Table of contents for January 2019 in Performance Bikes

THE BEST BIKE in the world? There’s never a clear answer: dyno, speed and track testing data only tell you which bike is technically superior. ‘The best bike in the world is too personal to pin down’ The concept of ‘best’ cropped up a few times this month – firstly in our lighthearted end-of-year awards ceremony. Our choice for ‘Bike of the Year’ wasn’t the priciest or fastest (though it’s hardly cheap or slow). Johnny and I pondered our choices when our longterm test S1000RR and Super Duke R were pried from our fingers: bikes we struggled to fault as they suited us as individuals down to the ground. As 2019’s new models appear, we’re forced to question that all again: variable valve timing, clever aero and even advanced electric…

TAIWANESE FIRM KYMCO are the latest trying to become the name to beat in electric sportsbikes, and it’s no half-baked attempt either. They’re claiming it’s capable of 156mph and getting to 60mph in 2.9s, like the best internal combustion-powered superbikes. It has a six-speed gearbox and a familiar set of rider aids, and Öhlins/Brembo running gear familiar and proven to sportsbike fans. This all sounds surprisingly tempting from a company previously only known for second-rate scooter and learner fodder. It’s another concept for now, but they’re serious: Kymco bosses are keen for the brand to really become a player in the European market, and rather than try and play catch-up with competitors with 50 years of experience in conventional sportsbikes, they’re trying to get ahead of the curve in the…

IN FURTHER UNUSUAL electric news, an ex-Jaguar Skunkworks engineer has developed a £90,000 zero-emissions bike with claims of unique battery tech, a multi-function headlight that acts as your dashboard and ignition key, and matching sensory jacket so you can literally feel the ride. They’re claiming 133bhp, and a fast-charge time of 45 minutes. Their unspecified, exclusive battery tech is claimed to give greater range for given capacity, which in conjunction with the carbon monocoque structure will allow the bike to have a comparable weight to a normal bike too. Tested on the EU urban test cycle, it lasts for 362 miles: they say more realistic use still nets a range in the 200s. Electronic functionality is a high priority: a matching helmet incorporates a heads up display, with a basic…

After promising not to be mean to MCN, PB has been allowed back to the London Motorcycle Show, with staffers and feature bikes in tow. To celebrate, we’ve nicked a wedge of tickets to give away. Aside from hearing JM tell the story about how he rode an RGV500 (again, this time with added lean angle and reduced lap times), see Project Blade and convey your admiration or disgust, there’s all manner of stuff to tempt you in. What caught our eye was the Thunderdrome: fairly typical fodder of celebs and racers dicing on minibikes, except they’ve added a wooden berm on the turns to make it faster, a bit lairier and more dangerous... Ghouls wishing to watch as it all turns ugly as well as browse new bikes and…

WHILE I WAS reading the BMW R1200RS Sport SE test in the December 2018 issue of my favourite bike mag and squinting hard at the accompanying photos I thought I discerned something you have missed from the article/equipment lists. The thing appears to have a centrestand! OK, it’s arguably not that necessary on a bike without a chain or belt maybe, but a useful thing to have all the same. My much-loved CBR600F has one and I have used it now and then for wheel/chain maintenance and I haven’t decked it out in a corner yet. Not quite the thing to be seen in a sportsbike magazine perhaps? All the best. John Cotterell, Portland, Dorset JM: No, we forgot about it because the shaft-drive BMW never required us to use…

CONDITIONS WERE PERFECT. Air temperature was a postively balmy 22 degrees, and there was only a few clouds in the sky. We actually tested the Speed Triple S on the same day as the Street Triple RS and Speed Triple RS Rutter test a couple of issues ago, so conditions were identical for the comparison between the Speed S and Speed RS. Same amount of other bikes on track, same track surface, same everything. Never let it be said that PB doesn’t favour the scientific approach. Provider of motorcycle trackdays at circuits in the UK and Europe. nolimitstrackdays.com…

