TYRE TECH
BEHIND-THE-SCENES ACCESS AT AVON TO LEARN HOW YOUR HOOPS ARE DESIGNED, MADE AND TESTED
A CUT ABOVE SUPER-TRICK HONDA CBR1000RR-R FIREBLADE TRACK BUILD
OC T ISS OBER UE 384 2021
TOP SECRET
TRIUMPH DAYTONA 650
OLD BUT
A BLAST FROM THE PAST ON PETRONAS’ ICONIC FP1…
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE BUYING ONE
...WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM CHRIS WALKER
BEAUTY VS. BRUTALITY MV’S SAUCY SUPERVELOCE TAKES ON THE BRILLIANT BRUTALE 800
LONG-TERM TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE 1200 RS, SUZUKI HAYABUSA AND BMW S 1000 R SUPERBIKE SORCERER – MCAMS YAMAHA’S STEVE ROGERS EXCLUSIVE
PLUS
ISSUE 384 OCTOBER 2021
THE KNOWLEDGE
Used Bike Guide .............................54 All you need to know about Triumph’s Daytona 600/650
Track Craft .....................................82 Dean Ellison is back with more great track advice
YOUR LIFE ON BIKES
You and Yours .................................86 All of your adventures
Chatter ............................................90 A page dedicated to the best readers in the world…
TESTS
30
Petronas FP1 ................................... 16
We go for a very special joy ride on a Petronas FP1… and drag Chris Walker out for a blast while we’re at it
MV Superveloce vs. Brualte 800 ....28 They share a lot of common parts, but the riding experience and characters couldn’t be much different
60
COLUMNISTS
Tom Neave ......................................94 Tom’s been winning races and topping the championship
Peter Hickman ................................95 Hicky’s bagged his first wins of the year
Gaz Johnson ....................................93 Top tales from our TT star
Christian Iddon ...............................97 He’s not been having the best of luck
Steve Parrish...................................98 Steve’s back to make us laugh
FEATURES
How your hoops are made .............60 We go behind the scenes at Avon to learn a whole load about tyre design and build
Ducati’s Homologation Specials..... 70 The Italian marque has made a name for its abundance of special street bikes
Track Spec....................................... 78 We get to know more about a very saucy Fireblade RR-R
Race Riot .........................................88 Tim and Farmer Brod have been flying the Fast Bikes flag
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16
WELCOME
Call that special?
H
ow do you define a ‘special’ motorcycle? Is it by volume? Price tag? Spec? Maybe it’s about all of those things, plus a few more factors. Ultimately, any bike can be special – but only very few models slot into that ‘unicorn’ status... motorcycles so rare and mouth-watering that you’d seriously think about selling the better half’s jewellery collection if it gave you half a chance of owning such a bike, or even just having a blast on one. In my 17 years of writing about motorcycles I’ve been beyond lucky to sample some ludicrous examples; trying out for size the kind of bikes no amount of money or begging would make the rightful owners part with their treasures. I’ll never forget the first time I rode a MotoGP bike, a World Superbike or Grand Prix 500 two-stroke that tried its best to kill me over a handful of laps. Bikes like those have an aura that tell you they’re special without needing to glance at the spec sheet, quite often brought to life by their unique sounds and smells. But it’s not just pure race bikes that slot into that most special of special categories. There’s a plethora of road-going examples out there with the common theme of being produced to just homologation approval, or to showcase to the world how competent a manufacturer is in its engineering department. Bikes such as MV Agusta’s F4 Claudio, Ducati’s Desmosedici and the same marque’s Superleggera V4 rank among the most special machines I’ve ever had the pleasure to tootle around on. I’ll never own any of them but I’m grateful they were made, happy to know they’re out there and hopeful that maybe one day some kind person will let me have another blast. There is one other bike high on my list, and Johnny masterminded its test this issue. Of course, I’m talking about the Petronas FP1 he rocked up with out of thin air. As if the bike isn’t fascinating enough on its own, the story of its existence and consequent disappearance is equally tantalising. And to ensure no stones were unturned during his tenure, he even got Chris Walker to swing a leg over the thing. It’s a great read – enjoy it, along with the rest of the mag.
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S & RE VIEW S W NE , AL ET M W NE – S KE BI ST FA PL ANET
WDS WORDS> SIR ALAN OF DO
TRIPLE TREAT
Speed Triple-based retro sportsbike on the way from Triumph
I
t’s been 15 years since Triumph sold a full-bore sportsbike – the Daytona 955i. It was a bit on the beefy side and down on power compared with the ‘proper’ 1,000cc fours, but it could hustle on the road and had a cult appeal. Sadly, Triumph hasn’t seemed bothered by the proper sportsbike market since –though the 675 Daytona ruled in the supersport class for several years and is still a belter of a bike. There were plenty of rumours of unlimitedclass superbikes in the 2000s – from a 1,000cc triple replacement for the 955i to a Hayabusa-slaying 1,200cc inline-four hyperbike. But the Hinckley firm has concentrated on the retro, naked and adventure sectors since, and with plenty of success, it has to be said. But here’s a hint of something new. Launched on various social media channels, Triumph has been showing sneak peeks of a new Speed Triple 1200-based machine with a fairing and an RR suffix. Are we finally getting a new Triumph superbike with the 1200 Triple motor in a full-on race-rep chassis? At the moment, it seems not – rather, the firm is trailing a retro-styled faired sports bike more like the MV Agusta Superveloce than a modern Daytona superbike. To be fair, the retro sportsbike market is looking strong, and plenty of folk are keen on something that’s on the sporty side but less hard-edged than a ‘proper’ superbike. A Speed Triple with a full or half-fairing, some high-end chassis kit, a more committed riding position, and sweet, sweet 1980s styling could be a proper laugh. More on the new Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RR next month…
THE SHOW MUST GO ON! You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone – or so sang folk singer Joni Mitchell in her 1970 hit Big Yellow Taxi. Joni was talking about trees or something being built over by a car park, but we like to think she could just as well have been talking about Motorcycle Live, the NEC bike show. There we were in autumn 2019, being all snide and cynical about the questionable burgers, the whiffy toilets, and the price of parking at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. Then, before we knew it, the NEC was turned into AN ACTUAL FIELD HOSPITAL WITH MILITARY TRANSPORT PLANES LANDING OUTSIDE, and the world was seemingly ending before our eyes. We would have given our right arms for a nice day out sitting on Fireblades going broom-broom and buying a cheap paddock stand last November. And, to be honest, we still would. Luckily for our limbs, it looks like normality is returning, and Motorcycle Live is all set to return this year, from December 4 to 12. The exhibitor list is already looking very saucy indeed, with almost all the big firms listed as attending – only Yamaha is missing from the show website at the moment. Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, BMW, Triumph, Ducati, KTM, Harley-Davidson, MV Agusta and Indian are all there, as well as smaller brands like Langen,
Norton, VOGE, CCM and Husqvarna. There are test rides available on the day, as well as the usual stage shows, racers and celebs to meet and pester for autographs, and plenty of bargain retail stands – and those lovely burgers we’ve been missing for the past two years. Discounted tickets are available online now, costing £19.50 for adults and just £1
HAYDEN ARAI REP
It’s four years now since we lost MotoGP legend Nicky Hayden after a tragic bicycle crash. And now Arai, with the Hayden family, is honouring the late, great Kentucky Kid with a new Reset Hayden replica helmet. The Reset was a design Hayden used in testing but it hasn’t been available as a replica before, and it’s one of the designs that the family has had most requests about. Here’s part of the family statement: “The Reset was a special one-off design that Nicky wore during off-season MotoGP testing, symbolising his return to a familiar ride and visualising his
for kids aged six to 16-years-old (under-fives are free). Adult entry on the day will be £25 so it’s well worth booking in advance – and if the show is cancelled for any reason, the organiser is promising a full refund. More on the show at the official website: www.motorcyclelive.co.uk
PIKES PEAK
need to reset himself for that challenge. At that time, there was talk about making the Reset a replica, but for one reason or another, it just never happened. “Now, as demand for a new design started to build, we worked with Arai to review fan feedback and found quite a bit for the Reset design. Then, considering the current world situation, we thought the idea of the Reset was perfect timing. Therefore, the Hayden family and Arai will again honour Nicky’s memory and keep his legacy alive with this latest Nicky Reset replica. “We wish to thank all the fans who asked for this design and wear it proudly, keeping Nicky’s memory alive.” The Arai Nicky Reset RX-7V will be available from next month. www.whyarai.co.uk
Sad if not unexpected news from the Pikes Peak Hill Climb organising committee in the US. Following the tragic death of Ducati rider Carlin Dunne in 2019 on a prototype V4 Streetfighter, bikes were suspended from the 2020 race on safety grounds, and that ban has now been made permanent. The Colorado race organisers released a statement at the 2021 event. It said: “After two years of research, deliberation, thoughtful consideration and advice from colleagues in the motorsports industry, the board of the directors of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has made the decision to discontinue motorcycle competition as part of the annual Race to the Clouds. Motorcycle competition has been part of the history of the race off and on since 1916, and has been both thrilling and tragic for competitors and fans alike. This has been a long process and a difficult decision, but we believe it is the right decision and one that is in the best interest of the organisation at this time.”
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 11
PRODUC TS CE AN M OR RF PE ST KE IC TR & T ES ALL THE LATEST, CO OL
SICOM DMC CERAMIC REAR BRAKE DISC FOR DUCATI PANIGALE V4, V2 AND STREETFIGHTER Ceramic brake discs have been essential fitments on the best supercars for years now and they’re now becoming available for bikes. The benefits are huge: much less rotating mass, no corrosion problems, and great looks – and unlike race carbon brakes, they work at all temperatures, and in the wet too. The 6mm-thick SICOM discs are made from fibrereinforced double-matrix composite materials, and the
carriers include threaded holes for ABS sensor ring fitment where required. These SICOM T-Drive rear discs are a top-notch upgrade for the Ducati Panigale V4, 1199, 1299, V2 and Streetfighter ranges – and they come with bespoke sintered pads, too. Fully compatible with OE or aftermarket caliper fitments, and also available for most current fast bikes, in front and rear fittings.
RRP: £688 (solid disc); £972 (T-Drive disc) WWW.BIKEHPS.COM
TRK CLUTCH Top Brighton-based spares firm Wemoto has just launched its own range of clutch parts under the TRK brand. The new line covers hundreds of bikes, both new and older models, and offers a top quality option that sits between expensive OE components and super cheap no-name parts from online auction sites and similar. You
can buy friction plate kits or steel plate kits, or both, and there’s also a heavy-duty replacement spring fitment too. Prices are good: springs are about £8 a set, steel plates about £40 and friction plates about £50.
RRP: About £100 for full set of plates and springs WWW.WEMOTO.COM
ALPINESTARS HEADLANDS JACKET The nights are drawing in, and assuming you’re not the sort of lightweight who’s packing their bike up for autumn, you’ll be wanting some quality riding kit that can cope with a wee bit of cold and damp. We recommend treating yourself to something like this – the Alpinestars Headlands textile jacket. It’s got a fully waterproof and breathable Drystar membrane and removable thermal liner, and is also compatible with Alpinestars’ Tech-Air 5 airbag
insert system. You also get CE-approved protection in the shoulders and elbows, and there are pockets for the optional Nucleon chest and back protectors if you don’t want the airbag system. It is cut longer at the back to keep your kidneys toasty on cool mornings and there are loads of pockets to carry your bits and bobs. The Headlands jacket is available in natty green/grey or red/grey/black colourways. Decent price too. Smart!
RRP £199.99 WWW.ALPINESTARS.COM
12 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
ARAI DEBUT STEEL Arai helmets are superb bits of kit but they’re seldom a cheap option. Now though, the UK importer has released a new entry-level lid, priced at just under £400, with all the quality and protection that the firm is known for. The new Arai Debut Steel has a handmade super fibre laminate composite shell RRP: £399.99 WWW.WHYARAI.CO.UK
with removable cheek pads, washable liner, SAI quickchange visor and a double-D ring fastening. A large top vent and a rear spoiler give excellent ventilation, and it meets the very latest ECE22-05 safety regulations. Available now in red, blue and gunmetal, in sizes XS-XL.
PRODUCTS
WUNDERLICH SMART TOOL BOX AND BREAKDOWN KIT We know all you BMW R1200 GS owners like to be prepared so this is right up your alley, as it were. The new Wunderlich Smart Tool Box fits into the wasted space behind BMW R1200 and 1250 GS pannier racks, and lets you carry all sorts of useful extras on your adventures to Waitrose. Waterproof and light weight, the 4.5-litre capacity, injection-moulded case is lockable, and you can even have a key set to match to your bike’s ignition key – neat. Wunderlich also offers a bespoke inner Cordura bag to fit, and fills it with a ready-to-go emergency kit with a puncture repair kit, head torch, first aid kit, duct tape, cable ties, tools and much more. The case fits the BMW R1200 GS and Adventure from 2013 to 2020, and the R1250 versions from 2019 onwards, with BMW standard pannier frames.
EVOTECH TAIL TIDY FOR 2021 TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE 1200 RS The new 2021 Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RS is a proper piece of kit – but like many new bikes, the back end is a bit messy around the number plate area, with a long, spindly hanger sticking way out above the rear tyre. Booh. So, all right-thinking people will be looking to remove it with extreme prejudice and replace with something
like this – the Evotech Performance tail tidy. It’s made out of CNCmachined aerospace quality aluminium for high strength and low weight, with a black powder-coated final finish. The OE indicators, number plate and lights all relocate onto the tail tidy, and the wiring is kept out of sight inside the main support bracket.
RRP: £199.99 WWW.EVOTECH-PERFORMANCE.COM
RRP: From £149 (case); £139 (Inner bag and emergency kit) WWW.NIPPYNORMANS.COM
OXFORD PRODUCTS ALARM-D LOCK SCORPIO EXO-R1 CARBON FABIO QUARTARARO REPLICA French race heroes have been mighty thin on the ground for a long time – but our Gallic cousins now have two in the form of Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo. And you too can reach across the Channel and celebrate Anglo-French relations in style with the new Scorpio EXO-R1 Carbon Quartararo replica helmet. On the outside is the eye-catching if slightly busy Quatararo paint job, now gussied up with the must-have Monster drinks logo, and under the paint is a full carbon EXO-R1
race helmet, made with Scorpion’s carbon hybrid shell technology. There’s a removable washable lining, removable cheek pads, a race-spec ventilation system and a titanium double-D ring fastening system – nice – plus, you get a dark smoke visor in the box with tear-off pins and a Pinlock anti-mist insert. Available now in sizes XS-XL RRP £469.99 HTTPS://BIKERHEADZ.CO.UK
We like alarmed locks here at FB towers. There’s an extra level of peace of mind if your bike is in earshot – if anyone has a go at lifting your bike, you’ll get a warning and can get tooled up before you approach any louts. Plus, it stops you from smashing up your mudguard (or worse) if you leave it on the wheel and try to ride off. This new Oxford Products Alarm-D offers decent security, with a 16mm shackle and pick-resistant lock, plus a 120dB movement-activated siren. At just £49.99, it’s a useful extra level of protection and is compact enough to fit in a tail pack or under the seat on most bikes. It comes with three numbered keys (Oxford offers a spare key ordering service) and a CR2 lithium battery for the alarm. RRP £49.99 WWW.OXPROD.COM
D RE VIEW ED AN ED US AB , ED US – T KI ST BE RY THE VE
SPEEDANGLE 2 TESTED BY: BRUCE MILES: 4000+ TIME: TWO YEARS PRICE: £349.99 WEB: WWW.RG-RACING.COM
A lot of what we do involves timing and comparison, and while a sun dial might be the most appropriate device for measuring my ‘hot laps’ on a racetrack, a proper lap timer is a lot easier to read. It also means we can measure things like top speeds, lean angles and how fast a bike will decelerate; the stuff we need to know before putting fingers to keyboard and rating (or berating) the latest and greatest bikes on the market. To do so accurately, for many years we’ve leaned heavily on the capabilities of the Speedangle timing device, which has now been superseded by the fancier Speedangle 2. It’s absolutely brimming with features, and comes pre-loaded with most UK circuits and a handful of the most popular European tracks, too (such as Assen,
14 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
Portimao and Cartagena), meaning it automatically picks up on its surroundings via GPS and knows where you are without any faffing. Better still, it can custom map routes, so for tracks that aren’t logged, like karting circuits or lesser known venues, it simply plots a track once you’ve clocked up a few circuits (it can store up to 15 custom maps). That feature alone is awesome, and there are loads of other great aspects too, including lean angle sensors and g-force plotting, plus GPS mapping so you can download and study your data accurately and check out your lines visually using Google Maps. The Speedangle’s got so much potential, but first and foremost it makes for a cracking lap timer. I’ve used mine extensively in racing, where it’s been a godsend in qualifying thanks to its live feed feature that shows on a graphics bar whether you’re up or down on your previous best lap by tenths of a second. It also tells you when you’ve set your best lap and highlights how much faster you’ve gone – and that info can be calibrated
to stay on screen for more or less time, so you’ve got chance to take it all in before the screen reverts to live timing again. There are five changeable faces to the device, plus a blank mode that switches the screen off despite recording the data... for use at those places where timing isn’t permitted. Not only is the device fantastically accurate, its easy on the eye, a doddle to operate, and stores more than 250 records of use, which might take a good few years to fill. The timer charges using an integrated USB cable, and it’s claimed to offer 17 hours of battery life. I can’t vouch for that, but I will say mine’s never gone flat on me and it’s always quick to fully charge. The last great thing about the Speedangle 2 is how easily it attaches to your bike. It uses the system’s APEX mounting fixture, consisting of a Velcro bracket that secures to your top yoke and a reusable 3M lock that attaches the face of the bracket to the underside of the timer. Overall, this is a cracking piece of kit that’s hard to fault and easy to get excited about. I can’t recommend it enough.
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 15
AC WORDS> JOHNNY 'BIG' M PICS> CHIPPY WOOD
FEATURE
BUSTING It’s one of the most iconic and elusive bikes on the planet, with a back story so muddied that few people will ever know the full truth behind the Petronas FP1’s tale. But having managed to get our mitts on one, we were at least in a position to see if it lives up to the hype…
T
here are rare bikes that might come with an interesting back story, or which have been produced in small numbers to satisfy homologation rules. There are also special bikes that happen when engineers are let loose and the bean counters kept out of the room. There are also unicorns – bikes that are all of the above, but which also come with enough urban myth to cast doubt as to their existence at all. The Petronas FP1 is one such bike, whose legend is made by virtue of the fact that not one of the road bikes produced for homologation in 2003 were even officially sold – they are ghosts.
