I chew up a lot of bikes on my K5 in the city that I have no business taking on. No matter how good the bike is it is the rider who is really fast or slow.
My favorite section for two wheeled duels is the upper level entrance to the 59th street bridge (queensboro bridge). It is a 1/8 mile straight, an ascending tight right hander with a little inside bank, and then a sharp but wide ascending left hander before you get a straight run across the bridge. There is no sidestreet traffic to worry about, and at night the bridge is usually empty or traffic is light. The down sides is there are no shoulders, there are concrete barriers on both sides of the road, and if you hit the concrete barrier with sufficient force you could be chucked over the side and fall a good 100 feet. If someone wants to lend me an onboard camera I will make a hood hard run across the bridge and you can get a feel for what it is like, feels like a very short private race course.
I am often surprised how many sport bike riders don't know how to coax their bike thorugh a half way decent turn or pick a decent line. $1000s of dollars worth of expesive riding gear and some snot-nosed 30 year old ex-punk in a sweatshirt and jeans, wearing his lockup chain across his chest bike messenger style usually gives them the business. sad.
My favorite kill to date was a ninja 636 and a gsxr 750. Caught these two guys getting on the entrance to the 59th st bridge upper level and saw them each pick a lane and line up (rolling about 20 mph and the guy on the ninja was counting down on his fingers from 3) , at which point I figured it was on. Before they got on it I split between them in second at redline at which point the chase began. They caught and passed me by the time we got to the 1st right hander, at which point I late breaked (right up their arse) settled the rear and pitched the bike into a right and passed them both on the inside. The caught me again in the 300 feet between the right and the left and we all went into it three abreast with me on the outside. I dragged that centerstand lug hard on the concrete but I got around them with more than a few lengths to spare. The right lane had some light traffic but the left was clear and I was able to hold them back across the entire span of the bridge (although they were right up my arse at the end of the span). At the light at the base of the bridge (manhattan side) we had a good laugh about it. They told me I scared them poop-less when I went around them throwing sparks off the centerstand lug but I came out of that turn 30mph faster than they were going and right in the heart of my rpm range which gave me just enough to hold them off. It was a fun time.
I am by no means a good rider by race track standards, and even as a street rider I am probably only a little better than most competent riders, but overall skill doesn't matter, you just haev to be better than the guy in the next lane.
My only other true sport bike kill was against a friend of mine on a 1997 cbr600f3. He was faster in a straight line but not by much because he really shifted slow, and in the turns he lacked confidence so I was able to pull around him on a twisty backroad.
My only true straight up victory happened at a bike night at a local "chopper" bike shop. This guy with a 96" stroked heritage was talking about all the cb750s he used to own and how they were "just ok". Wehn someone asked him if a harley was faster he said absolutley. I told him he was full of it and he told me to put up or shut up. The shop sat between 1/8th and 1/4 of a mile from a traffic light with no side streets in between, so we lined up at the far away light and decided the shop would be the finish line. I launched hard, rode the clutch a little longer than I would normally but the bike rode clean out of the hole, while he smoked it off the line and dropped back 3 bike lengths right away. Through 1st-3rd he was able to close the gap to a length and a half but in the upper gears I was able to hold him off and keep pulling. I never heard another thing that night about new harleys being faster than old japanese and the guy left soon afterwards.
my cafe 78F has taken a new nightster from a stop but that bike is kind of a ringer being much lighter than stock and running a cam, kerker, and k&N in the airbox and my buddy whi si 150lbs and an ex prostock rider was riding it at the time.
Other bikes I had no business tangling with but have managed to outride:
Ducati monster 750 and 900
2003 Triumph speed triple
1982 gs1100
BMW aircooled crusier (don't know the model but it was fairly new).
Although he won't admit it, I had a pretty decent run at a certain semi-well known hopped up triumph bonnie in brooklyn one night. I won't cheapen it by telling you who won or lost (hugh is a much much much better rider than I am but I think my cb750 is slightly faster - at least it has more of a top end charge).
Interestingly enough some guy on a 76 750F handed my K5 it's arse last summer on the west side highway. The guy was just a much better rider and had a better line though the very light traffic. He also got the jump on me so I was playing catch up almost the whole way (I did manage to pass him once but it was short lived). Never saw him before or again. A norton commando ate my lunch on the LI Expy also one night, but we were allready rolling at highway speeds when we started messing around.
since I bought my ducati, I find that I don't drive nearly as hard through the turns on it. Where as I could lay down and slide the K5 and then set it on fire and chalk it all up to city character, I am obsessive about not scratching my first new motorcycle.
