Why We Ride Page #5

---

and I got the salt fever.

You have to experience

lining up, to know what it's all about.

Butterflies, always, always,

filled with butterflies.

Sometimes you forget

to put it in gear.

All the old-timers say when

you're at the starting line,

you can feel the spirit of all the

people that were there before you.

You feel everybody's

spirit there.

And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,"

and so I get up there to the line,

and I'm like,

"Wow, this is incredible. "

It still kind of gets me.

And the fastest man has gone

on the planet was right there.

It's you and your

motorcycle, that's it.

You're not racing

next to someone,

you're not rushing

to get off the light.

When you're ready you take off.

Bonneville is a 10-mile course,

and you're at full speed, 200 miles

per hour, for three or four miles.

It's a very powerful

place to be.

Everything goes

into slow motion.

I get to turn it wide open and hold

it as long as I think I can do it.

You look at these guys today,

they're the same mindset

of the guys that were flying

the P-51 Mustangs and Corsairs.

It's that seat-of-the-pants,

"tell me how to start the thing

and I'll figure out the rest. "

Chuck Yeager,

did the guy have a clue

what was gonna happen on the

other side of the sound barrier?

He didn't. Did it matter? No.

It's like going to Bonneville,

it's the same thing.

It becomes a really personal

thing with your motorcycle.

To go that fast you

need to be one with the bike,

be the paint, be a sponge.

I came to a point with

that first bike that I raced,

that I didn't know if it

was the bike holding me back

or me holding the bike back.

So we started switching

around motorcycles,

and found out I could go a

little faster, but...

So I just, um, took off,

twisted the throttle

and took off and got a land speed

record in the first two passes.

My first land speed record

was set on a 1946 Indian Chief,

and that bike is still ready, sitting

and waiting to go get another record.

We've had the 1000cc turbo

charge record since last year.

By the end of last year,

we had it at 245,

this year we went back

with some changes in September

and we set the record at 262.4,

which is now the fastest sit-on

motorcycle record in the world.

Setting the record this year

is a phenomenal thing.

People say, "What's it like

to be the fastest in the world?"

I said, "Well, that and $3.95 gets

you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. "

On the way home after that

first year, after they saw it,

I said, "Well, what do you think, girls,

is that something you'd want to try?"

And before I had it out of my mouth,

they were like, "Yeah, we want to do it. "

It's kinda hard sitting on the sidelines and

just watching when you're a bike freak too.

First of all you either have to

either have a mom crazy enough

to let her daughters do it,

or vice versa.

And we became the first

mother-daughter-daughter trio in history

to hold records

at the same time.

It's so amazing that

her kids can do what she does,

and, you know, they have

fun at it. All of 'em do.

I think there's something about riding

a motorcycle that's really empowering.

I really like riding my own

a whole lot better

than I ever liked riding

on the back of a motorcycle.

The difference between being a passenger

and being a rider is everything.

I mean, most of fellas today

who ride, they want their women to ride.

Being a wife,

and a worker, and a mother,

when I get on my bike,

the wind just kind of takes it.

I mean, you see two bikes in a

row, one's a guy, one's a woman.

Women and racing

has come a long ways.

There's more women riding now

and a larger percent of them are going racing.

And they would get on these bikes

that would scare some normal men.

Well, there's all those great women

that have paved the way for us.

I didn't think of 'em

as men and women,

I just wanted to race.

Women, you know,

20, 30 years ago

that wanted to get into racing,

they faced actual real barriers.

I wanted to ride with

the guys on the track and beat 'em,

but I couldn't, because

women didn't do it then.

You say I can grow up to be anything

I want to be, I can do anything I want to do,

so why is there a line

drawn in the sand?

You definitely see

a lot more women out there now,

trying it, and encouraging

other women to do it.

Oh, women are taking over. I say five, ten

years, they'll be more women riding than men,

because women are tougher,

you know.

I learned that I needed

to slide the bike without using brakes,

'cause every time you'd use the brakes

to skid around, it'd slow you down.

You know, I didn't want that, I

wanted to stay fast all the time.

Flat track racing is probably

one of the best places

to build that skill set, because

it's all about controlling traction.

I was in Indianapolis the first

year they had MotoGP there,

and they had the Indie Mile,

which is a famous dirt track race,

and they took the MotoGP riders

to see the dirt track riders,

and they were like, "That's

crazy, how are they doing that?"

That's where so many

successful road racers have come from.

The American racers

like Kenny Roberts,

they always had to do both

so they could ride dirt track.

Because of the dirt track experience,

I started hitting my knee on the ground.

You talk to any one of

these guys and they'll tell you

the reason why they became

a good Grand Prix rider,

is because sliding a motorcycle

didn't intimidate them.

I started winning. At that

point, I just started winning races,

so everybody is now trying

to play catch-up.

That's where the whole back wheel

sliding thing kind of took off.

Yeah, Kenny was

a pioneer in a lot of ways.

And when I got to Europe,

it kind of multiplied.

He was the guy that just went over

there and showed those Europeans,

"Hey, us Americans can

ride motorcycles, too. "

People are fascinated

to watch a racer drag a knee,

and now they're dragging elbows.

You know, when I drag my elbow,

it's part of the crash.

Every sport

has its pinnacle,

football, it's the

National Football League,

in baseball, it's

Major League Baseball.

Motorcycle racing,

the pinnacle is MotoGP.

Over in Europe,

it's huge.

It's the most evolved,

most technically advanced

motorcycles in the world, and

arguably the best riders in the world.

Every rider

wants to be in that show.

I don't think the talent

is any less than it was years ago,

but the bikes have become

so technical today,

that it really

requires a completely

different type of a rider

to master the bikes,

because you're mastering electronics

now as well as mechanicals.

I wanted

to have the world,

and going round it is

one way to do that,

and I was thinking should I do it

on a donkey or a skateboard or...

...or something, and I thought a motorcycle

would be a really good way to do it.

That was when everything

in my life changed completely.

I was quite sure nobody

had ever done it,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes