Table of contents for June 2016 in Performance Bikes

WELCOME TO THE June issue of Performance Bikes. This month we’ve gone road racing crazy. By the time you read this, the NW200 will be just about to happen, and then it’s time for racing’s most hardcore riders to head out to the Island for the TT. To highlight their efforts, we’ve put together a 32-page supplement celebrating the best in road racing. We love the sport and have had road racers linked to the mag for 20 years, from the days of Ronnie Smith and Gus Scott, through to Guy Martin and today with John McGuinness as a columnist and Michael Rutter as our road tester. All of them normal, salt-of-the-earth blokes who are fearless, talented and fast as fuck. And there is plenty of other goodness in this…

MONZA DROPPED FROM WSB Monza has been dropped from the 2016 WSB calendar after it failed to improve safety standards. WSB organisers are currently trying to find a replacement location for the July 22-24 round. McGUINNESS AT SPA McPint is taking a step back in time to compete in the four-hour classic endurance at the Biker’s Classic at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. We hope the Belgies are ready for Morecambe’s favourite son... BILLY REDMAYNE RIP Former Manx Grand Prix winner Billy Redmayne has died from injuries sustained at the Spring Cup at Oliver’s Mount. He was placed on life support, but his injuries were too severe to recover from. NEW TT VIDEO GAME New TT video game ‘TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge’ promises to be something…

BUMS AND BANDITS Just reading the latest PB, which landed on my doorstep yesterday morning. Nearly coughed up my cornflakes when I noticed the PC-to-the-wind rebranding of your Bandit as the ‘Bumdit’ on page 105. We used to subtly change words in each others’ dissertations at university, then sit there sniggering until they sussed it out. I guess you need to lock your computer when you go for a brew next time. I did try emailing Chris directly, but it bounced back. I hope he hasn’t befallen some foul fate as a result... Mike Edmondson Hi Mike, it was a deliberate play on words, due partly to the Bandit’s fat arse and partly because we are juvenile and it makes us laugh. We’ve called it far worse than that. And…

THESE ARE THE hardest, fastest naked bikes that Triumph and Ducati produce. Both manufacturers have decided to step away from the super-naked arms race that the likes of Aprilia and BMW have thrown all their technical might into. Neither of these bikes are superbikes with the fairings ripped off – they’re focused bikes, built from the ground up, without the stretched out and contradictory riding positions – and with grunty motors designed to work at speeds below 100mph. They’re all the better for it. Both the Speed Triple R and Monster R are exciting, captivating roadbikes that potentially offer big thrills at speeds that are attainable on the road. And if you’re looking at an alternative to a race-rep there’s a lot going for them: great looks, trick suspension and…

ENGINE Type Air-cooled, sohv, 4v V-twin Capacity 904cc Bore x stroke 92mm x 68mm Fuelling Electronic fuel injection Power 80bhp @ 7500rpm (claimed) Torque 58.56lb.ft @ 6500rpm (claimed) CHASSIS Frame Hub-centre composite chassis; machined aluminium perimeter spars, remote headstock subframe Front suspension Aluminium swingarm, fully adjustable AFCO T2 shock Rear suspension AFCO single shock, fully adjustable Front brakes 2 x 320mm discs with four-piston Brembo calipers Rear brakes 220mm disc with single-piston caliper DIMENSIONS Wheelbase 1394mm Rake/trail 19°/98mm (as tested) Weight 161kg (dry, claimed) Seat height N/A Fuel capacity 16 litres…

1998 4XV 150bhp (claimed) 177kg (dry) Price then: £9300 What it is: The start of an iconic line. Quite simply the lairiest, gruntiest sportsbike money could buy at the time. 2000 5JJ 150bhp (claimed) 175kg (dry) Price then: £8800 What it is: Refined. 156 detail changes make the 5JJ easier to ride and create a slightly better all-round package. Not as mental, though. 2002 5PW 152bhp (claimed) 174kg (dry) Price then: £9199 What it is: Even more refined. Sharper-than-ever styling, fuel injection that did a good impression of carbs and best ever rear tail-light. 2004 5VY 172bhp (claimed) 172kg (dry) Price then: £9399 What it is: The great leap. 20bhp more, a shorter stroke, bigger bore, underseat pipes, radial brakes... The pinnacle of the five-valve R1. 2007 4C8 180bhp (claimed)…

