Trevor McCartney takes a pride in the reading on the speedo of his 11-year-old Honda 500 single - 105,000 miles.
It¹s not the first time he has broken the 100,000 mark. His previous bike, a Honda 400/4 clocked up 140,000 miles before being stolen at a road race in the Republic of Ireland.
Trevor, from Belfast, has strong and interesting views on biking. He¹s also good technically and has an encyclopedic knowledge of Europe's roads.
To give one example of his technical skill, when Honda announced its first V-four machine, the fore-runner of the present VFR750, an exploded drawing of the engine was published in MCN. Trevor rang me and asked if I'd spotted anything unusual. When I said no, he said there would be cam trouble because there was insufficient oil supply. He couldn¹t believe Honda had got it so wrong. I told one dealer and was laughed out of court. Trevor, as we now know, got it right and Honda got it wrong.
Back to his present bike, the Honda XBR500. His stolen bike was taken just before his summer holidays in 1988 so he wanted a machine that was already run in. it also had to accept a Rickman fairing. He bought the two-year-old XBR, with 3,000 miles on the clock, for £1,550. He has ridden it every opportunity summer and winter.
Trevor prefers a lightweight machine, seldom carries a passenger, and says of its 40bhp: It is sufficient, it will cruise in the 80s and I¹m old enough to remember when riders won races on similar power machines. I believe when you're on a bike you should be in complete control of it and not have the bike in control of you. It¹s one area of your life when you're in charge.
He's had one major piece of trouble - at 60,000 miles the camshaft went. One reason he likes the bike is because it's not too difficult to work on. For example, just one bolt has to be removed to take off the tank.
Apart from routine maintenance, his only other outgoings have been a new exhaust system and a battery - not bad for 100,000 miles.
He gave me a quick spin and I found the bike handled okay. Obviously the engine is not as fresh as a low mileage machine but it proves you don¹t need the latest and fastest to enjoy biking.