After doing 2000 miles in three-and-a-bit days I finally I rolled back up at home after completing the Longest Day Challenge, a journey from Land’s End to John O’Groats in a day, without touching motorways (the full story is in part 2, June 23 issue).
Doing that many miles in such a short time meant I’d become almost immune to the noise my otherwise perfectly running 1992 CBR600F-N was now making, but taking a moment to listen to it on the drive with no earplugs and helmet on proved JUST HOW BLOODY LOUD IT WAS NOW!
Revving it at a standstill was an assault on the ears, in complete contrast to the whisper-quiet bike with a standard exhaust that had left the same drive less than a hundred hours before.
It was around halfway up the country on the ride to John O’Groats when the problem initially squeezed its way past my earplugs and into the anxiety centre of myterminal, but it wasn’t – it was just one of the exhaust gaskets destroying itself behind a loose header flange plate. It had started as a mild blow but had become worse every mile of the journey there and back. Right now it was deafening.
