Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

I found out firsthand this past week that the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 is fast. Very fast. In fact, I don't think the word 'fast' can really do it justice, because it's not just top speed that makes the GSX-R 1000 a thing of beauty.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm no expert on sport bikes by any means whatsoever. However, I have been riding motorcycles (mostly dirt bikes) since I was about nine, and I know a demon when I see one. So why am I writing this? Well, I went to Austin...

After hanging with Ruth and Jesse for a few days, kayaking on Lady Bird lake, swimming at Emma Long Beach, and just enjoying the relaxed Austin atmosphere, I think something got to my head and I wasn't thinking straight.
I went over to my oldest brother's place on Saturday, planning to just hang out and have a good time. I got there and he apparently already had plans to try and get me on the speed demon sitting in his garage. I was pretty nervous since the only bike I had ever really ridden on the street was my Yamaha 225 Serow, aptly named after a Mongolian mountain goat. It's a good off-road bike, but not exactly thrilling on pavement. After a few minutes of trying to talk him out of it I realized it was hopeless and agreed to take the bike out around the block a couple times. As soon as I got a taste of the power at my disposal, I quickly realized the 30mph roads of suburbia were not going to be enough. I made a quick pass by Josh's house again to let him know I where I was going before heading out onto Southwest Parkway. With that much open road ahead of me and six gears to play with, I had a time of it behaving. A bike with that much raw power can't help but go fast; it almost has a will of its own. Any rider that claims something is the bike's fault, however, doesn't have any business riding one. The bike still only did as much as I told it to. So I struggled to keep from launching it into orbit and made it back to Josh's house without committing any moving violations of Texas law.While Josh has always seemed to have a strange desire for me to wreck every single one of his vehicles, the last thing I expected was for him to offer to loan me the bike for a couple weeks. But he did. And while I was trying to refuse, the next last thing I expected was for Ruth to encourage me to accept, which she did, and I did. I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't. Anyway, instead of driving home in the 2000 Century Buick like I had planned, Monday morning found me sitting on a purring Gixxer 1000, oh so ready for the 150 mile ride ahead. It occurred to me that my parents might be somewhat miffed that I neglected to ask for their blessing on my trip, but I hoped my mom would understand that I was merely following her advice "better to ask forgiveness than permission".

As expected, I did get a bit of a...scolding, for not consulting them in my decision. Screaming down 1488 the next Saturday, though, just behind my dad's Honda Interceptor, I figured things were probably back to normal. Or maybe better than normal...