PB Jun 09

Super Scooter v Superbike

GILERA GP800

PRICE £6461 ENGINE 839cc liquidcooled V-twin POWER (CLAIMED) 74bhp@7,250rpm TORQUE (CLAIMED) 56ftlb@6,250rpm WEIGHT (CLAIMED) 245kg FRONT SUSPENSION 41mm telescopic forks REAR SUSPENSION Monoshock with alloy swinagrm RAKE/TRAIL 25°/110mm FRONT BRAKE 2x300mm discs with two-piston calipers PB LIKES Speed, handling PB DOESN’T LIKE You can’t take it shopping

do we still hate scooters? words Matt wildee Pics paul bryant

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SUZUKI GSX-R1000K9

PRICE £9800 ENGINE 999cc liquid-cooled inline four POWER (CLAIMED) 182.5bhp@12,000rpm TORQUE (CLAIMED) 86lb.ft@10,000rpm WEIGHT (CLAIMED) 203kg FRONT SUSPENSION 42mm big piston forks, fully adjustable REAR SUSPENSION Monoshock with braced alloy swingarm RAKE/TRAIL 23.8˚/98.3mm FRONT BRAKE 2x320mm discs with four-piston calipers PB LIKES Power, handling, looks finish PB DOESN’T LIKE The fact it costs £10K

Scooters have always been a laughing stock.

Back in the 60s, proper men rode bikes, parka-wearing ponces rode scooters. Vulnerable and slow, they bounced along in little packs, ready to be picked off by chain wielding greasers.

Scooters were made to look cool in films like Quadrophenia, but the truth is, if you’re reading PB now you’d have been a BSA Gold Star riding rocker, not a Lambretta-mounted Mod. Lambrettas weren’t cool; they were pathetic.

In 2009 things are different: scooters are trying to beat bikes at their own game. Gilera claim their

GP800 scooter handles as well as a sportsbike, hits 120mph and has the twist and go practicality of the ped you hired on holiday. It has a centrallymounted V-twin motor (from the Aprilia Shiver), an alloy box-section swingarm and tyres fatter than an early GSX-R. It’s like the Bike Of The Future, what a 1985-era MCN would imagine we’d be riding now.

So is it time to bury the hatchet and take scooters seriously? To find out we put the most practical superbike of this year, the GSX-R1000K9, against the GP800, the highest performing superscooter, to battle it out.    007

Aprilia RSV4

RSV4 iS THE mOST ADJUSTABLE mASS mARKET PRODUCTiON BiKE...

ADJUSTABLE ENGINE POSITIONING MOUNTS hEIGhT ADJUSTABLE SWINGARM PIVOT POINTS ADJUSTABLE BRAKE LEVER (ADJUSTABLE STEERING hEAD ANGLE NOT PIcTURED)

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ApriliA

rSV4 words BEN WILKINS pics MILAGRO & BEN WILKINS

remember beAutiful, exotic homologAtion SpeciAlS? they’re bAck

it’s not very often a bike comes along that stands out as very special, but Aprilia’s rsV4 is one of them. After a hiatus from racing wsB – when they so nearly got their mitts on the wsB crown with Troy corser aboard the rsV-r – the rsV4 sees the Noale factory back with a big bike wsB contender.

I say ‘big’ but sitting on the RSV4 the seat and tank are small (some of the fuel tank is underneath the rider’s seat) – in fact, the whole bike is tiny. It’s like a 250GP bike that’s been on a serious course of steroids, bulking it out in the just right places – hardly surprising, considering 250s are what Aprilia does best and it makes sense that their WSB bikes will be bigger versions of their two-stroke championship winners.

Completing the look, there’s something undeniably Cube-ish about this bike – it smacks more of MotoGP replica than WSB hopeful.   

compact.

Evolved.

Beautiful.

The new rsV4.

Aprilia RSV4

150 and 155bhp at the wheel. The RSV4 doesn’t have the instant punch of a twin or the screaming top-end delivery of an inline four, but the linear power build-up belies the rate at which it picks up speed, making it feel slower than it really is.

Coming into the pits after the second session, it becomes apparent that the engine is singularly important to Aprilia. They barely mention the chassis – the engineers are more interested in what we think of their new motor. That’s lucky because it’s lashing down and I can only get a glimpse of what the multi-adjustable chassis is capable of. But what can be gleaned from a wet track is that this feels small and nimble but with a good dose of stability thrown in. Brakes-wise, the Brembo monoblocs, (also fitted to Ducati’s 1198), offer stunning braking power that’s probably the best on the market, if a little aggressive.

Following the electronics lead set by Aprilia’s Shiver 750, the RSV4 has a high degree of electronic integration. The trouble with all this is that it’s going to be tricky fitting aftermarket power boosting accessories. When fitting the Aprilia-branded Akrapovic race silencer or full system a new map needs to be downloaded by an Aprilia dealer (it all comes as a package). Any further tinkering than that, (think along the lines of Superstock and Superbike racing), will require an ECU from Aprilia Racing that allows full control over fuelling and ignition.

‘THE RSV4 IS A PROPER WSB HOMOLOGATION SPECIAL. IT’S A THING OF BEAUTY AND GREAT TO RIDE’ The detailing on this bike is exquisite, with polished frame spars, cam-adjustable gear and brake pedals, machined top yoke and adjustable chassis geometry. This is a proper WSB homologation special but considering it’s a bike built for racing, the service intervals are remarkably far apart – every 6250 miles (10,000km) with valve checks every 12,500 miles (20,000km).

When the Japanese factories were making homologation specials to race in WSB we had some amazing bikes, like the RC30, OW01 and ZXR750RR. The RSV4 follows in the same vein. And although the latest Japanese production litre bikes are awesomely capable, they don’t have the allure of past homologation models. The RSV4 does. Who knows if it’ll beat its rivals but it’s a thing of beauty and great to ride.

At £14,995 it’s not cheap but it’s less than a Ducati 1198S, let alone a homologation special ‘R’, and it’s easier to ride. I don’t want much, but I do want one of these.

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aprilia rsv4

priCE £14,995 ENGiNE 999.6cc liquid cooled V-four BOrE aND sTrOKE 78 x 52.3mm ClaiMED pOWEr 177bhp@12,500rpm ClaiMED TOrQUE 85lb.ft@10,000rpm FrONT sUspENsiON 43mm Öhlins, fully adjustable rEar sUspENsiON Öhlins fully adjustable raKE/Trail 24.5°/105mm WHEElBasE 1420mm ClaiMED WET WEiGHT 179kg FUEl CapaCiTY 17 litres

Ducati Streetfighter

ducati StREEtFiGHtERS (NON-S)

‘TRACTION CONTROL DESPATCHED WITH, THE FRONT WHEEL IS FAR MORE PRONE TO COMING UP’ 020

PRicE £13,995 (£11,495) ENGiNE 1099cc liquid cooled V-twin BORE x StROkE 104 x 64.7mm POwER 152bhp@9500rpm tORquE 85lb.ft@9500rpm FRONt SuSPENSiON 43mm Öhlins (Showa), fully adjustable REaR SuSPENSiON Öhlins (Showa) fully adjustable RakE/tRail 25.6°/114mm wHEElBaSE 1475mm dRy wEiGHt 167kg (169kg) FuEl caPacity 16.5 litres

words BEN WILKINS pics MILAGRO

PLAYTIME’S OVER:DUCATI’S NEW NAKED GETS SERIOUS The Streetfighter has lots of naked ambition. But can the stripped twin punch the lights out of KTM’s Super Duke?

With the exception of Yamaha’s wobbly crank R1, recent developments in race-replicas have been small and evolutionary: a little tinkering here and there. By far the more exciting sector in recent years has been the naked sportsbike, or factory built streetfighter. KTM, Aprilia and Triumph have been doing just this for years.

Ducati is the latest factory to effectively strip the bodywork off their sportsbike. They reckon its V-twin has over 150bhp too. That’s a proper shot across the bows for KTM’s Super Duke.

SO... A 1098 WITHOUT THE BODYWORK?

No, not really. The Streetfighter has been designed to ape the 1098. Almost every component is new and has been built purely for this bike. They’ve done a good job of making the Fighter look like a naked 1098, as though they’ve just taken the fairings straight off and stuck wide bars on it.

TELL ME IT HAS A 1098 ENGINE?

Again, no. It’s a hybrid motor of 1098 pistons and cylinder heads but with crankcases based on the 1198, chosen because the casting technique for these cases lops off a massive three kilos compared to the cases of a 1098. Quite why they

didn’t just use a 1098 engine instead I don’t know.

Peak power and peak torque are both at 9500rpm. This confluence of bhp and lb.ft means the engine needs to be revved to get the most out of it, more than you might expect from a big twin; more than I expected anyway. There’s also no great surge in power at any point, just a wide spread that builds linearly and pretty damn quickly towards the redline.

My initial impression was that the motor was a bit flat – not a criticism that could be levelled at the storming 1098 powerplant – but actually the throttle has a long action and needs a bit of extra wrist extension to access the engine’s full potential. Using the full length of the throttle cable makes a big difference and this bike does indeed go well, but it still doesn’t have the low-rev go I was expecting. This is partly to do with gearing; Ducati have a habit of throwing in a massively tall top gear and this is no exception. Another potential niggle to look out for is a gearbox full of false neutrals.

Some riders on the launch suffered with this, although the PB bike seemed to be fine.

NIPPY HANDLER

It’s easier to get more out of this bike compared with the 1198. The upright riding position allows

more control and gives the option of owning a sporty Ducati without the chiropractor’s bill that can come with a modern Ducati race-replica.

The pegs are set pretty low but reasonably far back so ground clearance isn’t an issue – the belly pan decks out before the pegs do. Try to push any further however and the front wheel gets lifted off the ground, as several riders found out from the soft confines of the gravel trap.

The exhaust protector on the right hand side of the bike is intrusive and forces an unnatural foot position when track riding, making magnesium toe-sliders a must if you don’t want to wear through your boot on trackdays. On road there’s more than enough clearance for the majority of riders. The Öhlins forks are set up on the soft side as standard, so track riding benefited hugely from a couple of mm of preload, four clicks of compression and three clicks of rebound.

WHAT ABOUT THE STUTTER?

Ducati’s traction control system (DTC) is an amazing device. On a hot day trackside it barely intrudes, but reducing the setting from level six (as set by the Ducati mechanics) to level one or two improves acceleration. This takes a while to get my head around as the system is   

021

Ducati Streetfighter ksdg uiusgda iugugdsa iugv agviuasi ia

Level six DTC compromises acceleration but lets you know when the tyres start to let go Right: Diablo Corsa IIIs are more than up to track use but are a good, fast road oriented option

CHASSIS Öhlins suspension graces the front and rear of the ‘S’ but the standard bike gets Showa items. Both models are fully adjustable for compression, rebound and spring preload. The swingarm might look identical to the 1098 but it’s 35mm longer with different mounting castings. The steel trellis frame is the same as the sportsbike in its construction, the difference being a looser steering head angle, out to 25.6° compared to the 1198’s 24.5°. The standard bike gets 10-spoke cast aluminium wheels and the ‘S’ gets forged aluminium Marchesini 5-spokers.

ENGINE Ducati claim 150-odd bhp and 85lb.ft from the new Desmodromic eight-valve V-twin motor that’s based on both the 1098 and 1198 engines. The crankcases are vacuum die-cast (as on the 1198), giving maximum strength from minimal material, and a massive 3kg lighter than the 1098’s cases. Elliptical throttle bodies mimic the shape of the inlet valve area for better gas flow into the motor. Both of the radiators are for the water to give a large cooling area with minimal width – oil cooling is taken care of by a heat exchanger in the bellypan.

022

detecting differences in wheel speed, or wheel spin, that I can’t and is therefore retarding the ignition on the higher settings.

This is noticeable on the way into corners when the ignition retard lights flicker briefly as the front wheel turns slightly faster than the rear. And it’s possible to come out of a corner hard on the throttle with the DTC lights flashing (showing that the system is kicking in), and I’m not feeling it doing its job – the DTC works in a way that is extremely subtle.

But where it’s not quite so good is accelerating hard over bumpy surfaces, in this case rumble strips, where the fuelling can cut completely, feeling like the plug caps have lost contact for a few brief moments.

HOW DOES IT COMPARE?

A longer swingarm than on the sportsbike, a canted forward riding position and soft low-

rev power delivery prevent this bike from being the wheelie monster we were expecting when Ducati announced a naked 1098 Streetfighter. That doesn’t make it a bad bike by any means; in fact it’s good but it can be made even better by turning the traction control off. Excellent as the system is, it does interfere in certain circumstances, just where you don’t want it (accelerating hard on bumpy roads). And once the DTC is despatched with, the Streetfighter is more apt to live up to its pumped-up name. The front wheel is far more prone to coming up in first and second gears and the fact it doesn’t have an extremely aggressive power delivery means it’ll appeal to far more riders. This is a completely different proposition to the Monster 1100S, and to me at least, a better one, sportier and more high-spirited. The Super Duke? That’ll be a proper brawl.

