Riding my Virago in Hong Kong

From: "Nish" <leclerc@netfront.net>
To: "Rebecca Leung" <rebeccal@pcihl.com>
Subject: Riding my Virago in Hong Kong
Date: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 1:30 PM

(Just the latest stuff in english, needs more work...)

The raining season has started, it's pouring
buckets, the humidity level is really high and everything is sticky. With
the high degree of air pollution we have, it coats the bike real nice in
just a few kilometers, perfect finish for the Rat Bike show, better not wear
white clothes in here...
Riding in Hong Kong is just unbelievable, a strange mixture of nonsense and
regulations melted into a constant traffic jam. We drive the british side on
only 1831km of roads, most of it in town with neon signs hanging from high
rise buildings above our heads. The streets are filled with walls of
double-deckers that completly block the view in front of you and the signs
on the sides, with mini-buses that basically race through the crowd but do
stoppies when there's a passenger to pick up from the sidewalk. Taxis do the
same and they come in crowds. These three categories of vehicles are the
most leathal and unpredictable. I was hit once by a double-decker that had
burned a traffic lights... I was thrown out of my bike by a mini-bus one
morning in a tunnel so bad the bike made a loop in the air and ended up
smashed on both ends ! One of my mate broke his jaws in 5 parts after
landing in the open trunk of a taxi. Tell ya, gotta be crazy to ride in this
place !

Now the rest of the road is occupied by private car owners. Those are cute.
They drive big shiny cars. Benz, Porshes, Rolls Royces, Lexus, large Toyotas
and of course all these fancy SUV that weren't exactly built for Hong Kong
narrow streets and roads. They love their cars but they lack experience and
basically they don't know how to drive, resulting in them thinking they have
to brake in the curves when driving a BMW brand new four wheel car
eventhough they're only driving 30 km/h ! But when u finally get to pass
them over, they, of course, accelerate because they think they're loosing
face.

If u don't wanna suffocate, u just have to ride between the lanes of cars.
Lots of them drivers hate that, they fear for their paint so they squeeze.
I'm glad my pipes are loud, they help frighten them but I still have to
slalom my way through.

Time to time, I go on a quiet ride along the coast line of Victoria island.
It's a nice ride, lots of views on the China Sea, cute islands, blue sky,
curvy as hell with ups and downs. It should be cool but every three
kilometers, the traffic suddenly stops either because there's work in
progress over one lane or because two double deckers are trying to cross in
a narrow turn. Lots of cable work had to be done lately underneath the road
so they digged right in the middle of the lane. Then u know how it is, first it's the
cable TV network, then the Internet network, then this then that and we end
up with some kind of dirt bike track in the middle of the road, where I try
to ride. I had a dirt bike... I sold it for the Virago, oh well. When the
road's too bad they scrap the surface and put large metal plates in it. With
95% humidity in a tropical climate, they might prove to be great training
places for professional skaters but, tell ya, you wouldn't put 70% of your
pulling on the front brakes there ! Nor on the numerous sewage plates that
seem to multiply freely in the turns of this town...

Well yeah, u might say I feel a bit blue today. Took a ride yesterday night
between two showers, it hasn't stopped yet and she's downstairs, standing in
the street, getting poured on and I only have that poor cover which is
already soaked as hell. I know she's cold and wet and I won't ride her today
coz I haven't got that rain suit with
the anti-burn patch on the right leg that's gonna be perfect with my custom
pipes. She started ok yesterday eventhough she was so wet. I could tell when
I first turned the throttle, she just was so weak until she warmed up a
little and started fuming. By the time I returned she had dried up and she
shined again. I lovingly wiped her with a clean cloth and just as I covered
up again with that humid mean cover, the rain started pouring again. I gotta
do something for the poor thing.before she totally melts and disappears ! :)

Nish