Steve Parrish
It’s always a busy time coming up to Christmas and Plummet Air has been working overtime to deliver my books – it’s that time where I take up my second job of being Santa Claus. Of course, it depends on the weather whether I take the plane or the sidecar though…
But then again, it’s not all been just about mince pies and naughty lists, as the off-season is still pretty lively. Since we last spoke we’ve had the EICMA bike show; the ridiculously huge bike show situated in Milan. It’s funny actually, as alongside all the lovely new bikes it seems like 40% of the show is just little bike companies over from the Asian part of the world, selling everything from pedal bikes to electric scooters. This is great for me, as what I do is collect up as many of my mates’ business cards as I can throughout the year, and give them out at the show to these guys and girls for pestering. It’s a great way to pass the time, when we’re not having new bikes unveiled of course. I mean, how bonkers are new bikes nowadays? I sat down and had dinner with Chaz Davies over there, and even he was saying that he could not believe it – as a World Superbike, they’ll probably tune down the power figure slightly to work the best with the Pirellis on that new Ducati… Apparently, some of the World Superbike lap records are held by bikes with sub-200bhp. But screw it, I’m just so glad that manufacturers are still making these things – it’s almost a
middle finger to the health and safety bods of the world. I remember the days when it sounded like they were going to try and cap things at 150bhp, so to have almost 100 more is absolutely mental, if not a bit overkill. In all honesty it’s about both sides of the coin though with manufacturers working hard on electric bikes as well, like that new Kymco-geared superbike. Talking to designers of both cars and bikes, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes to get more of these things out there, and as much as people hate it, it looks like it’s the way things are going to go with the government scaring the shit out of everyone with a combustion engine.
I don’t think it’s too bad though, I mean, I’ll probably be dead by the time all this happens. But before that, I like the idea of all that torque at an instant – although imagine Doris with her shopping wheeling away from Waitrose... That would be a laugh. Speaking of which, I almost crashed my Indian the other day in the same sort of way, so I can’t really laugh. I opened it up on the drive and the rear let go, and I very nearly sent myself straight into the hedge on camera; I thought I was going viral… and to the hospital. But I’m glad I didn’t, as we’re spending nine days presenting at the NEC. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve already, including a giant remote control spider. More on that next month, and have a wonderful Christmas!