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Apologies for continuing this thread, but for those of you on the eastern shore of the big puddle, there's an interesting article in the NYTimes regarding large American autos.  It's really a hoot.  http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/30/automobiles/30DEMO.html  It'll only be in their free archives for another couple of days.  Be nice if someone could mirror a copy somewhere.

To Pippa K My dear of course the Yanks drive super tanker size cars petrol there is not nearly £4.00 per gal like here.Blimey what they going to do when the petrol runs out live in them.They are bigger than most British houses. I stick with my peddle car a Perouda Nippa 850 cc 50 mpg easy to drive cheap to run but I do like Sams bike s sound like they are ace. Volvos are death to bikes pushbike anyone would is not in a volvo. To Sam keep up the story they are good and different

I'm sorry that one or two of the commentators did not understand the idea behind this story. I wrote this story as a pur fantasy. The character is indeed based on myself. I own & ride a number of motorcycles and use one piece leathers when i'm out on one of the bikes.
I have ridden accross the USA on a bike so I realise that the concept of riding in the Nothern Scottich Landscape is pretty alien to most of the readers of the story. There is a fantastic adrenaline rush when you ride at speed down winding roads with stone walls just a few feet from your head. This rush of endorphines is what brings thousands to the Isle Of Man TT every year.
As far as the ending goes, Pippa has got it right on the nail Volvo 240's are TANKS. A lot of them used to be owned by retired persons and driven slowly and sometimes quite erraticly. The ending does come from a real incident when in 1971, I saw my riding mate John D die when he piled into such a vehicle after it pulled out right in front of him. The driver was a registered blind person. I was lucky and escaped with two broken legs and a cracked kneecap.
As they say, a lot of writing is autobigraphical. This short story most certainly is. Now I'm off for a blast on the 1969 Rocket-3.
Samantha.

Just to help out Jane Hudson (comment below) with her explanation to Yanks about the Volvo 240:
The Volvo 240 occupies a very different market niche in Britain than it does in America.  In America, it's smaller than the domestic "full-sized" car, with a crisper, more-responsive handling and better brakes.  It occupies what you might think of as a "responsible adult" niche -- not high-luxury, not over-powered, not too big.  In Britain, however, the car is one of the largest passenger cars on the road, and seems to be sought out by older, affluent drivers, much as the full-sized Cadillacs in the America of the '80s, complete with all the "arrogant" baggage.  Today, in America, that full-sized Cadillac sedan or coupe is now dwarfed by the current crop of truck-frame-based SUVs, which top out over 4 tons.  To keep their demographics, Cadillac has their own 7000 lb. SUV now, with a 6-liter V-8 engine of course.  
But, back to this story for a second, what is the bike rider doing going down a country lane with limited visibility at a speed faster than he can see to stop?  While Jane is having fun cursing out the Volvo, it could have been anything, a piece of farm machinery, or an animal.  I've spent my own time waiting for sheep and cows to be cleared off of English country roads.  Actually, that would have been more ironic, our biker in the fur-lined leather catsuit losing it in a herd of cows.  Revenge of the bovines.

Lame

Ah the Volvo 240 a car which  is to bikes what tigers where to Shermans bloody total death. Good little story nice bikes too. But I bet the yanks wont get it, the bit about volvos 240 s they have not had the 80 plus I BEEN DRIVING 40 YEAR NEVER HAD AN ACCIDENT SEEN 1000 THROUGH DRIVER ,who almost blind deaf and lost. Most deadly than an ICBM ON Moscow. Liked  the story its different

I can understand an author not wanting to get too attached to a character, but really!  Splatt??  We barely knew ye'.  Actually, we didn't know you at all, which is a problem.  Makes it impossible to care in the end, leaving us with little more than a short cartoon with a Merrie Melodies ending.