DTC (DuCATI TRACTIOn COnTROl) The same system as fitted to the 1198S appears on the Streetfighter ‘S’ (not the standard bike). It features eight levels of adjustment, ranging from cutting in at moderate throttle openings on level eight, to only saving the worst of slides on level one. The DTC system uses a sensor on each wheel to monitor wheel speed differences and there are two stages of intervention that are administered to prevent wheelspin.

Stage one makes continual adjustments to the ignition timing, retarding it as necessary to reduce wheel speed differences. Stage two is more severe and kicks in when ignition retardation isn’t having the required effect. The system continues to retard the ignition but also begins to reduce the amount of fuel being injected, all the way up to cutting it completely. The effect is the same as feathering the throttle, allowing the rear to grip. As wheel speeds start to come in line, the ignition and fuelling returns to normal.

DDA (DuCATI DATA AnAlySER) Again, an ‘S’ model only fitment. The DDA lets you record your ride (engine revs, speed, distance, engine temp, amount of laps, lap times, plus throttle and gear positions), for download and analysis later on Ducati software.

It’s more suited to a track-oriented bike like the 1098/1198, but could come in handy to settle the ‘who was fastest’ argument in the pub afterwards.

BRAKES Huge great dustbin lids.

That’s what these twin 330mm babies are.

Bitten by Brembo Monobloc four-piston calipers they’re up there with the best brakes we’ve used on a road bike (as per the 1198).

If there’s such a thing as too much braking for the road, this is getting near it.

BEN’S TOP TEN NAKEDS The new Streetfighter is right up there with the KTM Super Duke and Triumph Speed Triple as an all-round package but not quite as crazy, even if it looks the most aggressive. Coming too late for our naked test a couple of issues back, this is where I think the Streetfighter fits into PB’s top ten hardcore nakeds. Expect to see some jostling for position when we ride it on the road.

1

KTM SUPER DUKE Stiff, agile and punchy (almost to a fault), the Super Duke is the most hardcore naked on the market.

2

DUCATI STREETFIGHTER S Not quite as much attitude as the naughty Super Duke but there’s more go from the 1098cc motor.

3

TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE Like the Street Triple but heavier and with more presence. It’s simply chock-full of attitude.

4

TRIUMPH STREET TRIPLE R Probably the most enjoyable bike we’ve sullied our bottoms with all year. Brilliant wheelies.

5

DUCATI MONSTER 1100S Hardcore by virtue of the fact it’s stiff and uncompromising but there’s still traditional charm.

6

KAWASAKI Z1000 With basic on-the-stiff-side suspension, the Zed is as frisky as naked bikes come.

7

SUZUKI B-KING Silly power in an agile but bulky chassis, with Zanussi-styling.

The appliance of science...

8

APRILIA TUONO R Aggressive riding position, nimble handling plus punchy motor.

Needs the gearing shortening.

9

HONDA CB1000R A bit of a sheep in Wolf’s clothing.

There’s a neutered Blade engine housed in the tidy chassis.

10

HONDA HORNET 600 Soft but not Bandit soft. Versatile and friendly but since when did a Honda out-stare a Suzuki?

023 017

Sportsbike Britain

what neXt? THE SENSIBLE ANSWER IS A SLIPPER CLUTCH. THE LESS SENSIBLE ANSWER IS AN RC8 MOTOR.

historY THE GUEST RIDE AND PROTOTYPE FOR THE ‘SUPER DUKE BATTLE’ RACE SERIES, IT HAS ALSO SERVED TIME AS A DEALER DEMONSTRATOR. MANY LEGS HAVE SWUNG OVER THIS SEAT.

4

bikes we like this month words and pics kar lee

038

ktm 990 super Duke DaviD bowen

what? Super Dukes were designed to be modified the day they leave the factory. From the suffer-no-fools fuelling to the plethora of engine and chassis tuning enhancements available, you’d be lucky to see a standard bike, and David and his mate Richard’s bike is no exception. Bought used from KTM Bracken in London, it started life as a demonstrator, fleet bike and then guinea pig for the Super Duke Battle race series before ending up in its current role as a history-riddled, battle-scarred track hack. whY? Although the bike is road registered, its main duty is to provide laughs on the track. It’s not about top speed, it’s about hammering out of bends, throttle against the stop, rear tyre rucking up the tarmac as it charges forward on the back wheel. ‘It makes a fantastic sound; I feel directly connected to the rear tyre and it’s a joy to ride, pulling the most monumental wheelies and stoppies,’ says David. The chewed tyres, worn carbon hugger and scuffed bellypan confirm this bike has enjoyed a hard life and is all the better for it. how? H&M skimmed and gas-flowed the heads, modified the airbox for better breathing and added a Power Commander to perfect the fuelling.

Adding an Akrapovic full system, the Super Duke punts out a respectable 118bhp. Chassis-wise it’s suspended by WP items front and rear, gorgeous Rizoma rearsets we want to eat, various crash protectors, carbon parts, a single seat conversion and race bellypan catch tank. The stickers on the headlight shroud proudly display its racing heritage.

90%

7%

3%

RACE PEDIGREE

WHEELIES ON DEMAND

bAttLE SCARS

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more bikes we like This monTh Words Kar Lee and James LisLe Pics James LisLe

Toyko special bimoTa Db6 Tmc Delirio

Would you pay £6000 for a light grey paintjob and a couple of matching extras? The guys who built this are hoping they’ll flog at least three of them. Check out this collaboration between a trio of companies in Japan; Toys McCoy, Moto Corse & Riders Club Jap bike mag. Only three bikes were built for sale and it’s not surprising when you look at the price of 3,911,660 yen (£26,000). In comparison the price of a stock DB6 in Japan is almost as outrageous at 2,980,000 yen (£20,000). Apparently influenced by the German Stuka dive bomber, a matching Buco helmet was also made. Pictures: www.sideriver. com/motorcycle/ridersclub/db6tmc.html

who bUilDs a bike like This?

The nAMe TMC WAS DeRIveD fROM The InITIAlS Of TWO COMPAnIeS – TOyS MCCOy AnD MOTO CORSe. TOyS MCCOy MAke ClOThInG, BIke helMeTS AnD ACTIOn fIGuReS In MIlITARy AnD AMeRICAn POP CulTuRe STyle DeSIGnS.

sUzUki kaTana Unicorn Design

57%

overpriced

primer

samUrai majesTy gekko japan

kawasaki ksr110 Takegawa racing

100%

85%

15%

10%

90%

keeping the legend alive

Farcical

road presence

diddy dimensions

madness

Japanese company unicorn Design create bespoke designs or made-to-order bikes and also offer parts, accessories and various chassis and engine tuning goodies. An authorized Suzuki dealer in Japan, they started up with the simple mission of upgrading katanas. We’d say they succeeded.

There’s an impressive gallery of bikes they’ve created online here: http://www.k-unicorn.com/ bespoke/gallery/gsx1400s.html

041

43%

Bet you’ve never seen a yamaha Majesty look so lethal. It’s mad, it’s wacky, it’s a custom scooter by a denim company. Influenced by Japanese samurai armor (known as ‘yoroi’), the Majesty still looks like a cut and shut between an alien queen and a scooter. The video on the homepage showing the spinning front wheel makes us want to throw a few shurikens at other passing warriors. www.8010gekko.com/e/collection/bike.html

We love this little beast. Made by Takegawa tuning shop and based on a kawasaki kSR110 – with the fat tyres and 111cc air-cooled supermoto made for the Thai market, this has been turned into a demonic track bike that pokes the opposition in the eye before running off into the distance. The video is hilarious proof, with a rider going from 32nd place to first. how he scythes through the field is priceless. www.youtube.com/watch?v=71zfrtj8QlM

Ultra Special

‘WE HAVE EVERYTHING AVAILABLE TO CONTROL OUR BIKE, BUT NOT THE INFORMATION TO USE IT,’ SAYS CORSER’S CREW CHIEF TOM LARSEN. HERE AT PHILLIP ISLAND, CORSER’S RIDING STYLE IS NEEDED TO MAKE BMW’S INLINE FORMAT GO FAST, BUT IT ALSO HIGHLIGHTS TRACTION CONTROL AND GRIP ISSUES.

000

Alpha Racing and BMW engineers working hard to improve the bike

WHY DiD THeY CHoose an an-line Four?

It seems odd that a factory synonymous with making the impossible work – if you were drawing a Paris-Dakar bike from scratch you’d never go for a big-eared flat-twin – should select a conventional inline four for their WSB entry. Why? ‘This is a production bike and you always have to look at the cost of mass production,’ Baeumel candidly admits.

‘An inline four is the cheapest way to build a bike because you don’t have as many parts as in a V4.’

It’s a startling admission from a company synonymous with placing engineering innovation above mundane practicality. But there were other reasons too. ‘There’s no disadvantage in power delivery or maximum power if an inline engine is designed properly,’ Baeumel says.

‘Packaging the bike is also much better, because it’s more compact than a V4.’

But hasn’t BMW backed the wrong solution now that V-power is dominating superbike evolution? Haga on the 1098R Ducati V-twin is leading the WSB championship, Aprilia’s new RSV4 has already podium-ed. ‘Not at all,’ Larsen says. ‘We’re not going to cut our crankshaft in half and change our firing order. You can’t just say that it’s the crankshaft layout – it’s a lot of things. We have a plan that will take us to where we want to be’.

WHY DiD THeY use a TelesCopiC Fork?

The front end is another example of just how conventional the S1000RR is. It eschews BMW’s unique suspension 048

ulTra speCial BmW CHassis

Aluminium perimeter frame. Inverted Öhlins front fork, bananastyle swingarm and single rear Öhlins shock. Brigallia swinging arm 2kg lighter than standard.

Brembo disc brakes, 2 x 320mm at the front, single rear 220mm disc, 4-piston calipers. OZ wheels, 16.5 x 3.5in front, 16in x 6.25in rear.

Wheelbase: 1428mm.

Dry weight: 162kg.

Pirelli tyres.

enGine

999cc inline four, dohc, 4 valves per cylinder. Bore x stroke: 80 x 49.7mm.

Power: 200+bhp @ 14,800rpm.

Compression ratio: 14:1. Fuel system: 48mm Dell’ Orto injection. Engine management: BMW in-house system.

designs (Duolever and Telelever), instead using an inverted telescopic fork and a chain-drive rear end with a banana-style swingarm working a single shock. It turns out that the telescopic fork – derided by engineering purists for decades because it constantly changes a motorcycle’s geometry – was chosen precisely because it does just that.

‘The front goes down during braking and you have better handling because it changes the steering angle and trail,’ Baeumel says, like Telelever never happened. ‘We tested different systems, but we decided that teles were the best compromise for racing.’

WHY are THe Bore anD sTroke so exTreme?

The S1000RR’s bore-to-stroke relationship, at 80 x 49.7mm, is extreme by the standards of Japanese inline fours. Honda’s Fireblade runs 76 x 53.1mm, Yamaha’s R1 is 78 x 52.2mm.

Such an oversquare configuration normally suggests screaming top-end power at the expense of torque. BMW admits the S1000RR is already revving to 14,800rpm on track, with even higher revs to come as development proceeds.

We will have to wait for the road bike’s launch later this year to find out if BMW can squeeze rideable torque from this ultrashort-stroke engine.

HoW Does THe Team run?

Alpha Technik, a well-known tuning and racing parts company in Germany, has set up a new division, Alpha Racing, to run the team for BMW. Around 40 people are employed on the WSB project, most of them from Alpha apart

Rainer Baeumel

BMW’S RACE TEAM PROJECT LEADER.

Late to the drawing board BMW have gone for a proven inline four format

ON ENGINES ‘An inline four is the cheapest way to build a bike because you don’t have as many parts as a V4.’

ON TELES ‘We decided teles

were the best compromise for racing. The front goes down during braking and you have better handling because it changes the steering head and angle.’

If Troy Corser can’t win races for BMW...

ON RELIABILTY ‘Engines are

doing 2500 kilometres of dyno testing with no problem.’

ON RACING ‘Our biggest

disadvantage is traction. We lose out on the exit from tight corners’

Ten Kate Fireblade is struggling to match its potential this year so far

from half a dozen BMW engineers.

BMW has shunned the Motex and Marelli engine management systems used by most teams, and is developing its own model. This is partly at the root of the lack of data: the very system that will eventually provide the data is itself in an experimental stage.

At the factory there are usually two development engines on the dyno running a minimum of eight hours a day, three days a week.

Engines destined for a WSB round go on the dyno for two hours, and then on a roller dyno, before being shipped to the track.

