Fast_Bikes__Issue_328__July_2017_

TRACK DAY 

ESSENTIAL TIPS 

GUIDE FORATOP RIDE 

TEAM BRITISHTALENT 

YOUR GATEWAYTOGPSTARDOM 

JULY 2017 ISSUE328 

RULING 

THE ROADS 

B-ROAD BULLETS 

SCRAP IT OUT 

BMW 

S1000RR 

SUZUKI 

GSX-R1000RR 

APRILIA 

RSV4 RF 

KAWASAKI 

ZX-10RR 

PLUS: 

BAHRAIN SUPERBIKE RACE 

USED HONDA SP2 BUYER’S GUIDE 

DO QUICKSHIFTERS DAMAGE GEARS? 

SPORTS-TOURER SHOOTOUT 

TT SPECIAL: 

McPINT: WHAT NOW? DEAN HARRISON DIY TT SUPERBIKE 

TT legend horror crash aftermath “Guy’s gone beyond racing…” Building GaryJohnson’s racer

ISSUE 328 JULY 2017 

IT’S THE NEWS 

Upfront............................................ 10 

New bikes,new books,new news! 

GEARED UP 

Products.......................................... 14 

All the best gear if you’ve no idea! 

GET ITFIRST 

Subscribe ..........................................8 

Do you enjoy spending more than you need 

to,orsearching high and low for acopy of 

Fast Bikes?Thought not. Save yourself the 

grief and subscribe today! 

THE KNOWLEDGE 

Bull Busters.....................................78 

Bustin the bull about gearboxes this month! 

Tech Talk ....................................... 112 

Know your exhausts folks –all about ’em! 

MASTERCLASS 

Riding ..............................................86 

Got back ache? Find out why here! 

Oils ..................................................88 

Oil’s not boring, not when we’re talking GPs! 

Legal................................................91 

What happens if the cops catch you hoisting 

aminger? 

18 

FOUR OF THE BEST SCRAP 

IT OUT ON THE STREETS 

LAUNCHES 

Avon Spirit ST ................................32 

Beej heads out to Portugal to try Avon’s 

latest mid-range,do-it-all hoop! 

TESTS 

70 

BAHRAIN SBK – WE SEND CARL 

OFF TO DO BATTLE IN THE EAST! 

YOUR LIFE ON BIKES 

Chatter ............................................92 

The best readers in the world speak! 

Ruling The Roads ............................ 18 

BMW S1000 RR, Aprilia RSV4 RF,Suzuki 

GSX-R1000 R&Kawasaki ZX-10RR fight it out 

for supremacy on ‘er Maj’s highways! 

OUR LIFE ONBIKES 

Project Bikes...................................95 

Charles’ TZR and Bruce’s Moto3 latest! 

Staff Bikes..................................... 101 

The fleet, it grows! 

• BMW S1000 R 

• KTM Super Duke R 

• Triumph STR RS 

• Honda Fireblade SP 

• Aprilia RSV4 RF 

• Kawasaki ZX-10R 

Toured Stupid .................................34 

Ducati SuperSport S, KTM Super Duke GT 

and Kawasaki’s Z1000 SX make their cases 

for your dollar! 

FEATURES 

McPint Magic ..................................52 

Who better to learn the TT from than JMG?! 

ChezTTRacer ................................ 58 

Gaz Johnson builds his TT bikes at home! 

RACE SECTION 

Pit Pass.......................................... 114 

All the news and views from racing! 

Race Feature................................. 118 

John McPhee &his British Talent Team! 

COLUMNISTS 

Gary Johnson ................................ 128 

Is Gaz ready for the TT yet? 

Chaz Davies .................................. 129 

Chaz raps Rea –naughty Jonny! 

Steve Parrish................................. 130 

Old Stavros goes back racing... briefly. 

BUY 

GEAR 

FASTBIKESMAG.COM 

64 

ASTUNNING TWO-STROKE PRODDY RACING 

HONDA RS250 IN ADDICTION THIS MONTH! 

See page 8 

for the best deals 

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4 JULY 2017 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM

WELCOME 

It’s TTtime! 

Anstey? Dunlop? Hutchinson? Who’s 

your TT money on? What about our very 

own Gary Johnson? I’m not abetting 

man, but I’d say the bookies will have their work 

cut out trying to figure who’s going to be favourite 

for this year’s road racing extravaganza… where’s 

that Mystic Meg when you need her? By the time 

you’re reading this, practice week will just be 

kicking off.Hopefully you’ll be over there and 

having the time of your life,watching the most 

adrenaline fuelled racing known to motorsport. 

If you’ve never been, you need to get this on 

your bucket list, pronto,before some bloody 

do-gooder sees it stopped. It’s bonkers,yet 

brilliant, which is why we’ve gone all out to get a 

decent amount of TT content into this issue.As 

well as popping over to Gary Johnson’s towatch 

him slave away building his GSX-R1000R superbike,we’ve 

also been nattering to fellow TT winner 

Dean Harrison, who’s proven to be on top form 

pre-season. And then there’s McGuinness.The 

legend took our road tester,and last year’s fastest 

TT Newcomer,Boothy for alap of the Island to 

help him find even more pace.That was before 

John’s horror smash at the NW200, which has 

ruled him out of this year’s main event. Fix up 

soon, big lad. 

It’s fair to say that the TT influences alot of 

motorcyclists, including us at Fast Bikes.In 

homage,wehit the roads afew days back to pitch 

some of the greatest new litre bikes against some 

of Britain’s fastest B-roads.What alaugh that was, 

even if Idid end up catching crabs in the process; 

the things we do for work, eh! It was particularly 

interesting to get aspin around on Suzuki’s new 

GSX-R1000R, and you can see what Fagan made 

of it when you flick through these pages. 

And the tests don’t stop there. Some of the boys 

have been out putting sports-tourers through their 

paces.They had aright good craic on road and 

track, even if they ended up wetter than aduck’s 

backside.Yep,we’ve been smashing the miles 

this month, and we hope you have too.Idid a 

500-miler on my Blade SP last week. What an 

epic ride that was.It’s one of the new arrivals in 

our termer section, which is now in full-swing, just 

like the season. There’s some serious metal to 

mull-over,soifyou’re still undecided about what 

bike to invest in, have agander.Just don’t blame 

us when it makes you get your 

credit card out. 

18 

It’s not all wheelies, 

burnouts and kneedown... 

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BOSS MAN 

‘Dangerous’ Bruce Wilson 

dangerous@fastbikes.co.uk 

WINGMAN 

Benjamin ‘BJ’ Kubas Cronin 

beej@fastbikes.co.uk 

FAST MAN 

Alastair ‘A-Force’ Fagan 

fit@fastbikes.co.uk 

AD MAN 

Charlie ‘The Sheriff’ Oakman 

coakman@fastbikes.co.uk 

NEW MAN 

Carl ‘Pretty Boy’ Stevens 

teaboy@fastbikes.co.uk 

TECH MAN 

Neil ‘Know it all’ Charlton 

techguy@fastbikes.co.uk 

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PLANET FAST BIKES – NEW METAL, NEWS & REVIEWS 

Get set, ready, dribble! 

STUNNING CARBONCREATION 

REVEALED BY BMWATLAST! 

We just missed the release ofBMW’s insane HP4 

Race inthe last issue by mere hours. Off went 

the mag, then in came the news –that the 

carbon-framed bike BMW teased uswith at 

shows towards the back end of2016, is now 

alimited edition reality. 

The numbers attributed tothe 750 HP4 Rs 

that will be built are amazing, nigh on Ducati 

Superleggera rivalling, in actual fact. The fully 

carbon-fibre chassis helps the bike hit an 

impressive fully wet weight figure of 171kg, 

while the wheels alone are 30 per cent lighter 

than the forged alloy wheels the vanilla S1000 

RR rolls upon. The entire package is lighter than 

the bikes raced in WSB by Jordi Torres et al. 

The rest of the chassis hasn’t been skimped 

on either, with top notch Öhlins FGR300 forks 

up front with aTTX36 Öhlins monoshock 

suspending the rear end. Brakes are Brembo’s 

bonkers GP4 RR calipers biting 320mm discs. 

The engine appears to be some kind of 

hybrid between aWorld Endurance and WSB 

specification, claiming apeak output of 215bhp 

and 120Nm of torque.Whether this isatthe 

wheel, orthe crank, wedon’t know, but we’d 

guess acrank figure meaning agenuine true 

200bhp or more at the wheel. An extra 300rpm 

over stock helps achieve this, but it also 

features an optimised primary and 

secondary gearbox ratio too. 

It has a2Ddash with 

ahuge amount of 

adjustability for both 

it and the upgraded 

electronics suite, including 

Dynamic Traction-Control, 

wheelie-control and 

launch-control, plus 

apit-lane limiter. 

Hello, dear... 

The remainder of the bike features lashings of 

additional carbon fibre, and looks wonderfully 

sweet in those familiar BMW Racing colours, 

don’t you think? 

The only bugbear? Well, one that depends very 

much on the interested individual concerned 

–the price. One will set you back awhopping 

£68,000, which is either ridiculous or abargain 

depending on your point ofview! Given the 

technology inthe frame, and much like the 

Superleggera, this is simply how much these 

kinds of ultra exotic bikes cost. 

However, the more they make 

them, the cheaper and faster 

they’ll be able to produce them 

so it may not be long before 

‘stock’ bikes come with some 

of the benefits these beauties 

offer.And anyway, even ifwe 

can’t afford one ourselves, it’s 

still nice to have aspirations, 

to dream, nay? 


IT'S GRINNING 

EAR TO EAR AS 

YOU APPROACH 

A BEND 

JULY 2017 WWW .FASTBIKESMAG.COM 11

PLANET FAST BIKES – NEW METAL, NEWS & REVIEWS 

WIN 

BIG WITH 

SPIDI! 

To celebrate the launch of Spidi’s brand 

new UK-based website, they are offering 

you the chance towin asuperb prize 

worth over £2,500, and included within 

this is a£1,000 voucher to spend on Spidii 

gear.They are offering atrip for two to 

their headquarters in Vicenza, where 

you’ll get tosee just how they put some 

of their amazing gear together during 

your VIP tour of the factory.They’ll throw 

in aslap uplunch, to boot. 

But that’s not all! Following your tour 

you’ll be whisked away toVenice, to the 

four-star Rialto Hotel overlooking the 

Have 

your 

own 

tour... 

Grand Canal, situated next to the Rialto Bridge. 

You’ll have plenty oftime to explore Venice, ordowhatever 

you choose, and when you return to the UKyou’ll receive that 

aforementioned £1,000 voucher to spend on Spidi goodies. Now, 

c’mon, that’s apretty sweet prize! To be in with achance to win, 

simply head over to their new website atwww.spidiuk.com, 

click the competition page, fill in your details and Bob’s your 

uncle, you’re in. Good luck toall! 

Will this hotel do, sir? 

...and see how these are 

put together up close! 

MCGUINNESS OUT OF THE TT 

Just before going to press, Isle Of 

Man TT legend John McGuinness 

had something of ahorror smash 

at the North West 200, which 

now means he’ll miss this year’s 

Tourist Trophy. This sadly casts 

doubt on his racing future inits 

entirety, too. 

The NW200 was the first 

competitive outing for the official 

Honda squad, as they tried to get 

the new Fireblade sorted in time 

for the TT. Testing prior tothe 

NW200 had been difficult for 

both John and his team-mate 

Guy Martin, as they’ve struggled 

to get the new bike uptospeed. 

They’re not alone, with bikes 

arriving late it’s been arush 

against time but they were 

hoping that some NW200 action 

would see them fit to compete at 

the world’s most famous road 

race to their usual high standard. 

During the qualifying session 

for the Superbike race, 

McGuinness crashed at Primrose 

Hill. After being taken toRoyal 

Victoria Hospital in Belfast he 

was diagnosed with acompound 

leg fracture, four broken 

vertebrae and some broken ribs. 

That’s anasty list all in. Up until 

the qualifying session things 

hadn’t been going swimmingly, 

with Martin especially off the 

pace. Following John’s accident 

Honda withdrew from the races 

entirely, preferring toanalyse the 

incident at their HQ before 

letting the bikes back on track. 

Whether or not the woes many 

other teams are experiencing 

with the new Honda in various 

racing series has anything to do 

with John’s accident, or not, 

remains to be seen. 

As for John, and given his 

age and the fact of what he’s 

achieved within the sport up 

until now, could this mean the 

end? He’s inhis mid-forties, he’s 

won pretty much everything 

you’d want to in the road racing 

sphere, he could probably be a 

Honda ambassador for life when 

retired, and he’s also suffered 

from injury inthe past. 

Awrist injury held him back 

for quite awhile afew years 

back, but the litany ofinjuries 

sustained at the NW200 will take 

rather longer torecuperate from, 

although when fixed may not be 

as limiting as wrist injuries when 

it comes to riding abike, as nasty 

as they sound. This would bethe 

only bright light for McPint fans 

who want to see him return, and 

for John himself if he doesn’t 

believe he’s done just yet. 

McGuinness’s legendary status 

is already assured. He has won 

23 TT races, only three short of 

Joey Dunlop’s all-time highest 

tally of 26 victories, and 

whatever happens next his 

place in history is secure. 



ALL THE LATEST, COOLEST & TRICKEST PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS 

KTM ALLOVER DUFFLE BAG 

Who doesn’t need adecent sports bag,even if you don’t play any sports? They’re handy! 

KTM’s Duffle has alarge main compartment plus an additional storage sack,and a 

ventilated shoe compartment that will fit two pairs in.Italso sports (get it?!) awater 

bottle pocket and an abrasion-resistant base for those who drag, plus an adjustable 

shoulder strap. Make your squash partner turn orange with envy 

! 

£49.99 www.ktm.com/gb 

SPADA TURISMO JACKET 

The Turismo leather jacket is made from soft-feel, 1.2mm 

premium cow hide and has aremovable thermal lining but 

with afixed waterproof and breathable membrane for 

year-round usability.It’s stuffed with Spada’s own CE 

TektoForm armour, and features an anti-bacterial mesh 

lining, soft-feel collar,waist adjustment and comes in 

avariety of sizes for your good selves. 

£249.99 www.spadaclothing.co.uk 

W2 ADRIA-SR BOOTA 

The Adria-SR road boot is made from genuine 

leather (rather than that naughty pretend 

leather, the dastardly cad!), and features an 

ergonomically shaped design,avented racing 

lining and aVelcro plus zip double-closure 

system. It has areplaceable magnesium toe 

slider for when you’re showing off at the local 

roundabout, andW2boots are worn byracers 

such asYonny Hernandez inMoto2, among 

others.Available in UK sizes 7-11. 

£174.99 www.bikeittrade.com 

SPARK R1 FORCE ¾SYSTEM 

Check out this mega looking carbon can three-quarter system forYamaha’s latest R1 

range,from Spark. Bloody nice,eh? This ¾ system does away with that nasty power 

sapping can, and from experience with similar systems we know they instantly 

wang on at least 7bhp up top and more than 10bhp through the 

midrange,plus anice boost in torque.With the Spark item, you can 

also get astainless can option, or titanium, if carbon doesn’t 

float your boat.It’s about time we 

tried one of these beauties on one of 

our own bikes,sowatch this space! 

£1,217.60 www.veloxracing.com 

AIROH GP500 

Here isAiroh’s dedicated racing lid,atop-spec’ number 

about half the price of other manufacturers’ racing 

offerings. Its shell is handmade from carbon-Kevlar 

composite, and is light as possible.Ithas ten ventilation 

intakes,six of which are adjustable,for increased air 

circulation.Ithas aLexan tear-off ready visor with 

integrated anti-fog system and Pinlock,plus avisor 

locking button. It has also been extensively tested and 

designed in wind tunnel scenarios for the best possible 

aerodynamic performance.Available insizes XS-XL. 

£359.99 www.bikeittrade.com 

14 JULY 2017 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 

S

UP FRONT 

HJC DEADPOOL LID 

We’d say Deadpool was one ofthe better 

superhero movies about,asentiment 

shared by many others. HJC are offering 

the chance for fans to display their Wade 

Wilson love while shouting ‘go suck a 

cock!’ at your mates for noreason,with 

aDeadpool style paintjob on one of their 

best-selling IS-17 lids. It’s adecent helmet 

that comes with Pinlock’s MaxVision 

anti-fog system on the quick release visor, 

and is available in sizes XXS-XXL. 

£249.99 www.oxfordproducts.com 

ANTIGRAVITY MICRO-START XP-1 

Running out of battery electrical go-go juice on your bike is unbelievably annoying, 

especially if it’s abitch tojump start, as many modern bikes with slipper-clutches are. 

Even more so,ifthere’s nobody or nothing about to help you out. Here’s asolution 

for those who like to be prepared:the Micro-Start XP-1 PPS.Small enough to fit in a 

jacket pocket, it gives enough punch tostart a5-litre V8! So,your little bike shouldn’t 

be aproblem then… Youcan also charge phones and whatnot too, 

and it comes with avariety of cables and connectors. 

Lovely bit of emergency kit, this. 

TUCANO URBANO COLLEGE LAN 

These guys make some really smart gear that looks stylish 

but still offers protection insome form orother.More for 

those popping out somewhere cool in the evening in the 

inner city,granted, but they also just look cool towear 

casually,too.The College Lan has reflective panels, 

thermal padding,iswind and waterproof and would 

look perfect outside any culture cool café,anywhere. 

£149.99 www.tucanourbano.com 

SHOEI RYD 

£149 www.nippynormans.com 

FULL SPECTRUM PULSE P1BATTERY 

Apparently the P1 is the world’s smallest and lightest lithium battery,as 

used bymany off-road folks including some champions over in the 

US of A. The P1 is powerful enough for single cylinder bikes upto 

450cc,ormulti-cylinder bikes up to 600cc. For larger bikes there 

is also the P2 and then the P3,which could probably power the 

International Space Station! The P2for 1,000cc bikes etc. comes 

in under £200, while the P3 is not too far shy of £300. We’re 

using one ofthese on Charlie’sTZR project bike, so we’ll let 

you know how we get on! 

Abrand new model for 2017, the RYD aims to provide 

atop specification for arelatively modest price,given 

how much the top lids are these days.It’s made in four 

different organic and multi-composite fibre shell sizes for 

abetter individual fit, and has detachable and washable 

internals,plus ear pods to help reduce wind noise. It 

comes with adouble-D fastening strap,and aPinlock 

anti-fog visor,and is available in avariety ofcolours. 

£349.99 www.shoeiassured.co.uk 

£123.50 www.veloxracing.com 

LIQUI MOLY OIL 

Did you know Liqui Moly are the official suppliers 

to Moto 2and 3over in GP? It’s because their 

product was tested by HRC and deemed the best 

for their racing bikes inthose classes.They’ll be 

supplying the classes until 2020,too.Their fully 

synthetic, high-performance oil is slated to 

ensure maximum performance and also engine 

protection with optimum lubrication, minimum 

wear, smoother clutch engagement and awhole 

bunch of other engine perks. It’s for four-stroke 

motors, and is suitable for motors with or 

without awet clutch. 

From: £13.99 

www.bikeittrade.com 


ALL THE LATEST, COOLEST & TRICKEST PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS 

BRANDED 

MADNESS 

Manufacturers know you guys love your bikes, orbike kit, somuch 

that you’d obviously want other stuff with their brand on it. Because, 

why not? Some ofthe stuff now available is slightly bonkers, but 

often fun or useful, like the KTM toaster, which isnow sadly gone, 

but of course, never forgotten… 

Yet there’s aplethora of different or unusual gear out there, all 

featuring your favourite brand ofmotorcycle insome fashion. We’ve 

selected abunch of stuff here toshow off, but bear in mind that the 

ranges are now huge so if you want to check out exactly what else 

is on offer, dive onto their respective websites and have agander 

–because branded madness lies therein! 

SUZUKI BELT 

£18 www.suzuki.co.uk 

This is one smart looking belt 

from Suzuki, given its rather 

reasonable price. One for the 

Suzuki enthusiast we thinks. 

SUZUKI TOWEL 


Wipe off the sweat from a 

hardcore thrash on your Gixer 

with this Suzuki branded towel, 

showing off the classic Suzuki 

logo. Nice! 

SPIDI 

SLEEPING BAG 

£51.99 www.spidiuk.com 

Given lots of 

bikers go 

camping, this 

is verging on 

unbelievably 

practical for 

these pages! That 

being said, we’ve 

actually used one 

in the past and 

they’re easy to 

carry, and warm, 

so job done. 

KTM TOOL BELT 


Made from 100 per cent leather, 

the KTM tool belt is essential if 

you ever need an emergency 

flat tip or Phillips screwdriver. 

Keeps your trousers up too, 

win-win! 

SUZUKI WATCH 


Much like 

Suzuki’s bikes, 

their watch is 

a natty little 

number, but 

one that 

doesn’t 

break the 

bank. Kudos 

to Suzuki for 

keeping it real 

across all 

their product 

ranges! 

KTM DOORMAT 


If the first thing you want to see 

when you get home is your 

favourite Austrian motorcycle 

brand, look no further. Or if you 

just want to rub dirt and shite 

into the logo, good thing KTM 

loves getting a bit dirty, eh? 

KAWASAKI NINJA MUG YAMAHA BEACH BALL KAWASAKI 

£12.95 www.kawasaki.co.uk 

MOUSE PUZZLE 

Fitted with its own 

neoprene mask showing 

just the Ninja’s eyes, 

this cool mug also 

comes with a Samurai 

teaspoon in a special 

presentation box. Hang 

on, weren’t Ninjas and 

Samurai enemies?! 

£3.12 www.yamaha-motor.eu/uk 

We’ve often though that 

what those lithe, scantily 

clad young ladies (or young 

men, for the girls) merrily 

playing on the beach have 

been missing is a beach 

ball with Yamaha 

emblazoned across it. Now 

our lives are complete… 


Add mirth to your 

life by confounding 

your young child 

for hours with this 

Kawasaki Mouse 

Puzzle. Isn’t it 

sweet? Bless... 

APRILIA TOWEL APRILIA EARPHONES KTM KIDS BUBBLE 

£40.99 www.aprilia.com/uk_EN £16.99 www.aprilia.com/uk_EN EYE BEANIE 

Relax and unwind in the sun 

on this Aprilia branded 

towel, or dry 

yourself 

off with it, 

or both! 

Towels are 

so useful, 

don’t you 

think? 

Love to listen to your Tuono 

or RSV’s soundtrack, over 

and over again? Now you 

can do just that through 

Aprilia’s own earphones! 

Or music to be 

fair, granted. 


Making a perfect and 

rather fun gift for 

kids to wear when 

climes are frosty, 

this beanie will get 

them hooked on 

the orange brand 

nice and early! 


PRODUCTS 

KAWASAKI HAMMOCK 


Hammocks rule. No, really, they do, and are a 

brilliant thing when you’re stuck somewhere 

with nowhere to sleep but are near to 

two trees close enough together. 

You’ll thank us for it… 

KTM 

DIRT-O-METER WELLIES 


Yes, these are actually a 

thing! Know exactly how 

far you’ve sunk into the 

mud while watching an 

MX race in the pouring 

rain while keeping pinkies 

dry. Perhaps they should 

be called a miserable-ometer 

instead… 

APRILIA 

BATTERY CHARGER 

MOTO GUZZI WATCH 

£246.99 www.motoguzzi.com/uk_EN 

£29.99 www.aprilia.com/uk_EN Their bikes are no longer fast, but still somehow 

cool. As is this wristwatch branded with MG’s logo. 

Jokes about Aprilia’s 

It tells the time and 

problems with bike 

everything! 

batteries from 

decades ago 

aside, power 

banks are a 

bloody useful thing nowadays, 

so you can ‘be a racer’ with 

a fully charged phone! 

DUCATI 

‘HISTORICAL’ RUBIK’S CUBE 

£15.90 www.ducatiuk.com 

Now you can have 

your favourite Italian 

brand laugh at your 

ineptitude at being 

able to actually 

finish one of these 

time consuming 

bastards! 

DUCATI 

ICE/OVEN SILICONE TRAY 

£12.90 www.ducatiuk.com 

Amaze your biking friends when you have a dinner 

party, by supplying the letters to name 

‘Ducati’ in ice cube form! Then 

get utterly smashed 

and see who 

can spell the 

most dirty words 

out of them… 

DUCATI 

CORSE SPEED BATHROBE 

SUZUKI LAPTOP BAG 

£75 www.ducatiuk.com Business laptop carrying 

type folks, who also 

It seems Ducati’s bath wear 

happen to like 

matches the prices of the 

Suzukis, here’s 

bikes, in a respective fashion 

your answer for 

of course. However, this is one 

safely transporting 

comfy and warm robe to 

your business trip 

snuggle up in. The game to 

hotel porn portal 

play is seeing if there’s room 

about the place 

for two inside… 

in style. 


YAMAHA 

FLOATING BEER HOLDER 

£46.10 www.yamaha-motor.eu/uk 

Now this is just the kind of 

practicality we like! Hold 

up to twelve bottles or 

cans, keeping them 

ice cold for hours, 

while you prat 

about the pool 

– perfect! 

KAWASAKI 

KIDS LUNCH BOX 


Make all your child’s friends jealous at 

school, by making it clearly obvious how 

much more awesome daddy is than any of 

theirs, by giving them this lunch set. 

Father of the 

year award 

nailed in one 

fell swoop! 

WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 17

CORE TEST 

WORDS: FAGAN P ICS: GARY CHAPMAN 

RULING THE 

18 JULY2017WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM

RULING THE ROADS 

By thetime youread this it’ll be TT time, so in honour of thatawesome event 

we decided to rope in lastyear’sfastestTTnewcomerand hitthe roads on 

four of 2017’s finest newbstosee which rules the roost on Britain’sB-roads. 

T 

his is, without doubt, the 

year of the litre bike. With 

the likes of Honda and 

Suzuki finally making proper 

man-spec’ superbikes again, there is 

no longer a runt among the 1000cc 

litter. It’s all down to personal 

preference and different flavours of 

200bhp, which makes our job even 

tougher in some respects. We have to 

dissect each bike in finer detail and 

sort the shit from the shit-hot. 

With Sportsbike of the Year just 

around the corner (well, next 

month), it would be rude to dilute 

the biggest, most informative test in 

motorcycling by gathering the latest 

superbikes beforehand. Instead, we 

assembled a foursome for a fast road 

thrash and asked Rachel Riley to 

give us some help in choosing. I 

asked for a consonant. She dished 

up an ‘R.’ What are the chances? 

Aprilia’s RSV4 RF gets more than just 

a Euro 4 overhaul for 2017, and the 

Noale factory reckons its revised 

V4-powered sex god is one second a 

lap faster than the previous model. 

Meanwhile, BMW’s S 1000 RR is 

definitely the most unchanged of the 

quartet, but the class benchmark and 

2016 SBOTY winner is more than 

worthy of nabbing a victory this 

season – heated grips and all. 

Kawasaki’s ZX-10RR is a pure and 

simple homologation special. The 

World Superbike dictator looks as 

good as any in those Winter Test, er, 

colours and has recently impressed 

as the first longtermer fleet member. 

Finally, Suzuki’s GSX-R1000R got 

Bruce’s willy doing funny things at 

Phillip Island. A MotoGP track and 

the Lincolnshire TT are two very 

different things, but the Suzuki is 

packed with the latest and greatest 

gadgets. We began our mammoth 

300-mile test in Horncastle, rode up 

to Whitby, back down via Oliver’s 

Mount and on to some of the sexiest 

Tarmac in England. 

Being a road-only assessment, this 

test was all about highway etiquette, 

so we hired the services of Mike 

Booth. Unless you’re well into racing 

or part of the Hull mafia, you 

probably wouldn’t have heard of 

him, but Boothy can pedal a bike 

round and finished as the fastest 

newcomer at last year’s Isle of Man 

TT with a 123mph lap on his first 

visit. Want a proper old-school road 

test? You’ve got it. All four bikes 

boast identical numbers of Rs in 

their titles, so it’s down to a good 

old-fashioned spank fest. 

ROADS 

J U L Y 2 0 1 7 W W W .F A S T B IK E S M A G .C O M 1 9

CORE TEST 

Sophistication comes 

naturally to some… 

ApriliaRSV4RF 

N 

omatter how much I 

love Eugene Laverty 

and his asymmetric 

Alpinestars fashion, that 

moustache is enough to put me 

off buying anAprilia. Thankfully, 

the 2017RSV4 RFis awhole lot 

sexier and still looks timeless 

after pretty much eight years in 

the same clothes. For this season, 

the Noale factory technicians 

have dished up far more than 

just Euro 4updates, with a 

heavily revised V4 motor, new 

ECU, updated electronics, new 

exhaust and, finally, new Öhlins 

suspension. 

Seeing as the Aprilia was the 

only 2017 bike Ihadn’t yet 

sampled, Ijumped onitfor the 

At last, adash that doesn’t look like 

an early 90s mobile phone screen. 

first stint. The new TFT dash 

–the same as the Tuono’s –is 

awelcome greeting, as is the 

rock-hard seat to remind you of 

its racing heritage: it’s still as 

utterly relentless asever. Euro 4 

updates seem to have seriously 

dampened the V4’s spirits 

initially, but ditching neutral 

and selecting agear from the 

superbly precise ’box (probably 

the best ontest) allows the 

engine to breath freely. 

The extra 300rpm that’s been 

introduced for 2017 is negligible 

yet welcome. Any excuse tohold 

the throttle open for an extra 

millisecond is amillisecond well 

spent aboard the RF. Over the 

years, the V4 powerplant has 

gradually sacrificed 

usability and its 

gorgeous spread of 

grunt, with each 

refreshed model 

gaining another 

frenzied level of 

top-end madness. 

This year is no 

different, but you’ve 

got toride alot of race bikes 

to better this engine’s 

characteristics and soundtrack. 

Fuelling and throttle response 

is as smooth asever, which 

delivers adeceptively rapid 

release of V4 power. Being one 

of the fastest, the RFisalso one 

of the most seamless, although 

you have to work harder on 

the road to match the others. 

This ain’t down to the engine 

–it’s the track-happy chassis. 

It’s almost impossible topick 

holes in the RSV4’s handling 

arsenal when the surface suits its 

WSB heritage. While others have 

been developed as aroad bike, 

the Aprilia has been reverse 

engineered from atest bed of 

slicks. It steers with ultimate 

pace and precision, making you 

feel like Eugene Laverty and 

flattering any rider. 

For years now we’ve been 

campaigning for better 

suspension, asthe old Road 

and Track kit just couldn’t match 

the latest offerings. 2017 sees 

top-shelf Öhlins NIX forks and 

aTTX shock and, in some 

respects, it’s assisted in bump 

management. But it’s proved that 

no matter how you dress this RF, 

you can’t escape its super-stiff 

chassis. AsIsaid, when the 

surface is baby-bum smooth, it’s 

difficult to beat. When good old 

ITS RACING PEDIGREE CAN BE 

ITS SHORTFALL AGAINST MORE 

COMPLIANT CHASSIS 

The Aprilia isvery much 

arace bike with aplate. 



Amullered clutch might 

have robbed the Aprilia 

of its potential, but it 

was still plenty offun. 

BOOTHY 

SAYS... 

If you want abike that looks 

the part then the Aprilia isthe 

obvious choice. It’s got more 

bling than Mr TataTiffany & 

Co party and the electronics 

package is amatch for 

anything else onthe market. 

The motor and 

Verdict: 8/10 

Over the years, the Aprilia has been developed 

and refined, but it’s still the same core 

beneath those sexy clothes. And it shows. 

+ V4 POWER, RACE PEDIGREE, TRACK 

PERFORMANCE, DEM LOOKS 

– PRICE, DELICATE CLUTCH 

UK bumps and undulations 

manifest, its racing pedigree can 

be its shortfall against more 

compliant chassis. 

Just in case you can’t dial in 

the perfect setting, there’s always 

the option to whip out the 

spanners and start messing with 

headstock angle, ride height, 

swingarm pivot and even the 

position of the engine inthe 

frame. Assomeone who is 

fascinated by geometry, racing 

and chasing tenths, Iabsolutely 

adore these features. It’s just 

ashame they won’t be put to 

Big-ass Brembos 

made stopping ajoy. 

use in the real world. 

Unfortunately, the rotten 

scoundrels who had it before 

us burnt the RSV4’s clutch to 

smithereens and neglected to tell 

Aprilia’s press people, which left 

us with apoorly RFthat couldn’t 

perform to potential. Still, in 

healthy form, it might have 

pipped the Kawasaki but 

certainly not the winners. Atrack 

sortie at SBOTY next month will, 

however, prove to be the perfect 

tonic and ashot at redemption 

for the RSV4, which should be 

right up there. 

APRILIA RSV4 RF £19,999 

ENGINE 

CHASSIS 

This epic V4 powerplant gets far more than a Euro 4 

dusting, and the RF passes regs without sacrificing 

power or torque –Aprilia even claims increased 

reliability.New lighter pistons,honing treatment to 

con-rods,valve work and anew linear gearbox sensor 

are all fresh for 2017,andtheredline dli is 300rpm higher 

h 

than previously.Anew exhaust –with adouble oxygen 

sensor and valve inside that bulbous can –isjoined 

by arevised ECU,but Aprilia has ditched the variable 

inlet ducts. 

The chassis remains largely unchanged and features 

the same race-inspired ally frame and swingarm with 

identical geometry.Aprilia has continued to offer its 

mass of adjustability: the freedom to move the engine 

around the frame,swingarm pivot position and 

headstock angle.New Öhlins NIX forks and alatest 

gen TTX shock (supported with anew progressive 

linkage) ensures the RF is finally up-to-date with 

suspenders.Brembo M50s feature new pads and bite 

anew pair of 330mm discs that are 5mm thick. 

Highlights 

WSB überlord 

Fresh Öhlins for ’17 

Trick dash 

180kg 

201bhp 

Smooth power 

TRACK 10 

Designed for apexes 

FAST ROAD 7 

Sharp and racy 

HOOLIGAN 4 

Look elsewhere 

NEW RIDER 1 

Stiff and unforgiving 

DESIRABILITY 10 

WSB for the masses 


CORE TEST 

Effortless handling isthe 

Kwacker’s best quality. 

Kawasaki ZX-10RR 

naworld of horrendous chassis, as awhole, works purists and armchair experts 

stock paint schemes that sublimely on our roads. Ridden lament such technology making 

Iwould better suit tracksuits, in isolation –just asithas been an appearance but, ifyou’re 

the ZX-10RR’s Winter Test matt 

black is alesson toother 

manufacturers. Its trouser-tenting 

simplicity atits finest and the 

World Superbike über champ’s 

beauty went far further than 

skin deep on this test. We’d 

even forgive the anodised 

red fork wangers. 

Just afew years ago, the 

ZX-10RR’s dash and its dazzling 

array of disco lights were 

universally adored. Now itlooks 

like aMontego Countryman ina 

pack of Bugatti Chirons –it’s the 

little things. The Kawasaki feels 

very long and flat compared to 

its peers, and with the longest 

for weeks being mylongterm 

vessel –you’d ask questions as 

to how the RR’s handling could 

be bettered. Despite the long, 

stretched posture, steering is 

light and responsive and those 

Showa BFF forks (the same as 

the Suzuki’s) doanepic job of 

flattening the roads. But spanked 

back-to-back with rivals, the 

Kawasaki feels slightly 

cumbersome in change of 

direction, somewhat top-heavy, 

and lacks the seamless nature 

from turn-in to apex of the others 

on test. It’s just not as eloquent 

from upright to big lean and 

occasionally feels awkward. 

one ofthose and reading this, 

kindly jog on. The RR’s system 

beautifully aids steering under 

hard acceleration and, while 

some others on test abruptly 

cull power orsend the front 

wheel skywards, the ZX 

gathers serious momentum. 

The RR’s biggest shortfall is 

the engine. Itsimply hasn’t got 

the usable abundance of power 

that the BMW and Suzuki brag, 

severely suffering unless 

the revs are above 

10,000rpm. Idon’t think 

the stupidly long gearing 

helps, and it takes an age 

wheelbase from the quartet, we Elsewhere, the RR has the 

can only presume the Big Khas minerals to match the other 

Atool onatool! 

engineered stability and grip 

into apreviously sketchy chassis. 

By Jove, they have. 

The blipper isn’t as slick or 

precise as the Kawasaki’s rivals 

and, unless you’re racing at a 

decent level, the cylinder head 

changes won’t be beneficial to 

you. The RR’s foremost upgrade 

over the stock ZX-10 is the 

Marchesini wheels. Not only 

do they provide aesthetic 

pleasure over horrid three-spoke 

rims, more importantly they 

add some fluidity and greatly 

enhance the ZX’s handling 

–it’s asthough the RR has 

been on arecord-breaking diet. 

We all agreed that the RR’s 

players. We’ve read elsewhere of 

others bemoaning the brakes. 

Yes, on track, the non-switchable 

ABS is apain in the cock, but the 

plush, progressive lever action 

mated to Brembo M50 stopping 

power keeps everything in 

check, working alongside the 

aforementioned Showas for 

the ultimate front-end. 

Likewise, atthe rear, 

mechanical grip is there in 

abundance. Kawasaki’s K-TRC 

traction control is certainly more 

of aperformance aid than safety 

blanket (which welove) and 

never becomes intrusive. Also 

worth anotable mention is the 

anti-wheelie. Weknow some 

for the revs to play catch up 

with throttle inputs when the 

disco lights aren’t flashing. 

Kawasaki can no longer play 

the Euro 4card asanexcuse. 

Just look at what 2017’s Euro 4 

gang have achieved. 

That said, when the roads 

open up and the RR can stretch 

its legs, the motor feels as 

stonking as the rest and the 

chassis can beused to its full 

potential. Unfortunately, it gets 

left behind bythe Suzuki and 

BMW… 

Verdict: 8/10 

Like many of Kawasaki’s naked bikes, the 

ER-6 is now getting tired but still abrilliant 

all-rounder. Expect revisions for 2017. 

+ TOP-END POWER, BRAKES, SUSPENSION 

– BOTTOM-END GRUNT, DASH ISABIT PONY 



KAWASAKI ZX-10RR £16,249 

Disco died in the 70s. Kawasaki 

must not have got the message. 

ENGINE 

CHASSIS 

Being ahomologation special, Kawasaki listened to 

KRT’sWorldSBK needs and modified the RR’s cylinder 

head to allow the use of race kit high-lift cams,and 

the crankcases have been reinforced for race-tuned 

engines and increased reliability.The ZX-10’s tappets 

feature Diamond-Like-Coating, which offers reduced 

mechanical loss and better performance in ahigher 

state of tune.Other than this selection, the 998cc 

inline four is unchanged but still features afull 

titanium exhaust and superb K-TRC traction-control. 

The RR’s chassis is identical to the ZX-10R in terms of 

geometry but brags seven-spoke forged aluminium 

Marchesini wheels and Pirelli Supercorsa SP rubber 

–the first time Kawasaki has ventured away from its 

preferred Bridgestone tyres for awhile.The wheels 

not only look sexual but also dramatically reduce 

inertia. When Kawasaki overhauled the ZX-10R last 

year,engineers sharpened geometry by lengthening 

the swingarm and shunting the steering head further 

towards the rider to add weight on the front-end. 

Highlights 

Racing pedigree 

Showa suzzies 

Brembo M50s 

Marchesini rims 

206kg 

200bhp 

TRACK 9 

What aweapon 

FAST ROAD 8 

Bad bottom end 

HOOLIGAN 7 

Ninja-spec hooly 

NEW RIDER 3 

Likes to be revved 


Damn sexy 

THE RR’S SHORTFALL IS THE 

ENGINE. IT SIMPLY HASN’T GOT 

THE USABLE POWER 

Brembo M50s work 

atreat on the roads. 

