The CB500 finally makes it onto a track
The weather did not bode well... after weeks of dry weather (so much so that several bushes in my garden dried like a crisp) May decided to buck the trend and served up some windy and moist stuff falling from the sky.
Things can only get better
To compound my anxiety, I noted my licence was due to expire which prompted some very speedy online renewing, things were not going the way I had hoped but despite that, in biblical rain we got the bikes loaded into a van the night before and crossed our fingers and toes for a break in the weather.
Yawn...
5am was a grim time to be setting off for the track, but my neighbour likes to be prompt and he was driving so I could slowly come to in the van. The roads were wet and it was very windy. We arrived a full 30mins before they even open the gates, so early that they hadn't actually closed them - so we managed to get in and snaffle a garage before most people had even flopped out of bed.
Slowly the garage began to fill, the poor little CB was looking out of sorts compared to the sportsbikes on display. Not to be deterred though we went and registered and got our stickers to put on the bike. The next challenge was passing the noise tests.
Bedford is a really strict track when it comes to sound levels. You need to do a static test and pass that and then there are sound monitors on track that if you trigger see you getting black flagged.
My exhaust was right on the limit at just over 101DB... eek! Thankfully the guy testing it let me through and advised that I short shifted when passing the track monitor. Finally all the hurdles were complete and we could think about preparing for the first session.
It was still pretty wet on track and the wind was fierce, but as long as I got wheels on the track it would be mission complete.
With a nod from the sound tests I was free to play - after the obligatory 2 sighting laps it was time to get stuck in!