So far, durability is looking good. ‘Engines are doing 2500 kilometres of dyno testing with no problems,’ Baeumel reports.

‘After two races we disassemble an engine and put in new piston rings and bearings, and send it back to the track.’

The PoTenTial

‘The bike is awesome,’ Ruben Xaus enthuses. ‘BMW just don’t realise how good it is – the frame, the forks, the handling. Even Pirelli are surprised at how good the tyres work, and I’m one of the few riders going as fast at the end of a race as the beginning.’

Corser: ‘This is the most competitive season ever in WSB in terms of machinery. A private team can run as good as a factory team.’

(He’s right –Leon Haslam on a Stiggy Honda and Regis Laconi on a DFX Ducati were in the championship top six after three rounds.)

‘For us [BMW] to be to be in the middle of that is quite a good achievement straight out of the crate.’

At the moment, BMW is performing amazingly well against six other factory teams (four Japanese and two Italian). It’s just the lack of data to achieve a fast base set-up at the track that’s hurting them.

A podium by the end of the year? Anything’s possible.

KAWASAKI ZX-6R All new for 09, the ZX-6R is faster, lighter, smaller and sharper than it’s been for ages.

YAMAHA YZF-R6 Our favourite 600 of last year.

Crazy, revvy motor, decent chassis. Club racer’s choice.

058

japanese words Guy Martin and Matt Wildee Pics Paul Bryant

600s on slicks

By Guy Martin

If you’re looking for the fastest, read this...

HonDa cBR600RR c-aBs aBS and midrange-boost for 2009. Six World Supersport titles. is it enough?

sUZUki GsX-R600 k9 the road bike. the GSX-r’s the only 600 that’s anywhere near practical. Can it cope on track?

M

Who is...

Guy Martin?

PB’s columnist and tester is also one of the uk’s fastest road racers. later this month he goes for his first tt win.

odern 600s are the new 250s. Tiny chassis, narrow powerbands, big lean and huge corner speed dominate a class which, over the last decade, has changed from built-down-to-a-price semi-sportsters to the most extreme performance bikes around. an R6 makes an R1 feel fat.

To find out which bike is really fastest, we fitted all of them with slicks and handed them to Guy Martin. We then speed tested, measured and datalogged the hell out of them at Bruntingthorpe. If you’re looking for the fastest 600 of all, you need to read this. Guy takes up the story…   

059

4th spec

price £7400 power 110.7bhp @13,250rpm Torque 47lb.ft @11,100rpm weighT 202kg wheelbase 1400mm

060

Suzuki GSX-R600 k9 1:14.1s, average 99.90mph Let’s start with the worst. Not really a bad bike, it’s just we have to split hairs here.

First impressions aren’t great. For starters, it’s got bits of fake carbon everywhere and the handlebar grips feel as if they’d not go amiss on a snowmobile, so it wasn’t a good start for me and the old girl.

It may be a sports 600, but trying to get it through the fast third-gear first corner on standard settings, it’d be doing well to convince me it was a sportsbike of any description (see track map, p65). There isn’t much in the way of ground clearance – the pegs touch at the slightest hint of any commitment and the inconsistent pitching and wallowing while trying aggressive throttle application on the second-gear final corner confirms to me that the nearest the GSX-R gets to a sportsbike is being shown a picture of one.

Harsh, but even after we give the suspension a tweak (to help it regain some composure), it’s still the least dynamic here.

And there’s no getting away from the fact that around the Bruntingthorpe test track I’m having to do more gear changes than on any of the other 600s (lucky then it’s got the slickest gearbox here), because of the GSX-R’s lack of acceleration pretty much everywhere in the rev range. On the track it feels like it has the bottom end of the Yamaha R6, but without the top end to compete with anything else on test. That’s a bad combination, but the dyno will tell the true story.

I’m sorry, as I do like the GSX-R. When I first started racing in the Junior Superstock championship in 2001, the K1 600 Suzuki was the only bike to be on, and I more or less rode mine straight out of the crate. Unfortunately the K9 hasn’t had the same upbringing.

Everyone who’s ridden it on the road raves about its practicality, ride and comfort, but this is a performance test only. It is undoubtedly a bit more road focused than the old K1,2 and 3 and suffers because of it. What a shame.

3rd spec

price £7799 power 113bhp @14,300rpm Torque 42lb.ft @13,900rpm weighT 197kg wheelbase 1380mm

Yamaha YZF-R6 1:13.9s, average 100.20mph I was on the launch in Japan last year and know this model pretty much inside out. I rode the 07 model at the TT, raced in five British Championship rounds and did okay at the Ulster GP on one. So what I’m riding here is an updated version of what I raced back in 07, albeit with a slightly different frame, forks and styling.

Unfortunately she’s pretty gutless, with no proper oomph below 10 grand. You can argue that the R6 is a 600, not a 1000, but a bit of usable grunt helps in loads of situations, even on the track. All the Jap 600s are now on the same bore and stroke, so why so much difference in usable power?

Inlet valve size is the main issue here – the Yam has the biggest, the Honda the smallest and the Kawasaki and the Suzuki are in the middle. So it’s got to be the lack of low-end gas speed in the inlet tract that makes for this gutless feeling low down. Yamaha have tried to overcome this by using the YCCI system, which plays with the height of the inlet stacks, but all it really does is make a big difference to the air box pulsing above about 14,000rpm. In actual forward momentum of gas-flow I doubt there is a lot to be gained.

On the plus side, the Yamaha is as stable as you like, with calm, accurate steering. The OE Dunlops make the bike feel awful, but the more aggressive Dunlop slicks transform it and give enough feel to get away with murder.

Shame the riding position ruins things. Everything is cramped and I’m not able to use the leverage in my arms because they are at such a tight angle. It’s got plenty of rearward room, but the tank just seems to be too close to the top yoke. This makes getting through the fast second-gear chicane at a decent speed a bit awkward as I can’t easily move my body weight to the required position.

It’s the only bike here with full ECU-controlled (fly-by-wire) throttle. I’ve never had any complaints with it, but when I ride it back-to-back with a conventional set up, throttle shut-off is the most noticeable thing. Going into the 115 mph first corner, I go from 100 percent to maybe 70 percent throttle and there’s too much of a reaction – it’s just too abrupt. It’s nowhere near as good as a conventional set up.

It could be tuned out, but the truth is, I don’t want to be told what to do with a set of butterflies by a computer. I’m a racer, not a computer engineer.

061

2nd spec

price £8753 power 106bhp @13,800rpm Torque 45lb.ft @11,000rpm weighT 199kg wheelbase 1375mm

062

HONDA CBR600RR C-ABS 1:13.8s, average 100.33mph This isn’t really a new bike. We’ve had one of these in bits and this one is almost identical to the 07 and 08 bikes, bar a slightly different belly pan and ABS brakes. This bike is going well in world championship racing because of the development that’s gone into it. When it is fine tuned it’s got to be the best out there.

Looking at the bike, I’d say it’s the smallest here, but sat aboard, it’s the roomiest.

The high bars put me in a far comfier position than on the R6, and the riding position is the best here. Compared to the Yamaha the midrange feels 1000-like, even though it lacks the punch of the R6 at the top. But I’d trade that any day of the week. The Yamaha feels like it has this massive top end rush only because you’ve got nothing at all low down, so the transition from high to low-end torque is massive. With the Honda it’s a lot more controlled all the way through the range, so hence the much flatter torque curve.

No peaks and troughs, just power where you want it. And no, this isn’t because I race a Honda – they don’t pay me any money. If it was shit, I’d say so.

This is genuinely the nicest bike to ride, even if it isn’t the fastest or has the trickest bits.

It feels nimble and and has lovely steering. It just copes with everything you can throw at it and comes back for more. It is remarkable.

I know the dash and switchgear all look a bit 90s and it’s not got any fly-by-wire throttle or BPF forks, but Honda have dug deep and come up with an awesome ABS system.

When it came to braking the Honda was the bike I could brake the latest on.

The GSX-R just had no initial bite, the R6 had good stoppers but you couldn’t make the most of them by the way it backed in, which meant having to let go of the brakes to get the thing back in line again and ready for attacking the apex. The Honda had a fraction of delay on the initial part of braking on the sixth-gear back straight, but when you had the full input from the brakes, the chassis stayed composed and it still headed to the apex. Even the massive amounts of overbanding on Bruntingthorpe’s back straight couldn’t upset the Honda in the slightest. I’m now at the front of the queue for wanting ABS brakes. They’re absolutely faultless.

1st spec

price £7899 power 115bhp @13,000rpm Torque 47lb.ft @11,600rpm weighT 195kg wheelbase 1400mm

KawasaKi ZX-6R 1:12.8s, average 101.71mph I was on the 09 ZX-6R launch in December and I really rated it, but I still didn’t know how it would go compared to the others here. This was an even test, all on the same rubber, with same amount of time on each bike and all with full tanks of fuel.

Pretty much as fair as fair can get.

The result was that it was the fastest bike by a big margin. It has a combination of all the best bits from the other three bikes on test. But the ZX-6R hasn’t quite got the low-end grunt to match the Honda, (although it’s close), and it feels like it has less top-end compared to the Yamaha. It has the R6’s low bar position, but with the room of the Honda. The throttle connection is the best of the bunch – the Kawasaki goes through the fast left first corner the fastest. It just fills you with confidence in every area and feels great at big leans.

You can do anything with it. You can lever it from side to side with real arrogance and there’s so much feel coming from the Big Piston Fork front end that it lets you carry stupid amounts of corner speed – this is one of the best front ends on any production bike.

Anywhere. On the Dunlop GP Racer slicks (which is a trackday tyre, not a race tyre), the bike transmits a huge amount of feel. Then there’s the brakes. There is so much feel and linearity to the lever that you can get away with braking stupidly late, plus they don’t really fade when you abuse them either – you couldn’t ask for more.

But it’s not just how it rides that makes it special. The ZX-6R feels like a true performance bike. The tailpiece is tiny, sharp and looks like it was from a MotoGP bike.

The view from the cockpit is the best here – the BPF fork tops look classy, the dash is the sharpest looking and feels proper high-tech.

The contrast of the green paint and the black anodising looks mega. The motor sounds like it was meant to – both hollow and aggressive when you’re on the gas and chasing that redline. Just like a racebike. Which for many riders, is the whole point of a modern 600. All this adds up to make the ZX-6R the most desirable bike of the lot. It’s just a better all-round machine if you want to get your rocks off.

063

data

Jap 600s on slicks guy martin

● gsx-r max power 110.7 BHp ● zx-6r max power 115 BHp ● r6 max power 113 BHp ● cBr max power 106 BHp ● gsx-r max torque 47.5 LB.Ft ● zx-6r max torque 47 LB.Ft ● r6 max torque 42 LB.Ft ● cBr max torque 45 LB.Ft

The ZX-6R proves to be astounding. It might be weak at the bottom end, but it has very good midrange. At 8000rpm it produces 18 percent more power than the R6, and once it hits 8000rpm produces the power and torque to make it look flat. Kawasaki say it’s a 599cc, but we reckon it’s a 636 all over again. The CBR and the GSX-R run it close though. The CBR hasn’t got the top-end, so suffers on the track, but the almost matching curve until 10,000rpm makes it feel good out of corners.

The R6 has the steepest power curve, but it starts from a long way behind and never really catches up. 113bhp is healthy for an R6, but it isn’t enough to match the ZX-6R, especially when you look at its midrange torque deficit.

At 8000rpm, where the others are gaining torque, it’s dropping away on the R6. Guy’s theory about inlet velocity rings true. Sure, this midrange hole makes the bike feel faster when the power and torque kick in, but the dyno and datalogger don’t lie. And then it went sick during speed testing – Guy suspected it was a broken camchain tensioner but Yamaha say it is a deeper problem. When we know, you’ll know.

Guy says the GSX-R is gutless. It isn’t. It has good low-down power and the most useful torque. What you’re looking at is the weight, gearing and aerodynamics playing their part in the closest of comparisons.

top speed

140 120 power (bhp)/torque (lb.ft)

on the dyno

100 80 60 40 20 0

0

2

4

6

12

14

16

18

160.21mph

ZX-6r

164.50mph Bang!

acceleration

weight

0-60mph

0-100mph

quarter mile

gsx-r600 K9

3.20s

7.62s

11.20s@129.26mph

CBr600rr

3.25s

7.28s

11.68s@124.20mph

Zx-6r

3.42s

6.60s

11.13s@131.32mph

N/A

N/A

N/A

Thanks to the Yamaha blowing up we were unable to speed test it. We know from previous tests that an R6 hits about162mph in still conditions and acceleration is broadly similar to the others here, depending on who was riding and how much they weighed. But unless we’ve tested on the same day, it isn’t a fair comparison. Notice how the docile GSX-R is brilliant at launching.