AT JUST OVER £11,000, the Speed Triple S makes so much sense in my book. A 145bhp naked bike that looks and sounds the nuts; what’s not to like? It’s even got a proper key, and not one of those stupid keyless keys that I hate so much. On track, it was perfectly acceptable, but as Michael has said, the traction control algorithms in the ‘Road’ mode are clearly not the same as the ones in the absent ‘Track’ mode, which really does leave the Speed S a sitting duck on track. We make Michael do all his times with riders aids switched on. If the bike has them, we use them. I have the luxury of not being the one doing the datalogging, so I can switch them off,…

The reality is that the KTM 1290 Super Adventure R is far better off-road than I am, and I’m a far better road rider than it allows me to demonstrate. Despite this, the envelope of performance it offers is enough to let me give it a good pasting on the road, without it being uncomfortable. Equally, despite my close to zero off-road ability, I found it remarkable easy to get along with, despite it being such an intimidatingly large and powerful bike. Despite the specs, it’ll look after you on gentle first forays into green-laning. It’s the middle ground where the KTM excels. For slow to medium everyday stuff, from fannying around in town and heavy traffic, to shitty, pothole-covered, bumpy, dusty roads, the KTM is simply sensational. It is…

2018 HONDA RC213V-S ALEC TAGUE MICHAEL RUTTER MIGHT have won the Macau Grand Prix eight times before, but even the unstoppable (and almost pensionable) king of the Black Country knew his chances of a ninth victory in the Chinese street race were slim-to-nil if he went up against his Aspire-Ho/Bathams team-mate Peter Hickman on equivalent machinery in 2018. 30-year-old Hickman, the 2015 and 2016 Macau winner would be on board the Smith’s-prepared BMW S1000RR he has ridden for the past two seasons. The same bike he used to win this year’s Senior TT and become the first man in history to blitz his way around the Mountain course at over 135mph. Knowing he’d need something special to help him on to the top of the podium this year, 46-year-old Rutter…

2006 YAMAHA TZ250 BRUCE DUNN IT’S BEEN SOMETHING OF a mixed year. Prior to the start of the season, I had set myself up to do the entire ACU National 250GP championship. Scheduled to run over eight rounds, it got off to a false start in March with round one cancelled because of the ‘Beast from the East’ bringing snow and misery. Of the remaining seven rounds I only managed to do four, as two rounds were effectively wiped out in one hit because of a gearbox failure at Snetterton, on lap two of the first race of the weekend. I was battling for the lead with eventual championship winner Phil Atkinson after qualifying second on the grid, and as I opened the throttle wide in second gear on to…

2017 SUZUKI GSX-R1000R JOHN BENNETT THE MODIFICATIONS ON THE GSX-R are really starting to stack up and improve what’s already an impressive bike to begin with, but there was still one thing which was really bugging me. Chris and Austin used the bike all last winter as their daily commuter; I don’t think many people who bought a GSX-R purchased it for commuting prowess, but the Suzuki’s fit and finish proved largely up to the job, despite Peterborough Council’s best efforts. The GSX-R survived its winter salt dip surprisingly well. Apart from the rear shock, that is... With the absence of any sort of hugger (next on my list to sort) the bike has been subjected to a salty splattering sprayed all over its rear end (you submitted this with…

‘Power and speed claims are far beyond anything else without a fairing’ THERE’S OBVIOUSLY SOME dicey pharmaceuticals being tossed in northern Italy’s water supply. Attempting to upstage the Panigale V4R in the terror and intimidation stakes is the Brutale Serie Oro, with power and speed claims far beyond anything else without a fairing to cower behind. The engine is a continued evolution of the F4’s motor, itself with a lineage traceable back to 1999 and the first F4. It’s now semi-dry sump, with the oil reservoir separated from moving parts for reduced frictional losses. New fixed intake ducts are claimed to negate the need for variable length intakes (as fitted before), and save a kilo. The CNC-machined combustion chamber is reprofiled, cam timing is changed, and lower friction piston rings…