16 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
Almost every piece of media coverage the FP1 has had since it was produced has been speculation, and reports of deals gone bad, tax dodging, people being sued for tens of millions of dollars, bikes going missing, bikes found in containers, bikes impounded by foreign governments, debts owed, and gagging orders placed on anyone who had anything to do with the project. I’ve never read an FP1 road test in print or online anywhere in the world, which only further adds to the myth. So, imagine how happy I am, having had a Petronas FP1 for more than a week, to be able to write about what it’s actually like to ride instead of yet another update on its murky history. Having said that, it’s still worth a recap of how the FP1 came to be such an icon without any getting sold, simply because you literally couldn’t make it up. When the Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas decided it wanted to make and race
motorbikes, it threw the kitchen sink at the job and designed a bike with quite a radical layout – a reverse three-cylinder 900cc engine – with a view to entering the World Superbike Championship in 2003. Except the firm didn’t get the memo about the rules changing in 2003 to allow 1000cc fourcylinder engines, which meant the Petronas was uncompetitive from the very start. The pre-2003 set of rules allowed 1000cc twin-cylinder bikes, 750cc four-cylinder bikes and 900cc three-cylinder bikes to compete, and since the engine was designed to be as small as possible for a 900cc, to, in turn, allow for a compact chassis to be used, there was nowhere for the engineers to go with the bore or stroke to get it closer to 1000cc without designing and building a whole new engine and chassis. The only thing they could do was increase the revs to try and make more power, which wasn’t enough, plus the extra revs made it unreliable. Nevertheless, race fans were treated to four seasons of watching some of the greatest superbike riders of the era dragging the woefully slow FP1 round race tracks to
2003 PETRONAS FP1
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 17
FEATURE
Advanced for its time.
mediocre results if they were lucky, or a trip to the gravel trap – usually on fire – if they were not. Meanwhile, to meet the homologation rules for superbike racing, Petronas set about building the required number of bikes to satisfy the rule makers and get its road bike business off the ground. It’s at this point that things get shady, with various differing accounts of what happened, where it happened and the numbers involved, depending on who you talk to. The most common version of events – and therefore the most likely to be closest to the truth – is that an initial batch of 150 road bikes were scheduled to be built, with 50 destined for the race team. This amount wasn’t enough to homologate it for racing but with a lot of persuasion and no doubt some dodgy deals, it was enough to get the bike to the grid. Without doubt, if by some sort of miracle the FP1 had been competitive on track, you just know other manufacturers would have protested it. The first 75 were to be manufactured here in the UK. Then, all the tooling, moulds and most of the staff were to be moved to Malaysia for the next 75 to be made. However, around the time this move happened, Petronas had already decided to throw in the towel and scrap the whole
project lock, stock and barrel. Enter another Malaysian company called Momoto, who did a deal with Petronas to buy all the designs, blueprints, patents, bikes, spares and tooling, with a view to rebranding them as its own bikes and effectively picking up where Petronas left off, but without the drain of racing. Look up Momoto MM1 on the internet and what you see is unmistakable – an FP1 with a paint job. Around the same time, 60 bikes surfaced in a lock-up in the UK and were recalled to Malaysia as part of the deal. When they arrived, they were impounded by the government there for taxes and duties owed by Petronas, and so began a legal fight that lasted years and kept the FP1 unobtanium for even longer. Two lawsuits were filed by Momoto against Petronas Technical Services, one to cover the fine for $83 million for Petronas not registering the TWO bikes it made with approved permits, and another for $9.25 million of unpaid customs and excise duties. The case went to arbitration, and a deal was eventually done between the Malaysian government, Petronas and Momoto that resulted in all the bikes finally coming into Momoto’s ownership minus all Petronas branding from any literature and – in a measure of just how bitter the legal fight had
2003 PETRONAS FP1 There’s no overlooking it’s a triple...
become – the removal of logos from the bikes with power tools to cause maximum damage to them. A few years later, some FP1s showed up in Switzerland with a suitably vague story as to their origin. A couple popped up in America and one randomly showed up in the showroom of Sportsbikeshop in Boston, Lincolnshire, about 10 miles from where I live. That one was the first and, until now, the only FP1 I’ve ever seen in the flesh. Meanwhile, Gareth Gent, a self-confessed FP1 nut and founder of foggyfp1.com, did the seemingly impossible and cracked one of motorcycling’s greatest mysteries – just how do you buy a Petronas FP1? Persistence, patience, tenacity and a large dose of luck saw him realise the long-held dream of owning one, but not before it got stuck in the Suez Canal. True to form, buying an FP1 isn’t easy – you need to find the right people and convince them that they should sell one to you... just having lots of money to buy one isn’t enough. There is no manufacturer anymore, no importer, and no dealers, just someone who knows someone, who knows someone else, who knows another person in Malaysia that can organise one for you if they like your tone. As luck would have it, Gareth is a mate of mine, so on the basis of if you don’t ask, you don’t get, I popped the question and a few days later there it was – an FP1 on my
driveway with an instruction of to not be shy. Gareth is one of those rare collectors who has bikes not to look at, but to ride and enjoy as they were meant to be. Happy to oblige, I decide to waste no time and get straight out on it – except I can’t take my eyes off it. It is stunning. The paint is perfect and the carbon fibre is as good as anything I’ve seen on a current bike. The exhaust that comes straight out the back of the engine and runs directly under the seat to the mad end under the tail unit is like nothing I’ve ever seen before (probably because I’ve never ridden a reverse cylinder bike before). The way the rear brake hose and speed sensor cable is routed through the swingarm are all things I’ve not seen on any bike up to and including the current crop. There are details and touches all over that
make it as interesting as it as beautiful. My only pang of sadness is that I can’t see any of the engine, as the whole bike is packaged so tightly and wrapped up in that gorgeous turquoise and bare carbon bodywork that all the technology is out of sight, except for the green and black digital dashboard. It would be easy to describe it as cheap and tacky, but remember this bike is 20 years old and back then, a digital display amounted to a mono LCD speedometer mounted next to an analogue rev counter. The FP1 is all-digital with a gear position indicator and shift light, which must make it the first (I use the word very loosely here) production bike to have either – let alone both – those features that today we take for granted. There is more. The series of menus that display
I POPPED THE QUESTION AND A FEW DAYS LATER, THERE IT WAS – AN FP1.
FEATURE
the usual stuff, like mileage, tank range, water temperature and battery voltage – oh wait, most of those weren’t common in 2002 either – also has a genius feature that lets you input the number of teeth your front and rear sprockets have so it can correct the speedo if you change the gearing. Simple, useful, brilliant and, to my knowledge, still not a feature on any modern bike. It takes a few miles into my first ride on the FP1 to get rid of all the usual ‘what ifs?’ and put out of my mind the fact that there are no spare parts for this bike anywhere in the northern hemisphere – well, not yet anyway. Gareth is on the case, trying to organise a small supply of parts from Malaysia that aren’t the proprietary things like suspension, wheels, brakes, and a lot of the electrics to keep him going. Nerves set to one side, and I’m struck at how easy it has been to settle into the riding position and, actually, just how easy the bike is to ride. There are no strange nuances to adapt to. Everything just feels… right, except the seat. That’s red-hot. The footpegs are a good distance from the seat, and the seat is just the right width and right distance from the handlebars, which are themselves in just the right position and just the right diameter. I do believe that if I was able to start from scratch and configure my ideal riding position, it wouldn’t be at all far away from that of the FP1. It’s not cramped but it’s not relaxed, either. It’s dead easy to get folded up into a tuck or hang off the side through the faster corners, while somehow being fine to sit on through town… except for the heat from the exhaust. It’s pretty full-on, but that’s the price to pay for such a radical engine layout and narrow seat. That, and the battery being relocated to the most inaccessible place on earth means there are a pair of battery terminals tucked away behind the bottom yoke, above the radiator, to clip battery charger leads onto if you ever get a flat battery. Having said all that about my nerves should anything go wrong, there was still enough of a lingering sense of responsibility in my subconscious to drop back an extra three or four bike lengths from cars without realising I was doing it for fear of a stone getting flicked into the FP1’s tall and slim nose cone. It’s one of those bikes that gets inside your head and makes you ride just that little bit differently – not necessarily slower or with any less energy, more like with respect and consideration for its general wellbeing. It’s not just worrying about stone chips, either; it’s choosing which pump to use at a petrol station, based
Johnny left no stones unturned...
on which one is in the quietest part of the forecourt with the least traffic... it’s putting it straight into my garage when I get home and not leaving it on the driveway in full view for any longer than it has to be... it’s making that extra bit of effort when swinging a leg over it to make absolutely sure there’s no contact between boot and seat unit... you get the idea. By far the biggest surprise of the FP1 is just how modern it feels to ride. These days, if I ride anything from that era it feels just like what it is – stepping back in time. You can feel how chassis design has evolved over the past two decades. Geometry is different these days, and the centre of gravity and weight distribution different. Bikes then tended to have lazier steering, longer wheelbases, lower seats and greater stability, plus suspension has immeasurably moved on – but the FP1 is none of those things. It feels tall with a short wheelbase, with quick steering via a steep rake at the front. When I delve into the FP1’s geometry later and compare it to a 2021 Honda Fireblade (universally considered to be one of the very best handling modern sportsbikes), the FP1 has even racier steering geometry plus a shorter wheelbase, which it can get away with due to having a lot less power. Both have 24 degrees of rake, while the FP1 has 4mm more trail, which will be because it has less offset in the yokes than the Fireblade. It’s
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a very extreme set-up, and the whole thing feels very similar to a Triumph Daytona 675 but a bit taller, a bit wider, a bit longer and a bit heavier. Without being able to weigh it, my guess, based on years of weighing bikes, is that it’s at somewhere about 195-200kg fully fuelled and, if I was forced to make a guess, I’d say the weight distribution is probably 50/50, with the weight quite high up in the chassis – all of which is a million miles from the norm for a bike built 20 years ago and very much closer the basic formula for a sportsbike today. To my naked eye, one of the only visual tell-tales of the chassis architecture pointing to the FP1’s real age is the relatively short swingarm. These days, longer swingarms are increasingly used, along with raised pivot points to cope with the increasing levels of power and all the side effects that come with 200bhp, specifically traction, wheelies and straight-line stability. The concept hadn’t really been thought of then, but then neither had engines pushing 200bhp been invented. Speaking of power, my arse (which is frighteningly accurate at measuring power) tells me the FP1 is making the 130bhp that Petronas claimed, give or take a couple of bhp either way. But, as usual, that’s not the whole story when it comes to engine performance. All of the FP1’s power is usable from very
2003 PETRONAS FP1 TECH DATA
2003 Petronas FP1 ENGINE
Type: Bore x stroke: Compression: Fuelling: Claimed Power: Claimed Torque:
899.5cc, liquid cooled, 3-cyl, DOHC, 12-valve 88mm x 49.3mm 14:1 EFI by Marelli 129bhp @ 10,000rpm 92Nm @ 9,75000rpm
ELECTRONICS
Riding Modes: Traction Control: Slide Control: ABS: Quickshifter/Autoblipper: Wheelie Control: Launch Control: Pit Limiter: Cruise Control:
No No No No No No No No No
CHASSIS
Frame: F Suspension:
R suspension:
Front brakes: Rear brake:
Alloy beam frame 43mm Öhlins forks. Adjustable pre-load, compression and rebound damping. Öhlins Monoshock. Adjustable pre-load, ride height, compression & rebound damping. Brembo four-piston calipers, 320mm discs Brembo single-piston caliper, 220mm disc
It’s a saucy little number.
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: Seat Height: Dry Weight (Claimed): Fuel Capacity:
1420mm 800mm 181kg 18 litres
low down in the revs and, best of all, the fuel injection is absolutely on the money, even by today’s standards. The bike had just 40km on the clock when I collected it, so I kept it below 6000rpm for the first few days and it wasn’t until my last ride before giving it back that it occurred to me that I had gone well past my own self-imposed mileage that I would be gentle up to. That’s how useable the power below 6000rpm is. And what a last ride it was, rounding off a week that, frankly, already had me believing I was the jammiest git I know. It was as though the motorcycling gods decided that, for a couple of hours one evening between 7pm and 9pm, they themselves wanted to see the bike in all its glory after two decades stuck in warehouses, customs impounds, shipping containers, and even the Suez Canal. It was time it got what it deserved. Me and the bike were gifted the most perfect sun set on the most perfect, empty roads, and for those two hours I had quite possibly the most complete ride on a motorbike, the kind I don’t think I’ll ever experience again. I figured out that to be ridden hard, the FP1 really needs to be treated more like a 600cc bike than a litre bike. Rolling into corners just that bit faster than is initially comfortable, leaning it over early in the corner and staying that way is what it likes the most, digging in harder and harder and
loading up the Öhlins suspension more and more. The sound of the three-cylinder engine on the overrun through the exhaust – that’s just on the right side of anti-socially loud – adds to the whole sensation of what the bike is saying to me through the corner. The deeper tone of the overrun switches to a higher pitch as I pick the perfectly weighted but slightly long throttle up from fully closed to just enough open to transfer the weight of the bike from the forks onto the rear shock, before adding more throttle and power to pick the bike up and finish the corner. It’s a totally immersive experience, with all senses invited to the party. If I wasn’t me, I’d hate me. The brakes are brilliant by today’s standards, never mind the standards of when the FP1 was built. Just like the rest of the chassis, they manage to tread the fine line between being too extreme and too safe. The brake set-up, combined with the quality of the forks and front-end geometry, meet together for an overall effect that is simply stunning. There’s bite, power, and massive levels of feel through the lever from them that means there’s never any doubt. It’s a brilliant set-up, as is the gearbox and dry clutch. There’s no quickshifter or blipper, but it really doesn’t matter because the gearbox swops cogs with barely any pressure on the lever, plus the clutch lever has just the right
amount of weight and, just like the brake lever, there’s so much information about what the clutch is up to right there literally at my fingertips. It’s not even a mark against it because the technology was so far ahead of its time, but the gear position indicator on the dashboard does take a little while to work out what gear it should display. It’s just a quirky characteristic that is easily forgiven and, in fact, made me smile every time after a series of rapid backshifts. The display might as well flash up the message ‘WTF’ while it works out what just happened, but it always figures it out and displays the right gear eventually, it just takes a while. No such problems going up through the gears though, as there’s more time between shifts for it to do the sums. During the final two hours of my time with the FP1, I ticked off literally all of my favourite roads within a 20-mile radius of home, joining up the corners that eventually join up the villages and town until eventually the light is gone and it’s dark. Time to head back and digest the past hundred miles or so – but not until Mrs Mack issues a warning that if I spend a second longer in the house with my leathers stinking of exhaust fumes then there’s going to a problem in paradise. It’s true, they really do reek of exhaust fumes, so my suit (not me) spent the night in the garage with the bike. Stinky leathers dealt with, a message pops OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 21
FEATURE
IT WAS LIKE A UFO HAD BEEN SPOTTED AND PEOPLE NEEDED TO SHARE WHAT THEY SAW.
22 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
He might have used up a few tanks’ worth.
up on my phone from my mate Bernie, asking where I’d got the FP1 from. I ask him how he knows. There’s a group on Facebook for bikers in Lincolnshire, he says, and a member spotted me and the FP1 at a petrol station and posted a picture. The response to the picture was massive, ranging from people not believing it was possible to others chipping in saying that they too had seen it and me. It was like a UFO had been spotted and people needed to share what they saw – which brings me neatly back to the beginning. I’m one of the very, very lucky ones who have ridden an FP1 and for me at least, it is no longer something mythical and so utterly out of reach that I can only imagine what it might be like to sit on one, let alone ride one. The good news is that, having met and got to know the Petronas FP1, any concerns about it being underwhelming and worrying that the whole experience would leave me wishing I hadn’t taken the opportunity to meet a hero were unnecessary. As a sportsbike, it is magnificent. It is fast, really fast – easily as quick as any of the other litre bikes of the era. It stops and turns like you would hope and pray something that looks so good would. It is unbelievably trick; the exhaust comes directly out the back of the cylinder head in an arrow-straight line directly to the tail unit via a three into one, into two, into three labyrinth that, it was claimed, helps the bike run better at low revs. The engine was developed by Suter Racing, which was dabbling with MotoGP at the time, and I am in no doubt that some of that thinking found its way into the Petronas engine. Just blipping the throttle with the bike in
Friends reunited!
neutral and on its sidestand is clear that there’s some trick stuff going on inside, with how quick the revs pick up in response to the tiniest movement of the throttle. Speaking of sidestands, my time with the FP1 also allowed me to experience THE worst sidestand I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. And to cap it off, the lug that’s welded to it –which is the only thing that makes it possible to reach – snapped off, confirming that not only is it the worst design in the history of the motorcycle, but it is also made from possibly the lowest grade steel known to man. The FP1 is loud, fast, and feels modern. It is drop-dead gorgeous, trick, and has a back story that makes all the others sound like bedtime tales. Even today, nobody still really knows how many FP1s there are in the world... we know the first 75 were built in the UK, and after that is anyone’s guess how many of the second batch of 75 were made in Malaysia. Even if they were all made, it still makes it one of the – if not the – most exclusive, bikes ever. But the truth is we will never know, so its unicorn status is forever secure. The morning after the night before can sometimes come wracked with guilt, sometimes joy. In my case, on this occasion, it arrived with a sudden burst of inspiration. Maybe that didn’t need to be my last ride on the bike the night before. Out of nowhere came the realisation that I live about 20 miles from Grantham, not famous for much apart from being Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace and, more recently, the location of Chris Walker Motorcycles where ex-Petronas WSB rider Chris Walker can be found selling motorbikes when he isn’t racing in the Ducati Cup. A phone call at 9am to Chris and a couple of hours later, I’m standing with him and the FP1 as he gets ready for a for a trip down memory lane. It seems even though he gave Petronas their first podium in WSB, he too can’t resist the chance to have a shot on an FP1 once more. I hand the keys over in return for an hour of his time so he can tell me all about THAT season, although I think I had him at “I’ve got an FP1”. Just before he snaps his visor shut, he shouts over the sound of the high tickover: “I really hope this one doesn’t burn all my pubes off like the last one I rode did in 2004. They’ve only just grown back.” OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 23
FEATURE
WORDS> JONNY MAC PICS> MORTONS ARCHIVE
CHRIS WALKER THE PETRONAS STORY
Stalker’s racing career has proven both exceptional in length and results, but his year on the Foggy Petronas FP1 perhaps stands out from all the rest.
T
he Petronas racing project only lasted four seasons from start to finish – that is, if you can even call its fourth and final season in 2006 racing. The total amount of retirements from races achieved by Steve Martin and Craig Jones in the 2006 season was a whopping 22 from a combined total of 48 race starts, with a best finish of 11th by Steve Martin... little wonder that they didn’t come back in 2007. The season before in 2005 wasn’t much better, with 20 retirements registered from 47 race starts, and Steve Martin and Garry McCoy finished 18th and 22nd respectively in the championship standings with a combined points tally of just 50 points between both riders from the whole season. If you were going to race the Petronas FP1 for any season of World Superbike racing, 2004 was when to do it. It’s all relative, of course, even then; compared to the rest of the grid, the Petronas was massively underpowered and much like taking a knife to a gunfight. Nonetheless the bike did score its only two WSB podiums that season, and its two riders scored a combined total of 274 points – 70 points more than the combined total of the 2003, 2005 and 2006 seasons. And 57% of all the Petronas FP1 WSB points were scored in just one season by Troy Corser and Chris Walker. In fact, by all accounts, the 2004 season wasn’t that bad. The history books will always show a third finish in the manufacturer’s standings, ahead of Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. As luck would have it, Chris Walker lives about 15 miles from me, and I figured that if he took Gareth’s FP1 for a ride, it might bring back some memories of the project’s purple patch. He didn’t disappoint… “The year before (2003) was my best year in WSB. I was Toseland’s teammate at GSE, riding the HM Plant Ducati 998 ex-factory bikes. “From memory, Toseland’s bike had been Bayliss’s and mine was Xaus’s, so mine was brand new because he crashed so much and wrote so many bikes off. It was so competitive and I had a fair few podiums that year on it – some really memorable ones, including a complete British lock-out at the German WSB round stands out. It was Toseland’s first win, Hodgson was in second, and me in third.
CHRIS WALKER PETRONAS
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FEATURE
To be honest I didn’t have many offers for 2004, except Paul Bird wanted me to ride in the British championship in 2004 on the new Ducati 999. He called me at the end of 2003 and put an offer on the table to go back to BSB, which would have been amazing. I was already an old boy then because I didn’t start racing until my mid-20s, so my heart told me that if I went back to Britain at that point, I’d never get back to a World Championship again. I really wanted to come back to BSB at some point, but not then. I hadn’t ticked enough boxes at World Championship at that point, so I had to turn Birdy down, and that is one of the hardest ‘nos’ I’ve ever had to give. I could have jumped on his bike and competed for the BSB title that ultimately, I never won, but in my heart, I wanted to stay in the World Championship. “I’d done a year on the Kawasaki in 2002 and a year on the GSE Ducati in 2003, and both teams folded at the end of those seasons so I had a 100% strike rate of being with teams in their last season. It wasn’t that I was getting flicked; it was that there wasn’t the option to stay. So, with GSE folding and not much else on the table for World Championships, the Petronas didn’t seem that bad an option. “I certainly didn’t sign for the money. The rumours were that Hayden did that much crash damage the year before that there weren’t any left for 2004! Seriously though, the way the funding worked was that they got a huge amount one year and less the next to help fund the development at the factory of, I assume, the road bike. Also, I think if you’re the second rider to Troy Corser in a team at that time, there wasn’t as much money left over for you… but I still got the first podium. “So, I went to the pre-season test at Valencia where I’d had a double podium on the Ducati and rode my Petronas race bike for the first time. I did my first three or four laps and straight away remember thinking this was going to be the longest season of my life. I was at least two seconds slower. “Granted, it was still in its infancy and at the total opposite end of its development cycle than the Ducati, which was at its peak in 2003. The Petronas was pretty
After GSE folded, Chris headed to Petronas in 2004.
much having its first full season in WSB; even though it had done a season before, it was a bit hit and miss. I could tell, because it still felt like a prototype rather than the finished article that the Ducati was. It was an eye-opener. “I was led to believe that the chassis geometry was copied from the Ducati as it was the ultimate, so that was the ‘go to’ setting. The team also had quite a few staff who had worked on Ducatis, including the chassis engineer, so stuff like the swingarm length and head angle were based as close to the 2003 Ducati as they could, but the Ducati had a very narrow V-twin engine with a different crank position, so the weight transfer was totally different. It always felt odd – not wrong, just odd. “There was also a problem in the team structure because there was a dedicated team of people who just looked after the engine, which was always temperamental and underpowered because of the rule change. The gearbox was always snatchy and the fuelling wasn’t great, too. The chassis was looked after by a completely separate team, and the two teams didn’t really mix. If you had a shit weekend, the chassis people blamed the engine people and the engine people blamed the chassis people, so it took forever to get things sorted. It was a shame because the bike had so much potential and the people were amazing. It was just the structure that was odd. “Foggy was a superstar and the team was incredible; so well-funded and organised... it had everything it needed – except a competitive motorbike. “I did a lot of trips to Malaysia and the Far East to promote Petronas, visiting the gas and oil refineries. It was a wonderful experience Hayden’s lean angle was unbeatable.