064

10

162.17mph

cBr600rr

r6

8

rpm x 1000

gsX-r600 k9

r6

Guy Martin was the tester, riding on a cool March day at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground’s Handling Circuit. Control tyres were Dunlop GP Racer slicks – medium compound front, endurance rear. Tyre condition and pressure was monitored

by Dunlop’s Bryn Phillips. PB’s Racelogic Performance Box Sport was used to datalog speed and laptimes.

Analysis: Matt Wildee

202kg

199.5kg

197kg 195kg

gsX-r

cBr

ZX-6r

r6

The ZX-6R is the lightest bike and is lighter than it was before its 09 update – impressive, since every other bike has gained in weight compared to their previous models. In 07 the R6 weighed 191kg, the GSX-R 198kg and the non-ABS equipped CBR just 188kg. The previous ZX was 202kg. So, a 7kg loss where the other bikes gained an average 6kg.

lap times

on track

bRuNTINGTHoRPE (2 mIlES) zx-6r 1:12.8s cbr 1:13.8s r6 1:13.9s gsx-r 1:14.1s

ToP SPEEd oN STRAIGHT

160 140 120

mph

100

FAST SWEEPER

80 THE CHICANE

60 40 20 0

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

40

45

50

55

60

seconds ToP SPEEd oN STRAIGHT gsx-r 155.70mph cbr 154.82mph zx-6r 159.16mph r6 158.86mph

100m ouT oF TIGHT CoRNER gsx-r 76.67mph from 49.66mph cbr 78.06mph from 42.31mph zx-6r 76.56mph from 35.05mph r6 81.55mph from 42.76mph

The ZX-6R pulls the hardest here, hitting 96.7 percent of its ultimate top speed on the 1200m back straight.

The R6 is next up. The second most bhp here, it almost has the top-end power to match the ZX-6R and is geared for top speed – with a tail wind an R6 can hit 170mph. The ZX-6R is running out of revs. Note the top speeds here reflect the amount of sheer horsepower available.

Although the R6 is fastest, what’s stark here is how much roll-on acceleration the ZX-6R has. Guy has messed up the corner (you can see him running slightly wide on the plan-view datalogging trace), but despite being slowest through it, 100 metres later it has already beaten the GSX-R600 and is closing fast on the other bikes. That’s what you get for having the lightest bike with the most power.

Notice the GSX-R’ big speed advantage at the apex – the most compliant bike here takes the midcorner camber and surface change in its stride.

THE CHICANE gsx-r 60.43mph cbr 54.58mph zx-6r 65.65mph r6 56.22mph The first sign of the ZX-6R’s great front end.

The chicane at bruntingthorpe has a highspeed entry and a long period of trail braking before you hit the apex. Its bPF forks on the Kawasaki aren’t fazed by braking and turning, and the bike behaves so well on the brakes that it allows more corner speed to be carried to the apex. It then carries more speed all the way through the next section – a curving almost-flat-out sweeper with a nasty compression that heads onto the back straight. look at the red graph. See how Guy has to roll off on the R6 as it gets upset on the corner exit. This is where he loses the time he gained on the R6 earlier in the lap.

FAST SWEEPER gsx-r 102.10mph cbr 101.66mph zx-6r 101.66mph r6 105.35mph The fastest bike through the sweeper, the stable, slow-steering R6 gives the most front-end confidence. As standard, even on slicks the R6 steers quite slowly.

This is a bike you lever onto its slide.

It doesn’t flop – and it gives Guy more confidence in the bike. He also gets on the gas harder and carries that extra speed all the way through to the next braking point. Notice how the ZX-6R catches up with its superior high-speed acceleration, but the R6 has gapped it.

65

70

75

slicks For roaD riDers ‘The idea behind the GP Racer Slick is to give riders a tyre designed from the outset as a dedicated trackday tyre,’ says Dunlop’s Bryn Phillips.

‘Race tyres are not necessarily the best choice for trackday riders. To get the most from them requires careful bike set up, so our engineers took the elements required from both our road and race tyre development programmes.

This is what we’ve got here – a slick that works on stock road bikes.

‘The profiles we use are very close to those of our 250GP tyres. 250GP profiles are nowhere near as radical as they used to be and are well suited to high performance road and track tyres. The GP Racer Slick behaves with composure at intermediate lean angles and to riders coming from road tyres will feel surprisingly normal, if a little more nimble than they might be used to. They last well too. Most riders get four or five trackdays from a set and report good grip right to the end of the tyre’s life. You don’t desperately need tyre warmers either.’

Guy was highly impressed with them. Look to pay around £250 a set. And remember, they’re not road legal, even if they would be perfectly okay on a summer’s day.

Log onto www. dunlopmotorcycle.co.uk

000

feature tagline

WHat DOeS it all Mean?

The lightest, most powerful, most flexible bike with the best front end is the fastest.

The 2009 ZX-6R is a quantum leap forward for Kawasaki. When it comes to track performance on sticky tyres this bike is significantly faster than anything else here – it would take £1000 of pipe and Power Commander to get any of the other bikes to match it on straight line performance, and none of them have got the same front suspension quality either.

Things could be skewed if all the bikes were modified – it’s likely the R6 and the CBR might be closer, but if you just want to sling some sticky tyres onto your 600 and run in the fast group, the ZX-6R is the best choice. The chassis and engine work together to create a brilliantly usable package. Anyone could get the best from it. It’s the Kawasaki we’ve been waiting for since the barking 2003 B1H model sent us loopy.

The CBR and R6 did perform well around the track (at least they did until the R6 motor let go), but on the test were consistently a second a lap slower than the ZX-6R, while the GSX-R600 was the slowest of all. It works very well on the road, but just can’t cut it in this company. But we do need to keep a sense of perspective – the GSX-R laps Bruntingthorpe just 1.8mph slower than the ZX-6R, so it isn’t a dog. It’s just the least brilliant and in a class where only excellence will do. If you’re after the fastest of the fast, that matters. GM & MW

THANKS Motrax for the MotoGP-style paddock stands. www.motrax.co.uk R&G racing for the bobbins. www.rg-racing.co.uk And finally Pickcocks for the loan of the CBR600RR ABS. Sorry it was late back. www.pidcock.com 066 094

modern legends on tour

to the words matt wildee, kar lee, tim thompson Pics rory game, tim thompson, kar lee

1988 honda VFr750r rC30

Has spent most of the last two decades hibernating in containers and garages.

Now it’s being ridden hard for the first time in years.

1987 gsX-r750h

Long, light and slightly wobbly, the GsX-r is about to clock 60,000kms. Feels like it is on its ear at 20Ëš of lean.

This road is actually the L165 out of schuld, another beauty recommended to PB by Neil Leigh of www.aeaventures.com

068

on these?

1983 suzukI RG250 GAMMA

Kar Lee’s mid-life crisis made metal, the Gamma has spent the last 300 miles pinned. 20 miles to go, but still only a 50/50 chance of making the Ring.

kar lee owns two gammas, but still has the scars from his first 100mph seizure.

Matt wildee owns the gsx-r750h. obsessed with the oil-cooled gsx-r. tiM thoMpson got banned on an rc30 in 1989. still remembers the copper’s beard.

500 miles to the best racetrack in the world, on very old bikes.

No problem...

t

he 258 from Aachen to nürburg twists its way through the greygreen of the eifel Mountains like the downward spiral of a life-sized game of snakes and ladders. Perfectly surfaced high-speed bends flow endlessly. If you want to experience lean for a long time, there’s nowhere else like it in the world.

I’m playing follow my leader, chasing the twin tail-lights of RC30-mounted Tim. He’s shifting, playing with his body weight and throttle in the high-speed corners, neck craning, loading up the Honda’s 21-year old suspension.

Last week his bike was sitting in the climaticallycontrolled showroom, ready to be passed from one rich collector to another. Now it’s fly splattered and being ridden too far, too fast. Banked over, peering through the opacity of the GSX-R750’s ancient screen it looks bloody impressive, and I’m riding faster than is wise to keep up. Some way behind is Kar Lee, chasing the powerband on an RG250 Gamma that is older than my wife. These three bikes have a combined age of 69, but all of them can still hustle. There’s a reason why we’re going fast – the Nürburgring opens in half an hour and we’re still 30 miles away.

TT My head pops out of my Hizzy-replica tuck to look at another constant radius corner that’s longer than Preston. While the RC30 places its wheels to the chosen millimetre, I sense the bikes behind building a wave front of discontent. I sense gritted teeth, sloppy bearings, engineering that was not 10 years ahead of the game like the RC30’s… I glance back: the GSX-R’s still there, its big dishy headlights beaming their approval. Faster, they say. I raise my elbows to get the full picture in my mirrors. Kar’s RG Gamma has disappeared. Then it pops out of my blind spot, clinging to the GSX-R like a Chihuahua to the tail of a raging bull.

MW This morning we were strapping our bikes down on the ferry. We’re on three barely-prepared 80s bikes that for the last few years have hardly turned a wheel, or have been hiding in the blackness of a never-opened garage. Now they’re being subjected to a 1000-mile round trip. Why? Because we don’t believe that just because bikes get old they become museum pieces. They should be ridden hard, no matter how old they are.    069

modern legends on tour It seemed like a good idea at the time. now, as we roll off the ferry, there’s a bit of worry. tim’s borrowed rC30 is 21 years old, my gsX-r is 22 and Kar’s rg250 gamma was screwed together in 1983. In fact, I’m amazed Kar’s made it. When we met on the A14 he was complaining about how slow and fragile his bike was. A mile later he’s tucked in, flat-out, 170kph on the clock, clouds of aromatic smoke pouring from the twin stingers. He does this all the way to the tunnel. A couple of times he gapped me, simply because I was unwilling to ride that fast on a heavily policed motorway. like a desperate and smoky Zero fighter battling against overwhelming P51s in the final days of the Pacific war, this seemed like a heroic last stand. But the bike just kept on going.

kl I’m feeling paranoid, and have been for the last two hours. Every few minutes spent on the bike is an extra few minutes of survival. The last time I caned an RG250 so hard I ended up in hospital, having seized it riding flat out for 20 miles dropping off a parcel for some London courier firm. Here I am one hundred miles from the UK, deep into enemy territory, aiming for the Nürburgring on a bike that somehow scraped past the MoT by the hairs of its unscrubbed tyres three days ago. A miracle it passed, because this Gamma has head bearings from the school of ruined components. There’s an awful notch a couple of degrees off centre to the left, plus the right for good measure. So, in theory, as long as I’m headed in a straight line I’ll be fine… in theory. In reality, even at slow speed this bike rides like it’s had five pints too many – mini roundabouts and hairpins are a lottery. The upshot is every time I come out the other side I’m a winner.

Tim and Matt practise high-speed roll-ons.

As they disappear into the distance I feel sad for them that they’re not enjoying the tap-dancing experience that I’m getting and are having to rely on making up games to keep occupied. The gits.

They don’t know what they’re missing.

MW This is a funny bunch of bikes. If this was 1988 I doubt we'd all be friends. Tim would be the rich connoisseur, willing to spend £8500 of his city bonus; I'd be riding a year-old GSX-R; and Kar would be the cash-strapped, fearless and slightly scary kid who we'd all mock before he rode around the outside of us. But in 2009 we're all rubbing along together quite well.

We’re cruising at 140kph, with metric speedos.

(All the bikes are imports of some kind – they all were sold first into the Japanese market.) We’re cutting through the bleak flatness that typifies post-Tunnel France. The GSX-R is working brilliantly on the motorway – sitting low, with a tall screen. The wind protection is better    070

‘bikes deserve to be ridden, no matter how old they are’

RC30 lacks the wind protection and big tank that makes the GSX-R so useful

GSX-R feels good on the gas in fast sweepers

071

modern legends on tour than a modern sports tourer and as it's geared to hit 150mph, motorway speeds are actually relaxing.

Then there’s the 21-litre tank. I did the same journey last year on my 08 R6. This makes more sense. kl This trip is not only the second time I’ve ridden the bike (the first being the four-mile wobble to the MoT station), but the furthest I’ve ever been on a two-stroke. Every mph of speed is hard-earned, changing gear demands synchronisation with the rev counter and this, combined with the kickstart, reminds me of learner days on the DT125LC – the time before children, mortgages and grey hair.

We’re still on the motorway but I’m beginning to enjoy this now, though I’m not sure why.

TT Once I rode a new RC30 into the arms of a traffic officer at 118mph. I’ll never forget his beard.

I already had nine points on my licence and was in big trouble. The pain that followed was all my fault, but I secretly blamed the bike. It made me do it, I wanted to say to the magistrate about to tear up my licence. You have no idea how clinical it is.

It makes the impossible easy. Fast feels slow.