APRILIA SURPRISED us with the RS660 prototype – a sporty middleweight tailored a little more towards road use. Should the show machine ever spawn a production bike, that is… Details are few: it’s half of their 1100 V4, though 110cc larger thanks to a bigger bore/longer stroke. No spec claims are made, but the tech is interesting anyway – an aluminium half frame using the engine as a stressed member and pivot point for the swingarm, plus variable aerodynamic components, including – you guessed it – wings that respond differently depending on speed. ‘Aprilia also say the 660cc motor will form the basis of a new range ’ General spec and finish looks high: Aprilia also states the motor is the basis for a new range, so a mini-Tuono and…

Overall winner YAMAHA FZR400/600 GERARD STEEL 400S AREN’T the trackday slayers they once were: fact is, most modern sportsbikes weigh the same with three times the power of the best tiddlers, with better equipment. Except for Gerard Steel’s FZR400RR: now sporting a tuned 660cc Thundercat engine, with a OW01-fitment dry clutch kit, 41mm FCR carbs, titanium valves and much more. It’s housed in a top-spec chassis, adorned in carbon, and he says it weighs only 130kg in this improved, pared-down track trim. When he says it’ll destroy a modern R6, we believe him: that’s a formidable build by anyone’s standard. The concept, choice of parts and overall finish are superb, and of all the readers’ bikes we’ve been sent this year, the is the one we’d most like to ride:…

‘The forks are a good bit stiffer than the RS’s, which makes it feel a bit more planted’ “HALLELUJAH! THANK GOD THIS one has a proper key.” Like every other Luddite I’ve met, Rutter is not a fan of keyless motorcycles, and the sight of an actual key in an actual barrel means the Speed Triple S gets an immediate thumbs-up from him. “I just can’t be doing with the stupid key fob that you have to carry inside your leathers to ride the bike, and mess about with on/ off buttons to get the thing started. Put key in barrel, turn key, start bike, ride.” And on that note, Michael Ruttersaurus does exactly that: fires up the Triumph, and heads out on to the baking hot Donington Park circuit…

1 START/FINISH LINE Speed RS: 115.95mph Speed S: 112.42mph The S gets a slightly slower exit from Goddards, on account of being held back slightly more by its more conservative road-biased traction control. It is a difference that the S simply can’t make back on account of having an identical engine output, and not helped by a lack of quickshifter. Rutter also brakes 10 metres later on the RS, from a 4mph higher top speed. 2 CRANER CURVES Speed RS: 16.95s Speed S: 17.72s The Speed S simply can’t get its power down hard enough at the very top of Craner. From Redgate to Hollywood, there’s nothing in the rate of acceleration between the two bikes, but once Rutter throws the S on its side, just after Hollywood, it gets…

YOU NEED TO look pretty closely at the two sets of lines to spot the difference. Any difference between the Speed RS and Speed S’s power curves is purely down to engine mileage and/or chain adjustment. Both bikes were dyno-tested on the same day, on the same dyno, with the same tyres running the same pressures. The Speed S has a couple of bhp extra at the very top of the rev range, and the RS has an equally insignificant amount of extra torque in the lower part of the rev range. It’s unsurprising, given that they both use the same engine. The main area of interest is just how straight the power curve is for both bikes, and how flat the torque curve is. It’s a visual representation of…

IT’S VERY SIMPLE. IT’S just a bomb.” Graham Sykes is searching to explain the essential difference between his steam rocket straightliner and pretty much every other motorcycle on the planet. “On a petrol engine, where you drive through a rear wheel, you can’t give it all the beans at once. Whereas, with a rocket, you lose power if you don’t hit it 100% off the line.” Graham has yet to make a powered run (that’s for next year). But he’s done the calculations. “It’ll accelerate at about the same rate as a top fuel car. Which is ridiculous. What am I doing?” We’ve featured a few trick bikes in PB over the last 33 years, but generally they’ve used dead dinosaurs and internal combustion to propel themselves and their riders…