‘Being old-school I fell in love immediately. I was a big Kenny Roberts fan back in the day’ WINTERS IN WISCONSIN, USA are harsh, with the mercury regularly dipping as low as -25°C. That means many weeks of the year when the best thing to do is repair to the workshop and get down to some serious bike building. It’s in this environment that ex-pat Ian Judd created the R1 he calls ‘Ole Yellar’. A life-long sportsbike fan, Ian left a Kawasaki ZXR750H behind in the UK when he emigrated to the States. “I’m 58 years old and have been riding since the age of 16,” he says. “I got my first bike, a moped, as a means of getting to college when I left school. I caught the bug…

YOSHIMURA TL1000R ENGINE ‘The is a works Yoshimura TL-R motor from America. It was raced by Larry Pegram and Steve Crevier in AMA and is a full-on Yoshi-spec genuine motor, aside from the crankcases. It’s an amazing bit of kit and I’m not quite sure how it escaped the scrapper, but I’m glad it did! I rebuilt it 10 years ago and it has titanium valves, Carillo rods, special cams, a kit gearbox, magnesium cases, a trick crank, factory valve seats, the list goes on. I’ve never actually run it, mainly as it took me six years to locate the unique dry clutch and you simply can’t get any spare parts for it! I reckon it will make 150bhp. I did offer it back to Yoshi, but they said they…

1999 SUZUKI TL1000R MATT WILDEEE WE’VE ALWAYS HAD a soft spot for Suzuki’s TL1000R – it was the Japanese V-twin superbike that should have changed everything. Introduced in 1998 as the machine that was going to destroy Ducati’s V-twin supremacy in World Superbikes, it did little more than disappoint. Too heavy and too slow to ever become a competitive racebike, it also suffered in comparison to its road rivals for the same reasons. But the potential was there. TLs were always impressive roadbikes – carrying deceptive speed everywhere and exuding the kind of character that makes ownership a long-term experience. It also makes them perfect fodder for projects – and that was one of the reasons why we really wanted to get our hands on one. Our plan was simple,…

2000 YAMAHA YZF-R1 MATT WILDEE THE INCREMENTAL DRIVE to improve my old R1 continues. Last month it was a fully-adjustable race shock from Nitron, this month it was the addition of a steering damper. I’d bought an Öhlins damper with a Harris 916-style fitting kit from PB reader Liam. It was in great nick, but the kit was polished, which didn’t suit the subtle R1. I wanted a satin finish for the brackets, but getting it to look right proved a struggle. I’d got a local plating firm to vapour blast and anodise it, but the results were poor. It looked like it had been quite aggressively bead-blasted and the anodising gave a dull, flat finish. So I took the parts to my racing mates Michael and Sharon at West…

‘It’s come a long way from the £700 minger we snatched from the jaws of a breaker’ 1997 SUZUKI BANDIT CHRIS NEWBIGGING ADMIT IT, YOU fancy a go. It’s a bit of a chip shop bird – not the prettiest, and a bit greasy, but you know it’s up for some fun, too... We’re pleased with our Bandit racer. Faded pink paint and corroded motor aside, it’s come a long way from the £700 minger we snatched from the jaws of a bike breaker. The 45,000-mile turd wasn’t long for the roads – fucked suspension, dicey brakes and a motor wheezing along with a few leaky valves. But these old Suzukis are tough. Despite having the visual appeal of a leper taking a bath in a cesspit, there was still…

HOW LONG 18 MONTHS COST £299 (PLUS DYNO TIME) CONTACT WWW.THETUNINGWORKS.CO.UK/WWW.KRAZY-KATT.COM I HAD SOME expansions built for my RGV250, which worked nicely. But the electronic control for the powervalves is crude, and the ignition curve is set for stock pipes and 1989-spec fuel. Zeeltronic’s combined CDI/powervalve controller lets you optimise set-up for minor mods like mine. Two-stroke specialist James Harper at Krazy Katt Dyno in Bedfordshire coaxed 3bhp between jetting and electronic tweaks, and the all-or-nothing transition from closed to open powervalves is less severe. Power is now smoother and stronger. You can program it at home with a laptop or a £120 programming tool, but unless you know what you’re doing, I’d pay a man like James with a dyno’s air/fuel and temperature monitoring gear to do it without…

2016 KAWASAKI ZX-10R MATT WILDEE SO, I’VE PULLED rank and taken charge of the latest, most powerful, high-performance motorcycle on PB’s test fleet. It wasn’t really a tough decision; back in the autumn I’d travelled to Barcelona for its official unveiling and was very impressed with the scope of the ZX-10R’s changes. Then last month I was subjected to Chris’s rants about its power and suspension quality after he rode one across Europe. But the truth is, until now I’ve never really been much of a fan of the ZX-10R. The 2004 bike was an icon, and I’ve put miles on every model since, but they’ve failed to win me over. The 2011-15 bike was the nadir as far as I was concerned – a very fast track bike with…

