Whilst watching the Knockhill round of the British Superbike Championship a few weeks ago, I was reminded of a very busy weekend there, almost fifteen years ago. It was back in the day when I was racing an old CBR600RR in the British Superstock 600 Championship. It was an unusually sunny weekend (for Knockers), but rather than let my team enjoy the sun, I sent them on the wildest of wild goose chases, in search of a noise that I was convinced my bike was making. They weren?t happy when we discovered the culprit.

I first heard the mysterious sound when braking hard into the hairpin during the first qualifying session. But it wasn?t a typical squeaky break noise. It was more of a groaning sound. I remember likening it at the time to the sound of someone dragging a fridge across a rough concrete drive. And the harder I braked, the louder it got.
I?d done a good half season on the bike already and I?d never heard this particular sound before. We were flummoxed. We couldn?t see anything wrong with the brakes, or anything that might have caused the noise, but the team changed the discs and pads as a precaution and sent me back out for Q2.

And it didn?t make the slightest bit of difference. I needed to get a good time in, so I tried not to think about it and just got my head down, but I?d be lying if I said it wasn?t a distraction. I rode for the best part of the session but came in early to give the lads time to see if they could find the issue.

We stripped the wh...