Table of contents for 6th February 2019 in MCN

Most riders remember their days razzing about on a pathetically underpowered 50cc buzz bomb with fondness. That fondness, for me, comes from the experience of freedom and, frankly, not knowing any better at the time. Doing (an indicated) 60mph with your head buried into the tank, your arse in the air and a two-stroke motor trying not to explode into eleven millionty pieces inches from your testicles creates a certain level of excitement. Over time, one realises that more cubes generally equal more speed and comfort. And yet there have still been times when riding a small bike gives great thrills. A 200-mile hack on a Cagiva Mito, a spirited back-road blast on a Yamaha WR125 with a group of small-capacity screamers stick in the mind. A track thrash on…

‘This is the show bike MV unveiled to the world’ A hoard of rare MV Agustas including some of the finest works of designer Massimo Tamburini has gone on sale. The late, great Italian, having penned 1994’s Ducati 916 (which would be reason enough for most designers to retire) went on to create 1999’s MV Agusta F4. Then, in 2005, MV created a very special edition of the bike limited to just 300 units, the F4 ‘Tamburini’. Now, the very first of those bikes has gone up for sale. The F4 Tamburini was as exotic as production motorcycles could be. The entire bike (bar the tank) was wrapped in carbon fibre; it had an F1-derived Sachs shock, 50mm Marzocchi USD forks, lightweight Nissin brakes and forged Marchesini wheels. This, along…

We’ve been overwhelmed with requests for #ride5000miles stickers and it’s fantastic that so many of you want to show you’re part of this fun, friendly and ever-growing community. A beaming Trish Waugh was quick to add stickers to her Honda CBF600. “They stand out, so #ride5000milers, can identify each other when we are out and about.” A heavily decorated topbox is a great way to make sure Dave Loubser’s Suzuki V-Strom gets seen in traffic and an #R5K sticker takes pride of place. “For me, it’s down to identification of like-minded individuals when we ride out. I usually like to ride alone and it’s great to identify other #ride5000miles members,” he said. “Bikers by are pretty friendly and I usually end up talking to someone; the stickers certainly help.” Sally…

Vanderhall have made a name for themselves in the US with their handmade, fun-packed three-wheelers. They’ve even bagged a few famous fans, such as renown petrolhead Jay Leno. Now they’re coming to Europe and, thanks to funny licensing laws, it’s sort of a motorcycle. Vanderhall’s most well-known model is the Venice, a lightweight three-wheeler for cruising around Los Angeles. In Europe, it’s counted as an auto-cycle, so you can take the wheel of the 1.4-litre turbocharged inline four with a full Category A in your pocket. Mercifully, it goes just like a bike, too. Strapped to the engine is a six speed sequential gearbox (just like a bike) and a lightweight composite body (just like a bike). This means the Venice will shoot from 0-60mph in just 4.5 seconds and…

Poor Valentino lost his bike at a cold and wet Valencia MotoGP at the end of last season. Can you help him work out where it has gone? Use your skill and judgement to put a cross were you think the front wheel spindle of his Yamaha M1 should be? It's just for fun and there's no prize but we'll print the answer on next week's letters page. Turn to page 60 for a preview of next week's Sepang MotoGP testing and better luck to Mr Rossi for keeping it rubber-side down for the duration……

There’s been a lot of good news for World Superbikes over the winter, I hope it’s what the series needs to get everyone excited again. I also hope this is the year that someone gives Johnny Rea a bit of a shake-up and makes him work a bit harder. ‘HE WAS MORE FUN ON THE OLD TEN KATE BIKE. HE WAS WILD’ He’s going for his fifth title, which nobody has ever done, so it’d be great to see him do it but I want to see him battle for it. If you follow him on social media you’ll know he’s been putting the work in with his motocross and stuff. He’ll be gunning for it, he’s still hungry. Rea is a fantastic rider but the series hasn’t been exciting…

