Modern Man

Modern man has made many a stride over the eons. We have learned to glean milk from a bovine. Someone had the temerity to make beer, thank goodness, praise be to the gods. For some reason we have weapons that make no sense whatsoever, technology that runneth over. And there have been many an improvement to the trials motorcycle since an early 1900's Rudge took on the first motorcycle trials loop back in the plestocine era.

What we have here is the modernization of The Captain . This past saturday Pap was kind enough to let him ride his modern Sherco 250 2t . The Captain duly blitzed the section we call the skate ditch (three guesses as to who's responsible for the wall climbs there.....) and then he quickly handed the beast back to Pap. It seems he had the same problem I have with the modern trials machines, everything just happens so damned quickly.

For example, you twist the throttle on your vintage bike and yeah, somethings gonna' happen and it'll be within the realm of control, probably. You twist the loud grip on a modern bike and chances are if you're a vintage cat you're working on the big backwards wheelie and maybe giving up one of your nine vintage lives. Insane power.

And the brakes. Man, the brakes are not to be believed. On your trusty vintage steed with drum brakes it takes a healthy pull on the front lever with a couple of fingers to haul things down, a good stomp of the rear pedal to maybe (maybe) strategicly slide the back tire and set up a turn. With the lack of weight on the modern ride and the braided stainless lines with DOT 5 fluids and floating disc systems, absolute stopping power (or flipping over the bars face first) is only a one finger touch away. Amazing.

The Captain looks good though, don't he? But, alas there's no green modern bikes.....

LOTD (Link of the Day)
Wikipedia on trails.....