... A familiar view
that I wouldn’t have had with any other team, and I was lucky enough to ride the road bike back then, too. “Petronas was partially owned by the Malaysian government so it needed to be seen to be doing ‘good’ things for the community and workers to warrant this huge expense. My understanding was that the thinking was that at some point the gas and oil would run out, so something else was needed for when that happened. It wants to be known as a country of engineering excellence, hence the reason for its involvement in F1 and MotoGP today, and at that point WSB; it wanted to create a motorbike of its own. “I rode one of the road bikes back then at one of those promotional events in Malaysia and remember how light and agile it was. It was unfortunate that it was such a hot and humid day; the thing was running so hot that the fuel was evaporating before it could do its job, so it didn’t run properly. “I got Petronas its first podium at Round One at Valencia, my very first race on the bike. It had a clear tube hidden behind the dashboard poking over the top and when that filled with oil, it meant you had to stop because oil was about to end up all over the back wheel. A giant hugger was put on the back just to try and keep some of the oil off the back tyre because it was such a common thing to happen on that bike. “It was a wet race that became dry and so with some luck and people falling off, I was in fourth place with about three or four laps to go. Then I could smell oil and got a horrible feeling, thinking it might have been going on the back wheel and wondering if I would get to the end. Unbeknown to me, the one and only time it wasn’t coming out of my
CHRIS WALKER PETRONAS
Corser and Walker gave the bike its best results.
bike, it was instead coming out of Steve Martin’s Ducati up the road in front in third place. He retired with a couple of laps to go, and I got third on my Petronas debut. It must have broken Steve’s heart because I think he was on for his first podium! “Foggy fell off the pit wall into the track when I finished third. There are photos of him standing in the middle of the track if you look them up. He literally jumped off the pit wall when I was on the last lap and was in the middle of the track waving his arms because the Petronas had never been anywhere near the podium. That was a really special day for everyone. “It ended up being quite a decent year, to be honest. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and Foggy was great. He did do the odd thing that still makes me smile, like he’d give me a squeeze on the leg on the start line and say ‘I’ll give you a call from the airport’ as he was leaving the grid – because he would leave the circuit as the race started so he could miss the traffic. I suppose he probably thought it was better than watching Corser and I bring it home in 10th, so on a few occasions I’d speak to him after a race and he’d already be in the departure lounge of an airport! He was brilliant and it so good for me.
“Corser was brilliant, too – I mean, what a teammate to have. He’s a legend... you think of how good he was at superpole, so to have someone like that on the other bike giving similar feedback was really cool. I think he also got a podium for the team by the end of the year, too. “I can’t talk about my season on the Petronas without mentioning the time when my balls got set on fire. It was at Silverstone, and I genuinely don’t know what it was, but I was tipping into Bridge (as it was back then on the old circuit) and realised I was hotter than the previous lap. In fact, I was engulfed in a ball of flames, so jumped off at about 70mph before I was too badly burned. As it was, all my pubes were burned off and I’ll never forget the smell of burnt flesh from down there... I was so sore. To this day, I don’t know whether it was the fuel or oil, but sometimes they literally just went up in flames. “When I joined, it was the first year that Pirelli became the control tyre for WSB. The previous season, with Hayden and Corser, was on Michelins, which disguised some of the bike’s problems because the tyres were so superior. When I got on it, that advantage had gone and the weaknesses were exposed even more. For example, it always had a bit
Gary McCoy and Steve Martin were the last of Foggy’s Petronas riders.
of a chatter problem at the rear going into the corners, and when you needed to carry high-corner speed due to not being very powerful, the chatter got worse on the Pirellis. “Jack Valentine joined the team after I left, he understood the nature of the problem and set about sorting it. In fact, he did make the bike quite competitive over one lap, but it was still hard to race because it didn’t have enough grunt. Steve Martin got it on the front row a few times, but it never raced that well. “The team made me a fantastic offer to stay in 2005 but ultimately, I’m a racer at heart and I knew the bike couldn’t change enough because it was built to the old rules. Also, I didn’t know about any new bike in the pipeline, so the thing for me was to at least look around. “I was offered a ride with PSG-1 Kawasaki for 2005, which was the opposite of Petronas – a very under-funded team but with a really fast bike. I’d never won a WSB race and I was desperate to. The chance to be world champion had passed me by at that stage, but I felt there were more podiums in me still, and that was never going to happen on a Petronas. “Petronas was very highly regarded in the paddock; everyone knew that the machinery was flawed, which doesn’t detract from the road bike. I also think everyone knew that, given the sort of funding, plus the experience in that team, if the team had just gone and bought some Ducatis, Suzukis, or whatever, they’d have been fighting for championships. “PSG-1 was a little Italian team that was never going to fight for the championship but the bike was always going to be better, so I left one of the most professional, best-funded teams I ever rode for one at the opposite end of the scale. The crew was brilliant; one of them now works for the Factory Ducati MotoGP team and was Dovizioso’s mechanic last year, and another now works for the Kawasaki WSB team and is the mastermind of the electronics on Johnny Rea’s ZX-10R, so while it was a small team we did punch above our weight. In 2006 the gamble paid off and we got the win that I reluctantly left Petronas to try and get.” OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 27
FEATURE
BEAUTY VS
BRUTALITY
28 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
PICS> CHAPPO WORDS> CARLOS
When it comes to MV Agusta’s Brutale 800 and Superveloce models, it’s fair to say that the Italian marque has crafted two insanely gorgeous and yet completely different machines, despite a wealth of cross-over tech and components. Which of these two weapons is most worthy of your wonga?
S
ome days at work are good, and some days are great. But when there are two utterly gorgeous MV Agustas sitting in the garage waiting for a serial spanking – well, that’s the sort of day that dreams are made off. And both are special in their own way; the Superveloce has been crafted for beauty in one of the nicest retro dresses we’ve ever seen, while the naked and audacious Brutale 800 RR SCS comes equipped with so much styling and character that it’s up there with the best of them in its sector. We’ve ridden it loads and it’s always left us feeling warm and fuzzy inside. As for the Superveloce 800, which first came to light back in 2018, we’ve been chomping at the bit to swing a leg over it ever since… and now that day has finally come. Despite what some might think, it’s not just some parts-bin special built from dodgy components, but, in fact, the opposite. Underneath
that insanely sleek retro bodywork is an F3 800 – you know, MV’s incredible handling middleweight maestro. Mind you, the F3 has always been savage in terms of pretty much everything, from the power delivery to the riding position, which is why I’ve always been gagging for something a little softer to take on the roads… and it looks like it’s finally here, in the form of the Superveloce 800. Okay yeah, it contains the same engine packing 146 horses in the same chassis, but MV has gifted the Superveloce with its very own front and rear subframes, a slightly remapped engine which MV say will make it more usable, and a softer riding position, all encased in what can only be described as an utterly gorgeous outfit that wouldn’t look misplaced in a designer shop window. But then again, if you’re going to spank this amount of cash on a middleweight, you need to know you’re getting the best tool
for the job – and it has stiff competition in the form of its more antagonistic, naked sibling. For good reason, too; sharing much of the same in the form of its components as its retro rival, the Brutale has always been the hostile weapon in the armoury. The combination of those big wide bars, the aggressive geometry, the low weight and that rev-hungry triple motor have made the Brutale 800 RR one of the best middleweights in the biz as far as fun goes, and now MV have gifted it with its delightful Smart Clutch System as well. Does that ring a bell? No? Well, it should. We first used it on the launch of its touring Turismo Veloce machine and it was absolutely ace, as it renders the clutch lever redundant, turning the Brutale 800 into one of the craziest semi-auto machines that cash can buy. So, when beauty takes on a beast... which is best?
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FEATURE
The sportier sibling.
MV AGUSTA
SUPERVELOCE 800
A
s far as first impressions go, I really wasn’t sure how I’d take the Superveloce. It looks stunning in photos but they can be deceiving – yet the first time my retinas met with that gorgeous red colour scheme, I knew I was in for a treat. Even though it was just silently sitting there, the Superveloce’s presence is so loud it
makes a Boeing 747 sound quiet, with everything from the rear LED light that looks like Iron Man’s Arc Reactor to those organ-style exhaust pipes making it stand out from the crowd. But then again, getting up close and personal with the 800 only shows the extra thought that’s gone into it… perhaps a little too much, in my opinion.
See, alongside the nice touches – like the fact that there isn’t a single exposed screw on the fairings – are a few oddities. They’ve stuck a leather belt buckle on the tank that would look more at home on a cruiser, and the funny lump of plastic that goes across the
Looking for talent...
MV AGUSTA SUPERVELOCE 800
That rear light splits opinion...
top of the screen? Well, it reminds me of one of those silly hats golfers wear that just consists of a peak. Mind you, it’s not all about the weird, but just as much the wonderful. Close up, the Superveloce really does ooze class. Hopping on board, in no time at all I’ve forgotten about the 800’s oddities and I’ve fallen in love with the cockpit. Everything, from the top yoke to the dash, look like a million dollars... until I cast my eyes over the pogos. I do think, for the cash, that a set of gold Öhlins should be sitting in there. I have to say though, it made me smile again when the ignition switched on, as the chunky colour dash really does burst into life. The Superveloce has stolen the colour TFT display from the range-topping Brutale 1000 and it shows; you get everything but the kitchen sink, from changing machine settings to connecting the MV’s smartphone app that allows you to ponce around with settings and track your rides – pretty snazzy, if we do say so. Although the 800 looks sporty, the fit couldn’t be better for my 5ft 7in frame. Unlike the supersport-style F3 it’s built upon, the Superveloce has that little extra element of comfort, which, to be honest, I wasn’t expecting considering some of the horrendous café-racer machines I’ve swung a leg over in years gone by. Yeah, it’s no sporty tourer by any stretch of the imagination, but the pegs feel slightly lower and the ‘bars are in a reasonable position, with all the switch gears and buttons exactly where I expected ‘em, which is always a nice touch when firing it up for the first time. I know I said that the bike looked loud but jeez, it has the soundtrack to back it up.
Highlights
Retro looks Attention to detail That noise… 173kg 148hp 88Nm of torque BRAKING
6
STABILITY
7
AGILITY
8
DRIVE
9
FUN
8
Room for improvement Surprisingly stable It knows its way around a bend One beefy middleweight Fun and confidence-inspiring
Retro by name, playful by nature.
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FEATURE
SECOND OPINION: RIGHT SAID JACK…
If you’re some sort of kinky cosplay Marvel fan, the Superveloce will be right up your street. From the front it looks like Iron Man with a monobrow, wearing his dad’s old brown belt to keep his trousers up. At the rear end there’s some glowing, atomic shiny red buttons to make all aware of its presence. That said, it’s kinda quirky and I can appreciate its unusual styling. It’s difficult to put it in a bracket in terms of style – is it trying to be a race bike? A café racer, perhaps? One thing for sure is the clip-ons are as weird as the styling. They feel a bit like you’re a Zimmer frame and take a fair bit of getting used to. That, combined with the oddly high seat and pegs, leaves you over the nose of the bike, checking out Iron Man’s electro-magnet from close quarters. The engine sounds like an aggressively shaken bag of spanners on tickover, and you start to wonder whether it was assembled by a qualified, trained technician or whether MV commissioned the bloke from the pub who said he’d once changed a spark plug on his Suffolk Punch lawnmower. Give the engine a bit of throttle, however, and it’s an absolute peach of a motor and sounds lovely through those triple sword-like exhausts. Whether it’s to do with the chassis length or the gearing we’re not sure, but it produces considerably smoother and more useable power than the Brutale, despite being the same engine. Having turned all of the rider aids to their lowest intrusion levels, the ABS was absolutely terrifying, to the point where I genuinely didn’t think I was going to make several corners – unpredictability of intensity of intrusion being the issue. After doing some digging, it turned out I had inadvertently set it to being at its most intrusive (despite being set to level one), which is counterintuitive compared to pretty much every other bike on the planet. The good news is with it set to level two, the Brembos fitted to this bum-fun bike on wheels were actually better, eliminating the fear of death by ABS a bit as well. From a riding point of view, the Superveloce does give a bloody stiff rear end feel. Whether this is just the spring rate or compression damping we don’t know, but it’s something I’d certainly be adjusting for road use because the front end feels lovely, and turns as fast as you like. Overall this bike was quirky to look at, nice to ride, great to wheelie, and fun to throw around tight, twisty corners. However, it did have a few mild irritations: slippy footpegs, mirrors which constantly move, a slightly clunky quickshifter/blipper system (even if Carlos loved it), and a mildly uncomfortable riding position for someone who isn’t 5ft nothing. Despite being very sporty, there were a few flies in the ointment for me, not to mention the borderline offensive price tag. But if you like quirkiness, you don’t sweat the small stuff, and appreciate the fine art that MVs always boast, then this bike oozes style while cruising through town and will put a smile on your face when you open the taps and give it a pasting. Nice job, MV.
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Firing up the triple for the first time is enough to get your endorphins flowing once you get past the tick-over, and even though MV says it’s made those 148 horses a little softer, it still has that seriously ferocious bark we’ve come to love over the years. From the very first time I clicked it into first and let out that clutch, I was surprised at just how smooth and refined the MV felt, which has always been a bit of an Achilles’ heel where the Italian brand has been concerned. Dare I say, at the very bottom of the rev range the Superveloce was superb, and for the first leg of riding through town, the slow-tekkers really caught me by surprise. Sure, I hadn’t quite found out what the manners would be like at speed, but for pootling along it felt comfy, easy, and balanced – and even the suspension didn’t feel ludicrously stiff. Yes, it had a lot of support, but thanks to the fact it has its very own shock just for this model, it was by no stretch out of place; in fact, it handled things
FOR POOTLING ALONG, IT FELT COMFY, EASY AND BALANCED.
MV AGUSTA SUPERVELOCE 800
better than I’d anticipated. But the question remained – would it be able to handle what I thought would be its natural habitat, the open road, just as well? Abso-bloody-lutely. I always worry when manufacturers chop and change awesome machines up, but the Superveloce ticks the box when it comes to eating up B roads in its stride thanks to that seriously saucy chassis and pogo combo, coupled with the race-y yet relaxed riding position. It feels like some serious effort has been put into making this thing work. The front end feels absolutely lush with loads of support on the brakes, followed by a real nice transition off the throttle and into corners, yet it never feels overly stiff – which is a usual
occurrence on sporty machines these days. Even over Lincolnshire’s relatively decent road surfaces, there’s a fair share of holes and bumps, yet the MV doesn’t tie itself in knots. It sucks it up without needing to be asked twice… unlike the mirrors, which shake beyond all belief. Even so, one thing that surprised me was its anchors – and not in a good way, either. Being dished out with some fairly hefty four-piston calipers, I was expecting a little more bite on the initial grab and a lot more oomph when they were hit hard, yet they
TECH DATA
MV AGUSTA SUPERVELOCE 800 ENGINE
Type: Bore x Stroke: Compression: Fuelling: Claimed Power: Claimed Torque:
798cc three-cylinder four stroke 79mm x 54.3mm 13.3:1 Electronic injection 148hp @ 13,000rpm 88Nm @ 10,600rpm
ELECTRONICS
RRiding Modes: Traction Control: ABS: Quickshifter/Autoblipper: Wheelie Control: Launch Control:
Yes Yes Yes Yes/Yes No No
CHASSIS
Frame: Front Suspension: Rear Suspension: Front Brakes:
Rear Brake:
ALS Steel Tubular Trellis Frame 43mm Marzocchi USD adjustable forks Sachs, adjustable single shock Brembo four-piston fixed calipers, 320mm floating discs Brembo single-piston floating caliper, 220mm disc
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: Seat Height: Dry Weight: Fuel Capacity:
1380mm 830mm 173kg 16.5 litres
INFO
Price: From:
£18,550 www.mvagusta.com
Like Jack, the MV loves attention.
FEATURE
seemed to lack the edge I’d expect, especially when there’s a big ol’ Brembo logo down the side of them… and that was when the heavily intrusive ABS wasn’t kicking in, either. But then again, nothing is perfect, and even though stopping isn’t its strongest point, getting up to speed really is. If you’ve never had the opportunity to crack open one of MV’s glorious middleweight triples, I would highly recommend it; it’s one of my favourite bits about these bikes, and thankfully it hasn’t changed too heavily for 2020. You see, even though it’s ‘only’ a sub798cc powerplant, it honestly feels like so much more. Somehow, with every serious twist of the throttle, the speedo seems to climb faster than any other middleweight I’ve managed to open up, and it does so with one of the very best soundtracks in the business. If that wasn’t enough, I just wanted to get to the redline as soon as possible to have a stab at the glorious ‘shifter, which feels like a perfectly homed aftermarket part. With every click up the box, there’s a real positive yet smooth hit into the next cog, while downshifts are met with a ferocious bark that wouldn’t feel out of place on a superbike; 34 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
especially as it worked so positively at low speed when short-shifting as well. I think I’d go as far as saying that it’s one of the very best systems I’ve sampled as standard. Even so, I think the biggest shock was the fact that I jumped off the Superveloce after cracking a fair few miles to find myself still feeling fairly fresh. On face value, the MV might appear to have been built with style at its heart, but it really didn’t lack substance. It can hustle corners and tackle straights, and it isn’t shy of carving through town and the odd bit of traffic. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but still it makes you feel special and it turns heads like no tomorrow. The question is – does it feel like an extra three grand compared to its naked counterpart? I’m not sure it does.
VERDICT: 7.5/10 I never knew if the Superveloce 800 would live up to the hype, but it has. It’s fast, fun and confidence-inspiring, but best of all, it feels refined. Nice work, MV. + THOSE LOOKS, WITH A SAUCY ENGINE AND CHASSIS COMBO THROWN IN AS WELL.
- BRAKES, PRICE, AND A LACK OF SNAZZY POGOS.
It might look a bit Marmite, but the ride is undoubtedly brilliant.
MV AGUSTA SUPERVELOCE 800
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FEATURE
MV AGUSTA
BRUTALE 800 RR SCS
It loves a bit of this!
A
Shame about the dash.
36 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
s much as I do love a bit of beauty, there’s nothing that can beat an exhilarating bit of riding – and to be honest, I don’t think there’s a bike oozing that scintillating style like the Brutale range from MV. I mean, just look at it! Even at a standstill, it’s like it’s going 200mph with its sharp edges, aggressive stance and single sided swinger. In my humble opinion, this is how every naked bike should look; you know, like it’s going to punch you in the face if you give it half the chance. Unlike its refined sibling, the Brutale 800 appears raw and aggressive, and although they share a lot of the same components – mainly the chassis and engine, they couldn’t look further apart. One thing that caught my eye straight away was also one of the strangest things about the MV. On the right-hand side bar, it appears to have two rear brake levers – one being the rear brake and one being a handbrake, all because of the SCS, or Smart Clutch System. But what is it? Well, it’s essentially a standard clutch with an automatic Rekluse system in it, like you’d find in some off-road
machines; so from the time you touch the ignition, you don’t have to lay a finger on the clutch… unless you fancy popping up the front wheel. When you’re in gear, the Rekluse system engages itself as the engine revs and is then electronically controlled via the ECU to balance the amount of clutch slip to how much gas you’re giving. So basically, the ECU takes over from your left hand... clever, eh? And it’s not even hefty, either – it only weighs 36 grams more than the standard system on the regular RR, which is pretty sweet, if you ask us. Clutch aside, everything feels normal on the RR and jumping on for the first time, its riding position is the first thing that makes itself known. The bars are high, as are the pegs, and it almost feels like it could pass off as a stunt bike in a way, though, I’ve got to say, it did feel comfortable in accommodating my little legs. Although MV’s attention is second-to-none, it was mightily disappointing to be sitting on top of almost fifteen grand’s worth of bike and staring down the barrel of an LCD dash. It reminded me of those old Casio watches,
MV AGUSTA BRUTALE 800 RR EAS SCS
WHAT IS THIS SMART CLUTCH SYSTEM, AND WHO IS REKLUSE? SCS, or Smooth Clutch System, means you don’t have to touch the clutch lever whatsoever, whether stopping, starting or manoeuvring at slow speeds, although the lever is still there for the purpose of popping minging wheelies – or something like that. Don’t mix the SCS up with the weighty DCT or un-sporty CVT styles you’ve seen before, though, as it’s essentially a standard manual gearbox with an automatic Rekluse clutch, which engages in gear as the engine revs, and is then electronically controlled via the ECU to balance the amount of clutch slip to how much gas you’re giving. Essentially, the ECU takes over from your left hand! Nope, it’s not a spelling mistake! Think of Rekluse as the clutch equivalent of your Brembo brakes or Öhlins suspension – a company based around one sole element of a machine, for the best, most focused results. The brand was founded in 2002 all the way over in the States, and now, 16 years down the line, Rekluse has become a huge brand in the off-road world. Besides starting to do work on the roads with MV Agusta, Rekluse supplies a whole host of motocross teams, including the factory KTM and Husqvarna squads.
and, to be honest, it wasn’t particularly clear – nor was it easy to navigate through the menus with the flimsy-feeling buttons on the ‘bars. Mind you, sharing the same engine as the Superveloce, bar some different fuelling, means all is forgotten when that triple motor rasps into life; it’s just absolutely stunning. With the engine in sport mode to start with, setting off for the first time was an oddly tentative affair. The handbrake on the foot comes off easy after a few swipes to find the perfect location but I’d prefer to have some sort of button the ‘bars, like you’d find on maxi-scooter. Even so, it’s a strange thing not touching that clutch lever, no matter how much the routine of riding a bike is nagging in the back of the noggin. Surprisingly though, it doesn’t feel too out of the ordinary – and this is because of how smooth and refined the system feels. It’s honestly incredible, especially when navigating low-speed manoeuvres that would usually rely on the clutch to keep things shiny side up. I didn’t quite know how the Brutale would cope with the Rekluse system as it’s a pretty aggressive machine, yet everything – from filtering through traffic to U-turns – was an absolute doddle, rendering the clutch lever almost useless, though I still liked to use the thing to hoist that front wheel up. The one thing that instantly got me about the Brutale is the sheer brutality from the engine. How it’s the same unit that was in the Superveloce, I’ll never know; from the
“So, you have to wind the throttle back, right?”
FEATURE It goes as good as it looks.
