Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2016 i BIKE

>> Every year bikes get better, so the stuff we thought was fantastic ten years ago now appears to be obsolete (though the 1973 Norton Commando 750 Roadster is yet to be beaten on looks). 2016 has been another great year for new bikes. From the astonishingly capable and engaging Yamaha Tracer 700 (tested on page 50) to the intercontinental Ducati Multistrada Enduro (photographed in Moscow on page 47). From the impressive new Triumph twins (meet some of the development team on page 60) to the long-awaited Honda Africa Twin (ridden to the Pyrenees on page 68). We reckon that there have been 50 new or significantly upgraded motorcycles introduced in 2016, but how to pick Bike’s Bike of the Year? We spoke to the most experienced and cleverest people…

Save £1700 Triumph Tiger 1050 >> Triumph’s pleasing Tiger Sport is updated for this year, and is £10,300. The previous version was largely the same and just as capable, and cost you £9899. However, pop to Triumph West Yorkshire (01274 591017) and they have brand new 2015 bikes, in red or black, for just just £8599. That’s a lot of fuel and holidays with the £1700 saving. Reduced by £1137 Suzuki GSX-S1000F >> Tired of aching wrists? The GSX-S is a fuss-free and uncramped sportsbike that’s easy to ride, yet still has 140bhp and gets to 60mph in three seconds dead – that’s quicker than any full-on race rep. List is £10,136 on the road but the nice folk at P&H Motorcycles will gladly let you have one for just…

‘If the handlebar isn’t clumping your knee then you’re really not trying hard enough’ SPECIFICATIONS Price £7999 Engine 690cc liquid-cooled 4v single Power 63bhp Torque 49 lb.ft Top speed 115mph Rake/trail 27°/ n/a Wheelbase 1480mm Wet weight 145kg Seat height 890mm Tank size 13 litres Economy 55mpg Colours white/ blue Availability now Bike verdict It’s got one use. If what it offers is what you want, it’s high quality, finely detailed and superb at its job. Bike rating 9/10 THIS IS A fabulous bike. Honestly and truly great. Created using a design brief free from terms such as practicality and ease-of-use, it exists purely for the purpose of making your face split into a toothy beamer. How refreshing. Supermotos live on the periphery. Never likely to…

 >> Where are you right now? ‘We both know we have each other’s back’’ CJ : We are next to a beautiful lake in eastern Ukraine waiting for John’s passport, with Russian visa, to be couriered from Canada. >> So, what’s the master plan? JK: Not sure we have one of those. We set off from British Columbia on 9 October, 2015 and headed south looking for the toughest, roughest and best (I mean worst) off-road routes we could find along the way to South America. Then we flew to England. From here we set off for the Sibirsky Extreme route in Russia, pioneered by Walter Colebatch. After we get to Magadan we will decide what happens from then on… CJ : In our booksRussia and Central Asia are the…

>> Adam Kelley, Yamaha >> Adriaan Sinke, KTM >> Alan Jones, Ducati >> Alessia Riboni, MV Agusta >> Atsushi Ueshima, Kawasaki >> Austin Clews, CCM >> Austin Vince, adventurer >> Ben Lindley, writer >> Ben Miller, ex-Bike >> Boyd Emmerich, trail guru >> Bryn Phillips, tyre god >> Chaz Davies, WSB star >> Chippy Wood, snapper >> Craig Dent, designer >> Daniele Torresan, MV Agusta >> Dave Dew, PR man >> Dave Hancock, Honda >> David James, Ducati >> David Rogers, Honda >> Edgar Heinrich, BMW >> Francesca Solari,…

05 DUCATI MULTISTRADA ENDURO >>£16,826 >>1198cc V-twin >>145mph >>142bhp >>45mpg >>Issue tested: June 2016 ‘Those Bologna boys and girls know how to bolt a bike together and make it work – like a trail bike half its size and weight’ Bike off-road editor, Jonathan Pearson FLYING ACROSS A Norwegian bridge I still cannot quite believe how lucky I am. I don’t want this to end, but knowing it will only makes me savour every second of the experience more. This story in Bike goes some way towards being able to share one of the many great journeys the world has to offer. This trip fell into my lap, but only reminded me that with a little planning, some money saved and then a short ‘break’ from work it…