WHAT A LOT OF people don’t realise is how much bike dynamics change at the TT – you start with fork oil like treacle, 24 litres of fuel, cold brakes, new tyres. The bike doesn’t want to turn, stop, grip – and there’s no acclimitisation. For short circuits, you have morning practice and a sighting lap. Here, you turn up in your van, sit around for hours, then accelerate from 0-170mph past St Ninian’s. That’s where John McGuinness and James Hillier are good, but it takes anyone a full lap to get into it and for the bike to start feeling right. Pitstops fuck with your head – you spend 40-odd seconds stopped, get a new back tyre, the front tyre and brakes go cold and you’ve a full fuel…

MATT WILDEE EDITOR matt.wildee@pbmag.co.uk Joey for his speed and charity work; McGuinness for letting me ride his bike! SIMON RUSSELL ART EDITOR simon.russell@bauermedia.co.uk Bruce Anstey. His epic speed, his epic beard and he just turns up and wins! CHRIS NEWBIGGING FEATURES EDITOR chris@pbmag.co.uk David Jefferies. Funny, straight-talking, and proof huge oafs can go like fuck JOHN McAVOY ROAD TESTER editorial@pbmag.co.uk Foggy: wins and a lap record that stood for years on a bike that was falling apart MICHAEL RUTTER TRACK TESTER editorial@pbmag.co.uk Steve Hislop. So fast and smooth that he’d still be winning TTs today MARK WHITE TECHNICIAN editorial@pbmag.co.uk Guy Martin. Just a bloke on a bike going batshit on the road... and loving it KAR LEE FORUM EDITOR editorial@pbmag.co.uk Phillip McCallen. Always recognisable, even when riding in plain kit!…

I’M DOING THIS on the boat as I return from the Isle of Man, so the fact I can string a sentence together shows that it hasn’t been as wild a trip as usual. Generally, the annual TT launch turns into a bit of a drinking session, but this time I took the wife and kids, which put the brakes on shenanigans. I went to bed at a sensible hour while the rest of the boys got their drinking practice in. To be honest, with the kids off school, the last few weeks have been really nice as I’ve managed to combine work and quality family time. Well, if you can call quality family time hanging around a freezing Le Mans paddock and then driving through the night to avoid…

2004 WAS A great year for superbikes. Honda launched their MotoGP-inspired Fireblade and Kawasaki unveiled the iconic ZX-10R. But the best of the bunch was Yamaha’s new YZF-R1 5VY. With a new chassis, an engine that screamed to 14,000rpm and styling that could rupture gussets at 20 paces, it was 2004’s best-seller. Over the next 12 pages we examine just why this 12-year-old Yamaha is probably the best sub-£5k sportsbike in the world today.…

EXHAUSTS The first of the underseat exhaust R1 models and arguably the best-looking bike with them since Ducati’s iconic 916. Reward it with a pair of quality cannons. You’ll struggle to find a good 5VY R1 where an owner hasn’t made aftermarket exhausts top of their list of mods. They can look fantastic, sound brilliant and let loose a bit more power. The standard cans are actually very good looking and kits can be had online to de-baffle those if the stealthy look is your thing. GEARING Got £15 to spare? You won’t find a better use for it than a 16-tooth front sprocket. Dropping one tooth off the front sprocket will make the bike even more punchy and a bit more wheelie-tastic. CHECK FOR NEGLECT Fairings are easy to…

I WAS ALREADY seriously impressed by the DB8 even before Johnny told me it was packing the Multistrada engine and not the 1198 superbike motor. Once he spilled the beans I couldn’t have been more impressed. This is Bimota at its best, making a beautiful chassis that works. There is so much to like about the DB8, but what really matters for me is that this motorcycle is so much more than a donor engine in a posh frock. OK, it’s not as refined as it could be. I’d want to have a look into what’s causing it to feel like it’s pushing on during long, heavy braking. My gut says there’s something going on with the fuel injection mapping. I’d also want to experiment with the ride height. But,…

1 BIKE LIFT ‘This is not like a normal bike lift as it is considerably shorter and the bed comes apart into two pieces, which makes it incredibly useful. I use it to hold engines and due to its short size it is very easy to move around. It does have downsides; its short size means you can’t use a paddock stand when you put a bike on it, but overall I’d rather have it than a longer one.’ 2 TIG WELDER ‘Compared to a MIG welder, a TIG is just so much nicer to use. There is certainly a skill to it, especially if you are doing alloy or stainless, but for normal steel welding it’s pretty easy. The quality of the weld is so much better than MIG…