Highlights Savage engine Incredible chassis Smart clutch 175kg 140hp 87Nm of torque BRAKING
6
STABILITY
7
AGILITY
9
DRIVE
9
FUN
9
Meh
Not bad, for a naked Up there with the best Oh yes
Invented for this word
very point it starts to pick up at about 5000rpm, it just pulls like a train all the way through the rev range, with a ferocity that is absolutely nobody’s business in the middleweight category. Without any hesitation or help, the Brutale loves finding itself the back wheel and, if anything, the delivery felt too aggressive. I can honestly say it outdoes some of the supernaked’s pure savagery, with a mid-range that makes its big bro, the Brutale 1000, a little jealous. With this in mind, I managed to scroll through those menus and play around with some of
Finally – a bike that makes Carl look big.
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the other settings, and while the rain mode was way too plain for this bike, sport mode was the perfect middle ground – it had the ferocity when needed, but came in just a little softer and more manageable. Mind you, in all the excitement I’d completely forgotten about that important thing we call fuel, and with the light being so dim on the dash, we only had to push it to a station for a refuel. Dammit. Being based on the F3 as well, there’s a certain type of similarity when throwing the Brutale into a corner; like the Superveloce, it just effortlessly falls in towards an apex with astounding accuracy. Thanks to the higher ‘bars, it has that little more leverage when changing direction in the slower stuff, yet even so it loses barely anything in terms of front-end feel – when pushed on, those front and rear pogos offered a sublime feeling of contact between man, machine and road. I have to say, though, in between the blasts the Brutale is set up rather stiff. For everyday riding it takes a lot to fire through the travel and, for my weight, it’s running very hard for a road bike. I almost think it would be best suited for a trackday, and with the way that ‘shifter fires itself through the box, it wouldn’t sound out of place, either. Unfortunately, those Brembos aren’t, though; sharing the same braking system as the Superveloce, the stoppers were once again a bit of a let-down. It was the same story, unfortunately, as the ABS was incredibly intrusive and didn’t quite offer that show-stopping power I’d have liked from a bike of this calibre. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the worst thing in the world but for the cash, I would like a bit more power. Another thing I found a little odd on the MV were the pegs – although they look smart, they really
MV AGUSTA BRUTALE 800 RR EAS SCS TECH DATA
MV AGUSTA BRUTALE 800 RR EAS SCS ENGINE
Type: Bore x Stroke: Compression: Fuelling: Claimed Power: Claimed Torque:
798cc three-cylinder four stroke 79mm x 54.3mm 13.3:1 Electronic injection 140hp @ 12,300rpm 87Nm @ 10,100rpm
ELECTRONICS
Riding Modes: Traction Control: ABS: Quickshifter/Autoblipper: Wheelie Control: Launch Control:
Yes Yes Yes Yes/Yes No No
CHASSIS
Frame: Front Suspension: Rear Suspension: Front Brakes:
Rear Brake:
ALS Steel Tubular Trellis Frame 43mm Marzocchi USD adjustable forks Sachs, adjustable single shock Brembo four-piston fixed calipers, 320mm floating discs Brembo single-piston floating caliper, 220mm disc
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: Seat Height: Dry Weight: Fuel Capacity:
1,400mm 830mm 175kg 16.5 litres
INFO
Price: From:
£15,690 www.mvagusta.com
THE BRUTALE WAS EVERYTHING I WANTED AND MORE... THOSE LADS AND LASSES AT MV REALLY DID NAME IT WELL.
FEATURE
SECOND OPINION: RIGHT SAID JACK…
Looking at the middleweight Brutale, you’d think riding it would be child’s play. You think it won’t be that powerful... you think it’ll be plush and subtle... you think it’ll do everything you ask of it without any intimidation... you think it’ll be good fun but a bit predictable and will probably run out of puff. Turns out it’s a headbanger with more duration than the Duracell bunny... and as soon as you hop on, you’re the one that’s being taken for a ride. The power delivery on the Brutale couldn’t be any more different to the Superveloce – it’s not smooth and linear; it jumps up and bites your knee caps like a terrier until you back off. Twisting the throttle on this whipper-snapper is at your own risk, but damned fun when you do. It’s worth mentioning that the power maps make a huge difference on the Brutale; both me and Carlovski found it was considerably more user-friendly when in its standard setting over the superaggressive sport function, and in rain mode it’s like neutering that small terrier. Either way, its short wheelbase loves to throw you onto your back wheel almost irrespectively of the gear you’re in and caused me absolute hilarity while watching Frodo pogo-ing it down the road, up and down like a hooker’s pair of knickers. This model had a Rekluse clutch system and a foot handbrake (go figure...), which, to be honest, being a mentally old fart, I found a little odd. It was like riding a scooter, and when you did decide to use the clutch (due to habit), it caused a quickshifter/blipper malfunction that had to be reset every time by turning the ignition off and on again... IT technicians among the biking community would love it. After a while, I quite liked the simplicity of it, and the idea of a clutch became an unnecessary add-on. But for slowspeed manoeuvring and general tomfoolery, the old-school me would still sooner have a clutch for that finer element of control and better management of risk. Usually, bikes styled in this manner, sporting a short wheelbase, offer unadulterated fun through the twisties, feeling planted and responsive. The Brutale didn’t lack any of the fun but did have a front end stiffer than a great oak, which, to be honest, far from inspired confidence. The front never felt stuck to the ground, and was flighty and loose in character; something I again felt could be dialled out through damping adjustments. In terms of let-downs, the Brutale again had slippy pegs, it felt pretty tall (not so much of an issue for me but we had to give Frodo a leg up, bless him), and the quickshifter/blipper system is also clunky like the Superveloce. But the biggest letdown for me is the dash. On the Superveloce it has a beautiful modern TFT dash; on the Brutale it’s like we’ve gone back 10 years. Not only is it basic and pretty ugly, it’s about as user-friendly a set of instructions written in a foreign language. Neither Carl nor I could work out how to adjust and permanently set the traction/power functions, as something was always flashing. All of this said, if you’re after something that’s epic fun, surprisingly comfortable, stylish and modern, there’s not many better options on the market. Cheaper options absolutely, but it won’t ever quite be a stylish MV. Just checking... did I mention it’s nuts?
are slick and as there’s less weight on the wrists compared to the Superveloce, I found myself putting more weight through my feet and actually slipping off a few times, which was a bit of a pain in the neck. But then again, it really isn’t a deal-breaker, in my opinion. The Brutale really was everything I wanted and more… those lads and lasses at MV really did name it well. Yes, it looks drop-dead gorgeous, but it has the minerals to back it up on the move. It
destroys straights like a thou, corners like a finely-balanced ballet dancer, and left me with a grin bigger than a Cheshire cat… and that’s without even mentioning the Smart Clutch System. Sure, no one really needs it (although it would be great if you’re an amputee or have an injured left hand), but it is a delight to use, and works a treat. What a cracking bike.
MV AGUSTA BRUTALE 800 RR EAS SCS
VERDICT: 8/10
It’s not perfect and it is expensive, but it’s bloody good and feels special. A nice dash and better brakes, and it would be incredible! + INCREDIBLE ENGINE, AMAZING HANDLING - BRAKES, DASH, PEGS
Front tyres last forever on the Brutale.
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FEATURE
ROUNDING OFF...
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F
or two bikes that are so similar, they couldn’t really be more different. I feel like it’s the equivalent of having twins – one becomes a butler in The Ritz, while the other takes up a career fighting in MMA. Yet somehow, both machines really did make me feel incredibly special in their own very distinct ways. The Superveloce truly is a beauty and it turned heads everywhere we went, with its sleek design and bold colours. Yet even with all the effort that’s gone into the appearance, MV has managed to pull off a corker when it comes to getting out and riding the thing, packing it with as much substance as style. It rides like a sportsbike, it’s comfortable and, best of all, it’s a blast to ride – not to mention the fact that it’s packed with tech as well. And then again, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the Brutale... well, what a weapon that is. It’s living proof that a spec sheet means diddly squat; as the Superveloce was a finely cooked machine, the Brutale was just raw and savage. It has more than enough oomph to make a litre bike sweat and an incredible attitude that every naked bike needs. With every twist of the wrist, the front wheel just wants to reach for the sky, and how MV has crafted the geometry and set-up on the Brutale makes it a seriously wild animal. Don’t get me wrong – they both have their downsides, and it’s a lot of cash to be throwing at a bike. But then, the big Italian badge that’s plastered on the side of the tank still counts for a lot these days, and they do feel special. So, if I had to pick between the two? It would have to be the Brutale. Sure, the dash is crap, the ride is hard and the brakes aren’t top-notch, but even so, it made me smile and laugh more than any bike has in a bloody long time. Mind you, if you asked me in 20 years or so when I’m not so young, my answer would probably change, and I can almost definitely say I’d go with the more refined, smooth and saucy-looking Superveloce. Until then, brutality wins.
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FEATURE WORDS> T IM NE AV E
PICS> H-D
SPORTY BY NATURE? HARLEY-DAVIDSON SPORTSTER S 1250T In a bid to broaden his horizons and pull his arms from their sockets, Tim put aside his pride and hopped on a hog.
Y
ou’d be right in wondering why we’d cover such a bike as this – it’s not exactly core to us here at Fast Bikes, but the guys at Harley said that we shouldn’t miss this test of its torque-laden, power-cruising, all-new Sportster S 1250T. Completely redesigned from head to toe, it boasts an impressive spec upgrade and a revised philosophy to rival the likes of the Ducati’s audacious Diavel. There are times, every now and again, when it’s only right to step out of the comfort zone… and this seemed to be one of them.
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This bike joins the extensive line of Sportsters that date back to the 1950s, but rest assured – this new Harley is streets ahead of anything that came before. The redesign features vast and plentiful upgrades and, having never ridden anything like this before, I was pretty excited to get stuck in. It’s clear that H-D has stuck strong to its roots with the visual aspect of this bike; the teardrop tank and flat track style exhaust system screams Harley-Davidson, and I’m all for that. The motor is prominent and without a doubt the feature piece of this bike, and you can’t ignore the fat wheels on the front and rear. It’s a strong look! The mammoth great V-twin motor, or Revolution Max 1250T Powertrain as I maybe should be referring to it as, has undergone some serious designing. It’s liquid-cooled with double overhead camshafts and variable valve timing which provides more than ample torque, and a surging powerband tuned to maximise rider control. Oh, and the T stands for ‘Tuned for Torque’, obviously. On paper, it produces 122 horsepower and 125nm torque, which is less than some of its rivals (the Ducati Diavel in particular, being 162hp), but it’s not all about the numbers game – it’s about how it goes on the road, and I can assure you I wasn’t left wanting. H-D has done away with the traditional frame and the Powertrain is now a structural component of the motorcycle chassis. This concept has significantly reduced the overall
weight and lowered the centre of gravity, and has provided a super-stiff chassis that keeps the handling taut. Last, but certainly not least, the tech upgrades are really quite impressive, in my opinion. Classic meets modern with the four-inch round LCD display mounted between the handlebars. Digital gauges, indicators, rider modes, diagnostics and turn-by-turn navigation are easily negotiated using the buttons and the left and right handlebar controls. When I first jumped on the hog, I couldn’t help but notice the whopping great front wheel staring back at me. The last time I saw a 160 Dunlop between a set of fork legs was when my old man tried to fit the rear wheel to the front of my mini twin race bike… don’t ask. It was a sketchy sight back then and my feelings haven’t changed – I can’t see myself getting accustomed to it anytime soon. The cornering experience can only be compared to fighting an overladen wheelbarrow that’s about to topple over. It just didn’t inspire me with the confidence to carry any kind of corner speed, whether that be on faster, more
HARLEY-DAVIDSON SPORTSTER S 125OT
TECH DATA
Harley-Davidson Sportster S 1250T ENGINE
Type: Bore x Stroke: Compression: Fuelling: Claimed power: Claimed torque:
1252cc V-twin 105mm X 72.3mm 12:0:1 Electronic sequential port fuel injection 122bhp 125nm
ELECTRONICS
RBW/Riding Modes: Traction Control: ABS: Quickshifter: Wheelie Control: Launch Control:
Three selected, two custom Yes Yes No No No
CHASSIS
Frame: Front suspension: Rear suspension: Front brakes: Rear brakes:
Engine is a stress member 43mm inverted fully adjustable Linkage mounted monoshock, fully adjustable Brembo four-piston caliper Brembo single-piston floating caliper
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: Seat height: Wet weight: Fuel capacity:
1520mm 734mm 228kg 11.8lts
INFO
Price: From:
£13,995 www.harley-davidson.com
flowing corners or getting round a roundabout. Once it’s on its trajectory that seems to be it, which can be quite unnerving if a corner tightens up suddenly. On the really slow corners, it’s almost as though the bike does the turn for you, and the front end wants to close into full lock… it’s a strange sensation. On the flip side, the fat front tyre completes the image, and without it would look only half as impressive. At the end of the day, it’s a power cruiser and not a sportsbike, so you just have to ride it accordingly. The riding position was bang on for me. The new revolution max motor features a new narrower crank, meaning the width of the bike is much slimmer than the models that came before. As a result, the body work fits slimmer and the foot pegs are closer together, so you don’t feel like you’re straddling a tank. I tested the pegs out front in the standard, more traditional cruiser position, as well as the closer mid-control position, and from a comfort perspective, out front was much better, whereas for cornering OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 45
THE SPORT MODE TURNS THE BIKE INTO AN ABSOLUTE ANIMAL.
Highlights Torquey motor Flat track styling Relaxing riding position Three rider modes TFT display BRAKING
6
STABILITY
9
AGILITY
4
DRIVE
7
FUN
5
Don’t push your luck Unshakeable Heavy
Rips in sport mode Only in a straight line
confidence, the mid pegs were the better option. The seat puts you in a laid back and stretched out riding position – the polar opposite to the bikes I’m used to riding, but I was genuinely comfortable. The handlebars are positioned well for good leverage and control of the bike, and the bar switches are intuitive and easy to understand, although I couldn’t reach a few of the buttons without taking my hand off the grip. The tech was one of the stand-out features for me. Rider modes aren’t uncommon with new bikes nowadays, but being able to notice a physical difference between them is often another story. H-D has nailed it, and the difference between rain, road and sport mode is colossal. When it’s wet, you wouldn’t want anything other than rain; it takes power away, smooths the throttle response and increases the traction control – which, I can assure you, is necessary, especially with these tyres! The road mode is a brilliant middle ground, and sport turns the bike into an absolute animal. For city riding, when you’re on and off the throttle regularly, sport mode is way too snappy and aggressive, but on open, flowing roads it really does come
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into its own. It might not have mind-blowing horsepower figures but you’re never left asking for more, and it’s got enough torque to pull a 10-furrow plough... I can vouch for that. You’ve also got the option of two additional custom rider modes, should you want to change things up in your own fashion. Turn-by-turn navigation is easily accessed using the handlebar switches – just make sure you’ve got the route loaded via the Harley-Davidson mobile app, and the LCD screen will look after you with everything else you need to know. It’s reassuring to know that you’ve got decent Brembo brakes at the pull of a lever, too; the underslung rear caliper is pretty trick, and the four-piston monoblock caliper on the front gets the job done and is perfect for plodding along. But if you want to turn it up a notch and ride a little harder, this heavy beast would benefit from a twin disc dual caliper set-up.
For a gnat’s nadger under £14,000 you’re getting a lot of bike – 228kg worth, to be precise, and it’s genuinely clear to see that Harley has thought about every aspect of this bike. In H-D’s own words, evolution has become revolution… and the bar has been pushed for modern power cruisers. It’s available in three colours – black, white and crimson, and has a whole host of accessory parts available, such as heated grips, foot pegs, seat units, engine guards and wind shields… the list goes on. If you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere, it’s definitely worth a look. If you’re into your cruising and fancy a pokey piece of heavy metal for the weekends, this is right up your street.
Verdict
6/10
Cornering could be much better, but I appreciate the bike. Perfect for straight line cruising.
+ COMFORT, TECH, STYLING - CORNERING, WEIGHT
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PEDRO ACOSTA’S
RED BULL
KTM AJO MOTO3 Ajo Motorsport debuted in 2001 and is now KTM’s flagship Moto3 team. This bike is an absolute weapon with Pedro Acosta in the seat, and this season the team are looking to take its seventh World Championship title.
W W W.F A ST BI
KE SM AG.C O M
: RACE SPEC
TM RED BULL K AJO MOTO2350cc
nt: • Displaceme cylinder • Type: Single gears • Gearbox: Six p • Power: 52h ,500rpm 3 1 : • Rev limit : Motorex • Lubrication apovi • Exhaust: Akr rto ECU system: Dello • Electronics r trellis : Steel tubula • Main frame luminium • Swingarm: A 5mm) 210mm (+- 3 1 : se a lb e e h •W 760mm • Seat Height: eight: 81kg • Minimum w ty: 11 litres • Fuel capaci spension: WP • Front/rear su mbo ponents: Bre • Braking com p 17in • Tyres: Dunlo
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T
here’s no two way s about it – this te am has a huge history of pickin g winners and tu rn in beautiful and com g out the most petitive Mot this year is no di fferent. At only 17 o3 machines... and years old, Pedro has already won Acosta multiple races in his rookie season highlight being w , the inning the race fr om pitlane in the Grand Prix. He’d Doha be a safe bet for th e championship and he’s already victory, signed a deal to stay with the team season… will it be next Moto3 again, or Moto2?
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WORDS: JON URRY PICS: MORTONS ARCHIVE
Used Bike Guide PRICE GUIDE: £2600 - £4000 Cheapest private: £2600 40,000 miles, red 2004 Daytona 600 in fair condition with MOT Our choice private: £3495 12,800 miles, just serviced Daytona 600 with race-rep paintwork £3290 Cheapest dealer: 8,847 miles, 2004 red 2004 Daytona 600 in excellent condition Our choice dealer: £3699 13,249 miles, lovely low mileage Daytona 650 with a long MOT Ex-demo:
n/a
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TRIUMPH DAYTONA 650
BEST OF
BRITISH Triumph’s supersport bike makes for a great used buy...
RUNNING COSTS: Service interval: Minor: Major: Valve clearances: Service costs: Minor: Major: Right fairing:
£6000 £12,000 £12,000 £180 £420 £218.70
RH Engine casing:
£56.24
Brake lever:
£51.02
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USED BIKE GUIDE TRIUMPH DAYTONA 650 STARTING ISSUES:
The Daytona has a switch that won’t allow the bike to start unless the clutch is pulled in (much like a Suzuki). Over time this can wear in its mount, causing it to fail to disengage and the bike won’t start. Check it’s sitting securely and that the switch isn’t horribly gummed up and moving freely. It’s better to change it before it fails than after!
R
emember 2003? It seems like an eternity ago when Crazy In Love topped the charts and the Iraq war kicked off, but away from Beyonce and Blair some pretty seismic changes were happening in the two-wheeled world. This was the year that the supersport class exploded into action – although ironically, it was also the start of its demise... With Honda unveiling a mini-RCV in the shape of the CBR600RR and Kawasaki going bonkers with the angular Ninja ZX-6R (which even had an RR sibling), fans of 600cc race-reps were left spoiled for choice – and then, later in the year, Triumph also got in on the act with the Daytona 600. Against all the odds, it was really rather good – a surprise as
the bike it replaced, the TT600, was crap. Believe it or not, the Daytona 600 was heavily based upon the TT, but where the older model used a terrible Sagem fuel injection system, the new bike came with more accomplished Keihin 38mm twin throttle bodies and a much prettier (it wasn’t hard) fairing design. Fairly understandably, there was quite a degree of scepticism surrounding the Daytona when it was released as the Japanese manufacturers had moved the supersport game on a giant leap, and the chances of ‘little’ Triumph matching them seemed remote. However, quite quickly the Daytona 600 proved the doubters wrong. As you would expect, the initial focus went straight to the
56 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
race track, and on that score the Triumph was never going to come out on top. Against the full-on track-targeted RR and Ninja, the Daytona was always going to be left lagging– but what was surprising was the fact it wasn’t actually that far behind. Thanks to a well-balanced chassis and good brakes, the Daytona was more than capable of holding its own against the Japanese competition, and far from being the class’s whipping boy, the Triumph gave as good as it got. Easy to ride fast and far more forgiving than its rivals, the Daytona was a remarkably accomplished track bike (it won a TT, remember) that, given a few more ponies, could even cause an upset. So that’s exactly what Triumph did in 2005. Although undeniably a stop-gap quick-fix model before
WEEPING SEAL:
Owners report the gearshift shaft seal can wear, causing a small leak of oil. It generally happens when the engine is warm, so after a test ride inspect this area well for any leaks. It’s not a massive job to change but it can be a bit fiddly.
the Dayton 675 triple arrived in 2007, the Daytona 650 addressed the main gripes about the 600 and turned what was a competent supersport bike into one that was really rather good and a genuine contender for top honours. Especially if you were a road rider. Physically larger than its Japanese rivals (aside from, possibly, the Suzuki), the Daytona reminded riders that while it is all well and good to collect trophies, the majority of a rider’s miles are on the road – low clip-ons, firm suspension and a cramped riding position won’t win you any friends. Blessed with wonderfully compliant suspension and a relaxed yet still sporty stance, even today the Daytona 650 makes for a brilliant road sportsbike as it was the last of
ECU MAP:
Triumph sold its own race pipe for the Daytona, and that means dealers have an ECU upgrade to match. If you have an aftermarket exhaust fitted, this should be installed as a minimum but ideally, get the bike on a dyno to match the pipe and fuelling perfectly through either a re-map or fuelling module.