BOOTHY 

SAYS... 

The Ten was by far the most 

comfortable bike on the test. 

Everything seemed to fit 

perfectly. This, however, 

coupled with itnot quite 

having the legs onthe other 

bikes made it feel atiny bit 

‘touring bike-esque’. The 

electronics are pretty out of 

date now asthey don’t seem 

to have changed that much 

compared to the previous ZX10 

which was already afive year 

old bike. It’s hard tofault the 

Kawasaki as it does everything 

it says on the tin, Ijust don’t 

know ifithas taken the giant 

leap into the electronic age. 

Not everyone’s a fan 

of the Ten’s stealthy 

black paintjob, but it’s 

different if nothing else. 


CORE TEST 

BMWS1000 RR 

fter an hour or so 

the Aprilia’s 

Aunrelenting saddle, I 

jumped on the BMW’s armchair 

equivalent. The two bikes are at 

the polar opposite of the comfort 

spectrum, and pretty much every 

other spectrum for that matter. 

Initially, the Beemer felt sluggish 

and unresponsive –largely down 

to not being based on aWSB 

racer –but its road-based 

etiquette soon got our juices 

flowing with tidings of comfort 

and joy, rapidly discovering there 

are zero chinks inits armour. 

Yousee, 90% of the time, the S 

1000 RR was the preferred saddle 

of choice for all four testers s both 

BOOTHY 

SAYS... 

Everything about this b 

in comfort and performance 

aspects. People laughed when 

BMW announced heated grips, 

similarly when cruise control 

was introduced toaproduction 

superbike. Iwas the one 

laughing onabrisk springtime 

morning while the others 

couldn’t feel their pinkies. 

Being arocket-powered 

massage chair, the ergonomics 

complement both road and track, 

with plenty of ground clearance 

yet the most bearable over 300 

miles. Ridden at 90% is pure 

everyday fodder for the RR. You 

might as well engage autopilot. 

It’s soeasy toride fast, so 

intuitive, sniffing out corners 

and spitting them out with 

consummate ease. You get the 

urge to open the throttle sooner, 

carry more entry speed and 

there’s anair of invincibility 

aboard the BMW. Dare Isay it, 

it feels like the most uncrashable 

of the foursome. Onthe flipside, 

it’ll manage everyday chores 

with aplomb. Perfect fuelling, a 

quickshifter and blipper that 

function just as well at 20mph 

as they do at 120mph and a 

comforting, innate balance that 

belittles the bike’s magnitude. 

Steering at mediocre lean 

angles and flicking from 

side-to-side, the SThou’ 

annihilates the others. It’s only 

when aSuzuki comes in to 

skirmish that the BMW starts to 

become flustered. Now, this 

might not apply to you, but the 

semi-active suspension is utterly 

stunning on UK roads. Classleading 

infact, but it’s not 

perfect. For the same reasons 

that none of the pure road racing 

teams continue to use this 

electronic suspension, the BMW 

loses points when the pace gets 

serious and the roads get rough, 

Boothy was most at 

home on the Beemer. 

which it did as we headed back 

in to Lincolnshire. Itjust cannot 

cope with UK bumps and shitty 

road surfaces as well as 

conventional damping and 

suffered against the Suzuki’s 

ruthless surge. 

Watching Boothy aboard the 

Suzuki smother black lines 

onto the Lincolnshire roads was 

pure motorcycle art. It was also 

deeply frustrating asheedged 

away, and the Beemer and me 

had noanswer. There are no 

stability issues, nothing innately 

dangerous: it’s just that the 

computer says no. 

The BMW makes 

riding feel easy. 



BMWS1000 RR £16,375 

The Beemer’s clocks 

are easy onthe eye. 

Away from the track where 

tenths matter little, the engine 

is absolutely flawless. While 

some others blame Euro 4regs, 

BMW embraced the challenge, 

maintaining peak power and that 

cheeky engine (only twin pipes 

before the entrance tothe can 

is the 2017 model giveaway). 

There’s enough power anywhere 

throughout the rev range to frack 

acounty. Wecould be wrong, 

but it feels asthough the Euro 

4-spec engine has sacrificed a 

smidgen of bottom-end grunt. 

This could, however, be down to 

Verdict: 9/10 

The class benchmark hasn’t disappointed in 

2017.That cheaty engine and those 

class-leading electronics are still epic, 

but itain’t the bike onthe following pages. 

+ ENGINE, COMFORT, GIZMOS, HEATED GRIPS! 

– THAT LAST 10%... 

the Suzuki’s tricknology and 

bar-raising antics, although the 

BMW certainly isn’t aslively 

from low revs. 

As well as riding dynamics 

and sheer thrills, there’s an 

onslaught of practicalities which 

makes owning an S1000 RReven 

more appealing. There’s alot to 

be said for German engineering, 

and trinkets such as being able 

to turn off the ABS and switch 

modes (while you’re riding) at 

the touch of abutton makes life 

so much easier. And there’s even 

more tobesaid for BMW’s dealer 

network –something so 

superior to any other 

manufacturer. 

EN NGINE 

CHASSIS 

Only the ‘dual flow’ silencer is the 2017 cosmetic 

giveaway and the motor’s hardware remains 

unchanged from 2016 –BMW somehow managed to 

retain the RR’s performance and pass Euro 4via lots 

of fiddling the ECU/fuelling paramaters.The only other 

updates for this year include ABS Pro and seven-stage, 

lean angle sensitive DTC as standard. 2016’s changes 

include areworked cylinder head (intake and exhaust 

duct tweaks), new lighter cams and the throttle bodies 

were moved closer to the head. 

Again, the chassis remains unchanged from the 

previous RR, save for the single seat cowl that now 

comes as standard from the factory.You can, however, 

choose apillion seat and pegs at no extra spons.This 

particular bike was afully-loaded Sport model with 

semi-active DDC suspension and forged wheels.The 

last chassis update included alighter frame with a 

change of flex to provide more feel, plus geometry 

tweaks that saw the steering head angle shortened 

by 1.5mm to 96.5mm of rake for better steering. 

Highlights 

Heated grips 

Cruise control 

Forged wheels 

208kg 

199bhp 

Blipper and shifter 

TRACK 10 

Youneed one 

FAST ROAD 10 

Comfortable and fast 

HOOLIGAN 9 

Utterly banzai 

NEW RIDER 6 

Best of the four 


Just look at it 

It wasn't just the heated 

grips that Al was a fan of... 


CORE TEST 

Suzuki GSX-R1000R 

O 

h look. An enormous 

exhaust can. Yawn… 

Once you’ve walked 

around that enormous can 

and circumnavigated the 

globe inorder to do so, jumping 

aboard the 2017 Gixer isn’t 

arevolutionary feat. It all 

remains very GSX-R despite 

the somewhat tawdry 1980s 

Casio-esque dash and snazzy 

Showa fork tops. I won’t get 

embroiled in the samey 

cosmetics debate but even 

theridingpositionisn’t too 

The Gixer needs no 

encouragement... 

dissimilar, although it’s rather 

like getting into bed with the 

previous model’s muchthinner, 

sexier twin sister given its 

slenderness. And then you 

ride it. 

I’d ridden the 2017 model at 

Jerezjustaweekbefore thistest. 

Youcan’ttangibly sense the VVT 

(Variable Valve Timing) working, 

but you can certainly hear it. 

Upon encountering this strange 

clatter, at first I thought the old 

girl had shit herself. It’s a bizarre 

cacophony of metallic mayhem 

that only adds to the intrinsic 

Gixer induction blare and the 

sheer involvement of thrashing. 

I wouldn’t claim revolutionary 

significance but the VVT 

obviously works. The Suzuki 

uses the same bore x stroke 

figures as the Kawasaki, yet the 

GSX-R absolutely beasts the 

ZX-10 during early throttle 

openings, bottom-end and 

midrange. It’s still quite subtle in 

its delivery and perhaps isn’t as 

unruly as the BMW but you can 

sense the factory-set ECU culling 

your wrist inputs. That said, 

third gear roll-on at 50mph 

wasn’t a minor victory for the 

Suzuki against the Beemer – it 

was an utter obliteration, gaining 

several bike lengths within 

seconds. I’d love to ride one with 

an ECU reflash and 1:1 throttle… 

Regardless of straight-line 

aptitude, the 2017 bike isn’t 

without its defects. Most of 

which, ironically, are electronicbased 

to bring the GSX-R up to 

21st century status. While I 

applaud the mode toggling and 

ease of selection, A is sometimes 

too abrupt when asking for 

throttle from closed at certain 

midrange RPM, during constant 

radius curves and urban 

drudgery, and B softens the blow 

too much. The auto-blipper is 

also snatchy and unpredictable, 

and inagroupoffourbikes 

spanking across the Yorkshire 

dales, it was the Suzuki and its 

puny 16 litre tank that caved first 

for petrol. And finally, it suffers 

from that good old GSX-R guff 

brake syndrome where, even on 

the road, there’s too much fade 

BOOTHY 

SAYS... 

The new Gixxer isareally tight 

bike. Itfeels like a600 to sit on 

and the low centre of gravity 

makes it asuper stable bike 

The Suzuki's proper 

planted in the bends. 



The GSX-R won all its 

enthusiastic abusers over. 

Verdict: 9/10 

Some could argue it’s too like the old 

model. Those who truly understand will 

appreciate 2017 7’s onslaught of changes. 

Athrasher’s delight. 

+ VVT TECHNOLOGY, THE SOUND, 

BALLS-OUT HANDLING 

–BRAKES, SAMEY LOOKS, BLIPPER 

FUNCTION, THROTTLE 

SUZUKI GSX-R1000R £16,099 

It looks abit retro, but the 

new dash works just fine. 

EN NGINE 

CHASSIS 

The all-new 998cc motor was designed to maximise 

top-end power, yet combine bottom-end and 

midrange grunt –atricky task for engineers.This was 

done by Suzuki’s MotoGP-inspired VVT (Variable Valve 

Timing), which uses 12 steel balls positioned on the 

intake cam sprocket that retard timing when 

centrifugal forces move the balls outward at high revs. 

Other fresh tech includes the Finger Follower valve 

train, which is lighter than conventional tappets and 

allows extra revs and more performance at high rpm. 

An all-new aluminium frame is 10% lighter and 20mm 

narrower than the previous GSX-R1000. Geometry has 

been tweaked with alonger wheelbase and reduced 

rake and trail numbers for sharper steering, Anew 

braced swingarm has been optimised for rigidity and 

anew rear subframe is 1kg lighter.The Rmodel has 

the same Showa BFF forks and BFRC shock as the 

ZX-10RR. Race-spec Brembo T-drive discs are 10mm 

larger and mounted to new lightweight six-spoke 

aluminium wheels wearing Bridgestone RS10 tyres. 

Highlights 

g 

VVT motor 

Showa suzzies 

Casio dash 

6-axis IMU 

203kg 

202bhp 

TRACK 10 

Fast as fuck 

FAST ROAD 10 

Best at 101% 

HOOLIGAN 9 

It’s aGSX-R 

NEW RIDER 8 

See above 


Marmite looks 

and lever travel when committed 

speeds need scrubbing. It’s a 

good job the chassis boogies 

on corner speed. 

After amorning ofriding and 

aspot ofluncheon in Whitby, 

we couldn’t split the Suzuki and 

BMW in terms of handling. It 

took until the fast, open stretches 

of Lincolnshire where the new 

king of the road was eventually 

crowned, but wehad to engage 

in adangerous riding 

competition to do so. The 

outgoing GSX-R was hardly shit 

but it lacked power and moved 

like adecrepit Labrador in apack 

of Jack Russell puppies. The 2017 

bike feels 20kg lighter and, while 

the BMW is niftier at swift 

change ofdirection, the Suzuki 

feels more athome buried deep 

into the corner and brags sharper 

front-end meticulousness. Above 

all else, it’s more enthralling 

to ride at staunch speeds, yet 

unwaveringly stable and never 

threw any shapes. 

In asimilar vein to the ZX-10R, 

the Gixer’s anti-wheelie issexily 

refined and assists in steering 

at speed while under hard 

acceleration on the vinegar 

stroke. And that’s what it boils 

down to, that final 10% of fast 

road riding where the Suzuki 

joins the dots with superiority. It 

feels fresher, more energetic and 

hollers at you through the ’bars 

for the ultimate joy ride. 


CORE TEST 

ENGINE 

TECH 

DATA 

Aprilia RSV4 RF 

Type 999cc, liquid-cooled, 16v, 65°V4 

998cc,liquid-coo 

Bore xStroke 78 x52.3mm 76 x55mm 

Compression 13.6:1 13.0:1 

Fuelling Marelli EFI, 48mm throttle bodies Electronic fuel-i 

Claimed Power 201bhp @13,000rpm 200bhp @13,00 

Claimed Torque 115Nm @10,500rpm 113Nm @11,50 

Kawasaki ZX-10R RR 

BMW S1000 RR 

PRICE DIMENSIONS 

CHASSIS 

ELECTRONICS 

RBW/Riding Modes Yes/Three 

Yes/Three 

Traction Control Yes/Eight Yes/Three 

ABS Yes Yes 

Quickshifter Yes/Plus blipper Yes/Plus blippe 

Wheelie Control Yes/Three Yes 

Launch Control Yes/Plus pit limiter No 

Frame Aluminium dual beam Aluminium twin 

Front Suspension 43mm Öhlins NIX fork, fully adjustable 43mm Showa B 

Rear Suspension Öhlins TTX shock, fully adjustable Showa shock, fu 

Front Brakes Brembo M50 calipers,330mm discs Brembo M50 ca 

Rear Brakes Single-piston caliper,220mm disc Single-piston ca 

Wheelbase 1,420mm 1,440mm 

Seat Height 845mm 835mm 

Dry Weight 180kg 206kg 

Fuel Capacity 8.5L 17L 

Price £19,999 £16,249 

From 

Aprilia UK 

www.aprilia.com/uk 

Kawasaki UK 

www.kawasak 

Conclusion 

sacider-supping subjective ornot, but for all 

Southerner who rarely four testers tovote unanimously 

Agets the chance to in favour of the Suzuki gives 

explore the North’s offerings, I you some idea of its aptitude, 

have to congratulate you shandy especially given 2017’s immense 

drinkers onyour fine array of competition throughout the class. 

epic roads. If you’ve yet to 

You’re probably reading this 

sample the jaunt from Horncastle and thinking, ‘yeah, but there’s 

to Whitby and back down via blemishes,’ but the point is, we 

Oliver’s Mount, you need to. could all live with the Suzuki’s 

This test was atimely reminder idiosyncrasies knowing it’ll 

that you can still have fun with outperform the rest and provide 

friends on 200bhp howitzers on the biggest smile. Ofall the 

the road, at legal speeds of upgrades over the stock bike, 

course, officer. 

the forks deliver the biggest 

And of the test? Wehave to impact. But are the upgrades 

say itagain; there isn’t ashoddy worth awhopping £3,000? No 

steed among 2017’s fleet of way. Ibet Michael Dunlop is 

superbikes. For those who reading this test, rubbing his 

complain that the Aprilia istoo hands with glee. 

expensive and question why 

it’s lined up with this lot, the 

£19,999 RFisstill the only model 

Mossy doesn’t do podiums. 

to make UKshores for some 

reason. With afresh injection 

of some Kawasaki badass, the 

ZX-10Rcould well be on par 

with the winners. It’s asweet 

road bike, so long as you keep 

the throttle open. 

The BMW is still the best 

all-rounder and will appease a 

wider range of riders. There’s 

almost nothing wrong with it, 

THERE ISN’T A SHODDY 

STEED AMONG 2017’S FLEET 

OF SUPERBIKES 



And the winner is... 

Suzuki GSX-R1000R 

Whitby 

Pickering 

Scarborough 

It’s not the first time Boothby 

and Bruce have caught crabs. 

Wetwang 

All ofthesebikes were 

weapons on the road, but 

the focused RSV4 was 

the one found flagging. 

Beverley 

Caistor 

Horncastle 


LAUNCH 

WORDS: BENJAMIN J K UBAS-CRONIN PICS: G EEBEE IM 

AGES 

AVON 

SPIRIT ST 

Avon weigh in with their option for the mid-range sports 

tyre market – the new Spirit ST – and a trip to Portugal… 

TheSTsinalltheirglory! 

The STs are superb on the road. 


AVON SPIRIT ST 

T 

helast couple of years has seen 

a big surge in tyre manufacturers 

pushing their do-it-all, mid-range 

sports-touring tyres, and now it’s Avon’s 

time toplay their hand with the new 

Spirit ST. Like others, they chose to let 

folk likeusloose on an international 

spec’ track to test them, inthis case, 

the Circuit Algarve atPortimao. 

It’s a brave move because even 

though these types of tyres are marketed 

as including some sporting pedigree, 

and given that they must also be 

incredible on the road in all conditions, 

it could be quite easy for many to give 

them abit of beating on track. But taking 

atyre like the ST for what it is, and 

averagingout its performance across all 

disciplines, you get areally clear picture 

of just howthey can be everything to all 

men or women. Within some limitations, 

granted, but we’ll come to that abit later. 

The SpiritSTisamulti-compound hoop, 

harder in themiddle for mileage (up to 

10,000 milesapparently), and softer on the 

edges. They also feature interlocking sipes, 

which are there tohelp the tyre both warm 

up faster, and then help prevent overheating, 

and they’re stacked to the gills with silica for 

better wet-grip. Italso has an A-VBD steel 

belt runningaround the tyre’s circumference 

to reduce tyre growth at high speed and 

aid stability, among other benefits. 

To see how the ST fared, Avon brought 

abunch of naked bikes of varying shapes 

and sizes, and we began with awet braking 

test. This isstandard on most tyre launches, 

this time on aSuzuki Bandit fitted with 

out-riggers and ABS activated. Itfared well, 

stopping quickly from 35mph without 

bothering the ABS one bit. 

Next up was aride into the hills 

surrounding the circuit, so Ijumped ona 

Suzuki GSX-S1000F and switched the 

traction-control (TC) off. 

Literally as we leave the 

circuit though, the tyre 

surprises measitdrops 

into the first roundabout 

(and subsequent bends) 

abit livelier than I’d 

expected it to. “The front 

has avery sporty profile 

for faster steering”, said 

the tyre’s designer Ash 

Vowles. “We purposefully 

did that so the ST could 

partially fit into the 

‘hypersport’ category as 

well as fulfil its remit as a 

mid-range sports tyre.” 

Iwon’t lie, the ST felt 

good chasing Avon’s new 

SIZES: 

Front 

ambassador Steve Parrish. We were riding 

like idiots within just afew corners and all 

was well with both ends. The initial feedback 

gave the impression that the SToffered a 

middle-ground response in terms of carcass 

and sidewall flex, somewhere in between 

what aPirelli and Bridgestone would display, 

but nowhere near asstiff as, say, aDunlop. 

The 1000F has aload ofgrunt on tap, and 

Itried reasonably hard toget it to misbehave, 

but apart from one very brief ‘chirp’ from the 

rear she just gripped and shot out ofbends. 

The same was also true on arampant KTM 

Super Duke with TCoff, too, although it was 

quite hot and, of course, one never quite 

rides aroad like arace track. But the ST 

passed the road aspect with flying colours. 

The following day wewere let loose on 

track, and my first laps were onaHonda 

Crossrunner. That everything was grinding 

within two laps said good things about the 

ST, even more sothat Iwas actually enjoying 

going around arace track on abloody 

Crossrunner! Front feel was at apremium, 

but that’s more todowith noweight through 

the bars, rather than the tyre, but Icould 

trust ittotake care ofus. Asimilar feeling 

was evident on aVFR800 in the following 

session, but the ST really proved itself on 

Suzuki’s GSX-S750 with TC off. 

On alight, lithe little 100bhp naked bike, 

the STs really shone Ithought. You could get 

on the gas nice and 

early with noworries of 

Rear 

110/70/17 150/70/17 

100/90/18 150/80/16 

110/80/18 160/60/17 

110/80/19 160/60/17 

120/60/17 160/70/17 

120/70/17 170/60/17 

120/70/18 180/55/17 

120/70/19 190/50/17 

190/55/17 

200/50/17 

200/55/17 

it stepping out, and also 

push the front pretty 

hard through the fast 

corners. The Suzuki 

shone on the STs, as did 

aTriumph Street Triple 

soon after. Ifelt as 

though Icould ride it as 

Iwould have done on 

stickier tyres, maybe not 

going for absolute 

broke, but enough to 

satisfy my aim of 

putting the ST to the 

sword. Edge-grip is less 

forgiving than aproper 

sports tyre, harder, but 

with 100bhp –noproblemo. 

Asterner test was aSuzuki GSX-1000S, TC 

off, and here we finally encountered the ST’s 

limits. It’s atruism with tyres of this ilk, that 

as soon as you throw big power atthem on 

track you’ll learn where the limit is, pronto. 

This isn’t aproblem per se, it just defines 

the window you have to work within. 

Once you know the limits, you can get 

on with enjoying yourself, though there’s a 

caveat to this, incoming shortly. For me the 

ST’s limit first became clear out of the uphill 

No-TC-on bigger bikes can test the STs 

when out on track – TC on, though... 

left-hand hairpin, where after shifting to 

third gear the grunt ofthe 1000S overcame 

the tyre’s grip and it gave anice gentle slide 

before coming back in line. Onlarger bikes, 

that hard edge-grip (in both feel and action) 

works against them to some degree. 

Yetthe flex built into the carcass did 

telegraph the incoming slide apicosecond 

before it happened, thereby defining the ST’s 

limits to me. Acouple more times around, 

with aslide starting atexactly the same 

point, just highlighted those limit lines in 

bold, and then Ijust got on with having fun. 

The caveat here isswitching the Suzuki’s 

TC back on, asnow Icould lean onthat 

hard, and working intandem with the ST I 

could get out faster, safer, while adding alot 

more gas and, thusly, speed. Traction-control 

really is awesome ifit’s agood system, it can 

add an extra dimension to tyres such asthe 

ST. Ialso jumped onaKTM Super Duke with 

the TC off, but by this point the bike had 

been going nearly nonstop for four hours, 

and the tyres must have done over ahundred 

laps. The wallop of torque out ofthe slower 

turns saw the KTM slewing sideways alot, 

so as far as track work is concerned this ST 

hoop was nearing its end. But it had been 

properly rinsed as it was the most popular 

bike there, soIcan’t be too down on it. 

The only other problem, ifyou can call it 

that, came on the faster, heavier bikes under 

heavy braking at slight lean. The speed and 

kinetic weight on the anchors would ever so 

slightly affect the stability momentarily. But 

really, and again given what the tyre ismeant 

for and where itsits in the range, this isn’t 

unexpected nor should itbeheld against it. 

Overall Iwas impressed, I’m quite sure if 

all you ever did was road riding you could 

use these on any litre sportsbike (or any bike 

for that matter), and be perfectly happy. Sure, 

you could ride to and complete atrackday, 

and still have fun, especially if you’re on 

something modern with an electronics suite, 

but ultimately your speed would, obviously, 

be compromised. But really Ibelieve the 

Spirit STs will make terrific road tyres, and 

they’ve slickly slotted in nicely among the 

competition as aviable, and very effective, 

alternative option. 


TEST 

W O R D S : C H R IS M O S S 

P IC S : G A R Y C H A P M A N & P E T E W IL E M A N 

TOURED 

STUPID 

Can three ‘sport tourers’ fit the bill for Fast Bikes? Three 

men, three bikes, three sets of tyres, many road miles and 

a cheeky track thrash will give us the answer… 

W h ic h w o u ld y o u c h o o s e ? 


IN ASSOCIATION WITH 

I 

t’s all too easy toget snobby 

or elitist about sportsbikes. 

Stuff that doesn’t make 

nearly two-hundred ponies or 

feature atthe front in British 

Superstock 1000 races often gets 

overlooked, sometimes even 

sneered at. Tryboasting about 

a‘lesser light’ down the boozer 

and it’s guaranteed you’ll raise 

asnigger or ten. If it ain’t the 

latest orlightest, can’t bust the 

dyno or alap record, you’re 

really best staying schtum… 

But while headliners like the 

amazing new GSX-R thou’ quite 

rightly get raved about and 

lusted over, there’s afair 

selection ofsecond-string stuff 

that warrants some recognition. 

Just ’cos it ain’t seen as the 

ultimate, orcan’t be rated as the 

best of the bunch doesn’t mean 

it can’t play apart. Out inthe 

real world, miles away from any 

booze-fuelled bragging session, 

there’s aload of stuff that can 

do the business and make you 

happy. Plenty of speedy and 

capable kit worthy ofashout is 

on offer and well worth looking 

at. Just because it isn’t rated as 

the best, doesn’t mean it should 

be dismissed. 

To prove the point, we picked 

atrio of such ‘also rans’ tosee 

just how much lower they 

actually sit on the credibility 

ladder. Tohelp identify their real 

ranking, we took our chosen 

three –Ducati’s new SuperSport 

S, aKTM 1290 Super Duke GT, 

and Kawasaki’s Z1000SX –on a 

750-mile, three-day jaunt round 

some good roads ’oop north. 

Bang in the middle of the study 

we fired ’em round Oulton Park 

to see how well they coped with 

atrack thrashing. If they were up 

to the task, fell short byeither a 

whisker or amile we’d know all 

about it alright. 

Before wewhizzed off here 

and there, wefitted some of 

Bridgestone’s ‘lesser’ rubber to 

see if the same story of ‘below 

the ultimate’ holds true with 

tyres. It’s likely you’ll not see 

the hoops wetried ever being 

levered onto any race bikes. And 

though we never went round to 

inspect all of the other bikes 

lapping at the NoLimits 

trackday, there’s apretty good 

chance none of what we’d 

chosen was being used by any of 

the other track day crowd, either. 

Even so, wewere pretty 

confident the Bridgestones on all 

three bikes could probably hold 

their heads high and put on a 

decent show. Tohelp with the 

technical assessment ofthe black 

and round things (mainly over 

beers atthe end of each day’s 

riding), wealso took along an 

expert in the field in the shape of 

the tyre firm’s Euro sales boss 

Gary Hartshorne. Joining him 

was the mag editor’s former 

spannerman, Neil Windsor. 

I’d not met him before, but 

banter on the phone while 

making plans for the test 

suggested he’d fit the bill nicely. 

We all met at Ducati’s HQin 

Silverstone, chucked abit of soft 

luggage on the bikes, glanced at 

amap for aminute or two and 

headed off to Oulton. None of us 

knew exactly how well things 

would go, but it was sure to 

be aright laugh finding out… 


TEST 

Kawasaki Z1000SX 

I 

got to whizz around on the 

Kwacker for a few days 

before I met up with the 

others. Impressions weren’t too 

bad. It worked well enough and 

with a pretty flexible motor, good 

brakes, decent chassis manners, 

and an ability to cover ground 

quickly and comfortably, the SX 

seemed like it would score fairly 

highly. The only thing I was likely 

to knock it back for was a lack of 

any real basic appeal. By that I 

mean that all-important X-factor 

that gives you the horn and 

makes you want to get on the 

bloody thing and ride itasoften 

as possible. Every time I clawed 

down the side stand at the end of 

a run, I had a ‘so what’ feeling 

about the bike. There’s no way 

I’d personally want to buy one. 

To me, nomatterhowdecent 

the dynamic qualities of 1000 

are, itjustfeels like yet another 

Japanese inline four. And then I 

got together with the others and 

their Euro tools. 

Two things dented my views, 

with each mile that went under 

the Zed’s wheels having me 

thinking even less of it. First 

issue was how much more I 

enjoyed the other two bikes. 

I’ll go into more detail in the 

conclusion, but any time I 

jumped onto the Kawasaki after 

sampling either the Duke or 

KTM, I took a pretty dim view of 

it. The other thing that poured 

cold water on the Japanese bike 

came when the pace got hotter. 

To be fair, the first time I 

compared it directly to the Euro 

bikes was at Oulton and man did 

it feel somuchtougherlapping 

thetrack. If you just try to 

circulate rapidly, things aren’t 

too bad. Doing that pretty much 

had me come to the same 

conclusion I did after my first 

couple of hundred miles on the 

road. It didn’t feel special in 

any way, but it was at least 

good enough to boogie. 

Start upping your pace 

though, and you can’t help 

but think the Kawasaki is 

getting out of its depth. Two 

key issues hinder progress and 

confidence – its weight and soft 

suspension. Neil had said he 

expected it to be okay, but like 

me he began to change his tune 

with every lap. You can go fast, 

but bloody hell you need to be 

right on the case and not risk 

making any mistakes. There’s 

just too much mass to correct if 

you cock up and go off line, or 

miss a braking marker. It’s 

a bike that forces you 

to concentrate 

really hard if you want to 

seriously go for it. The brakes 

are pretty strong, and their 

progressive feel remains in place 

lap after lap. But it feels like a 

real lard arse at times and the 

sloppy suspension does bugger 

all to boost confidence. 

When you’re trying to get the 

best of the motor, it just has to 

be revved harder. The g’box is 

slick enough, which is a good job 

as your left foot is kept pretty 

busy keeping the motor spinning 

hard enough to make its 

strongest power. Riding at a 

spirited pace alldaylongis easy 

enough, but raise your ambitions 

justabitand the effort needed 

increases disproportionately. 

You’re very much made aware of 

the huge extra effort needed to 

get just a tiny improvement in 

lap time. It affects the enjoyment 

and overall mood. The pegs 

scrape all too easily, the ABS and 

traction control start cutting in, 

the lack of quick-shifter begins 

to seem a bigger issue than it 

perhaps should be. All in all you 

stop enjoying going round. And 

it wasn’t just me. Gary and Neil 

moaned about the excess weight 

and mushiness each time they 

came back in, andtowardsthe 

endofthedayitstayedparked 

andunlovedinthepitlane. 

Thepoorbugger! 

It was more popular on the 

road runsbefore and after 

Oulton, but no-one ever found it 

especially endearing. Ridden in 

isolation and lessaggressively, 

theKawasakifeelsawholelot 

better.Butinthiscompanyit’s 

not in the same league. It seems 

odd that the bike features a good 

selection of clever electronics to 

help use its power and brakes to 

the full when the basic platforms 

of too much weight and soft 

suspension stop that potential 

being fully realised. 

Perhaps we’re beingabit 

unfair, and the lad who 

overheard our criticisms 

reminded us to judge the 

Kawasaki for what it was – just a 

road bike. But then again so are 

the Ducati and KTM… 

Abit old-school, but westill love a 

proper rev-counter atleast! 

It does a job on track, 

just not much of one! 



S’crsschhhhhhh... 

KAWASAKI Z1000SX £9,999 

RIDDEN APART 

THE SX FEELS MUCH 

BETTER, BUT IN THIS 

COMPANY, NOT IN THE 

SAME LEAGUE... 

ENGINE 

CHASSIS 

The 140bhp,1,043cc,ZX-10R-derived inline four is 

fairly conventional in design, though the electronics 

helping to control it are pretty advanced. Fuel is fed 

through 38mm throttle bodies,with oval sub-throttles, 

controlled by aRBW system. Full and Low power 

modes assist control. Low mode reduces bhp by 

20-25% and slows throttle response.Dual Throttle 

Valves smooth power delivery.One set controlled by 

the twistgrip the other by the ECU. Afuel economy 

light is in evidence.Aslipper clutch helps corner entry. 

The KIBS braking system links ABS and engine ECUs. 

Sensors measuring brake pressure,throttle position, 

engine rpm, clutch pressure and gear position reduce 

the chance of large drops in brake pressure as well as 

rear wheel lift. The front and rear brakes are linked. 

The Horizontal Back-link rear shock has no linkage 

allowing space to mount the exhaust’s huge 

mid-silencer.Six-axis IMU helps manage the cornering 

ABS and three-level traction control systems more 

accurately.Dry weight is 215kg. 

Highlights 

All day comfort 

TC &Corner ABS 

Less than £10k 

Tokico radials 

215kg (dry) 

140bhp (claimed) 

TRACK 6 

Needs care and planning 

FAST ROAD 7 

Still abit weighty 

HOOLIGAN 8 

Yeah, it’s upfor that 

NEW RIDER 8 

Flexible and planted 


Just another inline four 

Verdict 6/10 

Ride it all day at 80% and feel content. Push on 

harder than that and you’ll start tofeel alot less 

comfortable with the SX’s weight counting 

against it. Not too pricey though. 

+ COMFY, FLEXIBLE MOTOR, GOOD BRAKES, EASY 

TO RIDE –UPTOAPOINT 

– NEEDS TOWEIGH LESS TO MAKE THE GRADE 

No KTM or Ducati. 

but still decent! 

NEIL’S 

NEEDLE 

Ifelt alittle sorry for the 

Kawasaki on this test, for 

what is essentially acracking 

all-round bike itleft mealittle 

underwhelmed inthe company 

of the other two. The ZX-10 

derived engine and gearbox 

needs tobeworked hard and 

the soft suspension doesn’t 

inspire confidence when 

pushing hard onroad and 

track. It’s not all doom and 

gloom… Ispent alot of time 

with this bike over the three 

days and really enjoyed its 

effortless touring capabilities. 

Back off asmidge from balls 

out riding and the Z1000SX 

starts todeliver. Agood value, 

comfortable and reliable sports 

tourer that shouldn’t be 

overlooked. Leave it in full 

power mode, set the screen 

in the high position and it 

will serve you well. 


TEST 

KTM1290Super Duke GT 

portsbikes come inall sportsbike with virtually none of 

shapes, sizes and guises. the uncompromising drawbacks 

SWhatever your opinion of amore track-focused weapon. 

of this one, you shouldn’t ever Youonly have to check out 

underestimate its pace and stuff like its 173bhp motor, top 

brilliant entertainment value. spec WP suzzies, and M50 

The Super Duke GTisjust so Brembos to know it’s obviously 

easy to have an absolute ball on, been built for abit of speed. I 

so thrilling, so utterly capable, rode one for the first time just a 

yet sodamned useful and few months back and reckon I 

practical if you want those boxes fell for it within yards, not miles. 

of maturity ticking too. I’m not There might be afew things to 

sure there’s abike out there to quibble over, but believe me 

touch its massive versatility. you’ll be distracted so much by 

It’s still abit of aleft field the riotous time you’re having, 

superbike inthe minds of many, you’ll either not notice them, 

though as soon as you’ve ridden or not giveatossanyway. 

one you’ll realise it fits right into My first stint on the GT this 

the sector. This is a real world 

time round came at Oulton, 

something I was keen on as I’d 

not ridden one on track before. 

It made achange to be able to 

give it large far away from the 

NEIL’S 

NEEDLE 

Sitting aboard the big KTM is a 

surprisingly nice place tobe 

with its commanding seating 

position and 175bhp engine to 

turn yo 

Queen’s Highway, simply 

because you’re liable to get 

locked up whenever you do that. 

The KTM does awhole load of 

things well, but one thing it 

does in an instant isturn you 

into amassive twat! 

There might beafair few bikes 

out there capable ofturning a 

faster lap, but few can match 

the 1290’s hooligan tendencies. 

Ican’t exactly put my finger 

on why it’s got the yobbish 

personality it does. All Iknowis 

assoonasyousetoffyouwant 

toeither start stunting like a 

demon, or carving through traffic 

like a demented despatcher. 

Resisting going bonkers needs 

the discipline of a monk. 

Gary hadn’t taken to the 

Austrian bike quite as much 

as I expected to begin with, 

mumbling a bit about a slightly 

nervous front end. He reckoned 

it knocked his confidence a little. 

Within around half a lap I knew 

what he was referring to, though 

Neil and I knew it was just a 

case of the lack of weight over 

the bars that was leading to the 

light shimmying. It’s anormal 

symptom of super-nakeds, and 

going over Oulton’s crests at 

speed only highlighted the 

characteristic more. But with a 

steering-damper to take care of 

it, along with the distraction of 

the almost never-ending giggling 

the KTM so readily promotes, I 

wasn’t bothered bythe trait in 

the slightest. 

The Super Duke is abike you 

always feel in charge of. Ilove 

the way the riding position lets 

you boss the bike about, with 

those bars and pegs serving a 

levers for arms and legs to adjust 

exactly where you want it to 

head. Its brakes are so strong 

you’d think they’ll bend the 

forks, and have such a 

progressive feel they never 

trigger the ABS. The motor’s an 

absolute belter too. So keen to 

rev, it eats its way through gears 

so readily you think it must have 

a close-ratio box. But as well as 

The GT can boogie alright! 

Neil enjoyed the 

GT rather a lot it 

seems! 



KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE GT £15,999 

Just missing the SDR’s new dash! 

being potent, thebigV-Twin has 

all the flexible and linear delivery 

you need to attack without 

worry. Thanks to the clever 

’lecky controls, there’s no chance 

of getting out of shape anyway, 

and it’s good to know you can 

forge forward as aggressively as 

you fancy. I’m not saying you 

can’t crash the GT, but you’ve 

have to do summat pretty daft 

to get into bother. 

Blasting alongoneshort 

sectionofroadinthe Peaks on 

Verdict 9/10 

Easy to access performance, and ariot toride 

fast, the GT is acomfy upright sportsbike happy 

giving it some onboth road and track. Pricey, 

but arguably worth it. 

+ ENGINE, LECKY SUSPENSION, M50S, 

TANK RANGE, LECKY AIDS 

– ACOUPLE OFGRAND LESS WOULDN’T HURT... 

the way toBuxton after we were 

all done at Oulton emphasised 

how safe you can feel on this 

bike. Even though the road we 

were on was dirty and bumpy 

as hell, thanks to being able to 

soften the suspension in a jiffy, 

and that riding position giving 

you confidence to ride out a slide, 

regardless of how unlikely that 

was to occur, you could still push 

on hard. Not only is the KTM a 

totally entertaining sportsbike, 

it’s one you can get thebestout 

ofmoreeasilytoo. 

It’shardnottolove. 

Alot... 

ENGIN NE 

CHASSIS 

The 173bhp, 1301cc, 75° V-twin uses much of the 

Super Duke R’s components including forged pistons 

and twin plug ignition. But there’s also new cylinder 

heads featuring optimised ports,anew crankshaft, 

and revised EFi mapping to meet Euro 4rules.Fuel is 

fed through 56mm throttle bodies controlled by aRBW 

system. Much technology and rider aids are featured 

including aquickshifter,hill start assist, tyre pressure 

monitors,cruise control and cornering ABS.Aslipper 

clutch assists aggressive corner entry. 

Weighing just 9.8kg, the GT’s laser-cut steel trellis 

frame features slightly more relaxed geometry than 

the Rmodel, but the big differences between the 

other naked KTM models are the button-operated, 

electronic WP semi-active suspension, steering 

damper,and huge 23-litre fuel tank for longer distance 

tomfoolery.Brembo M50 calipers bite on twin 320mm 

discs offering massive stopping power with excellent 

progression. Dry weight is 205kg, wheelbase 1482mm, 

and rake and trail 25° and 107mm. Panniers an extra. 

Electronic trickery starts here! 

Highlights 

An Rwith comfort 

Electronics galore 

WP suspension 

Brembo M50S 

205kg (dry) 


TRACK 8 

Lapped it up 

FAST ROAD 8 

Watch for cops 

HOOLIGAN 9 

It is aKTM man! 

NEW RIDER 3 

Abit too naughty 


Abit pricey at £16k 

Big bike, big Gaz, big fun! 