The GSX-R makes the kilometres pass by easily in one long Armco haze

‘The bikes sTand ouT like spying clinT easTwood in sainsbury's’

Small-diameter headlights signal it's an import.

RC30 still felt nimble and responsive after all these years

072

kl Belgium. The Gamma splutters to a halt as if someone has ripped out the plug caps. At the same time my right indicator stops working and I notice the rubber beading around the screen has shaken itself missing, presumed AWOL. At an indicated 206 kilometres – that’s 128 miles in real money – the 17-litre tank is bone dry. That’s an astonishingly good range considering the flat-out nature of the Gamma’s journey so far. Try doing that on an SP-1.

As optimists, we’re lucky that the fuel stop is only 1km away. As pessimists, we should’ve made it. The grab handle on Matt’s GSX-R is perfect for towing.

TT We think the bikes are like film stars. They may have mottled fork sliders and shiny seats – or even seats eaten away by nesting mice and rebuilt with gaffa tape if you’re Matt’s GSX-R – but here in these motorway services they stand out like Clint Eastwood in Sainsbury's. kl At the fuel station I overfill with a litre of Silkolene’s two-stroke finest as I had done earlier on that day. As the excess dribbles out of the overflow pipe upstream of the rear tyre, we glance at the bikes over an overpriced ham and cheese baguette and marvel at the technology that is now considered history. Fuel taps, trip meters that need winding back to zero, headlight switches, helmet locks, choke levers, carburettors, anti-dive units, bodywork acronyms, fairings that protect the rider and plastics that can be removed in minutes using a couple of tools rather than hours are the stuff that these bikes are made of.    (go to p76)

Fuel tank 250 gammas hold 17 litres and at a steady illegal cruising speed can keep going for 128 miles before abandoning you on the hard shoulder. also holds the oil tank and is tricky to remove – the tap requires lots of swearing as well as unscrewing from the frame as the hose passes either side of it. Be prepared to have a load of fuel dumped on your feet.

Fairing suzuki got so much right with this bike, especially the wind protection and aerodynamics. with a rider prone a measured 106mph is possible. Being upright slows this by just three mph. the rubber bead around the top rim blew off on the autobahn, and was last seen being run over by a van.

tyres Bridgestone Bt45s sit on the rims – an 18-inch rear and 16-inch front. although a 110 section rear and 100 section front tyre don’t sound much, they’ll grip right to the edges. the rear still looks stupidly skinny though.

Front Forks the forks can hold 285ml of 10w fork oil and 100 sheets of andrex bogroll should the need arise (the previous owner thought it did.) to put more weight over the front, kar raised the forks by 5mm in the yokes. he’s also changed the oil three times so far, but we’re not sure why.

new rear shock a hagon aftermarket item replaces the rust-covered stocker. Boasting adjustable combined rebound and compression damping and preload, it costs £275.

Fitting was a minor chore, involving the removal of many other unrelated parts first, for example the bottom of the radiator mounts.

suzuki rg250 gamma Head down, hand covering the clutch lever, I kick up for sixth gear and keep the throttle pinned to the stop. We pull past the Citroën, then in comedy fashion fall back alongside as the bike loses revs and slows down. That’ll teach me for tryng top gear while still a whisker away from the powerband. Like early GSX-Rs, the tacho starts at 3000rpm, but in reality could easily start at 7000rpm… and end at 9000rpm. For the next few days, my life is a small segment of the rev counter half an inch thin.

I bought this as a birthday treat in April 2008 with a view to scavenging its bodywork for my 350 YammaGamma – but I just didn’t have the heart to do it. Cosmetically sound (especially in light of the age) it ‘just’ needed a healthy dose of TLC to become a decent example of a mostly-standard RG250 Gamma Jap import – a bike I’d previously owned two decades ago, which seized whilst despatch riding. Could I have picked a more inappropriate motorcycle to deliver parcels or travel to Germany on? I doubt Suzuki's designers had distance work in the brief.

There have been many different versions of the Mark 1 Gammas for the various markets around the world, all subtly different. The UK version got a single front disc up front and an anti-dive unit on one

leg. The Japs got twin discs, single piston brakes and twin anti-dive units. My bike had a few mods already fitted, including a fork brace the size of a house brick (to supplement the weedy tinfoil item under the mudguard), a pair of K & N filters, and braided steel brake lines on the front. It also came with a whole roll of bog paper under the left fork seal along with all the other goodies you’d expect on a machine that had sat in someone's damp garage for five years.

I’ve thrown almost as much money at it as I paid for it in the first place to get even this far (and it’s still not there yet…), and that’s not counting the man hours I’ve spent in the garage. The handling is awful if the still-to-be-changed headraces aren’t in the right position, it misfires in the rain like a 20-a-day smoker on Sunday mornings,but still makes me feel fantastic when I open the garage door to work on it again.

It was a technological marvel back in 1983, but today it’s something that I can work on without downloading a fuel map, something pure that squirts in more pre-mix from the 28mm flat-slide Mikunis when I turn the throttle, something that has a powerband that I have to dip into when I want to stay ahead of the traffic, and something that costs me a paltry £57 to insure with zero no-claims bonus. KL

modern legends on tour

Bikes relax on the Tunnel.

Amazingly, the Gamma has made it onboard

MW waits for 17 year-old 250-riding novice Kar Lee to move out of the way

Matt hilariously called the two filler holes ‘bum and fanny.’

Catch! The joy of 20-year old bikes – every key works in every bike

RC30 drones in the German vastness

074

exhAusT The day before the bike was due to head to germany the exhaust failed, a backfire shooting the baffle across the PB carpark. gibson exhausts (01708 372122) came to the rescue, cut the system behind the collector box and fabricated this can and link pipe. The workmanship is faultless, the style perfectly in keeping.

seAT 30mm added to the seat, to stop it collapsing and to add more legroom for the long trip. had the benefit of putting more weight on the front, which helped steering feel.

Tyres Avon roadriders work surprisingly well, but the 3.5inch rear rim is really a bit too narrow for the Oe-specced 140-section rear, which gives a square profile that then drops away steeply at the edges. A 130-section rear should improve steering and confidence at lean.

hAgOn shOck hagon (0208 502 6222) works very well, but needs setting up when you get it. needed quite a lot of preload adding to get Matt's desired 15mm static sag. Damping adjustment is surprisingly effective. huge improvement, costs a bargain £275 and is made in Britain.

BrAkes slightly warped discs, slightly-dragging calipers and a lack of response will be fixed. First stop is calliper rebuild.

suzuki gsx-r750h A thousand miles in a couple of days on an ancient bike should be a recipe for disaster. But it was a joy. Unlike Kar’s 250 Gamma, nobody would've raised their eyebrows about doing this trip when the bike was new, and seeing as the GSX-R is still in good mechanical condition, it isn’t really an effort now.

The GSX-R has a 21-litre tank and proper wind protection. It’ll cruise at 100mph and at that speed do 140 miles to the tank – it’s as useful at middle distance cruising as a modern bike.

When I rode the bike for the fist time at Bruntingthrope for the GSX-R Challenge feature last year, it was wobbly, weaving and sitting down at the back. New linkage bearings, head bearings and a Hagon shock have worked wonders – there’s now more weight on the front, and the bike is sitting down a lot less under load, which is making it more positive in the corners and gives it a bit more stability. Still not as much front end feel as I’d like – I’ve got some Hagon fork springs and oil to try next, but I’m never going to get the bike handling perfectly.

The only real weak point now is the brakes – like most old bikes they are way past their best. It isn’t the pads as EBC’s Sintered Double H pads perform well, but I suspect that only two out of every four pistons in each caliper are actually working, and the result of that is a biting point that only really makes itself known halfway down the lever’s travel. Chasing Tim though the roads around the Nürburgring

the lever was trapping my fingers. I'll get it sorted this month.

The GSX-R’s pace was impressive. On a 60mph, top-gear roll-on it would lose a bike-length to the RC30, but would then track it all the way to 110mph until what I assume is its bad aerodynamics came into play. Not bad – especially considering that an RC30 has about 10bhp more than the oil-cooled GSX-R. It sounds amazing too, with a hollow high-pitched volumetric wail. As a teenager, one of these woke me up every night going flat-out through my village. It sounded just like this.

But while riding on the road with the GSX-R was exciting, the single lap of the Ring before the downpour wasn’t quite as much fun – by three-quarters of the lap my arms were aching from the effort of chucking the thing from one side to another and I was having to brake four-fingered to avoid trapping my digits. But it hasn’t stopped me wanting to spend more time with it on the track.

There’s still a long way to go and I’ve already spent the equivalent to what the bike is worth recommissioning it. Old bikes don’t really make financial sense, but a tidy modern legend is a special thing. The week after the Nürburgring trip I rode the GSX-R to the Bemsee Centenary meeting at Brands Hatch. The bike might be mass-produced, aged and a bit rough, but it still gets looks. MW Thanks to Mark at M&M Motorcycles, Stamford, 01780 482277.

000

modern legend on tour

468 miles after leaving Peterbrough, the team arrive.

'Right then, who's for a lap?'

MW shadows TT into Brunchen 1. Notice the headlights – there’s big rain coming

076

It fires first time into a legal, muffled crackle. It’s a process that immediately forms a connection between man and machine. Satisfying and pure in the same way that a coal barbeque will always be more macho than a poncy gas one.

MW Aaaargh! No brakes. The next motorway services has a curling downhill entry. It needs brakes, and mine aren’t working. My front brake lever has gone solid just past its biting point and it’s giving little in the way of stopping power. I stand on the rear. It chirps, slips momentarily, and I make it around, clutch in. My brake light is constantly on too. We remove the brake lever and brake light switch. Part of the switch mechanism had come loose and jammed the lever, giving me half-brakes.

I always wondered why the switch wasn’t connected when I got the bike. Now I know. In the last 50 miles things are starting to go wrong.

TT Now Matt says the RC30 is burning oil. He’s smelling it too. We check our levels every fuel stop – Matt through a window glass, me on an HRC dipstick. A minute or two later, enter Kar Lee on the third bike that shouldn’t be here. His 1983 Gamma guns up the services road still flat out. It smells of hot, escaping liquids. Kar peels his rucksack off and produces a four-litre vat of Silkolene two-stroke and dumps about half of it into the RG’s oil tank (the rest is on the forecourt). It’s his second embarrassing spillage of the day.

MW By now we’ve peeled off the motorway, and are threading our way through dingy, slightly depressing Eupen, complete with its terrible drivers and bumpy roads. My brakes are working properly again. We’re following Tim, for once navigating without his Garmin Street Pilot (it’s banned under the rules of the road trip), bumping and crashing over a horrible concrete-slabbed road that cuts through the Ardennes. Suddenly it changes to super-smooth tarmac. The next village is full of chocolate box houses. Every blade of every lawn is cut with millimetre precision. We’re on the 258. I reckon we’ll make this. Even Kar. TT Proper roads start, and they sweep and soar through the pine forests. The RC30 is unflappable and tracks immaculately; the blaring, barely silenced GSX-R drifts wide over white lines but doesn’t lose an inch to the Honda. I adjust rpm with my left foot, slipper clutch correcting. It’s so easy. I only wish I had the correct 170-section tyre on the 18-inch rear rim as the thinner 160 Pirelli I fitted wants to turn before the front.

This RC30 is still taut without the slop and damage that come with so many legends . I turn the throttle hard and the the V4 hardens. Nothing else is using the road except the odd logging wagon dropping the odd tree. We build the pace, reminding ourselves that we have between us the stopping power of almost one modern SV650. kl I whoop into my helmet. As we reach the roads around the Nürburgring the Gamma comes into its own, slaying second and third gear bends with ease – it’s the highlight of the journey. This is what it does best. This is what we came for;   

BodYWorK Gold pinstripe. chocolate-brown filler cap. White mirrors. These colours and combinations are important. Good bodywork marks out the best buys. our Japanese bike’s bodywork fits well, though it has been re-sprayed. Two visual lines are important here: the one across the tail ==unit and tank – the table top that so differentiated the rc from the masses and looked so right, and the line from bellypan apex to tail unit… Sorry, I need a lie-down.

rUBBEr Eight-spoke 18-inch rear looks like it’s held in place by magnets. Finding sporty rubber for it is the downside. We used a Pirelli diablo Strada, which, although a sports-touring tyre, is far more grippy than the Bridgestone Exedras UK rc30s came on. We could only find a 160-section, which tended to steer the rc from the rear. It needs to be a 170.

dETaILInG homologation loveliness meant exceptional detailing for the time. have an adjustable brake lever; 12-way comp and rebound adjustable suspension, front and rear; a slipper clutch; hand laid fibreglass bodywork with dzus fasteners for the belly pan and big racy screws everywhere else; a quick release; drop-down front wheel release and ratchet in the toolkit for starters

honda rc30

PS-PT derby based PS-PT, who prepped and lent PB this bike, have several rc30s for sale. They’re asking £12,995 for this one but have even cleaner, lower-mileage examples in their collection. PS-PT are specialists in top-end sportsbikes of a few years' vintage and have a website full of heart-breakers to peruse. recommended viewing.