THROTTLE BALANCING:
The Daytona requires its throttle bodies balanced every 6000 miles and the secondary air injection system reset every 12,000 miles. By now this will almost certainly have been neglected, so it is a good idea to get it done as the bike will run far smoother with a well set-up throttle. Speaking of the throttle, removing the slack from the throttle cable also makes the bike feel better, as Triumph always leave in far too much free-play.
WARNING LIGHT:
If the bike has been left standing for a long period of time, the engine management light can become stuck on. To turn it off, the bike needs to be run through three complete heat cycles. Start the bike up and leave it ticking over until the fan kicks in. Repeat this twice more and the light should go out.
FILTERS:
We all know about oil and air filters, but few riders appreciate the importance of changing the small ‘teabag’ filter attached to the fuel pump within the tank. Modern fuels are terrible when it comes to clogging filters up, and this can rob the bike of performance. A new filter is £39.40 but remember to get the seal as you will need to remove the whole unit from the tank to access the filter.
GEARBOX:
The Daytona 650 features an improved gearbox action when compared to the 600, which, it has to be said, is fairly poor. The root of the issue is not the gearbox itself but the lever system, and fitting rearsets with a more positive linkage makes it far more precise.
FINISH:
The Triumph isn’t as well finished as Japanese rivals, and areas such as the fasteners are quite a pain as they are very cheap metal – and that means they love to round or seize in place. Check all is well, swap any damaged ones, and always use copper slip to prevent seizure. A few owners report cracked panel lugs but generally it is all cosmetic corrosion issues, so keep some ACF-50 on hand.
LINKAGES:
A fairly common issue on older used bikes, but if the suspension linkages aren’t stripped and regreased roughly every four years (Triumph specify every 12,000 miles), they can seize up and then you are in a world of misery. It is better to keep on top of them than risk this happening – regreasing non-seized linkages is far easier than battling seized ones!
the supersports to properly take into account road riders’ needs. And that 650 motor is a cracker. Where Kawasaki upped the bore of the Ninja to create the 636 models, Triumph instead lengthened the Daytona’s stroke to increase its capacity. While this meant the top-end power remained quite similar, as a long stroke doesn’t like revs, what it did deliver was a lovely boost of mid-range – and that’s where the Daytona excels. Roll on the throttle and the 650 responds with far less of the breathless feel you get on a 599cc machine, meaning you don’t have to spend your days tap-dancing on the gear lever to get it to accelerate hard. This lovely mid-range drive suits the Triumph’s more relaxed chassis perfectly, and the end result is a bike that is a joy to ride on the OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 57
USED BIKE GUIDE TRIUMPH DAYTONA 650 TECH DATA
Triumph Daytona 650 ENGINE
646cc (599cc), liquid-cooled, 16v, inline four 68mm x 44.5mm (41.3mm) 12.8:1 (12.5:1) Electronic fuel injection 650: 100bhp @ 12,700rpm 650: 61Nm @ 10,500rpm
Type: Bore x Stroke: Compression: Fuelling: Tested Power: Tested Torque: CHASSIS
Frame: Front suspension: Rear suspension: Front brakes: Rear brakes:
Aluminium twin spar 43mm conventional forks, fully adjustable Monoshock, fully adjustable Four-piston calipers, 308mm discs Single-piston caliper, 220mm disc
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: Seat height: Dry Weight: Fuel capacity:
1390mm 815mm 165kg 18 litres
SPEED
0-60: 0-100: 0-140: Standing ¼mile: Standing mile: Top Speed:
3.39 sec 7.29 sec 20.65 sec 11.45sec @ 125.69mph n/a 162.01mph
ALSO CONSIDER THESE: 2005 KAWASAKI ZX-6R Private: £3300 Dealer: £3700
The first underseat pipe ZX-6R is a bit rev-happy but that makes it an engaging bike to ride as long as you are prepared to work with it a bit. Engine: 636cc, l/c, 16v inline four Power: 110.9bhp @ 13,600rpm Torque: 62.3Nm @ 11,200rpm
2005 YAMAHA YZF-R6 Private: £3000 Dealer: £3500
Only sold for one year, the 2005 R6 has radial brakes and inverted forks and offers a lovely compromise between road and track focus. Engine: Power: Torque:
599cc, l/c, 16v, inline four 105.9bhp @ 13,000rpm 62Nm @ 12,300rpm
2005 SUZUKI GSX-R600 Private: £3100 Dealer: £3600
A thoroughly sorted 600 that is roomier than its rivals with a strong motor and a cheaper price tag. That said, if you can afford it, buy the GSX-R750... Engine: Power: Torque:
599cc, l/c, 16v, inline four 105bhp @ 13,250rpm 67Nm @ 11,200rpm
road, where its more rev-happy rivals can be frustrating and awkward. It’s not perfect, the gearbox feels from a different age and the dash is unimpressive, but overall it is a really engaging and fun machine to ride. And it’s also built in Britain, unlike Triumph’s current range... The Daytona isn’t the fastest supersport bike on track; even as a 650, it’s not the most powerful on the dyno and it doesn’t come with a slipper clutch, inverted forks or radial brakes. What it does offer is a balanced overall package. If you want a wellpriced supersport bike that is great on the road, impressive in the bends and a genuine joy to ride, the Triumph is well worth checking out. In 600 form it can feel a touch gutless, so ideally find a 650; it’s worth paying extra for as the improved mid-range grunt makes what is already a really enjoyable machine to ride even better.
Verdict
7/10
The 650 is the pick of the inline four Triumphs and makes for a relaxed roadgoing supersport bike with a welcome boost of mid-range that is sporty but not over the top. + STRONG ENGINE, COOL LOOKS, IMPRESSIVE CHASSIS
– LACKS A BIT OF BLING AND FINISH CAN BE SUSPECT
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FEATURE
TYRE TECH HOW TO MAKE
HOOPS
Every bike’s got them, but how do you go about making a top quality motorcycle tyre? We sent Johnny to Avon to find out… WORDS: JOHNNY MAC PICS: ANDY SAUNDERS
T
yres are just black and round, right? Well, not exactly. To be specific, they would be brown if it wasn’t for an ingredient called carbon black being added to the mix, but more about that later. The point is that it’s all too easy to just dismiss tyres as dull and unimportant because they aren’t colourful or noisy, which is doing them and the people who design, test and build them a massive disservice. It is true that, apart from a tread pattern, all tyres look the same, but it is also true that due to the complexity and variables of a tyre’s mechanical and chemical construction, they are anything but. Tyre tests that use rider feedback as well as lap times prove that they aren’t all the same, and that tuning a tyre for best grip, stability, wear and handling
60 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
characteristics is every bit as hi-tech for the people whose job it is to make engines more powerful and more environmentally friendly, or the electronic systems smoother, more responsive and with more functions. It’s just that where people involved with motorcycle design tend to be engineers from a given background or discipline, tyre designers are a very different breed – chemists. Tyres are big business, very big business, and because even the process that a tyre is manufactured affects how the tyre performs and its characteristics, getting past the reception area of a tyre manufacturer is basically impossible, such are the levels of secrecy surrounding every single stage of a tyre’s life – from concept to manufacture. When the chance came my way to have a
poke around the Avon Tyres facility in Melksham and meet some of the design team, the significance wasn’t lost... so off to Wiltshire I went. For some scale of just how big the motorcycle tyre industry is, Avon is a relative minnow because it only has 170 people on the shop floor, producing a mere 1200 tyres per day, every day. The total headcount for Avon at Melksham is more than 300 on the site that once also produced Avon’s car tyres; a sector in which Avon is much more prevalent. Car tyre production moved to Serbia in 2019, but before then the headcount was 1600 people, all on one site. At one point in the dark and distant past, Avon was actually allowed to reclaim some land where the River Avon flows, or rather flowed, right
TYRE TECH
Old but gold!
past the factory. Imagine the response today if a tyre manufacturer wanted to move an entire river just to bring in even more chemicals and make more noise in the centre of a market town – just to make more tyres, gas masks, boats, even golf club grips... if it was made out of rubber, Avon probably made it at some point. Today the only evidence of this happening are bricked-up arches at the base of some of the older buildings. Geography and history lesson over, it’s off to the lab for a lesson in rubber with motorcycle tyre development manager Ashley Vowles. As we walk and
Ever the professional!
Heaps of hoops...
Johnny was proud to show off his noivce bib.
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 61
FEATURE
talk, I’m keen to find out how Ashley ended up with such a cool job title. “One of the reasons I got into studying polymer science is because I grew up in Wiltshire and there was an Avon rubber factory in every town in the county,” he said. “It was a huge industry around here, and because of that the local college ran very good polymer science courses. It was so good that people travelled from all over the world to study polymer chemistry at that college. “I was originally interested in polymer science and I was always keen on the automotive industry, so doing what I do today is pretty much my ideal job. After I left college at 18 years old, I was part of Avon Technical Products up the road and designed gas masks for nine years. When I was doing that, they put me back through college for more qualifications in polymer science. “Today I work in the European tech centre and head up the motorcycle development team. My department is made up of a lot of young people, which is great, and they all have degrees in engineering of some sort. Some have studied motorsport, and some chemistry; we’ll bring them in from all areas, but the one thing they all have in common is that they’re motorcycle enthusiasts. “We’re in a good place now. I have to present to the senior executives once a month, about 20 or 30 people, to update them on what’s going on. We cover sales and all sorts of stuff, and they’re all very happy with the direction we’re heading in, the products we’re developing, and the people in the team”. As if to ram the point home that tyres aren’t just black and round, as soon as we arrive at the lab – where there are racks of kit with screens and flashing lights that wouldn’t look out of place in the villain’s lair of a Bond movie, not to mention men in white coats and safety goggles completing the look – Ashley explains the sort of things that go on. “This lab is used for developing compounds and testing competitors’ tyres. We also have another lab that we use as a control lab, where every rubber batch made for production can be checked for cure properties and hardness. In this lab, there are five people plus three chemists, so there are nearly 10 full-time staff just developing rubber compounds. They’ll pull apart
Rival products are examined on site.
62 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
It all starts in the lab.
Probably shouldn’t eat that...
competitors’ tyres, chop them up and break them down with nitrogen, then measure them at a molecular level to figure out what they’re up to, which is good to know but doesn’t guide our own development. “My colleague who runs this lab is a materials development manager, so I’ll talk to him and the chemists about what we need from a compound or component, or I might give him a competitor’s tyre and ask him to make me a compound like it, and they do.
“They make a lab batch by mixing up the ingredients into slabs that go on a two-roll mill, which creates sheets that are still uncured. Rubber has no properties until it’s cured – or, to put it another way, cooked. “It’s very much like a cake mixture. The chemical reaction hasn’t taken place yet; it’s the same for all rubber components. The only analysis worth doing on it in that state is with a rayometer, which helps us work out the best way to cure it. We need to know the
TYRE TECH
Here’s where the magic happens.
Hammer time!
best temperature and the time needed for the best result, because the performance of the tyre depends on it. “In fact, because we’re working at a molecular level, even the time and temperature the ingredients spend in the mixer has a massive effect on the finished tyre, so the chemists might change the temperature or time to change the properties of the tyre. “It’s not just chucking it in and waiting for a bit. They might even mix a master batch and then put it back in and add the curatives and additives needed to get the chemical reaction; then they might put it back through again because some components like silica are hard to process and they can be hard on the machine, so some mixes need two stages, some need three. “There are so many variables that can impact on the tyre’s performance. As well as compound development, we consider tread and sidewall development, compound material and ply materials, and even the cords can be made out of rayon, aramid, polyester, nylon, steel, or a combination of all of them. “A tyre’s construction and tread work together, and every different part of the tyre has its own unique compound. For example, our new Supersport rear tyre, due out later this year, has 10 different compounds in it, and each compound has about 10 different chemicals and materials. It’s mind-boggling
at times. The tread has a base compound that’s 0.5mm thick, which is there to bond everything together. “Then there’s the main compound, which is in contact with the road – that itself is a dual compound. The sidewalls also have a unique compound. Then there’s the ply topping, filler compounds and the liner – all different. “Then the cords need to be bonded in rubber, so that’s another compound. If you think about the variables, the number of combinations is well into the millions, and that doesn’t include the manufacturing process which affects the outcome. A change to literally any single part of the mix, ingredients or manufacturing process can alter the tyres characteristics. “Usually we have a rough idea of what to do, but if it doesn’t work how we expect it, it gets re-done but with different tweaks. To get the compound I wanted to put into production for the Supersport tyre took four lab tests. “We’ve got a lot of compound history, so there’s a lot of recipes we can go to straight away, but if we’re developing brand new compounds for a tyre, it can take two years. If we’re doing an upgrade to an existing tyre, it can take 12 to 18 months. If we’re adding a new size to a range, it’s about 12 months, so it’s a long process – there’s no shortcuts”. It’s been 10 minutes since we got to the lab and my little brain is already hurting. It’s
obvious who the brainiest person in the room is and it’s not me – it never is. Yet despite being hopelessly out of my depth, I am fascinated by the sheer amount of effort that goes into finding the magic combination of ingredients and processes out of literally millions of combinations to make the perfect tyre, and that’s just at a molecular level. There’s more stuff to keep Ashley and his team awake at night. “Rotational grip is a lot to do with tread, but the way a tyre feels is determined more by the compound of the sidewalls and how we use different compounds in different ways. Do you want stiff sidewalls for best grip, or do you want longevity from the tread and soft sidewalls? Grip comes from compound and tread patterns; handling and stability is very much construction. “Front tyres follow the same basic principles as rear tyres, but the forces and loads are different – you’ve got braking forces to consider instead of accelerating forces. Front tyres generally have softer sidewall because there’s less weight, plus you want more grip. “Inverted groves in front tyres are something we trailed in the 1980s. They look like they are pushing water into the footprint instead of away from it, but it’s such a small footprint that any amount of water is displaced quickly anyway. “Now those inverted grooves are used by everyone. By having them the other way, we OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 63
FEATURE
Just like being at the arcades.
Different tyres have different tread ratios.
were able to completely eliminate uneven wear during the tyre’s life and improve longevity due to the braking forces acting on the tread pattern. “It’s not the same with a rear tyre because the forces are very different. If you put your rear tyre on the wrong way round, you could potentially have a problem because you would be running against its grooves, and with less forgiving forces. “We also use sipes to limit the amount of tread flex and keep heat generation down; they’re the fine cuts you can sometimes see on the surface of the tyre. “The land/sea ratio refers to the amount of tread pattern on the tyre tread (the bit that is in contact with the Tarmac). Tyres that are aimed at track use, like our 3D Ultra Extreme or Pirelli’s Supercorsa, are close the limit of what is allowed for a land/sea ratio on a road tyre. “There’s a legal percentage of how much of the surface must have pattern; it’s quite generous, in so much that if you put a few cuts into a slick, that would probably be legal, except slick tyres aren’t road legal to start with, so it would still be illegal. “While our Supersport tyre, which is due at the end of the year, isn’t a pure track tyre, it assumes that the bike will generally be used in dry conditions, so there isn’t as much emphasis on the tread pattern as a tyre that’s anticipated to be used more in wet 64 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
Probably not flour...
conditions. Tread patterns don’t just help with moving water – they also help with tread wear, even when there isn’t much pattern.” Our visit to the lab isn’t over yet. There’s more information to digest while appearing like I know what’s being said. It reminds me of school, except I quite like it here – and I really like anything to do with motorbikes. The information overload continues with an introduction to some of the key ingredients that go into a tyre, while the secret ones are kept well out of sight – not that I’d know what they are, anyway. “The main ingredients in terms of volume are carbon black, oils and polymers. The bulk
Tyre-making is still pretty hands-on.
TYRE TECH
It’s mind-blowing what goes into tyres.
is natural rubber, which is the sap from rubber trees. It’s a natural product that’s got a smell to it, and it mostly from Malaysia. “When I was on holiday in Sri Lanka with my wife, we were driving along this road and in the corner of my eye I saw this lady in the woods, so we stopped to see if she was okay. “She was actually collecting the sap by hand from rubber trees in a little pot, and there were thousands of the trees. To collect the sap, they score the tree round its trunk and eventually the sap runs out and into a little pot they leave there to collect it. “Often a tyre company will own the plantation, such is the demand for natural rubber. It was the first thing I studied at college, so it was quite cool to see it at its source. If you go to the Eden project in Cornwall, they’ve got rubber trees there. “Then there’s synthetic rubber, which is man-made and very popular, and also styrene butadines, which will all be different grades and used in different ratios. “The other main ingredient is oil. In basic terms, the more oil used in the mix, the softer the compound will be. As well as helping to process the ingredients in the mixer, it also changes properties like hardness. More oil makes a softer compound
Not quite the red carpet Johnny was hoping for...
and vice-versa. Racing uses a lot of resin, which is hard when cold, but when it’s up to temperature, it’s soft, hence why race tyres and trackday tyres are rubbish when they’re cold and need tyre warmers. It’s also very important for processing, because you’re putting all those dry ingredients into a mixer and you need some moisture. “There’s also carbon black, which makes the tyre black and acts as a reinforcement, sort of like a filler. So, if you want to design a tyre for a Harley-Davidson and get it to do loads of miles, you would put a lot of carbon black in it, while a sport touring tyre would have less but more silica and oils. The carbon black helps with durability, as well as being a filler and colour. “Silica is a synthetic powdery product. It’s a really useful ingredient. It’s used for good wet weather grip and grip when it’s cold, because it produces heat quickly. Trackday tyres won’t have as much silica because they get pre-heated with warmers since they don’t work well when they’re cold. For example, our Cobra Chrome tyre for the US market – they have dry conditions, long straight roads and cover big miles – will have little or no silica and more carbon black compared to a sports touring tyre for the European market.
“Silica is very hard to process because it’s abrasive on the mixers. Many tyre companies limit themselves to small amounts for this reason. I can honestly say that we use a lot compared to some – as much as we can. “Then there’s sulphur, which every single compound will have because it enables the curing reaction and the cross-linking between the components to give the rubber its properties and change it from the stringy chewing gum state it comes out of the mixer in, and then assembled into a tyre, to a finished rubber. “Cross-linking is the chemical reaction in the compound that can affect its final properties, such as wet grip, dry grip etc.,
For that mate who can’t get rid of their chicken strips.
Bladders are used to form the rubber from the inside.
That looks painful...
Every home should have a ‘Bag-o-Matic’.
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FEATURE
It’s a slick operation...
and mileage. Loads more ingredients go in, like antioxidants, which get changed by small fractions that will also change the properties of the tyres. Obviously, there’s some secret ingredients too, which will stay that way. “The way the tyre is produced means every ingredient ultimately contributes to the overall performance and characteristics of the tyre, irrespective of what the chemicals do to it before the manufacturing process. If we control the manufacturing process, we also control the chemical reactions and therefore control the end product.” After up to two years of developing several compounds for a new tyre in a lab, the next stage is to make some prototypes, which is a surprisingly manual and hands-on process, even once the tyre is fully in production. The tread is extruded from a massive version of the same mixer and roller in the lab, except this one mixes batches of rubber 250kg at a time. The carcass is assembled on a rotating drum by layering the plys that contains cords, and a liner that keeps the air in the tyre when it’s on the rim. A laser guides the operator where to line up each ply, then the machine turns for a given rotation/length, and the process is repeated depending on how many plys the tyre might have. The layers build and the cord is at different angles on each ply. Then the finished carcass gets the tread applied, and finally is given its rough shape by being stretched around a ring that’s filled with compressed air before going off to be cooked in a press. I’m given the opportunity to briefly join the Avon workforce and assemble a tyre to
Johnny took home a few souvenirs.
66 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
see how difficult it is, and in doing so momentarily become part of the only workforce in the UK to be making a motorcycle tyre here (Avon is the only British motorcycle tyre manufacturer to still make its tyres on UK soil). Very soon – like, seconds later, I’m politely removed from the machine and told “it was a good try” by my host. The next stage is the cooking process in one of the presses, where the raw tyre is put into a mould that contains the tread patterns and cooked for an undisclosed amount of time at an undisclosed temperature and pressure from the inside via a bladder filled with boiling water. When the tyre comes out of the press, it’s red-hot and therefore really soft, so can deform easily; it’s still cooking and very fragile, so it gets inflated with cool air to manage the cooling process and hold it in the exact same shape it would be on a bike until it stabilises. Once cooled, that’s it. The tyre is ready for testing, and Ashley takes up the story. “If it’s a brand new product, such as our forthcoming Supersport tyre, once we’re happy with its cross section, an initial build of the tyre will be supervised by the factory technical team. Then we’ll deliver it to the rig test team to make sure that it passes the required legislation, but also that we are happy with those pass marks, because we want a degree of safety. If we are happy with the numbers, then we’ll go to the bike test phase. Finally, if we are happy at the end of that process, we’ll go into a small production build of about 40 tyres that haven’t been supervised by
The end result.
technical to test of repetition and the production process.” I spent most of the day at Avon with my jaw on the floor at the sheer scale of the place, and the complexity of not just the design of a tyre, but also the manufacturing process... how each single part of the process – from the selection of chemicals to how the tyre is cooled once it comes out of the press – is critical to what you and I feel on the bike. It is sad that a lot of the manufacturing that once took place at the site has been moved to Serbia, but the need to free up more space for motorcycle tyre production is as strong today as it was when they moved the river Avon once upon a time to create. Walking around the factory and through the corridors, I can only imagine what it must have been like in its heyday. That said, my interest is in motorbikes and motorbike tyres, not cars or economics. To have picked the brains of someone like Ashley makes me wish I paid better attention to my teachers at school. It was a real treat. One last question, though. “You mention that the next part of the process is bike testing… can I come back please?”