TEST 

Ducati 

SuperSport S 

ITHOUGHT THE LIMITED 

POWER WOULD KILL IT AT 

OULTON PARK, BUT IWAS 

VERY WRONG... 

Even with Mossy aboard, the 

SuperSport can get a shift on! 

M 

yfirst question about 

the Duke when I 

went to pick it up, 

and more to the point my 

reaction to the answer, said 

plenty. How much power has it 

got, Ienquired? Hearing it only 

had ameasly 113bhp put me on 

aright downer. Heading off to a 

faraway Oulton Park, doing laps 

of the Cheshire-based circuit and 

making it back again suddenly 

didn’t sound so rosy. Jinx, 

Ducati’s tech chief, spotted my 

curling top lip and tried to put 

me atease. “Don’t be put off, it’s 

areally good bike,” said the man 

who has ridden every single new 

Ducati for the last 20 years. What 

the ’ell does he know, thought I 

disrespectfully asIrode off. 

Yetjust aminute orsointo the 

ride and Ireckoned he might 

have apoint. The SuperSport S 

model we’d booked feels light 

and easy right from the off, but 

better still has aproperly punchy 

motor. Whenever you wind back 

the throttle there’s agood and 

healthy response. Whipping 

along the unknown back roads 

was apiece of cake thanks to 

this, and being in the right gear 

really didn’t much matter. Ifyou 

want more speed, you just give 

it more juice. Add some lovely 

steering that felt itcould track 

the tightest of lines, and an ace 

brake/fork combination, and all 

felt fine and dandy on the Duke. 

There was alot more tolike 

about the SuperSport Sin due 

course, but even from the early 

miles Jinx’s vote on the bike 

seemed to have some cred. Gary 

and Neil got good comments 

from me when they asked what 

Ireckoned to it at the first fuel 

stop, but there was no way they 

were getting the keys! 

The funny thing about the 

motor though, is that it doesn’t 

feel anywhere near as fast as 

it obviously is. Sure itpulls 

strongly, but so well spread is the 

delivery, Iactually thought the 

speedo was over-reading for a 

while. Bythe time we got tothe 

hotel Iwas well impressed by the 

bike. It’s not something to rave 

about, but more ofadark horse 

capable ofsurprising people 

–just as it had done me. Even 

though it had ticked aload of 

boxes during the run up to 

Northwich, Istill thought it’d 

show its limitations quite early 

on track the next day. That 

limited power was bound to kill 

its pace at Oulton. Again, Iwas 

proved wrong. Very wrong. 

Even though it doesn’t feel too 

potent, and even though Gary on 

the KTM pulled afair bit out of 

me exiting the chicane, the Duke 

is still competitive. Ireckon it’s 

the competence of the overall 

package it has that makes it so 

effective. The Öhlins suspenders 

Not colour, but still excellent... 

of this Smodel really are just the 

job. Ask the kit to do what you 

want, and it just gets on with 

doing it. The support, feel and 

feedback is all ace, letting you 

get the very best from the tyres, 

motor and brakes. And though I 

used to think quickshifters and 

blippers were just agimmick not 

that long ago, on this bike the set 

up isareal asset to progress. 

Gary complained it killed the 

motor too often if accidentally 

brushed, but when he tucked his 

massive plates out ofthe way, 



DUCATI SUPERSPORT S £12,795 

The 

S has all the toys! 

ENGINE 

E 

CHASSIS 

Nabbed from the Hypermotard, the motor features 

some mods and additions to suit its supersport role. 

New cases,heads,revised RBW fuelling and 53mm 

throttle bodies are the keys differences.Two of the 

three power modes,Sport and Touring give full power 

with differing throttle response,with the Urban choice 

limiting things to just 75bhp.Exhaust system is also 

different, with asimilar styled Akrapovic or two-thirds 

underseat WSB-aping pipes available as extras.The 

RBW means switchable eight-level traction control. 

The engine is astressed member of the steel trellis 

frame with the main section bolted to both cylinder 

heads and the subframe to the rear of the motor.The 

front 48mm Öhlins forks are fully adjustable,and 

bigger than the standard bike’s 43mm Marzocchis. 

At the rear,afully adjustable higher spec Öhlins unit 

replaces the stock bike’s Sachs monoshock. Dry 

weight is 184kg, wheelbase 1478mm, and rake and 

trail 24° and 91mm. The two-position screen is easily 

adjustable by hand. 

Surprisingly good ontrack! 

Highlights 

937ccV-twin 

Up/down shifter 

Brembo calipers 

Öhlins suspension 

184kg (dry) 


TRACK 8 

Tight tracks are best 

FAST ROAD 9 

Brilliant road hack 

HOOLIGAN 8 

Wheelies and skids! 

NEW RIDER 7 

Friendly as… 


Ducati porn 

the ‘problem’ was solved. Later 

after I’d released the key tohim 

and Neil, both had much to 

compliment the bike for. 

Light, easy, understated, 

deceptive, comfy, effective and 

friendly were some ofthe words 

they repeatedly uttered. The pegs 

touch down abit too readily at 

times, but they still can’t stop the 

Duke doing good lap times. 

When the final chequered flag 

came out all we wanted to do 

was head off for Knockhill to do 

more circuits up there. Instead 

we packed up, rode to nearby 

Buxton, praised it over atop 

curry and sampled its pleasures 

the next day riding itback home 

through the Peak District. 

The air-temp’ gauge was often 

in single figures during the three 

days, but the SuperSport S 

always keeps your ticker warm. 

If you ever line up to do battle 

with one on either road or track, 

don’t underestimate it. It might 

not have much to shout about on 

paper, but on Tarmac it’s really 

quite an effective bit of kit that’s 

hard not to rate highly. Ah, and 

it looks tops, too. 

SECOND OPS, NEIL WINDSOR 

NE SEC EI O 

IL N L’ D ’S O 

NE 

DU 

EE A ED 

T DLE 

DU E C AT SUPER 

D I LE RSPORT S 

INItNt Neil's dedi doioloe'es es ssnNn’ Needle N’tet eadak teta dklke long torealise 

this devious Ducati isgunning 

fIfotordr It doesn’t dgogl goloeorsryny utust sitinangkg takedilifoffofenergre 

dlongentno 

ntot 

realise 

this itstasacdct t devious dtetieicvcs vsis.o. TuTh uhshe Ducati sDsmumc mo coaoo aototithi h,s, is gunning 

formrmg 

ma glory galanonaragygeu eauabsbi using bl ilnlene113bhpmotoris 

different tactics. 

The deceptivelyfastbutnever 

smooth, manageable 113bhp 

motor scary.Quietlygoingaboutits 

is deceptively fast but 

never business, scary. urging Quietly yougoing to make about 

its business,urgingyouto make 

rapid sustained progress and 

encouraging you to ride like a 

proper tool. The slim chassis and 

seemingly diminutive statue was 

all day comfy even for my 6ft 2 

frame. Comfort and confidence is 

enhanced with the Impeccable 

Ohlins suspension which suits 

both road and track keeping 

things stable and composed but 

never harsh. For me this stealth 

missile is the perfect bike. Ducati 

Verdict 9/10 

Dead easy to underrate, or even overlook, the 

Duke is way more than the sum of its parts. 

Ignore the spec sheet and ride it. Believe us, 

it’s aproverbial dark horse. 

+ MOTOR, CHASSIS, BRAKES, USABILITY, STYLE 

– 10BHP MORE WOULD BE LOVELY 


TEST 

ENGINE 

TECH 

DATA 

Type 

Bore xStroke 

Compression 

Fuelling 

Claimed Power 

Claimed Torque 

Kawasaki Z1000SX 

KTM 1290 SD GT 

Ducati SuperSport S 

PRICE DIMENSIONS 

CHASSIS 

ELECTRONICS 

RBW/Riding Modes 

Traction Control 

ABS 

Quickshifter 

Wheelie Control 

Launch Control 

Frame 

Front Suspension 

Rear Suspension 

Front Brakes 

Rear Brakes 

Wheelbase 

Seat Height 

DryWeight 

Fuel Capacity 

Price 

From 

How many old farts does it take to 

stick on a tail pack? Two... 

Fast Bikes = Fast Touring! 

Fuel economy on all is decent... 


See page 8 

for details 


SUBSCRIBE 

One hugely underrated machine! 

I REALLY STRUGGLE TO 

DECIDE WHICH OF THE TWO 

EURO TOOLS I’D PREFER IN 

MY GARAGE... 

Conclusion 

ight then –any of this 

trio isworth apunt. 

RYesI’ve slagged off the 

Kawasaki abit, but justifiably so. 

Lined up against the two Euro 

bikes the Z1000 feels fat, wobbly 

and dull. That’s it then, abag of 

shite to be ignored? Well, no, 

not quite, the chief factor being 

price. The SX is £2,796 cheaper 

than the SuperSport S,and a 

whopping £6k less than the GT! 

Bloody ’ell that’s alot of tyres, 

trackdays, beers, holidays etc. 

Youcould narrow the gap by 

chucking afew quid at the Essex 

to improve it, but Ireckon that 

wouldn’t be dosh well spent. 

It’s more ‘tour’ than ‘sport’ 

and if you opt for the Kwacker, 

you should just enjoy the easy 

way it rides and the comfy 

armchair feel it gives all day, 

even ifthe engine is abit peaky 

when going for broke. Besides, if 

you’re not interested in trackdays 

or don’t go bonkers every ride, 

then the bike’s limits won’t 

trouble you. Like Gary said, 

plenty like toget amove on, but 

not everyone wants tobescared 

shitless by a200bhp superbike. 

Worthier of praise are the 

Duke and KTM. They’re properly 

good bikes and worth defending 

down the pub if adebate kicks 

off. The Ducati’s definitely less 

in yer face, but there’s nogetting 

away from it, the V-twin is a 

cracking bit ofkit. Forget the 

spec’ sheet, this isn’t abike best 

judged by numbers alone. For 

sure, 113bhp sounds (and is) 

puny in ink. On the road though, 

the drive is impressive in terms 

of how well it shoves the 

SuperSport forward soreadily, 

and because it’s always ontap 

when the grip’s twisted. 

The engine tune is bang-on 

realistic. Even ontrack, the 

Italian bike puts up abloody 

good show. That’s as much 

down to the way ithandles as 

the usability of the engine. Okay, 

so Oulton’s twists, turns, and 

undulations show the bike in 

abetter light than somewhere 

like Snetterton would. Even 

so, there’s nodoubting the 

combination of its light feel, 

lovely steering, top notch 

suspension and great brakes 

make itway more competitive 

than you might expect. 

In short, as apackage the 

Duke works, and works really 

well. It’s bound to raise plenty of 

eyebrows this year. Mine haven’t 

come down yet. Ihaven’t been 

surprised quite as much by a 

bike for along time, Iloved it. 

The other serious contender in 

the camp is the utterly brilliant 

KTM. Man, this is some bike. It’s 

got alot of everything. But it’s 

not just the power, quality ’lecky 

suspension and superb brakes 

et al that makes it so good. 

Just as important ishow much 

you can take advantage of all 

that quality kit. For me, it’s the 

dominant riding position that 

helps you boss the KTM around, 

making it do what you want, 

rather than the bike taking 

control of you. Sometimes, the 

way you can chuck itabout, stuff 

it deep into corners and get on 

the gas so bleedin’ easy feels like 

you’re taking the absolute piss. 

It is, ofcourse, aload to old 

bollocks to say this, but the GT 

often feels virtually uncrashable. 

One of its other main virtues, 

even if it’s something that could 

easily drop you into aton of 

bother, isthe way the bike turns 

you into nutter mode so bloody 

easily. This bike isareal laugh to 

ride and constantly encourages 

you toadd more speed. 

Its massive capability and 

insanely strong engine is so hard 

to avoid sampling and enjoying. 

But surf the KTM wave of fun 

too much, and too often, and 

you risk appearing in front of the 

beak on acharge ofriding like 

acomplete twat. I’d advise on 

handing the man ofthe law the 

GT’s key and telling him to give 

it agohimself... 

Ireally can’t decide which of 

the two Euro tools I’d prefer to 

have in my garage. Both of ’em 

do adamned fine job of getting a 

move on, and are comfy enough 

to do that day after day. They’re 

both very real world and can be 

used for avariety of tasks as our 

mini tour/trackday gig proved. 

What iscertain, isboth have 

enough cred tolet you argue 

your case down the boozer if 

someone wants to get abit 

snobby about sportbikes. 

They just have to be rated 

really highly, end of… 

THANK YOU 

Big thanks have togototop 

trackday hosts No Limits. They 

looked after us and everyone else 

superbly at Oulton. Friendly,helpful, 

hospitable,and very well organised, 

they were great people to do lots 

of laps with.Matt Waldron,his dad 

Neil and the lovely Ewan were 

especially decent to us.Cheers 

chaps,we’ll beback. 

01525 877087 

www.nolimitstrackdays.com 



TOURED STUPID CONTINUED... 

TYRE TALK 

Just likethe bikes, the threetyres we used aren’t cutting 

edgesports-wise, but also just likethe bikes, they’remore 

than capable of surprising youquite abit... 

T h e S 2 1 g r ip p e d a n d w e n t ! 

A 

swell as giving the 

bikes agood run out, 

we levered onaset 

of three different sorts of 

Bridgestone tyres to check their 

performance on both road and 

track, for atotal of around 

750-miles over our days on test. 

Just like the Duke, KTM and 

Kwack, the type of Bridgestones 

we selected were ones offering 

less than the very highest 

performance, chosen instead 

because they would give a 

much broader and more realistic 

range of capability to suit the 

expectations of this test. Wewere 

lucky to get all sorts of different 

weather conditions over the three 

days, with temperatures ranging 

from just 2°C when wealso saw 

some light snow, to arelatively 

balmy and sunny 18°C period for 

awhile. Ofcourse, being in the 

UK meant it rained from time to 

time, and because we went to 

Oulton, wegot to check ultimate 

grip for extended periods. 

Being at the Cheshire track 

for most of the day also gave us 

achance to push things in very 

varied temperatures, with quite 

chilly conditions greeting our 

early laps. With Bridgestone’s 

tyre guru Gary Hartshorne on 

hand to answer any questions we 

had, we learned all weneeded to 

about the rubber. Ofcourse the 

big question is, did the hoops 

do the business for us? 

The S21 is also capable onmuch 

sportier tackle, like inAbu Dhabi... 


TEST 

If you wear them out this far, you’re doing 

well! And may need some new ones... 

BRIDGESTONE S20 OE 

FITTED TO THE KAWASAKI Z1000SX 

Actually, it’s alie to say we 

fitted the S20s tothe Kwack 

–they’d been already chucked 

on by the men at Kawasaki over 

in Japan. The final spec of these 

OE tyres isn’t really decided by 

Bridgestone. Asinthe case ofall 

OE rubber, tyre firms are given a 

brief by the bike manufacturer in 

terms of what they want from a 

tyre, and instructed to provide 

asuitable end product. As Gary 

wasn’t privy toKawasaki’s 

design brief he said it was 

difficult for him tocomment 

on the performance of the 

S20s fitted to the SX. 

“OE tyres can vary either 

subtly or completely differently 

to the standard aftermarket 

version of the tyre. Profiles, 

compound, carcass materials, 

construction, tread pattern and 

depth, or even the overall size 

of atyre can vary to lesser or 

greater degrees. They can end 

up being completely different 

to the stuff you buy over the 

counter,”said Gary. 

On the road the S20s felt fairly 

decent. Grip, feel, steering, wet 

performance was all good 

enough for us not tocomplain. 

But ultimately it was the two key 

aspects of heavy weight and 

crude suspension that decided 

the limit of the bike and tyre’s 

progress. AtOulton, the S20s 

were okay, but no more. The 

bike’s electronics looked after us 

well enough whenever wegot 

too giddy with the throttle or 

brakes, though again that was 

probably more ofareflection of 

the parameters set byKawasaki’s 

technicians than the absolute 

grip of the rubber. 

They were asked todoatough 

job, and the combination of fairly 

big power, relatively poor wheel 

control and needing tosupport a 

lot ofkilos began to show. There 

was avague feel whenever you 

pushed the bike really hard, 

and the roughed-up look ofthe 

rubber showed the strain they’d 

been put under. Gary was keen 

to defend the tyres and added 

that, unlike the standard over the 

counter S20s –which have since 

been superseded by the S20EVOs 

and S21s –the ones onthe 

Kawasaki may well have not 

been designed for trackday use. 

Whatever, just like the bike itself, 

they were fine up to apoint, but 

it was always wise to respect 

their limits. For all weknow, 

Bridgestone may have been 

instructed to make amore 

durable version to give 

significantly better mileage. 

The Bridgestone range section we care about! 

The OE S20s did a job, but not much more. 


Multi-compounds on show. 


BRIDGESTONE S21 

FITTED TO THE DUCATI SUPERSPORT S 

In many ways the S21s fitted to 

the Duke had the easiest time 

of all the tyres. AHypersport 

tyre designed exactly for the 

use we put it to –fast road 

riding and the occasional track 

day, the rubber was tested less 

simply because of the quality 

of the SuperSport S’s Öhlins 

suspension, with its more modest 

power output and smooth 

delivery also reducing the strain. 

“Good suspension can really 

enhance atyre’s performance,” 

says Gary, “It’s exactly why 

superstock racers improve their 

suspension. Doing that allows 

them to get much more from a 

set of tyres. It’s all part of the 

grip equation. Conversely, ifyou 

fitted these tyres to the Z1000SX, 

you wouldn’t appreciate their 

advantage asits crude 

suspension would negate it.” 

From the off the S21sworked 

well on the Duke atOulton. Grip 

was asgood asIneeded, and 

their sharper profiles helped the 

bike turn through the chicanes 

very nicely. Inthe second session 

though, Ifelt feedback was 

lacking slightly. Testing the other 

two bikes meant the track was 

alot warmer by the time Igave 

them another go and the 

difference was obvious. With 

more heat the feel improved a 

hell of alot, and combined with 

the Ducati’s excellent chassis I’d 

wager itwas possible to do the 

best laps onthis rubber –even if 

the V-Twin was over 60horses 

down on power tothe KTM. 

More surprising was how well 

they fared along the wet roads of 

Leicestershire the following day. I 

can’t say they were aslimpet-like 

as the T30EVOs, but Ifelt very 

secure giving it some infront of 

the camera. Gary said Bridgestone 

has been specifically trying to 

improve the wet weather 

performance of the S21s, thanks 

to technical advances helping 

them to extend the mileage of 

the rubber to acceptable levels. 

Bearing this achievement in mind 

the tyre firm can concentrate on 

other aspects of the tyre’s 

performance to broaden its 

overall capabilities. 

The S21 loves its own reflection... 

What? 

New shoes, sir? 


TEST 


ApparentlyLeonHaslamcandosome 

amazinglyfastlapsofDoningtonon 

T30s,butthisisn’tLeon... 

T30s –isthere anything they can’t do? 

BRIDGESTONE T30 EVOS 

FITTED TO THE KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE GT 

You’d be forgiven for thinking 

these T30EVO sports touring 

tyres just wouldn’t be able to cut 

it –especially when they were 

being caned round Oulton ona 

173bhp super naked! In reality, 

they were the revelation of the 

test. As Gary pointed out, tyre 

companies are under so much 

pressure toimprove their tyres to 

meet the demands of ever 

increasing bike performance and 

customer preferences, they’ve 

evolved at aremarkable rate. 

“These days, sports-touring tyres 

like the T30EVOs can match the 

performance ofsome of our best 

sportsbikes tyres from less than 

ten years ago –and do nearly 

four times the mileage,” said 

Gary. “BSB star Leon Haslam 

can do a1m35s lap onhis dad’s 

race school Fireblades round 

Donington on these tyres, so 

grip’s not in question.” 

Only in the afternoon when 

the temperatures got into the 

high teens and the KTM had 

been thrashed in every session, 

did the tyres begin todrop off 

slightly. Even then they didn’t 

slide, but just moved around a 

little to show you they were 

getting atad warm. Even so, 

you didn’t really need to 

slacken the pace at all. 

What they really impressed us 

with though, was their ability 

when conditions weren’t perfect. 

In the morning atOulton, when 

air and track temperatures were 

in single figures they still felt 

impressively secure. IfI’m 

honest, Iwasn’t too surprised at 

those grip levels as I’ve been 

running them on the road for a 

few years. But I’ve not tried them 

on such apowerful bike on track 

when it’s been so chilly before. 

Even on lap one, they felt like 

they must have been in warmers! 

Better still, when itrained the 

day after Oulton, finding the grip 

limits of rubber was down to 

bravery. They’re outstandingly 

good in the wet, underlining just 

how versatile their performance 

is. Iknow ifIhad some racier 

rubber fitted to the GTIwould 

have only been faster in the 

afternoon at Oulton when the 

temperatures rose quite abit. 

Going as hard oncold, wet roads 

wouldn’t have felt anywhere 

near as safe. Neil summed itup 

best by saying: “Before this test 

Ihad avery cynical approach 

to sports-touring tyres, thinking 

they wouldn’t have had good 

enough grip to cope with riding 

on track. I’ve been shown this 

isn’t the case. Ican’t believe 

what they can do!” 

The boys ready to rock! 


TEN WITH 

Th e b o y w a s O N IT a t O liv e r ’s 

M o u n t ! W in a f t e r w in ... 

W O R D S : D A N G E R O U S B R U C E I M A G E S: C H A R L E S ‘ C H A R L IE’ CHARLES 

TENMINUTES WITH... 

DEAN HARRISON 

TELLING ITSTRAIGHT 

He’s oneofthe most characterful, honest and talented racers on the TT grid. 

And he’s probablythe onlyone who’scrashed aHornetintoaMicra… 

ean’s ego’s smaller that agnat’s 

penis. Ifitweren’t for the results 

Dsheets that prove this TT winner’s 

podiumed in every TT class aside from 

Superbike, you’d have no other way of really 

knowing the talents that lie within. But that’s 

the charm behind the humble Yorkshire-born 

racer, who met up for abrew (sorry, Guy –I 

mean, chief, boss, vicar...), and anatter to 

help us get abetter of grasp ofwho he is, 

how hethinks and what he makes of this 

whole road racing malarkey… 

Ialways wanted to do the TT… 

The thing was knowing when to go? My first 

time was abit of ablur. The thing that really 

made ithappen was Ian Bell Motorcycles 

gave me an R6 to ride, and that was it. I 

flogged the 600cc race bike Ihad and bought 

an ’07 R1with the money. Until that point 

I’d never even ridden athousand inmylife. 

I’d have only been 21.Iwent and did 

Scarborough on it, then rocked up at 

the TT. There were alot of things winged 

that year, but that’s just how itwas. 

Ibelieve it’s all in the mind… 

If your head’s inthe right place, everything 

else goes well. That’s just how itis. Iwas 

nervous when Idid my first TT, but the place 

was familiar tome. I’d been going over with 

my dad, who raced sidecars, since 1993. It 

was like asecond home to me. Iknew people 

and more importantly Iknew which way the 

track went. Iwas familiar with it all, because 

we used tojust go over and bang loads of 

laps in in the car. 

It meant Ifelt really comfortably when I 

turned up for my first race. Itwas ahell ofa 

thing to take on, especially with such little 

racing experience, but it all worked out. I 

finished 12th in my first year. That wasn’t 

too bad atall. 

Idon’t have afavourite bike… 

The twin, for example, issmall and easy; 

it’s such alaugh because you’re just pinned 

everywhere. The 600s are mint too, because 

they’re still manageable, but they’re that bit 

faster than alightweight machine. They put 

up abit more ofachallenge, you still feel 

boss of them. But the big bikes are just so 

fast and physical there. Six laps around the 

Island on a200bhp superbike can destroy 

you with ease. Itreally makes you question 

whether you can hold on for the whole 

duration of the race. Itchallenges you 

both physically and mentally. And that’s 

the appeal –that challenge. 

My dad’s win was expected, 

but not mine… 

My dad’s been competing atthe TTfor 

decades, sohehad to pull awin out the bag 

at some point. But asmuch as Iknew hehad 

that potential to pull aresult, my win came 

abit out of the blue. Don’t get mewrong, I 

was working as hard as Icould to get atop 

finish, but Iremember going past my 

pitboard in the (2014) Lightweight race and 

seeing P1, which really surprised me. I 

wasn’t going to let that go. Iscrapped it out 

to bring the little Kawasaki home at the front 

of the pack. There was something really 

special about getting my first TT win atthe 

same time as my dad’s. Itwas ace. 


DEAN HARRISON 

Iwant to get abig bike win… 

That’s my next big aim. I’ve had podiums in 

the Supersport, Lightweight and Superstock 

classes, but not yet inSuperbikes. It’s hard 

work and I’m also the kind of rider who 

thinks it takes time to pull results. You’ve 

got towork at something if you want it 

to happen. The calibre of competition is 

something else; it’s never going tobeeasy 

when any one of the top 10 on the grid are 

capable are winning. It will come with time. 

I’ll just keep chipping away atit. 

The TT gets more competitive 

year-by-year… 

Just look at the times people are now doing. 

To get onthe podium you’ve got to put in a 

132mph lap on aSuperbike, and even onthe 

stockers you’ve got to do around 131mph. 

That’s hard work. You’ve got to ride the TT 

as committed as you would beifyou were 

racing at Cadwell Park, but obviously there’s 

alot more danger involved onthe Island. 

Some people want it more than others, and 

they’re prepared to push to that next level. 

There’s also been aload more people coming 

in from BSB, who know how tonail abike. 

The other thing is that people are pushing 

harder oncold tyres with heavy fuel loads 

right from the start of the race. People are 

banging in 131mph laps from astanding 

start, which is crazy. 

Scarborough’s like home… 

As akid I’d go to Scarborough and the TT 

with mydad. It’s local to me. There’s areal 

good fan base and the crowd’s often up at 

40,000. It’s mint. Iknow people say it’s just 

alittle small track on ahillside inYorkshire, 

but it’s so much more than that. People 

always bang on about how dangerous it is. 

There’s nodenying that; it’s aroad race. But 

it’s not really that fast. If you dogooff track 

then it’s not fast like the TT. Ijust feel happy 

there and Ithink that’s why Igoalright 

around there (Dean won all seven ofthis 

year’s Bob Smith Spring Cup races –Ed). 

Idid some crashing, me… 

The best thing about my first race bike was 

the exhaust was inthe middle. Itwas a 

CBR600RR and I’d throw it down the road 

two orthree times aweekend. It was a 

scrapper by the time Isold it, but I’d do 

anything to have it back. Icut my teeth on 

that bike; Ihad aright laugh on it. I’ve tried 

to hunt itdown oneBay, but god knows 

One happy chappy! 

where itis. Ithink weall get abit 

sentimental about bikes. I’d love to 

know who’s got itnow. 

Iwork in agarage… 

Every October Igo to my local garage and 

service cars, etc. Itkeeps mebusy. Ican’t just 

sit around. Ilike engines and Ilike tobe 

tinkering with them. Ithink alot of people in 

the racing world are like that. Myfavourite 

toy atthe minute ismyC63 (Merc) and I’ve 

got an RS250 Aprilia. It’s not fast, but it’s got 

some ace expansion pipes on it and they 

sound great when you open them up. Ionly 

take itout when the sun’s shining, but Iride 

a’98 Honda Hornet every day. It’s aproper 

thing. Looks like I’ve dragged it out of a 

canal, you know what Imean. Icrashed it 

twice over winter and ploughed it into the 

side ofaNissan Micra. Do you wanna buy it? 

Iwouldn’t have anob sponsoring 

me… 

Youknow, the kind ofbloke that wants you 

to act acertain way and say certain things. 

All my sponsors are my friends. They’re the 

kind of folk Ican go sup beer with and have 

abit of banter together. They’re all good 

people and that’s how Iplan tokeep it. 

It’s great to be racing with Silicone 

again… 

The whole team are spot on. The owner’s a 

great bloke; he’s raced himself so he knows 

how itgoes and he knows exactly what I 

need. My mechanic’s spot-on, also. I’ve never 

had one mechanical issue in all the time I’ve 

been with Silicone Racing, and breakdowns 

do happen all the time at the TT. That just 

goes toshow that they know what they’re 

doing. It’s nice tobegoing back on afamiliar 

bike, too. This isthe first time I’ve competed 

on the same machinery for asecond year and 

I’m well excited about it. 

Ican do a133mph lap… 

In theory, I’ve already done it. On ideals I’ve 

already clocked 133mph laps, but it’s another 

thing sewing ittogether in arace. It’s not 

easy when you’ve got traffic to get through or 

conditions aren’t always perfect, but Iknow 

it’s achievable. You’ve got to be consistent 

and dig deep topull alap time like that, 

but it’s on the cards. Ireckon Ican do a 

sub-17-minute lap. 

Guy Martin’s gone beyond racing… 

People come up to Guy and want to know 

what record he’s going to break next or 

what TV programme he’s onwith. Most 

people who want to hang around him 

don’t even know what aFireblade is. He’s 

mainstream media. Some people go mad on 

fame, but Ireckon it’d be amassive pain in 

the arse. Can you imagine just wanting to 

go down your boozer and have apint in 

peace? He can’t. He’s knackered now. 

His boat has sailed. 

Dean left the competition far 

behind at the Spring Cup. 

Thank you &goodnight! 


FEATURE 

WORDS: MIKE BOOTH 

PICS: S TEPHEN DAVISON, HONDA, BOA’S PAUL ROBINSON… 

THE MAGIC OF 

MCGUINNESS 

Prior to hisbig crash at the North West 200, TT legend John 

McGuinness took the time to giveBoothy some IOMpointers... 

W 

hen Iwrote to Jim’ll Fix It for a 

lap around the TTcourse, alack 

of response clearly indicated 

that Iwasn’t his type. But TT legend John 

McGuinness must have taken ashine tome, 

because he was dead keen to take meout 

for aspin around the place. 

The IOM TT course is 37.7 miles long and 

Iknow first-hand how difficult it is to learn; 

this time last year Iwas coming over once 

amonth for aweekend at atime and doing 

nothing but lap, after lap, after lap. This was 

in preparation for my debut TT start. My first 

TT experience went well, everything went to 

plan. Danny Tomlinson Racing gave me a 

Honda CBR 600 RR and aBMW S1000 

RR neither of which missed abeat, 

we had beautiful weather the entire 

fortnight, got five race finishes nailed 

and clocked a122.6mph lap –nice! 

That said, the front boys are lapping a 

good 10mph faster and while Ican think 

of afew areas to improve, Icannot 

comprehend how it’s possible togothat 

fucking fast! So my plan was totake 

McGuinness on the lap, ask him hundreds of 

questions, download as much of it as Ican 

into my thick skull and vomit itback out 

onto the pages of Fast Bikes magazine. 

As we set off from the Grandstand inthe 

soggy Manx weather Iwondered how Icould 

possibly ask McPint all the questions that I 

wanted to without sounding like apestering 

schoolboy. Idecided Icouldn’t, so Ijust had 

to embrace my inner schoolboy and fire 

away, soIasked how did he start aTTrace? 

“To gofast you have got torace every bit 

of the track” said John, “The old style was to 

go steady away at the start and then build 

into it but if you want to win aTT nowadays, 

every metre ofthis track has got to be raced. 

Hard… Youcan’t beweak anywhere. You 

have got tobesharp and on it. 

“Down Bray Hill on the first lap you 

wanna get your eye in, tweak your neck 

and flex your back because you don’t get a 

warm-up lap, but you haven’t got time. It’s 

just bang –go! On anew tyre, and full tank 

of fuel, they’re ananimal. They are illhandling, 

horrible things off the start but if 

you wanna go fast you’ve got to doitstraight 

away. The bike can sometimes do things 

down there that you’re not expecting and 

it takes abit of time to recover, you can 

get something in your head that there is 

something wrong with the bike oryou have 

got abad tyre, and itcan take half alap 

to snap yourself out of it. Bythat time 

you’re out ofthe game.” 

15 

16 

14 

17 

13 

11 

10 

9 

18 

12 

8 

19 

7 

20 

21 

6 

22 

5 

23 24 25 

28 

27 

29 

4 

30 

26 

31 

32 

33 

3 

34 

35 

2 

36 

1 

37 

1/ Bray Hill 

2/ Braddan Bridge 

3/ Union Mills 

4/ Crosby 

5/ Greeba Castle 

6/ Greeba Bridge 

7/ Ballacraine 

8/ Ballaspur 

9/ Laurel Bank 

10/ Creg Willey’s Hill 

11/ Drinkwater’s Bend 

12/ Handley’s Corner 

13/ Barregarrow 

14/ Cronk Urleigh 

15/ Kirk Michael 

16/ Bishopscourt 

17/ Ballaugh Bridge 

18/ Quarry Bends 

19/ Sulby Crossroads 

20/ Ginger Hall 

21/ Glen Duff 

22/ Glentramman 

23/ Milntown 

24/ Cruickshank’s Corner 

25/ Gooseneck 

26/ Joey’s 

27/ Mountain Mile 

28/ Mountain Box 

29/ Stonebreakers Hut 

30/ Verandah 

31/ Hailwood Rise 

32/ Duke’s Bends 

33/ Kepel Gate 

34/ Creg-ny-Baa 

35/ Gob-ny-Geay 

36/ Cronk-ny-Mona 

37/ Governor’s Bridge 


MCPINT MAGIC 

THE TOP BOYS ARE 10MPH 

ALAP FASTER THAN ME &I 

JUST CANNOT COMPREHEND 

HOW IT’S POSSIBLE TO GO THAT 

F@*KING FAST! 

I’m John, and you are? 


FEATURE 

Is that Guy over there? Hey, stay still! 

John spoke such in acool confident way 

that even ifyou didn’t know who he was, 

you’d listen towhat this guy had to say! A 

bit further round and weare at Union Mills. 

“Union Mills is areally important corner, 

you have got to get right inhere asclose to 

the wall as you can.” John’s staring at a10ft 

stone wall now, pointing to it with his fingers 

outstretched on his right hand, “Bit slower 

on the right hander than you think and be 

patient on the way in.” 

As soon aswepass the apex ofthe stone 

wall John’s right hand drops, his head turns 

and eyes are now fixed on the left hand side 

of the track. “Flick left and start feeding the 

power in, you can make somuch time up 

screwing the gas on as hard asyou can. You 

have got some heat inthe tyres now, so get 

the thing opened up.” 

Just afew miles into the TT course it was 

painfully obvious that the hours that are 

going tohave to be spent studying this place 

just to get near the likes of John McGuinness 

are off the scale. Glen Vine, orBallagarey 

(affectionately known as Balla-Scary), is a 

corner that separates the men from the boys. 

It’s disgustingly fast and the thought ofriding 

like aman round Balla-Scary makes me feel 

really rather nauseous, 

so Iwas particularly 

interested to hear what 

John had to say about 

this bend. 

“On the approach to 

Glen Vine, even after 

20-years ofdoing the TT 

Icome uphere and I’m 

abit hesitant. Iknow 

what Ihave to do but 

it’s sodifficult to do it. 

Youwill hear all the 

tales ofpeople saying 

they gothrough here 

flat out but you have 

got tocome back agear 

on abig bike. When 

you’re doing 130mph plus laps the bike just 

slides all the way out of here, sliding and 

pumping, it never recovers till you get way 

up there. Youneed the confidence inyourself 

to let the bike do what it’s got to do 

underneath you while you’re going 180mph. 

Youcan’t roll off once committed, that will 

just load the front, making turning harder, 

then you’ll tie yourself in aright knot.” 

Then John looked between the trees to the 

fields and gardens and didn’t say anything 

but Iknow what he was thinking, he was 

thinking ‘tie yourself in aknot and if you’re 

lucky end up in there –ifyou’re not so lucky 

them trees will stop you alright!’ 

“Coming into Greeba and places like 

this, don’t feel like you need to anchor on. 


John’s been warned about 

his penchant for cruelty to 

vagrants before... 

Agood start is essential –every millisecond counts! 

Get your head up like abig parachute, roll 

the throttle abit. If you grab abig handful 

of brakes atthese speeds the bike is going to 

start rocking backwards and forwards and 

you just don’t need that shit. 

“Just roll it, roll it, roll it and then bang, 

back on the pipe. Sometimes it feels slower 

but it’s not.” 

By this point Iwas starting to smell John’s 

cooking. Riding the TTcourse is more than 

just trying balls out to go as fast as you can. 

It’s about knowing when less is more. 

Knowing when being abit smoother trumps 

abig numb handful ofgas. But how doyou 

learn how todothat? Can itbe taught? 

“It’s hard totry and explain the right 

and wrong way of 

doing it,” says John. 

“Everybody goes about 

it differently, some lads 

could tell you where 

every manhole cover 

and street sign is. I 

couldn’t, Iwouldn’t 

have aclue!” 

Does anyone know the TT better than 

McPint? Boothy’s got the best coach! 

It’s not long before weare at arather 

frightening section. 

“Gorse Lea, here are couple offast corners. 

The first one is easy, that’s flat out, but it can 

sometimes be awkward because it’s between 

fifth and sixth-gear. The second is the right 

twat, you want to peel in but can’t, you’ve 

got tostay out all the way round towhat 

seems too late, then peel in. It’s sohard to 

tell yourself to do it, but ifyou get it right 

you can whack the power onsohard and 

you will get anice long slide all the way 

out, driving all the way up to Ballacraine.” 

Now this is where Ican make time up! If 

John is flat out in fifth round the ‘easy’ one 

there isnowonder he is so much faster than 

me. Ithink Iwas dropping into third-gear for 

Gorse Lea –Ihave got alot to learn… 

Somewhere else Iknow I’ve plenty of room 

for improvement is through the Glen Helen 

section. This is such abeautiful place to ride 

amotorbike. The bends just roll into each 

other nicely, it’s tricky, and super technical, 

but itwill make anyone who likes riding 

abike grin from ear to ear.

MCPINT MAGIC 

“This bit, the Glen Helen section, is all one 

really. You’re never upright if you get it right. 

Use all the track round here, big swoopy 

lines. There are some big camber changes 

round here and the bike is going to get 

unsettled if you’re pushing because you have 

got to cross them while you’re making some 

big direction changes. Let it, don’t worry 

abouttheshapes the bike is making 

underneath you, just make sureit’sgoing in 

the right direction. It’s really physical through 

here, you have to really weight the pegsand 

heavethebarstogetthebiketochange 

direction. It’s hard, it’s really technical and 

this is somewhere where you need to be 

smooth but forceful onthe bike. Don’t yank 

the brakes on last minute, squeeze them a bit 

sooner but with less pressure. Same with the 

gasser, open it up earlier but not full gas, get 

it cracked and you will feel it picking up. 

Coming out of Sarah’s Cottage get it into 

fourth-gear early, get it into fifth-gear early 

and drive through the kinks. You can drive 

so hard through them because it’s uphill and 

you get out the other side and everything 

opens up for you soyou can really attack it. 

“When you do get uptothe Cronk-y- 

Voddy straight have abreather, stretch your 

back, relax, you need to because you have 

just worked fucking hard through the Glen 

Helen section. Fitness is playing abigger part 

now the bikes are getting so hard toride.” 

At the end of Cronk there’s asection of 

seriously fast bends. The type that every lap 

you think you’re going into too fast, but it’s 

not until you’re out the other side that you 

decide you could have gone faster (although 

I don’t imagine for a second that this is the 

type of problem John McGuinness ever has 

around the IOM TT course…). 

“At the 11th Milestone, use the cambers 

wherever you can, get in tight and it will pull 

you in and fire you out. Let the bike dance 

around, don’t force it. A lot of people do that 

when they are learning. Let the bike run out 

to where it needs to, there is more tarmac 

then you think. (Michael) Dunlop is good 

at that. It’s about having the confidence to 

know exactly where you are and to know 

exactly how much room you have got.” 