01332 208905. www.ps-pt.com.

Thanks to Pirelli for last-minute supplies of diablo Strada rubber. It works.

With an RC30 you were a great rider with unshakeable confidence who flew above the clouds; without one, just another idiot wallowing his way through the B-roads of mediocrity. Only the original 1989 Suzuki RGV250 was on the same page. The RC30 was a platform, stiff and compact, from which to launch audacious attacks on pre-Gatso Britain. It had the floatiest yet most controlled Showa units to come from Japan and a radical, adjustable riding position that placed you on top, elbows on knees, as you curled around the tank like a live prawn around a chopstick. Then you turned it hard with the bars and it tracked direct to your apex. Nothing flustered it. It galloped lazily out of corners and up to 100-and-god-knows-what-mph. The magistrate tore my licence up.

This Japanese import (with a tell-tale 180kph speedo) came to PB with 9000km showing. It’s not a minter but is very tidy, despite the odd dodgy blue-and-red anodised Earl’s brake-hose banjo. Headlights are the non-UK small-diameter ones.

Mechanically, it’s fresher than most used bikes we see, with its 360-degree V-four as keen and disturbingly linear as it was 20 years ago. Over time even the standout engines of the late-80s/early 90s become relatively slow-revving and puny, but the RC’s remains frictionless and fluid. It still delivers a fat tyre-full of traction from anywhere on the tacho. And it still fills your head with the most evocative growl in history.

It’s extraordinary how modern it feels. Power-wise our 96bhp Japanese-market-spec bike makes less than a 2004 CBR600RR, but it revs and responds so sweetly you barely notice. You can cite its titanium rods or gear-driven cams or single-ring pistons, but it’s the hand-built feel that still screams at you as you canoodle with the close-ratio box, shortshifting lazily at 7000rpm and dispensing traffic more easily than you would on a GSX-R750 K9.

I think it’s mass centralised, though with a much lower centre of gravity than a modern Honda. The only place it struggles is in slow corners where the clutch needs slipping, and the steering is heavy and hard-going. This wasn’t helped on our bike by a saggy rear shock whose adjuster rings were seized (access to the independent rideheight adjuster is long and tortuous). It virtually sat on its rear wheel.

As you ride down the motorway on an RC30 you feel a bit guilty for using up a finite racing motorcycle on such tawdry travel matters.

You’re aware it’s closing rapidly on the its next very expensive service too. But clutch slipping, a thirst for oil, and a tendency to boil its coolant at first sight of a traffic light apart, it has typically easy Honda road manners for a TT and WSB and endurance legend.

I was worried about riding the RC again, but I didn't need to be.

You can’t snap it into turns like you can a ZX-6R but you can still ride very hard. Most RC30s are in museums or private prisons; they should be on the road because they’re still great road bikes. TT

7:45pm of a Spring evening, three captivating machines.

This is why we ride bikes

brakes, chassis and peaky engine working in a beautiful harmony.

MW We’re getting there. Suzuki’s GSX-R750H cuts through the sweeps. With a 1455mm wheelbase and one of the tallest CofGs ever seen on a sportsbike, this isn’t the kind of machine that you flick into hairpins, but turn it into bends gently and smoothly and it actually feels good. Extended knee brushes tarmac. The Hagon shock and linkage rebuild have performed wonders – most of the weaves and wobbles have gone and there’s a surprisingly neutral feeling to the steering, even if that front contact patch feels a long way off.

As we come to some hills, Tim and I are beginning to leave Kar and his tiny bike behind.

TT We brake like it’s 2009, which is way too late into rippled 1-in-5 hairpins, but the RC30 refuses to miss an apex or run wide. Kar’s dropped back but the GSX-R is pressing as usual, and I brake even later for a tightening right.

Matt’s taking his braking cues from the RC’s brake light so we both sail straight on and suddenly we realise how hard we’ve been pushing our relics. I wave an apology to the locals who kindly didn’t run us over and feel like a plonker who never learnt to ride. Kar then arrives and says he went straight on too. Lessons learnt.

MW There are more bikes on the road, and we pass a pair of Golf GTIs full of rollcage and bouncing on rock-hard springs.

On each of their scarred flanks is the unmistakable squiggle of the Nordschleife. Ringers. There’s only a few miles to go, but now it’s not just the time we’re chasing. The closer we get to the Ring the darker the clouds are becoming.

kl We’re there. And we’re on time. The paddock is full of the usual suspects – hard-riding frazzled regulars and wide-eyed newcomers.

As we roll in we get a light shower, causing the Gamma to misfire which, together with a dead right indicator and questionable steering makes a lap a genuinely bad idea, but it doesn’t matter – we’ve got this far. This tiny, lightweight machine with diddy 54mm-diameter pistons has carried me to the world’s most dangerous racetrack in relative comfort. Other riders wander over and one expat can’t believe his eyes when he claps sight of the Gamma. 'I haven’t seen one of these for years,' he says. Another fella comments on how tidy the Gamma is,' unlike the tatty GSX-R,' which in fairness runs near faultlessly. The RC30 stands proud, as it should – it owns the Ring. I light up a fag and celebrate our arrival.

TT Standing in the Ring car park we’re unexpectedly nervous. It’s not, I think, the brakes or wrong tyres, but the respect we have for these bikes. They’ve come a long way: been sold all over the globe, spent months at sea in containers, stood unloved for years, passed from one owner to another… and they’ve emerged from all that as plausible and deeply satisfying sportsbikes in their own right.

Of course I can’t wait to get home and back on my 09 ZX-6R, but the memory of the RC30 is anything but diminished by this ride.

I feather the RC30’s clutch to the barrier and put the ticket in the slot.

Spectators' eyes are on stalks. As we go, the RC30’s growl is drowned by the bark of an inline-four.

In my mirrors I see a still-grinning GSX-R. The single lap before the heavens opened was tentative and unspectacular. This was about the journey, not the destination.

‘these aged machines are still plausibile and satisfying’

078

PB ROAD TEST///

QUESTION. IS ABS FINALLY GOOD ENOUGH FOR SPORTSBIKES?

HONDA CBR600RR C-ABS

BMW K1300S evO ABS

The Bench Mark

KAWASAKI ZZ-R1400 ABS

tRIuMpH 675 NO ABS

PB road test///the Plan Actually they’re braking like hell. ABs makes it look like they’re en route to an iAM convention

onlY one WaY to FInd oUt. rIde In the Wet and drY then let the dataloGGer deCIde words BEN WILKINS pics PAUL BRYANT AND BEN WILKINS

until now ABS has been the preserve of tourers, possibly sports-tourers at the sportiest. But from 2009 you can buy honda’s top of the range machines with ABS. And if a cBR600RR or a fireblade with ABS fitted seems like a performance paradox, that’s because fun-loving riders have eschewed ABS since it was launched – the systems simply weren’t up to high speed riding, especially on the track. But times have changed...

2009 BmW K1300S 160bhp

2009 hondA cBR600RR 106bhp

2009 TRIumph 675 dAyTonA 112bhp

2009 KAWASAKI ZZ-R1400 167bhp

The ABS STAlWART. BmW’S Been doIng ABS SInce IT BegAn. If AnyBody KnoWS ABS IT’S BmW.

The STAndARd. BRAKeS don’T geT much BeTTeR ThAn ThoSe fITTed To The TRIumph dAyTonA (ApART fRom BRemBo monoBlocS ThAT IS).

084

AnTI-locK on The puReST peRfoRmAnce BIKe. IT’S only An opTIonAl eXTRA, BuT IT’S BIg neWS.

The Wolf In Sheep’S cloThIng. BIg, yeS. fAST Too. The SuRpRISe IS ThAT IT’S A dAmn good All-RoundeR. BuT hoW doeS The ABS STAcK up?

THIS MONTH WE HaVE

● Been staggered at how good ABS is ● Got bloody well soaked ● Taken absolute liberties on the brakes ● Eaten more McDonalds than can be good for us

085

pB rOAD TesT///The Bikes

‘THE HINCKLEY TRIPLE IS HERE BY VIRTUE OF ITS AWESOME NISSIN STOPPERS’

The Bench Mark Triumph

675 DAYTONA ● £7589 ● 112bhp ● 192kg ● Exciting. ExtrEmE. ElEgant.

Triumph’s 675 features well whenever we get one in for testing. But it’s not the overall performance that has brought it to PB towers this time. No, the Hinckley triple is here by virtue of its awesome Nissin stoppers. Triumphs have earned a good reputation in the braking department and this is no different.

Complimenting those Nissins are radially-mounted Monobloc calipers, giving the bike incredible stopping power. In fact, the brakes show the bike’s front suspension up as lacking on standard settings. Hit the brakes hard and there’s way too little compression damping and preload.

The forks dive quickly, almost bottom out and force the rear wheel to pivot around the front, resulting in a stoppie.

Not helping the situation is the overly stiff rear that has little static sag out of the crate. This firmness is responsible for a flighty ride when pushing on a bit on bumpy surfaces.

The bars dance from side to side when accelerating over bumps if you’re carrying any hint of lean. Thankfully it never threatens to get out of control, unlike my 2008 test ZX-10R that wanted to bolero the bars out of my grasp any time I was exuberant with the throttle.

Technically, you could call it feedback. We call it fun. We 086

Triumph BrAkes Our benchmark for this test. The Triumph is kitted out with some damn good brakes. Nissin four-piston radially-mounted monobloc calipers chew on twin 308mm floating discs. There’s no electronic or mechanical gizmos to help the braking, just a direct fluid link between the lever you pull and the amount of braking that’s delivered.

keep going on about the 675cc Triumph engine but that’s just because it gives us exactly what we want from a middleweight road bike. We shouldn’t have to thrash a bike to make meaningful progress, and you don’t need to with the 675 because the triple is such a flexible motor – from 20mph the engine can easily pull fifth gear.

However, Triumph has been fiddling with the motor for 2009 and made it slightly more peaky, shifting peak power to 12,700rpm from 12,100rpm and gaining 1 to 2 bhp. This has had an effect on the torque; losing a couple of lb.ft and shifting it 500rpm further up the revs. This now isn’t quite the engine it was in the midrange, but wheelies off crests are still child’s play.

Also on the negative side, the bike is small and slim.

Unless you’re a veritable racing snake you’ll most likely look big on it. As larger than life Johnny Mac puts it: ‘What a brilliant, brilliant bike. Still too small though.’

After a couple of hours aboard the 675 I couldn’t have cared less if other bikes have technical advantages that can help me out in a scrape or stop quicker in the wet. This bike stops quickly and strongly without any ABS voodoo and it also has a more consistent lever feel while doing it.

‘THE UNSUNG HERO IN THE ZZ-R’S ARMOURY IS THE ABS’

kAwASAki

ZZ-r1400 ABS ● £9499 ● 167bhp ● 263kg ● ballistic. roomy. smooth.

It’s amazing what a shed-load of power can do for you. On a reasonably fast, twisty road, the ZZ-R can stay ahead of the unlikeliest competition. Both the CBR and the 675 gain on the ZZ-R going into corners but then it just scarpers off on the way out, leaving the middleweights all the work to do to catch up again – oh so satisfying for the Kwak rider.

It almost goes without saying that the ZZ-R has a good motor. It’s absolutely epic, if truth be told but the unsung hero in the ZZ-R’s armoury is the ABS, which also helps keep the green leviathan ahead of the minnows. When we rode the Kwak earlier in the year, on slippery roads, we were fans of the ABS fitted to it. And that’s still the case.

Hammer up to a corner (easy with this engine), and haul on the brakes as hard as you like. Braking hard without activating the ABS is most effective but if it does there’s no big pulsing at the lever, just a brief run-on and then back to braking. It’s more of a safety net, rather than a hindrance.

It keeps the excess weight in check.

Back to the motor. 167bhp is delivered in a smooth and unruffled style; no frantic screaming, just a dizzying surge forwards. ‘It’s so strong and pulls so hard. It’s the way a big bike should be – no holes in the power, just lots of go,’ says

kAwASAki ABS The system consists of an ABS hydraulic unit (containing two inlet valves, two outlet valves, reservoir, the ECU and pump motor), front and rear wheel speed sensors plus sensor rotors. In the unlikely event of a system failure, the failsafe mode opens the valves and lets brake fluid flow directly to the caliper.

Kev. He’s right, fourth gear is all you need on most roads – just wind the throttle open and let the motor loose. With 6000rpm on the clock the bike is fast, but let it spin above 8000rpm on an open throttle and this thing gives stunning acceleration.

