Hi,
I agree with Barry today's speed limits, on the motorway at least, are purely punitive. In Germany there are some minimum speeds you must keep to on their autobahn with very few upper speed limits.
The 70 mph speed limit on the motorway was indeed brought in to reduce fuel consumption under the guise of health & safety. Since then cars and bikes have been so upgraded on the safety side of things, ABS, power steering, etc.etc with tyres and brakes in particular so far advanced since the early days of the motorway. Ride, drive to the road and weather conditions and you won't go far wrong.
As for why you would want to ride at 100 mph guess it's the thrill element which without it you wouldn't have fairgrounds, Alton Park etc. I will admit though as I said on an early post when common sense has to take over. That in my case was when I almost lost it on my Gixer doing 140 on an empty stretch of dual carriageway....I was 65 then and my poor old ar*e twitched like mad and the bike was sold pretty soon after albeit very reluctantly. It was in true Rizla/Crescent racing colours, a bike I really loved and a bike so well balanced that when I did hit the grass verge on that bit of dual carriageway it was the bike that righted itself rather than the skills of a doddery 65 year old.
Going back to the "why" question where would mankind be if we never had the risk factor built into us? Seas never crossed, mountains never climbed, it would be a poor old life without that bit of adventure that lies within us all which of course leads me to say.....
Life is for living,
Barry (alias Barrington )