WANT TO BRAKE BETTER?
KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R
OC T ISS OBER UE 371 2020
TECHNIQUES TO UP YOUR GAME
USED BUYER’S GUIDE
HOW TO GO CLUB RACIN NG!
ALL YOU N NEED TO KNOW TO O GET ON THE GRID
E L A T U BR 205BHP MV’S GER HEADBAN
PRE-TECH SPECES
NOUGHTI R1, ZX-10R AND BLADE SCRAP IT OUT
ALSO INSIDE
RACE RIOT
TRACK SPEC
BLADE SP AND STREET TRIPLE RS TERMERS
IT’S THE NEWS!
Upfront ........................................... 10 All the latest gossip from the world of motorcycling.
GEARED UP!
Tried Out ......................................... 12 Testing the hottest gear.
THE KNOWLEDGE
Used Bike Guide .............................62
On the hunt for a KTM 1290 Super Duke R? Well here’s the lowdown…
How to build a track bike............... 78
Everything you need to know about building a track bike.
YOUR LIFE ON BIKES
You and Yours .................................86 All of your adventures
Chatter ............................................88 A spread dedicated to the best readers in the world…
WORKSHOP
Know Your… Aero...........................90 We look at the dark art of aerodynamics.
COLUMNISTS
Neave twins ....................................94
We catch up with Tom after his stonking start to the 2020 season.
Gaz Johnson....................................96
What is our resident TT rider up to these days?
Christian Iddon ...............................97
He’s finally a British Superbike race winner!
Steve Parrish...................................98 Parrish is back in action too.
TESTS
MV Agusta Brutale 1000................. 16
We finally get a go on MV’s 205 horsepower naked weapon… but is it worth the hefty price tag?
Pre-tech Spec..................................26
We travel back to the Noughties to pit the Fireblade, ZX-10R and R1 against each other.
FEATURES
Braking the habit ............................42
How to better your braking…
Your Guide to Club Racing..............54
Ever wanted to get on the grid? Well here’s how… 4 OCTOBER 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
SCRIB B U See pag e8 for the best deals
E
S
ISSUE 371 OCTOBER 2020
OCTOBER 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 5
WORDS: DANGEROUS
IMAGES: CHAPPO
USED TEST
PRETECH SPEC
Long before people were ‘woke’, burnouts were frowned upon and World Superbikes was a predictable cavalcade, this trio of litre sportsbikes hit the market and revolutionised our world… without needing to go high-tech.
I
t is amazing to think just 10 years ago Carl was still in kindergarten, and that, like him, high-tech sportsbikes were largely unheard of. Okay, some of the flashier folk out there might have had a bike with a dash-integrated gear indicator (while the rest of us relied on a bolt-on from the M&P catalogue), but tech on bikes didn’t really start hitting the scene until the late Noughties, when features like power modes, basic traction control systems and the odd stock-fitment quickshifter began making their way down from racing circles and on to our street bikes. Honda was the first to add ABS to sportsbikes in 2009 on the CBR600RR and Fireblade, while Ducati debuted sporting traction control in 2008 on the 1098R and Suzuki were the first (some argue Benelli with the TnT) to employ variable power modes in 2007 on the GSX-R1000 K7. But no bike had it all, and no bike sewed such systems together until BMW’s box-fresh BMW S1000RR arrived in 2010 and turned the whole world on its head. That’s the point at which a new era of digital communication between rider assists was kick-started and saw an IMU talking to the ABS, traction control and even the power modes, to keep riders safer and help them ride faster. It was genuinely ground-breaking stuff, and cemented the RR’s place in history… but that’s not to say its lesser tech-inclined rivals weren’t worth a look. For some people the rise of computerised control was a bad move, taking the theoretical pleasure and challenge out of riding a bike. The notion of an unmolested 170bhp sportsbike that could dish out highsides as easily as powerslides was what people wanted and back then there were plenty of poke-packed offerings on the market to choose between. They were good times, and great bikes, and so with a decade’s worth of hindsight on hand, we thought it would be worth a trip down memory lane to see how three of the best bikes from that last generation of audacious technophobes have weathered.
OCTOBER 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 27
FEATURE
BRA
AKING WORDS: RIGHT SAID JACK
IM AGES: F B A RCHI V E / YA M A H A
THE ABIT E HA It’s one th hing going fast, but it’s another thing stopping fast. We tak ke a look at th he best tecchniques needed tto haul you up p in a hurry.
OCTOBER 2020 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 43
WWW FASTBIKESMAG COM WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM
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#48
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Forty-eight Autumn 2018
OCTOBER 2018
No. 330 October 2018 £4.30 UK Off-sale date 31/10/2018
MOTO MEMORIES // TECH TALK // MONTESA COTA 200 // BULTACO MATADOR
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