While the engine is awesome, the chassis is good. But good only up to a certain point when the back tyre is smearing on the tarmac. It’s also around this point that the rear starts to wallow as it loads and unloads, creating a pendulum effect. Beyond here you can’t use the rest of the engine, and there’s always some engine left on the ZZ-R. But this is ridiculously fast. Fast enough that you’d better make sure you’ve got soap on a rope for those communal showers.

On a stiffer bike this would end in tears and broken plastic but on the big green battle-bus it’s an absolute hoot. Just set it up and turned for any given corner in advance.

Some say the ZZ-R is neither fish nor fowl – neither tourer nor sportsbike but they don’t get it. This’ll do big distances but can turn its wheels to extremely fast riding too, so when Honda decide to make a new Super Blackbird, it’ll need to be a Super Duper Blackbird to beat this.    087

PB road test///the Bikes

‘UNOBTRUSIVE ABS ON A SPORTSBIKE? THAT’S AN AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT’

honda

CBr600rr C-aBs ● £8753 ● 106BHP ● 197kg ● svelte. sweet. screamer.

Honda have pulled a blinder. ABS on a sportsbike? Who’d have thought it? Rightly or wrongly, I reckon we like to feel in control of what our focused, racetrack-happy machines are doing. There hasn’t been a manufacturer-fitted ABS system that could cope with the requirements of performance riding, let alone track riding. Dragging the brakes mid-corner, back wheel-in-the-air and on-thebumps braking manoeuvres tied them in knots. Until now.

Using the Honda’s brakes initially there’s not really a discernable difference between normal brakes and this ABS. The first impression is that they are powerful but not that progressive ; on the Great White side of opening bite.

It takes a lot of effort to get the C-ABS system cutting in, but try hard enough and it does. It feels completely different to any other ABS I’ve ridden with. You normally get a rapid pulsing at the lever as the brake fluid pressure is modulated but not here; there’s no judder or pulsing, just a slight reduction in braking power as the pressure is reduced at the front and extra is fed to the rear. With the ABS working, the experience is not dissimilar to feeling brake fade at the lever – a little spongy, with the bike running on a bit, as if you’ve slightly let the brakes off. But the strangest thing is the 088

honda C-aBs Complex, it’s essentially brake-by-wire, with one valve unit and one power unit per wheel and an electronic control module (ECM ) to do the thinking.

Using the brakes pushes fluid to the respective valve unit. Sensors send pressure info to the ECM, which then signals the power unit. This then applies brake fluid pressure to the valve unit and out to the caliper.

actual lever inconsistency. Applying the brakes whilst riding, the lever is firm and a good distance from the bar, but after a stopping manoeuvre it’s closer to the bar and slightly more spongy – but that’s not because of heat buildup. As soon as you’re moving again, everything’s fine.

However, the chassis is just fantastic. You can just get on and ride fast. Kev even went so far as to say it’s the best handling roadbike he’s ever ridden. I agree: the CBR is such a sweet handler; smooth, composed and refined.

The engine is harder work – it needs thrashing to make it go well. If you’re not in the right gear coming out of a corner, the ZZ-R and BMW just leap past. But keep it singing and they don’t get a look-in before the next corner comes along.

There’s loads of go above 8000rpm but power tails off 2000rpm before the redline. It’s a frustrating engine to use in everyday mode. Phil Read has this to say: ‘It annoys me – you have to behave like an absolute hooligan the whole time to get something out of it. It’s good fun but I’m not 19.’ On the ABS: ‘It took a lot of effort to feel the system working.

There’s no reason not to have it – if you didn’t know it was there it’s unlikely you’d notice it.’ Unobtrusive ABS on a sportsbike? That is an amazing achievement.

‘THE EVO sysTEm Is POWERFUl AND PRODUCEs sOmE sHOCKING REsUlTs’

Bmw

K1300S EVO ABS ● £11,060 (£12,594 as tested) ● 160BHP ● 259.5kg ● Bludgeon. tecHnology. accessories.

If there was ever a bike for the gadget-lover, this is it.

Options include Gear Shift Assistant (quickshifter), Tyre Pressure Control (dash tyre pressure display), Electronic Suspension Adjustment (as it suggests), and Anti-Spin Control (traction control). Oh, and heated grips, GPS, Paralever rear end, shaft drive and Duolever front end.

Forget the gadgets for a moment and this is one quick bike with a beast of a motor. In side-by-side roll-ons, in any gear you choose, the BMW murders the Kawasaki. I’ll say that again. The BMW K1300S has more go than a ZZ-R1400.

The roll-on performance is stunning and it’s only when the ZZ-R gets into the upper revs (above 8000 to 9000rpm) that it makes headway against the BMW. It can be ridden quickly too, but not because you can feel what’s going on.

I ‘get’ the benefits of the Duolever front suspension and Paralever rear, but after a lifetime of riding conventionally suspended bikes, there’s no feedback that, to me at least, correlates to what is going on at the front and rear wheels.

The soft seat doesn’t help. It squidges around, isolating seat of the pants feedback. But learn to trust the suspension, tyres and electronics and it’s definitely more a case of fast by faith than fast by feel.

Bmw EVO ABS No more servo-assisted brakes for BMW. The EVO series of brakes as fitted to the K1300S have braided hoses as standard. BMW describe its system as semi-combined, meaning that the front lever adds a little rear brake to aid stability on the way into corners (like the Honda system), but doesn’t add any front brake when you stamp on the foot pedal.

The anti-spin control is a useful safety aid but its operation is crude. Accelerating hard on dusty or bumpy roads (remember that this has 160bhp at the wheel), the back end can jump out of line by six inches before the system cuts the sparks – more than enough to make your nerves jangle. Far more preferable to let the back end hang loose by switching the ASC off for fast riding in the dry, but in the wet it’s handy to stop the stomping motor trying to spin the rear up.

One thing that can’t be faulted is the sheer braking power.

Servo-assisted brakes vanished years ago but the EVO system feels just as powerful but more user friendly. Fairly sports-oriented it doesn’t cut in unless braking really hard on bumps or while turning in and trail braking – useful with the lack of feel. The power of these brakes, mixed with the funny front end and the anti-lock of the ABS is an awesome combination – producing some shocking results.

Despite the technology, the K1300S feels somehow unfinished, partly to do with the weight of the bike and also with the way the front and rear ends work. However, the 1300S destroys the notion that BMW only makes bikes for slow old duffers. This is for fast old duffers.    089

data

PB road test///Performance

road

your at-a-glance, datalogged guide to road and track performance

zz-r

cBr

K1300s

675

1. TesT rouTe Time

34.3s

34.5s

35.1s

36.5s (wet)

2. FasT blasT

4.3s

4.8s

5.4s

6.1s

3. 5th gear overTake

3.7s

5.9s

3.2s

4.4s

(865m

of shellgripped twisties )

(30-100mph

through gears )

(50-80mph )

laP times

dyno

bruntingthorpe (wet) 2 miles ZZ-R 1:27.3s CBR 1:27.4s K1300s (damP) 1:23.4s 675 1:27.7s

● k1300s max power 160 ● zz-r max power 167 ● cbr max power 106 ● 675 max power112 ● k1300s max torque 97.9 ● zz-r max torque 104.6 ● cbr max torque 45.5 ● 675 max torque 49.1

180

power (bhp)/torque (lb.ft)

160

end of straight ZZ-R 162.5mph CBR 142.7mph K1300S 161.7mph 675 144.7mph

140 120 100

mid-hairpin ZZ-R 32.9mph CBR 35.3mph K1300S 34.4mph 675 33.9mph

80 mid-sweeper ZZ-R 70.1mph CBR 75.4mph K1300S 91.2mph 675 79.2mph

60 40 20 0

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

rpm x 1000

090 060

top speeds ZZ-R 178.2mph CBR 153.1mph K1300S 167.9mph 675 (windy) 149mph

mid-chicane ZZ-R 63.5mph CBR 63.4mph K1300S 66.1mph 675 64.6mph

PB road test///the ride

‘It’s the strangest feelIng hammerIng Into the corner on the cbr’

‘Oi, come back!

I’ve not finished showing you how good I am yet...’

092

PB TESTERS ON ABS 675

T

his is weird. An hour ago I was quite happy pinning the front tyre of the 675 into the tarmac when hard on the brakes. However, after riding the CBR with its fancy sports ABS for the last 50 miles or so and then getting back on the Triumph, I can’t help but be ginger with the front brake just in case the front locks up. Of course, that’s ridiculous because I know for a fact that Pirelli Supercorsas stick like chewing gum to finest Axminster, especially when they’ve got some heat in them. This is purely because I’ve become used to letting, and trusting, the ABS to sort the braking out. It’s all a mind game.

It takes another 10 miles to get back to trusting the Triumph’s front tyre, and my right hand. It’s the strangest feeling hammering into a corner on the CBR, jamming the anchors on then letting the bike sort itself out. On dry roads there’s not a lot of difference between the sports ABS of the CBR and the non-ABS of the 675; in fact, the conventional feel of the 675’s lever is more reassuring.

Where the Triumph’s powerful but sharp brakes are beautiful in the dry, in the wet it’s a completely different story. The margin between

locking the front, letting the brake off and not going down becomes a whole lot thinner.

The rider without the ABS has to allow for a bigger margin for error, so has to brake earlier and more gently.

This is strikingly apparent following a 675-mounted John in the wet. He’s trying as hard as he dare on the way into corners but the CBR just glides up behind him without seemingly even trying. There’s no heart in the mouth nerves while feeling for grip, just hard braking. ABS on a sportsbike opens up a whole new world of wet weather riding fun.

With the safety net that the electronic brain gives me, I start becoming detached from the riding. Instead, I’m studying what’s going on, feeling for grip, trying to see at what point the ABS cuts in, and it’s amazing how much grip there is. The benefit is that when the front tyre reaches the point of locking, the electronics fix any of my errors. I wouldn’t dare brake this hard without the ABS though – that becomes apparently clear as soon as I get on the Triumph again. I’ve become even more cautious than I would have previously.

All three ABS systems allow you to brake harder and ride faster in the wet. But the big difference between them is that the Honda’s system doesn’t hinder hard braking in the dry. That’s gotta be a good thing.   

K1300S prepares to out-stop everything

Kev: ‘The brakes are brilliant and there’s lots of power but I still feel totally in control. I don’t care that it doesn’t have ABS.’ Phil: ‘This is how a sportsbike should be. After riding this, it just seems plain wrong to go fiddling with the brakes and fitting ABS to a sportsbike.’

CBR600RR Phil: ‘It took a lot of effort to get to the point where the ABS starts working.

Even then it is difficult to tell when it kicks in.

If you didn’t know it was there it’s unlikely you’d notice it.’

John: ‘There isn’t much feel at the lever and the system isn’t as progressive as the Triumph. It feels like there’s something between the lever and the calipers, which I suppose there is.’

K1300S Phil: ‘Fine on smooth surfaces but on less than smooth roads it cuts in early – it’s overly cautious.’

Kev: ‘The brakes are very very strong and you can brake a lot harder before the ABS cuts in than you can on the Kawasaki.’

ZZ-R1400 Kev: Considering this is a heavy sports tourer, the brakes work brilliantly.

The ABS gives the rider confidence to use the rest of the bike.’

John: ‘The system isn’t as advanced as the one fitted to the Honda, but for the kinds of road riding this’ll be subjected to it works.

There’s no point not to have it on a bike like this.’

FUEL ECONOMY AVERAGE (INCLUDES FAST A AND B ROADS, AND MOTORWAY): 675 38.6mpg CBR 36.4mpg K1300S 37.4mpg ZZ-R 31.5mpg

A charging Johnny Mac. The corner trembles...

Of course, if you like doing this all ABS is rubbish

093

verdICt

PB road test///

Des ‘okay, who’s DroppeD their guts?

johnny ‘Don’t look at me, its coming from those smelly fackers’

Thanks To Pidcock honda (0115 946 9555) who kindly lenT us Their cBr600rr demo for longer Than They ThoughT. aPPreciaTed guys.

kev ‘i’m too small to make that kinD of stink’

ben

‘ohhhhhh. Damn that maDras last night’

ZZ-r1400

675

CBr600rr

K1300s

We loved the ZZ-R when we last tested it. A second look hasn’t changed our minds, only reinforced our initial findings.

As a do-everything bike the ZZ-R is difficult to beat, and as a single bike in the garage it makes a strong case for itself. The ABS system isn’t as sports riding oriented as the other two systems here, but for a bike of this size and speed it does the job more than proficiently.

In the dry, the 675’s brakes feel the best – the most powerful and the most consistent. For just scrubbing off speed on the way into a corner they’re brilliant, in normal riding terms. Throw an emergency stop into the mix, in either the wet or dry, and the ABS bikes definitely stop quicker. None of us missed ABS when we were riding this though.