‘Second and third-gear exits are rewarded with wheelies of any size you desire’ 2003 STOCK TL-R PB reader Sam’s bike makes 20bhp less and weighs 30kg more than ours. Nice bike, but by god you can feel it... 1999 PROJECT TL The way our finished bike handles and makes its power puts it In a completely different league. YOU ONLY HAVE to spend a couple of minutes with our TL1000R to see where all the money has gone. From a distance it looks like a fairly standard, knowingly-fettled sportsbike, but get close and the differences are apparent. The TL drips subtle, race-bred intent. There’s flashes of carbon here and there, a blink of titanium or the flash of something that looks familiar yet out of place at the same time.…

‘While trying to reduce the traction control settings, I accidentally turned it off!’ 2016 BMW S1000RR MICHAEL RUTTER IT WAS GREAT to be at the front of a race again. I was at the sharp end of the National Superstock grid right from the start. If you remember last month I’d decided to have a crack at National Superstock this year with SMT racing. The idea was for SMT to run me on a Superbike and Superstocker at the top road races, then have a proper tilt at the Superstock championship to keep me sharp. But at the first official BSB test at Silverstone I felt like I’d made a terrible mistake – everyone was so fast. The Superstockers were out with the BSB boys and most of them had…

CONSTRUCTION Braided steel lines envelop a low-friction plastic inner, preventing expansion under pressure. FITTING Lines for 2000 YZF-R1 were a correct length and fitted perfectly. Off-the-shelf fitting kits are available for most sportsbikes. HOW LONG 1 YEAR COST £56 CONTACT WWW.GOODRIDGE.CO.UK REPLACING YOUR OLD brake lines with braided items is always a very good idea. The rubber brake lines that are OE on most Japanese sportsbikes are shite. As new, they expand under pressure, which can make your brakes feel spongy. And they degrade with age, becoming brittle on the outside and more susceptible to expansion, reducing the direct hydraulic effect from the lever to the caliper. Braided lines combat this – these Goodridge braided lines have a low-friction plastic inner which is then protected by stainless steel woven braiding,…

HOW LONG 20 MONTHS/6000 MILES COST £299.99 CONTACT WWW.NEVIS.UK.COM THE EVO VERSION of TCX’s top-line race boot is the best yet. The simple addition of a drawstring to tighten the fit around your ankle means it fits better than the regular RS2 ever did – the integrated air chamber and pump is an ineffective gimmick which usually fails. But that’s irrelevant here. I’ve worn them in the cold, and in the hot/humid sweatbox of Sepang, and they managed to keep my feet relatively comfortable at both ends of the temperature spectrum. The only ill effect I noticed was the soles getting soft and bendy in extreme heat. They’re usually stout and reassuring in European conditions. Gripes? The rubber sealing lip at the top digs in to your shins when you’re…

‘You can wear the tread out of the tyres and the R1’s electronics still let them find grip’ 2016 YAMAHA YZF-R1 CHRIS NEWBIGGING SILVERSTONE’S NATIONAL CIRCUIT is often overlooked – it’s the shortest and least glamourous of the three iterations of the main circuit. But for a first trackday on 190bhp of obscenely fast, cutting-edge superbike, it’s the ideal circuit. Think about it: loads of room, two big-balls fast corners, a fast direction change on the brakes with an exit that demands precision to get good drive, and then the tight, technical Brooklands/Luffield complex. And with a lap coming in at just over a minute, you get a lot of repeat opportunity to attack them and improve. It’s perfect for understanding a techno-marvel like the R1. It’s early days for…

SINCE I ANNOUNCED I would be racing a sidecar, so many people have asked me how different it will feel compared to my superbike. All I knew before I turned a wheel was it had a Kawasaki ZX-10R engine, so when I started it and it sounded like a bike, I just focused on that for comfort! But riding it out of the pit for the first time was a surreal experience, not only due to the fact I was on three wheels, but also because of who was next to me on the grid. My first test was at a French track called Val de Vienne. It was my first time in a sidecar, my first time at the track and the first time I had ridden with a…

‘The truth is 156bhp at the rear wheel doesn’t take any prisoners’ AT THIS TIME of year the roads are dry but not warm, the sunshine lasts longer each day, but its precious heat is tempered by a constant wind. The hedgerows are still brown and lifeless but punctuated by bright daffodils sending an early warning of the imminent explosion of colour and emergence of life in the countryside. Spring is a transitional season; winter is in the past and the emphasis is in getting ready for summer. In many ways that’s how the 2004 Yamaha R1 makes me feel. It has more in common with the R1 of today than the iconic 1998 original it replaced, which may seem like a strange thing to say given that on paper…

