Tabla de contenidos para November 2023 en BIKE

ELECTRONICS Much the same as the old bike as standard, with two rider modes, ABS and traction control. Curiously, you can tick electronic suspension on the extras list on the F800GS and F900GS Adventure, but not the F900GS. BMW has created its most aggressively-styled GS ever with the new F900GS. Instead of looking like a watered-down R1250GS, the new bike resembles something that’s escaped the Dakar Rally. At Bike we always rated the F850GS as BMW’s best real-world adventure bike – and as the new 900 it now looks the part too. There are plenty of changes behind the new plastics as well. The engine comes from the big-selling F900XR, which means it’s got a big-bored version of the old parallel-twin F850GS. Pistons are forged instead of cast and are…

RIDING POSITION Not as crackers as the track-based publicity shots make out. The clip-on ’bars are raised above the top yoke so it should actually be pretty comfy. POWER TO WEIGHT With an A2-dictated maximum of 47bhp and a wet weight of 175kg, it should feel perky. The lighter, single-cylinder KTM 390 Duke has a better power to weight ratio though. CHASSIS 41mm forks and rear shock are adjustable for preload only. Single 320mm front disc is gripped by a ByBre four-piston radial caliper. Another month, another brilliant-looking bike for A2 licence holders. After the new KTM 390 Duke and Kawasaki ZX-4R comes the Aprilia RS457, a parallel-twin sexpot with an aluminium alloy beam frame, three rider modes and adjustable traction control. With immaculate timing, the bike was unveiled a…

Out in front, Chris Newbigging is lost. Our guest tester whistled past a left turn to Sellafield, which even I know means we’re heading north towards Whitehaven instead of cutting inland towards our Lake District lodgings the other side of Eskdale. But do I mind? Nah. The Multistrada V4 Rally is so entertaining Chris can keep going to Carlisle for all I care. With its 19in front wheel, fabulously grippy Pirelli Skorpion tyres and monstrously powerful V4, the Multistrada is the most road orientated of our quartet, and makes keeping up with its rivals a doddle. Even if I bottle out and don’t carry as much corner speed as the others I can just deploy some of the Ducati’s 160bhp top-end on the way out and – taa-dar! – their…

Group test The 1290 Super Adventure R is by far the battiest of our quartet because KTM really do expect you to go off-road on the 160bhp sledgehammer. Sure, the other bikes look the rufty-tufty part, but deep down they’re brilliant sports tourers wearing Gucci motocross trousers. The KTM, on the other hand, is a rocket-powered motocrosser with cruise control and Bluetooth. It’s not just the 21in front wheel and sophisticated off-road mode that make it feel like an overgrown ’crosser. It’s the fact that you can access the air filter via a cubby hole below the ’bars in minutes, and that the fuel tank is now the same design as the 790 and 890 Adventure’s – ie, slung either side of the engine to lower the centre of gravity…

[The Oxley interview Mat is a TT winner, endurance racer, author and MotoGP paddock insider] This year the Isle of Man TT released a new documentary, No Room For Error, which is probably the best film ever made about the TT. The four-part doc goes deep into the risks and the emotional stresses suffered by riders and their loved ones, so it’s not your usual macho TT nonsense. The stars of the show are supposed to be the TT’s men of the moment: lap-record-holder Peter Hickman, Michael Dunlop, Dean Harrison and John McGuinness, the most successful living exponent of ‘wall dodging’, as Harrison calls his job. And yet the real star of the show isn’t any of these racers, it’s Lee Johnston, a one-time TT winner and former British Superstock…

» Introduced in 2005 the K1200R Sport was a ten grand bike based on the storming K1200R supernaked. Now you can buy one for three grand – and its day is still today. With around 150bhp at the wheel and 85 lb.ft of torque, the Sport is not short of urge. You get a Paralever rear and clever Duolever front at either end of a very stretched 62.2-inch wheelbase; with a lazy 29.4º rake and generous 112mm trail the Sport hasn’t the quickest steering, but is a paragon of stability at speed. It is also abundantly comfortable, makes a satisfying noise when wound up, and has exclusivity.…