Stuart Wood, 52 >> Chief engineer responsible for concepts. Time with Triumph: 29 years. Responsible for the engineering design of motorcycles. Takes the specifications from Steve’s team and delivers the motorcycle. Stuart is a dyed-in-the-wool motorcyclist and a man who cannot spell compromise. Paul Lilley, 38 >> General manager for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Time with Triumph: four months. Responsible for selling the bikes – getting bikes to dealers and managing the brand. Worked for 16 years in the car industry for Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, Citroën and Bentley. Steve Sargent, 47 >> Chief product officer. Time with Triumph: 21 years. Responsible for future product strategy, deciding which bikes go into the line-up, developing the specifications of future bikes, and then working alongside…

WELCOME TO SIBIU Welcome to Romania, welcome to Sibiu, welcome to a whole heap of sculpted wooden madness. July 2016 and time for the 12th Red Bull Romaniacs. The original and best of the ‘Hard’ or ‘Extreme Enduro’ events and the brainchild of multiple snowboard world champion, Martin Freinademetz. On any other Tuesday this busy city street bustles with buses, throngs with shoppers and welcomes the odd tourist or two. But on this particular Tuesday it’s been taken over by enduro mayhem. This man-made madness is designed as a spectacle for the locals and, as a by-product, it’s a way of deciding the running order for the main event the following day. It’s carnage and comedy rolled into one. Riders fight physics, lots of wood, metal chains, old tyres, logs,…

» 2007-2009 Ducati 1098 Lighter, more powerful and much more beautiful than the 999, the base model 1098 featured fully adjustable Showa suspension and the first Brembo one-piece calipers fitted to a production motorcycle. Ducati even re-introduced the gorgeous single-sided swingarm lacked by the 999. 1099cc – 173kg – 143bhp – £5000-£7500 » 2007-2009 Ducati 1098S Take the world’s most desirable superbike and add the obligatory Öhlins fork, shock and steering damper plus lightweight forged Marchesini wheels and a built-in data analyser. The lightest road-going superbike of the time also boasted an unrivalled torque-to-weight ratio. 1099cc – 170kg – 143bhp – £7500-£14,000 » 2008-2010 Ducati 1098R Carbon-clad limited-edition homologation special built to celebrate Ducati’s WSB campaign. The R had an 1198cc, 170bhp engine that barked out brutality through factory-fitted Termignonis.…

RUNNING WIDE IS caused by the famous three: vision; steering; throttle control. It normally starts with too high an entry speed (often because you’re following someone else) which then causes you to panic. You then fix your attention on what seems to be the danger – the verge on right handers, for example – rather than looking through the corner to where you want to go. And suddenly you’re running wide. Looking at where you perceive the danger to be is natural, but it’s a destructive reaction. Then there’s lack of steering. I often see riders with straight arms and in that position it’s almost impossible to steer properly. When I ask what they’re doing when they enter the corner, they don’t know. That’s the problem – they’re not pro-actively…

Honda Crossrunner TYRES: Pirelli Scorpion Trail PCP: £165 monthly MILEAGE: 1978 MPG: 46.3 AFTER A MONTH OF POST-BREXIT angst, a long planned week of hedonism with old friends in sunny Southern France occasioned the provision of a Honda Crossrunner, replete with optional satnav and topbox, which on paper looked the biz for both long autoroute blats and the trafficked twisties of our temporary Ardeche domicile. After borrowing a mate’s Vespa GTS300 for a day, riding it back to London and thence Dover from Bike’s P’boro HQ certainly confirmed the former: it’s damn comfy and with its lovely, well-geared V4 motor, effortlessly long-legged. Full report in due course but one immediately impressive feature is the build quality which bests any Honda I’ve ridden, ever. But then at BMW money, so it…