BACK IN APRIL 2004 I was handed the keys to a brand new R1 PB long-termer. It was impressive from the start: trackdays, touring, weekend rides with mates, it handled it all with ease. It wasn’t quite the track tool my previous 2003 CBR600RR was, but its engine was bursting at the seams with torque and it had an extra 40-odd bhp at the back wheel. Little did I know that I’d keep it for eight more years. After rummaging around the back of the sofa and finding enough shrapnel to buy it, I set about modifying it some more. The list of changes is modest compared to what I’ve since done to my K6 but at the time it was substantial for me. The engine remained near stock, with…

MICHAEL RUTTER PB TESTER AND TT WINNER Quick, smooth, utterly devoid of fear (see page 62), Rutter is the fastest magazine road tester in the country. BIMOTA DB8 ITALIA 138bhp, 186kg, £25,900 Giving away nearly 60bhp to the quickest litre bikes, does the lightweight, Multistrada-engined DB8 have what it takes to bother the top of our leader board? FOUNDED IN 1973 by Valerio Bianchi, Giuseppe Morri and the great Massimo Tamburini at a time when chassis engineering and production was sketchy at best, Bimota set out to make handmade chassis that could match the performance generated by engines of the time. It was a formula that worked well, until the big players figured out how to make their own bikes handle, and how to mass produce them to a cost.…

KEEP JOBS SEPARATE Because I’m working in a small space I rebuild engines in the same area I’m grinding or cutting, so I can’t combine jobs. After each job I clean the area down, ensure it is all spotless, and then start the next project. CLEAN LITTLE AND OFTEN Don’t let dirt build up. It is easier to clean regularly and keep on top of it rather than leave the grime to build up. It’s just like doing the dishes, when they stack up it’s far more of a bother to start the cleaning process. GET ENLIGHTENED Good lighting is essential. Strip lights are cheap to buy, but think before you locate them. Don’t put the light behind where you will be working or it will throw a shadow on…

“LIKE MICHAEL SAYS, he’s got to learn to stop treating treaded tyres like slicks – he’s braking super-late, turning it around and gassing it out. It’s not a surprise – that’s how he’s ridden a superbike for 20-odd years, but Michael’s clever enough to know he’s got to adapt. “So I’m going to change the bike – he needs to maintain a bit more corner speed, and be gentler getting on the power. At the moment he has enough grip for his superbike style – and it works, he put a two-second gap into third place at Silverstone. But the problem is tyre longevity. I’m going actively change the balance of the bike, taking away rear grip and increasing it at the front. As well as being more suited to…

HOW LONG 6 MONTHS COST £7.49 CONTACT WWW.WD40.CO.UK I’M REPEATEDLY IMPRESSED by WD-40’s range of bike-specific products. This chain cleaner is the best I’ve used, thanks to the way it blasts off filth and old grease and leaves a perfect chain underneath. There isn’t really much effort needed – just spray the chain, leave for a few seconds and wipe it off. It’s hassle-free, and when combined with a good chain lube (my favourite is WD-40’s own or Putoline DX11) allows you to keep your chain perfect. It’s part of the reason I was able to keep the chain on our GSX-S1000F long-termer pristine in 3000 winter miles. The only downside is that the cleaner is expelled from the can at such a rate that unless you use it sparingly…

HOW LONG 11 YEARS COST I GOT A DEAL - IT’S £276/£719 NOW CONTACT WWW.MACHINEMART.CO.UK MACHINE MART HAD this in their shop window, and one side had faded so I got it cheap. It’s since stood in my workshop and continued to fade to a nice salmon colour. Matches my favourite pants... The roller bearing drawers are OK – they’re no Snap-On or Beta, but if you’ve never had posh boxes, you wouldn’t notice. The lower drawers have needed the rollers cleaning and lubing every few years – dust from the floor makes them grind. The trim on the drawers slides around, too – I should glue them on. But I like the small, deep storage drawers. However, like any big tool box, the wheels are useless once it’s filled…

‘The torque-laden 160bhp inline four that shoves it along is fantastic’ 2016 BMW S1000XR MARK WHITE ALL THE BEST conversations happen in vans. Often, they’re about breasts, and which would win – crocodile or tiger? But in this instance, it was bikes. Johnny Mac and I were heading back to his place (Oh yeah? Sweaty cuddle for two, was it? – CN) with his new sofa tucked in the back of my van, when we started musing about the arrival of my long-termer – a BMW S1000XR. We were coming up to a particular set of S-bends we know well. Johnny’s in the passenger seat when he starts describing what it’ll be like on the big BMW, having tested one a few months ago. “Really lean on the traction control,…