I have been to many oldskoolsuzuki social events where an assortment of fine OSS machinery sits in the pub car park for the weekend while the owners exchange stories at the bar. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, I like the bar as much as the next guy but I have to say, there is no substitute for seeing these machines in action. For this reason we announced early in the year that all future OSS real world meetings would centre around bike centric events.
To coincide with the anniversary of the relaunched site we arranged for a weekend meeting as part of Practical Sportsbike magazine’s track day run by Classic Trackdays at Cadwell Park.We are grateful to John Oliver (YJ) for organising a block booking discount for OSS members for both the Saturday and Sunday sessions.
The weekend began on the Friday as “Camp OSS” gradually started to populate with vans tents and an array of fine looking OSS machinery. Not everyone had come to take part in the track day and many members had simply come along to spectate and enjoy the weekend. Members had come from from all over the UK and there were also 3 members from the Netherlands.
Early on the Friday evening the organisers announced that scrutineering would be open for a couple of hours to get bikes checked ahead of the Saturday sessions. For most of us this meant just one thing ” will my bike pass the noise test?” So we took our place in the queue and crossed our fingers. News passed down the line that bikes were failing and the tension built. The static test limit was 105 db at 3/4 revs. When it came to my turn the tester cut me some slack when the reading came back at 105.3 at 5000rpm. His exact words were ” you couldn’t get any F#@*ing closer if you tried mate, on you go”.
Not everyone was as fortunate and JB and YJ both failed leaving the rest of the evening for a bit of hasty end can repacking. Every time someone returned form the scrutineer a chorus of “what did it read then?” could be heard. We all winced when JB answered 119db. His Kerker end can on his slabby used half of someone’s loft to get it through but it did pass. YJ had to make several attempts before he was given the “noise test passed” sticker.
After the bikes got put to bed we relaxed with a beer and a BBQ courtesy of Dangerous Dave. To my amazement he had actually made up a special OSS fire brand that he was using to brand the burgers and anyone not wearing a BBQ wristband. Top marks Dave!
The fine weather we had enjoyed on the Friday night didn’t hold up and we awoke to a very damp Saturday morning. We knew the first track session was going to be wet but we were reliably informed that the weather was going to improve over the course of the day.
Despite a damp start and a very wet first session on the track the day’s weather gradually improved and made way to hot dry tarmac and broad smiles. OSS were well represented on the track with 3 of the last 12 BOTM winners scratching round Cadwell’s technical twists and turns.
A massive thank you to all of the OSS spectators who diligently watched every session, cheered each time we passed and pitched in to help with repairs and adjustments in between sessions. Special thanks go to Gary Hegg for some excellent photography throughout the weekend.
On saturday night after another stunning BBQ by Dangerous Dave we hit the Cadwell Park Bar and enjoyed some live music and draft beer. Almost everyone behaved themselves.
On the Sunday Practical Sportsbikes announced their favourite bikes of the weekend and what do you know? Two of them were OSS members’ bikes! Congratulations to Steve (RSVfletch) and Steve (370steve) for their awards. Very well deserved chaps.
So all in all an excellent weekend that ticked all of the boxes. Catching up with friends, making new friends and all centred around OSS bikes doing what they do so well. Roll on Donington…
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