It’s Britain’s best road test route. A tough 250-mile mix of A and B- roads, a stretch of motorway, plus plenty of towns, villages, blind corners, ballistic straights, and a huge range of grippy to slippy tarmac. There are two cafés, an off-road section for adventure and trail bikes, track time at Silverstone for sportsbikes, and Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground and the dyno for hard and fast data when needed. You want answers? We’ve got ’em. 1 First impressions Initial impressions reveal similarities: 95bhp parallel twins, 21in off-road front wheels, big adventure tanks, even the paint. And in this spec their prices are similar. But immediate differences are evident, too. In its Rallye spec with short screen, the BM seems significantly smaller and less substantial while the towering, tall-screened Africa Twin,…

Off-road performance is clearly one of the remits in the design brief for both the Honda and BMW. The Honda’s riding position is a giveaway with its wide, high bars giving excellent leverage and control especially when standing up. Despite the 24-litre fuel tank being bulbous, all the volume is at the front of the bike which means it is actually narrow where it meets the seat and your legs are positioned, which means you can steer the bike with your knees and easily get your feet on the ground. Linear power makes it easy to find grip and the traction control can be adjusted (or turned off) on the fly. Like the Honda, the BMW has incredibly smooth, linear power which means it’s easy to find grip. The chassis…

There’s a certain irony that, without the Germans, the quintessentially British Triumph Bonneville might never have existed at all. Back in 1953, the biggest effort on the motorcycle land speed record was not by the Americans or even Brits, but by the German NSU team. That year, their 500cc streamliner, raised the official FIM motorcycle speed record to 180mph. But down the road at Pete Dallio’s Triumph shop in Dallas, a bunch of pals were unimpressed. Dallio, mechanic Jack Wilson and Stormy Mangham, decided to build their own machine to reclaim the record and a series of events, culminating with the Triumph Bonneville, got underway. Their bike, The Devil’s Arrow, had a frame by Mangham, Thunderbird engine tuned by Wilson and, with local flat-tracker Johnny Allen riding posted 191mph one-way…

We all, if we’re completely honest, dream about playing at being movie motorcycling heroes such as Tom Cruise’s Maverick aboard his GPZ900R in Top Gun orSteve McQueen on a Triumph in The Great Escape. But the thing is, to a greater or lesser degree depending on how obsessive you are, you actually can. In its simplest form that could be taking a selfie aboard a replica of The Great Escape bike on the National Motorcycle Museum’s stand at a bike show. Fleeting, admittedly, and slightly foolish, but fun all the same. Or if you want a more real deal you can visit Triumph’s new free-to-enter Visitor Experience at the Hinckley factory to see, among others, the original, restored, McQueen machine. It’s actually a TR6 and not a Bonnie as many…

Easy Rider There may be fewer recognisable locations, but the legendary biker movie is one of the easier (albeit expensive) to revisit. Rent yourself a Harley and lose yourself in the experience. www.movie-locations.com/movies/e/Easy-Rider.php Quadrophenia That 1978 mods and rockers fest was mostly shot in Brighton and around Shepherd’s Bush in London. All the locations, some of which survive unscathed, are here: www.movie-locations.com/movies/q/Quadrophenia.php An Officer and a Gentleman OK, maybe no hardcore biker film, but ‘Mayo’ (Richard Gere’s) Triumph T140 was considered so iconic at the time the British firm placed bikes in many cinema foyers. www.fast-rewind.com/locations_officergentleman.htm…

THE STUDENT Jamie Mason, 40, London Jamie soldhis car to become a full-time rider.He rides a Suzuki Bandit 1200 every day and is a CBT and DAS instructor. Jamie’s problem ‘I’m not confident in corners so I find that I slow down, even when I know the conditions will let me go quicker. I just can’t feel the grip.’ THE TUTOR Mark Edwards, Rapid Training A police motor cyclist for 18 years, Mark has been training people to be faster, safer, better riderson the road for 20 years. Mark’s action plan ‘I’ll show Jamie how some simple tweaks to his lower body position will help boost feel from the bike and make him more confident.’ THE LESSON 1 Feel for feel Every part of your body that comes into contact…

