Why You Should Bring A Motorcycle To A Car Party (Part 2)

Posted on Tue Aug 29th, 2023 @ 8:58am by Lieutenant Alisha Reno & Commodore Tohru Honda & Captain Shimakaze Zh'gero

1,536 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Fast & The Fleet
Timeline: Part 2 of 'Why You Don't Bring A Motorcycle To A Car Party'

Previously, on Star Trek: Myogi:

The rest of the course produced similar results; with the bike attempting to overtake Th'rollo, but he went just wide enough to make passing impossible. Th'rollo had done a good enough job to keep the bike behind him on the downhill portion. But now, the turnaround was coming up. This could be the bike's opportunity to pass if Th'rollo wasn't careful. As the two approached the turnaround, Th'rollo found himself pivoting around the cone a lot wider than he normally would. He cursed his missing the optimal line, as that would surely be something the bike would take advantage of:

Now she was getting frustrated with this goddamned car. Even on the straightaways he was denying her the chance to pass in as expert a manner as she'd seen in any of the races she'd watched in preparation for this. Of course, she'd expected someone on a motorcycle, but she got what she got. And this had continued all the way down to the long straightaway at the bottom, the ending of the downhill. Even here she was denied on three different attempts to pass, the last one being on the inside before she once again had to fall back.

But as she watched and waited for the turnaround, she noticed that maybe it hadn't been for naught. His normally crisp and clean line on the turn was going to take him wide, leaving the inside line open, but there was little to no time to adjust her own line of travel. She gunned her engine and clamped hard on the brake for the front wheel even as she turned in and allowed her back end to use the momentum to swing around, back wheel losing grip on the ground as her front locked in place. As her rear end swung past the 180 degree mark, she finally release the brake and skidded sideways for a handful of feet before the rear wheel once again caught the ground and she shot forward once more, now a good five feet in FRONT of the car in relative distance. She tucked herself in behind the windshield and jammed the throttle to full, shifting back up as her engine screamed and she began to gain some distance from the Andorian on the straightaway. The turns were coming back up again and she'd need every inch she could get.

And now, the continuation:

Sure enough, Th'rollo predicted correctly that the bike would capitalize upon his error and overtake at the turnaround. Th'rollo cursed his lapse in judgement, but he wasn't concerned initially, as he felt that if he drove his line as he had in the downhill portion, he would regain his lead.

However, as the corners rolled by, Th'rollo found something strangely annoying with the motorcycle: It was also taking Th'rollo's planned lines, and thus, he wasn't able to overtake cleanly. By the time they reached the halfway point, Th'rollo had begun weighing his options on how best he could overtake. He might not be able to get it cleanly, and his opponent would likely call him out on cheating, but if you weren't trying to cheat, you didn't want victory seriously enough.

After several failed overtaking experiments, finally, on a seemingly inconspicuous corner, Th'rollo's on the fly mental calculations finally produced him an optimal overtake scenario:

The bike will have to go wide on this corner if she were to take my usual line: Th'rollo thought. However, if I were to brake much earlier than usual and target the apex of the corner...

Th'rollo slammed on his brakes in preparation for the maneuver.

I can catch her on the switchback! Th'rollo though. Alright, Reno... It's time I show you why you shouldn't bring a motorcycle to a car party!

As Alisha slowed down to take Th'rollo's normal line, Th'rollo was already on the move, having set himself up for a switchback overtake. He turned hard towards the apex of the corner. The normal line would have brought Th'rollo's inside tires close to the apex. However, the way he was diving up the corner meant his outside tires were placed where his inside tires would normally be.

Alisha had swung wide for the dive into the turn and had even leaned the bike over for hundred-eighty degree turn when she found the space had an occupant already. Inner wheels on the dirt, she had to jerk her handlebars hard to the right and nearly lost all control of the motorcycle as it came upright and literally jumped off her tires. She didn’t know how she managed to land the bike and stay on the road without hitting the barrier, but as the car accelerated off without her, she was cursing all creatures blue. She dropped the gear and peeled a little rubber as she fought the fishtail to bring herself back up to speed. A hundred meters behind and she’d now have to play catch-up.

Two wheels are great when racing against one another, but put them up against four? Well, you're just asking to lose! Th'rollo thought. It was ancient knowledge to not let the automobile and the motorcycle share the same track, because the automobile was guaranteed to win!

Following the overtake, Th'rollo went back to following his usual racing line. In his mind, there was mathematically no possible way for the bike to regain the lead before the goal. But, in his Hubris, Th'rollo was about to be proven wrong:

On the final corner before the goal, Th'rollo had gotten comfortable, feeling that his victory was all but certain:

The goal is just up ahead: He thought. Alright; here comes win number 3 for the SpeedStars!

She had to take more risks now, more speed through the remaining turns and risking a complete wipeout just to get back on his rear end with three turns to go. There was no way she could go around on the outside, maybe a good CAR driver could manage an accelerated drift, but not a racing bike, just not enough grip. They rounded the third to last turn and time almost seemed to freeze. In an instant her eyes gauged the hillside for that second to last turn and Alisha had to take a gamble.

One thing the bike had was acceleration in reserve, just no straightaways to take advantage of and after the final turn, the line was a mere fifty meters away. She dropped another gear and the engine screamed as she didn’t even attempt to cut off the car, the bike took the incline on the turn and she again tucked herself behind the windshield as she accelerated around the turn while the gradient became steeper and she was fast coming up on the outside of the car without any way off the hillside. A small bump on the now sixty-degree slope gave her the opening she was looking for and she took it, wrenching back to use the bump like a launching ramp.

As her wheels left the ground and she began to rotate past the vertical upside down and began to fall, her engine revved and sputtered. Alisha held the clutch down to disengage the gear as the world went around her in slow motion plus faster than she could possibly have imagined. Ninety degrees to go and the ground… no, the CAR was beneath her, her hands changing gears to second, letting the engine settle down. Once again, Alisha was vertical and her rear tire impacted, then the front wheel and she engaged the gear even as she realized she’d landed on top of the SilEighty and the rear tire began to spin as the car came around the final turn. It caught and the Ninja shot off the hood like from a bullet, Reno shifting back into fourth, then fifth as her wheels hit the pavement once more with fifty meters to go.

What the hell?? Th'rollo thought as the bike flipped off the embankment and landed on his hood.

Th'rollo attempted to swerve to knock the bike off, but by the time he was preparing to execute the swerve, the bike was already accelerating off under its own power.

What just happened?? Th'rollo thought as the two vehicles crossed the finish line. The bike in the lead.

"Winner; Alisha Reno!" Tohru declared. "Score is tied two all!"

After flashing by the Commodore, Alisha weaved while gently grasping the brakes and then turned to drive up next to her opponent and took off her helmet, shaking her head to let it flow free, "And that, sir, is why you don't bring a car to a motorcycle race." There was no harm in being polite, "Good race, next time, perhaps it'd be different. She winked at the Andorian, "Time for that coffee?"

Posting by

Commodore Tohru Honda
Task Force Jomo Commanding Officer

Captain Shimakaze Zh'gero
Commanding Officer
USS Haruna

Lieutenant Clyde Th'rollo
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Haruna

Lieutenant Alisha Reno
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Myogi

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