We weren’t on superbikes but outside the 

towns on the Isle of Man there are no speed 

The TT will miss John in2017... 

limits so even two-up in a1.0 Fiesta it didn’t 

take us long to get to Kirk Michael. 

“Douglas Road corner, as you come into 

Kirk Michael, isabit of a shitty one. The 

speed you come into here is hideous, it’s easy 

to miss it slightly and bollocks your drive up 

through the village. Get it short shifted to 

fifth-gear, make itone big sweeper and just 

drive as hard as you can, get it up on the fat 

part of the tyre. There isamanhole onthe 

way out of that you just can’t miss but it’s 

okay because you’re doing at least 150mph 

by the time you hit it, so if you doget abit of 

a spin or akick from it, its 100yards behind 

you before you even know about it!” 

Out the back of Kirk Michael we approach 

my favourite bit. A really, really fast and 

flowing section called Bishopscourt. 

“The left right at Bishopscourt is absolutely 

pinned, you can gain so much time but the 

bike will be dancing around all over the place 

and the hedge just gets closer and closer. You 

need so much confidence round here! If you 

get your line right the left-right-left just after, 

at Icemans, is flat-chat as well. You will be a 

matter of inches away from the kerb, the 

hedge, then the kerb again and it’s really, 

really physical through there. The bike won’t 

want to turn so, boss it. Make the bike go 

where you want, let it know who’s boss!” 

A few dozen Fiesta rev-limiters later and 

we were half way down Sulby Straight. 

Idid it myyyyyyy way! 

“The bumps start atSulbynow,itwasn’t 

badhereforyearsbutit’s dead bumpy now, 

and it doesn’t get any better as you go past 

Ginger Hall either. I had the biggest scare 

I’ve ever had on the IOMinthissection,just 

after Kerromoar. Biggest scare byfar. 

“Ihad alock tolock tank-slapper just as 

it goes over the top of this crest, bang, bang, 

bang, bang, bang. I was just a passenger, 

total passenger. It snapped the lock stops, 

bust all the fairing, I was hanging off the 

side of it!” 

Having cut my teeth on the short circuits 

I really struggled with the bumps, so it was 

encouraging to hear that even the best of the 

best can be caught out. The bumps don’t 

really disappear until you’re out of Ramsey 

and up onto the mountain section. This 

was the bit that I was looking forward to, 

how the king of the mountain does it. 

Yeehaa! 


FEATURE 

“It’s all about knowing where you’re 

going up here, aconfidence thing really. 

When you’re learning and you’re not 100per 

cent sure how much track there isonthe exit 

you can’t throw the thing in like you would 

at Brands Hatch. It’s acase ofbuilding it up.” 

As we approach The Gooseneck, John 

points to the inside of the track. 

“You wanna be tight over there, don’t rush 

in, it’s really important you make that apex. 

Soon as you’re in, hard on the gas. You can 

give it abig handful out of here and you need 

to because it’s uphill. Even on the big bike 

you can feel itsapping the power. Youneed 

to drive all the way uphere, keep it pinned 

for this first left, aquick roll for the second 

one and then back on the gas. You have got 

to beinch perfect with your turn-in point 

there ifyou want to do that fast.” 

All bends that Iwas down agear and 

on the anchors, er… 

“Snotty Bridge, after Guthrie’s isanother 

really important one. Itgets you out onto the 

mountain mile so if you’re slow out of here 

you’re losing time for the next 30seconds or 

so. It’s pretty simple really, just don’t try and 

carry too much lean angle and clip the 

bridge. Once you’re through you’re safe but 

don’t, for fuck’s sake, start daydreaming 

down here because ifyou forget about one 

of these kinks at 200mph it will have ya!” 

And they nearly did! Before I’d ridden on 

closed roads round the Mountain course I 

hadn’t realised how much of akink these 

‘kinks’ were. The speed that a200bhp bike 

hits pinned in top is beyond insane, the 

concentration levels required to negotiate 

even the slightest of kinks is daft. It wasn’t 

long before the Creg-ny-Baa was in sight. 

“You’ve got to really watch itcoming into 

here, you have just been doing 200mph so 

when you slow down to100mph you think 

you can get off and walk but it’s still way too 

fast for the bend. Last thing you want to do is 

crash here because there are always hundreds 

John loves itwhen 

bends come tohim... 

of people watching, mind you at least there 

will be someone to buy you apint!” 

It seemed like five minutes after weset off 

from The Grandstand that wewere back at 

Douglas. Governor’s Bridge is the very last 

and slowest section of the TTCourse. 

“Just be patient, you’re never going to gain 

amassive amount of time round here so 

don’t do anything stupid. It’s first gear and if 

you give itabigger handful than you ought 

to, you will definitely know about it. Get the 

bike over the little crest before you nail it, 

but once you get it stood up, crack on!” 

The rush hour traffic on Glencrutchery 

Road gave me chance to have achat to John 

about general stuff and how to approach a 

TT as arelative newbie. 

“Don’t take itthe wrong way, Boothy, but 

we all know you have been abit of a 

head-banger and acrasher! People have 

probably drilled itinto you, so you’re 

automatically thinking ‘oh fuck, that was 

close’ which is alright, because weall want 

to be safe but itdoesn’t always help the job 

to go fast. Concentrate on what you’re doing, 

but staying relaxed is as important. One of 

my best years was coming over early with 

Hutchy and Rutter. We got into the culture, 

the Manx way of life. It’s sochilled out here 

it’s like adifferent planet, soembrace it.” 

So, that’s myplan! Come TT 2017 I’ll be 

trying my utmost to remember every last 

word John said in the slim hope that one 

day Iwill enjoy afraction of the success that 

he has. Inthe meantime, it’s back to late 

nights glued toacomputer screen watching 

on-board laps. Roll on June, Ican’t wait! 

See you onthe Isle of Man! 

And now, Boothy, 

it’s over to you! 


FEATURE 

W O R D S:B EN JA M IN J K U B A S -C R O NIN PICS: AS DESIGN 

DIY TT 

RACER 

Gary Johnson is taking it upon himself to buildhis TT 

Superstock &Superbike, in his house. The madman… 

I 

“ f a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing 

yourself” –saidsomebodywithfartoo 

much time (and probably money) on 

their hands, sometime, somewhere. For the 

2017 TT,GaryJohnsonistakingthis 

approach himself, eschewing joining an 

established squad for the Isle of Man’s main 

events, and instead building both bikes for 

Superstock and Superbike – in his house. 

When we sayhouse,weofcoursemean 

lounge, conservatory, kitchen, or wherever 

he has a spare square inch of space. 

So, what on earth possessed him to take it 

all upon himself? What goes in to building 

TT racers exactly, and why do it in his home, 

hmm, Gary, do tell? 

“Idon’t know, because it’s destroying me 

right now”, said Gary, “the pressure is getting 

far too great, especially with people not 

delivering goods on time and so on. Using a 

new model means waiting for stuff, being 

pissed off, and as I’m not factory supported 

aside fromthehelpfromfriendsandgood 

people in the industry, it’s all on me, which 

is rendering me pretty useless and there’s 

less than six weeks to go until the TT! I’m 

having to lean on people, my dad has just 

taken a bike over to Maxton suspension for 

example, then there’s all the organising, the 

logistics, the boardings, the colours, it’s 

becoming anightmare.Ifmybikesweresat 

ready everything else would be so much 

easier, but we’re working through it, 

we’ll keep plodding on!” 

Okay then! You’ve chosen the new Suzuki 

GSX-R1000 for both classes, so, why at home 

and why Suzuki? 

“I’m doing this at home as we were going 

to be working long days and nights. My 

garage is taken up, like a lot of garages, with 

aload of crap. Now my up and downstairs 

bedrooms arebothstorageandthelounge 

and conservatory is perfect, so bought some 

flooring and at least we’d have somewhere 

comfy to work in rather than freezing our 

nuts offinthegarage. 

“I’mbuildingbothbikesinthe 

conservatory,andmySupersport bikes 

are currently in my garage, all in varying 

states of not being finished! I’ve chosen 

the Suzukis for a couple of reasons. One 

because they’ll actually be both very similar, 

with just a few differences. The other is 

that Iknowalreadythey’regood! 

“Ialsowantedtodothismyself due to my 

experiences in the past, so now it’s all down 

to us, rather than join a team that doesn’t do 

exactly what they say, or don’t listen to what 

you’re saying. Kawasaki was aconsidered 

option, thebikeisknowntomeandin 

hindsightwouldhavebeeneasytosortout. 

ButmanyguysridethemandI’d seen dyno 

runs of theGSX-Randitlookedhandy. 

WhenIgotitIwentforaquick rip around 

the village and it felt really good, it was easy 

to ride, a long way from being a race bike but 

still good. I did consider the BMW, but not 

the Yamaha R1 as it’s not shownitspotential 

yetinroadracing.OriginallyIwasonly 

lookingatKawasakiandBMW,butIwas 

struggling with a throttle issue on the 

Beemer and if I was in a German team 

who couldn’t fix the issue, what chance 

did I have of getting it sorted on my own? 

I didn’t want to stumble through another 

season like that, which kind of tripped me 

into the Suzuki thing. 

“With Michael Dunlop also on a Suzuki, 

there’s more publicity with running one, 

which is a bonus. I could have been on with 

it already if I’d have gotten stuff promised 

while otherteamsdid.ButIdidn’t.Ihave 

about£20kofpartscurrentlysatinthe 

wildernesssomewhere,andbikessat here 

with no wheels or swingarms in. But I’m 

staying positive!” 

Clearly! So, the Superstock bike, what 

goes into turning your standard machine 

in to a TT stocker then? 

“Well, the very first port of call is the 

suspension, what to use? I’ve been involved 

with K-Tech for a few years with good 


HOME TT BUILD 

Where’s the bloody 

pizzas I ordered?! 


FEATURE 

Alittle pre-heating never hurts! 

results, both positive and negative 

feedback, as with just about anything else. 

But Idecided to have aclear mind on what 

Iwant, so I’ve gone down the K-Tech route, 

but also Maxton and Bitubo, too. I’ll test 

them and see what Iprefer, I’m buying itall 

and am afree agent to choose whatever Ifeel 

comfortable on which is the biggest thing at 

the TT really. 

“Next up is what to do about the exhaust 

and the ECU. There’s aYoshimura system 

available, but I’ve also got involved with 

Jeff at Pipewerx, he’s sound as apound. I’ve 

got the stock system and want to keep the 

exhaust valve inthe front with Jeff altering 

the pipe from the downpipes onwards. Ihave 

afull stainless Yoshi’ system which came asa 

package with one of the bikes from Pete at B 

and BMotorcycles who has helped me (the 

other came from York Suzuki Centre), with 

that and abit of money for the budget. So I’ll 

be able to try all of these back to back tosee 

how they fare. In addition tothat my friend 

(and title sponsor) Steve at Reactive Parts has 

afull Arrow system for me to try, too. So I’ll 

make the choice onwhat works best for me, 

not for branding or anything else –whatever 

works goes on my bike, that’s what I’m 

using, and that’s that. 

“For the ECU there’s afew flashing them, 

like Woolich in Australia who’s doing it for 

Hawk Racing. Idon’t know if I’ll have that 

software at my disposal yet, so I’ll also ask 

Dynojet for their options, and also Paul 

at PCR Racing. Again, Ihave to pick and 

choose what’s working and what can get 

sorted in time ofcourse. 

“For all myaftermarket parts, like levers, 

brake pads, fairings, paddock stands, 

bodywork and everything else like that, I’ve 

gone to Reactive Parts. Hesells some ofthe 

best high-end gear available, it’s real quality. 

And then there’s quick-shifters, like the 

Translogic unit, which Ihope will be 

becoming ablipper system before the TT but 

we’re working hand in glove with that. Last 

thing isaquick-action throttle, as the gasser 

is push/pulled by acable which works a 

servo, then Samco hoses, GB Racing covers 

and Hel brake lines. And that’s about it for 

the Superstock bike, it’s just everything 

comes with an astronomical price and 

along, long wait.” 

Sounds good, with lots ofhelp, but also 

frustrating waiting solong. What’s different 

with the Superbike? 

“The Superbike will be finished late, 

engine-wise, but I’ll be sticking in some 

Yoshi’ cams, valve-springs and other parts, 

plus some basic porting, which will help 

make itnice and healthy. Idon’t know 

who’s doing this yet exactly, but it’ll get 

done! Ireally don’t want to lose the engine 

characteristic that comes as stock though, 

that smooth torque curve will pay dividends 

at the TTand help with stability too. I’m not 

going nuts, I’ve had 234bhp BMWs before 

that get rinsed bymySuperstocker until it 

was above fourth-gear, sowhat awaste of 

time as you just have to brake harder. I’m 

also looking at uprating the clutch to aSuter 

item, who will loan meone to develop for 


HOME TT BUILD 

Somehow hestill 

manages tosmile! 

We wonder where he got those 

work mats from? Hmmmm... 

them, which ifithappens I’ll beover the 

moon about. 

“Chassis-wise, I’m altering the standard 

swingarm and Harris are supplying aBrembo 

underslung caliper for the quick-release 

system. But I’ll berunning stock swingarm 

pivots and so on, soessentially I’ll be 

building one bike across two and when 

Itest mySuperstocker Ican then replicate 

the suspension and settings onto the 

Superbike. I’m keeping it simple, Ican test 

the stocker till the cows come home, rather 

than starting with new yokes, lightweight 

wheels, superbike forks and linkages, 

pointlessly overcomplicating things when 

someone like Hutchy has proved hego 

quicker onaStocker than aSuperbike. 

A picture, luckily, cannot convey swearing... 

“Atthe end ofthe day, we’re racing around 

amotocross track in relative terms rather 

than abilliard table GP circuit, sothe stock 

stuff is designed for the road (and has been 

proven just as good on the roads) whereas 

things like expensive Öhlins forks are more 

rigid and lighter with less flex. So many 

racers are going back tostock yokes and so 

on, for more feel. I’m using standard wheels 

as if they’re good on the Stocker, they’ll be 

good enough for the Superbike especially 

for the TT. If it was the North West 200 or 

Macau I’d maybe upgrade the brakes abit 

more as you’re using them alot more. 

“But with cost versus performance gains, 

you can easily spend £70,000 togonofaster. 

The standard brake setup isfine for the 

Stocker, sowill be fine, again, for the 

Superbike. The standard brake pads are 

terrible, Ipulled them when Iwent out for 

my ride and nothing happened! All it needs 

is some Brembo racing pads to sort them out, 

the rest of the stock kit isgreat, I’ve also got 

some Lucas pads to test them out too. 

“Then Iguess Imay change the switchgear 

to some smart buttons from Accossato or 

similar, which may come from the same 

place as the Suter clutch. And that’s it, the 

Superbike isn’t much more different from 

the Stocker, I’m trying to keep it smart and 

simple, itmakes sense doing that.” 

So, how much have these two race bikes 

set you back, roughly? 

“The bikes are the stock GSX-R, not the 

RR, so they’re around £13,000 each. Then 

once all the parts are added up, even doing 

this cheaply you’re still looking at (very 

roughly) around and over £20,000 for the 

Stocker and well over £25,000 for the 

Superbike when you add in the engine-work 

at around £5k, swingarm mods, Brembo 

caliper and soon, and probably alot more 

when Ireally think about it! Actually, Iforgot 

the tank alterations, amajor part where my 

bike has to go off somewhere and that’ll be 

around £1,500 per tank toadd on. That being 

said, I’m buying loads of different stuff to test 

out, sowhen Ichoose what I’m using after 

actually testing the things, I’ll be able tosell 

alot of stuff to make some money back.” 

And how many man hours are you putting 

into this endeavour? 

“It’s basically taking up my entire life, 

and as things come inlate, time in the 

workshops, sorry, conservatory, becomes 

more intense. Just another reason why we’re 

keeping the variables between bikes to an 

absolute minimum, we’re not reinventing 

the wheel, let’s stick slicks on and go! 


FEATURE 

Garage, ortyre shop?! 

Youonly have to look at how some people 

spend years and fortunes trying to rewrite the 

rulebook tosuit themselves and get to a 

respectable pace, can tie just themselves 

in aknot (answers onapostcard asto 

who exactly he means with that – FB). 

I’ve got six weeks left to do what some 

manufacturers have been doing for years”. 

It sounds like you’re getting some help 

though, luckily? 

“Everyone has been sogood to us. 

My dad has been retired for years but is 

tinkering away with things. He works slow, 

but methodically, and when Iput him on 

something Iknow it’ll get done right and I 

can forget about it. I’ve got amechanic 

full-time who worked with meonthe BMWs, 

who’s now living with me in my spare room. 

We get upinthe morning, have acoffee and 

get onwith the job. Hedoes stuff while Igo 

take care ofthings, like myrecently sliced 

open hand and this irritating ear infection 

that won’t piss off. Itry and keep everything 

working, going forwards, keep my head 

above water, arranging anoil deal with 

Motul, sorting the team logistics, the designs, 

and all the time try to ignore the fact that I’m 

actually the one who’ll be racing the bikes. 

I’ve had to get upeven earlier to train too, 

it’s taken over everything though Itry and 

switch off by 10pm. Even then, mybrain 

keeps on ticking over!” 

So, weguess that this is all going to be 

worth it in the end, then? 

“I hope so! I’ve been annoyed with what 

some of these teams have delivered to me 

over the years, I’ve proven when on the right 

kit Ican perform with the best of them, 

where onpoor kit Istruggle to get inthe top 

five. I’ve got adecent set ofSupersport bikes 

from East Coast racing too, we’re working 

with John Trigger and Luke Stapleford and 

his World Supersport team on those 

Triumphs. It’s aconstant battle on every 

front, soisitworth it? We’ll find out, I’ve 

stressed more the last two years with what 

I’ve been delivered, soifIcan make ita 

quarter better by myself at the TT that’ll 

be aquarter less stress. SoI’m flat out 

busier than I’ve ever been, but I’m less 

stressed, strangely.” 

And there you have it, doing the TT family 

style, including building the bikes at home, 

not something you’d expect aracer of Gary’s 

calibre tobedoing. How hefares, orwhether 

he even gets finished in time, remains to be 

seen. Sadly, testing didn’t quite gotoplan 

either –the day before wedid the shoot at 

his house, Gary crashed one of his Suzukis 

on spilt oil at Donington! Not anideal start, 

yet this hasn’t diminished his drive tobe 

ready for the TT, not one bit. However we 

wish him the best of luck and, no, Gary, 

we don’t have any spare change… 


Sofas be gone! 

An in-house mechanic isamust!

CLIVE WHITE’S 

HONDA RS250 

Remember Clive’sGPrep’ Suzuki RGV250 that appeared here? 

Well he’s back again with avery specialHonda RS250 racer… 

WORDS: BENJAMIN J K UBAS CRONIN PICS: G ARY C HAPMAN 

I 

got this bike from Northern Ireland, a 1992 RS250 NF5 proddy 

racer, a little GP bike. I’driddenacoupleofJohnChapman’s 

bikes,andthey’remoreinterestingthanroadbikesbecause,as 

weallknow,thetwo-strokeracingerawasthebest.Ibidonitinan 

auction,andwon!It’sspecialbecauseit’sthelastmodelbeforethey 

switchedtoasingle-sidedswingarmandwasonlyinproductionfor 

abouteightmonths.WhenIgotitIsawsomeTonyScottengravings 

onthecases,andwhenIsplititfoundoutitwasafullStage-3tuned 

engine.IrebuiltitwithwhatIcouldgetholdofanditisreallysweet. 

MostpeoplewithbikesfromthiserapainttheminRothmans,but 

feweverseetheperiodJapanesecoloursandIlovedtheCupNoodle 

design.ThebikeisarealkeeperbutI’mlookingforalaterone.You 

cangetsparesforthem,butfindingthemforthisistrickysoIwant 

another.It’sasicknessandI’llneverbecured!

WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 

SPECIFICATIONS 

CLIVE WHITE’S 

HONDA NS250 NF5 

ENGINE: 

• Stage-3 Tony Scott tune 

• Fuel -Avgas30:1mix 

•35mmcarbsboredto36mm 

CHASSIS: 

•Twin-sparalloy frame 

• Alloy swingarm 

• Magnesium wheels 

• Showa suspension 

• Nissin brakes 

AESTHETICS: 

• Cup Noodle Aoki rep’

WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM

FEATURE 

W O R D S : C A R L ‘ P R E T T Y B O Y ’ S T E V E N S P I C S : B S B K 

BAHRAIN 

SUPERBIKE 

CHAMPIONSHIP 

THE BEST RACE SERIES YOU’VE 

NEVER HEARD OF 

British winters are absolute pants for racing, which is why folk from all over 

head to Bahrain to race identical Panigale 899s under the glowing warmth of 

winter sun (and floodlights). We got stuck in and tried a round out... 


BAHRAIN SBK 

Get onwith it! 

Too cool, bro! 

Spike just got lucky... 

’m pretty sceptical of a good deal, 

so when the Bahrain Superbike 

IChampionship offers six rounds and a 

test day at the Bahrain International Circuit, 

with bike hire and all consumables like tyres 

and fuel included… for just £6,600, it made 

me wonder how the hell it was possible. 

This best kept secret came to my knowledge 

via a mate who I race with in BSB’s Ducati 

Tri-Options Cup. He bloody loves the craic 

and egged me on into getting my name down 

for the season’s finale, a few weeks back. 

So after a chinwag with the series director 

Hussain AlKooheji, we managed to nab a 

spot on the grid for the final round of the 

2016/17 series. Sun, sea and racing bikes 

– does it get any better than that?! 

But before we get to that, it does take a 

little preparation. To run in a series abroad 

you need an International licence and start 

permission from the ACU – which if you 

have a National licence means a quick 

medical, a splash of cash, and you’re good 

to go. The guys at BSBK sort the rest, so 

all you need to do is book your flights and 

hotel (you can stay in any but the BSBK 

organised one is the pretty jazzy Sofitel 

next to the circuit) – and they don’t work 

out too bad if you get ’em done early. 

Once you have this, everything is easy: all 

you need to bring is your kit and a set of tyre 

warmers. So after a six-hour flight and well 

over an hour getting through immigration 

(they really don’t like journalists for some 

bizarre reason...) we made it into Bahrain, 

where a pleasant chap in a very posh BSBK 

liveried Mercedes took us to the hotel. Jeez, 

this is all a bit factory! But does the racing 

live up to this gold standard? 

Absolutely! Turning up at Bahrain 

International Circuit you get the feeling of 

almost being at a lively Silverstone, but 

with the heat cranked up full whack. It’s a 

massive track with amazing facilities and 

multiple circuit layouts. The competition is 

hot too; not only do you have ex-Fast Bikes 

Fast Bloke Mike ‘Spike’ Edwards, but the 

championship winner is actually an ex- 

Moto-2 rider, who was under two seconds off 

the fastest time at the official test in Qatar at 

the beginning of the year (yet didn’t race 


FEATURE 

as he felt too slow). Madness! As soon as 

you arrive inthe paddock everything is 

meticulous; there are Ducati show bikes, 

branding everywhere and even a 

complimentary coffee hut which offers the 

best iced coffee I’ve ever supped –itwas 

almost worth the trip just for that! But back 

to the bikes. Each pit garage houses two to 

three bikes which are ready to roll on arrival; 

literally stickered, on stands and fuelled 

ready for the inevitable thrashing, so just add 

warmers and do your pressures. That’s it! 

What makes this series pretty interesting 

(and rather annoying for me trying to learn 

the track), is that you only get one set of 

Pirelli Diablo SC2 slicks to last you for 

practice, qualifying and two races –which 

means you’ll be getting anything up to about 

50 laps on that rear –and as we head out 

for practice it’s mid-afternoon and 34°C. 

As soon as we head out of pitlane tyre 

conservation goes out the window though, as 

Itry and attack this unassumingly technical 

track. It’s only around a1m11s lap but it’s 

excitingly characteristic with blind crests, 

hard trail-braking and rapid direction 

changes, meaning instead of doing a planned 

six laps I stay out and do 14, ending up 10th 

out of 14 as the front boys do three to five 

laps and come in. This practice will cost me 

big time. Making a few little tweaks with the 

help of Spike Edwards, we stick the bike on 

the recommended Ducati track settings for 

the standard suspension, and head out with 

atow to try and stick aquick lap in minimal 

time as night descends and the temperatures 

drop to afamiliar level, giving us our first 

taste of riding under the floodlights. 

It’s incredibly awesome but undeniably 

odd; you can’t help but feel like Lorenzo at 

Qatar, yet into afew corners the shadows 

really imitate the feeling ofhaving someone 

firing upthe inside of you right on the apex, 

which really takes some getting used to. 

Chasing my own shadows Imanage to 

crack afew seconds off straight away and 

get into arhythm… right until the session 

is red flagged, that is. 

In retrospect it’s probably for the best as 

Ican’t fire any more laps through those 

Pirelli slicks, but just as you’re making 

progress it does piss you off alittle when 

you’re amonumental four seconds off 

pole, meaning the pin needs to be pulled 

in the race to jump from 8th onthe grid. 

RACE TIME 

Knowing Iprobably won’t have enough tyre 

to put upadecent fight in race two, Ireally 

need topull myfinger out and get away 

with the front group; soafter afairly decent 

launch, Ilunge for the outside into turn one 

as things get tight, and then number #77 goes 

down right infront of me! 

I’m pretty sure it’s about as close as you 

can get to running someone over without 

it actually happening. Ihad no choice but 

to get hard onthe anchors and come to a 

complete stop, and then Istill clouted the 

poor chap as he rolled in front ofme. Jeez, 

that was way too close for comfort and it 

completely ruined any chance of atop five 

finish. This meant for the remainder of 

the race Itried to potter round and be 

conservative with the tyres so there would 

be something left for race two, and after 

catching (and overtaking) afew guys from 

miles back we finished up 11th overall, 

making the best of abad situation. 

Carl's on-board 

shows how close 

he was to mowing 

his mate down. 

And they’re off! Briefly... 

I LUNGE FOR THE 

OUTSIDE OFF THE START, 

BUT THEN SOMEONE 

CRASHES RIGHT IN 

FRONT OF ME! 


BAHRAIN SBK 

TECHNICAL Ducati Panigale 899 

BSBK’S HUSSAIN ALKOOHEJI 

THE MAN THAT MADE IT HAPPEN… 

ENGINE 

CHASSIS 

DIMENSIONS 

Type 

898cc Superquadro, L/C, Desmo’ L-twin 

Bore xStroke 100 x57.2mm 

Compression 12.5:1 

Fuelling 

Electronic fuel injection system –ride-by-wire 

Tested Power 125bhp @10,200rpm 

Tested Torque 92Nm @8,750rpm 

Frame 



Front Brakes 

Rear Brakes 

Wheelbase 

Rake/Trail 

Seat Height 

Dry Weight 

Monocoque aluminium 

43 mm BPF fork, fully adjustable 

Monoshock, fully adjustable 

Four-piston callipers,320mm discs 

Two-piston calliper,245mm disc 

1,426mm 

24 degrees /96mm 

840mm 

160kg 

Chilling after the races were 

finished, anatter with the 

serious curator taught us a 

whole lot more about BSBK… 

FB: So what made you want to 

start up arace series? 

BSBK: It’s apassion for us! Ihave 

raced competitively and won five 

titles inthe process, so it really runs 

through my veins.Unfortunately there 

just isn’t enough motorsport in our 

region and we would like to change 

that. We’re also keen to help younger 

riders come through and develop. 

FB: And how did you decide torun 

it as arrive and drive? 

BSBK: Iwanted to tick every racer’s 

wants;toturn up,ride and go home! I 

never enjoyed taking the wheels out, 

or packing up, so to make the most 

enjoyable experience wewant to 

make itaseasy as possible;especially 

for new riders. 

FB: How doyou keep itsocheap?! 

BSBK: Unlike lots of other series,we 

manage to cover the costs from the 

sponsors rather than the riders. This 

makes amassive difference and 

makes the championship global 

with 12 nationalities! 

FB: What’s the plan for next year? 

BSBK: We have big plans! Firstly, 

there will betwo classes; one on 

Ducati Panigale 899s, and one on 

the larger Ducati Panigale 1299s for 

that added excitement. Alongside 

this we are introducing the Bahrain 

Supersport Championship which will 

be the same format but on Aprillia RS 

125s,mostly for bringing in younger 

riders to the world of motorsport. We 

will also be visiting Dubai for around; 

as there is only one track inBahrain 

we are adding some variation for the 

riders.Ifthat wasn’t enough the cost 

will actually beless than what itwas 

this year! 

Fuel Capacity 

14L 

Carl on the blag for next year! 

Whose line is right here?! 


FEATURE 

Go Carl, Go! 

Racing at night 

is proper cool! 

FANCY AGO? 

If you like what you’ve 

seen, check out 

www.bahrainsuperbike.com 

for more details! 

COST 

CALCULATOR 

ACU International licence and 

start permission –£240 

Return flights –£450 

Hotel –£200 

Food and drink –£100 

Sunburn –priceless 

Season –£11,000 (ish) 

He went, he tried, he did 

great! And had a right bloody 

laugh while he was at it. 


BAHRAIN SBK 

4 

3 

1 

5 

2 

1 Bodywork –The standard stuff is all ditched just like in any race series,and replaced with some incredibly 

snazzy OEM race fairings; each identical and stickered upfor you when you get there. 

2 Tyres –With one set to last every session, BSBK opted to run the ever popular Pirelli Diablo Superbike 

SC2s –and they don’t hold upbadly if Idosay so myself. 

3 Crash protection –One of the most important aspects on any track bike,these bikes are fully kitted to 

the max with R&G goodies to keep ’em safe! 

4 Rearsets –Fully adjustable tomake sure everyone is nice and comfy,with the ability to change 

between different shifting patterns. 

5 Settings –Suspension wise everyone runs the same standard settings, with the odd clicks 

here and there while gearing remains bog stock. 

It was really nice after the race to see 

how much of afamily the championship was 

though; everyone was concerned about the 

fallen rider and although there isahuge 

range of cultures everyone is incredibly 

friendly; italmost reminded me of being 

back racing at Bemsee. 

So with aman down we headed out for 

race two, where after adecent turn one I 

managed to climb afew places from 11th on 

the grid and stick out abit on lap one. As 

good as those Pirelli slicks are, mine had its 

day agood two sessions ago, meaning 

literally every time Igot on the gas the 

thing just spun sideways and forced abit 

of wee tosneak out. Buggar... 

It was anabsolute nightmare chasing 

down the guy in front, but by the last lap I’d 

just about caught uptoseventh and with a 

few more laps Ireckon we could’ve had a 

pop with afew more ofthe front runners. 

Still, Imanaged to bung in my fastest lap on 

the last lap, which cheered me right up. It’s 

like anything new, ittakes time to adapt to 

different bikes and tyres, but things started to 

come together in that last outing… just in 

time to pack upand head for home! Iwas 

still three seconds off the top time, but made 

ashit load of progress over the meeting and 

reckon Icould shave another few seconds off 

if Iwere torace the series again, which isn’t 

bad considering the champion is an ex-Moto2 

rider. The racing is pretty decent the whole 

way through the field, but there are varied 

skill levels throughout, so its fair game 

regardless ofyour standard, and bundles of 

fun no matter where you finish. As serious as 

the racing was, there was an air ofenjoyment 

to it that made it such apleasurable and 

brilliant experience. 

AND, RELAX... 

With the hard work done, the BSBK boys 

take the time to chill out like pros. There’s a 

complimentary sports therapist onhand to 

give you anice deep massage and look after 

any body issues you have (within reason), 

before heading back tothe hotel –you don’t 

get that at BSB! It was only afew hours later 

when Iwas indulging in ashisha pipe that I 

stopped to take inthe brilliance of this series. 

It had been apretty effortless encounter, as 

everything had been done for me; no packing 

up, no cleaning, just back for some food, 

beer and relaxation. Ireckon you could do 

the season, which runs over our winter 

period, for £11,000, which is absolutely 

bonkers considering what you get. And with 

the introduction of 1299 Panigales next year 

it’s only going to get better. I’m hooked and 

gagging toget back for some more action 

this winter, so hopefully I’ll see you there. If 

you’re after racing without the hassle, BSBK’s 

luxurious series is just the ticket. 


B 

See page 8 


SUBSCRIBE 

80 NEVER THE BE ALL 95 

RIDING, MODIFYING, FIXING AND BUYING 

78 

Bull Busters ...................................... 78 

Can aquick-shifter damage your ’box? Neil finds out! 

MASTERCLASS 

DO QUICK-SHIFTERS BREAK YOUR 

GEARBOX? FIND OUT HERE! 

Riding ................................................. 86 

It’s all about those aches and pains this month! 

Oil........................................................ 88 

What goes into creating oil for Grand Prix bikes? 

Legal....................................................91 

How badly can you get done for wheelies exactly? 


Letters ............................................... 92 

The best guff from the best readers ever! 

THE PROJECT YAMAHA TZR250 IS FINALLY STARTING 

TO SHAPE UP FOR ACTION! 

USED BIKE GUIDE 

Honda SP2 ......................................... 80 

Who doesn’t love aHonda SP2? Anyone? Exactly! 

PROJECT BIKES 

............................................................. 98 

The latest on Bruce’s Moto3 project lies herein! 

OUR LIFE ONBIKES 

Staff Bikes ....................................... 101 

Atrickle has turned into aflood of new metal! 

• BMW S1000 R 

• TRIUMPH STR RS 

• KAWASAKI ZX-10R 

• HONDA FIREBLADE SP 

• APRILIA RSV4 RF 

• KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R 



MASTERCLASS 

Once you’ve tried one, you’ll 

struggle to live without the 

awesomeness of aquickshifter. 

WHAT IS BULLBUSTERS? 

Got amate that loves to 

spout his mouth off? We 

all have. And he’s probably 

told you atale ortwo 

that sounds just about 

believable,even though you 

know itcan’t betrue.Well, 

we’re here to cut the bull 

and find the facts.Or, at 

least, Neil is. Our resident 

genius wants to hear your 

myths,sodrop him aline on 

techguy@fastbikes.co.uk 

Dodgy dogs will cause missed 

gears and potential pain. 

GRINDING GEARS 

MYTH: DO QUICKSHIFTERS KNACKER 

GEARBOXES? 

WORDS> NEIL ‘KNOW-IT-ALL’ C HARLTON 

PICS> F B A RCHIVE 

Once thepreserveofthe racing elite, quickshifters arenow 

standard kit on manynew road bikes. Butdothese race-derived 

gizmos comewith ahidden cost? 

quickshifter allows 

rider to change up 

Athe gearbox without 

needing topull in the clutch, 

keeping the throttle pinned the 

whole time. Most quickshifters 

sense the rider’s toe pressure 

on the gear lever, then, at the 

appropriate moment send asignal 

to cut the engine’s power for the 

exact length oftime required to 

unload the gearbox and allow 

the selected gear to engage. 

Mechanical sympathy 

The time needed for most bike 

gearboxes to disengage one gear 

and engage the next isaround 

1/30th to 1/10th of asecond. 

Just afraction ofthe time it takes 

arider topull the clutch, roll the 

throttle, release the clutch, etc. 

etc. By cutting the engine’s 

power for only as long as 

required, quickshifter equipped 

bikes are able tostay onthe 

power for longer and gain an 

acceleration advantage. However, 

compared tousing the clutch, 

aquickshifter gear change can 

be quite an unsympathetic 

procedure for agearbox. 

All gearboxes need aspecific 

amount of time toexecute agear 

change, not only that, each gear 

will need its own specific time 

interval. Crucially, quickshifters 

must be calibrated to the gearbox 

and ideally to the gear that’s 

about to be selected: If engine 

power isn’t cut for long enough 

during ashift, the gear will either 

fail tofully engage and ‘bounce’ 

out, ormiss entirely. 

If engine power iscut for too 

long, the whole drive train will 

be subject toexcessive loading as 

the engine slows the bike down, 

then chimes back inagain. The 

consequence in the first instance 

is worn or chipped gear dogs and 

selector fork/drum damage. 


FastBikesMag.com/ 

FastBikes-Forum 

Facebook.com 



This trick Nova 

gearbox will 

assure you of gear 

changing nirvana. 

ADOG’S LIFE 

The second scenario leads to 

increased wear throughout the 

whole driveline –clutch, 

gearbox, final drive etc. 

Time to kill 

Factory fitted systems are already 

calibrated to the bike’s gearbox 

and adjustment, where offered, 

should only provide enough 

range to allow for fine tuning. 

Aftermarket systems need to 

offer awider adjustment range 

of engine ‘kill’ times though and 

this is where problems can arise. 

Ideally, bolt-on quickshifters 

should be model specific, or 

Some race teams 

hand file teeth to 

get smoother 

engagement 

of gears. 

Almost all bike gearboxes are constant mesh, meaning all the gears 

are constantly, err,meshed regardless of what gear the ‘box is 

currently in. Although meshed,unselected gears on the input and 

output shafts are either free tospin on their shafts, or meshed to an 

opposing gear that is free spinning. Gear selection is accomplished 

by sliding the gear you want along its shafts until dogs orslots on the 

gear’s flank engage with the adjacent flank on its neighbour.Once 

two opposing gears are locked totheir respective shafts at the same 

time,the combination of the two gears gives the selected ratio. 

If these protruding dogs aren’t given enough time tofully engage 

with each other the two components will chip and gnaw away at 

each other with every shift.Eventually,the load bearing face of the 

dog will chamfer and the gear will start to ‘jump out’ under hard 

acceleration.The violent ejection of the sliding gear can wreak havoc 

on the‘box, such as bent or snapped selector forks,chipped or 

sheared dogs,orboth. More of a‘quick-shitter’ than quickshifter. 

have pre-established, model 

specific proven kill times that 

can be used asasafe starting 

point during set up. 

Engine kill times should be 

specific to each gear, toachieve 

this quickshifter systems need to 

monitor which gear the ’box has 

selected. As lower gear ratios are 

invariably spaced wider apart 

than higher ratios, kill times 

should be longer for shifts up 

through the lower gears. 

Also, the shift from first to 

second passes through neutral 

and this extra selector travel 

will need tobeaccounted for 

in the quickshifter’s set up. 

Crucial setup 

It is crucial to ensure a 

quickshifter is set up correctly. 

But without any ballpark default 

settings, the process of calibrating 

aquickshifter probably isn’t 

the best thing you can do to 

agearbox. Although done 

sympathetically, finding optimal 

engine kill times shouldn’t inflict 

appreciable damage to a’box. 

Once smooth shift settings have 

been found, using aquickshifter 

shouldn’t pose asignificant health 

hazard toagearbox orany part 

of abike’s drive train. Apoorly 

set up quickshifter however, will 

most certainly cause gearbox 

issues down the line. 

All the gear(s)... 

TOPLEVEL RACE 

QUICKSHIFTERS: 

Nova Racing Transmissions’, 

Mick Dearlove gave usthe 

inside track on the more 

advanced racing 

quickshifters available: 

“A very basic quickshifter, 

using only amechanical 

switch or strain gauge is 

completely reliant on the set 

cut time to work properly. 

More complicated systems 

that are sampling selector 

drum or cam plate position 

give amore accurate picture 

of what ishappening, where 

the components are ata 

given point intime. This then 

allows the strategy to be 

shorter and more refined. 

Higher specification systems 

will also allow astaggered 

approach to re-firing the 

cylinders.This smooths 

out the shifts and ismuch 

kinder tothe components 

in the drive train.” 

