The Paris to Dakar was once a race in Africa, for real men who smoked Camel cigarettes. Part of this adventure was not getting shot at by itchy trigger finger militia on the back of Toyota pickups. You could ride any bike you wanted to, size didn’t matter. But as time marched by, terrible high visiabilty jacket safety restrictions came into play; twin cylinder bikes where banned, single cylinder bikes came to be and then size restrictions came into play as well. Somewhere between the 900cc beasts of past and the 450s of today, this ‘little’ 690 engine had a window of opportunity to shine. Though short lived, this motor was certainly designed to race.
Seems like an obvious title, right? But when did you last hear of a mass-produced, liquid-cooled triple coming from the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’, er, never? Now that’s got you thinking, hasn’t it, and I bet you’re all fiddling around with that ‘sticky’ screen on your phone, right now, to hopefully disagree with me? Well, don’t waste your airtime because I’m as correct as a Nobel Prize mathematician medal holder but, unfortunately ten times, or possibly more, as dense.
Let me start with a rant by saying; ‘The youth is wasted on the young!’ In ‘my day’ we respected our elders, proudly wore knitted jerseys our grandmothers made, played in sandpits in the rain and were happy for the ‘weed-eater’ engine that graced our 125cc road bikes - how times have changed! I mean, in ‘my day’ the Mutant Ninja Turtles were cute and fought for justice as mere cartoon dudes but I’ve just watched the new Ninja Turtles movie with my son and let me say WTF! The realism, detail and the Michael Bay lens flare fest was an assault to the eyes. If I were still young, which I am (big lie - Bill), I would have wet my pants numerous times (big-girlie Mike – Bill).
Are you one of those many people that have trouble meeting other folk? There can be a multitude of reasons for this depressing trait – only have three bad teeth, breath of a dinosaur, body that looks like an octopus wearing Speedos, more aggressive than a chimpanzee coming off heroin, riddled with a foul and uncontrollable disease, as miserable as a back-pack bomber without a back-pack, and the list goes on.
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