Yamaha WR250F TYRES: Mitas Extreme Enduro COST: £7249 MILEAGE: 2034 MPG: 43 WALKING LIKE A BUCKLED WHEEL DOWN the main street of Sibiu it occurs to me that, despite the ‘Romaniacs’ being quite a big deal to this Transylvanian city, I must look quite a spectacle: blood all down one arm, horrendous tree whiplashes on both shoulders, mud, sweat and snot on my face and hair like Catweazle. I don’t suppose I looked too happy either. To cut a long story short I made it half way through ‘the World’s Toughest Hard Enduro’ before the Yamaha WR250F cried enough. It battled the tough event, I battled a tough event on a poorly set-up bike (front suspension too highly sprung, my fault) and both of us lost in the end. Almost…

SHARK’S NEW SPARTAN AND SCHUBERTH’S C2 Sport represent top-level sport-touring helmets. Both have an in-built sun visor, full-depth Pinlock insert, QR visor, many vents, wings to minimise wind noise, recesses for intercom speakers (Schuberth has a radio antenna too), deep neck rolls for comfort and reduced noise… and a five-year warranty. Each is luxurious and well made, and comfy on my noggin (as ever, fit rules above all else with helmets). Shark’s hat is lighter, feels a tad plusher, and its deep drop-down sun visor feels like a full dark visor rather than wearing shades. The German rival draws level with a sun visor lever on the lower left rim that’s much easier to use than Shark’s top-mount slider, and a far more convincing visor seal. Neither is perfect. The…

Tim Maccabee MD, Ducati UK >>Harley-Davidson 1200 Roadster: I really just like the look of this café racer – it’s a bit like a bulldog. Gerald Davison ex-Honda >>Triumph Thruxton R: the high-end components chosen for this version match those of more expensive rivals. Edgar Heinrich head of design, BMW >>Ducati Multistrada Enduro: surprisingly good attempt at a dual purpose bike, in line with Ducati’s formal language. Hugo Wilson editor, Bike >>Honda Africa Twin: a return of the big trail bike, as opposed to the ‘adventure bike’ – more likely to be used on trails than rivals. Daniele Torresan MV Agusta >>Moto Guzzi V9 Roamer: finally something new on the small-block platform – gearbox, shaft drive, wheels, clocks… James Sharpe Suzuki GB >>Honda RC213V-S:…

‘Anything can happen, and that’s what makes it so exciting to watch. Bring it on’ WATCHING THE EARLY rounds of BSB this year it was obvious Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne was having to do a lot of extra riding to get the Panigale to do what he wanted. But these last two rounds everything seems to have really been smoothed out and the bike looks much more compliant and less snappy and has almost become an extension of Shakey himself. It was fascinating to watch at Thruxton where Shakey was far quicker than anyone else and would have had a double win if the gear lever hadn’t broken in the second race. The way that big V-twin was putting its power down over the bumps – the thing was just gripping…

‘Sunshine State of Mind’ SR500 Built by Federal Moto >> Federal Moto is one of the rising stars of the North American custom scene. This is the daily driver of founder Shaun Brandt, a slim Yamaha SR500 designed for tight Miami streets and cruising the beach boulevards. The tuned engine gets extra grunt from a 38mm Mikuni carb, and the monoshock comes from a Triumph Street Triple. Anyone who recognizes the tank as a TT500 gets extra brownie points. Contact: federalmoto.com BMW R100R ‘DA#6’ Built by Diamond Atelier >> Built by Tom Konecny and Pablo Steigleder in Munich this is only their sixth build, but it drew global attention for its super-clean café racer look and immaculate engineering. It’s what you can’t see that impresses the most. There’s…

I read with dismay that Indian Company Mahindra is in talks to purchase Norton and is even considering BSA. Triumphs sell becaue they are good bikes and are called Triumphs, not ‘Bloors’. There is money to be made if you have the right brand name. That’s why Audi paid a fortune for Ducati. Triumph should buy Norton to prevent it becoming a serious foreign competitor, if neccessary with state aid that may be avaialable now we are coming out the EU. A Triumph-owned Norton would then be in a position to produce upmarket café racers and sportsbikes with all the electronic gizmos to take on Ducati, BMW and the Japanese. The BSA name could be mothballed until a suitable British owner purchased it. Selling our world manufacturing brand names to…

