Hell hath no fury like a Texan in a pickup
In the past, I may have mentioned a time or two how maniacal the drivers in San Antonio are. We have two loops of highways which encompass the city and I refer to them as the junior and amateur circuit for NASCAR.
Also, folks down here are hell bent on driving pickup trucks that dwarf the modern car while barely squeezing into one lane. One would think that the price of gas would curb their enthusiasm, but that would border on being unpatriotic.
That brings me to this morning. I had an early appointment this morning and chose to take my motorcycle before the temperature reached 200 and also to save some gas. A little background, I ride a Yamaha R1 (1000) race-bike that is capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 and back to 0 in under 10 seconds. Sometimes faster if you hit something solid.
While cruising home around 80mph a rather large pickup apparently took notice that I was speeding and invoked his Texas born right to cut me off in an effort to slow me down. Being the easy going person I am, I swerved around him to pass on the right. This is what kills me, or almost did. The pickemup truck driver swerves back into the right lane in an attempt to ride me into the guardrail. I mentioned that 0-100 part right? I lit up the bike and squeezed between him and the next car.
Now I’m pissed and seeking a little vengeance. I slowed down and pulled back in front of the pickup and slowed down to about 35. He’s now honking and flipping me the bird while I’m just keeping his eye on his bumper. Now comes the fun part. He goes to pull around me and I pull out in front of him and begin accelerating. He’s chasing me and I can’t believe leave it. I take it up to 105 and he’s sill trying to stick with me. This went on for nearly 20 miles. About a mile before my exit I kicked it up to around 140 and easily lost him but I imagine I could have found him at the next gas station cursing me and the gas prices.
At 100 mph I would imagine that a V8 pickup gets about 4-6 MPG while the bike is just breathing nicely at 100 and getting close to 40 MPG.
As an aside, I don’t mess with drivers that aren’t out to kill me through stupidity or their own intentions. I’m very respectful of motorists but God help you when you piss me off.
Posted by deadscot on 14 Jul, 2008 at 17:53