Ready to get ragged.
WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
Email: letters@fastbikes.co.uk EDITORIAL
Editor: ‘Dangerous’ Bruce Wilson, bwilson@mortons.co.uk Designer: Michael Baumber Production Editor: Lucy Wood
CONTRIBUTORS
Words: Steve Parrish, Tim Neave, Tom Neave, Jon Urry, Andrew Dalton, Jack Thompson Gary Johnson, Christian Iddon, Jack Fairman, Rob Bean, Jamie Morris, Peter Hickman Photography: Gary Chapman, Dave Parsons, Double Red, Les Liddle, Matt Sayle, Danny Inwood, Jamie Morris, Rob Gray, Polarity Photo
ADVERTISING
Group Advertising Manager: Sue Keily Divisional Advertising Manager: Tom Lee, tlee@mortons.co.uk Tel: 01507 529412 Media Business Manager: Charlie Oakman, coakman@mortons.co.uk
MARKETING
Marketing Manager: Charlotte Park
CIRCULATION
Sales and Distribution Manager: Carl Smith
MORTONS MEDIA GROUP LTD Publisher: Tim Hartley Publishing Director: Dan Savage Commercial Director: Nigel Hole
SUBSCRIPTIONS
NAKED SPORTSBIKE OF THE YEAR! in association with Dunlop
Phone our UK hotline on: 01507 529529 Overseas orderline: + 44 (0) 1507 529529 (From outside UK only) Subscribe online at: www.classicmagazines.co.uk Customer services number: 01507 529529 Telephone lines are open: Monday-Friday 8.30am-5pm NEXT ISSUE ON SALE: 12.10.2021 Fast Bikes is the trademark of Mortons Media Group LTD. All rights reserved. Cover printed by William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Mortons Media Group Ltd Printed in the UK by William Gibbons & Sons on behalf of Mortons Media Group Ltd. Distributed in the UK by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, 161 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9AP. Tel: 0330 390 6555 . FAST BIKES (USPS:710-470) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd., PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK.
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Big, bare and ballistic. We’ve gathered the finest supernakeds on the market and given then a thorough thrashing to work out the good, the bad and the other stuff you’ll want to know before ordering your next naked missile. NSBOTY is back! Ducati Streetfighter V4S Triumph Speed Triple 1200RS MV Agusta Brutale 1000 RR Kawasaki Z H2 Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory BMW S 1000 R M-Sport KTM 1290 Super Duke R Make sure to pick up the new mag for the full-lowdown.
On Sale October 12, 2021
Buy it from WHSmith, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and all good newsagents. Check out the eye-poppingly good digital edition at www.classicmagazines.co.uk or pre-order from us! (see left) Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine? Why not just ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month?
TEN WITH
TEN MINUTES WITH...
STEVE ROGERS
McAMS has been leading from the front all season.
WORDS: T IM NE AV E
Raceways McAMS Yamaha is a force to be reckoned with and this year’s BSB championship favourite. We caught up with team owner Steve Rogers to see what’s going on behind the scenes.
Steve knows how to pick a winner.
68 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
FB: How long have you been running the team in BSB, and how did it first come about? SR: “Well, I first opened the shop (Raceways Motorcycles) in 1991, but my first involvement with racing was in 1989, helping Jonathan, who now works in the team. We were running 125s in the British championship on and off for a few years until 1997, and then we started with Supersport. “We ran Hondas for three years and then had a few years out until 2006 and 2007, when we ran in the Superstock 1000 class. “We went back to Supersport in 2008, 2009 and 2010, and finished second in the championship each year! We didn’t get going again until 2016 and had another second place in Supersport, and then we started as the Official Yamaha Superbike team in 2017, which has been running ever since.” FB: What’s its liking having both of your riders fighting tooth and nail for race wins? Is it a dream or a nightmare? SR: (Following a nervous laugh) “I suppose it’s a dream, really. It does get tense when they are scrapping for positions, but to be honest it’s what they get paid for – we expect them to be fighting for podiums. The manufacturer and the sponsors want both riders winning, so it’s where it needs to be.”
The dream team!
FB: The team has made a big step with the bike. What did it take? Was it with the engine or the chassis? SR: “The Yamaha R1 had quite a big upgrade in 2020, which was mainly in the engine. To look at it, everyone thinks it looks exactly the same, which it does, but inside there’s a massive difference. There’s more horsepower, it revs more, the internal components have been strengthened... big changes, which gave it a big step forward... 2020 was awkward because of the Covid job; we had one engine spec and that’s what we went with because we couldn’t get everyone together to test properly and we were up against it. Last winter we worked hard and improved it even more; we’ve got more top end, and moved the torque up, so now it’s even stronger off the turns. It’s nice not to have the Ducatis flying past us down the straights. We’ve also got the right people in the right jobs, and that makes a huge difference.” FB: How much support do you get from the Yamaha factory and the teams in World Superbikes? SR: “Chassis-wise, we get everything from the factory. Whatever the World Superbike teams get, we get; the latest swingarms, pivots, yokes, subframe, tank... we could Who’s your money on?
have had the latest aero fairings, but we already had 10 of the other sets ready to go. “Engine-wise, we do our own thing, mainly because we’re on a different style of circuit and with different electronics, plus the world lads are limited on engines so they have to be a bit more conservative. We can actually go a little further with ours because if we do break one, we can fit another.”
FB: Do you have any aspirations for your team to compete in World Superbikes? SR: “The shop is a Premier Exclusive UK Yamaha dealer, so for us it makes sense to be here. Our sponsors are UK based, McAMS in particular, so it just works in all aspects. If we can do a good job over here, then we’ll be happy enough… so I guess the answer is no.” FB: Do you think controlled ECU and tyres was the right call for BSB, or did you prefer it before with the open ruling? SR: “Well, we weren’t doing Superbikes during that time, so it’s hard to say, isn’t it. Our electronic man, Tim, harps on about having the open electronics back but we all know the score. As it is at the minute, you’ve got to get the best out of the chassis and
what products you can use… for me, I think it works and I know we’ve won a lot of races this year, but if you look at last year, every manufacturer had a win, and so from a sporting point of view, I think the rules are pretty fair. You’ve just got to get the best out of the rules.”
FB: Do both sides of the garage work together? What data is shared? SR: “The two crew chiefs, Barry and Chris, work very closely together. At the end of the day, the lads have got the same chassis and the same components, so it makes sense to work together to improve the package… their set-ups are ever so slightly different, which you’d expect. They always compare data, and we speak to Ricardo (head of chassis development) and Les Pearson in the Yamaha World Superbike team virtually throughout all of the meetings, so we are in good hands.” FB: You’re back in National Superstock 1000 this year. What prompted the decision and is it going to plan? What does the future hold for your team in that class? SR: “You’re in it, so you tell me, hahaha! It’s going good, but as it’s a new bike to this class and we are the only team running an R1, it has taken a little time to get things dialled in, the electronics in particular, but the chassis is mega. Our plan, alongside Richard Arundel (Edwards 1902), is to get the bike something like ready for the roads (IOM TT) next year with Hutchy. For him to have a top five finish in Superstock already this year, it proves it’s not far off. Yamaha is keen to have it running at the front of the class again next year, so we’ll see.” FB: Have you got the rider line-up sorted for next season? Do you go for experience or up-and-coming talent? SR: “Going back to the questions earlier, having both riders at the front… sponsors and the manufacturer want two riders who can win, so you need proven names. I’d be surprised if either want to leave. I presume they won’t want to following this year’s performances… it could be down to whether we can afford them!” OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 69
FEATURE
S ’ I T A C DU
WORDS> JON URRY HIVE PICS> MORTONS ARC
. .. S L IA C E P S N IO HOMOLOGAT t examples of a homologation
e fines The Petronas FP1 is one of th ost for the race m re fo d an st fir up nd ou gr e special, built from th the hassle of nd ou ar t go ve ha d ul co as track. Arguably, if Petron have been d it’ n tio es qu e tl lit s e’ er th n, producing a road-legal versio and if you want to , ks or w it w ho t no ’s at th t all the happier for it. Bu rbikes, pe Su ld or W as ch su s rie se d compete in a production-base . No manufacturer so do to ke bi n tio uc od pr ed you need a homologat s made a habit of ha ho w ti, ca Du an th er tt be knows that reality zing sex appeal oo , rs be m nu l al sm in s el od producing high-spec m a out on track. ul rm fo ng ni in w a g in er off d on the street an 1996
D
espite the fact it was conceived as a road bike series, ever since the World Superbike Championship kicked off in 1988 the grids have been full of ultra-trick homologation specials. From Honda’s glorious RC30 and RC45 to Yamaha’s OWs and even SP and R models from Kawasaki and Suzuki, every manufacturer has created a bespoke version of its road bike to take to the track. But none have gone as far as Ducati... Using the WSB rules to its advantage, Ducati’s status as a smaller manufacturer allows it to churn out reduced volumes of
its homologation specials when compared to the Big Four (just 200 to qualify, where the Japanese had to make 1000), meaning it can rapidly adapt and alter them to give the race team the upper hand. Is it cheating? No, but a few would certainly argue that it’s not within the spirit of the series... Anyway, whatever the ethics, you can’t deny it has led to some truly beautiful exotica leaving the Bologna factory. Although they started with the 851 and 888 SPs, it was when the 916 arrived that Ducati really got serious...
DUCATI 916SPS The rule bending started in earnest with the 916SPS, which, thanks to a 4mm larger bore, actually has a capacity of 996cc, not the road bike’s 916cc or what the sticker says on the fairing. As the race team suffered crank case failures (they were changing motors per race!), the SPS also featured beefed-up engine cases while the con rods were titanium and the valves bigger to help it produce more power. Did it work? Partly. Corser won the 1996 title but lost out in 1997 to the RC45. Cheat rating: 3/5
1995
DUCATI 916SP One of the few SP models with the same capacity as the road bike, the first 916SP has a 916cc engine but uses Pankl Racing conrods, uprated pistons, twin fuel injectors, a close ratio gearbox (an amalgamation of 748 and 916 gears) and an Öhlins shock. The chassis is fairly stock, but the subframe is aluminium as there are no pillion pegs. Did it work? Yep, Foggy won the 1994 and 1995 titles. Cheat rating: 2/5
DUCATI’S HOMOLOGATION SPECIALS...
1998
DUCATI 916SPS FOGARTY REPLICA After losing to Honda and John Kocinski in 1997, Ducati needed to alter the 916’s frame to fit in a larger airbox to squeeze more power out of the race bike’s motor. No problem – it made a very limited run of 202 Foggy Reps, which homologated the new frame and made the race team happy again. Did it work? Yep. The 1998 title returned to Bologna thanks to Foggy.
Cheat rating: 5/5
1999
DUCATI 996SPS On paper the 996SPS didn’t bring much to the party that the Foggy Rep hadn’t already. However, the motor was tweaked to give it some more strength and help prevent failures on track. Did it work? Yep, Foggy retained the title in 1999. Cheat rating: 2/5
2001
DUCATI 996R A full-on rule-bender of a bike, the 996R’s bottom end is fairly similar to the SPS, however, the top end is a very early development of the Testastretta engine. In absolutely no way related to the road bike’s top end, this is a proper stop-gap homologation special reaction to Honda’s SP-1 taking the 2000 WSB title. Did it work? Yep, Bayliss won the 2001 title. Cheat rating:5/5
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 71
FEATURE 2008
DUCATI 1098R With the WSB rules being tightened to limit changes from the road bike, Ducati simply stuck all the race team needed in the all-new 1098R. As well as meeting the new 1200cc limit for twins through a 1198.4cc motor with a bigger bore and stroke (the 1098 road bike was 1099cc), the R featured sand cast cases, titanium valves and con rods and a race-ready crank in its motor, as well as a different trellis frame with revised tube diameters. Did it work? Partly. Bayliss won the 2008 championship and Checa the 2011 one, but Yamaha and Aprilia (twice) also took glory. Cheat rating: 5/5
2002
DUCATI 998R Faced with the SP-2, Ducati really upped the game with the 998R. Featuring an all-new big bore/short stroke Testastretta engine, the R has a massive 104mm bore (up 4mm) and shorter 58.8mm stroke, giving it a true 999cc capacity where the road bikes were 998cc. Add to this sand cast cases, titanium con rods, high compression pistons and a race crank, and it equals a very special bike. Did it work? No. Edwards won the 2002 title. Cheat rating:4/5
2013
DUCATI PANIGALE 1199R The R version of the all new V-twin Panigale arrived in 2013 and although it featured titanium con rods, a lightened flywheel, DLC coated rocker arms and an adjustable swingarm pivot, that’s about all it got aside from some bolt-on bling. On track things didn’t go well, mainly down to Jonathan Rea on his ZX-10R, and this bike has the dubious honour of being the only retired Ducati superbike model never to win a WSB title. Did it work? No. Cheat rating:1/5
72 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
DUCATI’S HOMOLOGATION SPECIALS...
2003
DUCATI 999R Weirdly the 999 road bikes were actually 998cc, however, the R models were 999cc, so Ducati was underplaying the road bikes, and not the racers, for once. The R models use the same big bore/short stroke design of motor as the 998R with lots of titanium parts inside and sand cast cases for strength. Did it work? Yes, the 999 took three WSB titles (Bayliss, Hodgson, Toseland) and won every race in the 2003 season. Cheat rating: 4/5
2019
DUCATI PANIGALE V4 R As the V4 has to meet the 1000cc limit, the R version of Ducati’s superbike is smaller in capacity than the 1103cc road bike. This variation has allowed Ducati to return to building a full-on homologation special in the traditional sense of the word. How special? Read the test in this magazine to find out... Did it work? Not to date, but it has come close twice – maybe in 2021 with Scott Redding, it will succeed... Cheat rating:4/5
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 73
LONGTERMERS
The hills are alive...
CHARLIE TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE 1200RS TIME ON TEST: TWO MONTHS
0 1 0 3 1
I
ODOMETER MILES
PICS> CHIPPY WOOD
went into some detail last month about my lack of time in the seat over the past 18 Covid-ravished months to the point where I had been reticent to take ownership of the 1200RS for Fast Bikes. The lack of riding, combined with the well-documented increases in the Triumph’s power jettisoning it in as a marked contender for the supernaked crown, did have me questioning my ability to tame a bike boasting such credentials. You have to keep in mind that I am the mild-mannered man of advertising,
Fresh rubber. 74 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
BHP:178/125Nm GAIN: N/A
NEXT AIM: GET IT BACK
after all, diversifying in my role to give a bit of a real-world view of these exotic rides. My Fast Bikes colleagues fight over these supernakeds, waving the front and back wheels in the air, displaying skills learnt from their ‘missspent youths’ that really passed me by. Certainly, my riding credentials do not tally up to TTs, BSBs and national race meets like these boys. Thus, the entering ‘Beast’ from Triumph was one I didn’t think I was going to get on with... that was my first
Price from new: Insurance group:
£15,100 17
Modifications: None
RUNNING TOTAL
£0 £0
misconception. For all of the unquestionable performance upgrades, massive drop of 10kg in weight and 30bhp increase in power on the previous model, I was expecting something far harder to handle. Ultimately what I have found is a bike that’s extremely rideable, delivering all of my riding demands thus far and always giving the opportunity for more, but not demanding it. I had been lucky in my first trip out, crossing Dartmoor with a few lads on their adventure bikes and managing to take in the scenery, challenging mud and grit-strewn roads, twisties and farm traffic with every bit of success and finesse of the bikes I joined that were designed specifically for such trips. A roads, B roads and motorways were all wrapped up in a one-off 24-hour hit, which were arguably not the ideal conditions for the RS. But the enjoyment of this trip was the perfect grounding for the bike’s all-round qualities – this ticks a lot of boxes.
The Triumph’s presence has ramped up.
Dartmoor was a pleasure ride, but this month has moved to far more functional in aiding my day job as a travelling salesman, one such jaunt being joined by Johnny Mac and his Hayabusa, heading south for a visit to R&G to get him kitted out in crash protection. R&G is a great supporter of Fast Bikes, as it is of this section as sponsor, with its Gleam range of cleaning products. I am not ashamed to give R&G a plug, who is normally well ahead of the curve to offer new products on brand new bikes, and its Gleam range is extremely good – we wouldn’t be sponsored by something we didn’t rate. So, while the hugely complicated dismantling of the Busa’s farings took place on the R&G bench, John took me through a basic set-up for the triple, checking the sag and advising on what I needed – as it
Just in case...
was, it was spot-on with 23mm sag in the front and 15mm on the back. The rear shocks compression was three clicks from fully open, rebound was seven clicks from max, and with both settings having a range of 22 clicks, there is plenty of adjustment available to play with. I ended up leaving John at R&G while they continued carefully ‘operating’ on his termer, but not before they added a set of crash bungs and fork protectors to the triple. These may not stay on the bike for my full term of ownership, as it goes back to Hinckley soon to have a full ‘Triumph Catalogue’ refresh. However, I would rather have it than not, even if it is not specifically stylised as to what I am expecting Triumph to add, with the further addition of a screen and potentially luggage fore and aft.
This has all led to a very sensible eight weeks on the Triumph, mile munching and scenery spotting, and the sort of riding that has not been specifically ‘celebrated’ by my friends in the press. But this is the joy of the long-term proposition, being able to get to know a bike, treating it as if it were your own and being able to report thus. That’s not to say I don’t have a hankering to get “the sort of sweat on and dry mouth that only comes with having had a good thrash on a really fast bike” that Johnny got from the RS on launch, but all in good time. Having treated the Triumph with the uttermost respect since taking ownership, I have had to relinquish it for a week as the lads are testing it against its peers for the next issue. This will be the real proof of how successful Triumph’s full revamp of the Speed Triple has
Those forks are too saucy too risk.
Charlie’s looking forward to fiddling with the nobs.
been in regard to leading the supernaked sector – I can tell you how impressed I have been with it so far, but this is in isolation, at low revs and in first date territory. In the next issue, it’s up against a further six supernakeds, with Bruce, Tim and John all giving it the beans and upping the ante somewhat. Prior to swapping the bike with John, I had the tyres changed at JHS Racing; for the test they all needed to be on Dunlop’s Sportsmart TT’s as a control tyre – a road-to-race-toroad tyre which promises longevity. I have to wonder how much rubber the bike will return with though; given the excitement the chaps have riding the triple, it will certainly have to put in a shift, thus it is a good job I still have the OE Metzler Racetecs to go back on. So there will be much more to learn about the triple next month. In the meantime I have Johns Hayabusa to play with... a very different way to package 180bhp plus – new pants please!
