I used to play that

In high school, if I could find a suitably boxy truck to get behind, I would ride with traffic on a road that had a speed limit of 35, so of course most traffic was 40-45. Remembering when you were approaching the spot with the potholes (and frequently large chunks of asphalt freshly knocked out of them) was more than trivially important.

Also used to do it on a '73 Yamaha RD350 on the Jersey Turnpike. That's a small two-stroke twin that was 13 years old at the time, and a stretch of highway where there are no shoulders to speak of and traffic does 85 with just over a car length of separation. While I could cruise at 85 with very little throttle, it didn't occur to me that I was riding an air-cooled bike way faster than it was designed to cruise, while starving it for fresh air. All this came into focus when the engine seized in the left lane with trucks in front, to the right and behind me.

And I'd have to admit too, that the now Obvious.. might not have entered My pretty-little head either :(

(Though it did enter.. on a matter of lesser importance: not a great idea to be idling around town on one's multi-cylinder *air* cooled machine when it's >90\ufffd outside.) Folks smarter than either of us - bought a cyl. head temp gauge!

I remember the RD-350: it was vastly too-fast for its Bad handling (a bad mix also with a ~16 yo newbie finding out the hard way about: short wheelbases and physics, at the same time).

Helped my SO get a new -250; it handled surprisingly well. Both showed what the Japanese could extract from a 2-stroke: eat lots of 'things' for lunch..

Another lunacy: coasting!

At top of a long wind-y downgrade. Kill engine, get: the Worst of both bicycling and [inert] motorcycling. Since it's a race, you have to keep sorta off the brakes yet still make the turns. I think.. it was a learning experience of a sort re. finding the very best line. For those who want to scare selves. Contrary to intuition (f=ma?) IIRC the lighter bikes usually won via ~ handling nearer to bicycles, further lean angles possible w/o power.. (not sure of that)

A Survivor

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