Being sympathetic 

with your changes 

will help keep your 

dogs looking good. 

In the end, gearboxes can be 

damaged by poor shifting 

regardless of how the gear 

change isfacilitated, be it by a 

quickshifter, momentary rolling 

off the throttle or by declutching. 

If the gearbox isn’t properly 

unloaded for enough time to 

accomplish the shift, or if the 

gear lever receives too much 

or too little force, dog, dog ring 

or selector mechanisms can 

sustain damage. 


WORDS: JON URRY PICS: H ONDA, DUCATI, APRILIA, FLOW 

UsedBike Guide 

If you like V-twins but can’t stomach 

aDucati, look no further. 


2002-2010 HONDA VTR1000 SP-2 

WHATEVER 

YOU CAN DO, 

WE CAN DO 

BETTER. 

AGAIN… 

Honda’s exotic SP-2 set the track 

on fire, but not the showrooms 

n2002 Honda released the 

second generation of what 

Imany still consider its World 

Superbike folly. Infuriated bythe 

fact that Ducati with their V-twin 

were dominating the 

championship, and making 

their hyper-expensive V4 

homologation special RC45 

look alittle silly in the process, 

the mighty HRC turned their 

attention to building aV-twin. 

The SP-1 was launched in 2000, 

taking the title in its maiden year, 

and after Ducati responded by 

claiming the silverware back 

again in 2001,Honda unleashed 

the SP-2. And then, with another 

title secured, they took their 

bat and ball and went home 

(after learning the series was 

to move to asingle tyre supplier 

–cue toys out of pram etc.), 

abandoning WSB and instead 

focusing on dominating GP 

racing. Point proven. Although 

there was aslight issue… 

While Honda had packed its 

WSB bags and exited the party, 

dealers were left with arather 

expensive ex-WSB replica 

machine sat on their showroom 

floors without anyone to buy it. 

Unlike the RC45, the SP-2 wasn’t 

atrue HRC limited-number 

homologation special, and 

therefore lacked the exclusivity 

to help justify its £10,349 price 

tag, which was £1000 more than 

the FireBlade. Then there was 

the fact the SP-2 was heavier, 

slower and less powerful than 

the inline four Blade, which 

certainly didn’t help matters. 

And it was aV-twin, which 

PRICE GUIDE: £7,500 -£14,995 

Cheapest private: £7,995 

A2004 bike that has covered just 

12,093 miles and is stock. 

Our choice private: £9,995 

Described as mint and with just 

6,400 miles on its clocks. Haggle 

him down! 

Cheapest dealer: £7,500 

23,279 miles,aCastrol rep 2002 

SP-2 with high-ish mileage. 

Our choice dealer: £8,295 

Atidy 2002 SP-2 with high level 

pipes and the OEones included 

in the deal. 

Ex-demo: n/a 


USED BIKE GUIDE 2002-2010 HONDA VTR1000 SP-2 

HONDA SP-1 

The SP-1 and SP-2 are very similar 

machines with the second generation 

just being alittle more refined when it 

comes to the fuel-injection system and 

handling. Ifyou can find asorted SP-1, 

which means one with its fuelling 

properly re-mapped, you won’t be 

disappointed. Prices start at £5,000. 

EMISSIONS GUBBINS 

The SP-2 has aseries ofemission-curbing 

gubbins that can quite easily beremoved to 

boost its midrange. The airbox flapper comes 

out and the smog reduction system (a kind of 

valve on the exhaust port that blows air into 

the pipe on over-run) can beblanked off. Do 

this and you will notice the engine gain a 

significant boost inthe midrange. 

ENGINE 

Type 

999cc, 

liquid-cooled, 8v,V-twin 

Bore xStroke 100mmm x63.6mm 

Compression 10.8:1 

Fuelling 

Electronic fuel injection 

Tested Power 127bhp@9,850rpm 

Tested Torque 99Nm @7,850rpm 

CHASSIS 

DIMENSIONS 

Frame 



Front Brakes 

Rear Brakes 

Wheelbase 

Seat Height 

Dry Weight 

Fuel Capacity 

Aluminium twin spar 

43mmm conventional forks,fully-adjustable 

Monoshock, fully-adjustable 

Four-piston calipers,320mm discs 

Two-piston caliper,220mm disc 

1420mm 

820mmm 

194kg 

18-litres 

SPEED 

0-60 3.04 sec 

0-100 n/a 

0-120 9.41 sec 

Standing ¼mile 10.95sec @130.91mph 

Standing mile n/a 

Topspeed 

163mph 

ECONOMY 

The SP-2 drinks fuel like Guy Martin sucks down 

tea, which is asourceofannoyance toowners 

as the 18-litre tank can be killed off injust 80 

miles ofhard riding! As with the throttle 

response, aremap can work wonders to 

improve the SP-2’s thirst for fossil fuels. 

riders didn’t associate with 

the Japanese. And the Suzuki 

GSX-1000 K1 had arrived, 

making the SP-2 look even 

weedier and hinting very 

strongly that litre bikes were the 

way forward. So what didd Honda 

do? In typical Honda fashion, 

they buried their heads in the 

sand and attempted tokeep 

shifting the SP-2 until 2010,only 

changing its paint in an effort to 

tempt buyers. It was amove that, 

on the whole, failed miserably. 

But what was sowrong with the 

SP-2, amachine that beat Ducati 

first time out and had certainly 

been breathed upon by HRC? In 

all honesty (aside from not being 

particularly quick), nothing at all 

–the SP-2 was, and remains, a 

fabulous bike. Its major problem 

currently isthat everyone has 

now cottoned onto this fact. 

In the flesh the SP-2 still looks 

amazing. The white paint version 

screams WSB and there are so 

many beautiful HRC touches 

such as the beefy swingarm, 

high-level twin pipes, digital 

dash and gaping frontal air 

scoop. It’s mean, purposeful and 

encapsulates everything that 

made WSB such agreat series in 

the 1990s and early 2000s. And 

when you hit the starter it just 

gets better. 

The booming sound of a 

Japanese V-twin is totally 

different to an Italian one, 

despite the fact the SP-2 and 998 

have the same bore, stroke and 

V-twin angle. Where aDucati 

rattles and thuds, the SP-2 is 

pure mechanical perfection 

with the only noises the ones 

exiting the twin pipes. And 

this feeling of refinement 

corresponds tothethe ride. 

Where Ducati engines are 

often accused of feeling lazy, the 

SP-2’s lump is far sharper with a 

hint of urgency that is reflected 

in the way it picks up its revs. 

V-twins are always deceptively 

fast due to their flat torque 

curves, but the SP-2’s engine 

feels abit more spirited and 

faster to rev than aDucati desmo 

motor while retaining the same 

even torque characteristics, but 

does slack off abit at the 

top-end. Those used to inline 

fours may accuse this torque 

output of being dull –itisn’t, it’s 

just adifferent experience. And 

the same could be said for the 

SP-2’s handling. 

Show the SP-2 aset of bends 

and it feels far more ‘traditional’ 

in its handling characteristics 

than along and low Ducati 998. 

There isn’t any hint ofthe lazy 

turning that you get on aDucati, 

instead the SP-2 flicks towards 

and apex and then sits there 

beautifully planted onthe road 

while its excellent Showa 

suspension does its stuff. It’s just 

alovely bike toride on fast and 

flowing sweepers, which is 

exactly what you would expect 

from aracing thoroughbred. 

And the fact it will occasionally 


CLOCKS 

The SP-2 screen acts asamagnifying glass under the 

summer’s sun, melting the top ofthe dash! Check this 

area for any signs ofdamage and if you own an SP-2, place 

some tape onthe screen to stop this happening. Or just 

park it in the shade… 

CLUTCH ISSUES 

Although not as bad asthe SP-1, the SP-2’s clutch can 

judder and become abit grabby. It’s just due to the 

V-twin’s huge torque and replacing the plates is the 

best cure. Owners’ opinions are split over whether 

to go for aHonda clutch oranaftermarket item. 

ORIGINALITY 

Many are viewing SP-2s as apotential investment, which is 

why their price ispretty steep. If this is on your mind, then 

ensure you get the OE cans included in the package aswell 

as any other parts that have been changed such asthe 

screen or pegs. Also, while the red/black paint scheme 

looks abit subtler, the white bike is the one 

collectors will want inyears to come. 

FUELLING 

The SP-2 has massive 62mm throttle 

bodies, which are 8mm bigger than those 

on the SP-1 aswell ashaving 12-holes 

instead of four on their injector jets. This 

went along way to curing the SP-1’s terrible 

throttle response, but it still isn’t brilliant on 

the SP-2. Careful balancing of the bodies 

and afuelling re-map by askilled dyno 

operator makes aworld of difference to 

the bike’s low speed rideability. 

SERVICING 

This SP-2 isn’t an expensive bike to get 

serviced, however the 16,000-mile valve 

clearance check boosts the bill to over £500 

as it is quite amission toget to them. If the 

bike you are looking atisapproaching this 

figure, or is just over it, factor the cost 

of amajor service into your offer. 

EXTRAS 

There are afew good extras to look out for on an 

SP-2. The first is aset of quality aftermarket cans, 

which not only make the bike sound awesome, they 

also help it breath better and therefore improve its 

performance. APower Commander or fuelling 

correction system is excellent news and if the owner has 

the Castrol sticker kit (the official Honda one, not areplica) 

then snap it up as it is the one spare part you can no longer 

buy officially from Honda! 

Time’s ticked by but the SP-2’s look is still sexy. 

Back before end cans resembled grenade launchers. 

RUNNING COSTS: 

Service interval: 

Minor: 4,000 

Major: 8,000 

Valve clearances: 18,000 

Service costs: 

Minor: £150 

Major: £320 

Valve clearances: £550 

Right fairing: £293.36 

RH engine casing: £89.61 

Brake lever: £33.09 

JULY 2017 WW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 83

USED BIKE GUIDE 2002-2010 HONDA VTR1000 SP-2 

You won’t find acheap SP-2, but that 

reflects the brilliance ofthe model. 

ALSO CONSIDER THESE: 

DUCATI 998 2003 

Private 

£7,500 

Dealer 

£8,500 

Engine 

Power 

Torque 

APRILIA RSV-R FACTORY 2003 

Private 

£3,400 

Dealer 

£3,900 

Engine 

Power 

Torque 

The updated twin-pipe RSV-R offers all 

the joy of an Italian V-twin, but at afar 

cheaper price than aDucati. The Factory 

adds Öhlins suspension and OZ wheels. 

998cc,l/c,8v, V-twin 

118bhp @10,000rpm 

101Nm @8,600rpm 

DUCATI 999 2003 

Private 

£5,000 

Dealer 

£5,800 

Engine 

Power 

Torque 

The SP-2’s enemy was killed off in 2003, but it 

remains incredibly popular and prices are 

through the roof for alate generation model. 

An amazing machine,but at acost… 

998cc,l/c,8v, desmo V-twin 

117bhp @9,000rpm 

99Nm @7,500rpm 

The first generation of 999 has rocketed up 

in value after bottoming out afew years ago. 

Agreat machine to ride,but challenging to 

look at and expensive to own and buy. 

998cc,l/c,8vdesmo V-twin 

120bhp @9,400rpm 

101Nm @7,800rpm 

shake its head over bumps is 

most un-Honda and awelcome 

bit of fighting spirit. However 

there isaproblem with the SP-2, 

and it is one that has always 

plagued this bike –price. 

In the used market, you 

currently can’t find anSP-2 for 

less than £7,500, which is insane 

money. This is awonderful 

machine, but paying that much 

for what was, let’s behonest, 

afailure in most aspects of its 

life aside from one season of 

racing is crazy. 

If it was nearer £5,000 it 

may betempting, but for £7,500 

there are alot of much better 

modern inline four sportsbikes 

that while lacking the SP-2’s 

WSB cool, offer far more in 

terms of outright performance. 

And at the end of the day, 

sportsbikes are all about 

performance, not dining out 

forever onabrief burst of 

long-forgotten world 

championship glory. 

Verdict: 7/10 

The SP-2 isaglorious machine, but one 

that lacks the soul you get on aDucati. 

It’s astunning machine, but abit too 

clinical toreally excite and as such its 

used price tag is just too high. 

+ V-TWIN STOMP, RELIABILITY, HANDLING 

– PRICE, FUELLING, LACK OFEXCLUSIVITY 


MASTERCLASS 

B Y K E I T H C O D E 

BACKACHES ON MOTORCYCLES 

THECALIFORNIASUPERBIKESCHOOL 

Founded by the legendary 

Keith Code in1980, the 

California Superbike School 

offers astep-by-step method 

of technique oriented rider 

training in the art of 

cornering motorcycles.Over 

the past 30years hundreds 

of thousands of students 

have improved their riding 

skills and cornering 

capabilities at CSS and their 

team of professional 

coaches are dedicated to 

your improvement. 

Riding anykind of bikefor along stint will promote the aches and 

pains, but what exactlyisgoing on in your body? 

rgonomics isthe 

designing and arranging 

Eof things like the bike’s 

seat, footpegs and ’bars sothat 

the rider can get to and use its 

hand and foot controls. Sportbike 

ergonomics inparticular tend 

to engender alove/hate 

relationship, which 

deserves some attention. 

In using the controls for their 

intended purpose (cornering), 

we love the body position they 

dictate. Namely, the more 

aggressive pose of feet back and 

arms forward. The hate factor 

can be seen onany motorway, 

any day, where the rider is 

resting one arm on the tank to 

support their torso and head 

rather than fatiguing their backs. 

The spine is composed of 

gliding-type joints, the vertebrae, 

which are stacked but otherwise 

unsupported. Unlike the ball-andsocket-type 

of the shoulders and 

femur, they rely exclusively on 

muscle and connective tissue 

to hold them in place. 

The 23-vertebrae of the 

backbone form acantilever 

structure for lifting orsupporting 

the torso, just like our neck does 

for our head. Those bones are 

the connection points for the 

muscles that support the torso 

and head plus helmet weight. We 

don’t usually consider the spine 

and neck as being contributors to 

the bike’s control usage, yet they 

bridge virtually every important 

action we perform. 

We are rightfully taught not 

to lift while bending over but to 

instead squat and use our legs 

to lift, with the spine more 

vertically positioned so as not 

to injure ourselves. Lower-back 

fatigue and pain, which is not 

uncommon for sportbike riders, 

or others, is primarily due to 

using the muscles that run 

along both sides of the spine 

to support our back. 

These muscles are called the 

spinal erectors and are anchored 

on the lower back’s vertebrae. 

The pain isaresult of tugging 

on the vertebrae, which is how 

we cantilever the body and 

head. This tends to pull the 

unsupported backbones out of 

alignment. The best example of 

CONTACT CSS TO BOOK: TEL 08700 671061 EMAIL INFO@SUPERBIKESCHOOL.CO.UK WEB WWW.SUPERBIKESCHOOL.CO.UK 


RIDING 

Got ariding question –either onthe track or on the road? Want the CSS team to 

help? Just drop us aline and we’ll get it answered for you. letters@fastbikesmag.com 

Q 

Iwas told at my last 

trackday that Iwas a 

bit ‘turn and gas’ but I 

didn’t really understand what 

he meant.Er, help? 

A 

Here are three 

scenarios where the 

same term isused: 1) 

You enter aturn but instead of 

having acompletely closed 

throttle while you start leaning 

the bike over, you have alittle 

bit of throttle still open. 2) You 

enter aturn with the gas fully 

shut but as you start leaning 

you get straight back to gas. 3) 

You start leaning with aclosed 

throttle, but before you have 

finished getting to the lean 

angle you want, you start 

opening the gas. Either way, it 

means your bike will want to 

run wide. The rule is, start the 

turn with acompletely shut 

throttle, lean the bike tothe 

lean angle you need, so that 

the bike isonthe line that you 

want, then crack the gas to 

stabilise it and roll itonto 

maintain that stability. Like 

any rules, there are some 

exceptions: so do have a look 

at the next question below! 

Q 

Iknow you’re supposed to 

shut the throttle as you 

change direction on abike, 

but Iheard that the quick guys go 

down Craner curves atDonington 

full gas all the way so that doesn’t 

fit the ‘rules’ does it? 

A 

Youare right about Craner. 

Shutting the gas fully here 

(a fast, downhill change of 

direction) will likely result in 

overloading the front tyre enough 

for it to lose traction with the sort 

of consequences Idon’t need to 

go into.Abike on the throttle, 

Get off the gasser 

before turning... 

ASK AN EXPERT 

All the CSS coaches have spent 

years honing their riding, and 

are perfectly placed to answer 

your riding questions. So don’t 

be shy,ask Andy ‘Spidey’ Peck! 

Andy Reid through 

Craner, deffo onthe gas! 

especially at speed (I’m thinking 

also of the kink at Pembrey and 

most of the mountain section of 

the TT) only wants to go straight 

on. In these turns you are going 

to have to put an awful lot more 

effort into the bars to make it 

steer.Make sure you are fully 

locked on to the bike with your 

leg/legs,using your core to 

stabilise yourself and when you 

push on the bar in the direction 

you want to go, try pulling on the 

other bar with your other hand 

for maximum steering power. 

using these muscles is when we 

arch our backs. ‘Lower back 

fatigue and pain isprimarily due 

to using the muscles that run 

along both sides of the spine.’ 

Arching the back isn’t 

necessarily bad –infact it’s a 

good limbering exercise and part 

of most limbering routines. 

The problem stems from the 

fact that as we ride, there are 

intermittent loads put on the 

back’s cantilevered structure 

caused byroad variations 

bouncing the torso. The 

pounding is unavoidable, 

fatiguing and stressful and 

eventually causing pain. 

Youmay not want to hear 

the solution –itisconnected to 

those abdominal crunches that 

you should have been doing. By 

tightening up our core muscles, 

which include the abs, wecreate 

asupporting structure that 

allows for relaxing the spinal 

erectors. This technique is most 

effective and easiest when you 

rotate your hips forward, the 

opposite ofwhere they gowhen 

you arch the back. This allows 

the torso to more orless slump 

over the rigid muscles and 

reduces spinal stress. 

The central connection point 

for all body movement is the 

pelvic bone structure. It is also 

the largest of all our bony parts 

and provides the central 

anchoring point for both the 

torso and legs. Pelvic stability is 

an essential element in reducing 

the backache problem and 

facilitates the abs and core 

muscles’ ability tosupport the 

back. Locking onto the tank 

with the knees or inner thighs 

provides that much-needed 

pelvic stability. Infact, itisthe 

only means for engaging it. 

In practice, most ofuscannot 

be expected to do a20-mile 

motorway commute with our 

cores tightened and supporting 

the torso; it’s possible but 

unrealistic. What can be done, 

however, istoalternate between 

the arched back support and core 

support techniques as you ride in 

circumstances that require both 

hands and arms onthe bars as 

opposed to one on the tank to 

relieve the backache. 


FEATURE 

Absolutely NOT toffee-custard... 

W O R D S : P R E T T Y B O Y S T E V ENS IMAGES: LIQUI M O LY 

TENMINUTES WITH... 

CARLOS TRAVE 

HereatFast Bikes we all knowhow important the right lubrication is, whether thatbe 

foranengine or anything else(getyour mind out the gutter). To find out abit more 

about the slippery stuff,and to getmoreofagrasp on howdifferent it is on GrandPrix 

machines, we caught up with Liqui Moly’s general manager Carlos Trave… 

W 

ehave been the sole supplier of 

motor oil to the Moto2 and 

Moto3 world championships 

since 2015. 

With about 280 million people watching 

the MotoGP circus, wejust had to beapart 

of it. Imean, what better way to test our 

products than the hardest and fastest racing 

in the world, and to make things more 

interesting for usweare even amajor 

sponsor to the Intact GP Moto2 team of 

Sandro Cortese and Marcel Shrotter! 

And we’re still there until 2020… 

Which is ahuge deal for us in terms of 

showcasing our brand to the world. Itshows 

as well how good the product is that they 

let ussupply everyone and people are 

happy about it! 

Liqui Moly has been agrowing brand 

since 1957, with racing being an 

integral part in development... 

Having such high performance products 

mean they need to be tested vigorously. This 

means we are involved inmany motorsport 

paddocks around the world on two wheels 

and four, including MotoGP, MotoAmerica, 

Redbull Romaniacs, the Superturismo 

championship and many more. Racing is 

in our blood and we love to put back in 

as much as possible, alongside sponsoring 

many other cool ventures. 

Youmight be surprised about the 

products we use on track... 

Every single bike that you see on the Moto3 

and Moto2 grid uses the Liqui Moly 

Motorbike 4TSynth 5W-40 Race oil –the 

very same product you can pick upfrom any 

of our stockists (for about £50 for four litres). 

This man knows oils! 

There is absolutely no difference in the oil 

that Alex Marquez uses to what you can use. 

Which iswhy development isso 

important between track and road… 

This makes development even more crucial, as 

every single drop has to beabsolutely perfect 

to deal with the stress ofthe fastest racing in 

the world. It also means that the longer we 

supply such teams, the more important itisto 

develop with the machines –nomatter what 

they may beinthe coming years. 

Oils well with the Moto2 boys... 


GP LUBRICATION 

Yayfor us! 

Things are working out pretty well… 

Not only has our GP contract been renewed for the 

next three years, but as an example wedidn’t have 

one single engine malfunction throughout Jerez 

and Austin. The teams and riders are incredibly 

happy with the product and they work well within 

the machines no matter what the conditions. That’s 

arewarding feeling for us and all the effort we put 

into our products. 

We also supply to some of the actual 

MotoGP class... 

It takes alot to keep avery powerful engine 

maintained correctly after all, and the more we 

learn byworking with these fantastic prototype 

machines. They push us to our limits, which aids 

development no end and makes us produce much 

higher quality products. 

MotoGP bikes are awhole different level, 

meaning the oil has to be fully synthetic and 

0W-10; meaning itisalmost like water! It is purely 

for gaining the most out of the best engines in the 

world, with the least amount of friction within the 

metal parts atwork. 

But if we can perform to the high standards 

we do with such high demands, itmakes life a 

whole lot easier when it comes toproducing the 

very best oils for more conventional road and 

track motorcycles. 

It’s quite special... 

In actual fact, every MotoGP machine needs an oil 

change after every session –orabout every 45 

minutes. Soimagine being onaregular trackday 

and having tochange oil that often. It seems like 

alot of work, but it’s worth it for the end result. 

Youjust need alot of mechanics on your team. 

And it isn’t cheap… 

As you can imagine, owning aMotoGP bike isn’t 

cheap, and running one isn’t either! Alitre ofthe 

MotoGP spec oil will probably come in at about €75 

–which is about £65. Considering most sessions at 

GP last around 45 minutes, that means teams get 

through alot of oil. 

But it’s crucial tothem. The oil is there tolook 

after the motor, and ifits condition isn’t perfect it 

can’t look after the motor properly. Asexpensive 

as it is to change the oil, it’s awhole lot more 

expensive torebuild an engine. 

The oil has to be conditioned properly… 

Not only does it need to be constantly changed and 

monitored, but italso needs to be warmed up 

correctly unlike the smaller capacity machines. 

This is why you see the bikes out in pitlane the 

morning of arace for example; at least 15minutes 

is needed togain the correct working temperature. 

Youcouldn’t use it on your road bike. It would be 

incredibly impractical –especially if your engine 

wasn’t completely perfect to begin with. Not only 

that, but it would also be abit useless unless 

pushed to the very limits. 

That’s what our GP oil isdesigned for; to extract 

the highest level ofperformance from amotor. It 

would beoverkill for the roads, and it wouldn’t be 

all that great having to warm it up properly either. 

We have to have alot of oil ready to go... 

If you think that wehave around 50 riders in 

Moto2, Moto3, and MotoGP, you can soon 

appreciate the demands placed on us to the volume 

of oil weneed tosupply. It’s alot for just asingle 

round, let alone tosupported the teams and riders 

across all 18rounds on the calendar. Weeasily get 

through 3,000 litres per season, with awhole load 

more set aside for off-season testing too. 

That’s alot of oil, alot of oil changes and alot 

of development! It’s not easy but if it makes us 

the best, then it is definitely worth it. 

LIQUIMOLY… WHAT YOUSHOULDKNOW 

Based in Germany,Liqui Moly are one of the most advanced engine oil manufacturers 

in the entire world. they’re the official supplier to the Moto2 and Moto3 Grand 

Prix championships and support around 50 teams in the GPpaddock. But they 

are fundamentally asupplier toroad going vehicles, with over 4,000 highly 

advanced products within an impressive range,manufacturing everything from 

additives to lubricants and selling them all around the world. Established in 

1957, the expertise of Liqui Moly has been finely honed over the ages to a 

standard of perfection that’s mirrored byfew.This might sound like sales jargon, 

but it’s true.Why else would they besopopular all across the globe. If you’re in the 

market for oils,additives or lubes, check out their website: www.liqui-moly.com 


MASTERCLASS 

If you’ve been anaughty biker, you need some decent 

legal advice, get it from mail@whitedalton.co.uk 

ANDREW 

DALTON 

PENAL SERVITUDEPREVENTOR 

The Fast Bikes Legal Clinic 

is compiled byAndrew 

Dalton, and his bike riding 

barristers and solicitors at 

White Dalton Motorcycle 

Solicitors. 

They deal with personal 

injury claims and their sister 

company,Motor Defence 

Team, deals with all the 

motoring offences.They 

know everything about bike 

law.Andrew is aformer 

London motorbike courier 

turned barrister and solicitor, 

and we know he’s good.All 

the White Dalton lawyers are 

qualified barristers,or 

solicitors,orboth -and they 

all have full bike licences, 

too.They don’t act for 

insurance companies orthe 

prosecution. They are 

Britain’s most specialist law 

practice, and if they don’t 

know the answer to your 

question, there probably 

isn’t one.Don’t rely on the 

advice from your insurance 

appointed solicitor, get 

proper independent advice. 

For road traffic offences 

call Motor Defence Team 

0800 280 0912 

For non-offence cases 

call White Dalton Motorcycle 

Solicitors 0800 783 6191 

Visittheir websites 

whitedalton.co.uk 

motordefensesolicitors.co.uk 

Q 

Ihave switched from riding 

sports bikes toriding a 

Supermoto and Ihave not 

got quite used to its handling.Iwas 

pulling away from some lights,and 

Igave the throttle what Ithought 

was amodest amount oftwist 

when the front wheel lifted.It 

was not ahuge wheelie by any 

description. Isuppose if Iambeing 

honest Iwould call it afirst gear 

minger.Iwas therefore abit 

concerned to see an unmarked 

police four-wheel drive flash up blue 

lights under its radiator grill and pull 

me over. Iexplained to the police 

officer that Ihad avery heavy lock 

and chain on the seat,and Ihad 

only ridden the bike for about 120 

miles,and Igenuinely had not 

meant towheelie and the police 

officer accepted that the front 

wheel had momentarily lifted and 

that Ihad put the front wheel down 

back under control after ashort 

distance,perhaps 8-10ft.This was 

not abig hoist. 

As it happens, the police officer 

took arelaxed view,told me that I 

might want totake it easy, asked 

me to produce my documents at 

the station and that was the end 

of it.However, if he had decided 

to nick me,would Ibefacing 

any charges? 

Name withheld 

A 

Strangely enough, you are 

not the first person who 

has had this problem, 

particularly when coming off 

technologically advanced 

multi-cylinder sports bikes 

onto either tuned Enduros or 

Supermoto bikes.The power 

delivery isvery different, and the 

riding position is such that with 

higher handlebars, particularly if 

your weight isshifted backwards 

then the front wheel can come up 

inadvertently. Ifyou have been 

used to giving electronically 

controlled bikes abig handful off 

the lights then Supermotos which 

do not have all that electrickery 

can behave, well, like Supermotos. 

Ihave tomake the admission that 

Ihave done the self-same thing 

on my Huskie 701, and Ireally 

cannot afford to be caught 

popping wheelies on the highway. 

The Law Society take an 

extremely dim view of this. 

In answer toyour question 

whether or not you could have 

been nicked Isuspect you could 

have been, and there will be 

three charges Iwould think 

that apolice officer could lay 

against you. If he was being 

really ambitious he could say 

WHEELIE BADTIMES 

How worried should you be if you hook 

up a wheelie in front of cops? 

“dangerous driving” but for avery 

short wheelie which was brought 

back under control Ithink this 

prosecution would fail.A20 metre 

wheelie, with the front wheel 

pointing at the sky is certainly 

going to be dangerous driving. 

Ashort wheelie perhaps at 30 

degrees, with afront wheel 

shortly thereafter touching the 

ground without causing any 

problem probably would not be 

dangerous driving, but it could be. 

The next option that the police 

officer has to nick you would be 

driving without due care and 

attention and Ithink inthat 

regard you would almost certainly 

be convicted. It was amomentary 

lapse of riding skill on your part, 

when you were caught out bya 

machine with unusual handling 

characteristics, and probably abig 

lock directly over the rear wheel 

made abike which is prone to 

monowheel misbehaviour even 

more prone to hoisting upits 

front wheel.Asyou say, you learnt 

your lesson and when you pull 

away you are going to have your 

groin pressed into the petrol tank, 

which is perhaps slightly more 

information than Ineeded. 

The third, and Ithink the most 

likely charge, if the police officer 

had decided not to give you afew 

Do this on the roads and 

you’ll have alifetime of 

porridge to look forward to. 

friendly words of warning would 

have been riding otherwise than 

in control, and Ithink on that one 

you would almost certainly have 

gone down. 

So in brief, ashort accidental 

wheelie is an offence, but itisofa 

different scale to adeliberate and 

elongated wheelie. Ithink you are 

lucky to have got areal road 

traffic officer, and you clearly 

passed the attitude test and 

gave areasonable and rational 

explanation as to why your front 

wheel was up. Luckily the police 

officer understood it, and no harm 

was done, apart from you having 

the mild irritation of producing 

your documents at the police 

station. Ithink the police officer 

had decided to eat away some 

of your time, because all of 

the information that you are 

producing by your documentation 

is information which he would 

have simply byplugging your 

registration number and name 

into the police national computer, 

which would have brought up 

your driving licence and insurance 

details. Ithink your punishment, 

which seemed proportionate, 

is you turning upatthe police 

station with all of your 

documents and some 

friendly words of advice. 



STAR LETTER 

NO FINGERTIP? NO NW200FOR YOU! 

Hi guys,I’m absolutely gutted! I’m 

having tomiss my trip to North 

West 200, which has been 

planned since October,due to 

amputating the top ofmymiddle 

finger off between achain and 

sprocket,squishing it between 

the two (ouch! – FB). I’m having 

surgery onThursday when 

I’m supposed to be flying, and 

the price difference to change 

the flight dates was bloody 

extortionate,sotorecap,yeah I’m 

gutted. Fingers crossed (no pun 

intended), it’ll beoperated on 

(and fixed) tomorrow atEast 

Grinstead.Gonna be afew weeks 

off the bike,but keep up the good 

work keeping me entertained 

with the mag in the meantime! 

Lee 

Ewww, Lee, that sucks dude! 

There’s always next year for 

the NW200, it’s certainly good 

enough to wait for from our 

experiences last year. But most 

importantly, get better soon pal, 

and back to biking! FB 

YOU’RE WELCOME 

Hi guys just tosay thank you for running in the KTM Super Duke 1290 SE 

Rootsy ran in2016,anawesome bike which looks good in my garage with 

the SP Blade (‘14 vintage). I’m alucky boy and am looking forward to the 

summer! Ifyou want apicture or two of life after Fast Bikes for the Duke 

happy to help,love those extras they left on the bike. 

Chris 

Chris, you are most welcome, we did certainly enjoy the (now your) KTM 

as you can see! Have afantastic summer! FB 

START ’EM YOUNG 

PART DEUX 

My son Henrie enjoying the latest 

issue, would be great to see him in 

the magazine! 

Rob 

Your wish is our command, Rob, 

all sorted! FB 

AS SEEN ON 

FACEBOOK 

You can win apair ofWeise Renegade gloves 

for simply writing the Fast Bikes Star Letter. 

Setting the standard for quality &value in motorcycle 

clothing for 30 years, all Weise products have atwo-year 

no-quibble warranty. These sporty gloves are made from full 

grain leather with apolyester lining. Reinforced with Integrated 

TPU toknuckles and fingers and twin layered leather to palm, 

stretch panels tofingers and above knuckles aid fit and 

flexibility. Find out more atwww.thekeycollection.co.uk 

WORTH 

£89.99! 

As seen on facebook 

It’s fine,it’ll buff out… 

Arnold JCI’ll buy that for 2K 

Morgan Muttley Price Only a 

Duckati, no big deal lol 

Brent Cotter Someone roasting 

weenies again? 

Stefan-ciprian Just needs some 

coolant... 

Dave Ruff Freddie krugga 

wasn’t that burnt haha 

Dug Tutt Quick wash &it’ll be 

fine 

Alex Paulukiewicz Give you £50 

for it? 

Jason Geezer Reliability 

problems ???? Nah mate 

Jake Blevins It’s aducati.. it’s 

better that way. 

Hurell Lucieer Ducrapi 




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Want your greatest riding cock-up, triumph, or just the missus’ naked form 

immortalised inthese hallowed pages? Email letters@fastbikesmag.com 

AS SEEN ON 

TWITTER 

F•O•C•U•S.Solid weekend at 

Oulton before the long 

break... 

@Racelineimages 

#calmbeforethestorm 

FEEDING TIME 

Hi, this ismyone year old niece 

Seren.Ifound watching British 

Superbikes was the best way to 

get her toeat! #startthemyoung. 

Richard 

Get ’em hooked nice and early 

Richard, good work! 

@CarlStevens17 @ 

fastbikesmag okay, okay,Carl 

you can borrow my magic socks... 

#whodidyourpacking 

#alwayshaveasparepair 

#worth2secsalap 

Mike‘Spike’ 

Edwards 

@no1bloke Apr 27 

LarryCarter @pitlanescoop Apr 27 

Nice toget back to doing some 

feature writing, check out 

#fastbikes magazine this month 

@67Shakey @paulbirdpbm @ 

PBM_Team @fastbikesmag 

POSTCARDFROMVIETNAM/NEWZEALAND –PARTIV 

You guys may remember Lisa 

went off to Vietnam,bought a 

bike and headed off into the 

sunset? Now she’s biking in NZ, 

and still checking inwith FB… 

I’ve had the privilege oftouring 

the best roads NZ has tooffer 

over the past couple of weeks on 

aBMW F700GS. Every day has 

been anew adventure creating 

memories firmly fixed inmymind. 

There’s nothing quite like the 

freedom ofthe open road. 

Ilanded in New Zealand after a 

manic few weeks touring across 

Vietnam on alittle 110cc Honda 

replica. Ibought myself aGN250 

for the economy,but mainly 

because Icouldn’t afford to buy 

abigger bike.The second-hand 

market inNZsimply isn’t 

comparable tothe UK,but the 

one advantage is that bikes 

over here are well looked after, 

refurbished and retain their value. 

Ihad the opportunity to ride a 

GS and jumped at the chance. 

The two weeks Ihave spent on 

the BMW F700GS (courtesy of 

Paradise Motorcycle Tours), has 

been an experience which I 

won’t forget in ahurry. 

Itried my hand atoff-roading 

with agroup that had amuch 

better clue than me when it came 

to water crossings. Explored 

remote and dusty tracks, which 

even the guys said were not of 

a beginner standard and Ihave 

thrown myheart and soul into 

every bend ofthe sealed tarmac 

on 

the best road inthe world, 

in my humble opinion. 

The road to Milford Sound, 

UNESCO World Heritage Site is 

deemed the most dangerous 

road in NZ.Why,Iasked? 

Because of ‘tourists’ apparently. 

It 

didn’t particularly inspire me 

with hope... 

As long as Ican remember I 

have wanted to visit Fiordland 

National Park. The road became 

exciting fromTeAnau.With the 

water glimmering off the surface 

of the lake Icould make out the 

innermost peaks ofFiordland. 

Featuring long wide stretches 

of pretty empty roads,which 

seemed to disappear at the foot 

of the mountains only to bend 

around expanding into another 

valley.The river followed 

the contours and I 

disappeared into the forest 

through arches of beech 

trees with light strobing 

through the leaves.Bend 

after glorious bend the 

tyres clung to the road,the 

clouds whisping below the 

summits and my heart 

beating emphatically in my 

chest. It was amystical 

experience, the sun creating 

ayellow haze through the 

clouds and the river 

rumbling inthe valley. 

Looking up, on either side 

grey granite faces 

shimmered and ice sheets 

hung from the peaks as 

though they might bellow 

down and crush me.Iwas 

looking up 1,000m and it 

made mefeel small! 

Reaching the Homer tunnel at 

980m altitude Ientered on the 

green signal. 1.2km on the other 

side Iwas greeted byaKea bird, 

swooped down to check me out. 

Igazed down at the view where 

the road appeared and 

disappeared at angles which 

looked as though they didn’t 

belong to the same road at all. 

Ilaughed out loud,shook my 

head and began the descent into 

Milford Sound. That night Istayed 

in Milford. One road inand one 

road out. Itook aboat trip on the 

Fiord the following morning and 

marvelled at the place from a 

different perspective. This is one 

place everyone ought toput on 

their bucket list,ifonly for the 

amazing ride itself. 

Lisa 

Lisa you keep on trucking! Or 

would that be biking? Sounds 

like areal adventure you’re 

having thus far, keep itup! 



PROJECT BIKE 


It’s all coming together! 

PROJECT‘LIKELY FAIL’PARTIII 

Anothermonth scorches by,which means even less timebeforeCharles ‘Charlie’ Charles 

will be lining up on the grid to go racing.Getting nervousmuch, Charlie? 

I 

t’s time to get serious! Two 

issues ago Iintroduced you 

to my intention tobuild a 

TZR race bike from arolling 

frame and box ofbits and pieces, 

replacing what was absent or 

spent. Then, to get atleast 

one round of the Yamaha Past 

Masters Racing series under my 

belt and start the process of 

losing my OJ (Orange Jacket) 

status. Last month Itold you 

about afantastic day Ihad at 

Brands Hatch with the genuinely 

brilliant people in the YMPR 

Charlie, pretending toactually dosome of 

the work onthe TZR himself... 

paddock (who are tobecome 

my target through the visor), as 

they prepared for the first round 

of the series. However, by the 

time you are reading this the 

YMPR’ers will bethree rounds 

in and Ihave spent way too little 

time with Wayne Philips, who is 

building the bike ‘with’ me at 

Phoenix Yamaha in Trowbridge. 

Fortunately for me, Wayne has 

not been lording itabout like 

myself. He has been putting in 

the time bit bybit, in-between 

jobs, and steady progress has 

been made. AsIhad left itbefore 

heading to Brands the TZR was 

sat on the reserve bench at 

Phoenix. Ihad been relatively 

busy getting the parts together 

that we needed, sothat we could 

at least get the bike running and 

test an engine that has not 

turned for some five years. 

Ihad acquired arear 

mudguard from eBay for £20 

which meant that many ofthe 

internals could be attached. 

Having failed toreplace the lost 

manifold for Beej’s F3racing 

system (I’m still looking for it! 

–BJ) Ihad also dropped in the 

standard exhausts for the job to 

progress, aswell as various 

copper washers, front and rear 

wheel oil seals and, much to 

the annoyance ofour Beej who 

never ran one, anairbox, once 

again from eBay. 

Having received acall from 

Phoenix that Ishould go over as 

Wayne had found abit of time, 

my TZR (okay, Beej’s TZR) was 

in avery different place indeed. 

