Performance Bikes June 2009 sampler

p1 PB jun Front coverPDpCs3.indd 1

20/4/09 15:17:17

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.

p96-101 PB jun ObsessionPDPCs3.indd 3

  

099

21/4/09 13:23:14

Katana retro clocks are gone.

A SPA tacho achieves the required spartan look.

098

p96-101 PB jun ObsessionPDPCs3.indd 2

21/4/09 13:22:46

modern legends on tour

to the

o

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

p68-78 PB jun mod leg tourCDP.sp.indd 1

23/4/09 11:56:49

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

p68-78 PB jun mod leg tourCDP.sp.indd 2

23/4/09 11:57:07

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.

p14-19 PB June Aprilia RSV4.indd 2

21/4/09 17:53:40

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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p14-19 PB June Aprilia RSV4.indd 1

21/4/09 17:53:06

pb100 the bikes to ride before you die

096

p96-97 PB jun PB100suz CDPCs3.spREV.indd 1

21/4/09 13:21:19

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

p96-97 PB jun PB100suz CDPCs3.spREV.indd 2

21/4/09 13:21:32

Get The Picture words maT OXLEY Pic GOLd & GOOsE

Jeremy mcWilliams The rock-hard Belfast rider is riding aprilia’s 500 V-twin, snapping at the heels of capirossi’s teammate alex Barros (#10). When rossi and Biaggi crashed out of the race mcWill was promoted to third. The aprilia V-twin never won a GP because it gave away heaps of horsepower to the Honda, suzuki and yamaha V4s. But at flowing tracks like mugello and Phillip island the V-twin could hassle the V4s, where its light weight and excellent manoeuvrability allowed it to maintain momentum and compensate for its lack of brute acceleration. a few months after mugello, mcWilliams and the aprilia scored pole position at Phillip island. This was the bike’s final GP season.

max BiaGGi ever wondered why Biaggi always ran a number three after 2000? The self-styled roman emperor started running the number in 2001, after finishing the 2000 world championship in third place. He was second overall in 2001 but stuck with the number three. Why? Because the people who make Biaggi’s official clothing vastly overestimated his popularity and produced way too many ‘No.3’ baseball caps and shirts for the 2000 season. With half a warehouse of gear to shift at the end of the year, Biaggi chose to keep using Numero Tre and he’s stuck with it ever since.

28.05.2000 Italian GP, Mugello

MR RoSSI THRowS away fIRST 500 wIN Remember when Valentino Rossi was just a rookie, trying to make his name in the elite class? Here he is leading the first lap of the Italian GP in 2000, utterly determined to win his first 500 victory in front of home fans. But he’s got a problem on his hands: a couple, in fact. Not Kenny Roberts Junior (#2); King Kenny’s firstborn may have won that year’s 500 title but his Suzuki wasn’t quick enough to mix it at Mugello. The two men who fought Rossi all the way instead were Loris Capirossi (#65) and Max Biaggi (#4).

By half distance Italy’s holy trinity of 500 stars were the only ones in with a chance, with Rossi and Capirossi trading blows on their Honda NsR500s and Biaggi gamely keeping up on his slightly slower marly Yam YZR500. It was a race where there was

no doubt that the final few laps were going to be epic.

With two laps to go, Capirossi led by a fraction while Rossi was psyching himself up for the attack he hoped would take him to his maiden 500 win. He made his move right here at scarperia, a tricky downhill, off-camber right-hander. Riders attack this corner after cresting the brow of the scarily quick arrabbiata right-hander, trying to get their bikes settled before hitting the brakes and shifting down a couple of gears. Rossi’s NsR was still recovering from the ‘angry’ corner when he attacked Capirossi, but he still managed to take the lead in genius style. all that remained for Rossi to do was keep Capirossi and Biaggi behind him for one more lap and he’d be the most famous man in Italy. maybe it was over-excitement, maybe it was his tendency to still ride the 500 like a 250, using too much corner-entry speed.

130 000

p130-131 PB June Get the picture CDP.indd 1

20/4/09 16:28:40

noRicK Abe Abe was your ultimate up and down GP racer, more so even than Wollongong Wild one Wayne Gardner.

Abe made an unforgettable GP debut at suzuka in 1994 where he scared the living daylights out of Mick Doohan and Kevin schwantz before crashing out. He was immediately signed by Wayne Rainey’s GP team, but then poached by King Kenny Roberts’ outfit. He won his first GP at suzuka in 1996 after qualifying 11th fastest, then won another two 500 GPs over the next few years before fading into obscurity in Wsb. He died following a street-riding accident in Japan in october 2007 – a truck did an illegal u-turn in front of him.

Kenny RobeRts JunioR the first son of a 500 world champion to win the 500 world championship, KRJR didn’t win many battles in 2000 (just four wins from the 16 races), but he did win the war, resisting an end-of-season charge by rookie Rossi. After winning the title Roberts never won another GP, retiring at the end of 2007. He now spends his time huntin’, shootin’ and a fishin’, and like a true Roberts he’s a perfectionist. take the fishing. He uses an underwater surveillance video to shoot hours of footage to work out when’s the most profitable time of day to get busy with his fishing rod. that’s truly takin’ it to the next level.

Whatever it was, two corners later Rossi went into the Correntaio hairpin too hot, lost the front and crashed.

That left Capirossi and Biaggi with a straight duel to the finish.

Capirossi was riding tight, defensive lines, which allowed Biaggi to close the gap until he was able to take the lead halfway through the final lap. Capirossi counter- attacked immediately and successfully, the pair nudging together as they swept through Arrabbiata for the last time. Capirossi then kept it a little too tight, and subsequently too slow, into Scarperia, so Biaggi’s front brake lever tagged the NSR’s seat hump and the Roman was down.

A delighted and surprised Capirossi continued alone to score his final 500 victory, with Biaggi’s team-mate Carlos Checa (#7) coming home second. Six weeks later Rossi finally won at a damp Donington Park. Still a win, but not quite the same…

next month upside down forks Suzuki’S GSX-R1000 haS the lateSt foRk technoloGy. the pReload adjuSteR iS at the bottom, compReSSion at the top. find out why.

how to set up a

2009 superbike 09 litre bikes tested

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p130-131 PB June Get the picture CDP.indd 2

20/4/09 16:29:10