FILTERING IS ILLEGAL in New York – it’s a ‘moving violation’ apparently – so I sit obediently in the morning traffic heading to Manhattan, peering down a tantalising gap bisecting the queue crawling along Interstate 495. Beneath me the Busa cooks my thighs while the sun bakes my back – it’s 26°C already and it’s only 7.30am. I look at the sat nav again: still eight miles to Wall Street, time to complete: 51 minutes. Sweat trickles down my back. Feck this. I pull out and the Busa purrs down the queue, both of us loving the 10mph breeze. Several of Bike’s American readers warned me some drivers hate lane splitting bikes so much so they pull over to squeeze gaps. Never one to ignore a stereotype, I suspect they’re…

IN 1948 BRIAN ADAMS TURNED 21. For his birthday his father offered him the choice of a slap-up party or a motorcycle. Brian chose the motorcycle – a 500cc Matchless G80. It cost £112. Brian added the option of a pillion seat, which brought the price up to £120. During the war the Ministry of Supply sent Brian to university. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Had the war persisted Brian was destined to be a boffin at Farnborough, but with the outbreak of peace he had two weeks to kill before starting a career in industry. What to do…? Inspired by The Motorcyclist magazine Brian decided he and the Matchless would head for Europe. Friend Barrie Edwards (a metallurgy graduate) would share the pillion and the expenses.…

DISC LOCKS Make life difficult for thieves. Disc locks make wheeling a bike into the back of a van much more awkward. Remember: if you do buy one get yourself a reminder cable. Loads of bikes are damaged when people attempt to ride off having forgotten all about their lock. Some disc locks are equipped with an alarm which is another handy deterrent Most of these alarms are sensitive to any movement and so are easily triggered. They are also battery-powered, so you might want to keep a spare handy for when the inevitable happens. In most cases disc locks are small enough to be stored under your bike’s seat. I reckon that these are an essential to carry with you on the bike. GROUND ANCHORS Anchor points come in…

This isn’t a limp brochure-style round-up of all the bikes you can buy. No, your guide is far more useful as it only contains bikes that we have tested, with comparable on-the-road prices plus data, expert opinion and must-know detail gathered by fussy full-time testers. We do hundreds of thousands of miles, dyno, datalog, weigh and answer the big questions. Don’t buy a new bike without reading this first. *MORE CAMS THAN VALVES Desmodromics open and close valves mechanically, rather than using springs. They’ve been around as long as the engine but only Ducati have stuck with it, after their 2-valve triple-cam 125 racer won off the bat in 1956. Think three cams is excessive? In 1957 Norton patented a design for their Manx single with four... * NOT TOO…

1983 Moto Morini 500 Camel Mk1 TYRES: Pirelli MT43 VALUE: £3000 MILEAGE: 24,289 MPG: 53 Jobs done >> Engine rebuild and oil: with just 600 miles on an engine rebuild I’m still paranoid about revs. It got fresh Rock Oil Guardian semi-synthetic 10w/40 before the trip. Price: £7.99 litre Contact: rockoil.co.uk >> Bark busters: Australian made aluminium/ plastic handguards protect fingers and levers. Even after an idiocy induced tumble controls and knuckles remained intact. Price: £75 Contact: rg-racing.com >> Kill switch: start-stop (to look at map) trail riding needs a kill switch. This pattern item was fitted by ace electrician Rupert Paul. Price: £12 Contact: wemoto.com >> Carrying capacity: Kriega US-5 Drypack has enough room for a tool roll of essentials. It’s well made, has two zip pockets and a…

Ducati XDiavel TYRES: Pirelli Diablo Rossa Corsa PCP: £162 monthly MILEAGE: 682 MPG: 48.8 THERE’S NOTHING LIKE RIDING A NICE BIKE ON a burning hot summer’s day. I’d almost forgotten how good it feels. I’ve been popping around the place, seeing a few people, running a few errands and generally thinking what a lucky fella I am. It feels like being on the Miami beachfront all the time. So the poseur in me just can’t get enough. I absolutely love the look of the XDiavel; the matt black paint, the engine detail, the trick wheels, the exhaust. It took me a little time to get used to the forward controls, especially making a low speed turn and then finding a footpeg not there. But after no more than an hour,…