The carbs had been sent, 

returned and fitted having been 

sonic cleaned, the rear mudguard 

was fitted, pipes were fitted, the 

radiator fitted, and Wayne had 

set up an intravenous fuel drip 

into the engine and was ready to 

start her up. Afew kicks and the 

brand new plugs ignited and she 

was away, puffs of blue smoke 

bellowed out of the pipes and 

my untrained ear was telling 

me that the bike was sounding 

pretty damn good, all things 

considered. However, the puddle 

of water that was congregating 

beneath the bike was concerning. 

The natural place to start was 

the radiator, inthe end this is 

knackered and asIhad learned 

from the YPM chaps itwould 

not beuptothe job even ifit 

was absolutely spot on. The 

preference inthe paddock was 

to replace the standard radiator 

with that of a400cc Quad type 

as supplied, again, via Fleabay, 

from GPI Racing. Iduly ordered 

and received the new radiator 

to find itbeing at least three 

times thicker than standard, the 

additional fluid capacity making 

sure that the TZR (which 

apparently takes anage to 

warm), will have plenty of cool 




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... and ashiny new one! 

Knackered old rad... 

fluid when running at full 

chat. This radiator came with 

its own challenges though, 

which Iwill get to, but further 

investigation showed that itwas 

not the knackered old rad that 

was pissing fluid, it was the 

motor’s top-end. 

Fortunately the heads can 

be removed insitu sothe 

investigative work began, first 

thing to check was the gasket, 

if indeed there was agasket 

considering the time this bike 

has had out ofservice. But it was 

there, without any causes for 

concern, refitted, restarted and 

then the source was discovered 

as fluid made its way up and 

through four ofthe bolts that 

attached the head to the barrel. 

Aquick look atthe exploded 

diagram of the top-end in the 

manual highlighted the problem. 

When the engine was rebuilt 

they had omitted to use nut 

crowns which keeps the seal 

water tight. Fowlersparts.co.uk 

came in to save me once more 

and two days later, and £21.36 

lighter, the engine was sealed 

and we could move on. 

This project has been running 

bit bybit, the successful test of 

the engine had given the green 

light on moving forward to other 

areas of the build/refurb. One of 

the more essential items we were 

missing were the keys, thus 

Wayne had hotwired the TZR 

to get it running. 

However Beej recovered these 

which not only allowed ustouse 

the ignition, but also open the 

fuel tank which had avery 

pronounced rattle of something 

rather amiss on the inside. We 

discovered the tank is full of rust, 

and if that isn’t bad enough Ihad 

been given the advice that these 

fuel tanks were liable to rust 

through in two significant places 

at the bottom of the tank. 

Here lies another significant 

issue; the rust spots via alittle 

pressure and agitation with a 

screwdriver became gaping holes 

on both sides. Inshort, the tank 

is shot, but before racing to my 

laptop again to hunt for afresh 

one we are going to look at 

possible alternatives to get 

the tank sealed. 

This is where the radiator 

comes in, as quality asitmay 

be, we need to modify the 

brackets so that it fits the TZR. 

Fortunately working with alocal 

dealer means the contacts are 

there tohelp out and achap 

called Andy Taylor, whose bike 

we featured in FB some time ago, 

is willing to help out. Thus the 

tank, radiator and bike will be 

winging its way to Hiscock 

Engineers for abit of potential 

Something missing here... 

welding love. Hope tobring you 

more onthat next month. 

Despite trying to recycle as 

much of the original bike asIcan 

there some things that will have 

to be replaced, the clutch and 

power-valve cables are looking 

very tired and have the potential 

of ruining the project through a 

fail. The brake lines also need 

updating and Iamcurrently 

awaiting adelivery from Venhill 

for these replacements. Iwill also 

be speaking to Bike Torque 

Racing about replacing my discs 

and getting aquick-action 

throttle inplace. There is also the 

small matter offairings, levers, 

spare wheels (actually spare 

everything...) that needs to be 

addressed as well as your 

paddock essentials, the task 

is really finally dawning on 

me now. It’s huge… 

But once all of that is 

achieved, Ican finally get to ride 

the TZR and race it. Arecent 

trackday atCastle Combe has 

reminded me that once all of the 

above is done, Istill have alot to 

learn about riding and race craft. 

If the prospect was not so 

exciting I would be utterly 

and truly exhausted. 

Supporting links: 

Yamaha Past Masters Racing 

Club www.ypmrc.co.uk 

Bridgestone Europe 

www.bridgestone.co.uk 

Wayne at work... 

Thanks to: 

Phoenix Motorcycles 

www.phoenixmotorcycles.co.uk 

Fowlers Parts 

www.fowlersparts.co.uk 

Venhill www.venhill.co.uk 

BikeTorque Racing 

www.biketorqueracing.co.uk 


...wishing he’d never met Charlie.


MASTERCLASS 

Our project’s ingood company... 

BIT BY BIT 

With parts rolling in, the Moto3 project’s 

beginning to takeshape. 

WORD: D ANGEROUS BRUCE I MAGES: F B 

Elbows out! 

‘Bruce ishere? Quick, lock the doors!’ 




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What atank(er)! 

Don’t just gobuying stuff because itlooks 

pretty, else you’ll end upbroke like Bruce. 

T 

he first rule of project 

bikes; don’t go splashing 

your cash without 

knowing what you’re buying. 

Like anob, Iclocked some smart 

looking wheels on eBay and 

clicked the ‘buy it now’ button 

as if my life depended on it. Fast 

forward afew days and apair of 

Aprilia RS125 wheels were in my 

possession. Itwasn’t the fact they 

were scabbier than the pictures 

portrayed that got me chuntering, 

but more that they were way too 

big for what was needed. The 

Moto3 rules state you have to run 

a2.5in front rim and a3.5in rear. 

Iknew that was the case, but still 

ended up buying wheels roughly 

an inch bigger each end. What a 

pleb! So, if you know anyone 

that’s after some Aprilia wheels, 

send them myway. Lesson 

learned I’ve since spent anage on 

the internet trying to find donor 

wheels that meet the criteria. Let 

me tell you, it ain’t easy! Not 

unless you’ve got ashed load of 

money. If Ihad the cash todo 

what Iwanted, I’d not think 

twice about spending acouple 

of grand on some fancy Dymags. 

But that seems more than atad 

excessive. Youcould buy aratty 

track bike for that, and because 

the plan is to race this bike Ineed 

two sets at least. That much 

money could buy you ahouse 

where Ilive…maybe even two? 

Mates to the rescue 

As ever, my mate Clive came to 

the rescue. That man’s got more 

bikes than he knows what to do 

with. One of which is aHonda 

RS125, which he let me borrow 

the wheels from to move the 

project on abit. They were the 

right size for the Moto3 rules, and 

looked relatively proportionate 

within the spanking new Suzuki 

GSX-R600 forks we got for the 

bike. Having nattered to Maxton 

suspension, they recommended 

investing in some Gixer forks and 

THEONE STOP SUZUKI SHOP… 

If you own aSuzuki or are after Suzuki bits for your project, check out 

Suzuki Genuine Parts.Catering for old, new and everything in 

between, Suzuki’s specialist eBay store is crammed with every 

imaginable genuine Suzuki component for bikes going back decades. 

They’re priced competitively against pattern suppliers,but you get 

the added bonus of atwo year warranty with all parts bought. Plus, 

you know there’s going to be no agro when itcomes to easy fitment. 

Sounds good? How could you resist? To find what you’re looking for, 

check out www.bikes.suzuki.co.uk/parts-accessories/ 

yokes sothat’s what I’ve done. 

The temptation was there totake 

apunt onsome used jobbies, but 

buying them from Suzuki 

Genuine Parts gave me peace of 

mind they weren’t going to turn 

out tobe more bent than a 

banana. I’ve bought used forks 

online before and had some 

pretty bad experiences. One pair 

had about asmuch feel asa 

length of wood, and after lobbing 

the bike umpteen times down 

the track, astrip down revealed 

they’d been bolted together by a 

blind man. At first Ithought they 

were abargain, but they actually 

cost me ashed load in crash 

damage. Balls tothat! Youcan’t 

beat buying new, especially if you 

want peace of mind. The same 

goes for the yokes. They slotted 

in atreat, but the steering stem’s 

going to need lengthening byan 

inch. That might be ajob for 

someone far handier than I. 

Taking shape 

With the wheels in and the forks 

in place, wegot our first gauge of 

the bike’s wheelbase. It’s around 

1380mm. That’s conventional 

sportsbike short, but most Moto3 

bikes are around 1200mm long. 

That’s afair old difference, and 

the only way onnearing that 

minimal number istocut the 

swingarm down. It’s one thing 

building anew subframe for the 

bike, but lobbing chunks off such 

akey load-bearing part shouldn’t 

be taken lightly. Thankfully in 

our evolving team of projecteers 

is agenius fabricator called 

Chaddy. That’s small fry for a 

man of his means, but we’ve 

agreed to try the bike first before 

taking such drastic action. I’m 

pretty sure the bike will bemint 

as it is, but time will tell. Another 

thing Chaddy’s been on with is 

building the bike anew fuel tank. 

The standard fuel cell isn’t 

much bigger than agnat’s ball 

bag, so the plan is to produce a 

new top half to the original 

Suzuki fitment. Most bike tanks 

are around 50cm long, so that’s 

what we’re working to. Once 

that’s inplace, wecan crack on 

and build arear subframe. Then 

comes the seat unit. We’re 

planning on using some Honda 

NSF250R fairings –the ones off 

their Moto3 bikes. They look 

proper smart and are perfectly 

sleek for the look we’ve got in 

mind. The only potential problem 

is how low and wide the RM’s 

motor is, which is likely to prove 

abugger for ground clearance. 

But it might not? That’s the funny 

thing with this building bikes 

malarkey; it’s all hypothetical. 

Even production bikes built by 

the world’s best manufacturers 

are seldom problem free, sowe 

should expect to go round the 

houses afew times before weget 

this bike nailed. That’s the second 

rule of project building; things 

always take way longer than you 

expect to sort out. But it’s all 

good aslong as you’re making 

progress, which we certainly are. 

This is going to be one trick little 

bike, even ifittakes alot longer 

than first thought to kick into 

shape. I’m already dreaming of all 

the different ways Ican rack up a 

bigger credit card bill with fancy 

clip-ons, rearsets and asuper 

trick dash. That’s amust for me; 

clocks that look every bit the 

MotoGP machine, even ifit 

means remortgaging the house. 

I’m sure the missus will 

understand. 



LONGTERMERS 

There’s only one bike in this 

shot we’d have... 

NEIL 

TIME ON TEST: 

1MONTHS 

BMW S1000 R 

0 1 6 1 0 

ODOMETER 

MILES 

BHP: N/A 

GAIN: N/A 

NEXT AIM: GO TO 

SCOTLAND! 

The custom fit begins! 

THIS MONTH IHAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Getting familiar.” 

ike most blokes Idon’t bother something missing though! Searching 

reading instructions or manuals cover to cover mumbling to myself ‘it 

Lbut there is always an exception must be here somewhere’, Icouldn’t 

to the rule.The BMW S1000 Rismy find the ADHD switch! After my first 

first fondling with atech laden bike ride which left me pale faced and 

so Isupposed it best tofamiliarise needing abrown bag to breathe in, I 

myself. Flicking through the manual, felt damn sure that one had been well 

deciphering which buttons to press, it and truly properly activated. 

hit me this bike’s got more acronyms Now,Iwould have loved nothing 

than ateenager’s text messages… more than to tell you how Icaned the 

ABS,ASC, DTC, DDC, etc. 

arse off this bike from the get-go,but 

No doubt all good stuff when you get that’d betelling porky pies.Inreality 

your head around it, but I’m sure that’s my textile wearing body and slightly 

going to take abit of time.There was slowed grey matter were battered and 

pummelled into submission bythis 

super naked’s sheer power and force. 

We all know the feeling of recalibrating 

our brains after the winter layoff, 

getting stuck in with the throttle onthe 

first ride and thinking how bloody fast 

it feels.Gradually your brain speeds up 

and everything’s hunky dory,but that 

inevitable acquaintance period took 

awhole lot longer this time round. 

See,after adecade ofowning 

various sports and track bikes alike, 

frequently cocking my tail feathers on 

the roads and track days (Ooh... them 

were the days) Idecided adventure 

bikes were the way forward (Urgh... 

FB). It turns out four years of riding 

relatively low power steeds has left me 

soft and limp round the edges,soyou 

can appreciate why Iwas so blown 

away when Ihopped onthe Beemer. 

But the question Iwant to answer 

is, will this bike do everything Ineed it 

to do? With aclaimed 165bhp on tap, 

Price from new: £12,365 

Insurance group: 17 

Modifications 

N/A 

adelicious quickshifter coupled with 

acomfortable riding position, Ihave 

that sneaky feeling Iknow the answer. 

Now, I’m known for being abit finicky 

and borderline OCD in the comfort 

department. I’m not talking gel seats 

and ascreen the size of abarn door, 

but my first priority with any bike is 

setting the controls; asimple task 

often overlooked. 

Whizzing the bike down toAB 

Motorcycles in Peterborough, we set 

to adjusting the gear-shift, brake and 

clutch levers all in the time it takes to 

have acup of tea. Getting the basic 

controls set to my liking makes my 

riding easier so it’s areal no brainer 

when it comes to drawing the most 

from astock bike. Fifteen hundred 

miles later, I’m pretty stoked by how 

good the bike feels, most ofwhich 

with the heated grips cranked totheir 

warmest. But I’m hoping tobeable 

to switch them off soon. Summer’s 

got to get here soon, surely? 


LONGTERMERS 

Crappy surfaced roads 

couldn’t spoil the 

fun of the SP. 



Modifications 

N/A 

BRUCE 

TIME ON TEST: 

1MONTHS 

HONDA CBR1000RR SP 

0 0 6 2 0 

ODOMETER 

MILES 

BHP: N/A 

GAIN: 0 

NEXT AIM: 

GRASP THE TECH 

THIS MONTH IHAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Blitzing along back roads.” 

L 

You can get around 

160 miles from atank 

before the low fuel 

light comes on. 

ike an addict that’s been gagging 

for his next fix, these past few 

months have not been easy. It 

was way back inJanuary that Ifirst 

cocked aleg over Honda’s new 

Fireblade,and it had mehooked there 

and then. The power, the handling, the 

tech;Iloved what Ifound and after 

promising the world inthe most 

pathetically grovelling tone,Honda gave 

in and said Icould run an SP as along 

termer. Result! The only caveat was an 

expected delay in its availability. 

Four months tobeprecise.But hey, 

just like Christmas, that day eventually 

came round and just 48 hours ago a 

spanking new Blade found itself ahome 

in my garage.Ithad just 19.9 miles on 

the clock, was clean enough to eat your 

dinner off and was ripe for some 

ragging –7,000rpm style ragging, that 

is.I’m not afan ofrunning bikes in. It’s 

tedious,mind numbing and feels the 

equivalent of getting astrip tease from 

Supercorsas 

grip like the 

proverbial. 

the fittest bird you’ve ever met and 

having tokeep your eyes closed. That 

being the case,just like having to clean 

the bathroom when you’ve got guests 

stopping over,itwas achore Icouldn’t 

get out of. 

The Honda’s first service is at 600 

miles.After that it’s game on, so the 

incentive to get those early miles 

smashed hung over melike acan of 

Stella would toGazza. Aplan was 

hatched;wake upearly,get dressed, 

ride bike for 600 miles.Genius.And 

to make the experience even more 

stomachable, Iplanned todoitall on 

my favourite roads. 

I’m now back from that trip,having 

blitzed through five different counties 

and drained four tanks offuel.It’s 8pm. 

It took me 12 hours precisely,and I’m 

absolutely buzzing from one ofthe best 

days of riding Ican recount inalong 

time.Why? Well, the sun was out for 

starters. But it was mostly down to the 

Blade being anabsolute hoot. 

When Irode itatPortimao Ihad no 

idea how it would cut it on the roads. 

Sure,itwas aweapon around the track, 

but that didn’t guarantee it’d have skills 

aplenty for Blighty’s best B-roads. But 

now Iknow the truth, and this is no one 

trick pony. While at no point today did I 

get the motor singing like agood ’un, 

its torquey demeanour meant Inever 

needed to. At 4,000rpm you’re doing 

60mph in sixth, and if you wind that 

throttle back atad further,you’ll find 

this beauty will pull an effortless ton 

at just 7,000rpm. To put that in 

perspective,you’ve still got another 

6,000rpm to go before you’re even 

She’s asexy little thing. 

Fancy electronic 

suspension is awesome 

on the roads. 

brushing the redline. Madness,but of 

the very best kind!The motor’s a 

stonker, but there’s somuch more to 

the Blade. They’ve always been great 

handling bikes, but the electronic Ohlins 

suspension has taken things toawhole 

new level.It’s something Iwant to 

explore the potential of when times 

permits,but as debuts go,itreally 

impressed me with its absorbent and 

precise nature. Whatever came our way, 

the Honda just sucked itupand never 

once got all slappy.I’m running out of 

space now,but the other thing you 

should know is that the bike’s comfy. 

My back’s fine,mylegs don’t ache 

and my wrists are good for ten rounds 

with Tyson. Well,maybe eight. Yes, that 

screen issmall. Yes, those pegs are 

sportily placed. But the actual riding 

position is pleasantly upright.Don’t get 

me wrong, Iwas ready to stop,but if 

needs must Ireckon Icould’ve done a 

good few hundred miles more.Besides, 

there’s scope to make the bike even 

comfier. Ascreen’s got to be up the top 

of that list;abig one at that.But that’ll 

have to wait until after SBOTY,because 

this bike’s being loaded onto alorry 

tomorrow.Next stop,Portugal. 


LONGTERMERS 

Ben’s loving his SDR! 

BEN 

TIME ON TEST: 

2MONTHS 

KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R 

0 1 6 0 0 

ODOMETER 

MILES 

BHP: N/A 

GAIN: N/A 

NEXT AIM: TAKE 

IT ON TOUR 

One flash new dash! 

THIS MONTH IHAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Conserving the front tyre!” 

ou may remember me 

excitement and trepidation in equal 

jabbering on last month about measure and I’m about to embark ona 

Ymy eagerness to clock enough new level ofinsanity. Instantly, the 

miles in order to get the electronics addition of the Quickshifter+ (courtesy 

opened up, to enable the Track and of the Performance Pack) gives the bike 

Performance Packs? Well, now with an increased sense ofeagerness and 

that box ticked, and having been refinement.This system allows both 

advised to go grow amassive pair of clutchless upand downshifts and 

gonads,Iwas ready tosee what all is complete with auto blipper for 

the brouhaha was about. 

when things get atad racey. 

So,first thing first,Anti-wheelie 

Ipull out ofthe industrial estate and 

mode; off, check. Traction control slip exit the roundabout in third, giving the 

adjustment set to5;check. Throttle SuperD some beans when,whoops, 

response selected;Track,check. Ready would you look atthat,acompletely 

to race –oratleast that’s the cheeky accidental wheelie,officer;all the while 

little message you get greeted with utilising the clutchless shift and hooking 

from the fancy TFT dash every time it’s another gear and chasing it out. 

bought to life.With that, Ifelt apang of Anti-wheelie, need Isay any more? Oh, 

go on then! Clutch itup? Nah,noneed, 

this thing packs some serious clout, so 

catch the revs right in any ofthe lower 

four gears and you’ll behappily pulling 

off phat ones to your heart’s content! 

My termer also featured inthe super 

naked test which saw us head oop 

north –or at least that’s how it feels for 

me,even ifgeographically Lincolnshire 

is based in the southern half ofthe 

country,the accent of the locals (Bruce 

included), is enough to make me feel a 

million miles away from home.Hitting 

up some of the Wolds’ finest and 

fastest roads and pitching the bike 

on track at Cadders the KTM held its 

own against the crème de la crème of 

nakeds.Iwas proud! 

Ever since the introduction of the 

1290 monster back in 2013, I’d longed 



Modifications 

Performance Pack £445.50 

Track Pack £283.24 

RUNNING TOTAL £728.24 

to have the opportunity to let one loose 

on track and the big KTM didn’t 

disappoint. The seat height is afull 

21mm higher than the BMW S1000R 

(for example),and with agangly 

amount of fork and shock travel, it’d 

be fair to say it has asupermoto-esque 

feel to it.That said, it doesn’t make 

it feel out of place,itdealt well with 

what was thrown at it,very well in 

fact. However Iwould've loved it 

alittle bit more ifitwere shod with 

some stickier hoops to inspire alittle 

more confidence and tohelp find the 

bike’s true limits. 

Saying that, the M7RRs that it’s 

running held upwell, to be fair.They 

warmed up quickly,provided enough 

grip togrind afew grams off the gear 

shift lever and gave enough feedback 

for meto know when Iwas nearing 

their (not the bike’s) limit around the 

exit ofCharlies.There’s no way you 

should beduffing up racers on ZX-thous 

and the like while on aroad-going 

naked that’s running sports road rubber, 

but we did, so happy days! 


LONGTERMERS 

Clive’s a happy 

little chappy! 

Up at the business end... 

Every inch ofthe Aprilia 

screams racer. 

Sleek and relentless 

power isthe RSV4’s 

biggest hook. 

CLIVE 

TIME ON TEST: 

1MONTHS 

APRILIA RSV4 RF 

0 1 1 0 3 

ODOMETER 

MILES 

BHP: N/A 

GAIN: N/A 

NEXT AIM: GET 

OUT ONTRACK 

A race system’s 

a must... 

THIS MONTH IHAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Going banzai!” 

twas eight years ago that Ifirst September Iscraped enough cash 

saw an RSV4 and it made me go together to head into my local dealer 

Iall warm inside.What aweapon; I and buy this beauty. 

had to have one. I’m asucker for race It’s still early days in our relationship 

bikes and there was something about but I’m already loving that decision. I 

the Aprilia that just blew me away. never really got chance to ride it much 

It was tiny, sounded straight out of over winter,because Ididn’t want the 

MotoGP and had alook like nothing bad weather and road salt to muller it, 

else on the market. But it also cost but I’ve been making the most of every 

asmall fortune, which has meant decent day we’ve had this season to 

I’ve been saving ever since to make learn abit more about the bike and 

that dream of ownership areality. I’ve get afeel for what’s onoffer.It’s not 

lost track of how many piggybanks disappointed me in the slightest, with 

Ihad to raid to get there, but last the biggest smile producer being its 

motor.Ihad torun the bike in before I 

could give it agood thrash,but I’ll never 

forget the first time Iopened upthe 

throttle in vengeance; Inearly pissed 

myself Iwas laughing that hard. 

The motor’s arocket and it makes 

its oomph all the way through the 

revs.That’s awesome onthe roads, 

because it means you’re not messing 

around looking for gears all the time. 

Ilike the gearbox too,and the 

electronics make gear changes a 

doddle.This bike’s got quite alot of 

tech,such asthe fancy paddle system 

traction control, but I’ve still got to get 

my head around most of it.There’s a 

whole bloody book on its gizmos,which 

I’ll have to get round to reading. 

Iwant tomake the most of what the 

bike has to offer,from its tech to its 

handling.Onthe road the way this bike 

dances is unreal. It’s soflickable and 



Modifications 

N/A 

always feels planted,but the race-spec 

Öhlins can rattle your fillings out on the 

bumpier of roads.That’s all part and 

parcel of owning aracing pedigree 

motorcycle though, isn’t it? Ididn’t 

want an armchair;Iwanted aweapon. 

And that’s exactly what I’ve got. 

There’s somuch Iwant to do with 

the RSV4, including taking it on plenty 

of trackdays,but I’m also keen to 

change afew of the standard fitment 

parts. This bike looks atreat, but I 

reckon abit more carbon fibre 

wouldn’t go amiss. Arace system is 

also amust, and Iwant toget some 

crash protection on it asap.I’ve just 

spent asmall fortune buying the bike, 

but Ireckon Icould spend the same 

again in making it into exactly what 

Iwant. We’ll soon see.Where did I 

put that credit card? 


LONGTERMERS 

He needs toput his 

laptop somewhere! 

Go Charles! 

CHARLIE 

TIME ON TEST: 

2MONTHS 

TRIUMPH STREETTRIPLE RS 

0 1 6 1 0 

ODOMETER 

MILES 

BHP: N/A 

GAIN: N/A 

NEXT AIM: DELVE 

INTO DETAIL 

Has Mick Doohan come 

out ofretirement?! 

THIS MONTH IHAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Fulfilling myexpectations.” 

I 

had genuinely only covered about 20 

miles when Iintroduced the Triumph 

Street Triple RS into the long termers 

section inthe last issue.This left me 

detailing many of the characteristics 

introduced to Triumph’s Street range for 

2017 comprising asitdoes four new 

models,one still sporting the 675 engine 

for A2 licence holders,then adding the S, 

the Rand finally the featured RS. The 

latter all sporting araging 765cc triple 

heart, though with differing levels of 

raging, you understand? With such 

exciting developments coming out of 

Hinckley Iwas never going to struggle 

to find words to introduce the bike 

even without really riding it; the irony 

now being that having finally ridden 

it properly,I’m speechless... 

When Carl attended the launch he 

went poised with apoisoned pen, the 

StreetTriple was nigh on perfect so any 

changes can only be astep backward, 

right? Well,no, it would appear that is 

very,very,wrong. The only real criticism 

being the absence of adown-shifter. 

Oh, and some people still don’t like the 

teardrop headlights,preferring the 

original round ones, but that’s about it. 

All in, since the RS’s launch, the reports 

across the press have been extremely 

positive,and rightly so. 

Where the Street ultimately wins for 

me has always been its versatility.The 

RS is no exception, this month Ihave 

done short miles,long miles and track 

miles with the bike delivering exactly 

what Ineeded every step of the way. 

Fast Bikes Towers is based some 200 

miles from HQ in Lincolnshire and on 

occasion Ihead uptocatch up with 

various parties,usually inacompany 

car,morphing into the hands-free, 

drinking over-priced coffee out of a 

paper cup with ajacket hanging upin 

the back type of guy (wanker?). Having 

the RSmeant Icould escape all that 

crap,and enjoy anon-pretentious 

journey up along the fantastic Fosseway. 

Kicking mytrek off early doors 

proved bloody freezing,thus Iwas 

looking for aplace to stop to swap in 

my emergency rucksack bound winter 

gloves.Then arevelation; on the left 

grip is avery subtle button, one click 

for full heat, two medium, three low… 

with all ofthe advances of the RS Ihad 

genuinely missed it has heated grips as 

standard. So with full power displayed 

on the digital dash Imade arush 

through the Cotswolds carving through 

traffic with ease,and amassive smile 

on my face.Itwas not along day,400 

miles and around 7.5 hours inthe seat 

would usually leave me alittle jaded, 

but such was the ride Icouldn’t wait to 

swing myleg over itagain. Which was 



Modifications 

N/A 

Thanks to: 

Castle Combe Circuit 

www.bikesatcombe.com 

handy as Iwas up at the crack of 

sparrows again the next morning 

for atrackday at Castle Combe. 

The guys at the circuit were as 

interested as Iwas to see whether the 

RS would cut the mustard on track. 

Suffice to say, it didn’t disappoint. 

Iparticularly loved the motor,which 

would burst to life over 8,000rpm and 

plant abeaming smile across my face. 

Iamnotrackday junkie but Ihave to 

admit that with this bike Ijust could be. 

After four 10-minute sessions the RS 

had given methe confidence to tackle 

the big right hander agood 25mph 

faster, and make the most of the M50 

calipers, out-braking acouple of fellow 

riders and making progress throughout 

the day.Ican only put this down to 

confidence found via the performance 

of the Street which needs further 

discussion,but Iamout of room. 

So more next month, and hopefully 

more track time to build onthe 

education that the Triumph offers. 



LONGTERMERS 

Fun loving scamp, enjoys bikes, 

movies, walks in the park... 

ALASTAIR 

TIME ON TEST: 

2MONTHS 

KAWASAKI ZX-10RR 

0 0 5 2 6 

ODOMETER 

MILES 

BHP: N/A 

GAIN: N/A 

NEXT AIM: 

CHANGE GEARING 

That RR sure looks naughty! 

THIS MONTH IHAVE MOSTLY BEEN… “Drinking gravy ooop north...” 

H 

opefully,ifyou read magazines 

logically,you will have 

digested our RR mega test by 

now and clocked my longtermer.The 

Kawasaki certainly held its own and 

proved tobeapopular saddle for all 

four testers,and popular eye candy for 

the onslaught of avid superbike nuts 

up norf. Regardless of the flamboyant 

shades on display (with the exception of 

the Suzuki),the ZX-10RR enticed plenty 

of attention throughout the day.There’s 

an air offactory racer about it,which 

only the Aprilia could emulate. 

We knew it... 

There was absolutely no shame in 

finishing third and it was aproper 

chance tobond, albeit shared with 

three other Gareths.Ifirst jumped on 

the RR after leaving Whitby as we 

headed down to Oliver’s Mount,which 

was shortly after our first fuel stop 

of the day.Interestingly –ifyou find 

these kinds of things interesting –the 

Kawasaki was the most frugal infuel 

consumption of the bunch. 

Whether this was down tothe ECU’s 

fuelling strategies, or the others were 

suffering from trigger-happy fuel lights, 

we’ll probably never know.Having 

never visited Scarborough previously, 



Modifications 

N/A 

Iwas shocked at how tight and narrow 

the roads are in the flesh. Given the 

number of options of roads to take 

(they were obviously still open), Ihad 

no clue where Iwas going,let alone 

have the gonads toexploit the RR’s 

potential. How Dean Harrison and 

them boys pedal 200bhp round 

there is beyond belief... 

After clocking well over 200 miles 

during the test,Ieventually notched the 

magic 500 miles and took atrip to 

Kawasaki UK for its first service.This 

meant fresh oil and anew filter,plus 

agood look around in the workshop. 

What this now means is Ican go carte 

blanche with the throttle and slot in 

some dyno time atJHS Racing. 

Talking of power, the RR’s engine is 

probably its weakest link. Not somuch 

top-end power but everyday usable 

grunt.I’m hoping some shorter gearing 

will gosome way toalleviating its 

wheezy bottom-end and livening up the 

delivery.I’ve also got some GB Racing 

crash protection that has been sat in 

the FB office for afew weeks now, and 

other mods include ripping those 

hideous reflectors situated under 

the pillion seat. Thankfully there 

are nopillion pegs to rip off… 



MASTERCLASS 

WORDS: NEIL ‘KNOW-IT-ALL’ C HARLTON 

IMAGE: F B A RCHIVE 

KNOW YOUR 

EXHAUSTS 

Onceuponatime, an exhaust system justcarried 

awaywaste gasfromanengine. Oh,how things 

have changed,asour techyexpert Neil explains… 

FB: What doexhausts do? 

NC: Bike exhaust systems 

endure atough, thankless life. 

They carry violent bursts of hot 

(up to 7000ºC) exhaust gas 

away from the engine, manage 

pressure pulses travelling at the 

speed of sound, are exposed to 

rain, salt, flying stones and dirt 

and are constantly heat cycled. 

They also suffer considerable 

vibration and stress forces too. 

In addition to resisting fire and 

brimstone, the exhaust system 

manages the flow of exhaust 

gas from the engine into the 

atmosphere, and somehow 

increases engine performance 

while doing so. 

They also remove sound 

energy from the exhaust gas 

flow and on modern machines 

alter the chemical properties 

of the exhaust gas, reducing 

harmful emissions. 

rpm due to‘valve overlap’. 

Alternatively, alow pressure 

pulse can be created and timed 

to arrive atthe exhaust valve 

just before itcloses at high rpm, 

drawing out more spent charge. 

FB: Why’s pressure socrucial? 

NC: Exhaust systems can 

conjure high and low pressure 

pulses to arrive atany given 

exhaust valve ataspecific time 

in anumber of ways. Firstly, 

high pressure pulses created by 

the burst of gas onvalve opening 

will bereflected back up the 

exhaust if they encounter some 

kind of restriction or step. 

As the pulses travel atthe 

speed ofsound, the pulse can 

travel fast enough to return to 

the valve intime for its next 

operation, the optimum engine 

speed this process occurs atis 

determined mainly by how far 

down the exhaust pipe the step 

is. Alternatively, ifahigh 

pressure pulse encounters a 

sudden increase in exhaust pipe 

diameter, such as the system’s 

exit, alow pressure pulse will 

then travel back up the pipe 

to the exhaust valve. 

FB: Why have underseat 

exhausts been ditched? 

NC: The main point of 

under-seat systems was that they 

looked good. The Honda NR750 

made under-seat exhausts look 

good in’92, and the Ducati 916 

made them fashionable in’94, 

but only the two-stroke GPbikes 

of the era made avirtue of them. 

Many of these V4 race bikes had 

FB: How dothey improve 

engine performance? 

NC: Four-stroke engine exhaust 

systems can be specially tuned to 

the requirements of the engine 

they are fitted to. Doing so 

improves the flow ofexhaust gas 

beyond what would otherwise be 

achieved just byallowing the gas 

to exit to atmosphere atthe 

exhaust port. Atuned exhaust 

systems pulls off this neat trick 

by taking advantage of pressure 

pulses contained within the 

stream of exhaust gas. Asudden 

pulse of high pressure gas is 

introduced into an exhaust 

system when one of the engine’s 

exhaust valves is opened. 

This high pressure pulse can 

then be used at the same (by 

refection) oranother exhaust 

valve tostop fresh charge from 

leaving through the valve atlow 

Race cans are essentially perforated 

tubes with sound deadening materials 

(usually glass fibre) on their outsides. 




Facebook.com 



Astubby system like this 

will work wonders onyour 

bottom (end). 

FAST FACTS 

1 

As ageneral rule,the longer the exhaust and the larger 

the diameter, the more power it will make at lower revs. 

On the flip side,smaller bore and shorter systems will promote 

agruntier motor. 

2 

Back pressure being beneficial on afour-stroke system is 

afallacy.Inreality,you don’t want an exhaust to create any 

restriction to gas flow,asthis will compromise performance.The 

only caveat is the addition of exhaust butterfly valves,asthese 

are designed to fill-in torque deficits on systems that are tuned 

for high end power. 

3 

Unlike race cans,which are essentially perforated tubes 

wrapped in sound deadening material, road legal equivalents 

utilise specifically calculated chamber sizes toeliminate specific 

sound frequencies. 

4 

Catalytic converters contain precious metals that promote 

the conversion of toxic pollutants gases into harmless 

gases, such as switching carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide 

(and water). 

5 

While titanium, stainless and mild steel are commonly used 

in exhaust production,lightweight aluminium isn’t capable of 

withstanding the high temperatures present in exhaust gases (up 

to 700ºC). Some very high performance race engines exceed this 

temperature and require systems made from nickel based alloys. 

Hard metals like titanium are 

used on race systems because 

they can deal with the extreme 

heat produced. 

two rear facing cylinders and 

routing the exhausts for these 

under the seat to the extreme 

rear of the bike made perfect 

sense as well as looking super 

cool. Weight saving, mass 

centralisation and the need to 

incorporate catalytic converters 

on sports bikes have seen the 

demise of the under-seat 

exhaust, often to the point where 

the exhaust system is essentially 

hidden from view altogether. 

FB: Why dowehave catalytic 

converters? 

NC: The catalytic converter 

promotes chemical reactions 

between the different gases 

that comprise the exhaust gas. 

Noble metals such as platinum, 

palladium and rhodium are 

coated onametal or ceramic 

monolith which increases the 

effective area ofthe converter by 

around 7,000 times. Inside the 

cat, unburnt fuel (hydrocarbons 

or HC) isoxidised as is any 

carbon monoxide (CO). Some 

of the oxygen required for this 

process is taken from nitrogen 

oxides (NOx) that are present 

in the exhaust gas. The end 

products of this three-way 

reaction are: Carbon dioxide 

(CO2), water vapour (H2O) 

and nitrogen (N2). The cat 

takes upalot of space, plus 

they need to run at high 

temperatures to maintain the 

chemical reaction process –this 

means they need to sit quite 

close to the engine, making 

packaging harder still. 

FB: Why dorace systems 

make such adifference? 

NC: The biggest benefit ofrace 

systems over standard systems is 

weight saving. If you have the 

cash, you can replace astandard 

steel system weighing upto20kg 

in some cases with atitanium 

and carbon fibre system 

weighing little more than just a 

couple of kilos. The attention to 

detail on quality race systems 

can also improve gas flow. 

Mandrel bends and fine TIG 

welding also look good. The 

biggest improvement to 

horsepower usually comes 

from aless restrictive silencer. 

Standard systems use a 

combination of absorption and 

reflection to remove sound 

S 

SUBS 

energy from the exhaust gas 

stream. Reflection silencers 

use interconnected 

chambers ofspecific 

volume to force sound 

waves to cancel each 

other out. They are much 

more effective but 

heavier and more 

restrictive than the 

simple race absorption 

type silencer which is 

just aperforated tube 

wrapped in asound 

deadening material. 

Whack one of these onifyou wanna 

go faster! 

See page 8 

for the details 

BSCRIBE 


ULTIMATE ACCESS TO THE WORLD’S RACE PADDOCKS, RACERS & TEAMS 

ABOUT BLOODY 

TIME TOO… 

PICS: D OUBLE R ED 

Donot underestimate just how happy we were here at 

FB,tosee BSB racer Luke Mossey finally get the victory 

monkey firmly off his back atBrands Hatch.And not once, 

but twice, his first ever win and BSB double –top man!Aside from 

being anabsolutely belting bloke wethink, at least from the time 

we’ve spent with him, his standing on the top step of the rostrum 

has been along time coming. 

Youkind of always knew hehad it in him, and being honest we 

expected him to nail avictory last year at some point,but it wasn’t 

forthcoming.There was something missing, be that with the team or 

Luke himself,asheseemed to fade alittle in second races now and 

then. But it could have just been the proper ‘official’ tag (and subsequent 

support) his 2017 squad has,alongside another title challenger in Leon 

Haslam,that’s made the difference. Of the three rounds thus far as we 

write,Luke has been on the podium at least once at each and, of course, 

stood twice on the top step at Brands. 

He is starting to show the right level ofconsistency needed if he’s to 

challenge for the title and,quite frankly,having another capable of 

pushing the front two is necessary,nay,essential we’d venture. 

That’s because even though we love the competitiveness in BSB, 

and the fact anyone out of the top ten can theoretically win arace, and 

often has,really only Haslam and multiple champion Shane Byrne are 

consistent enough if 2016 is anything to go by.Some have their glorious 

moments,but the final four spots in the Showdown table always 

fluctuate hugely inthe run up to the cut off.Last year it was Bryne 

and Haslam and then the rest,the year before Byrne and Josh Brookes 

–always two there are! 

We’d love Brookes to get involved,but 

on the evidence we’ve seen over afew 

rounds the Yamaha isn’t quite there just 

yet and, of course,his isn’t the‘official’ 

team. With that inmind what they’re 

achieving isreally impressive but we’re 

going to be greedy and ask that they work 

even harder!Wewant Brookes harrying 

the top two, or top three ifMossey keeps 

it up.And James Ellison,and many others, 

too.Championships need their focal 

points and usually it’s two people: 

Marquez and Vinales in MotoGP,Rea and 

Davies in WSB,and so on. But BSB,being 

so competitive,should rightly have more 

folk winning more often, keeping the top 

boys on their toes and really cementing 

the fact it’s one of the best racing series 

anywhere.So, Luke,and the rest of you, 

keep it up boys! 

Should be a 

good year for 

Team Green! 


Luke won his races with style... 