This is one of the sweetest handling bikes we’ve ridden in a long time.

Great suspension and a powerful engine too. It’s just a shame that it has to be ridden extremely hard to get the most out of the motor.

Without the ABS this is a great bike – the ABS is definitely a leap forwards but isn’t for everyone.

This is the surprise of the test.

Not only does the engine give the mighty ZZ-R1400 a kicking in the low to midrange, the brakes stop the bike quicker than anything else. That’s despite a massive weight disadvantage over the Honda. The ABS system is good but it’s complemented by the Duolever front that doesn’t compress the suspension so much under braking.

µµµµµµµµµµ

µµµµµµµµµµ

answer. Yes. tHe sYsteMs are sUPerB. BUt UntIL we Can tUrn tHeM oFF no tHanKs. 094

µµµµµµµµµµ

µµµµµµµµµµ The fact that there is now an ABS system that’s good enough to be fitted to an out and out sportsbike is to be applauded. There’s no denying that stopping distances are reduced with ABS in an emergency braking situation. But that’s to do with the rider rather than the brakes themselves. The last thing you want to do is fall off, so without the safety net of ABS the rider doesn’t squeeze the lever as hard, leaving a greater safety margin for locking the wheel but extending stopping distances.

But where ABS falls down – even Honda’s new system – is braking hard on a rippled surface. This is where all of the systems go into overdrive, effectively letting the brakes off as the wheel momentarily locks when it leaves a crest. This isn’t a problem in a straight line but if you’re braking for a corner over some ridges it’s extremely disconcerting. ABS might make bikes safer but we all feel a little cold at trusting a computer with our brakes. Call us old-fashioned, but we’ll stick with normal brakes until they can be switched off when we want to. Interestingly, Honda has a race ECU that moves the ABS game on further, making it good enough to race with. An unfair advantage? We’ll see. BW

pb100 the bikes to ride before you die

096

words simon hargreaves Pics pb archive

suzuki gsf1200

bandit L Hoisting monsters for the masses

Peterborough Showground roundabout, summer 1996. PB’s Simon Hargreaves attempts a crossed-up, walking-pace wheelie on someone else’s bike. It was at such a slow speed that it trod the line between turning left for left and countersteering. Si got confused between the two. The result was one of the 90s’ best poster images.

The bike went down.

ooking at suzuki’s current 1250 bandit it’s easy to imagine ’twas always thus: an efficient yet earnest budget big-bore all-rounder more at home with panniers and top box than delivering high-octane, factory-built stunt thrills.

When the original 1200 Bandit was launched in 1996, it didn’t look like a wannabe stunt rider’s dream. Naked, stripped back, minimalist styling and a bruising, bare-faced simplicity, there were two components – an engine and chassis. That. Was. It. The motor was hewn from a fossilised GSX-R1100M engine, a big air/oil-cooled unit capable of 140bhp with simple tuning. The Bandit version was bored out one mm but detuned to an unimpressive 100bhp. And best not study the rudimentary suspension, agehardened tyres and humdrum steel tube frame lest the will to live leaked out through your boots. Like its 600 brother, the 1200 promised bum-basic motorcycling.

But that wasn’t what we got. From the moment we flicked out the clutch and opened the throttle it was clear the Bandit was extraordinary. Because in early 1996 not even premium sportsbikes wheelied vertically just by twisting the grip. There was a time when road bikes needed a dose of clutch (and a technique) to get it up.

The 1200 Bandit changed all that; it was the first bike to go postal and beyond on throttle alone. Any fool could do it. And many did. It inspired a new group of bikers – a small, passionate group who, taking their cue from the legendary bike builder Steve Burns, usually pulled the fairings off sportsbikes, fitted flat bars and tuned the tits off ’em. Bandits were a cheap alternative (two grand less than their rivals), and utterly bulletproof. Some folk even raced them, in a short-lived one-make series.

But the Bandit wasn’t just for nutters. PB’s revered Technical Editor, the late John Robinson, had a long-term test 1200 Bandit.

He geared it down, added 10bhp with a race can, fitted flatter Renthal bars, added NWS rearsets and a sculpted seat, tuned the springing, damping and ride height, took a couple of kilos off the steered mass and proceeded, at a PB Frenzy, to lap Cadwell at such a venomous pace sportsbike-mounted readers complained.

But stock Bandits handled and were practical. 19 litre tank for 120mile tank range. Ample seat for pillions. Comfy riding position. Easy to service. Reliable. Durable. Decent brakes. Then the craze passed. Suzuki, perhaps with one eye on the furore over the evencrazier TL1000S V-twin that followed a year later, softened the 1200’s delivery, taming it with fun-sapping restrictions.The final indignity was fitting a half fairing and billing it as the budget all-rounder it is today, a shadow of its former self. An overhaul a few years ago – totally new engine Commuter and chassis – completed the journey to middle-ofthe-road hell. Blandit, anyone? sH

0.5% 99.5% Unrivalled stunt tool

build it

XLIV

obsession Old school maybe but Steve Adams’ uprated and updated Katana is sharper, lighter and way cooler than anything the factory ever built words gary inman Pics Paul Bryant

Mile long seat? Check.

Air-cooled lump? Check.

It’s a Katana. For today.

  

099

ObsessiOn XLIV

Who is... steve Adams?

A seLf-empLoyed uphoLster who fIrst owned A KAt when he wAs 19, oVer 25 yeArs Ago. he LoVes buILdIng bIKes As much As rIdIng them.

One-off footrest hangers and GP Tech thumb brake are fitted to keep the pegs clean and simple.

See-through frame is de rigueur.

Steve had the titanium gear linkage and torsion arm made.

Yoshimura points cover adds a hint of racing cool.

O

oooh. i get it… Katanas. i’ve been writing about modified Katanas on and off for 13 years, but this is the first one to make me think i would like to own one.

I don’t dislike them, but they don’t flick my switch. PB described the Katana back in 2005 as ‘An over-the-top metallic quasi phallus and a piece of design history.’ And I agreed with all of that, but my switch remained unflicked. Until now. And even then, before I met Steve Adams’ 1982 bike in the flesh, I wasn’t 100 per cent convinced. Seeing digital build snaps of it on email it appeared to be clean and tidy but if truth be told, looked a bit ‘so what?’

In reality, that’s its biggest strength. Steve’s Katana is very heavily modified, bringing the venerable Kat into the 21st century without gimmicks, radical surgery or a ridiculous budget. The ‘so what?’ aspect means it still looks like a Katana. But this build is as clever as a minibus stuffed full of Hawkings.

And, I’m really trying to write this without the aid of a rose-tinted fug, but this 27-year-old bike makes the GSX-R1000K9 look like the comedy tie-wearing tit at the works party, guffawing at his own lame anecdotes.

100

CHAssis

‘The Katana was designed in the times of crossply tyres,’ remarks Steve.

‘Put modern, wide rubber and a stiff front end on one and they tie themselves in knots.’ So Steve fitted modern, wide tyres and a stiff front end to his Katana. And as he doesn’t like hospital food he had Alan ‘Strangewayz’ extensively brace virtually every union of frame tube.

There is extensive gusseting around the headstock and where the single top tube meets the duplex section of the frame (under the back of the tank). There are crossmembers behind the engines and more gussets where the seat rails meet the uprights. All over the place, in fact. Stuff was removed too, most noticeably the rear footrest hangers. Strangewayz also repositioned the top shock mounts, so the shocks are more laid-down.

‘Yoshimura did it with their early racing Katanas,’ says Steve.

The swingarm is from a Bandit 1200 that was bought, stripped and sold on. A race car engineer friend, Mark Lewis, welded the bottom shock mounts. This job is symptomatic of Steve’s whole build – it looks factory.

‘The Bandit 1200 is the only swingarm I know that takes a wide wheel but fits between the Katana’s frame easily,’ says Steve. Steve says he would’ve liked a fancier swingarm. I think it would have tilted the whole

INGREDIENTS

1170 cc of ‘Merican piston 27 years of maturity

0.5

miles between engine changes

6

inches of rear Dymag

1

And only Katana.

Pure motorcycle design classic

What? No humongous indicators?

The holes have been filled for a sleek and minimalist effect.

‘This build is as clever as a minibus full of Hawkings’ balance of the bike. To fit the Bandit arm, all that needs making are a couple of top hat spacers to push into the pivot tube to take up the difference between the skinny Kat pivot bolt and the fatter, later one.

WHEELS, BRAKES, SUSPENSION

What isn’t easy is persuading the GSX1100S to take wide rims. Two great chunks have been gnawed out of the frame to clear the new chain run.

The front sprocket has a 15mm offset and the six-inch Dymag has had its hub machined down. ‘It’s tight. We were looking for a mm here and there. Anything we could do.’ Steve’s friend Ian Wilson ‘donated’ the Dymags from his early GSX-R1000 race bike. They do the most for Steve’s update. The original 18-inch snowflakes haven’t aged well.

The suspension does the rest. GSX-R1000K4 forks with uprated springs and Yamaha R1 radial calipers. Crucial to the stance of this bike – and it looks as good as 68 Comeback Elvis surfing a snow leopard – are the Honda CBR954 Fireblade yokes. They’re stepped, making up for the fact the USD forks are shorter than the original toothpicks. Rear shocks are adjustable Öhlins (not bargain bucket XJR ones).

ENGINE

‘This is the second one,’ says Steve. ‘The first one shat itself on the way to the MoT.’ A valve adjuster locknut worked loose, hopped, skipped and jumped over to the camchain tunnel and somehow morphed into an RPG, blowing a hole through the casing. The Katana had done half-amile. ‘It was a good kick in the bollocks, but I knew if I didn’t get straight on finding a replacement engine the bike would go into the corner of the garage and I’d lose interest.’

So, Steve bought casings and a bottom end from a member of the Katana owners club and went about salvaging as much as he could from the incontinent engine. The motor, freshly finished and running well, has an 1170 Wiseco kit, gas-flowed head, 1100EFE cams,    101

ObSESSION XLIV

Keihin 37mm CR carbs and Earl’s oil cooler (and very slick black Earl’s lines, with black anodised fittings).

Like the three of the last four Obsessions, Racefit had a hand in the exhaust. Steve supplied Racefit with Japanese made Active headers.

Racefit made new collets for the inlets, a new collector, welded on spring loops, cleaned it all up in their tumbler and mated it to one of their Growler carbon cans.

Steve, like everyone who deals with the Derbyshire firm, couldn’t say a bad word about them.

DETAILS

Where to start? The lead-acid battery has been replaced by an Odyssey gel type and moved under the seat to give the frame the see-through look it seems all specials builders desire. The majority of fasteners, including the three main engine bolts, are titanium. ‘Why?’ ponders Steve. ‘I just like it.’ He covered the seat two-texture black, instead of the original suede effect blue and grey.

The cockpit is close to perfect. The switchgear is Bandit 1200, with choke removed and the choke symbol carefully Scotchbrited off.

Clip-ons are TL1000, and the reservoirs are understated to give that factory feel. Front brake master cylinder and lever are Brembo. The Katana’s original clock, the element I’ve always loved, has gone. Replaced by a British SPA unit. Super neat and affordable, for a mere £205.

ON THE ROAD

With less than ten miles since the rebuild, and with the memory of the suicidal valve adjuster nut still fresh, I set off. The noise of the Racefit Growler is too much for my paranoia and nine-point licence.

Suspension is the firm end of just right. And the whole riding position, close to original, is a little more extreme than any current bike. The stretch to the bars give the whole thing a big bike feel, even though the sculpted seat is low.

The engine delivers its power and torque low down. You could ride this bike all year and not need to rev it past 8000rpm, but everything’s so composed, once you were in the groove on a fast-flowing road it would be a dream.

Steve Adams’ Katana sets the bar for how standard 80s bikes should be updated. No stone has been left unturned, but it’s still undoubtedly a Katana. It isn’t fast by modern standards, but still quick enough to dice with most road riders. It’s been finished with taste, for £6000 all in.

And Steve suits it perfectly. He’s the archetypal Katana rider brought up to date. He rode to the photo location in white high-tops (but these were limited edition Vans), plain black leather jacket (Alpinestars, not Lewis), and jeans. ‘I was going to buy a Super Duke, but it was £8000 and then I’d have to change it. So I thought, what do I really want?

Now when I walk in the garage the Katana puts a smile on my face.’

They’re a class act.

‘When I walk into the garage it puts a smile on my face’

102

THANKS Kate (for patience while all the domestic jobs went unjobbed), Ian Wilson, Strangewayz, Pete, Mark Lewis, Racefit.

One-off coolant catch tank, by Alifab in Norfolk, doubles as front sprocket cover

Headlight is uprated with one from a Toyota MR2

In case you were in any doubt what this special was

103 000