Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i BIKE India

KAWASAKI NINJA 400 THE NINJA HAS BEEN an iconic name in the world of motorcycles. This is one baby Ninja model that has returned to our market in its 2023 avatar and is now being sold as a completely built-up (CBU) unit. With styling inspired by Kawasaki’s flagship ZX-10R and H2 models, this one, too, is mean, green, and a menacing machine to look at from just about any angle. It follows the classic silhouette that the Ninja models have had for so long and the design is exactly similar to the previous-generation model that we tested about four years ago. This review unit sports the Lime Green Kawasaki Racing Team (KRT) colour and graphic scheme while there is also a Metallic Carbon Grey that customers may opt for. There…

TVS EUROGRIP HAS BEEN THE technical partner for the TVS OMC series for the last four years. To give us a taste of the performance levels of their flagship Protorq Extreme tyres, we were all invited for a session out on track. To start off, I headed out of the pit-lane astride the race-spec RTR 200 4V. This is a motorcycle that I am familiar with as I had got a chance to race in the 2020 edition of the TVS Young Media Racer Programme, which is one of the classes in the series every year. The first change that I noticed in the bike is that the rear is now using a slimmer 110/70 ZR17 Protorq Extreme XF Pro tyre compared to a wider 130-section tyre that the bike…

SPORTINTERVIEW LUCA MARINI ‘When I arrived in MotoGP, everything was incredible and I understood how difficult it was to be one of the top riders of MotoGP, but this is my target, my goal’ Bike India (BI ): Are you looking forward to the Thai GP? Luca Marini (LM): We are here in Thailand and this is a good track for me with good memories. I hope the weather can be good and let’s see what we can do. The goal is to be among the top six positions. What are your biggest challenges going to be in Thailand? The difficult thing and the challenge is that we are here for the first time with a MotoGP bike. Since 2019, we have not ridden here, so in the beginning it…

MotoGP THAILAND MotoGP IN THE QUALIFYING SESSION, Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) secured pole position for the very first time in his career. Starting in second and third place respectively were Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team). After a slightly delayed start because of heavy rain, it was Marco Bezzecchi who got a good start from pole and then headed wide with Martin at Turn One as they both avoided making contact. Meanwhile, Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) made up quite a few positions after starting from P7 and was already into P3 behind Bagnaia after just a few corners. The championship leader, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, started the race in P4 but dropped to P17 on the first lap itself and was struggling to…

HERE IS THE ALL-NEW ELECTRIC ARC Vector, arguably the most advanced motorcycle, with hub steering, carbon swingarm front and rear, no conventional frame, Öhlins suspension, Brembo Stylema brakes, and fully electric. Hand-made in England, with its price starting at £90,000 (Rs 82.80 lakh). ARC is the brainchild of CEO Mark Truman, who set out to create something special: the world’s most advanced electric motorcycle. To create a bike free of the constrictions of noise, emission, heat, exhaust routing, and a thousand other conventional petrol bike limitations. He started with a blank piece of paper, then let his imagination and brilliance run wild. The ARC Vector was revealed to the public at EICMA back in 2018, stunning the motorcycling world with its dramatic hub-centre steering and claimed range (436 kilometres) and…

IT HAS BEEN WELL SAID THAT THERE IS beauty everywhere, all you have to do is just look around. This holds particularly true when the region in question is Leh-Ladakh. Abounding in scenic vistas, a trip to Leh-Ladakh in the upper reaches of India is all about snow-clad mountains, rugged landscapes, tall peaks, dangerous routes, and roaring bike engines. For motorcyclists, Ladakh offers breathtaking sights and scenery, including majestic mountains, sweeping valleys, arid deserts, sprawling lakes, vast uninhabited hinterlands, and a challenging terrain comprising both motorable roads and high-altitude passes. It is and has for quite some time been an adventure wonderland for motorcyclists. No wonder then that every biker dreams of doing a Leh-Ladakh trip at least once in their lifetime. The experience of riding in Leh and Ladakh…

