Genius or madness? (for bikers)

sharpygsxr

sharpygsxr

sharpygsxr

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Norn Iron
So i normally commute to work all year on my gixxer 750, the only things that will stop that are days when the roads are like pure glass with ice or days when theres been a snowfall overnight and the roads havent been well gritted in advance.

So i wake up this morning and theres cars going sideways in our back carpark and cars skidding up and down the main road so I think no bike today.

I procede to slip and slide to the nearest bus stop, fall on my arse a few times, and when the bus arrives im happy to be warm and on my way to work.

Now for the genius or madness part :)

Bus is travelling up a back road headin to tehmotorway slip road when we are overtaken by a guy on an R1, you can tell by the revs that hes basically spinning the back wheel all the way almost like a burnout. He has his legs outstretched and his feet on the road like ski's and hes prob doing 40 or 50 when he passes us on a road that is pure ice.

Now to me this was madness, but the genius part maybe was that he had what appeared to be a thick pair of socks on over his bike boots. Im assuming this gave him grip when he needed to slow down etc so part of me thought hmmm looks plausable.

So my question is is he a genius or a nutjob?

My vote has to go with nutjob, i know some people have no other way to get to work etc but going on an R1 on pure icy roads looks liek madnes sto me, and with socks on over your boots all signs point to nutter :D
 
Wow, someone is really inventive. Personally I wouldn't dream of using a bike on such roads though.
 
Madness, it's no good getting up to 50mph and then hoping your socks will stop you at the next junction, unless he's done it before. I foolishly took my bike to work yesterday and after approching one roundabout speedway style I wished I hadn't bothered, but still had about 8 miles to go. I made it though :p
 
I took my bike this morning to work, i slip and slided in, but made it.

Might attempt tomorrow :P
 
Madness... regardless of his 'skill', it only takes one overconfident and/or incompetent driver to take him out, and there's enough of them around at the best of times.
 
When it comes to inappropriate but brilliant use of a motorcycle, nothing really surprises me any more- I've seen a bloke do an offroad enduro race on a Triumph 955 Daytona fitted with knobblies. And he finished, and he wasn't last. A few months back we were riding up a really steep muddy track on offroad bikes, and there was a chap on a BMW LT (big road cruiser), panniers and all coming down the other way, with road tyres and a big grin on his face. Marvellous!

I commute 60 miles a day, all year round, whatever the weather. Personally, when the weather gets too extreme for a road bike, I take my KTM 200EXC because it'll get me almost anywhere no matter what the conditions!
 
This is madness! But seriously, riding a bike in the winter is never a brilliant idea, can destroy the paint work if it's not meticuosly looked after...
 
The reason he was wearing socks is probably because socks would grip the ice a lot better that the soul of his boots (remember how snow sticks to your wooly gloves when throwing snowballs as a child), so when he comes to a stop his feet arn't going to slip so easily and thus saving him from droping his bike, i must admit, it is madness taking a bike out in this weather but i would say he is genius for thinking up the idea about using his socks to stop him from dropping the bike as this would enable him to grip the ice better.
 
Sometimes people dont have the option if thats there only form of transport and there not near a bus route.

I had to bike all year round for 4 years. I had to go out in hail, snow, ice. 2 years of that was on a ZX6R, the other 2 years an R1. It was far from fun, had a couple of low speed offs on round abouts that were just solid ice (only realised as my arse hit the floor:().

Its a strange one, its a horrid experiance and you have to wash your bike dailey or the salt will eat it, but I did find it increased my throttle control (especlally on the R1:eek:). I lost counts of the moments I had which result in me do a huge powerdrift exiting bends and round abouts. they were brown pant inducing at the time, but damn there must have looked cool :D

Never put socks on my boots though!
 
Madness I don't even go out in the rain these Days. I gave up riding My bike in Ice when the back wheel overtook the Front on the Crest of a steep hill one morning
 
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