscreant worthy of a court conviction, $124 fine, and whatever insurance penalties I will now have to bear, even though I have plead "nolo contendere" (no contest) on the citation.
But realistically now... how is one legally supposed to pass a corner slug when they "speed up" to the speed limit in each of the straights, without also exceeding the speed limit? I mean, without a radar detector to tattle on where the constables are? If there is no way to do it, why bother having passing zones at all?
I think the speed laws are dumb, but I also can't afford to get nabbed again, so I guess I'll have to keep my RD plugged in at all times and just suffer the ear pollution.
Maybe even slow down a little?
Nah!
The Patriots were not scheduled to play their game with the Eagles until 4:30PM, which is after dark anyway in these parts this time of the year. So I hopped onto the bass bote red FJR a tad after noon, and covered some of the old favorite roads in the area possibly for the last time this season, especially those that had been recently repaved, because I know after the ravages of old man winter and the frost heaves he brings, they'll never be as good next summer.
Did you ever notice that the bike seems to run so much sweeter in the dense cool air of late autumn and early winter? Yeah, it was like that.
I was getting a fine groove on, dialed up the MP3 tunes from my zumo 550 on random select. When I hit Rte 129 going southwest from Gilmanton to Loudon the afternoon sun shone into my eyes a bit, which made it tricky to see the tighter corners well, but I lowered the internal visor sun=shield in my Scorpion EXO900 just enough to block the rays, and traffic was light. When I transitioned to Hoit Road (you locals know the one) "Pictures of You" by The Cure came around on the MP3 player rotation, and the vibe was nearly magic.
I'd decided to skoot across through Boscawen, then cut across down Water St to Webster and reach the fine fresh pavement on Rte 127 to Contoocook. Everything was great until I came up behind a car doing the speed limit, which I was in a mood to comply with, but every time he approached a curve, of which there are quite a few of, he was hard on his brakes and below the yellow truck warning signs.
I actually waited for a passing zone (which is not particularly a given for me) and dispatched the corner stuffing turd with no downshifting, merely a good sized twist of the right wrist. I had seen a car in the far distance approaching, but knew well that with FJR passing power it would be a safe and easy pass.
Only to find when I reached the oncoming car that it was the local Po-po.
No response from Barney until after both I and the road slug had gone by him, but in my excellent rear viewing FZ1 mirrors, I saw the dreaded blue lights go on. After cresting a rise and the intersection to Rte 127, I had a choice to make: Go left onto the road I had intended, or go to the right, back up north Rte 127. I figured I had a 50/50 choice, so of course I made the wrong one.
My donation was (only?) $124 for doing 60 in a 40., a badly delivered lecture about "not being arrested" for "improper lane changes" (huh?) by officer Killjoy, and a rash of totally unwarranted shit from my loverly wife on my return home. "Why do you have to ride so fast?" she asks. "You're just too impatient" she says.
The worst part is that in retrospect, I think the whole thing was avoidable. Last weekend I ran the slab down to Plymouth for the Annual Ride to the Rock. Out in the highway, my Escort Passport RD was constantly annoying me with false alarms due to the new cars with their radar operated Collision Avoidance Nannies Every time you get near one of those things it sends the RD off into alarm. So I had pulled the plug on the RD, and rode the rest f the way home in blissful silence, but had forgotten to hook the power back up to it on my return. My big mistake not to have re-enabled the RD before this ride.
I don't blame anyone besides myself for my required donation. It was all on me for being such a bonehead and not re-enabling the RD. And I suppose that, by the letter of the law, I am an evil criminal miscreant worthy of a court conviction, $124 fine, and whatever insurance penalties I will now have to bear, even though I have plead "nolo contendere" (no contest) on the citation.
But realistically now... how is one legally supposed to pass a corner slug when they "speed up" to the speed limit in each of the straights, without also exceeding the speed limit? I mean, without a radar detector to tattle on where the constables are? If there is no way to do it, why bother having passing zones at all?
I think the speed laws are dumb, but I also can't afford to get nabbed again, so I guess I'll have to keep my RD plugged in at all times and just suffer the ear pollution.
Maybe even slow down a little?
Nah!
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