‘The R1’s buyer was over the moon. He had the same look on his face when he took it away as I did with the Pani’ 2005 YAMAHA YZF-R1 CARL NEWBIGGING IN MAY 2015 PB were testing the updated Panigale R. They’d also just employed Chris, who wasted no time in wheeling the trickest bike in the lock-up out for a weekend’s play. I accompanied him for a blat – which meant I was briefly deafened by the blaring Akrapovics, then left in a shower of stones with a black line on the road to follow on the Daytona 955i I had at the time. “Want a go?”I grabbed the keys like Donald Trump grabs... Well, you know... OMFG. Not everyone likes the Panigale’s wild, peaky delivery and computer game…

ALEC TAGUE BATHAMS RACING BMW S1000RR WE’VE BEEN DEVELOPING this bike for three seasons now, on top of other experience I had with BMWs before working with Michael full time. And BMW themselves have been chipping away at the bike for a decade, so there’s a serious amount of work gone into the bike under these black and gold fairings. It’s about as near to perfect as you’ll ever get – when you consider that Michael and Taylor Mackenzie have very different riding styles and weights (Michael’s gym membership has been a bit underused this year...), yet end up running the same gearing and settings at most tracks, it shows you that we’ve optimised the package as far as we can. Not to put pressure on them, but the bike…

HOW LONG 2000 MILES COST £696 CONTACT WWW.SIGMAPERFORMANCE.COM DOES ANYONE really actually need a slipper clutch? No, let’s be honest here; you can get by without it... just change gear later, feed the clutch back in more gently at the lever. But do you benefit from a slipper clutch? Undoubtedly. I was surprised by just how natural and useful this Sigma kit for my 2005 Yamaha R1 was. In use, there are no negatives, only positives. Engine braking is reduced to the point where the bike tracks straight and true when you’re hard on the brakes and going back several gears, but by using the red spring hats (which maintain greater spring pressure and less slip than the included silver set) as the clutch is supplied, there’s still enough engine…

2017 YAMAHA MT-09 CHRIS NEWBIGGING WHITEY IS SMARTER than he gives himself credit for. Or maybe his inability to recognise his own worth makes him a fool. Either way, he naturally developed the plan for PB’s long term MT-09 without realising: when he first rode one, he mentioned, “It feels a bit like a modern TDR250.” So that was exactly what we intended to do. When we took delivery last year, there was no such thing as an MT-09 SP, so your only option was the original with comedically bad, barely adjustable suspension failing to damp the movements of a 109bhp, 195kg motorcycle. That was part of Whitey likening it to Yamaha’s proto-supermoto – a zinging engine pitching you around in a manner that’s initially amusing, but likely to end…

NO MORE WONKY face, or asymmetrical radiator exhaust vents, or... anything that made the S1000RR what it was. There are still four cylinders and a propeller-inspired roundel on the flanks, but that’s it. Frame, engine, suspension, brakes, bodywork, wheels and electronics are new. Headline figures are a claimed 8bhp power increase and 11kg weight loss: assuming those gains to be accurately represented, that would take it to 197bhp at the wheel and 197kg on PB’s scales. The motor is all new: they’ve made it smaller, lighter and more efficient in every regard, but mostly using the same tech – with the exception of Shift Cam, a variable valve timing and lift system on both camshafts. Instead of a one-piece camshaft and lobes, the cam sprockets mount to an internal shaft.…

APRILIA’S INCREMENTAL development of the (admittedly stunning to ride) RSV4 litre bike plods on: a 1078cc Factory model will be offered next year, combining the larger capacity Tuono cases with the tune of the superbike for a 218bhp, £20k missile. Like seemingly every other sportsbike to roll out of an Italian factory in 2019, it comes with wings (mark our words, we’ll look back on this and sigh...). Öhlins ERS electronic suspension is new to the RSV, and it also features a road-legal Akrapovic exhaust as standard.…

