My brother-in-law paid back a big favour (of my introducing him to my sister) by selling me his pristine ‘88 CBR1000 for a paltry £2500 (or my entire life savings). I immediately got togged up in my ancient leathers and sped for the nearby motorway. 140mph came up with impressive ease, the plot felt as stable as my last bike at half that speed (a GT550) and only when there was 160mph on the clock did a slight weave spoil an otherwise exemplary poise. Well, the bike had only done 3800 miles in the last two years from new so it was only just fully bedded in and hadn’t had much of a chance to ruin its suspension.
The next week various bits of essential camping gear were bungeed on to what little space was available, ready to join a collection of mad mates on a FJ1200, Z1R and VFR750. Much to my amusement the CBR had the legs on them down anything resembling a straight and only the VFR could better it in the corners. I couldn’t actually overtake the Z1R as its owner rode beyond the limits of the chassis, popping about all over the road. The FJ1200 had a tendency to run out of ground clearance and frighten the life out of oncoming traffic by running wide. Whatever, despite my slight acquaintance with the CBR I was able to keep up with ease.
I found the Honda ran smoothly down to 2000rpm in top gear but needed at least 4k up to produce decent acceleration. On such a big bruiser I was surprised at the need to slap down a gear or two when overtaking at, say, 40mph. In top gear runs it could hardly keep up with the VFR let alone the grunt happy FJ and even the Z1R could show it a clean pair of heels up to 80mph when the Honda began to growl, becoming really gut churning with a ton on the speedo.
Our progress up the M1 was mega rapid and nothing came close to overtaking us. As we had left London at 5am we had a clear run for an hour or so and covered over a 100 miles. By 8 o'clock we had descended upon some friends in Leeds who had agreed to provide breakfast and then join us on their brace of hot rod YPVSs. To give them a chance it was the back roads all the way to Glasgow. The CBR wasn’t a bad scratcher, I just dumped her in third or fourth and used the throttle to control the hair raising acceleration. The times she got seriously out of line the hugely powerful disc brakes were effective in pulling me out of trouble. The CBR was certainly a heavy beast to chuck through the tighter curves but a short ride on the Z1R convinced me I had nothing to complain about - just had to change my underpants.
Darkness fell fast after a liquid tea in Glasgow and we didn't make it to Oban, where we had planned to camp. It had been a hell of day, fast, crazy riding that proved the CBR was well on the pace. We ran off the road and used the lights to quickly erect our tents. We had picked up several bottles of finest Scotch whisky and soon settled down for the night.
The next morning we had gone two miles down the road when one of the RD's frames cracked in half. I was third into the mass pile up and escaped with a few bruises. We had to rush off and find an ambulance for the RD owner and pick up various broken Yamaha bits.
Most of the bikes were still rideable. The rest of the day was spent hanging around the local hospital waiting for the verdict he would survive but probably wouldn’t walk without a limp. The journey back home was a sober affair after that. The cracked GRP gradually became worse until the lower fairing started to drag along the ground on the M1. Thank god for bungee cords.
The cost of a new set of fairing panels was prohibitive so the fairing was patched with GRP and resprayed using aerosols. The finish looked good from about 50 yards but up close it was a bit of a mess. I also noticed that the exhaust was merrily rusting away, but decided that could be ignored until it started to leak.
In the first month I managed over 2000 miles and was having the time of my life. It was then I realised a new set of Metz's were in order and the chain had run out of adjustment. I was quoted between £160 and £240! A friendly bank manager advanced me a grand just like that, which took care of the consumables for the next six months. Running out of money nicely coincided with 14500 miles on the clock and the camchain dying a death.
Admittedly, the bike hadn’t been near a dealer for a service and had lost its original sublime edge, but the tensioner was supposed to be automatic. £220 down to the local Honda dealer sorted that and included a full service. With 18000 miles up the bike needed its third set of pads out front and a new set of discs as the originals had worn paper thin. A set were liberated from a breaker for fifty notes, which included a couple of sets of pads in the deal, not bad value as new pads cost nearly £40 for a complete set!
I rode the CBR through the winter but my mileage was halved to just over a grand a month. I had to take it easy over the icy roads because I had found that although generally stable once the hulk lost a wheel it was difficult to get it back. Still, it couldn't have been too bad as I never came off. The same could be said for all the grime that the bike collected. When I scraped it off in the spring huge chunks of paint came away, things like wheels, exhaust and forks were waell corroded... the bike looked twice, triple its age.
That didn’t stop me enjoying myself immensely as the sun came back to warm our gentle isle. The fact that two thirds of my salary was disappearing in fuel, consumable and loan bills appeared a minor matter at the time. All my mates had big bikes by then so I couldn’t let the side down and the best way of celebrating our 25th year seemed to be get as many miles in as possible while we were still able to.
With 29000 miles on the clock the camchain went again and the odd puff of blue smoke had started pouring out of the engine. The cam lobes were knackered as well as the camchain and tensioner - I knew I should have changed the oil and filter more often! The breaker came to the rescue this time and I did the job myself with the aid of a workshop manual and some knowledgeable mates - mind you, it'd have been better to get drunk after the work was finished not as we went along.
I took the opportunity to punch a few holes in the air filter (it came with the bike and was full of black gunge) and shake what was left of the baffles out of the exhaust. The CBR developed a glorious intake roar and splendid full bore exhaust note just ticking over. Okay, it lost 10mph on top speed but there you go, at least the average fuel consumption increased from 42 to 45mpg, down, no doubt, to the leaner engine.
I had one very near high speed motorway accident when a speeding coach went across three lanes of traffic just to stop me hurtling past at 130mph... I scraped my boots along the side of the crash barrier and the Honda went into a nasty tank slapper in the wake of coach’s airstream but we survived to tell the tale. The bike had 41500 miles on the clock by then and was running better than ever, having been treated to a 4-1 and a jet kit 170mph had been put on the clock for an instant before the waltzing bars persuaded me it was a good idea to back off.
The rear shock was still original but on the way out, as were all the bearings in the mono-shock and the front forks had become a bit sloppy - but the Honda still maintained a remarkable stability up to 110mph. Only when the Metz’s were down to 3mm did the chassis become twitchy over white lines and the like.
The Honda is eating up ever increasing amounts of money as my mileage has started increasing, I was soon past the 3000 miles a month mark, most of it pure balls out pleasure riding. I have become a high speed drug addict and with two similarly afflicted mates am speeding around the country ever opportunity I have. I just looked out of the window, spied the sun glinting off the GRP and...
Dean Callaghan