‘I could be Yamaha’s dream customer,” says enthusiastic R3 owner Alex Candy as he describes his ambition to one day own a sporty R6. “None of my family ride bikes. They’re all into cars and F1, but I was always a bike racing fan. So after starting out on scooters, I got my first taste of a proper bike with a YZF-R125 and haven’t looked back.” After a brief spell on a Honda CBF125, which got written off when a car pulled out on him during his commute, Alex thought the time was right to upgrade. “I’d served my time on 125s so thought it’d be a waste of time to get another. I had my heart set on an R6, but I didn’t realise that I had to sit…

There’s a story that a journalist went to Triumph’s Hinckley plant and somebody at the factory was careless enough to leave one of the pre-production 790 Bonneville prototypes parked outside. The hack just walked past it, mentally cataloguing it as a nice old Bonnie and missed out on a scoop. Triumph were delighted, though, because it meant they’d got the styling right. And they had. MCN’S TOP PICK £3900 BONNEVILLE T120 865cc | 67bhp | 751mm seat height • Dealer £4000-£5500 • Private £3500-£5000 • This one 2011, 15,000 miles How good does this generation of Bonnie look? In 2008, Triumph switched from carbs to fuel injection but the 2009 T120 doesn’t look much different from previous models because the FI throttle bodies were cunningly disguised as carburettors, which was…

1 Clean up your act Brake calipers require regular cleaning and maintenance to keep them performing at their best. The main body of the caliper, the pistons and the bore in which they slide should be cleaned often. Serviceable parts such as the dust and fluid seals and O-rings that seal the two halves of the caliper should be replaced using genuine parts at recommended intervals. 2 Remove the pads Remove the brake pads, making a note as you go of how they are retained as quite often there is a pin that goes through the pad as well as a sprung anti-rattle shim. If you are re-using the same pads after cleaning it is good practice to make a note of which side of the caliper each was originally…

Triumph have developed an all-new Daytona using the 765 engine first debuted in their Street Triple, an evolution of which will be used in Moto2 from this season onwards. While speculation has been rife that the Moto2 project would pave the way for the return of the Daytona, these pictures are the first proof that Triumph does have a road bike waiting in the wings. The images, snapped in Spain last week, reveal a high-spec model, with numerous clues that this will be badged, as with its predecessors, as an R or SE model. It could even be the third in Triumph’s new line of TFC models, boasting high-spec parts, engine tuning work, carbon bodywork and available only as a numbered limited edition to coincide with Triumph’s arrival as the…

Most of us don’t need any convincing biking helps keeps you young, but in case there is any doubt then 85-year-old Dick Comer proves the point. Dick is a well-known, retired motor trader based in the South West and has been a keen motorcyclist since the age of 14; giving him an amazing 71 years of riding experience to draw upon. He successfully competed in trials into his early seventies and has owned numerous different makes and models of bike over the years. He was already in his mid-twenties when Soichiro Honda released the original SuperCub in 1958, a bike that became the world’s most popular form of motorised transport ever, selling over 100 million of its various incarnations over the last 61 years. Now, he’s picked up a brand…

It’s difficult to criticise the F850GS Adventure, especially in this spec, although the appeal of the short Rallye screen is a mystery. Its Adventure additions are welcome and on paper it is a great all-rounder with a perky delivery. If you’re maybe a shorter rider or don’t want the  hugeness of a 1200cc adventure bike it makes sense, but image and appeal-wise the BMW lacks the stature and style of its Japanese rival. Honda’s brilliant Africa Twin found its identity when it morphed into the big-tanked Adventure Sport version last year. As a truly off-road capable adventure bike, without the intimidations of 1200cc-plus yet with genuine style and class, it might not be perfect (its clocks, non-adjustable screen and cruise control are all missing) but it remains the bike to…

1 Measuring up R&G get an example of every new bike and measure it using a £40,000 3D scanner. Location, ease of fitment and, of course, protection are all taken into account to ensure the product will work. 2 CAD design The measurements are sent to a CAD program where the final protector and its associated brackets are designed. 3 3D prototyping Once designed, a 3D print is made of the new protector. This is then fitted to the bike to ensure it locates correctly. 4 Production Protectors are made from HDPE (high-density polyethylene). The HDPE needs to be dense enough to resist abrasion and slow a sliding bike without wearing out or gripping and flipping it over. 5 Assembly All of the parts are stored in the R&G factory,…