That you get what you pay for is one of life’s truths. Watching the way repeated pairs of cheapo pattern indicators have drooped disappointingly on my TDR250 is evidence enough. But sometimes you can get more than you pay for. The TDR’s parallel-twin two-stroke engine has been marking its territory for the six years I’ve owned it, but I’ve only just found the leak’s source. The pump for the two-stroke oil uses a reciprocating plunger, driven off the crank to match engine speed, with the throttle turning a pulley that adjusts the stroke and alters the volume of oil. My plunger drags out a smear of oil every time it moves, which collects behind the pump cover before dribbling out. Usually on someone’s freshly jet-washed drive. Rebuild kits are £20,…

The middleweight sportsbike resurrection continues, with Triumph riding into battle on a new Daytona 660. These spy shots show a production-ready prototype with the same frame and 80bhp engine as the Trident and Tiger Sport 660, but with better brakes and a more aggressive riding position. Although hardcore sportsbike fans will be gutted it’s not a direct replacement of the old 125bhp Daytona 675, Triumph’s thinking is clear: create a user-friendly sportsbike to attract younger riders into showrooms. Think Yamaha R7 but with more comfort, or Honda CBR650R with more cachet. ‘For new riders who want the sportsbike aesthetics, it will appeal,’ says James Hallam, senior sales exec at Youles Triumph in Manchester. ‘For those who’ve grown up with a poster of a Panigale on the wall, it’ll be perfect.…

I’m a veteran suffering PTSD and have recently had to switch my motorcycle to a lighter model (getting old limits one’s strength, oh and bikes are getting heavier). I bought my first BMW R1150GS in 2001, only to be told by my sportsbike mates I’d purchased a tractor. But they soon learned I could reasonably keep up with them on the twisting roads of the Brecon Beacons. However, forced by a replacement hip, the aforementioned search for a lighter motorcycle was on… My hankering for the GS look led me to the R nineT Urban G/S in white with yellow wheels and twin Akrapovic exhausts. So off to the dealers I went to buy a bike that has no fancy computer and no complicated electronic dashboard. I fired it up…

Group test Good luck with that,’ says Jon, nodding at the ginormous Rally Explorer as we’re about to set off over the Hardknott Pass at the beginning of day two. The Hardknott is barely wider than a footpath in places and wriggles around the Lake District so enthusiastically that there are warning signs galore on its approach. ‘Narrow route, severe bends,’ says one. ‘Road suitable for cars and light vehicles only,’ says another. Hmm. Does the Triumph count as a light vehicle? It weighed in at 293kg on our scales before I stuffed the panniers full of claptrap, so maybe not. Oh well, soon find out. My nerves aren’t calmed while walking to the bike, which sits so high on its suspension that the 18in rear wheel looks like it’s…

This is the iconic Imola circuit in Italy, scene of many a nail-devouring World Superbike skirmish. The bike is Ducati’s revised Panigale V4 R, the full-fat £39,151 homologation sportsbike built purely to provide the strongest possible base to race in WSB. And it’s brutally quick – when fitted with an accessory race exhaust system a bewildering 234bhp is tightly packed inside a chassis with a handling limit that far exceeds normal riders like us. It is undoubtedly the closest thing you can buy to a racer with lights and mirrors. This was already the case with the Panigale V4 R. Released in 2019, its 998cc desmo V4 engine is smaller than the 1103cc unit in other Panigale V4 models to meet Superbike racing regulations, but a shrieking and unfathomable 16,500rpm…

OOH… LOVELY REAR Seat cover and pillion ’pegs, how does that work? Well, the lovely people at Triumph supply both the cover and seat for your starting price of £11,495. I wouldn’t book that camping trip anytime soon as bungee points are at a minimum. Seat is comfy for a few hours. BOING BOING If your bike has an RS, Sport, Evo or M badge then your suspension will undoubtedly feature spangly gold Öhlins. Reassuring to know where the extra cash has been spent, but I need to soften it off. It’s great on smooth tarmac but a bit hard on everything else the UK throws at you. LOOKING GOOD I love the look of a Street Triple. Been around since 2007 yet still looks fresh. With brew in hand…

