PIGS DO FLY!
Having built and raced a Yamaha TZR 250 last year I was full of it… desperate to get a full season under my belt within the Yamaha Past Masters series. Alas it was not to be, the TZR had to go back to its rightful owner and replacing it with something half decent was all of £3,000. Not happening.
Enter my good friend and industry man Gary Hartshorne. I had taken him with me on the TZR gig where he earned himself a pot at Snetterton for his efforts on the Renta-Racer TZR. We both had our first race experience, were both hooked on racing from the off but also both financially embarrassed in the racing fund department. But then Gary turned up with this CB500 to the Fast Bikes Trackday at Cadwell in July, beamed from ear to ear from session to session, ignored the ZX-10s, Blades and R1Ms we had on hand for him to ride and would not shut up about the joys of riding his Pig (CB500s are referred to as ‘Pigs’).
He wouldn’t stop going on about the CB500 in the following months either, adding: “You towers – I leave that to Boothy. Thus after a couple of drunken conversations and more waxing lyrical of the joys of the Pig from Gaz I finally caved in. “I might get one to give it a try,” was all it took. Within 30 minutes Gary had found me a race-prepped pig with a set of spare wheels for £1,700. The deal was done.