OWN A SMALL capacity bike with crap forks? Maxton’s SD25 fork kit is specifically designed for stuff like Ninja 400s, R3s and the like to replace the basic, poorly-made system barely providing damping as standard, with something far more suited to lightweight sportsbikes. They’re a separate damping design: springs in both legs, but compression/ rebound cartridges separated. That means better oil flow around the cartridge, so better control and finer adjustment for the individual functions. 25 clicks of adjustment are available for each function, plus a threaded preload adjuster. They’re supplied sprung and valved according to your needs. They’re £810 a pair, or £624 if you opt for a basic version without preload adjusters. Details: www.maxtonsuspension.co.uk…

Braking boundaries I’ve just finished reading Johnny Mac’s article about the new Super Duke GT and reliving his moment of terror with him. Reading it felt as though I was on the bike with him but did it really not try to stand up when he jumped on the anchors? The laws of physics certainly say it should. Perhaps you could explain how cornering ABS avoids this from happening. Thanks for the great mag; it’s always a good read and gives me loads to talk about with the lads. Dick Clarke JM: Magic, I presume. That and integrated electronic damping control – between two little ECUs, it managed to control the bike’s behaviour whilst slowing down and making a turn. Too big to be a stormtrooper Johnny, those white leathers…

FOR MOST RIDERS the end of the season is all about slowing down, but I stepped up a gear this month. In the last few weeks I’ve done 140mph on the streets of Belfast, raced head to head with Glenn Irwin at The Sunflower Trophy, unveiled a plaque in honour of Rex McCandless, judged the young rider of the year, and done some trackday coaching at Portimao and Almeria on my own Super Duke 1290 R. I was thinking I’d be lucky to fit in maybe one or two events before Xmas, but it’s been non-stop good stuff. I raced at the Sunflower on one of Ryan Farquhar’s 650 Supertwins, battling with Glenn Irwin and newly crowned BSB SSP300 champ Eunan McGlinchy. It got pretty hectic. As you can guess,…

“THE TRIUMPH’S FORK SAG was spot on at 26mm, so I didn’t need to adjust it at all. However, I did need to add some more damping to the forks. It doesn’t sound like I added much, but the adjusters are quite aggressive, so a small amount of adjustment makes a big change to the actual damping. I adjusted the fork rebound from the starting point of 2.5 turns from fully in to 1.5 turns from fully in, then adjusted the compression damping from two turns out from fully in, to only half a turn from fully in. The sag on the Speed Triple’s Showa rear shock actually wasn’t too far off the mark, either – as it arrived from the Triumph factory, it was measured at 20mm, so I…

THE FACT OF the matter is, if you are going to own a Triumph Speed Triple, and plan to take it on trackdays, you’re more likely to be buying the RS. The lack of a ‘Track’ mode and quickshifter are by far responsible for the lion’s share of the Speed S’s lap time deficit, as opposed to a lack of Öhlins suspension or fancy exhausts. Having said that, you could always just switch it off, and go at least as fast as the RS. That aside, the Speed S is a genuinely brilliant bike. Unsurprising, when you realise that it is identical to the RS apart from things like suspension, end cans and engine modes. I genuinely couldn’t tell the difference between the two, and I did prefer the feeling…

PETE BENSON GREW UP in rural New Zealand, where he skived off school to ride farm bikes. His first proper bike was a Yamaha RD350, which inevitably got him into racing. The 350 was followed by an RD400, a TZ250, a TZ750 and a Suzuki RG500, for which he built his own frame. After a while, he realised he preferred engineering to racing. He first came to Europe in 1994 to work for the WCM 500 GP team. Jobs with the Castrol Honda WSB squad, Repsol Honda GP and Marc VDS followed. Between 1994-2004 he fettled bikes for Niall Mackenzie, Doug Polen, Aaron Slight, Tady Okada, Mick Doohan, Alex Barros and Valentino Rossi. Since 2005 he has been crew chief to Nicky Hayden, Andrea Dovizioso, Scott Redding, Tito Rabat, Frankie…