‘Quad lights, stacked cans and Ducati Panigalestyle vented seat unit’ THIS IS THE spanking Honda CBR250RR. Just launched in Indonesia, it’s a new ride-by-wire 250cc liquid-cooled parallel-twin with a chassis that’s a level above the Asian norm, featuring upside-down Showa forks and a large 310mm disc with anti-lock, plus a cast aluminium swingarm. It’s got riding modes too, plus a large-screen digital display, four headlights with lots of LEDs and some serious angles on its aggressive bodywork. Why should you care? This is what next year’s brand new CBR1000RR Fireblade will look like. A new Blade has been confirmed to Bike by sources at Honda and racers are talking about it – and there’s a team in World Endurance testing its electronics on the existing bike, too. Premium European models…

ALTHOUGH 35 YEARS have passed since that fateful weekend, the pain remains for a whole generation of Barry Sheene fans. When Graeme Crosby crashed while leading the British GP at Silverstone in 1981, British hero Barry Sheene was caught in the mêlée effectively ending his championship challenge for that season. Crosby will be back on the factory XR35 Suzuki he was riding in that race. Again it’ll be at Silverstone and the date for your diary is 3 September. It’s a four-day celebration, part of which is dedicated to Sheene four decades after his first 500cc World Championship title win in 1976. Croz remembers 1981: ‘After leading for four laps I slipped off at Stowe Corner, unfortunately Marco Lucchinelli, Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts all followed me into the hay…

‘The Italians know how to celebrate for sure’ BEING PART OF the Edmondson clan carries weight in the world of Enduro. With Enduro legend ‘Fast Eddy’ as dad he should have the genes – but he also has the weight of expectation on very young shoulders. Though he has some way to go to match his dad’s record, taking his eighth straight victory at the GP of Italy to claim the Youth Cup world title, Jack Edmondson has proved a point. ‘Knowing I could win the title was playing on my mind the whole day,’ he said. ‘I just wanted to make sure I got it. Then coming into the team awning was so cool. The Italians know how to celebrate, that’s for sure.’ Things didn’t look so promising at…

50 BMW F700GS >>£7815 >>798cc parallel twin >>120mph >>70bhp >>61mpg Basically the 700 has just had a makeover, but it’s added much-needed class. But still lacks that essential GS air next to the 800. 49 Benelli Leoncino >>£tba >>500cc parallel twin >>110mph >>47bhp >>60mpg All-new retro is good-looking and A2-friendly. It’ll be cheap too... if and when it gets here. 48 Suzuki VanVan 200 >>£3893 >>199cc single >>80mph >>16bhp >>75mpg Cool balloon-tyred 125 in funky 200 format. Still of limited use, but admit it: you want one. 47 Victory Octane >>£9799 >>1179cc V-twin >>120mph >>104bhp >>45mpg It’s the excellent Indian Scout in a Victory suit. While it’s £700 less than the Scout, the Kryten styling lacks the donor’s class. 46 Husqvarna 701 Enduro >>£7999 >>690cc single >>112mph >>63bhp >>53mpg Yes,…

>> We’ve been going to our test strip for decades. It’s at an ex-US airfield and has a two-mile straight that’s perfect for wringing the best possible performance out of any bike. It used to be that we’d need the full length of the strip to get the best out of a bike, doing umpteen runs and playing with launch technique and body position to find the last couple of em-pee-haich. No more, however. Both the BMW and Yamaha stutter off the rev limiter in top gear in less than a mile. Much less, in fact. Getting them off the line and up to speed isn’t straight forward. Both bikes have traction control that cuts in when it notices a difference in wheel speed as the front tries to lift…