SUZUKI STILLTOSHINE 

Suzuki’s new and long awaited 

GSX-R1000, additional ‘R’ or otherwise, 

has had apeculiar introduction to 

racing, and across all spectrums. In 

our own BSB series itappears to be 

struggling somewhat, quite badly bar 

an inspired ride by Bradley Ray at 

Brands Hatch. Ex WSB champion 

Sylvain Guintoli must currently be 

wondering what’s going on as his 

finishes thus far dohis stock no 

favours.Oratleast shouldn’t do,but 

then hegot given awild card MotoGP 

ride atLeMans inplace of Alex Rins. 

We predict he’ll probably finish in 

roughly the same place he’s been 

doing in BSB, mind you! 

Anyway,inthe Superstock class 

Richard Cooper isdoing really well, 

in both traditional races and the 

endurance style outings now being 

run inBSB.Over inthe European class 

that runs with WSB,there’s acouple 

of Suzukis entered but unlike in the 

UK, they seem tobestruggling. 

RATE ARACE 

WSB –Assen Race 1: 7/10 

This could easily have been a 

9/10, but wewere robbed on 

the penultimate lap of ashow 

stopper finish! Bummer! 

MotoGP –Jerez: 5/10 

An interesting race mostly for 

how poorly some did, and 

Lorenzo’s podium, but otherwise 

aright snooze fest… 

BSB –Oulton Park Race 1 

&2:9/10 

Balls to the wall action, top 

drawer drama, insane crashes 

and BSB back toits best 

–more please, more, more! 

Over in the USA things couldn’t 

be more different, as the bike in the 

hands ofToni Elias and Roger Hayden 

is kicking butt.MotoAmerica runs very 

similar rules to WSB,while in BSB we 

know the teams have been wrestling 

to marry upthe machine tothe spec’ 

ECU electronics, and this could be 

the contributing difference. 

Meanwhile in the far less glamorous 

world of club racing, at arecent 

meeting at Donington Park there were 

wildly contrasting fortunes for the 

Gixer.Acouple ofengines had gone 

pop on racers,while others fought 

with other issues.Even our own TT 

racer,Gaz Johnson, has been plagued 

by problems getting his bikes ready. 

This isn’t so unusual though, especially 

with anew bike and just look athow 

poorly the Red Bull Honda team are 

doing in WSB for proof of that. Many 

of the Gixers landed late into the UK 

and Europe,sojust be patient, Suzuki 

fans, they’ll get it sorted! 

UB 

See page 8 


SUBSCRIBE 

MOAN, MOAN, MOAN... 

Pit Shadow 

It’s been abit of astruggle todecide what to talk about 

this month, because there’s been quite afew things going 

on, but many of them are,inmyhumble opinion, deathly 

boring. Take the current tyre situation inMotoGP. Yesit’s 

throwing us some curve balls while Michelin get their crap 

together.But aside from unusual results,orthe peculiar 

sight of seeingValentino Rossi finishing tenth, delving into 

the exact reasons why is abridge too far. In essence,I’m 

bored ofitalready, it’s usually the topic of conversation in 

the media room and many commentators have gone into 

it in detail online, on theTVetc. 

Frankly I’d rather bang rusty nails into my ears than sit 

through another tyre discussion –itwas like this last year 

and won’t change anytime soon. Can we now move on? 

But what to, how about Moto2? If incessant tyre talk has 

me bored stupid,Moto2 islikely to put mesix feet under. 

It’s not right, but when Moto2 isoniswhen Iusually go 

do other stuff in the paddock! 

Close,exciting races are few and far between in Moto2, 

and it’s been like this for years.Iwas pleased to see Alex 

Marquez take his first win, but right now his team have 

won every race in 2017 and the pair look onadifferent 

planet to the rest.Once more the whole remit of Moto2 is 

chucked inthe garbage –cheaper and closer racing for 

the middle GPclass. As I’ve said before,ittook less than 

one season for Moto2 to become more expensive than 

the 250cc strokers ever had been, and like any other 

series the teams with most resources (or,money…) 

rise to the top and usually stay there. 

In fact the most interesting thing that’s happened in 

Moto2 this year has been the Danny Kent saga, leaving his 

team in asoap opera fashion, one side saying one thing, 

one side saying another.His Moto2 history is chequered 

to say the least.Apoor year on the Tech Trois bike can 

be attributed to the bike,the lacklustre showing in 2016 

could also be due toissues other than with Danny himself. 

I’ve not asked Danny yet, but my personal opinion is 

that the woes within the team got on top of him and he’s 

essentially downed tools.I’m curious to see exactly how 

he fares onthe KTM Moto3 bike when he gives it atry; 

will the ‘champion’ inDanny come back out to play? 

And then,over inWSB,it’s Davies versus Rea! The 

public’s reaction on social media has been most 

interesting, with aseemingly equal number supporting 

either side.One thing that interests methough, is when 

people say something like ‘Rea would never do that, 

he’s not that kind ofguy’,onthe back of no knowledge 

whatsoever or from meeting him for about ten seconds. 

That’s like saying Rossi is the nicest guy in racing, when 

those in the know,orthose who are smart, know that 

when itcomes to his rivals,hereally isn’t. 

The term ‘smiling assassin’ comes to mind,and rightly 

so,he’s achampion, awinner,and so is Rea. Idon’t know 

(or care) who’s right in this fight, the track action inWSB 

is brilliant enough,but Iwould say this –Rea is adouble 

champion for many reasons,and not just for his talent. 

And he wants to go on winning,soyou shouldn’t put 

anything past someone with this goal, like,ever… 


RACE FEATURE 

W O R D S : L A R R Y ‘ S C O O P ’ C A R T E R 

I M A G E S : R O B G R A Y / F B A R C H I V E 

BRITAIN ’ SGOT 

Other countrieshavedoneit, other federationshavebeenvery successful at doing it, 

we in the UK have eventried it before,but with the introduction this season of the 

British Talent Team andthe British Talent Cup, there is nowareal platform forsuccess. 


HOMEGROWN TALENT 

Flying the flag from Britain, 

wee McPhee is doing us all 

proud in Moto3. 

ast your minds back tothe early 

1990s and you may just recall 

Csome young upstarts by the names 

of James Haydon, Karl Harris and Nick 

Hopkins among others aboard red, white 

and blue liveried TZ250s, mentored by the 

likes of Ron Haslam and the late Robert 

Fearnall whose aim was to unearth ‘the 

next Barry Sheene’. 

Patriotically championed as Team 

Britannia initially, the powers that be 

decided that amore sedate ‘Team GB’ was 

more appropriate, even inthose non-PC 

days, and while the concept was good 

(primarily funded bythe ACU), the 

flame flickered for awhile before being 

extinguished for good when the cash 

(and perhaps the enthusiasm) ran out. 

Harnessing talent 

Various initiatives have since followed to 

champion talent in the UK, mainly through 

promoting race series rather than specific 

projects (Yamaha R6 Cup and Superteens 

for example), but apart from acouple of 

significant exceptions, it’s more orless 

been acase ofget on with it yourself, folks, 

if daddy’s rich then all well and good, and 

Aright bunch ofthumbers! 

if you can flog your granny oneBay, all the 

better. And from Barry Sheene’s swansong 

in the mid-1980s, that’s how it was for 20 

years. Not alot to shout about really. 

Leaving World Superbikes out ofthis 

particular argument, it’s really just been 

over these past 10 years that Brits have 

come to the fore inGrands Prix and as well 

as regular GPwinners these days, wehave 

riders capable of challenging for, and 

indeed winning World Championship titles. 

Many ofthem have come through the 

traditional proving ground ofBSB, others 

via the Spanish CEV route and some a 

mixture ofboth. And while the mainly 

Spanish and Italian domination continues 

at GP level (and the reason for that is the 

considerable investment by the respective 

federations in order to nurture domestic 

talent), here inthe UK there have been 

relatively slim pickings. But all that has 

changed with anew Anglo-Spanish 

concept with one fundamental difference, 

and that is it has the official sanctioning 

of MotoGP’s promoters, Dorna Sports. 

And if Dorna say they’re going to do 

something, you’d best listen up! 

The men behind the team 

Indeed, the British Talent Team and British 

Talent Cup, launched in London acouple of 

months ago, has one ofthe sport’s most 


RACE FEATURE 

influential names behind it. Alberto Puig 

(pronounced Pudge) has guided many a 

prodigy to the top, including the likes of 

Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Toni Elias 

and with the grand title of promotion 

director, the Spaniard isthe key link to 

making this latest initiative asuccess. 

It’s all part ofDorna’s Road to MotoGP 

and is designed as astepping stone for 

riders from the British Isles to get onto 

the world stage, providing an opportunity 

like noother for young talent to grow and 

progress, while outlining Dorna’s 

commitment to the future ofmotorcycle 

racing in the UKand British Isles. 

As well as Puig, there are two 

fundamentally British elements tothis, and 

like agood joke, it starts with an Irishman 

and aScotsman. The vastly experienced 

Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams, himself a 

Grand Prix winner, and talented young Scot 

John McPhee, who has also topped the 

podium in Brno last summer, hold the key 

It might look like a club racing bike, but 

the British Talent Team’s Honda is causing 

plenty of upset on the fancy world scene. 

to its fledgling success. McWilliams acts 

as talent scout for the project while FIM 

Moto3 World Championship rider McPhee 

has already shown this year he is capable 

of challenging for the championship with, 

at the time of writing, acouple of podiums 

to hold an impressive second position in 

the standings. “I’m really happy to have 

this opportunity inthe team and I’m 

looking forward tothe season tosee 

what we can do,” says McPhee. 

“We’ve made agood start and it’s 

important tocontinue this on and beina 

position tochallenge for the championship. 

Representing the UK and British Isles on 

the world stage, aswell as the Team and 

Cup, is abig responsibility but I’m working 

hard toget the kind of results we’re aiming 

for, and I’m delighted we’ve got this new 

project off to the best start. Thanks to 

everyone for the opportunity.” 

McWilliams adds: “It’s fantastic tobepart 

of this project and to play arole in the future 

RACING STEPS 

FOUNDATION 

One of the driving forces behind 

McPhee’s success,and indeed that 

of the British Talent Team, is the 

Racing Steps Foundation which is 

aprivate,not-for-profit fund that 

provides and finances competition 

and performance development 

programmes for young British racing 

drivers and motorcycle racers. 

The foundation, set upin2007, aims 

to fast-track those with the exceptional 

talent and determination needed to climb 

to the top of the international motorsport 

ladder. As well as supporting McPhee, 

emerging talents Rory Skinner and Dan 

Jones are backed bythe RSF. 

The man who established and 

underpins the RSF programme is founder 

Graham Sharp,asuccessful businessman 

and benefactor. Sharp was supported by 

the foundation’s ambassador,the multiple 

ex-world motorcycle and Formula 1World 

Champion John Surtees, up until his death 

very recently,and Derek Walters,chief 

executive of World Sport Management. 

John’s used to being stalked... 

The calm before the storm. 


HOMEGROWN TALENT 

It’s not been completely rosy for 

McPhee. Not finishing at Jerez 

cost him big time. 

of motorcycling in the British Isles. It’s an 

important project tobeinvolved in and I’m 

looking forward to showing what kind of 

talent we have. John has made afantastic 

start to the season and holds second place 

in the title race already soweare absolutely 

delighted, we just need to keep it up. 

“The British Isles has along history of 

motorcycle racing and motorsport that I’m 

proud tohave been part of and it’s anhonour 

for metonow again play arole in it, just 

with the difference that this time, I’m not 

on the bike.” 

Tomorrow’s heroes 

Dorna have been deeply involved in young 

rider programmes since before the turn of 

the millennium, beginning with the FIM 

CEV Repsol and the Movistar Junior Cup, 

before going on to include initiatives such 

as the Asia Talent Cup and the Red Bull 

MotoGP Rookies Cup. 

The Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup began 

in 2007, creating and continuing to develop 

riders ofincredible talent such as Johann 

Zarco (twice Moto2 World Champion) and 

reigning Moto3 World Champion Brad 

Binder. Both have joined FIM CEV Repsol 

graduates and subsequent World Champions 

such as Marc Marquez and Maverick Viñales 

on the list ofyoung rider successes tohave 

come from these initiatives. 

More recently, the Asia Talent Cup was 

born in 2014 and is now beginning tosee 

champions such as Ayumu Sasaki emerge 

onto the world stage whereby the 2015 ATC 

champion and 2016 Red Bull Rookies Cup 

Danny Kent showed the world 

us Brits could win inMoto3. 

Could John back that up? 

champion made his debut in the Moto3 

World Championship in 2017. 

The British Talent Cup is the latest addition 

to this honour roll of young rider support and 

talent promotion, with selection set to take 

place in2017and the engines ready to fire up 

next year. Designed to develop British riders 

who would otherwise struggle to gain an 

opportunity to showcase their talent, the 

Cup will race at Dorna-run events including 

the British round of World Superbike 

Championship at Donington Park and the 

British GPatSilverstone. Arange ofcircuits 

in the UK and Spain form atentative base for 

the proposed calendar, and the bike will be 

aHonda NSF 250R Moto3 machine. Riders 

coming through the new Cup also have the 

incentive ofseeing the British Talent Team 

in Moto3, knowing there isaprogramme 

designed around their journey tothe FIM 

World Championship with Dorna supporting 

British talent on every rung of the ladder. 

Talent spotting 

The first ever selection programme for the 

Cup will preface the 2017 Octo British Grand 

Prix at Silverstone, inthe week leading up to 

the event. There, prospective riders will be 

put through their paces and the best offered 

the chance to race in the Cup’s inaugural 

2018 season. Then riders are on the Road to 

MotoGP ladder, potentially tothe top. The 

application process runs from May 5toJune 

18 this year, and riders who will be invited 

to the selection process will be informed 

before July 21. 

As well as duties with McPhee’s bid on 

track, McWilliams and Puig are tasked with 

helping tofind and develop these riders for 

the future, with Puig bringing his knowledge 


RACE FEATURE 

and experience from the Idemitsu Asia Talent 

Cup to the party. 

Carmelo Ezpeleta, CEO ofDorna Sports, 

says: “After theincredible success of the Asia 

Talent Cup we are very proud of this amazing 

initiative as part ofour Road to MotoGP. 

With the long and illustrious history of racing 

in the UKand British Isles, itistheperfect 

place and the perfect time to begin another 

chapter of the UK’s two-wheeled story, and 

we are proud to have John McPhee onboard 

in the Moto3 World Championship asthe 

first stage in this project. 

“His great victory in Brno last season 

was an astonishing achievement that proves 

his fortitude. The experience of Dorna, 

Alberto Puig and Jeremy McWilliams will 

be pushing to make both the BritishTalent 

Team and the British Talent Cup successful 

additions toour commitment to talent and 

riders of the future. 

“I think it’sinterestingtocreatethese 

kindsofprogrammes in all sports, that can 

help young guys get into the sport and 

develop,” says Puig,“especially sports like 

ours, because racing is very expensive. I 

think they are also very welcome to everyone 

who can gain access to these types of series. 

We chose the British Isles because it has 

been a key part of racing history, with 

manufacturers and riders. We believe now 

that to do this here is something needed so 

the purpose of the team is to give riders in 

the Cup a goal. The target is, if they perform 

well in the Talent Cup, their final destination 

will be this supported Moto3 team.” 

APPLY HERE 

Fancy being the next John McPhee? Well here are afew guidelines 

laid down by Dorna to help you on your way… 

Criteria for the selection 

AGE: Date of birth between January 1,2001, 

and December 31,2005.Donot apply if you 

are not inthis age group.Passports will be 

checked once the rider is pre-selected. 

If the rider has given afake birth date, 

he/she will bedisqualified. 

ROAD RACING EXPERIENCE: Not essential, 

but high performance riding experience 

required. Provide us with details ofthe races 

and championships you are competing inthis 

season.Weare not only interested in 

dedicated road racers, those who ride dirt 

bikes and/or motocross bikes may also be 

developing the riding skills that translate 

into success on tarmac. 

NATIONALITY: Youmust be from acountry 

within the British Isles: United Kingdom 

(England, Scotland, Wales and Northern 

Ireland), Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, 

Bailiwick ofJersey and Bailiwick of Guernsey. 

RACE EQUIPMENT: Each candidate will 

need tobring the following equipment: 

One-piece leather suit, boots,gloves and 

helmet. Aback protector is very highly 

recommended. All these items must comply 

with the safety standard for general road 

racing and be in good condition. 

IMPORTANT! The participant must be aware 

that, if selected, they must arrange all 

documents and visas necessary totravel to 

the UKfor the selection event.Should the 

participant be underage,all documents 

related to the BritishTalent Cup must be 

affirmed and endorsed by his/her parents or 

guardian with legal responsibility for the 

participant. If selected,participants who 

are underage shall be accompanied at 

the selection event by his/her parents or 

guardian with legal responsibility,whoever 

has duly signed the documents related to 

BritishTalent Cup to cover the participant’s 

lack of legal capacity. 

GENERAL: If our panel ofexperts believes 

that you may have what it takes,then you 

will be invited to the selection event in 

August. At the selection event, you will have 

the chance to show your riding ability onthe 

track at Silverstone in August (during the 

week leading up to the British Grand Prix), 

using aHonda motorcycle.Candidates invited 

to take part inthe pre-selection event must 

cover their own travel costs toSilverstone. 

However,there are noadditional fees for 

participating in the event.Final participants 

in the BritishTalent Cup 2018 will be decided 

afew days after the selection event. All riders 

will be informed thereafter. 

ONE-UPMANSHIP 

John McPhee (to date) and 

Jeremy McWilliams have 

won one Grand Prix each. 

Here are some other Brits 

who also won just one 

GP in their career: Ian 

McConnachie, Alan Carter, 

John Newbold, John 

Williams, Phil Carpenter, 

Peter Williams, Ray 

McCullough, Tony 

Jefferies, Godfrey 

Nash, Dick Creith, 

Derek Minter, 

Jack Brett and 

Harold Daniell. 

Jeremy McWilliams (above) will 

be keeping a watchful eye on 

McPhee in 2017. 



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COLUMNIST 

Carl Stevens Racing 

Ducati Tri-Options Cup 

Well, that’s abloody 

waste! 

Oulton was kind to Carl. 

Tin pots ahoy!!! 

Carl Stevens 

A 

lot can happen inamonth. We’ve been flat out 

(literally) at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park in 

the Ducati Performance Tri-Options Cup, and 

having abloody good time aswell... 

Still in arace-bike limbo from having noR6torace in 

Superstock, we managed to borrow adifferent Ducati 

Panigale 899 to race at Brands; albeit with astandard set 

of front forks and standard damper, asthe one we used 

at Donington was being rebuilt. But abig thanks to777 

Demolition and Wesley Pearce for coming to my rescue. 

Iwas particularly keen to make Brands, asit’s myhome 

track and there’s nothing better than riding with your 

friends and family around –who all came out inforce. 

That’s not to say itmakes riding any easier. After a 

pretty difficult practice and qualifying, trying to dial in 

some feeling, we managed to nab P16 on the grid for the 

following day’s races. So after stiffening the bike to 

within aninch of its squidgy life, the lights went out for 

our first race of the weekend; and an absolutely godawful 

start (as per). Even though Ican’t seem to launch 

these things for love nor money, Itend to be pretty good 

at redeeming things on the first lap. Itwasn’t long before 

I’d clambered up into 13th, and was hell-bent on chasing 

down 12th until the bitter end. Iwas so busy chasing 

down the 959 in front and avoiding the endless array of 

backmarkers Ididn’t even think about myclass position 

in the 899 series. Turns out Ibagged P1. Coming into 

Parc Ferme Iwas alittle dazed, as the marshal waved me 

straight through and into the winners’ enclosure: Finally 

my first British Championship podium... F*ck yes! 

Champagne and atrophy given on top ofthe podium at 

my home track with my friends, family and sponsors 

there gave me an unrivalled buzz like I’d just dropped 

enough drugs to sedate Manhattan. Boom. 

With the sweet scent ofcheap Champers still adorning 

my leathers, we were aiming for the exact same in race 

two, with another dry race on the cards. Unfortunately, my 

team mate in Stock 600s had alittle off-track excursion 

in warm-up, meaning we were also busy getting his bike 

rebuilt in time for his race. Sod’s law, itmeant Imissed the 

pit lane window for my own race, and had tostart right at 

the back ofthe grid in 37th. Where’s the justice in that? 

Keeping with tradition Igot the old 899 tied in knots off the 

line making me dead last before some pretty bold moves to 

carve through the field. Iliterally gave it everything Icould 

to grab 13th overall, although Imissed out ontop 899 and 

another trophy by0.2 of asecond. Bastard! 

Carl’s been switching 

899s like they’re going 

out offashion. 

Pretty Boy, looking, 

erm...? 

Thankfully though, we had the chance to do it all 

again atOulton Park; back onthe original 899 Irode at 

round one, but this time with some 

snazzy looking Italian suspension 

called Mupo. Soafter apretty 

awful free practise and 

qualifying leaving me 17th on 

the grid with absolutely no 

feeling from the bike, we made 

some monumental changes for race 

one. Itwas abit mental; the whole 

race was incredibly close and after 

some unspecified carnage, arestart 

and some more suspension 

tweaks, we managed to get 

the elbows out and steal an 

awesome 13th and another 

class win –which was unreal 

considering the troubles we 

had throughout the weekend. 

Race two didn’t exactly 

go to plan with the most 

horrendous brake fade I’ve ever 

encountered; dropping from 

11th to 17th and not scoring 

points for the first time this 

year. Shit. But, with aneight 

week break wehave enough 

time to test, refine 

(especially the suspension) 

and generally sort mylife 

out. I’m leading 899 in the 

Ducati Tri-Options Cup, so 

it’s not all bad. The plan 

is to keep it that way. 


COLUMNIST 

PENZ13.COM BMW 

ROAD RACING 

Gary 

Johnson 

Thinking... 

Contemplating... 

Wondering... 

Podiuming... 

I 

t’s TTtime! How the hell did that come round so 

fast? It’s been aproper manic winter for me. Ifyou 

follow mycolumn then you’ll know what I’m on 

about. It’s mint running your own team, because you get 

to build the bikes exactly how you want them, but the 

price you pay for that luxury is graft. I’ve been sweating 

my balls off getting things sorted, and so have my team. 

I’ve got amega group of folk around me, and Icouldn’t 

be here without them. It’s definitely not been plain 

sailing these past few months, but it’s been fruitful all 

the same. We’re getting there, and bythe time you read 

this I’m confident things will be bob-on. They bloody 

better be, anyhow. 

Did you read about building my Gixer (page 58 –Ed)? 

That’s been amammoth task, but we’re there now and 

I’ve ridden the bike afew times. What aweapon that is. 

I’ve needed to do abit of refinement to the throttle, as it 

was way too sharp, but Ilove everything else about the 

bike. It should go real well around the TT. The 675’s 

coming along nicely, too. Ilove that little bike and I’m 

hopeful ofadecent finish inthe Supersport race. The 

Lightweight’s going to be agood ’un too. There are loads 

of good riders inthat class, and plenty of great bikes to 

chauffeur them around. I’m pretty happy with how my 

WK Bikes/CF Moto 650’s come along. Itbagged me a 

fourth place finish last year, but Ireckon it’s got the 

potential togoeven better. There’s not abolt onitthat 

hasn’t been through the mill to achieve perfection. 

We’ve got anew motor, swingarm, suspension and 

brakes, plus ashed load more parts. I’ve been on the bike 

for five years now, and it’s mega to think how far the 

project’s come along. I’ve done afew tests onthe bike 

and managed torace it the other day. Trackdays are one 

thing, but it’s only in competition that you sort stuff out. 

So we headed to Snetterton afew weeks back and got 

stuck in at around of Thundersport GB. Itdidn’t 

disappoint, even ifasmall problem stopped us from 

getting out in qualifying. Ihad to ride myarse off to get 

from the back of the grid, which was the ultimate test for 

the bike. Third wasn’t abad finish, and following up with 

second and first places tasted even sweeter. Itwas down 

on pace, but the handling’s mint. I’m hoping between 

now and the TTwe’ll have found abit more speed. We’ll 

soon see. If you’re at the TT, make sure toswing by. 


DUCATI WSB 

WORLD SUPERBIKE 

Will we have round 2atImola? 

COLUMNIST 

The race was ace, 

until it wasn’t... 

Chaz Davies 

H 

ello there everyone! Wehad areally big gap in 

our schedule between our last race at Aragon, 

and the next one atAssen, atleast three 

weekends Ithink. Personally Idon’t like it, you start the 

season and get cracking, then have this long waiting 

period. We had aday’s test after Spain and then it was 

waiting about, training, keeping fit, but without racing 

it can get pretty boring. 

Anyway, things started out well at Assen; we were 

there orthereabouts, top three at any rate. Wewere 

missing afew tenths of asecond here and there, but 

our race pace was good. Assen has always been tough 

though, there are certain parts of the track where I’ve 

never managed to fully dial out the problems with the 

Panigale. It’s tough when you try so many things over 

afew years and still can’t nail it. Do you make adrastic 

change, which could throw out where itworks elsewhere, 

or stick towhat you have? 

It’s the faster parts of Assen Istruggle with, the final 

part especially, where the rear is loaded. Anywhere with 

extreme load on the rear Istruggle toturn on the throttle. 

The bike feels like it’s sitting, but isn’t, and itbecomes 

generally less responsive. There are three parts of Assen 

where this happens, wegive away afew tenths through 

them. Maybe we’ll sort it next year! 

We did okay for the first race though, Ithink our race 

pace caught Jonny Rea off guard alittle as it was amatch 

for his. The last few laps wewent toe-to-toe in it and had 

agood battle. Assen is fairly easy tofollow, but in front 

it is hard tomake abreak. He followed mesussing 

things out and comfortable, and when Iwas behind him 

it was also easy, and we passed each other afew times. 

But then with alap to go we had abike issue. Yay… 

It had been areally tense race with just meand Jonny 

out front, hepassed metwice but Igot him back again, 

so he passed meearlier inthe lap after I’d pushed my 

line alittle wide through turn three. Iwas just working 

out where Iwas going tomake mymove when the bike 

shut down. It was anelectrical gremlin, aproper one, 

not apiston through the ECU! Ah well, at least we 

didn’t lose anengine. 

In the second race, during the first part it was abit of 

astruggle to get through the pack and bythe time Ihad, 

the Kawasakis had established agap. But the way the 

race went, even ifIhad got away with them I’d still have 

had tosettle for apodium. Iworked this out very early 

on, we’d had tomake abike swap because of the issue 

and on this one Ihad no feeling, or grip from the front all 

race long. It didn’t feel good at all, so Idid all Icould, it 

is what it is. Insome ways it makes the rest of the year 

easier; we just have to keep on trying to win especially 

at tracks we’ve not been strong at, like Donington, where 

we struggle with the exact same issues asAssen. 

Right then, time to address the elephant inthe room I 

guess, which is the incident with meand Jonny atAssen. 

To the unaware, Jonny baulked meonafast lap ina 

really dangerous and fast section. Idid release a 

statement about it, which you can read here http:// 

mrtns.uk/chazassen asIfeltthefacts weren’t widely 

known. Have aread if you’re interested, but the full 

video itself makes things clear –itwas a100 per cent 

deliberate attempt to disrupt my lap. He’s raced mefor 

years there, he knows my lines there, he knows what he 

was doing. But what caused my reaction inparc ferme 

afterwards was acomplete lack of any apology. Yes I 

gave him a slap onthe arm as Ipassed him, awake 

up call, some people called it apunch but, please, 

like I’d really ‘punch’ someone with 

the back of my hand... 

But it was not saying sorry that 

riled me, deliberate or not, that 

would have placated me, but 

that’s what I’m dealing with. 

So that’s whyIwrote that 

statement, I’m sure Jonny 

fans will simply accept his 

version of events, which is 

fine, but if you’re onthe 

fence and can be 

bothered tocheck itall 

out, do so. All adds to a 

bit of off-track drama 

though Isuppose! 

Anyway, Imola next 

up, solet’s get 

crack’a’lackin! 


COLUMNIST 

EX-RACER &TEAM MANAGER 

RACE INSIDER 

Steve 

Parrish 

Avon’s newest fan! 

iguys, I’m going tostart this month by letting 

you know how my Endurance Race went, you 

Hknow, the one I’ve been mentioning and looking 

forward tofor months now onthe classic Suzuki Katana, 

remember? Yeah, that endurance race that lasted about 

one minute and ten seconds in total! It was atDonington 

and practice went well even though I’ve only done eight 

laps. James Whitham went well on it, but Iwas as fast 

as my other team-mate who had tested it and he’s alot 

younger than me. Iwas pretty pleased. 

It was quite anice beast and handled well with about 

150bhp to play with. Whitham was fastest so he was 

going tostart for us, which is fair enough. We’d practiced 

our pit stops with the quick release stuff, all the Suzuki 

brass were there, pictures were taken and videos were 

filmed, it was all abig official do. So at the race start we 

waved James off, and then didn’t see him again… 

Ireally feel for James, he must feel like aright twat 

falling off on the first lap trying totake the lead, we could 

barely look athim we felt sosorry for him. Tomake 

matters worse, hedidn’t stay with the bike after the 

crash, so despite the fact itgot put back together again 

we were disqualified. To add insult to (thankfully no) 

injury, when westarted it up it seems astone or 

something had got inside asthe engine was rattling 

like mad. Somycomeback looks to have to wait for 

32 years, rather than 31…Bloody hell, James! 

There was little Icould do but fire upPlummet Airways 

and head out here, the North West 200, which is where 

I’m writing toyou from after our practice commentary 

stint isover. Guy Martin has been rubbish so far here on 

the new Fireblade, Michael Dunlop seems tolike his new 

Suzuki and Alastair Seeley is still the man around the 

NW200. Ican’t wait for the racing to start! 

I’ve done anAvon tyre launch recently, now I’m their 

new ambassador, and it was good to see the FB guys on 

it. Ihope BJ liked my after dinner gift! Well, hedid say 

he wanted to find abird out there (did Inow? –BJ)! We 

were atPortimao which will help asI’m working atWSB 

there later this year so first hand knowledge of the track 

will be handy. The Avon tyre inquestion, the Spirit ST, 

isn’t too bad on track even though it’s asport-touring 

tyre. It was perfect on the road and we had aright laugh 

on track. For what they are, they’re very good. 

Now then, Assen WSB, and that ‘fight’ between Chaz 

Davies and Jonny Rea. It was actually quite nice to see 

Chaz sowound up and coming out of his shell, although 

it’s hard toknow ifJonny did it on purpose. Iknow 

Jonny quite abit, and Iwouldn’t have thought hewould 

do something like that. That being said, you never really 

know, do you? Who knows how anyone’s mind works 

sometimes? It’ll certainly make the rest of the year abit 

more interesting, wouldn’t you say? Chaz has nothing to 

lose, sogofor it! 

Ithought Leon Haslam was lucky after that big crash at 

Oulton Park when James Ellison’s bike stopped. In fact if 

Chaz had been infront of Jonny atAssen when his bike 

stopped we could have had the same thing twice! 

Imanaged to watch MotoGP from Jerez while waiting 

for our endurance race to start and was really pleased for 

Dani Pedrosa. He was inspiring, but abit too much for 

Whitham who must have thought he was Dani and tried 

to take the lead on lap one for afour-hour endurance 

race, the nitwit! I’m over it really, honest! 

Anyway, this is why Pedrosa keeps his job, he’s maybe 

the best second rider there’s ever been inGrand Prix but 

wouldn’t itbegreat if he went on to do well? Fatchance, 

Dani has the same luck as Chaz, his bike will pack up or 

something more like. And Jorge Lorenzo, well done 

George, first Ducati podium atJerez Ican remember 

in recent memory. Asfor the Yamahas, what the hell 

happened there? Rossi tenth? WTF? He couldn’t even 

fix the issue atthe test the day after. Yikes... 

Then there was the BMW pace car crashed by ex 

500GP champion Franco Uncini, who crashed itwith 

some friends of mine actually in it, with one ofthem 

breaking their arm! And what about the Danny Kent 

thing? Ilike Danny, he’s anice guy, but Ireckon he might 

be being abit of aWendy in this case, he’s never done 

anything inMoto2. Okay, Idon’t know 

the full story, but maybe he’s asmall 

bike specialist? 

Lastly, Steve Plater asked meto 

bring his golf clubs over tothe 

North West, so of course Icovered 

the heads (under the covers) in 

condoms and mucky ladies knickers. 

Then heonly went and lent 

them tothe woman who 

runs the golf course to 

use, the same one I’m 

going around tomorrow 

–oops! Till next 

month! 

Never eat with 

Parrish... 

All the old man can handle! 

And it was all going so well... 


TRACK DAY 

GUIDE 

Everything youneed to 

know about your track day! 

INCLUDING: 

TRACK SCHOOL 

O S LEA 

R N I N G T R A C K S 

TY R E K N O W L E D GE 

N 

U T R I T I O N A D V I C E 

BI K E P R E P A R A T I O N 

TO P T I P S & M O R E ! 

PLUS: Essential kit, track bike 

hire & track day companies

The calm before 

the storm... 

Tel: 01507 529529 

Email: fastbikesletters@mortons.co.uk 

EDITORIAL 

Editor: ‘Dangerous’ Bruce Wilson, 

bwilson@mortons.co.uk 

DeputyEditor: Benjamin ‘BJ’ Kubas Cronin, 

bkubascronin@mortons.co.uk 

Designer: Charlotte Turnbull 

Picture Desk: Jonathan Schofield 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Words: Alastair ‘A-Force’ Fagan, 

Jon Urry, Carl Stevens 

Photography: Jonny Gawler, Mark 

Manning, Charles Charlie Charles, Dom 

Romney, AS Design, Stephen Davison, 

PicMan, IMG, Alex James, MFM 

ADVERTISING 

Ad Manager: Charlie Oakman, 

Email: coakman@mortons.co.uk 

Tel: 01507 529538 

MORTONS MEDIA GROUP LTD 

Publisher: Dan Savage 

CommercialDirector: Nigel Hole 

Fast Bikes is the trademark of Mortons Media 

Group LTD. All rights reserved. 

Cover printed byWilliam Gibbons &Sons on 

behalf of Mortons Media Group LTD 

Printed inthe UK by William Gibbons &Sons on 

behalf of Mortons Media Group LTD. 

Distributed in the UKbyMarketforce UK Ltd, 5 

Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU. 

Tel: 0203 787 9001. 

FAST BIKES (USPS:710-470) is published 

monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd., 

PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. 

USA subscriptions are $71 per year from 

Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N#441, 

Bancroft WI54921. Periodical Postage is paid at 

Bancroft, WI and additional entries. Postmaster: 

Send address changes to FAST BIKES, c/o 

Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N#441, 

Bancroft WI54921. 715-572-4595 chris@ 

classicbikebooks.com 

GET ONIT! 

W 

elcome to Fast Bikes’ trackday guide. Whether 

you’re acomplete track virgin orseasoned 

circuit pro, we’re sure there’s plenty in this 

pocket-sized pamphlet toabsorb and exploit inreal 

time. From essential tips on preparation and nutrition, 

to garage must-haves and track-based tuition, there’s 

something beneficial for everyone among these 

hallowed pages. 

Trackdays aren’t just aleisure activity. They’re 

away of life, anaddiction, aconstitution and a 

multi-million pound business for some. The simple 

fact is, once you’ve started, you just can’t stop – 

no matter what financial implications are involved. 

Spanking your loved one ontrack not only teaches 

you newfound bike control, but also the limits of 

your steed inasafe environment, which will prove 

advantageous when back onthe roads. 

Despite recent noise issues with many circuits in the 

UK, trackdays have never been so accessible with 

numerous events every week. And when the good old 

UK winter strikes, the European trackday scene takes 

over from October toMarch, offering endless sunny sky 

(and dry, hopefully...) opportunities. 

There’s nohiding from the fact that your first ever 

trackday can beanintimidating prospect, particularly if 

you’re flying solo, although this guide will undoubtedly 

alleviate that pre-ride trepidation. 

Trackdays: the best thing since 

Rachel Riley was born. 

Enjoy the ride. 


TRACK SCHOOLS 

TRACK 

SCHOOLS 

No matter howgood/fast/safeyou think youare,there’s always 

somethingnew to learnfromthe pros. We’reluckyenough to have 

plenty of track tuition optionsinthe UK,eachoffering something 

completely different.Here’s our pickofthe bunch. 

Ron may fly past you, too! 

RONHASLAMRACESCHOOL 

GP legend and father of Leon, Ron Haslam can still 

pedal abike around acircuit. His school takes place 

at Donington Park and utilises brand-new Honda 

Fireblade SPs and CBR600RRs, dependant on which 

tier of instruction. ‘Premier’ isthe entry-level, half-day 

experience that usually sees several pupils share an 

instructor, mixing classroom tutorials and debriefs with 

plenty oftrack time on CBR600RRs. ‘Elite’ experience 

is one-to-one instruction that includes luxuries such as 

datalogging and onboard analysis, all using 2017 SPs. 

The beauty of Ron’s school is its free-flowing 

curriculum and tuition tailored to your riding, rather 

than following aset format. Whatever needs working 

on, Ron, Leon orany other of the school’s array of 

racing instructors will nodoubt do so. And you can 

grab alap as pillion toRon –ifyou’re man enough. 

Did you know: Your nippers can have aspin too. 

From asyoung as12years old, kids can learn the 

basics onCBR125s, CBR300Rs and CBR500Rs for £199. 

Price: from £299 

Web: www.haslamraceschool.com 

The Haslam School caters for 

all sizes ofbikes, plus all ages 

and skill levels ofriders. 

4 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM

JAMESWHITHAM’S 

MOTORCYCLE TRACKTRAINING 

His eyes are far too close together but James Whitham 

is abloody legend, and agood friend of Fast Bikes. 

He, along with afew other friends, also runs track 

training days, which very much follow more ofa 

trackday programme than other schools. You’ll besplit 

into three groups depending on ability and experience, 

and followed closely throughout the day byan 

instructor. Like Ron Haslam’s shindig, Whitham’s 

coaching istailored specifically toindividual needs, 

weaknesses and requirements, aswell as general 

techniques, and numbers are purposely kept low. 

The instructors’ list isawho’s who of motorcycle 

racing, past and present. From TT stars like Hutchy 

and Gary Johnson, to current BSB stars like Linfoot 

and Iddon, the banter isasstrong asthe coaching. And 

one ofthe finest elements of Whit’s days are the small 

groups –amaximum of20means asafe and effective 

day ateither Anglesey, Mallory or Croft. 

Did you know: Whitham once smashed aHonda 

Prelude (owned byHonda UK) ataDonington GP 

in the 90s during apost-race piss-up. 


Web: www.jameswhitham.com 

“I like to pour my tea from quite 

high up, it’s reet good...” 

Fun inthe sun with Whit! 

Front wheel goes there! 

CALIFORNIA 

SUPERBIKESCHOOL 

Founded by Keith Code –the author of 

Twist of the Wrist –the California Superbike 

School dissects every aspect ofcornering 

and isutterly unique to motorcycling. 

Working on everything from body 

positioning and vision, to turn-in and 

advanced GP-inspired techniques, CSS has 

four levels to its curriculum and follows a 

strict programme of drills and classroom 

sessions. And you can attend the school 

anywhere from Silverstone to Dubai. 

Wherever you are in the world, CSS 

utilises the same innate techniques. 

