Wednesday 10 April 2019

Messin' with the Boys


More years ago than I like to admit a few friends and myself were over on the Isle of Man for the motorcycle racing.


Sitting on Douglas prom one afternoon chilling out and having an ice-cream we slowly became aware of the noise of an approaching engine. 

It was loud, it reverberated off the buildings in a nicely satisfying way, and was obviously coming from a set of open pipes.

We eagerly awaited sight of the bike and rider, assuming something like a big Norton or Triumph twin. It was that sort of noise.

Imagine our bewilderment when around the corner rode a teenager on a small CG125.

Not the actual bike, obviously
The noise we had heard was a result of completely removing the silencer, replacing it with a small turned out chrome end-piece more suited to a boy-racer's XR3i, and his having to rev the bollocks of the bike just to keep it moving.

We looked at each other and just burst out laughing. We couldn't help ourselves. It was so ridiculous, and the young lad looked so pleased with himself mixing it with the 'proper' bikers. We all waved and gave him a thumbs-up.

He waved back and rode away with one of the biggest grins I've ever seen.