My heart was thumping, the blood ticking in my ears inside my helmet. Six years – a lifetime during which I got pregnant, had two sons, changed jobs and got divorced – since I had been on a motorbike. And now, here I was, at Silverstone, screwing my nerves to the sticking point and getting back on a bike.
I have been itching to ride a bike again. My boyfriend rides, and we keep looking at American road trips. If there was any brand I was going to trust in two-wheeled form, it’s Honda, a brand known for its engineering excellence and reliability. The sheer quality of the product swayed me. I had tried out the enormous panoply of mobility options Honda now offers to the public – cars, lawn mowers (the ride-ons run incredibly smoothly and are easy to operate with a good turning circle), and ATVs (all-terrain vehicles – again, the engineering quality of these machines exceeds expectations on the move – we took them over huge logs, through bogs and round tree stumps and they didn’t flinch) and now I’d arrived at the bikes and scooters.
A lovely Scottish man called Bob wheeled out an absolute monster of a machine – clearly a sports performance bike with bright livery, full fairing and low handlebars, completely beyond my capabilities. I always dreamed of riding high-powered bikes like this but, I explained, I hadn’t ridden in six years and should take out something puny. Bob smiled – the bike he had pulled out was the CBR500R, with just 47bhp, perfect for inexperienced or rusty riders like me.
I couldn’t believe something that looked so good, so immensely sexy and powerful, actually had a power output, and a low-enough saddle, for me to ride it.
I still didn’t quite believe it when I sat astride the thing, pulled in the clutch, kicked the lever into first gear, twisted the throttle and slowly, tentatively, let the clutch out. Miracle of miracles, the bike simply, gently, led me off and out onto the perimeter road. It felt – and there’s genuinely no other word – wonderful. Utterly stable at low speeds, with a predictable throttle response and friendly brakes, I whirred and whirred round the circuit then out onto the roads.
All too soon, my little slice of liberty in the sunshine, was over. I was so grateful to the CBR500R, I stroked its warm flank when I got off and hugged Bob. Next stop USA for our road trip!
