I took the crappiest bike I have ever owned to Buttonwillow a while back.. It was also one of the wildest experiences at the track I have had.

My Kawasaki ex500 is a crappy bike from 1989 that I picked up for $900 on Craigslist to get me back and forth to work. Given that I don't really do much big-bike track-days at this point, I don't have a dedicated big race-bike, so I decided to take the 'ex' to Buttonwillow raceway on a lark.

Buttonwillow, for the uninformed is a race complex out in the central valley area of California, to the west of Bakersfield. This flat, arid region is home to plenty of dry grass, farmland and cattle farms in addition to one of the premier racetracks in Southern-California. Buttonwillow features some of the best designed track you're likely to find. In addition to ample straightway there is plenty for the corner minded to like. It's a great mix of technical and fast and in other words, a track the ex500 could either excel or, more likely, fail at.

Now, given that this was an already 'bargain' style bike and also given that it is from 1989 the engine and suspension technology is not what you would call 'top-tier'. Indeed, every bit of an ex500 is as far away as you can get from that spectrum of the motorcycle world. The brakes are soft and pull somewhat like you would expect for a single disc setup. The rear brake is not one to bother with on the track since it is an old style drum, with the rear disc not being introduced until the 90's models. For the suspension on the bike it has tiny 26mm front forks with absolutely the squishiest compliance from them you could hope for. Under heavy braking (which is using the term loosely), the forks come close to bottoming out. Further on the suspension, rather than 'soak' up road/pavement it more glides the front wheel over bumps and if you're lucky actually makes it back to the pavement by the next bump. With a series of surface irregularities it quickly goes from 'gliding' to simply floating the front wheel in front of you, as though moved against gravity and physics in general. The dark magics at play when this happens lead to a feeling of unease when on the track. Other bikes I have ridden before contained a piss-poor suspension setup, but they were positively beautiful compared to what the ex500 can do.

Further still the ergonomics and handling of the bike itself beyond the suspension and braking are such that the bike seems to actively work against what you want it to do. Looking to push it into a corner? No thanks the bike says and struggles against you. To get it through a turn requires a bit of wrangling and gumption. Every piece of the bike seems to actively resist how you would like it to actually behave. Combined together, the ex500 is by far the poorest motorcycle I have ever ridden at the track and in general far outstrips a bike such as the sv650 in this regard. That some of these motorcycles are actively raced amazes one to no end.

That said, the ex500 was by far one of the funniest riding experiences at the track you could possibly have. Once the 'Holy crap is this bike going to actually stop? Wow, am I actually going to be able to make it through this turn with the suspension bouncing like a two-year-old after drinking a Slurpee?' Incredibly enough, the answer for the day seemed to be yes!

In the B group there was an even mix of GSXR 600's, CBR600's and a few R6 bikes as well. Several of the riders were going truly well and pulling paces that should have moved up to the A group with race style paces. A few others were going well enough and managed some decent lap times. It was those that the ex500 would stalk. Given that the GSXR's have more than twice the literal horsepower of the 'noble' ex500 the straights on the track were a foregone conclusion. The ex500 nearly always stayed in top gears to make it around the track, while the GSXR's were likely zooming past on the straights in 3rd gear or so. Given this it was the corners where the little Kawasaki needed to shine. Once the entire idea of the bike barely making braking points and the entire chassis fighting against actually making a decent turn, was put out of mind, things became something incredible.

Within the first or second corners on Buttonwillow off of the long straightway, the overpowered GSXR's were reeled in quickly. Through the highside corner, or one of the more harrowing turns on the track suddenly the ex500 was nipping at the rear wheels of the same GSXR's that passed at about twice the speed coming out of the straight. What was this? How could it be? Even given that I, the rider, was extremely skittish still throughout the day, the bike was managing to tug at the GSXR's tails. It railed through sunrise corner and riverside, while the GSXR's passed at an even faster pace.... and were then quickly pulled back in at the AMA corner. More incredibly still, many of the B group riders were able to be out-braked by the crummy binders on the Little Kawi That Could.

At the end of the day, while no lap records had been broken on the ex500, neither a budget or leg were, either. It was a cheap way to make it around the track and all in all I can most safely say.................... it was the first and last time the ex500 will ever see the track.