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 75
LONGTERMERS
TIM BMW S1000R TIME ON TEST: TWO MONTHS
0 0 7 8 4
B
ODOMETER MILES
eing new to this bike journo malarkey, I honestly didn’t even know what a ‘long termer’ was… I guess I should have read the mag more. Anyhow, when I joined the Fast Bikes team in June, Bruce said I’d be a getting a bike for at least half a year to basically go wherever and do whatever I want with. I couldn’t quite believe it – I’ve never had a bike on the road before and being a racer, the first thing that came to mind was a sportsbike, obviously... the fastest, coolest, priciest bike I could get my hands on. Well, having completed the Ultimate Sport Bike Test 2021, they’d
76 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
BHP:165 GAIN:0
NEXT AIM:RACK UP THE ROAD MILES
now be my last choice of road bike. I didn’t actually get to choose my long termer bike, but whoever did – thanks! This BMW S 1000 R naked sports bike is the absolute one for me, at least for now. To cut it short, you get the best of both worlds – comfort and performance or a rocket-ship armchair. The Beemer is 165bhp fully loaded, with all the rider aids – anti-wheelie, ABS, traction control, rider/power modes, electronic suspension… the list goes on, and it’s all there on the mini TV screen in front of the handle bars, which, I’ll add, is hands down the trickiest dash on the market. Anyway, getting to my first experience with this weapon… I suppose you could call it speed dating. The first time I actually rode this bike was at Cadwell Park on the S 1000 R launch a couple of months ago, and we hit it off straight away. I wasn’t sure how I felt about taking to the track on a bike with big, tall handlebars; it’s not exactly the ‘racy’ riding position I’m accustomed to, but I was honestly so impressed with how in proportion and comfortable everything felt... from the bars to footpegs, it all felt just right and the balance of the bike was bang on – possibly something to do with the S 1000 RR chassis it uses. I’d selected the ‘Dynamic Pro’ rider mode, which
Price from new: Insurance group:
£16,410 16
Modifications: None RUNNING TOTAL
£0 £0
gives you the most power, stiffer suspension and optimal rider aids for on-track thrashing. It was so much fun – in fact, the only slight pull-up I had with this bike, was that the electronic suspension couldn’t react quite quickly enough under aggressive braking. But it never felt sketchy, and the heated grips put a huge smile on my face – they are going to be an absolute game-changer when winter comes. Obviously you don’t get any wind protection, but that’s the nature of the naked beast, I guess. I’ll just have to hang on a bit tighter. With racing and other mag work, I’ve literally not had chance to get back out on the Beemer since the launch. It’s just been sat in the workshop until last week, when I thought I’d nip for a little ride out and make sure everything is okay before the upcoming Naked Sports Bike Test… well, it didn’t want to
LONGTERMERS
WHAT’S WRONG WITH A TRADITIONAL KEY THAT YOU PUT IN AN IGNITION BARREL?
know – and it turned out that the battery was completely dead. The process of figuring that out wasn’t quite as quick as that, though, since these new BMWs have a keyless ignition. I spent hours on the internet to see if there was some sort of isolator I’d missed, or whether it was the key fob causing the problem… what’s wrong with a traditional key that you put in an ignition barrel? At least you can’t lose the key that way, either. It was a surprise as it’s not what you expect from a brand new machine, but it turns out these lightweight lithium batteries can be a bit temperamental. Thankfully, you don’t need a first-class degree to remove the seat, only a Torx screwdriver, and the battery sits right there. I fitted a new one and it was ready to go. I racked up a load of road miles on the test, and what a joy it
was to ride. You can feel the class and quality of this bike, especially when jumping on and off the other bikes on test – the BMW has been put together so well and feels so refined. I haven’t had chance to try anything too exciting with this bike yet, only a change of tyres. It came new with Pirelli Diablo Rossos, which were awesome on the track, and we’ve just swapped them for the Dunlop Sportssmart TTs since the road test uses a control tyre across all bikes. I’ve got to say, I was really impressed with these; they’re a 50/50 road and track tyre, and the warm-up time was very confidenceinspiring for going knee-down on the road. The plan is to smash a load more road miles in over the next month, and I might try a pillion set-up so I can take the missus out for tea. I’m not sure how she’ll feel about that, though. OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 77
78 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
T
BOB COLLINS’
HONDA FIREBLADE CBR1000 RR-R It’s one of the sauciest Blades on the track scene, with an utterly awesome spec to go with it.
he most striking Fireblade around town... there’s no two ways about it! When it comes to tribute acts, there are very few that actually nail it, but I have to say, I reckon Bob has done a cracking job with this bike. The closer you look, the better it gets; it’s an absolute peach. Undeniably, it’s the first thing that you notice with this bike, and I’ve got to say I love this flamboyant livery, which is inspired by the 1993 Honda Fireblade designed by Tadoa Baba. I don’t know the actual name of this design, but Bob’s calling it the Unicorn… it works for me. Personally, I’d like to see manufacturers taking gambles on their designs more often. This one has definitely stood the test of time. Bob Collins purchased this bike new in 2020 and after clocking 400 miles on the road (mainly on its back wheel), he decided to turn it into a completely outrageous track weapon. The road-to-race conversion took place in Bob’s own workshop, with a helping hand from his mate, HRC Tony… no, it’s not a joke – Tony actually is a mechanic for the factory Honda World Superbike team, working on Alvaro Bautista’s bike, and so I think it’s safe to say that the lads knew what they were doing when they put this bike together. It has been carefully assembled with specific parts, following a similar spec of the Honda UK Superstock 1000 racing machine. Bob did his homework, and now this Fireblade boasts an impressive spec. It is essentially a Superstock spec bike, but it’s had a few extra goodies thrown in for good measure; the aftermarket master cylinder, quick release OZ wheels and Moto Holders subframe makes it somewhat of a hybrid, but by no means a Superbike. Bob originally fitted an Öhlins fork cartridge kit and shock but has recently changed to Ktech DDS suspension in the front and rear, claiming that it’s a slightly better spec product. Having bought the standard (non-SP) model CBR-1000 RRR, it means the forks are slightly different to the factory team, which uses the SP model, and so he couldn’t use the same ‘top spec’ Öhlins kit. He’s still only in the trial process with the new suspension and has kept hold of the Öhlins should he wish to switch back. When it came to choosing the parts that would actually make a difference to the performance of the bike, I completely understand why Bob followed the path of the Honda racing team; he’d have been daft not too since this bike is still in the infancy of its development, and there aren’t many other (fast) riders using this bike. He’s gone with the HRC loom and ECU with a full titanium Akrapovic exhaust system, and the fuel mapping has been done by DynoJet UK – sounds a good combo to me. Bob’s been having a play with the electronics at the track himself, but there is so much that can be changed on these new Blades that it’s going to take a day or two for him to get his head around it. Traction control, anti-wheelie, slip control… the list goes on and on. You can actually change the level of traction control per gear with the new Hondas, and Bob runs it in ‘low’ for second and third gear, and has reduced the power in second slightly to make the bike more manageable on the exit of tighter corners. Bob has had all the little details anodised in purple by L74, including the Promach rearsets, which, I have to say, do look pretty neat – but I just can’t resist saying it does look a bit like it’s been crashed into Halfords…
10 MINUTES WITH BOB:
What made you go for the new Fireblade? “Firstly, I saw a design copy of the ’93 Blade and that’s what got my attention and started the ball rolling – I wanted to do my own take on it. Secondly, I’d seen Tom Neave get right to the top of the timesheets on the brand new Honda, so I knew the bike was good and I fancied a bit of that! And finally, Steve Heneghan from Reactive Parts said he was getting one and suggested we joined forces for the National Endurance Championship. He’s done a cool take on the ’94 Urban Tiger livery.” Did you do all the upgrades in one hit? “Pretty much, yeah. I’d done my homework, so I had a very good idea of the spec I wanted before I’d even ridden the bike. I’d spoke to Tom (Neave), who races for Honda UK in the Superstock 1000 class, and pretty much tried to follow that – with a couple of extras.”
I’ve definitely not seen another race bike with this level of purple bling. Bob’s even lders talking about having the alloy Motoho subframe done next. n Bonamici was the brand of choice whe guard it came to clip-ons, a dash case, lever CNC lity qua an and a tank cap; top Itali products. And when it comes to getting s and stopped, Bob can rely on Brembo disc d with fitte SBS DS2 brake pads. The Blade is my CRC fairings, painted white, and Tom to Hill Promotions has worked its magic als. dec n’ produce the ‘unicor
Any more upgrades planned for the foreseeable? “It’s been good out the box; there’s honestly nothing that comes to mind. I think we’ve pretty much nailed it, and it’s now time for me to get used to it and get dialled into the bike before I think about any other upgrades. My mate Heneghan has gone to town with his (SBK spec), and I’m quicker than him. The standard electronics are really good, and I’ve not got anywhere near the capabilities yet.” Is it everything you’d hope it would be? “Yes, definitely… it really is, and more. I rode the GSX-R1000 for four years – it was and still is a very competitive bike. It was time for a change, and I wanted something fresh with new and improved technology. I’m very comfortable on the Blade, and I’m loving it” Is there anything you don’t like about the bike? “It’s not very easy to turn the electronics off to do burn-outs! I still haven’t figured out which buttons to press, so it’s almost too complex on that front. Admittedly, its does run a little hot when I’m waiting around on pit lane, but I honestly can’t think of anything that really annoys me.” What’s the maintenance like with the Fireblade? “The oil is £28 a litre, and that’s trade! That’s my only gripe. We have to run a specific Motul oil and it holds just over three litres, so that soon gets expensive. I change the oil roughly every three days on track.”
80 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
Bob races in the No Limits National Endurance Championship, which is why lease he opted to fit the lightweight quick-re OZ wheels. The weight saving makes riding the bike easier due to reduced gyroscopic forces, when and the quick-release is a no brainer time ng savi it comes to endurance racing, h flas on the pit stops. They look pretty d too, if ever Bob needed a reason. He use ng, Pirelli SC0 slicks for the No Limits raci s use and , tyre trol since it’s a Pirelli con Bridgestone V02 for other events.
HONDA Fireblade CBR1 000RR-R
■ CRC body kit ■ Carbon tank extende r ■ Moto Holders carbon fairing bracket ■ Moto Holders subframe ■ H pattern racing brake lines ■ Standard air filter ■ HRC Loom and ECU ■ Full Titanium Akrapovi c system ■ Bonamici clip-ons ■ Bonamici dash case (an odised purple) ■ Bonamici lever guard ■ Bonamici fuel cap ■ Promach rear sets (an odised purple)
■ L74 quick-release kit (anodised purple) ■ L74 lifters (anodised purple) ■ HRC thermostat ■ SBS DS2 brake pads ■ Oz wheels ■ Brembo discs ■ Accosato CNC maste r cylinder ■ GB racing covers ■ K-Tech suspension ■ Tommy Hill graphics ■ DID Erv-7 520 chain ■ AFAM sprockets ■ HM Racing auto blippe r/shifter ■ Evotec rad guard
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 81
MASTERCLASS
LEARN FROM THE BEST. For the ultimate one-to-one instruction, which includes everything from initial bike checks to video playback and on/off track tuition tailored to suit all abilities from a former WSBK racer, check out Dean Ellison Rider Coaching at www.Ellison42.co.uk
GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR TRACKDAY: PART 1 To get the best from your trackday, the prep starts well before you get to the track. PICS> MORTONS ARCHIVE
S
ince our second national lockdown started to relax and No Limits Trackdays began to run again, I’ve seen a lot of mistakes being made from a lack of knowledge – quite surprising when most of the core information is in your confirmation email and online briefing. Hopefully this article will help a few regulars and new trackday riders alike, but those seven 20-minute sessions are like gold and I don’t like wasting a single lap, so get yourself better prepared next time. Here’s how to make the most of every minute, starting off with the stuff you need to think about before getting on track...
Choosing the Right Group
I was recently asked how you choose which group to ride in if you’ve never done a trackday before. I thought the obvious answer was the lower group, but then if you think you’re the fastest rider up the local section of A6 or hit 150mph in a straight line down the German autobahns, you may have other ideas. But picking the correct group is a serious matter; those riders too slow for a group will cause frustrations for others, just as anyone who is stand-out too fast would likely get frustrated with everyone else in the group. Both situations can be dangerous, so you must select a
group you’re comfortable riding in and not the group your friends are all in. ● If it’s your first ever trackday, book in the lower group regardless of your fastest top speed on the motorway. ● If you’ve done a few trackdays, then monitor your overtaking:overtaken ratio. Trackday grouping isn’t set by a range of lap times; it’s down to you as a customer to initially select the group and get a feel for how you sit within it. Don’t wait to get feedback from other riders, marshals, the trackday organiser, or instructors. If you’re doing all the overtaking, then move up – and if you’re frustrated with
getting overtaken all the time, move down. ● If you want advice about potentially moving groups, then speak to whoever is running the event. They can arrange for an instructor to ride with you and confirm if you should move.
Online Registration
MSV and No Limits have done a brilliant job with their online registration. This was brought in last year after the first lockdown to help maintain social distancing at each event, but it’s turned out to be a keeper and definitely speeds up the signing on process when at the track. FYI, it’s always the same URL for the No Limits online check-in – I
TO BOOK ONTO A DAY WITH NO LIMITS, CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE WWW.NOLIMITSTRACKDAYS.COM OR CALL 01525 877087 82 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
RIDING IN ASSOCIATION WITH
NO LIMITS TRACKDAYS
Invest time in your bike to make sure it’s fit for action. Happy people – what trackdays are all about.
get asked by a lot of regular trackday riders if I can send the link for signing on at a particular event. Maybe they don’t have the email, bought the space through Trackday Trader, or just forgot, but remember signon. nolimitstrackdays.com and the next seven days’ worth of UK events will be there to see. For first-timers, your details will be saved for an even faster check-in next time. Your compulsory online briefing will be available to view 24 hours before the trackday and you just follow the same link; my advice is to watch this at home or in the hotel the night before and listen to it properly. It’s quite clear that some riders haven’t been watching these online briefings but we’ve recently seen a welcome return of the trusty morning briefing at all No Limits trackday events, and that’s going to help.
Bike Preparation
You don’t need to be a qualified mechanic to prepare your bike for track use, and there aren’t many requirements for your bike to be trackday-ready, but there are a few simple checks that might just save a few quid in crash damage. ● Having a front brake lever guard fitted to your bike is now compulsory and I’ve seen stacks of them fall off on track. I still see people rushing around in the morning trying to fit one; I’ve even seen a rider fit one to the left hand side only, claiming it was a ‘lever guard’ and it was ‘fitted’… what can you say to that? Anyway, all road bikes have very different handlebars and bar-end fitments, so finding a universal one on the day can’t be guaranteed, especially if you’re on your road bike and don’t really want to drill out the internal thread. I just went online
and bought a GB Racing lever guard to fit to my standard Yamaha R1. It went straight on within seconds and I haven’t touched it since. I can now remove the lever guard and put the original bar ends back in for when I’m out on the road again. If fitting one yourself, please make sure it’s properly installed. The universal type with expanding internal dowl is the most common found trackside, and it’s because they weren’t fitted or checked properly. If you put the spliced dowl in the wrong way then it doesn’t expand and grip the inside of the handlebar tube. ● Make sure you have good tyres – not necessarily the best gripping race slick, but a reasonably new tyre with plenty of life left in it. Some road tyres have a flat spot in the middle of the tread; this makes the bike very difficult to turn in and at risk of blow-out due to the limited amount of rubber left in the middle. If you run scrub race tyres, the same goes for the side wall; the profile of the rubber flattens because racers drive hard when exiting the corner and this eats away at the rubber. Again, this flat spot affects the handling of the bike and that lack of rubber reduces your level of grip – you might not even get a full day from a scrub. If unsure, take your bike to the tyre support service on the day of the event and they will advise; you can also get some advice on tyre pressures. ● Brakes are so important and you shouldn’t cut corners or ignore signs that your brakes need some attention. This year I’ve seen a number of riders run off track and crash in the kitty litter because they ‘lost their brakes’ – which means they overheated due to not having
enough brake pad material and have eventually cooked the fluid to a level where nothing works and the lever travels all the way back to the handlebars. Another rider went straight over the front of their bike because their brakes seized on; the bike hadn’t been used for a while and after checking it out, it seems the caliper pistons had been sticking. As the rider’s pace increased, the heat expanded all the brake components and eventually got so hot that the front brake came on at about 80mph in a straight line and brought the bike into a stoppie. The rider went over the front and into the tyre wall, sustaining a broken leg… not a nice crash. Do some visual checks and make sure you have plenty of meat left on the brake pads. Don’t over-fill the brake fluid reservoir (this can also cause over-heating) and seek advice if unsure about how your brakes feel. When it comes to track riding, if something doesn’t feel right, it’s probably not. Also: ● Tape up or fold in your mirrors; focus on what’s in front. ● Tape over your speedo. You can cover a fair distance in the moment you glance at your top speed and could miss your braking point.
● Tyre pressures need to be set much lower than on the road. Seek advice by the tyre support service on the day.
Kit Preparation
If it’s your first trackday or first in a long time, then please try on your gear in advance. Don’t just rock up with your kit back from pre-Covid and expect everything to be okay. Leathers shrink over winter just like your normal clothes, or you may have forgotten about the zip that burst on your boots or that your knee sliders are worn out, or that your helmet is now 10 years old and not fit for purpose. ● Leathers should be one-piece or two-piece that zip all the way together at the waist. The zip must encircle your torso and there should be no gap between the jacket and trousers. ● Helmet must be an ACU Gold Sticker certified safety helmet. ● Gloves must be of the leather gauntlet type. ● Boots must be full leather, and cover the shin area as well. ● Always wear a Level Two back protector. ● Always wear earplugs. ● I would highly recommend wearing a technical base layer top and pants. It’s much more comfortable when riding and easier to get your kit off afterwards.
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 83
YOUR LIFE ON BIKES
WIN A TRACKDAY
COMPETITION THE PRIZE: ONE UK TRACKDAY OF YOUR CHOICE FOR ANY UK CIRCUIT WITH NO LIMITS TRACKDAYS.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
NO LIMITS TRACKDAYS
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WANT ? TO WIN chance of
To be in with a winning a No Limits trackday, send us a pic on our Facebook page or email one to letters@fastbikesmag.co.uk Closing date: 29th September, 2021
Here at Fast Bikes magazine, we love trackdays... so much so, we wanted to give something back to you, the reader! We’ve teamed up with the lovely lot over at No Limits Trackdays to offer a free trackday every month! All you have to do is send us a picture of yourself at your last trackday for a chance to win. If you’re the lucky person highlighted on these pages, you’ve won a trackday of your choice. If it’s you, get in touch with us and we’ll look after the rest. If you haven’t won this time, there’s always next month. There are no cash alternatives available. The winning image is drawn at random. Terms and conditions apply. To view the privacy policy of MMG Ltd (publisher of Fast Bikes magazine), please visit www. mortons.co.uk/privacy
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 85
YOUR LIFE ON BIKES
WIN A FAST BIKES
WINNING RIDE
HOODIE!
To be in with a chance of winning this most tasteful of tops, just email us (letters@ fastbikes.co.uk) or post on our Facebook page with a pic of you, your bike and a few words about it, where you’ve been on it and why you rate it so highly. We’ll then pick our favourite post each month, and that lucky person will be the proud owner of their very own Fast Bikes hoodie – which is proven to make you at least 60% faster!*
*Disclaimer: May not actually make you any faster.
Send yours to letters@fastbikes.co.uk Jamie Britton
Triumph Speed Triple
Just that little loop at the top of Scotland and back to Reading
Adam Price Adam Frewin
Yamaha R6
Me and my oldest friend at the Melbourne loop – first time at Donington! A very special day
Triumph
Picked my bike up yesterday. The little one loves it Allen Roberts Honda Fireblade Trackday at Mallory Park
Ash Currie
Dean Sillett
KTM RC8
Ducati V4R
RC8/R owners will know exactly what I’ve been doing
Been eating ice cream in Bridlington
Laurie Myers
KTM 1290 Super Duke R
Riding through the Peak District on my Super Duke Alan Smallwood
Suzuki RGV250
Getting the RGV ready for MoT. My seven-year-old warming it up
Paul Wiggins
Suzuki GSXR400
First outing in three years for this – 1993, totally original GSXR400, rolling into bike night
86 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
Dean Birkumshaw
Suzuki GSX-R1000
Cadwell two weeks ago
FastBikesMag.com/ FastBikes-Forum
Facebook.com FastBikesMagazine
@FastBikesMag
Baz Smart Got sent on a crash course in breakdancing, think I took to it pretty well…
Justine K McDonald
Suzuki GSX-R750
Last weekend’s blast round the north coast of Scotland with a bit of wild camping David Rothwell
Ducati Hypermotard
In Scotland with 40 Ducati riders, organised by Ducati Manchester. Awesome weather and roads
Jim McMeekin
BMW S 1000 R
Touring Spain on my S 1000 R. Darren Shakey Roberts
Kawasaki ZX-6R
Just oot and aboot on the Kwikasfuki Keith Jenkins
Ducati Desmo
First time out in three years on the Desmo
Caught a bit of this going on at the Raven/Midway bike night a few days ago
Brian Moller
Ducati Panigale V4 SP
Taking delivery of my pride and joy Paul Lee
Petronas FP1
Rode this the other week, which was jolly nice
Si James
Suzuki Hayabusa
Top-speed testing at a Straightliners event at Elvington
SUBS
Mike Will Williams
KTM 1290 Super Duke R
IBE R C
See page 8 for the best deals
CUSES. TH E RACING, TH E BATT LES, TH E EX
IN BRIEF… Rider: Brod Wilson Track: Donington Park Series: No Limits Racing Class: Super Series 600 Fastest Lap: 1.36.5 Position(s): 5th, 8th, 5th Championship Position: 5th Excuse: Elbows weren’t out Well, just like that we find the season nearing the end, with Donington Park being the penultimate round on the No Limits Racing calendar and only Cadwell Park left to go. It’s scary how quick this season has passed, but I’m pleased that my confidence and determination to race competitively is back to what it once was. At the start of this season, I was pondering the idea of packing in the racing as I’d been riding like a fairy following last year’s crashes… I’ll admit it, I’d lost my head and didn’t feel I could push like I used to. However, my form over the last three rounds has picked up and I’m finding my way with the bike once again. I’m loving every second of the sport.
I’m so disorganised that I’d actually forgotten to book the test day for this round and I really thought I was going to be on the back foot, but for once it didn’t seem to hinder me too much. After running in the top three for the majority of the 15-minute qualifying session, I got my pants pulled down on the last lap but still managed to grab a second row start. I knew I had a strong pace; it was just a case of growing a pair and getting my elbows out for the first race. I found myself in a right battle for a podium
Wetter than an otter’s pocket. Beer makes you faster!
88 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
The dream team.
the entire race, and despite many attempts to make a pass, they weren’t letting me have it. I was pushed into the bollards going into turn one on the last lap, which really boiled my piss… I had a mega run-up into McLean’s and found myself in a tight old hole as he tried to shut the door on me, but I was too committed and I made it stick. It was a proper brown trouser moment and a miracle we both stayed on, but the next corner the red flags came out, and on count back I ended up finishing in fifth. On Sunday the weatherman lied to me. It was supposed to be a decent day, but instead it was a wash-out in the morning. At least I got my weekly wash in the lake that had formed in the paddock! We swapped to softer fork springs for the race and I felt mega confident in the
wet (for once), and I was able to run in the top five and not too far off the leaders. Unfortunately the race was red flagged again, and in the restart I rode like a fanny and dropped 11 places in the first lap before working my way back up to eighth to cross the line. Having lost the joint championship position to my mate Lee Wells, I knew the last race of the weekend had to be all about beating him. We had a hard-fought battle and after several passes, I managed to pip him on the last lap to claw some valuable points back. While we’re battling for fourth in the championship, the rivalry is in full force as we head to our home round at Cadwell Park for the final race. I know I’ve got the pace to run in the top three now… it’s time to put my big boy pants on!
