On the Tranzalpine Scooter Safari yesterday I got a taste of racing. Sounds naff, but it felt great.
It was a stage event, and one stage was from Arthur's Pass to the Kumara Racecourse.
When we left it was up to the top of the Otira Viaduct and then it was downhill and undulating all the way to Kumara.
I was on my 50cc Adly Silver Fox. The catalytic converter was gone, and it did 65 kmh flat out. Turns out the gearing in the CVT was quite tall.
I caught up with two other bikes with very similar performance. One was a 50 cc Honda step through, old school, 70s kind of thing. Other was a home build with two wheels at the rear, motorcycle controls, pivot in the middle. The engine was above the rear axle.
Each of us had an advantage. My Adly sucked uphill, the Honda similarly. The trike had maybe 1% advantage on us there. On the flat and undulating the Honda had us by maybe that same 1%, and on the downhills I had taller gears meaning I could roll over them by that same 1%.
Drafting became the way we rolled. We could each slip stream each other, but in the main none of us could get away aside from the above stated advantages. I would be sitting 30 cm behind the Honda quite comfortably but when I pulled out to pass the increased wind resistance just made it impossible.
We each learned to keep our profiles low, reducing wind resistance. Each of us had the bikes tapped out, and just let them decide who was going faster under which conditions. But nobody could get away.
I think we varied between about 50 and 65 kmh, depending on gradient, but none of us was able to get away.
It was awesome. At the end of the stage it felt like we had formed some sort of bond. It wasn't a race, but sure felt like it.
I wondered if the Motorcycle GP guys felt that same way, only at 5 times the speed.
I can get why people race buckets. It's not the speed that counts, it's the competition.
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