Quote Originally Posted by tonyfoale View Post
Knowing how to race can be more important than knowing how to ride.
This reminds me of countless rowing races that I used to win against a stronger opponent.

In the early '70s I lived next to the Woronora river near Sydney, a workmate lived about 10 houses further along. We both independently bought wooden row boats from a local boat rental company which was renewing with lighter fibreglass boats.

The butcher's shop was one way up the river and the general store was down the other. Mostly separately we used the boats to get provisions. However, sometimes we coincided and so a race to the shops would ensue. He was a lot stronger than me and I knew that he could beat me easily, but he did not have the racer mentality. My tactic was to put in a huge initial effort to pull away from him. That would destroy his motivation and drive, which would give me time to recover without him realising how knackered I was. I beat him every time but I never let on what my 'secret' was. Simply knowing how to race. Happy days.
exactly my tactic in that race knowing that if I so chose I could have melted the rear tire right off the bike before even moving or have pulled the front right over the taillight if it had hooked up immediately. Those big Mikuni's advanced cam full open free exhaust coupled with high energy coils among other things meant 1 thing the wind pump could breathe and breathe very well while producing enough torque to allow the Benet clutch to grenade the gear box. I allowed just enough revs to get a good off the line snap without breaking loose standing on the taillight or shucking the box then once hooked up snapped the throttle full stop probably hit 2nd gear in under 20 feet 2nd was close ratio to 1st 3rd a bit further apart, in 4th by time I reached 2/3rds. The old Norton's were never designed to be drag bikes being more at home in café , grand prix racing