More power, less weight and a host of updates could be the key to success for the new Hypermotard 950, and enough to transform the fun-but-niche street hooligan into something with more mass appeal. For many, the 950 was an intriguing, standout bike when unveiled at the tail end of 2018 in Milan. Its new underseat exhausts and 916-inspired pipe routing look so right on a Ducati, and help transform the Hyper from looking a little like a parts-bin special to simply looking rather special. That’s a cunning stunt in anyone’s book, so what’s new, and have they pulled it off? 1 Comfort and joy There’s no hiding from the fact that the Hypermotard is a very tall bike and this has previously been a deterrent for the vertically challenged.…

The Super Cub, the world’s best-selling powered vehicle ever and the bike without which Honda simply wouldn’t exist, is back. Honda’s all-new, C125 Super Cub blends the iconic, heritage style of the classic step-thu ped with modern tech and build quality. But its 60 years-worth of DNA has been retained. So, for 2019 the new Super Cub may have a more modern 125cc engine but, like the ’58 original, it’s a four-stroke that doesn’t require a conventional clutch, instead having a heel-toe change. On top of that there are the traditional plastic leg-shields, classic two-tone livery and more. 1 Stopping power Although dinky, the single, 220mm disc with twin-piston caliper and ABS is a massive step up from the old Cub’s drum. Stopping power is impressive and, again, the thin…

1. SET YOUR SPEED Assess the corner, the severity of the bend and surface conditions, and set your speed and gear accordingly. 2. ON YOUR TOES Position yourself for the first bend as if it were a single corner, then use your strong position to see the flip-over point early. 3. HEELS IN Twist your ankle slightly to angle the heel in towards the heelplate for another point of contact with the bike. 4. TILT FORWARD Angle your upper body forward to put more weight over the front and improve your link with the front tyre. 5. TIP IN Keep both upper and lower body relaxed in order to feel what the bike is doing mid corner. 6. POWER OUT Corner over, you don’t have to continue to keep your…

The arrival of the new Ducati V4 R and BMW S1000RR means Yamaha’s YZF-R1 is now the oldest bike on the BSB grid. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a contender this year. Recent WSB tests showed Yamaha to be the closest manufacturer to Jonathan Rea and Kawasaki and it’s not just on the world stage where they’ve caught up. Yamaha’s official Bennetts British Superbike team, McAMS Yamaha, have endured a tough few seasons in which flashes of brilliance have failed to turn into a genuine title challenge. But young gun Tarran Mackenzie’s end-of-season charge showed promise for the squad, which has undertaken significant development work over winter to give him and new team-mate Jason O’Halloran the best possible package when the season starts at Silverstone in April. With…

This week sees one of the most eagerly anticipated MotoGP tests kick off in Malaysia, with a series of rider swaps and winter dramas meaning there’s currently more questions than answers. And with reduced testing in 2019, down from three to two preseason outings, there’s even less time for teams to make their preparations. Q Will Cal be fit? Sepang is a big test for Cal Crutchlow, as he jumps back on the LCR Honda for the first time since the massive crash which smashed his ankle at Phillip Island back in October. Now feeling confident that he’s back to fitness, it remains to be seen how the ankle will hold up when he jumps on the bike. Speaking to MCN last month he revealed he’s still battling reduced mobility…

Marc Marquez is back on track on a bike, although not quite in the way you might expect! Nearly two months after extensive shoulder surgery to repair a heavily damaged joint, the world champ jumped aboard what’s believed to be a specially-liveried Honda NSF100 mini bike at Circuit d‘Alcarras near his home in a bid to get back into the groove after the longest absence of his career. He’ll return to action properly this week at Sepang for the first pre-season test of 2019. “I needed this,” the Repsol Honda rider said afterwards. “I touched my elbow on the ground. At least on the flight to Malaysia, which is 14 hours long, I’ll be thinking I’ve ridden a bike, got on the brakes, felt the throttle and clutch. We’ve done…