Given the strict syllabus, it’s aschool that 

will benefit novices the most, although the 

likes ofLeon Camier and TomLuthi have 

recently gained from CSS. You’ll certainly 

need awillingness to try new, slightly 

wacky practices (like lapping without 

brakes) but it’s guaranteed you’ll also 

come away faster and safer. And don’t 

turn up thinking it’s anormal trackday 

–track time is ample but it’s the classroom 

where the best will be extracted. 

Did you know: With strong links with 

Ducati UK, there are Panigale and 

SuperSport hire bike options for you to 

choose from, ensuring your own stays okay! 


Web: www.superbikeschool.co.uk 


TRACK SCHOOLS 

Pics: IMG Photography 

BRITISH SUPERBIKESCHOOL 

With absolutely no affiliation to BSB (but damn fine 

for SEO...), the British Superbike School takes place at 

Blyton Park Raceway’s 1.6 mile track in Lincolnshire 

and brags several different course options: from road 

riders looking for asafe environment todevelop skills 

taught byRoSPA and police, toadvanced trackdayers 

wanting one-to-one tuition under ACU guidelines, 

there’s something for everyone up norf. 

Like Whit’s school, the BSS days are sessioned and 

split into small groups depending on experience, and 

the day consists offive 20-minute sessions and 

off-track, structured debriefs. You’ll find everything 

from BMW GSs to R1s learning the ropes. 

Did you know: FB’s old editor, Rootsy, 

attended BSS and absolutely loved it! 


Web: www.britishsuperbikeschool.com 

Small groups and expert 

tuition makes BSS areal 

winner with their punters! 

MSVTRACK ACADEMY 

MSV couldn’t monopolise British circuits without 

boasting some sort oftraining facility. Its ‘Track 

Academy’ takes place at anormal MSV trackday at 

Brands, Oulton, Cadwell or Snetterton and offers two 

different levels of tuition. Level One is designed to 

nurture novices and teaches the basics, while Level 

Twoisfor the racers and those wanting to chase tenths. 

You’ll get the usual six orseven sessions and 

one-to-one, off-track tuition in between those sessions. 

And there’s abonus: the Stalker Academy, 

with ex-racer Chris Walker offering one-to-one 

coaching for all levels of ability. 

Did you know: MSV has just taken control of 

Donington Park’s lease and has already improved 

the paddock. Big ups toJonny Palmer! 


Web: www.msvtrackdays.com 

The instructors watch you 

carefully, then help you go faster! 

Instruction in action! 


LEARNING NEW TRACKS 

7 

STEPS 

TO LEARNING 

TRACKS… 

Getting to grips with newcircuitsisn’t 

alwayseasy, but it’s simpler thanyou might 

thinkifyou apply thisprocess. 


Poring over track maps can aid your 

understanding ofacircuit... 

1 

STUDY 

We’re not talking about going back to school 

but, before your trackday, try to figure the 

circuit’s layout. YouTube videos are spot-on for this, 

assuming the rider you’re watching is capable of hitting 

apexes. If they’re not, then just focus on grasping how 

many bends there are and what turn follows the next. 

Gawping at atrack map will also bepretty helpful 

for figuring the layout, but amore engaging (and fun) 

way of learning acircuit is to fire upthe old games 

console. Yes, really. Some ofthe more recent 

videogames feature uncannily accurate digital versions 

of the real thing, so they make for the perfect way to 

bang in aload of laps before you’ve even set foot on 

the track you’re trying to learn. 

2 

PAY ATTENTION 

Every trackday starts withabriefing and while 

you might be fighting the urge to nod off at 

some points, you should pay particular attention to the 

bit where the host’s instructors talk about the track’s 

layout and give guidance on where topass, which bits 

are quick, and where not to be ahero. 

Although track instructors aren’t necessarily the 

quickest ofriders, most of them have clocked up 

crazily high numbers of laps at circuits, sothey know 

what they’re on about (well, most ofthem). After the 

briefing, go and collar one for abit more info. Getting 

an idea of how totackle certain corners and finding 

out what gears torun will make the learning process 

alot easier. 

Watching on-board laps can help... 

...but intimate personal tuition is priceless! 


LEARNING NEW TRACKS 

No cones for the right line? Ask an expert! 

(not pictured...) 

3 

TAKE IT ALL IN 

When the time comes to let rip, don’t be in a 

hurry to just follow the guy infront and be 

drawn into making mistakes. Chill out, find some space 

and do your own thing. Most trackdays run around 

seven 15-20 minute sessions per day, so you’ve plenty 

of time tobreak the track’s lap record later that 

afternoon. Ride within your comfort zone, appreciating 

the flow ofthe circuit, the cambers ofthe corners and 

where the undulations make the track blind. It’s all 

about getting familiarised and grasping the sheer 

basics ofthe circuit. 

4 

PICK AGEAR 

Once you’ve worked out which way round the 

track goes, the next most important thing is to 

work on your gear selection. If you’re riding aroad 

bike, chances are your gearing will beway too high, 

but you’ll just have to adapt if that’s the case. Ifyou’ve 

got spare sprockets, you should look to change them to 

maximise your exit drive and top end. But don’t worry 

about any ofthat until you’ve got the basics of what 

gear goes where. 

The trick is to choose agear that keeps the motor 

bubbling on the sweet spot ready for you todrive out 

of abend. On most inline-fours, that means choosing a 

gear that’ll keep the revs north of8,000rpm. Make your 

gear selections habitual, and keep tabs on them with a 

gear indicator, assuming your bike’s got one. Don’t be 

afraid to ask aninstructor if you’re struggling to work 

out what gear goes where. 

5 

GET INLINE 

If you’re onabad line, you’re either going to 

go slow or crash. It really is that simple much 

of the time. Most trackday companies put cones on 

corner apexes, and some even use cones to highlight 

braking markers and turn-in points. The most common 

mistake people make on track istoturn in early and 

run out wide onthe exit; lining you upfor astint of 

motocross if you’re not careful. Don’t let that happen. 

Constantly think about your positioning and make sure 

you’re using the full width ofthe track on the run-in 

and exit from abend; unless an immediately following 

corner dictates otherwise. 

Use the cones and get in ahabit of turning in as late 

as necessary to hit those apexes. Atfirst, don’t worry 

about corner speed, or how hard you rinse the throttle 

on the way out; just get yourself running the right lines 

first and foremost. Speed is something you can always 

add into the equation later on, but not ifyou’re nine 

foot off an apex. If you’re struggling with the cone 

system, ask anexperienced rider or instructor to give 

you atow around. 


6 

BRAKE WITH HABIT 

Some people go balls out and hop onthe 

anchors when it seems right. Other people use 

references. They can be anything from purposefully 

placed marker boards totarmac changes, scalps in the 

track to areas where you can see loads of rubber. One 

piece of advice is to keep your references simple; ones 

that require you straining your eyes for several seconds 

can be lethal. 

Once you know which way the track goes and 

you’ve agood idea ofwhat braking areas are onthe 

track, start to think about where you’re braking and get 

into ahabit of applying the brakes at the same place 

each lap. You’ll probably find the first few times 

daunting as you hurtle towards your marker, but it’ll 

soon get easier. Repetition isthe key to success, so 

before long you’ll find yourself much more relaxed as 

you squeeze on the go-slow lever. Do that enough 

times and you’ll soon find yourself eager to brake later. 

That’s agood thing. That’s progress. 

So, the options are then toeither find anew marker 

or calibrate your mind tobrake asecond or so after the 

marker you’ve just passed. The choice isyours. One 

thing that isadvisable is to brake progressively at first, 

until you’ve got utter confidence in yourself and the 

brakes to use them harder. 

7 

RULE THE TRACK 

Once you know your lines, gears and braking 

markers, you’re pretty much on your way to 

becoming aGrand Prix rider. Well, maybe not, but 

you’re going to be alot better off than just winging it 

every lap. But here’s the catch –don’t get lazy. Totruly 

find agood pace and build on your confidence you 

have to repeat the above processes time and again. The 

quicker you get, the later you’ll brake, the faster you’ll 

corner and the higher the gear selection you’ll use. It’s 

all progressive, so be prepared tomake changes as and 

when they’re needed. Stick tothis template and you’ll 

find learning new tracks adoddle. 

Most tracks wouldn’t let you gotothese 

lengths to highlight your braking marker... 

ONCE YOU KNOW 

LINES, GEARS AND BRAKE 

MARKERS, YOU’RE ON 

YOUR WAY TOBEING AGP 

RACER. MAYBE... 

Now that’s learning atrack in comfort! 


TYRE ADVICE 

W 

hen it comes totyres, first and foremost, 

it’s important to remember that they are 

the only part of the bike incontact with 

the track. Unless, of course, you’ve exceeded the limits 

of adhesion, or made amistake, and then itwon’t just 

be the tyres making contact with the circuit… 

WHERE IS THE LIMIT 

OF ADHESION? 

Amodern tyre’s limit is way beyond the average rider. 

However, it’s easy tomake mistakes and ask the tyre 

and bike to do something it wasn’t designed todo– 

and this can potentially be trouble. To help make the 

best use of the grip available, below are some tips to 

help you get through the day. 

Always set pressures tothe manufacturer’s 

recommendations for track use. These pressures could 

be hot or cold pressures, but myadvice istoalways 

set them while hot. Set from cold you don’t know what 

TRACK DAY 

TYRE TIPS 

There aremanymisconceptionswhen it 

comes to tyrechoice fortrack days.Here’s 

Gary’s guide to achieving rubberperfection... 

they will rise to as ambient and track temp’ 

can vary through the day, soone particular day will 

give different results to another day. Keeping the 

hot pressure checked provides better results, not only 

with grip levels but also durability and, inturn, 

essentially your pocket. 

For session one, set the hot pressures on the 

warmers slightly higher than you’d want them. When 

on warmers the discs are cold, the hub isonly slightly 

warm and when they’re uptoworking temperature it 

will affect the pressures as you’re now adding extra 

heat which increases pressures. So, go and dothe 

session and get all components uptoworking temp’ 

then come back inand reduce the pressure to your 

desire. This should give you the most accurate setting 

to start your day. 

Make the following a‘must do’ part of your checks 

before you have your banter with your mate when you 

come inoff track. 

Beautiful wear! 

You can change tyres yourself, 

but it’s far easier getting 

someone else todoit! 


Aset per session? If only! 

Tyre pressures are crucial. 

■ Bike on paddock stands 

■ Warmers on 

■ Check pressures 

■ Adjust if needed 

■ Tell your mates how good you are… 

If you’re riding home, besure toraise the pressures 

back tothe manufacturer’s road recommendations. 

DO INEED TYRE 

WARMERS? 

On track then it’s advisable to use warmers, but not 

essential, especially with road tyres. They’re designed 

to work at lower temperatures and will offer more grip 

at these temps than aroad legal race tyre (or slicks). 

Road legal race tyres and slicks, like our (Bridgestone) 

R10 &V02, operate at far higher temps and ideally 

need warmers. They can beused without but itwill 

take longer to reach optimum temperature, resulting in 

lost track time. Ifyou don’t have warmers, then you 

will benefit by using aroad-based tyre. Let’s put it this 

way, Leon Haslam can lap Donington on astandard 

’Blade on the Bridgestone T30 Evo touring tyre in 

sub 1min 35 seconds… 

If you dobuy tyre warmers, be sure to buy them 

with avariable thermostat that has arange that will 

suit all tyres. The difference in optimum operating 

temperatures between road/race tyres is considerable. 

If you heated the road tyre to arace tyre temp, itwill 

degrade the compound and reduce grip levels. The 

whole point of warmers istoincrease grip levels! 

We love atyre lackey... 

WETS! HOW DO IKNOW 

IF INEED WETS? 

Good question –the general rule ofthumb istogolook 

at the track. If there’s spray, then you need wets. If 

there’s no spray, then there’s no water to shift so you 

don’t need wets. Itwill also depend on how wet the 

remainder of the circuit is as to what your choice will 

be, sogowith the highest percentage. Or, if its damp all 

the way round, go for an intermediate or soft race tyre 

option. As alast resort, you could invest inatyre cutter 

and make your own inters and wets from soft slicks 

One question we get asked onaregular basis is ‘do I 

need warmers onwets?’ That’s uptothe individual. 

Warm wets will probably mean amore confident start 

to your session, but be careful. If you don’t have 

adjustable warmers, chances are you’ve heated the 

wets up to dry tyre temps. This will cook the 

compound and, secondly, will give you huge amounts 

of grip tostart but from this point on, the tyres will be 

losing all their heat, which, in turn, means grip levels 

will decrease. So, turn one onthe first lap you wind the 

throttle onand no movement, do the same on awet 

with athird ofthe temperature and it could be avery 

different result. Ifyou do use warmers onwets, then 

ensure you change the setting tosuit. And check the 

temperature recommendations, too. 

TYRE SIZES 

Youmay have your favourite brand when itcomes to 

tyres but even changing the type oftyre inthe same 

brand can cause issues. Ever wondered why? Let me 

explain –tyres can vary insizes from width tooverall 

diameter. For example, acertain tyre like aBridgestone 

R10 medium rear (180/55-17) will have an overall 

diameter of, say, 640mm, but the S21 could have an 

overall diameter of 634mm. This means when you fit 

the S21,the rear of the bike will belowered by3mm, 

and will likely affect the handling. The fronts can vary 

in the same way too, so be careful. Youcould easily 

change your agile bike into anill handling chopper. 

There you are scratching your head, wondering how 

that’s happened, thinking toyourself that you’ve not 

changed anything but, unknowingly, you have! 

Tyres are acrucial part of your bike and are there to 

keep you upright. Pay them some attention and ifyou 

treat them right, they’ll do the same. 


NUTRITION 

TRACKDAY NUTRITION 

Eating and drinkingthe right stuff canhaveamassivelypositiveimpact 

on your trackexperience, so here’s aguidetoessential do’s and don’ts 

of what to ramdownyour gullet… 

Do: 

■ Make sure you eat adecent breakfast –aprotein 

packed brekky is the best way to stave off hunger later 

in the day. Eggs, yoghurt, oats, all pack plenty ofhealthy 

satisfying protein. Go easy ongreasy bacon though, the 

high salt content could leave you gasping with thirst. 

■ Take something healthy and satisfying with you – 

many tracks do sport pretty decent catering facilities 

these days, but you can save cash and make healthier 

food choices ifyou go prepared. Itmight even be 

something as simple aspacking yourself wholemeal 

peanut butter sarnies for lunch. 

■ Eat little and often. Bear inmind track riding isa 

physical activity. Youwouldn’t pig-out right before 

going for ajog or aswim would you? So keep hunger 

at bay and energy levels up by snacking on nuts, fruit 

and the occasional protein bar. 

■ Take plenty to drink. Avoid caffeinated drinks, 

though, asoverindulging on the stimulant is going to 

make you jittery and reduce your body’s natural thirst 

for correct hydration. Stick to water or my personal 

fave, coconut water. 

Don’t: 

■ Get steaming the night before. If you’ve travelled to 

the circuit the night before and are staying atahotel 

nearby, don’t have alate one at the bar. 

■ Display your lamb phaal eating prowess to the lads 

the night before either. Your leathers will thank you for 

it, as will anyone sharing your personal space... 

■ Overindulge. Avoid ahuge cooked breakfast, or giant 

stodgy lunch. It could sit heavy on your stomach and 

make you feel sluggish. It’s best tostop eating before 

you’re full, then snack throughout the day. 

Even world champs like Danny Kent (right), 

took nutrition seriously from ayoung age 

Fruit, anyone? 

Don’t make brekky 

too big, got it?! 


TRACK PREPARATION 

If in doubt, get amate 

to help out –simples! 

TRACKDAY 

PREPARATION 

Newtotrackdays?Orjust after arefresh?Here, have some 

adviceonprepping your bike forthe ultimate battering. 

ot all of us have brand-new, pristine steeds 

that take care ofthemselves for track sorties. 

NIt’s the old adage: take care ofyour bike and 

it’ll take care ofyou. It’s also worth bearing in mind 

that, if your bike isn’t safe, it’s not just yourself you’re 

putting at risk. It’s the 40 others ontrack alongside 

you. Bad (or acomplete lack of) maintenance can have 

catastrophic consequences so put some work in before 

you begin working at the track. Any bike will have 

to endure extreme forces while lapping, even a 

well-prepped bike, so cover all bases. 

It all starts with basic visual checks. While unfettled, 

factory-built road bikes are inherently more robust than 

shed-built race bikes, they also have nasty stuff inside, 

like coolant additives and anti-freeze. When these 

naughty juices escape onto the Tarmac, it’s like riding 

on diesel and needless to say pretty dangerous, which is 

why race bikes are required to carry nothing but water 

in their cooling systems. We’re not saying draining your 

rads is paramount. Just confirm there are no leaks. 

If you’ve got aroad bike, taping your mirrors and 

lighting isalso advised for several reasons. Mirrors are 

bad news on track, asthey can distract you from 

what’s infront. Secondly, ifyou dohave anoff, taping 

lights can save them from shattering and causing more 

damage. Have another visual inspection and ensure 

bodywork isfitted safely, and there are no absent 

fixings or anything flapping. 



The right tyres equals 

far more fun to be had! 

Believe it or not, riding all day on circuit is tiring 

work. Don’t succumb to purists’ views that you HAVE 

to ride to atrackday, ride the track, and ride home 

again, particularly if you’ve got atrack bike –that 

would be illegal. Chucking everything in avan is an 

ideal solution, meaning you can carry essentials like 

fuel cans, tools, stands and tyre warmers, plus luxuries 

such as deck chairs and your fan base. 

TYRES 

Rubber is the final deciding factor in whether ornot 

you remain upright and, ifthere’s an area not to scrimp 

and save, it’ll be tyres. While versatile road-based tyres 

might last longer and save you money initially, 

investing in track hoops could save you money inthe 

long haul. Grippy tyres not only provide faster lap 

times and abigger grin, there’s also asafety aspect 

as they mask mistakes. 


This pair have clearly got 

everything sorted 

already –chill time! 

Pressures are crucial for afast, safe day. If you’re 

running road tyres, it’s not always advisable to simply 

drop the pressures. Some rubber, even ontrack, responds 

best torecommended road pressures, and it’s also vital 

that you stick to manufacturers’ recommendations when 

using pukka track tyres. Dunlop’s NTEC, for example, 

allows stupidly low pressures –pressures that don’t work 

on the likes of Pirelli, Bridgestone, etc. 

It sounds dumb, but ensure you’ve got valve caps 

fitted. They’re designed to keep crud and dust out, but 

also prevent the valve itself from escaping and a 

consequent high-speed blowout. Even if they are cheap 

anodised beauties, get them on. 

We’ve yet to meet anyone who has safely finished 

their first trackday and thought, ‘nah, this ain’t for me.’ 

Spare wheels with wet tyres fitted will soon be firmly 

at the top of your Xmas list, especially ifyour trackdays 

are confined tothe UK. 

BRAKES 

Probably the most important of pre-ride checks. Just 

because those trusty anchors have served you well 

when braking for roundabouts, it’s avery different 

narrative when it comes to Paddock Hill bend at 

150mph. Check fluid levels and, vitally, check the meat 

on your pads. You’ll be surprised at the amount of 

material used after just one day ontrack. Metal on 

metal isn’t good, so if in doubt, replace them. 

Brakes –not 

something to 

overlook... 



This DOES NOT qualify 

as ‘checking’ the engine... 

OE pads are durable and usually designed for 

highway needs. You’d be surprised athow cheap good 

track-based pads are nowadays (around £30 acaliper), 

and it’s agood, economical modification anyway. 

Finally and most importantly, check your caliper bolts 

–four ofthe most vital bolts on any bike. Nobody likes 

naughty swinging calipers. 

ENGINE 

Have avisual inspection and check for any obvious 

leaks. It’s also worth ensuring oil levels are okay, as 

that engine will be working its little bollocks off like 

never before for nearly two hours –given the abuse, 

lots of trackday regulars do an oil and filter change 

after every ride. It’s certainly worth dropping the oil 

out if your bike has been sat inagarage all winter and 

atrackday isits first outing of the year. 

With lots oftracks now adhering tostrict noise 

limits imposed by local councils and wanky 

neighbours, make sure you’ve got an exhaust to pass 

the noise test. Most circuits are now running 102dB 

days, meaning only standard exhausts will guarantee 

no hassle from Mr Noise. Ifyou’ve got afull system, 

at least make sure you take abaffle! 

CHAIN AND 

SPROCKETS 

That vital final drive is responsible for providing power 

to the rear wheel and takes animmense amount of 

abuse on track. Ahooked or slightly worn sprocket 

might suffice for road duties but won’t survive a 

trackday, and may cause gearbox and internal engine 

damage. Ifyou’re the owner of amore mature steed, 

it’s worth removing the primary sprocket cover tohave 

acloser look. 

Chain tension is another key area ofmaintenance 

and adjustment. It’s always best to run achain that’s 

slightly on the slack side, especially at tracks like 

Cadwell Park where landing from The Mountain 

puts unique strains on the bike. 

Some crash bungs... 

... may be agood idea! 

Screwed sprocket? Get 

that swapped out! 


TRACKDAY TIPS 

TEN WAYS 

TO GET THE MOST OUT OFYOUR 

TRACKDAY 

Don’t let alackofpreparation ruin your day. Hereare Fast Bikes’ top 

ten tipstoensuringyou make themost out of your timeontrack. 

1 

CHECKYOURBIKE 

Give your bike a 

thorough once over agood 

week before the trackday. 

Check its brake pads,tyres, 

fluid levels,chain and 

sprockets,all the silly things 

that could potentially put a 

halt toyour day. Also,go 

around with atorque 

wrench checking nuts and bolts,it’s better to be safe than 

sorry.And check the track’s noise regulations,ifyou bike is 

too loud,get adBkiller or refit the OE exhaust. 

3 

PACK SOME TOOLS 

Youdon’t need to take your entire toolkit, but itis 

agood idea to bring abasic selection of tools such as 

atyre pressure gauge,foot pump,socket set, gaffer 

tape and any tools that you need toadjust your bike’s 

suspension. Tyre warmers are also agood idea as you 

don’t have to worry about cold tyres. 

2 

IF IN DOUBT, CHANGE 

If your tyres or pads are close to their limit, get 

them changed beforehand. There may well be tyre 

fitters atthe track, but if there is aqueue then you 

could miss asession. Rushing to refit wheels as your 

session is about to be called leads to mechanical errors, 

aflustered rider and potentially an accident. It’s also a 

good idea to fit some crash protection, just in case. 

4 

FUEL UP 

Before you leave, ensure your bike’s tank is full and 

you have afew litres of spare fuel. Some circuits sell fuel, 

but itisoften pretty pricey and your other option is to leave 

the track at lunch or rush out between sessions.Avoid this 

hassle by bringing your own. 


5 

PACK WELL 

With your bike sorted, think about your kit and 

what you will need during the day.Check all your kit is 

up to standard,fits well and is comfortable to ride in. 

Will you need spare toe or knee sliders? Adark or clear 

visor? Youwill get sweaty,soaninner suit isagreat 

idea. Have you got aback protector? And pack some 

bottles of water and nibbles such ascereal bars and 

fruit. Chocolate isn’t agreat idea and avoid caffeinerich 

energy drinks asthey give you abrief high followed 

by alethargic comedown… 

6 

CONSIDER TRANSPORT 

Some ride their bike to atrackday,others trailer or van 

them. If agroup of you are going, ganging upand hiring a 

van is agood idea as should the worst happen, you can still 

get home.Taking avan also means you can bring all your kit 

and spare fuel etc. 

7 

LEARNTHE TRACK 

Take your time and learn the track, don’t go out banzai 

on the first session. Youmay know your way around,but 

has the surface changed since you were last there? Is it 

damp? Treat the first session as arefresher.And be honest 

about your grouping, if you need to swap groups later in the 

day it’s nohassle and you’ll be all the better for it. 

8 

DON’TFOLLOW THEGANG 

So many riders get into agroup during atrackday 

and simply follow other people around. What’s the 

point inthat? Get yourself some space (if needs be 

slow down in asafe spot) and ride atyour own pace 

using your own lines. Following agroup can lead to 

accidents asit’s easy to get sucked into going faster 

than you are comfortable with. 

9 

ASKFOR HELP 

There are always instructors on hand at trackdays, 

so use them! Ask to be shown around for afew laps 

and follow their lines and see where they brake,turn-in 

etc.You will get far more out of the day by following an 

instructor than trying to work it out yourself. 

10 

IF YOUARE FEELING 

TIRED, STOP 

This is the golden rule. 

If you are feeling tired, 

don’t head out for one last 

session, call it aday instead. 

Your body and mind are 

fatigued and that means 

you won’t be concentrating 

and that’s when accidents 

happen.Sacrificing one 

track session is far cheaper 

than rebuilding a 

destroyed machine… 


ESSENTIAL KIT 

ESSENTIAL RIDING KIT 

Trackdays canbeoverwhelming,scary,orbusiness as usual –depending 

on experience. You’llneed kit,mind, so here’s someessentials fornoobs. 

And forthose hardened by years of track thrashes, here’s an egg… 

lothingfor trackdayscan be avaried subject, butit 

boils down to budget.There’sbuyingthe best out 

Cthere for starters, and in an ideal worldwe’dall have 

airbag suits! Then there’sgoingbargainbasement, whichis 

acceptable(as even some £50 lids come withthe necessary 

TOPKIT 

Gold Standard labels), butdoingsoissaddled with some 

obviousqualityconcerns.Then there’s somewhereinbetween, 

goodkit at respectable butmodest(ish) pricing –but be aware 

even that addsup... Or,you justuse what you’ve already got, 

whichisthe category agreat deal of track day’ersfallinto. 

Best Of The Best Middle of the road Budget 

Total: £7,729 

Total: £2,184.40 Total: £889.86 

Suit: Dainese Mugello RD-Air 

Dainese’s top of the line airbag suit 

£3,395.95 www.dainese.com 

Helmet: Arai RX-7 RC 

Youwon’t see another in the paddock! 

£2,499.99 www.whyarai.co.uk 

Boots: Daytona Security Evo III 

The only boot racers happily pay for… 

£1,289 www.tranam.co.uk 

Gloves: Five RFX-Race 

Space age tech’ for your pinkies! 

£329.99 www.motogear.co.uk 

Back protector: Spidi Defender 

Back &chest protection, yeah! 

£214.99 www.feridax.com 

24 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 

Suit: Ixon Mirage 

Smart, natty suit from Ixon 

£999.99 www.motogear.co.uk 

Helmet: Shoei X-Spirit III 

Shoei’s best race lid 

From £599.99 www.shoeiassured.co.uk 

Boots: Puma 1000 V4 

Puma’s race boot is still going strong! 

£249.99 www.moto-direct.com 

Gloves: Knox Handroid 3.0 

One of our favourite gloves ever! 

£199.99 www.planet-knox.com 

Back protector:Forcefield ProL2K Evo 

Non bank breaking protection 

£134.44 www.forcefieldbodyarmour.com 

Suit: Richa Baracuda 

Cheap but chunky 

£399.99 www.nevis.uk.com 

Helmet: Schuberth SR2 

Never go too budget with your noggin… 

£299.99 www.tranam.co.uk 

Boots: Black Venom 

Less than aton?Winner! 

£79.99 www.ghostbikes.com 

Gloves: Buffalo BR30 

Good gloves at agreat price 

£44.90 www.thekeycollection.co.uk 

Back protector: Furygan XP1 

D30 does the job! 

£64.99 www.nevis.uk.com

ESSENTIAL BIKE KIT 

It could be that you ride there on your bike with afew odds and sods in arucksack, go round and round,then ride home.We’ve 

done that enough times ourselves,doing away with tyre warmers and the like.But that does mean you inevitably end up on 

the blag at some point,and then you’re beholden toothers’ charity,which is never agood look. Chances are you’re alittle 

smarter and take your bike there in avan or on atrailer.Sothere’s afew things to take that’ll make life so,somuch easier! 

WOULD BE NICE! 

CHEAP COMPRESSOR 

You can buy these for £20 ifyou look 

about, and they’re invaluable if you let 

too much air out of your tyres, or the 

temperature changes dramatically and 

arubber pressure change isinorder. 

GENERATOR 

If you’ve got pits with power, then 

disregard this one! But you don’t 

always get that luxury, so having 

electricity for warmers (or other 

things) isamust, though it’s a 

‘luxury’ item, granted. 

TYRE WARMERS 

You can do without, but it’s much 

safer using them and you can get 

down to business far quicker in 

your (relatively) short sessions. 

WIPES, GLOVES &TAPE 

Wipes orsome kind of paper towels, 

some rubber gloves and the ever 

reliable gaffer tape, can be lifesavers. 

FUEL CANS &FUNNEL 

Fill them upbefore you arrive and you’ll 

save yourself alot of faffing when that 

pesky light pops on. 

TOOLS 

Ideally, you’ll want whatever 

spanners, Allen keys and 

sockets (etc.) that your bike 

requires. Make sure everything 

is neat and together, not all 

dumped in one big box! Little 

tip –separating what you need 

for the front, middle and rear 

of your bike is bloody handy. 

SPARES 

An off ispossible, and being 

unable to finish atrackday 

due toasimple item like a 

broken lever, fairing or 

footpeg sucks donkey balls. 

They’re cheap (ish), and may 

be worth investing in. 

PADDOCK STANDS 

Trust us, having done enough 

trackdays with nothing atall, the 

ability to lift your bike off the floor 

and spin wheels freely ispriceless. 

And they’re also handy for… 

TYRE PRESSURE GAUGE 

...Checking exactly what pressure isin 

your tyres, before orafter adjusting 

them. Many people have two due to 

the variances in gauges, but you 

shouldn’t bewithout one atleast. 

CHAIN LUBE, OIL, ETC. 

Chains get dry,fast, when abike’s 

ridden hard, so have some lube ready 

for red hot on-the-hop lubing action. 

Keeping your oil levels tiptop is 

essential, too, asare other liquids. 


MASTERING THE WET 

Awet track day can bemore fun than 

you may initially believe! 

WET WEATHER 

WARRIOR 

If you’rereading this, chances are 

youliveinthe UK. Andifyou livein Mthat’s perfectly rational. Theoretically, it’s 

the UK, chances areitcouldbe 

pissing it down come theday of 

your trackday.But worrynot, 

because with the right attitude 

and afew tipsyou canbea 

weapon in the wet. 

26 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 

ost people struggle with confidence when it 

comes to inclement riding conditions, and 

easier to launch your bike (and yourself) down the 

road, which isonly ever the objective ofafew perverse 

sadists. But just because it’s wet, it doesn’t mean 

crashing is assured. In fact, that’s the first thing you 

need to work on; your mindset. 

Abit of rain never hurt anyone (much), solearn 

to relax and accept that it’s going to be aday of 

wet weather riding. Look for the positives in the 

experience. Chances are fewer people will be out 

riding, so you’ll have the circuit pretty much

Adecent set of wets 

can often do more than 

the one day ontrack 

exclusively. Tell yourself that you’re not scared ofthe 

wet and that you’ve every faith inyour abilities, your 

bike and the tyres you’re running on. That’s assuming 

you’ve got some decent rubber beneath you? If you 

haven’t, invest in some. While road tyres are capable 

of doing agood job in the wet, supposing they have 

decent tread coverage and the pressures are set 

correctly, wet tyres take riding to awhole new level 

(and crank up your confidence in the process). 

They typically sport much softer (and stickier) 

rubber compounds, plus ashed load more tread cuts to 

help direct and disperse the water they contact. 

They’re not un-crashable, but they sure help when it 

comes to achieving knee-down lean angles and hard 

acceleration out ofcorners. But, here’s the 

thing; to ride fast in the wet, it’s not all 

about braking late and cracking open the 

throttle. Youneed tofocus on being silky 

smooth and making your ride as 

effortless as possible. The more 

aggressive your actions, the more likely 

you are to upset your bike and… crash. 

So, get in ahabit of braking 

progressively (don’t grab), while getting 

your gear changes done nice and early. 

Same goes for weight transfer. If 

you’re prone to hanging off your bike in 

corners, transition your mass smoothly 

and try not to rattle your bike’s 

suspension. But perhaps the most crucial 

thing inthe wet istobeconscientious with 

the throttle. Consider what you’re asking 

from the motor and factor in how cranked 

over youare. The more upright your bike, the 

safer it is to accelerate hard. The initial part ofthe 

throttle is the most dangerous bit, so wind the power on 

steadily and build your exit pace –momentum is key! 

And, finally, remember tobreathe. Riding abike is 

physical and when we’re anxious we tend to hold our 

breath more. Don’t dothat. Chill out, smile and 

get plenty of air into your lungs. It’ll make a 

huge difference, trust us! 

Play time need not be curbed by 

precipitation, oh no... 


TRACKDAY HIRE BIKES 

Rinse aGixer from Smallboy! 

HIRE 

BIKES 

If your current steedlackstrack 

credentials, or yousimplydon’t 

want to risk lobbing your prideand 

joydownthe road, track dayhire 

bike companies couldbeyour 

perfect solution. 

T 

here are quite afew companies out there that 

will happily hire you abike for your trackday, 

and some will even gothe extra mile by 

providing tyre warmers and set-up advice as part ofthe 

package. It’s the perfect way to dip your toe without 

having tofork out onall the gear affiliated with riding 

on track, so, if this option floats your boat, get in 

touch with one ofthese guys. 

SMALLBOY TRACKBIKEHIRE: 

Warrington based Smallboy offer arange ofbikes from 

2016 CBR650F European Junior Cup bikes,tothe latest 

GSXR1000R. Delivery to any circuit in the UK is free. 

Smallboy also support European trackdays and one-to-one 

tuition isavailable too.Access to technical assistance,tyre 

warmers,wets,fuel and plenty of tea and coffee is included 

in the price below. 

Prices: 

Suzuki GSXR600 2015 x6 £240 

Suzuki GSXR750 2015 x1 £240 

Suzuki GSXR1000R 2017 x1 £350 

(Available from late May 2017) 

Honda CBR650F EJC Bike 2016 x3 £199 

Damage Liability: 

If you damage abike, the rider will be responsible for the 

cost of repairs,but only up to amaximum of £500 (£750 

2017 GSXR1000R). 

Contact: 

Mathew Waldron 

Email: mathew.waldron@sky.com 

Web: www.smallboytrackbikes.co.uk 

Tel: 07974 742485 

Address: Smallboy Trackbike Hire 

25 Patterdale Avenue 

Orford 

Warrington 

WA2 9NP 


TRACKBIKEHIREUK. 

Located inHull,Track Bike Hire UK’s 15bikes come kitted 

out with race bodywork,rearsets,quickshifters, track 

gearing, race Pirellis or wets and reworked suspension. 

Pitcrew and one-to-one instructors are available for the 

serious trackdayer. 

Prices: 

Honda CBR600RR (Track spec) x5 £250 

Honda CBR600RR (Race spec) x3 £300 

Suzuki GSXR750 L6 Moto GPx1 £300 

Suzuki GSXR750 L0 (Race spec) x1 £275 

Yamaha R1(Race spec big bang) x1 £325 

NEW Yamaha R12017 x2 £399 

NEW Yamaha R62017 x2 £349 

Damage Liability: 

If abike gets damaged, the rider will beresponsible for the 

cost ofrepairs,parts only, up to amaximum of £500. 

Contact: 

Jason Jumps 

Email: jason@trackbikehireuk.co.uk 

Web: www.trackbikehireuk.co.uk 

Tel: 07713 630352 

Address: 98 Main Road 

Thorngumbald 

Hull 

HU12 9NE 

MFMTRACK BIKES: 

Formally known as Patracking, Surrey-based MFMTrack 

Bikes offer CBR600RRs in three specification levels: 

Premium bikes with K-tech suspension,Pirelli Super Corsas 

(or wets) quickshifter, full Akro’ system, rearsets and track 

gearing, then slightly lower spec standard track bikes,down 

to budget CBRs with Pirelli Rosso Corsa’s (or wets) and 

reworked stock suspension. We noticed on their website 

apic of aKawasaki ZX-6R though, so why not give them a 

buzz and see if that’s available too –don’t ask,don’t get! 

Prices: 

Budget CBR600RR £190 

Standard CBR600RR £240 

Premium CBR600RR £285 

Damage Liability 

MFM require a‘crash deposit’ of £500 up-front. Provided 

the bike is returned intact, the deposit will be refunded in 

full.However,the cost ofrepair to any damage to the bike 

will be taken from the deposit up to amaximum of £500. 

Contact: 

Nick McCarthy 

Email: info@mfmtrackbikes.co.uk 

Web: www.mfmtrackbikes.co.uk 

Tel: 07973 834013 

Address: N/A 

MFM Track bikes are sweetly 

prepped for action!

TRACKDAY ORGANISERS 

GET BOOKED ON... 

So, if you’ve been lured into the idea of booking a trackday, you’re going 

to need to know who to call to get a place booked. Any of these guys 

will be able to help out in that department… 

No Limits run track days at 12 UK and 15 European 

venues. Their website has links to bike hire and includes 

detailed information on typical UK trackdays. No Limits can 

also hire you tyre warmers and arrange for track tuition,too. 

Web: www.nolimitstrackdays.com 

Tel: 01525 877087 

Email: info@nolimitstrackdays.com 

Motorsport Vision, owners of Oulton Park, Cadwell Park, 

Snetterton. Bedford Aerodrome and Brands Hatch organise 

their own track events. They also have novice and ‘taster 

sessions’ for those looking to dip their toe into track riding. 

Web: www.msvtrackdays.com/bike 

Tel: 0843 453 3000 

Email: biketrackdays@msv.com 

Focused Events offer trackdays in Europe and the UK. 

A speciality is their ‘Chrono Days’, where riders are timed 

and assigned to appropriate groups. FE offer a selection of 

Kawasakis, Yamahas and BMWs for hire, too. 

Web: www.focusedevents.com 

Email: bookings@focusedevents.com 

Tel: 08450 267272 

Knockhill in Scotland organises its own events and can be 

experienced in both clockwise/anticlockwise directions. It’s 

a beautiful circuit, but if you’re heading north remember 

wets and thermals regardless of the time of year... 

Web: www.knockhill.com/trackdays 

Tel: 01383 723337 

Email: enquiries@knockhill.co.uk 

Llandow Circuit near Cardiff offer their own track and test 

days. Short but sweet (and furious), Llandow circuit is also 

pretty reasonable to hire exclusively starting at £2,700 per 

day. If only any of us had 30 reliable mates, eh? 

Web: www.llandow.com/trackdays/bikes 

Tel: 01446 796460 

Email: info@llandow.com 

Track Sense specialise in European track days. Bike 

collection can be arranged but, alternatively, track bike hire 

is offered too. Track Sense can arrange transfers to and from 

the circuit of choice and specialist riding and bike set-up 

tuition is available if you start getting all competitive. 

Web: www.tracksense.co.uk 

Tel: 01580 890346 

Email: info@tracksense.co.uk 

Silverstone run their own days around the iconic (and silly 

fast) MotoGP circuit, or on three different layouts of said 

circuit. Instructors are available including ‘masterclass’ 

sessions with legend Niall Mackenzie with the option to 

hire an R1M – nice! They also do a ladies day, too! 

Web: www.silverstone.co.uk/track-days 

Tel: 0844 3728 329 

Email: biketrackdays@silverstone.co.uk 

Castle Combe’s hallowed curves can be experienced on 

their Wednesday thrashes. It’s an old-school track so super 

quick, but check your bike meets their noise regs first! 

Web: www.castlecombecircuit.co.uk/motorcycle-track-days 

Tel: 01249 782417 

Email: info@castlecombecircuit.co.uk

Fast_Bikes__Issue_328__July_2017_

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