OVERALL WINNER 2009 Ducati 848: £5000 It’s the last Ducati sportsbike true to the template that defined the brand. If you’re a purist and think Bologna’s finest must have a steel trellis frame, cam belts, single-sider, a fondness for corner speed and a long riding position, the 848 was the last bike to use the formula. You even get 916-style underseat pipes. Not fitting to any race class rules means the 848 is more of an accessible superbike than a middleweight, with 122bhp at the wheel and 164mph potential, delivered with a free-revving urgency that’s always been the nice bit about ‘smaller’ Ducatis. Got a slimmer rear tyre than the 1098 version too, for lighter turning when enjoying the love of lean on smooth, open roads. Reliability is far better…

REAR SUSPENSION Ducati have a habit of fitting heavy rear shock springs and true to form they appear on the 848/1098. This means even the largest of riders can find it difficult to get a good rear set-up without switching to a lighter spring, while lighter riders find they have to wind off all of the preload adjustment. SWINGARM Wet weather use and/or jetwash action can see the swingarm fill with water, in fact some owners have drained as much as three litres from their swingers when they remove the rear hub. This isn’t good news because pivot bolts and eccentric chain adjusters corrode and seize. A 3mm hole drilled into the underside of the swingarm will act as a drain and prevent such problems. SERVICING If you bring us…

>> Gear Gremlin ground anchor – £40 Hardened steel construction that the folding 14mm steel loop connects to. Four bolts secure it to the ground. Deform bolt heads with hammer and chisel to stop them being removed. The chain obscures the bolts when in use. >> ABUS Victory X-Plus and loop – £142 The ends of the hardened steel 12mm thick chain are locked together with an ABUS Victory X-Plus 68 disc lock, which can also be used separately. The 1.2 metre length might be too short for some applications. Measure twice, buy once. >> Mammoth security shackle – £30 This is one of our best-selling disc locks, reduced from £40, complete with fluorescent reminder cord. Squirt WD40 into the locking mechanism to keep it working smoothly. Want an alarmed…

‘So I can pretend I’m doing the job while I get in his way while he actually does it’ PULLEY TENSION BOLT This is the 6mm bolt that when undone will loosen the rear cambelt tensioner pulley HALF ENGINE SPEED PULLEY Cambelt drive pulley turns at half crankshaft speed. The relationship between crankshaft and camshaft position is critical and belts have to be in the right position – to the tooth. Yellow dots line up with positioning grooves to get it right MORE DOTS Line up yellow dots with crankcase mark FRONT CYLINDER TENSIONER PULLEY Push up on the pulley with your thumb (quite firmly) then lock the pulley in position with the two 6mm bolts to the left of pulley MORE DOTS Line up the yellow dot with lug…

NO ROLL See? This incline is steeper than it looks. Even though Steve isn’t holding either brake (the light isn’t on) the big KTM remains stationary PERFECT HILL STARTS On an incline, in gear with the clutch in, TC light flashing. The HHC (see below) keeps its brakes applied for five seconds, letting you pull away without rolling backwards KTM Super Duke GT TYRES: Pirelli Angel GT PCP: £186 monthly MILEAGE: 1626 MPG: 41.4 UPGRADE TIME FOR the already impressive GT. What I really want is a top box, but you can’t get one, so I’ve raided the options list to make it more capable of carrying Sara and me to Austria for the MotoGP. Toasted buns >>Not really essential in mid-summer but I’ve had the comfort heated seats fitted.…

Kawasaki ZX-10R TYRES: Bridgestone RS10 PCP: £172 monthly MILEAGE: 2823 MPG: 41.8 LET’S START WITH AN ADMISSION: until a few weeks ago, I didn’t love the ZX-10R on track. We hadn’t bonded because, frankly, it was too much for me. It was like trying to bond with an explosion. The thing accelerates so fast that it delivered me everywhere at speeds so far beyond what I was used to that my riding was generally abysmal – if I wasn’t braking too early, I was missing apexes. And if the traction control wasn’t so good my aggressive attempts to redeem myself coming out of corners would have landed me in Ursula Minor. Kindly racers told me I should be squaring corners off, running in deeper, turning tighter and accelerating harder, but…