The first time I ever heard about chicken strips was when some guy at work asked me if I was a roundabout demon. I had no idea what he was on about, so he then says 'you've hardly got any chicken strips'...nope..still not a foggy.
Turns out he was an ex-racer who had crashed badly (which explained why he had a standup computer setup - he literally couldn't sit down). Anyhoo, when I went and looked I had about 5mm of unused bits on the side of my tires so it finally twigged.
Next thing I know I'm booking a session at snetterton, getting the exhaust and the side of my boot down. After that there was just these little rubber balls on the edge of the tyres and a foc off big grin on my face.
The fazer6 couldn't hack it on the straights with the other bikes, but I was going round the outside of them on the bends, that bike handles so sweetly for a street bike and the brakes really inspire confidence. 80mph round the bomb hole, hard on the brakes and through the chicane, only to have all the thou's blast past me and the R6's and GSXr6 and 750's would get past me up to the next bend, then I'd be round the outside of them and out of the corner before they were.
I know we were told it wasn't a race, but man there were some red faced 600 sports bike riders that day. Weird thing was, when I was fully leant over and had my head about 6 inches from the chain and rear tyre of the bike I was passing it felt like I was at perfect peace. Every little detail was clear and it seemed everything was moving in slow motion - fantastic feeling. Would love to have been a racer I think, but my parents were so set against bikes I didn't end up getting one until I was 30.