Country roads and no traffic is as good as it get when you don't have a track. Unless you've done it; you can't believe how it feels to hit you brake points and put your bike on a perfect apex through a series of turns.

 

The only radical thing I've done with my ZX12 is hit 190-ish mph (indicated), and I don't plan on doing it again soon. Things fly by so fast that if anything gets in your way or if the bike fails, you're history. I haven't officially drag raced my 12 yet, since I'm waiting to get the Muzzy billet basket and clutch kit installed. The stock clutch has so much chatter, and I've heard that the stock clutch will grenade itself after heavy launches. A while back ago, Ricky Gadson ran a stock 12 at 9.5 sec/147 mph. I'm hoping I can break into the 10s at least, since I'm still learning how to master this 1200 cc beast. The only place where I would do a high speed run is a salt flat or closed runway, since there are fewer things for you to run into in case you fall.

The L is fast, but once you ride a superbike, basically nothing feels fast (or quick) anymore. I've ridden in a Viper before, and although he tried to show me how strong it was, it just didn't impress me very much.

As someone mentioned earlier, one of the best parts of biking is hitting the twisty, hairpin turns. When the ground is only inches from your body, you're right there where the action is, and it's a lot of fun. Accelerating out of a turn at near full throttle is a blast too.

Motorcycling in general is dangerous, but the rewards are great. Can you believe that we can buy things like the L and superbikes, off the showroom floor? We're definitely living in the 'muscle' era again!