Little CB did well today

I know, I know, racing cars is silly, but I pulled up at some lights on a national speed limit dual carriageway and at the front of the queue was a youngish bloke in a Mercedes C43 AMG – how the hell was I supposed to resist?

Anyway he went for it so I did too. At the end of second gear I glanced in my mirror and he was about three car lengths behind, but after this I pulled away marginally but couldn't shake him. We got to some more lights and the same thing happened. I turned off later down a small bendy road that I know quite well after I'd overtaken a few slow cars and pootled along to see if he'd follow. He did and I saw the telltale flaring headlights of a big lumbering car accelerating behind me so off I went again. I'm pleased to say I left him far behind and no limbs were broken. 

I wonder if his car was in stock (albeit well kept) condition. Looking up those cars I see that they supposedly put out 302bhp and 0-60 in 5.7s. This sounds about right based on the amount by which I got ahead of him in the drag race.

It's times like these that I wish I had a much faster bike, then I remember that his car, roughly the same age as my bike, probably cost him several thousand and does about 25mpg at best, and furthermore that if I had something quicker I'd ultimately enjoy it less overall than my excellent CB and might well end up hurting myself.

When I can afford it though I would like something with unnecessary power in the garage as well, although maybe by then my need for such thrills will have diminished...probably not though.

If this had been one of the new C63s I'd have been smoked, for sure.

...his car, roughly the same age as my bike, probably cost him several thousand and does about 25mpg at best, and furthermore that if I had something quicker I'd ultimately enjoy it less overall than my excellent CB and might well end up hurting myself.

which is exactly why the cb500 is great!

That said, and I know this has been discussed before, is there a bike, new or old, that shares the CB500's simplicity etc. and ideally a twin, but with 70-80bhp? Sometimes I sort of wish Honda had brought out a CB750 twin at the same time as the CB500...

Nice job on the drag race!
SV650s are meant to be good handling and have 69 bhp, marginally more powerful.

jchesshyre wrote:I know, I know, racing cars is silly..

Why is that silly?
I like to do that too, and I think it's quite fun

Look, you just smoked an AMG Merc, wielding nothing but a simple workhorse bike. You're not silly - you're a hero Or, alternatively, the AMG driver is a twat.

A little fun is okay in my book, as long as you observe common sense and omit putting other people at risk.

What I don't like is eg this: Today I went to a vintage autojumble, held in a public area. Some twat brought his Hayabusa, and opted to demonstrate its ability to accelerate - amongst pedestrians, slowly moving cars and whatnot. Now that's silly!