[ Events ] ‘It’s time to consider the regular bike meet scene as weekend frivolities dry up’ Monthly meets Ace Cafe Throughout the dark months » With summer putting a tin lid on itself it’s probably the right time to be considering the regular bike meet scene as big weekend frivolities dry up. London’s Ace Cafe loves a regular meet – they range from dedicated get-togethers for Harleys, Bandits and Brit bikes through to performance bikes. For full info go to… london.acecafe.com/monthly-meets British Superbikes Round 11 13-15 October » If a trip to Spain for the final WSB round (details below) is too much of a stretch, there’s always Kent for the BSB finale. Brands Hatch remains a great track that offers more of a sense of the battle than…

NOT ALL MUSCLE » I used to have one race a weekend, so having three big races a weekend is a huge, huge thing. It’s all just… more. I’m training harder and was surprised how quickly I felt like I adapted, though. I do a lot more cycling now – I do 20 or 30 miles a day – and I’m in the gym a few times a week with Keir Wotherspoon, my personal trainer. I’ve trained with him for six years or so now, and he’s been a massive help. With a Superstock bike you have a 12-lap race and you mentally prepare yourself to give everything for 12 laps, but when you have two 18-lap races in a day you need to try to keep a little bit…

Nori Haga’s antics in World Superbikes endeared the Yamaha YZF-R7 – aka OW-02 – to fans the world over thanks to his joyous habit of exiting corners pointing in the wrong direction in an attempt to beat the Ducati masses. But despite his efforts, the road going OW-02 never sold like rival homologation specials, and it’s thought less than 500 were ever built. Which brings us to the bike you see here: a brand new OW-02 with just two miles on the clock that’s for sale at Bonham’s auction at the Stafford Show on 14 October. Rare doesn’t even begin to cover it. The auction estimate of £35,000-£45,000 looks extremely pessimistic. There were two main reasons the road-going version couldn’t cash in on Nori’s excellent work. Firstly, Yamaha limited the…

The final five minutes of Bruce Brown’s 1971 masterpiece On Any Sunday has a lot to answer for. ‘Probably the most fun in all of motorcycling,’ gushes narrator Brown, ‘is to load your bike in a pick-up truck and head out into the country.’ On screen, the trio of Malcom Smith, Steve McQueen and Mert Lawwill are gleefully dicking about on dirt bikes, leaping sand dunes, grinning from ear to ear and, finally, slow-motion drifting across an empty beach into a golden Californian sunset. Joyous and majestic, it’s enough to make any rider want to climb inside their television. If motorcycling is all about freedom, then riding on a beach sure looks like freedom squared. No roads, no traffic, no purpose: just pure indulgent pleasure. But several obstacles stand between…

‘I’m 17 again and escaping from life’ Richard Hammond TV presenter Cars have been my living, but I’ve very consciously kept bikes as my thing – not work – and being on a bike is the bit of the weekend that I look forward to most. I’m lucky because I live in Herefordshire so I can ride out to Wales and – as a friend says – spank a Malvern. The other weekend I took out my 900SS and after spanking a few Malverns I stopped at a cafe at British Camp, where you get every kind of bike and biker. It’s not just a load of people in matching leathers and sportsbikes – you’ll get an old biffer on a 1924 bike that comes up the hill and gets…

Welcome to the adventure bike stratosphere, that rarefied zone where huge power meets superlative tech, luxurious comfort and startling prices. Walk into a Ducati, KTM, Triumph or BMW showroom and these are the machines at the end of the aisle – the tallest, flashest and most expensive adventure bikes money can buy. So we’ve got a Ducati with a MotoGP-derived engine and semi-active suspension that softens-off to make it easier to push off the sidestand, a Triumph with radars checking your blindspots, a BMW that makes its brilliant predecessor seem a bit unsophisticated and a KTM that surely has to be the most unhinged touring device ever… Each of these bikes is unequivocally brilliant – and so they should be, given that three cost north of £19,000 and one is…