IF YOU OWN A HINCKLEY TRIUMPH , you will probably have heard of Clive Wood. And the chances are you may even have been to his garage to get your bike worked on. Although possibly not this actual garage. Having been involved in the expanding computer and TV industry in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was an electronics engineer, Clive had a major change of career in the 1990s where he converted his love of bikes and racing into a way of earning a living. “I raced a T140 in the 1980s, but when the Hinckley models arrived in the 1990s I spoke to Steve Lilley from Jack Lilley Triumph and it all went from there,” remembers Clive. “We teamed up and I rode under his dealership’s name, however…

IN 2016 YAMAHA finally delivered the naked YZF-R1 that the world’s thrill-hungry riders had been crying out for. The MT-10 was nothing like the spongy FZS1000 or the decidedly disappointing FZ1 that had gone before: it had a proper chassis, latest-generation crossplane inline four motor from the firm’s litre sportsbike, advanced electronics package, and looks that were, well, challenging and different. Needless to say, the Japanese company’s solid attempt at a supernaked to rule them all was a more or less instant smash hit. Striking a wonderful, otherworldly balance between complete naked hooliganism and remarkable practicality and user-friendliness, the MT-10 delivered on each and every level. And when, in 2017, an SP variant was launched, packing semi-active Öhlins suspension and a blingy dash, the best got even better. However, despite…

2008 HONDA FIREBLADE CHRIS NEWBIGGING WE FULLY INTENDED to have this now fully functioning machine track tested this month. But, as you can see from these decidedly static images, that didn’t happen. Our initial thoughts were that we might be lucky enough to get one last dry, mild date at Donington Park, so we booked a No Limits trackday to find the tweaked Honda’s new place on the Rutter Test leaderboard. But then the weather report did an about-face from sunshine and double figures, to rain and temperatures low enough to see frost on the van in the morning. Abort, abort. Then we looked at lining up something with guaranteed sunhine and dry tarmac on a foreign race circuit – plenty of attractive dates presented themselves, until we cross-referenced them…

HOW LONG FOUR MONTHS COST £289 CONTACT WWW.SPORTSBIKESHOP.COM THIS 30K adds a new group intercom feature to the same basic intercom, radio and music options of the Sena 20S. With the 20S, if a rider drops off the back and then catches up to the group, they have to be manually re-added, which is a massive pain in the butt on the move. The 30K makes things more seamless: now, drop-outs are automatically reconnected when they’re back in range. You can have up to 16 riders in a private group and an unlimited amount in public mode. I’ve tested it with four riders connected and it works great, picking up everyone clearly. There are also noticeable improvements in the audio quality and slight improvements in range compared to the 20S.…

2018 TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE RS AUSTIN SMITH YOU MIGHT RECALL Michael Rutter ‘hammering’ the Speed Triple’s brake pads at Donington with his signature front wheel endos into Fogarty’s Esses, but on taking the bike to the road afterwards, Chris felt the pads were glazed from the heavy abuse, so we ordered some New Brembo SCs from www.bikehps.com. I got them fitted promptly and enjoyed that feeling of renewed stopping power. The Metzeler Racetecs that had been on the bike since the Rutter Test were well and truly knackered after 2000 miles, so Whitey was tasked with fitting some Michelin Pilot Roads. My phoned pinged and a message from Whitey appeared with the picture you see above right. I deferred to the boss: “Chris, look at this, what would have caused…

600S WERE AT a crossroads in 2000. The GSX-R, then the R6, had previously introduced us to the idea of race-focussed, high-revving (if gutless) racers on the road. Meanwhile, the CBR600F still had a centrestand whilst trying to keep pace in World Supersport (and succeeding, thanks to the efforts of HRC/Ten Kate). The ZX-6R (and best-forgotten Triumph TT600) were similar, if starting to edge away from the everyman’s Honda. And it might be argued the Kawa had found a sweet-spot. Still roomy, comfy and flexible, it was also light and powerful, posting the best speed figures in PB’s group tests of the day. The J1 model was mostly detail updates over the G-model, but a little less weight and a little more poke made a sound bike near-perfect. PB’s truffle-hunting…