… and the bike purrs to life, snicks into gear, and leaps away from the parking spot.
I pull onto the interstate from Wendover, NV, and rip the throttle open. The inline 4 of the stolen bike screams as it punishes the pavement and zips me up to clearly illegal speeds. The wide open expanse of the Bonneville Salt Flats, vaugely glowing white at 1 in the morning, remains clearly indifferent to my defiance of the law.
I shoot past car and truck alike, heading deeper into the empty darkness of salt and pavement. The wind roars in my helmet, and I can just barely hear though it and my ear plugs as my helmet speakers start pounding out Zombie-Zombie’s ‘Driving this road until death takes me’.
The unplanned and sudden death of scores of moths leave tiny carcasses that flitter to the ground in my wake of noise and …
Was it fiction or fact?
Let’s back up a bit.
Sunday was another day of drag racing out at the Wendover Speedway. My poor V-Strom is down right now, awaiting a new chain, sprockets, a fork seal, a valve job, a tune up, and a good cleaning. Is that enough stuff? The goods will arrive Tuesday, but I was itching to get back into the saddle. Brian was riding out with Mike to watch him attempt to break the 10 second mark on his ZX-14. Since there was no more space in the truck, I jokingly offered to ride Brian’s Honda 919 out to Wendover for him. Brian cheerfully accepted. So, Sunday I stole his bike out of his garage and headed out onto the highway.
The 919 is a fun machine. As far as naked sport bikes go, this one has all the goods: a smooth power plant, fast steering, and a decent price. It certainly made me giggle. The tricky part is it is not much faster than my V-Strom, but the lack of a windshield and the smaller/lower stance makes it feel way way faster. That said, the lack of a windshield is a downside for long distance biking. After an hour of interstate speed air pounding against my neck, roaring in my ears, and the decidely sports bike ergonomics, I was ready to kill someone to take a break. The seat is no where as cush as my V-Strom, and the suspension was tuned for someone 100 pounds heavier than me, leading to a rather bumpy ride.
We spent the afternoon at the Speedway, Mike running a best of 10.26 on his ZX-14, and Brian managing to get the 919 into the 12′s once (he was not really feeling it). I actually didn’t get a chance to run the 919 down the strip, as Modell was having fun with it, turning in a 11.60 as his best time.
After racing, we went to the Rainbow and had a decent dinner. Too many mirrored surfaces in that casino!
I rode the bike most of the way back. We stopped at a rest area halfway back and I let Brian take over so I could talk to Mike for a while, and then rode the bike from Mike’s to Brian’s. Riding my bike home after spending all that time on the 919 was an interesting experience. My bike felt like driving a truck! The V-twin was not as smooth (it needs a tune up anyway), and it felt way slower, but the seating and handle bars were so much more comfortable. I pulled onto the interstate and ripped through the gears, and it felt so much slower, until I looked down and saw I was already in the triple digits and had not even noticed since I was not feeling any wind.
So, while I had a good time, I certainly was not convinced to trade the V-Strom in. Maybe on the weekends, though… 
… the desert keeps its secrets for another day …
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