IN BRIEF… Rider: Tim Neave Track: Cadwell Park Series: British Superbikes Class: Superbike Fastest Lap: 1.27.506 Positions:15th, 11th, 15th Championship Position: Excuse: Last-minute decision Well, where do I start… I’m back following injury, and I’ve made my Superbike debut. It’s been one hell of a month! After Knockhill, we went to Brands Hatch to race on the GP circuit, and it’s such a brilliant track to ride. It’s got it all as far as race tracks go, but I’m still yet to ‘click’ with the place, even though I do love riding there. I qualified in sixth place but didn’t make the best of starts and lost positions in the first couple of laps with an unnervingly spongey front
A fine example of kerb crawling.
brake. But I regrouped and started clawing back into a top eight position… not great, but I’d dropped to 12th at one point. On the second to last corner, on the last lap, I was wiped out by a fellow racer who thought he could use me as a berm in his attempt to make up one last position… Anyway, I ended up
Tim’s career has lifted off... tearing the ligament on the AC joint in my left shoulder. I didn’t know at the time, it just felt bloody sore, so I stupidly tried to race and salvage a few points in Sunday’s race but had to retire mid-race because of the pain. I missed the following round at Thruxton as it was the very next weekend. This year’s condensed racing calendar has caused a lot of back-to-back meetings, so picking up an injury is even more of a nightmare this season. Instead of going to watch at Thruxton, I saw Doug at Altius Healthcare, who absolutely transformed the feeling in my shoulder and enabled me to race at Donington Park for the following round. I ended up finishing seventh in Saturday’s tricky wet race and sixth in Sunday’s dry race, which Tim has been practising his ‘serious’ face for this moment.
PICS> DOUBLE RED
wasn’t such a bad comeback, I suppose. Unfortunately, my teammate in the Superbike class, Danny Kent, had a big crash in his race and ended up busting his hip pretty bad. Since I’d lost a load of championship points and Buildbase Suzuki was short of a rider in the Superbike class, they gave me an opportunity that I really wasn’t expecting this season – a shot on the SBK at my home round, Cadwell Park. Isn’t it strange how quickly things turn around. Ever since I began road racing in 2014, I’d dreamt of this moment and I grabbed it with both hands. It was amazing to work with the team and get the full SBK experience; I made progress in every session, smashed my PB lap time, and brought the bike home for three point scoring finishes. I will say though, I’ve never been so knackered in my life… Yes, Cadwell is probably the most physical track on the calendar, but the level in this class is immense and a huge step up from Superstock. I was blown away by the amount of grip from the slicks, the sheer power of the engine, and the stopping force from the brakes. I was just beginning to get my head around it all, so I really hope I get another shot on it at Snetterton!
YOUR LIFE ON BIKES
S TA R L E T T E R
GIVE US A CHANCE… Is it just me or does everyone have a mate that can run rings around them on the track without trying? Not only that, but a bloke who can get his knee down on demand without fear of a slipped disc and a week in recovery. I’m clocking on in years but not in pace, and that left me a little frustrated a few weeks back when me and my pal Alan went to Blyton circuit to spin some laps and I got an absolute shoeing. I was hanging off my R1 like a chimpanzee but
never once did I feel my slider brush the Tarmac, which did my head in. As for Alan, my only hope is Greta doesn’t find out how much plastic he got through. How can I get quicker on track? I really want to show my mate up before we’re relegated to Zimmer frames. Cheers. Mits
FB: Great to hear from you, Mits. Sounds like you’re a bit beyond help, to be honest. Best bet is to hide your mate’s keys. Do you want us to send you some used sliders?
You can win a Duchinni
D606 Flip Front or a Duchinni D388 Open Face Vintage for simply writing the Fast Bikes Star Letter. Email letters@fastbikes.co.uk
WOR £89.9T9H !
LOVING IT
DUCHINNI D606 FLIP FRONT Versatile. Safe. Affordable. The D606 comes with a single button release face shield/chin bar and a handy internal sun visor. Find out more at www.thekeycollection.co.uk
Delighted with my first copy of FB, I highly recommend it. Took a bit of a punt, a PS refusenik, signing up for two years without having read FB since the days of Al Fagan (goodness knows how many years ago that was) – and only buying it once even then... it wasn’t for me. Times change. The centrepiece of the September edition is an excellent comparison of three quick bikes from three different eras by Johnny Mac. I know his writing well from PB days – sharp, coherent, analytical, fun – with ideas and conclusions that stand out from the crowd. This article is a good example of all of that. More please. The surprise package was a superb contribution by Christian Iddon. He shares in an engaging way not only the fun of racing and winning, but also his innermost thoughts sitting on the grid in mixed
WOR £99.9T9H !
DUCHINNI D388 OPEN FACE VINTAGE Minimalist open-face helmet made to meet current safety standards, with an elegant leatherette covering and luxury vintage-styled textile lining. Find out more at www.thekeycollection.co.uk
conditions. Highly recommended. All in all, I think FB and I are going to get on very well. Parrish, less so. Cheers. Jack not my real name. FB: Thanks for your feedback, Jack, or whatever your real name is – and thanks for going straight in with the two-year deal. We strive to keep you entertained. As with anything, styles change and so do the writers in the mag. We’re really pleased to have a diverse team here at FB, probably the most diverse we’ve had in many years, which is brilliant and will hopefully bring something to each and every one of our readers. We’ve got some exciting tests and bikes to cover on the horizon, so keep your eyes peeled.
OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 90
NO LIMITS TRACKDAYS
ANDALUCÍA CIRCUIT
Jump on this off-season getaway to Andalucía circuit located in southern Spain. With nine right turns, eight lefts, changes in elevation throughout each lap and Spain’s longest straightaway, Andalucía is a track you won’t want to miss. Not that you’ll need any persuasion, but this location also has the least rainfall and more hours of sunshine than anywhere else in Europe.
What’s included in your package: 7 x 20-minute sessions each day Accommodation based on a twin-share basis Bike transportation with use of stillages to transport your bike Free instruction Full tyre support (fees apply) Parts service Suspension advice Garages available Free tea and coffee throughout the event Circuit length: 3.1 miles
For more info visit
www.nolimitstrackdays.com October 11-13: £489 November 8-11: £589 December 12-15: £589
MASTERCLASS If you’ve been a naughty biker, you need some decent legal advice. Get it from mail@whitedalton.co.uk
KEEP IT REAL
It’s easy to get tricked into saying or writing something you shouldn’t after an accident. Honesty and diligence are the order of the day.
Q
GAVIN GREWAL PENAL SERVITUDE PREVENTER The Fast Bikes Legal Clinic is compiled by Gavin Grewal and his bike-riding barristers and solicitors at White Dalton Motorcycle Solicitors. They deal with personal injury claims and their sister company, Motor Defence Team, deals with all the motoring offences. They know everything about bike law. Gavin can usually be found in a court room or racing his Kawasaki around a racetrack. All the White Dalton lawyers are qualified barristers, or solicitors, or both – and they all have full bike licences, too. They don’t act for insurance companies or the prosecution. They are Britain’s most specialist law practice and if they don’t know the answer to your question, there probably isn’t one. Don’t rely on the advice from your insurance appointed solicitor – get proper, independent advice. For road traffic offences, call Motor Defence Team 0800 280 0912
For non-offence cases, call White Dalton Motorcycle Solicitors 0800 783 6191
Visit their websites whitedalton.co.uk
www.motordefencesolicitors.co.uk
I am very concerned about a case my son is involved in. My son has mild learning difficulties but can cope with his job and lives alone. Basically he is dyslexic and has a low IQ, but he is independent. He was involved in a minor collision and he is now going to court to claim damages. I have seen other things you have written, and I have had a look at the papers with my son. He has signed papers saying he needed a hire motorcycle to get to work. He didn’t. He has a motorcycle, but he cycles to work and always has done. He can keep his pedal cycle in the warehouse where he works nights and was worried about his motorcycle, which is his absolute pride and joy, being nicked. In his witness statement, he says the motorcycle was essential for travelling to work. He has signed off saying he had 15 sessions of physio. He had two. He is now going to court and I am worried that he may have real problems. When I asked him about this, he said the man who took the statement told him he needed to say this, and he is a very innocent lad – someone in a suit who he thought was a solicitor told him what he needed to say. Looking at the statement, it uses words like “impecunious” and “clinically essential” – words my son would never understand, let alone use. He has signed these documents with a statement of truth, which says he understands he can go to prison if he has lied. He has not lied – he has signed a document he does not understand. I am very worried for him. Is there anything I can do?
A
I think you are going to have to interfere – something I rarely tell parents to do. When a statement is signed for someone who has literacy or learning problems (I don’t know how bad your son’s dyslexia is) it is essential and required that a SOLICITOR, not some statement taker, confirms that he has read the statement to the witness and has explained the statement of truth. Secondly, there has been very recent case law on this point. Judges are slow to find fundamental dishonesty where they think the claimant is innocent but either foolish or manipulated, because when they do find fundamental dishonesty, there follows a world of pain.
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If you’re not careful, the legal stuff can hurt more than the accident.
THE HIGH COURT JUDGE SAID THE CONDUCT OF THE SOLICITORS NEEDED LOOKING AT, NOT THE POOR BLOKE CAUGHT UP IN THE FEEDING FRENZY A wise part-time county court judge took the view on a similar case pumped up for the benefit of an accident management company that the claimant was honest and had no idea what he was signing (in this case there were no literacy issues), and while the claim was dishonest, the claimant was honest. That judge’s decision was upheld by the High Court and the reasoning was spoton. The High Court judge said the conduct of the solicitors needed looking at, not the poor bloke caught up in the post-crash feeding frenzy. Interestingly, the law firm the claimant in that case used tried to stop acting, failed to get the correct paperwork in, and then did not show up at the appeal hearing. The best thing you can do is insist the witness statement is amended so it tells the truth. Do it by email and set up a trail. The – ahem – law firm your son is
lumbered with is owned by the hire company, so there is an obvious conflict of interest. Your son needs to recover his real losses. The hire company needs to recover the hire charges of the largely unused hire bike and the 13 unused sessions of physio. I suspect the law firm your son is unfortunate enough to be caught up with will get what they can out of the case knowing your son now has someone looking out for his interests and keeping the claim honest. But your son needs to make sure now he knows the importance of keeping his claim straight so he can show the judge how he has tried to remedy the situation he has, innocently but foolishly, found himself in. If this case goes on to trial, your son needs to get an independent solicitor involved. If it goes horribly wrong, in front of the wrong judge, he could be facing prison.
COLUMNIST
THE TIM AND TOM SHOW NEAVE TWIN RACING
Tom Neave
Tom was flying at Cadwell...
Big win, big grin!
couldn’t have gone any better. I topped both free practice sessions, qualified on pole, breaking the lap record with a 1:27.656, and then won the race. It was a dream come true and will take hell of a lot to top that weekend! I did exactly the same back in 2017 in my Superstock 600 days, so all that’s left to do now is the same on a superbike! So, Harv, if your reading this, when are you going to let me loose on one? My twin bro, Tim, got a wildcard SBK ride with his team at Cadwell, which was amazing to watch, but as twins it always has to fair! I feel I’m in a really good place mentally and physically, and with only eight races left, it’s all to play for. For now, it is head down full focus on the remaining races, with a bit of farming in between. Happy days.
Smoking the opposition.
Back on top. 94 OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
PICS: DOUBLE RED & IMPACT IMAGES
W
ell, where do I start. Last month’s column was pretty dull, to be honest. I really hadn’t any decent results to talk about and I was running out of Covid excuses, but in the short space of a month and three race weekends later, I’ve managed to completely turn my championship hopes around. I’ve had a string of podiums and wins and I’m now sitting at the top of the Superstock 1000 Championship by five points. I haven’t forgot how to ride a motorbike after all! We’re just over the halfway point now and things are really hotting up at the top. After Donington round four I was joint first, the two riders behind were joint second, and the two behind that were joint third in the championship standings, and all within five points of each other! The series has never seen anything like this before. I knew I’d got some form back through going to the gym; I’d been doing the same Watt bike session week in, week out and was seeing a steady improvement in my fitness heading into Thruxton. I picked up a fifth and a third, and it was a huge relief to get that first podium of the year – but it’s not a win, so I wasn’t that satisfied. It was onto Donington next, and that gave me confidence because it’s a track I had success at last year and the Fireblade works so well around there. We got my first pole position of the year and that was all I needed to know I could win. I backed it up with two wins, only to get demoted to second place in race one after passing under yellow flags (the rider in front made a mistake and nearly ran off track). A lot of us didn’t agree with the decision race control made, but you have to draw the line somewhere and respect the rules. Onto Cadwell Park – the round myself and the Honda Racing team had all been waiting for. The circuit was alive with the most spectators we’d seen in two years, and the weekend
FHO RACING BSB AND TT LEGEND
SPONSORED BY
Peter Hickman
I
thought last month was busy… I reckon this one has just about topped it! If I’m not racing myself at BSB, I’ve been running the Ohvale job, which basically means I don’t get a weekend off this season. Don’t get me wrong – it’s been mega and the new Mini GP class just keeps going from strength to strength. I guess I should pick up where I left off last month, and that was on my way to Thruxton. It’s a track I’ve always loved racing at and has been good to me over the years. This year I’m really struggling with the SC0 tyres. I’ve used the new SCX tyre at every circuit this year, but at Thruxton everyone had to use the SC0 as it lasts longer. It didn’t do me any favours, and even on the grippiest circuit in the UK I was still lacking grip; I could be fast over a few laps, but putting a full race distance together was hard work. The last race of the weekend was a complete lottery with tyres (we seem to be getting a lot of dodgy conditions this year), and I went for wets. I led at the start of the race for a few laps but as it dried, I ended up dropping back in eighth. It was then onto Donington Park, and I was fastest on the Friday and the bike was working awesome. I missed out on pole position by a whisker on the Saturday morning, and then it rained right before our race, then
Hicky’s been on top form.
dried, and it honestly completely changed my feeling with the bike – we can only put it down to the track surface changing, because we didn’t touch the bike for the Sunday, and we went out and set a new lap record in race two. In race three I got away good, but then the rain came again and the race was restarted. I opted for wets, but once again I made the wrong choice. Thankfully, our fortunes have since changed and at Cadwell Park for my home round, we had an absolute belter – probably my best BSB weekend to date. We had great rhythm and pace from the get-go and I qualified on the front row – I’m not much of a qualifier, so that’s always a good sign. The pace was hot and I broke the lap record and won the first race, took another victory in race two, and looked set for the hat-trick in race three until I had a huge slide in turn one… luckily we managed to bring it home in second place. Overall we had a brilliant weekend! It was round two of the Ohvale cup at Cadwell and the kids were running on the Mountain Circuit, which went down so well that even the crowds stuck around to watch on the Friday and Saturday night. That made it really special for all involved. It’s been a quick turnaround for the kids and parents, and we’ve been at the Silverstone MotoGP, racing the Ohvales on the Stowe Circuit for round three of the Mini GP series. The top three from the race get to stay over and ride with six journalists, along with Jake Dixon and John Mcphee. They also gain behind-the-scenes access to the British Talent Cup, and Harley, who is leading the championship, is going to the MotoGP press conference to ask a few questions. It’s been mega to help provide this opportunity for the young kids and hopefully it’ll help inspire them for a career in motorcycle racing. Next up its Snetterton and Silverstone BSB. Hopefully we can keep this ball rolling!
COLUMNIST
COLUMNIST
VISIONTRACK DUCATI BRITISH SUPERBIKES
Christian Iddon
T
he finishing sentiment of the last column was – ‘It’s all about keeping the ball rolling in this championship. Keep the momentum with these back to back rounds’. This is what I told you all was the key. Well, that aged badly – very, very badly indeed! It started out quite well. In actual fact, it was pretty damn good as I bagged another podium. It was podium number seven of the series, and it was a particularly good one because it came at Thruxton. Thruxton has been a bit of a nemesis track for me in the past – not ever from a lack of outright pace, but from struggling to keep a tyre lasting the distance. However, in the sprint race we did just that, and I also felt like I had the set-up to give me a good chance to repeat the podiums in the longer Sunday races. It seemed as though I could do no wrong, but then it hit me. It hit me like a Kawasaki to the rear wheel... mainly because it was a Kawasaki to the rear wheel, and if you want to know how that feels, it feels pretty heavy and hard. While running very happily in second position, Lee Jackson managed to get himself in all kinds of out-of-shape and collected me in his incident. I gotta say I wasn’t really pissed at Lee – I know it wasn’t because he was riding stupid. He just made an error, which is something we all do. I was just pissed at the situation. It cost me the lead in the BSB championship and it was the very first time I actually fell off the Ducati (despite a couple of trips through the screen). Never mind. Regroup and go again – but the final race of the weekend was a weather lottery. I played the tyre gamble well, but I never got the feeling I needed from the bike and it was my worst finishing result of the year, in 9th. I left far more bummed about my last race performance than the DNF. Onward to Donington we went, and I was looking to get that ball rolling once more. I managed a fourth in the first race; it wasn’t a great result, but that ball was starting to roll until, just like the previous round, I was yet again collected by another rider and taken down. Just like before, I was wiped out of a second place slot, and it was the second time in four races that I suffered a DNF due to another rider. This time the situation was very different, but we all have our own views. The facts, however, remain the same and it was another no score. Onto race three, and another bit of drizzle delayed the start and we were to go again under a ‘wet race’ procedure. After the sighting lap, I thought it was pretty dry, so I opted for a slick rear with an inter front. Turns out I was the only one that thought that, as none of my competitors went for the drier combo. It was a touch damp at the beginning, but I had once again hit the tyre gamble jackpot. Having successfully navigated the first few laps, the track was now dry and all that was left to do was to slowly bridge
the gap to the leaders, pass them and take an amazing win. That was how it played out in my mind, at least... but it all went wrong when I folded the front at Craner curves (of which I am now a repeat member of the Craner club) and my race was done. It was my first crash (of my own doing) on the Ducati and my fifth DNF in eight races. It’s pretty safe to say my ball has not exactly been rolling of late, but throughout the lot we haven’t been lacking any pace, so I’m pretty upbeat despite recent results and – as ever – we have another crazy packed schedule in the next month. I did have one spare weekend since we last spoke and I managed to shoehorn in my first stag do (yes, I plan more than one). We rented Thoresway Moto Park, which has recently been acquired by none other than Guy Martin, and what a place it is. He has big plans for the venue and it is going to be epic, but for now he let me and my mates run riot for the weekend. Funnily enough, we probably had the most fun on a little turn track we made in the paddock. It only had six corners but a race was planned before long, and with
THANKFULLY WE GOT THROUGH THE WEEKEND PRETTY MUCH UNSCATHED, WITH ONLY A MILD CONCUSSION.
a hastily made flag prepared (consisting of a T shirt attached to a stick), we all lined up ready to roll. For a split second I contemplated if I should be entering such a Wacky Races style event but I cast my doubts to one side and treated the five-lap dash against my mates, in a field on a track set out by old tyres and a sledge we found, like I had entered as a wildcard in the British MotoGP. Thankfully we got through the weekend pretty much unscathed, with only a mild concussion, a mangled knee and a cut head caused by the recoil on a gun. I must admit, it was pretty damn awesome to just enjoy riding with my mates, and it was a much-needed reset, ready for the next action-packed few months. OCTOBER 2021 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 97
COLUMNIST
EX-RACER & TEAM MANAGER RACE INSIDER
Steve Parrish There’s another Parrish to look out for...
Old man coming through!
I
’d be lying if I said I’d been flat out over the last few weeks. It’s been more bit-ing and bob-ing, to be honest. I guess the highlight has been testing my Manx Norton at Donignton Park the other week with Richard Cooper. I rode it on the Saturday and just did a test parade, and Coops rode it on the Sunday. They let him start the race from the back of the grid and he went onto finish second, so that shut me up as far as excuses are concerned… he’s still not 100% with his leg – far from it, in fact – but these old bikes don’t take half as much wrestling round a race track compared to a modern superstock 1000 or such like, so he was okay with that. I joined Leon Haslam for his charity golf tournament last week in Nottingham, raising money for children born prematurely, and it was great to be a part of. It was a refreshing change to not win the ‘shit golfer award’. I probably should have done, to be fair, but there was one chap who was a little bit worse than me... somehow. I was over at Grimsthorpe Castle the other week, and what a lovely place that is. It was a classic bike and car show, and I ended up placing a bid on an old police car from Eastern Germany… it had the siren and lights – the full works. It’s probably a good job I didn’t win... the locals would have loved that! In other news, my son Joe has passed his bike licence. It was about time, I guess, but I think when he kept seeing me come home in a wheelchair
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Can you imagine if he’d bought it?
A sight for sore eyes...
and stuff like that put him off as a young lad. I’ve just had a new cataract lens put in my eye... the ol’ eyesight needed a bit of tweaking, so that’s sorted that. I’m like an old car – stuff keeps going wrong, and bit by bit I’m having a revamp. The doctors wouldn’t let me do anything for a week, but the next day I was playing tennis, so thought I best cover it up. I devised a new protective set-up which allowed me to play... mind you, I did get a few funny looks. The commentary job has gone a bit quiet but I’ve been enjoying watching the racing properly. The second GP in Austria was exciting to watch at the end of the race. I was honestly surprised to see everyone go in to change their tyres with three or four laps to go, but fair play to Binder – that took some minerals to stay out and stick with it on cold wet slicks. He deserved that one. Race two at Donington BSB was a bit wild; we’ve never seen so many penalties being dished out in BSB. The racing has become so intense. The bikes are so well matched and the safety of the racewear and circuits is at its all-time best. It just seems that some of the riders are taking liberties with it all. I hope there is some more respect shown at Cadwell... there’s not a lot of room around there. Time will tell. Catch you all next month.