Honda CX500
Please note... NO L plate! Well... it was important back then.
26th July 1978. Peterborough, Cambridgeshire - Meteorology: Raining!
Now the excitement was showing, or was it fear? My motorcycle test day had arrived, and the weather was proving to be the example of what was to come in my motorcycling career.
Now in the olden days, the test comprising one examiner strolling around a predetermined route, which YOU had to memorise on the day. Attempting to navigate your way around while expecting at any moment, a stern-looking person with a clipboard, to jump out at you to check if you were complying with the test criteria.
I think I only saw the examiner maybe twice, but they can be pretty stealthy, those guys and guyesses, hiding behind fences and post boxes. So as the test was well into its twentieth minute and the rain was now sliding over my Belstaff jacket and depositing itself on to my jeans, I was wishing for an end and success.
Passing between a line of parked cars, it happened! The emergency stop ! This test manoeuvre, believe it or not, involved the examiner stepping out into the road with their hand or clipboard in the air, shouting STOP! And trust my luck to get an overly enthusiastic one.
He leapt from between the parked cars with his foot stretched out! With a handful of front brake and my right foot discovering, for the first time, how far my rear brake pedal would actually go. I slid towards him, both wheels locked up and controlling the bike only with my backside, trying to grip the seat. My last resting place? Was two inches… yes! Two inches from his foot, which he had not seen fit to withdraw from this rather suicidal act. Stopped and water dripping down a foggy helmet visor, I looked down, praying there was no crushed leather or the waft of air associated with an attacking clipboard.
“Well done! You controlled that really well given the conditions,” said the examiner. “Now you can return to the test centre”. I took this as a (possible) pass result and rode a little more confidently on my return to the DVSA offices.
PASSED!
Now, since my baptism by fire during the motorcycle test, I have learned that progressive braking in the wet and equally applied pressure to both front and rear brakes might have been the more experienced riders approach. But, Hey! I had plenty of time to mess about with the brakes in the future, with various results and angles of approach to my intended direction.
Now this rather long intro brings me to my second motorcycle, the sleepy Honda CX500. Now why sleepy? You may ask. Well, I cannot remember much about it, not because of ageing memory loss, but that it just did what it did. Transport me.
I was fortunate enough to purchase the CX new, well with the help of a loan, and this time just my signature. I was now legally able to get myself into financial hock on my own accord and the Honda motorcycle dealer in Huntingdon was only too obliging to assist in this process!
At, the time, the CX was state-of-the art. Water cooled V twin (for the life of me I still could not see why an across the frame V twin needed water to cool it) as the Guzzi of the day were proving. Shaft drive… love shaft drive! And a seat that had actual padding built in, although it looked like you were sitting on a footstool from your lounge at home.
My mate Steve had taken a novel approach to shaft driven motorcycling with a Moto Guzzi V50. He was a short ass (sorry Steve), so the reach to the floor from the V50 suited his frame perfectly. I took it out for a brief spin once and felt as if it had transported me to Noddies toy town! And my knees did not enjoy the proximity to the cylinder heads. Hot!! But the bike looked cool, and I loved the whole character of that bike. One day… one day I must get myself a Guzzi.
You see…. There! My point entirely, I’ve completely left the CX behind in writing this short reminisce. But all was not lost for the inconspicuous CX. A few years later I got another one!
More info. available from those good old guys and gals at Motorcycle Classics
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