The Transport Research Laboratory are conducting extensive research into helmet fitment to help increase safety in the event of an accident. The UK team, led by Stephen Jowitt, have been using advances in 3D scanning and printing to assess whether improvements can be made to helmet fitment. The research is a follow up to a 2014 study, which delivered some shocking results. 25% wear wrong size lid Few online buyers try before they buy New survey bids to improve fitment From their research, the TRL discovered that approximately 25% of motorcyclists are wearing the wrong sized helmet. Roughly half of those are wearing a helmet one size too large, which may explain why a shocking 20% of respondents said their helmet had almost come off in a crash. This is…

Thirty years ago Kawasaki’s ZXR750 was the working man’s race replica up against RC30s and OW-01s and it took the World Superbike crown in 1993, before Kawasaki stepped back from competition and concentrated on road-going sportsbikes. Since the ZX-10R has been around it has secured five more WSB titles for Kawasaki and the 2019 model aims to build on that success. 2018 ZX-10R What is it? A hunger for continued WSB success means all three new ZX-10R versions have finger-follower valve designs and bi-directional quickshifters. MCN says “Superbike sales may be depressed, but you won’t be if you take a new ZX-10R on the track.” Want to buy one? £15,199, £3400 deposit, £188 per month for 36 months 2016 ZX-10R What is it? The 2011 ZX-10R took it to the…

‘He claimed he had cleaned up the master cylinders’ James Read, 48, of Morris Road, Romford, has been given a 10-month suspended sentence for selling recalled brake master cylinders on eBay. He was also ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work and repay £5000 of investigation costs. Read was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on Wednesday, January 24 after pleading guilty to nine counts of fraud at an earlier hearing. He is the first person to be convicted for fraudulently selling defective parts from a recalled vehicle in the UK. Between June 2016 and November 2017, Read offered defective Suzuki master brake cylinders on eBay as the seller ‘isabella0107’. Selling them for £60 each, Read netted nearly £6000 from the defective parts. Suzuki GB were alerted when a member of…

Kawasaki recently unveiled their updated Versys, including the new 1000SE, featuring Showa’s latest electronically adjustable suspension. It promises all sorts, including response times under a thousandth of a second... but just how does it do it? Fast beginnings The Versys is actually the second time Kawasaki have used the KECS system (Kawasaki Electronic Control Suspension), as it debuted on the Ninja ZX-10R SE last year. The principle is exactly the same but the Versys also gets electronically-adjustable rear preload. The idea is that as you ride along, the bike is constantly adapting to road and riding conditions in real time and continually adjusting the damping to suit. It even takes deceleration into account to prevent the pitching that occurs under heavy braking. To achieve this there are built-in stroke sensors…

Your conclusion from last week’s MCN250 test was that the Suzuki GSX-S1000F was no match for the Kawasaki Z1000SX. The trouble is, for people like me who want a traditional sports tourer, rather than a pseudo adventure bike, the SX is the only real game in town. Why there aren’t more options when the Kawasaki is rarely out of the top ten best sellers, is a mystery. Sure, there’s the VFR800, I’ve had four, but it’s only an 800, lacking in modern tech and these days, too leant forward for my achy body. MT-10 Tourer? Too frenetic, too thirsty. Triumph? Nope, the Tiger Sport is a road adventure bike. I haven’t bought an SX because the engine’s too buzzy at motorway speeds, but I’ve got money waiting to be spent…

HONDA CR125 Here I am at the 1984 Ally Pally show. Clearly I was a Morten Harket lookalike back in the day. Paul Chinnock SUZUKI RM250 My first scrambler at Slindon sandpits in the 80s. Note the safety clothing! I thought I was Steve McQueen. Steve Eldridge TRIUMPH Not my Triumph but I couldn’t resist having a try. Eric Douglas TRITON I built this Triton in 1972 when I was 18. I’m still riding today and now have a Kawasaki Z1000SX. Phillip Noble RALEIGH WISP Me on the right with my best mate Dave in 1974. We’re still riding together 45 years later. Andrew Buckingham HONDA CR80 Bombing across the fields on my 1988 Honda CR80 at the age of 11. It was way quicker than my dad’s 125! Great…