The A6 sounds like it’ll be a typical dorky A-road – all pottering biddies and Amazon delivery drivers trying to break the world land speed record while pissing in a bottle. But the Lake District does not permit tedious roads, so the M6 was constructed to carry all the proper traffic, leaving the A6 from Kendal to Shap as a deserted, swirling tarmac masterpiece. And the GS Adventure TE (it stands for Ticked Everything) is loving it, diving majestically into third and – gulp – fourth gear corners with such confidence-inspiring composure that I’m keeping up with Jon on the banzai Multistrada V4. He’s a faster rider than me and has 20bhp more to play with, but in the real world it’s difficult to use all that. On the GS,…

Take a swift trundle on Fantic’s Caballero 500 and it’s hard not to fall for the single-cylinder retro scrambler. Despite being seemingly mismatched to a bike that looks like an old-school chugger, the ex-enduro 449cc motor is a free-revving and willing joy, and hurling the lightweight chassis around is a hoot. Nicely made package, too. Knowing this, it’s easy to expect the new 700 version to instantly appear even higher on everyone’s dream garage wish list. Especially as it’s powered by Yamaha’s 689cc ‘CP2’ parallel twin, the engine at the heart of all Yamaha’s glorious middleweights: MT-07, Ténéré, Tracer 7, XSR700… Yet surprisingly it’s this choice of motor that makes the new Fantic sort-of thereabouts, rather than standout great. The Italian firm is keen to point out that using the…

YOU ARE HERE THIS VERY WEEKEND Praise be RDs The Yamaha Aircooled RD Club has a bit of an identity problem. It loves air-cooled RDs from the ’70s and early ’80s – the 125s and 200s, but mostly coffin-tanked 250s and 400s – but they’re such a welcoming bunch they let in LCs, powervalves, hybrids, even Fizzies. Which is entirely the right stance. With 950 members this long-running and friendly group is typical of the clubs that form the fabric of British biking – and their Derbyshire bash typifies the bike events that fill the calendar every year. If you look you’ll probably find something similar just up the road… For a £15 annual subscription, members get access to tons of benefits including an impressive four-times-a-year full colour magazine (called…

WHICH CB500X IS THIS? The model first appeared back in 2013. Since then it’s been updated several times and still features in the new bike line-up today. Early bikes (2013-2015) are adventure styled middleweights with touring rather than on/off-road potential. In 2016 the CB got a makeover with fresh styling, a taller screen and LED lights front and rear. A year later the footrest hangers and exhaust system received tweaks. But the bike’s most significant update came in 2019 as Honda’s chassis changes gave the ability to tackle light trails, fire roads and gentle greenlanes. New styling and instruments too. And from 2022 the X got preloadadjustable 41mm upside-down forks, twin front discs, a lighter swingarm and a new shock. SITTING COMFORTABLY? Despite the CB500X’s obvious penchant for touring and…

Osram Night Breaker bulbs Used for: six months Price: £24.99 Info: osram.co.uk » Having a shouty inner sceptic means lots of things make me dubious. Economy-boosting fuel additives and bolt-on exhausts claiming a 200% power increase obviously make me snear, but I’m guilty of being prejudiced when it comes to believable stuff. Like headlight bulbs that are better than standard. I can’t help being pessimistic when I see a name like ‘Night Breaker’ and claims of ‘100% more brightness’, but these Osram bulbs impress. They claim a longer beam and increased brightness, and that’s what you get. They transformed the yellowy beam dribbling out of my TDR250, so I also popped some in my son’s car – and his lights are ‘loads better’. List is around £25 for a twin…

Know How [ Weird & Wonderful ] Felix Wankel, born 1902, dad killed in WW1. Got involved with unsavoury totalitarian politics in der Führer’s rebuilding of a smashed Germany. In the Hitler youth, then the SS. Not great. No one likes a vile overdog. Not at all. There are no buts – he was plainly a confused, angry, nasty little puppy. The horrible bastard’s engine, however, is not a Nazi engine. In the same way that Walter Kaaden’s resonating two-stroke MZ Grand Prix engines derived from principles in the V–1 Flying Bomb’s pulse jet, that too is neither a Nazi nor communist engine. Engineering is engineering. Maths is maths. Do the math, not the politics. The principles of any fascist/despotic regime remain beyond the pale. Wankel, despite having zero formal engineering…