WHEN VALENTINO Rossi retired from MotoGP at the end of the last year, he had been racing motorcycles for 31 years. Amazing, is it not? But what about Jeremy McWilliams who has been racing on and off for 35 years and is still going strong? The 58-year-old Northern Irishman is a gnarly old warrior, whose hands and fingers (what is left of them) are such a mess that they look like he has gone a few rounds with a shoal of Great Whites. Eighteen months from now he will be able to claim his over-60s bus pass but still he comes back for more: earlier this year he won a race at Daytona and stood on the podium at the North West 200. There are three main factors that motivate…

MotoGP AUSTRALIA Alex Rins won one of the closest races of all time while Marc Márquez claimed his 100th premier class podium and Bagnaia secured third to take the championship lead as Quartararo crashed out MotoGP IN AN EXCITING QUALIFYING session, Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) snatched pole position from Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda Team) with a new lap record and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) completed the front row, starting third. At the beginning of the race, Martin got the holeshot from pole to take the lead of the race. This time out, all the riders were bunched up as in a Moto3 race and were fighting for positions behind Márquez who was in second place. Home hero Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) started to gain positions on the…

THEY SAY GOOD THINGS COME to those who wait and we have been waiting for a long time to see Hero’s electric scooter. As one of the largest manufacturers of two-wheelers in the world, Hero MotoCorp’s entry into the EV market in India may just be the confirmation some of us were waiting for. Yes, electric scooters have definitely arrived and the migration from petrol to electricity is only going to gain momentum. The Vida V1 range will spearhead that effort for Hero. We were invited to Hero’s research and development facility in Jaipur to experience the scooter at their performance and handling circuits. On the design front, the Vida V1 will certainly turn heads, start conversations and maybe even arguments. Familiar as it may seem, there are many aspects…

DIGITALISATION HAS BEEN CREATING unimaginable opportunities in a constantly evolving and interconnected world. Global technology trends bring with them a paradigm in the way we operate. Of late, taking precedence are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Computing, cryptocurrency, 6G networking, quantum computing, start-up innovations, and the Metaverse, not to mention the new frontier of future mobility: from flying cars to electric aircraft. The exclusive programme highlights the impact of the Web 3.0 economy and business priorities in an ever changing yet challenged globally economy. GITEX is by far the most anticipated tech expo hosted in Dubai each year. It attracts over 4,000 exhibitors and over 100,000 participants, making it one of the largest events in the Middle East. It showcases the most recent developments in information technology and worldwide digital transformation.…

WHEN ITALIAN VETERAN ANDREA Dovizioso retired from racing following the San Marino Grand Prix in early September 2022, the MotoGP world championship lost its final link to GP racing’s two-stroke era. Dovizioso made his GP début at Mugello in June 2001, walking into the paddock to the tune of the ringa-ding-ding of two-strokes being warmed up for action: 500-cc fours, 250 twins, and 125 singles. When he walked out of the paddock at Misano, his ears had been battered all weekend by the roar of open-piped four-strokes: 1,000-cc fours, 765 triples, and 250 singles. Now that Dovizioso is gone, MotoGP’s longest-serving rider is Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaró, who arrived in 2004 when two-strokes had already been banned from the premier class and plans for the current Moto2 and Moto3 classes were…

WSBK PORTUGAL JONATHAN REA (KAWASAKI Racing Team WorldSBK) set a new pole lap record at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve in Portimao and claimed pole position. Joining him on the front row were Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx WorldSBK) and Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) in second and third places respectively. Following a crash in the WorldSSP300 race, there was a delay and officials had to shorten race one for the World Superbike Championship (WSBK). Rea got the holeshot for the 14-lap race with Razgatlioglu and Lowes in tow. The defending champion had to fight off Lowes and, when the opportunity presented itself, he made a move for the lead and won it from Rea on the sixth lap. Rea’s misfortune did not end there, because Alvaro Bautista…