With BMW’s latest, new ShiftCam GSA now a whopping 1250cc and starting at £14,415 before you’ve even opened the options catalogue, big adventure bikes can be a bit much for many in more ways than one. Which is why there’s now a growing underclass for smaller, more affordable adventure bikes. BMW set the ball rolling with the F800GS Adventure in 2013, a big-tanked, more off-road orientated version of the F800GS parallel twin. But it was the arrival of Honda’s 1000cc, more dirt-biased new Africa Twin in 2016, and particularly its similarly big-tanked, longer-suspended Adventure Sport version last year, which set the standard. Now BMW are fighting back with a new, enlarged version of the F800. Based on the F850GS introduced last year, which not only bored and stroked the engine…

The BMW F850GSA Rallye in this spec has everything the bigger R1250GSA has: boasting a glorious 6.5in TFT display which includes full diagnostics and info through BMW’s familiar scrolling wheel, plus it has the optional heated grips, satnav, cruise control and more. You want for, literally, nothing. The Honda Africa Twin’s reversed, digital, LCD display, though adequate, by comparison to the BM’s feels like something from a previous generation, its heated grips are weaker as well and there’s no cruise control. BMW BMW SWITCHGEAR Identical to the bigger R bikes, the switches are chunky and use BMW’s scroll wheel system to navigate through the myriad options. HONDA HONDA SWITCHGEAR DCT apart, the Honda is fairly conventional. The ‘+’ and ‘-‘ switches on the left bar are great for manually shifting.…

R&G are synonymous with crash protection, which isn’t surprising as the firm have been making bobbins to protect bikes since 1999. Originally formed as R&G Aerospace by Richard Taylor and Gene Marola in 1990, the firm specialised in engineering low-volume CNC parts for the aerospace and F1 industry. But Richard was also a keen motorcyclist and towards the end of the 1990s he saw that one of his friends had some fairly basic mushroom-style protectors on his GSX-R. Disappointed by their design, he used his engineering background to redesign them to offer greater protection. As well as using a firmer material for the bung, Richard added a metal compression sleeve within the bung to allow it to be torqued up on an engine mounting point rather than a weak fairing…

Sixty years ago the most famous British motorcycle model of all time first went on sale: Triumph’s Bonneville. The basics of that story, in being an uprated, twin carburettor, performance version of Triumph’s then single carb 650cc Tiger twin, built at the request of the US market and named in honour of a 1956 land speed record attempt at the famous Salt Flats, are well-reported and known, as they should be. The Bonneville was, after all, the fastest Triumph yet built and marketed by Meriden as ‘The best motorcycle in the world.’ And it went on to become not just Triumph’s, but Britain’s most famous motorcycle of all and in some eyes, the first true superbike. No bike is more storied. But less well known is the fact the Bonneville…

British Superbike rider Bradley Ray got his first taste of MotoGP by jumping on Sylvain Guintoli’s GSX-RR at the Sepang shakedown as reward from Suzuki for strong performances in 2018 in BSB and the Suzuka 8-Hour. He said: “Riding a MotoGP bike is a dream I’ve had since I was little but it was more intense than I imagined. It’s a struggle to keep the front down on straights and change gears at speeds I’ve never experienced. It’s another world compared to production bikes. But it was also smoother to ride than I expected. “In this paddock, they’re used to seeing riders move up from Moto2 and Moto3. I don’t think anyone’s ever moved to MotoGP directly from BSB. It’s not impossible but it’s very difficult. For now, I’m part…

Valentino Rossi says radical changes within the Yamaha squad for 2019 are the key to a return to success. Coming after repeated calls from the nine-time world champion, the changes see not only a new management structure but a closer working relationship between the team’s bases in Japan and Italy. Rossi’s comments came as he joined team-mate Maverick Viñales in the Indonesian capital Jakarta to pull the covers off their new Monster Energy-sponsored machine just before the first preseason test at Malaysia’s Sepang Circuit where they’ll make the final call on the 2019 spec of engine. Speaking to MCN, Rossi said he was relieved Yamaha have finally listened to his calls for a change after two long seasons struggling to challenge for the title as they battled with rear grip,…