Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2016 i BIKE

Excuses for Sunday rides: the bike needs miles putting on it, I need to bed in some new brake pads/leathers/pants (delete which not applicable), there’s an R in the month, there’s not an R in the month, I’ve never been there, I have been there and I liked it so I want to go again, I have been there I didn’t like it but I’ve heard that it’s got better so I need to check, it’s a sunny day, it’s not a sunny day, the vicar made me do it, I’ve got a motorcycle and it’s a shame not to use it, I’ve never done a hillclimb/sprint/run-wot-ya-brung/ trackday (delete which not applicable), I need to check if it’s still working OK, I need to check whether I’m still working OK,…

Down by £2304 Yamaha FJR1300A » Right then: heated grips, cruise and traction control, adjustable screen and seat and bars, fat 25-litre tank... and while the FJR isn’t as nimble or blingy as some tourers, it makes it back with classy deportment. This year’s list is £13,299 but KJM (01257 451656) have 2015-spec bikes at £10,995, including panniers. Get tasteful metallic brown. Save £4400 Honda F6C » No, that’s not a mistake – click your way to bransonsmotorcycles.co.uk where the 1832cc six-cylinder Gold Wing F6C has almost four and a half grand lopped off the asking. Spanker, not yet registered, full warranty and finance available and all the usual, for £13,999 instead of £18,399. Suitable Arnie-style shades not included. Same for less Skyteam Ace 50 » Honda’s Dream 50 was…

‘It was great to win and it’s always good to do things like this’ JULIAN HEPPEKAUSEN, a 43-year-old general manager at Deus Ex Machina, has given a Triumph its maiden victory in a Baja 1000 race, taking his 1966 T120 to the win in the Classic British class and to thirteenth place overall. He may even be the first Triumph-mounted finisher in the 49-year history of the event. His steed ‘Terry Triumph’ was originally owned and built by US motorcycle journalist and advertising man, Terry Pratt. ‘This Triumph was the most recent bike which Pratt built into a desert sled and rode before pancreatic and liver cancer took his life in 2012,’ says Heppekausen. ‘I purchased the motorcycle that year from the Pratt family with the promise of keeping the…

AFTER JULY’S ULTRA-TOP-END, no-expense-spared Kiwi lowrider out of Western Australia we’ll take a closer to home, easier on the pocket look at what British ingenuity can do with borderline scrap. It’s a lot grittier but no less impressive for the budgets. One of the true skills of proper custom building is turning the unlikeliest heap into a thing of genuine beauty, seeing in something humdrum (or much worse) the potential to be correctly transformed. Certainly not everyone can do it. So when Bike readers Ryan and Ricky casually sent in a selection of photographs of a couple of very tidy yet far from obvious builds, it’s only right to show just what can be done from the most inauspicious beginnings… Honda CB650Z by Ricky Carter With his eye out for…

The content of last month’s letter from Zippy of East Yorks ‘bothered’ me sufficiently to share something. It is clear from his letter that Zippy was left unimpressed by his encounter with the police investigator. What concerns me is that Zippy might have missed the point(s). The guy who spent 15 minutes ranting at you, in addition to his IAM/ROSPA endorsements, fulfils a role in the police that almost wholly deals with FATACS (fatal road accidents). Accident investigation is a precise science. Scene examination invariably requires recording of distance, direction and pattern of body parts. So you could forgive a bloke who spends most of his time doing this kind of thing, for having lost some of his ‘softer’ interpersonal skills. He might have also thought it cheaper all round…

SUNDAY 31 July ROAD RACING British Motor Cycle Racing Club Cadwell Park, Lincs. 01708 720305 or bemsee.net FESTIVAL Mallory Bike Bonanza Mallory Park, Leics. malloryparkcircuit.com SHOWS 7th Classics at The Castle Bodelwyddan Castle, Rhyl, Denbighshire. classicshows.org 9th Lytham Hall Classic Car & Motorcycle Show Lytham Hall, Lytham St Annes, Lancs. markwoodward classicevents.com Rotary Charity Motor Show Frodsham Community Centre, Frodsham, Cheshire. 0151 2039022 or cheshiremotorshow.co.uk RALLIES Fenlanders East of England Rally Fakenham, Norfolk. fenlandershog.com Fast & Furious Rally Reading Abbey Rugby Club, Reading, Berks. dmrcmffc@gmail.com SPEEDWAY Eastbourne, East Sussex. eastbourneeagles.co/ Glasgow, Glasgow. glasgowtigers.co/ Newcastle, Tyne & Wear. newcastlediamonds.co/ Scunthorpe, North Lincs. scunthorpescorpions.co/ Workington, Cumbria. workingtoncomets.co/ Leicester, Leics. leicesterlions.co/ MOTOCROSS Luton and DMC Old Park Farm, Toddington. lutonanddistrictmcc.com GRASS TRACK Pickering Orchard Farm, Riseborough. facebook.com/pickDMC BIKE MEETS Bike Day, Ace Cafe…

Oxford Explorer Price: £119.99 Info: oxfordproducts.com >> They say ‘Oxford boots major on comfort, build quality, waterproofing and value. The new Explorer boots boast waterproof membrane, leather upper, velcro storm flap, reinforced counter and shank, heavy duty tread, flexible padded instep and rear, reinforced ankle protector and buckle adjustment points.’ We say ‘These are off-road biased with very thick soles, buckle fastening and a suede-type covering to protect the bike. They do up tight, feel like you could kick through a brick wall and don’t let wet in. Some details aren’t top – buckles seem to be made of monkey metal – but it’s why they cost less than half the equivalent Sidi. Be sure you need a big adventure boot: road boots have greater feel and off-the-bike comfort.’ Mike…

2010-2014 Tiger 800 Powered by a stroked version of Triumph’s Street Triple 675 engine, the road-orientated version of Triumph’s 800cc triple-cylinder dual-sport machine has cast alloy wheels with a 19-inch rim up front. Slightly smaller and lighter than the XC version, it was cheaper too. 800cc – 210kg – 84bhp – £4100-£7700 2010-2014 Tiger 800XC The range-topping dirt-biased XC featured fatter 45mm forks with longer travel, wider bars, spoked wheels with a 21-inch front and the adventure bike ‘beak’. Beefier components and tweaked ergonomics make it feel much more like a full-size adventure bike than a middleweight. 800cc – 215kg – 84bhp – £4500-£7900 2015-present Tiger 800X R The second-generation model has slightly more power, better fuel efficiency, ride-by-wire throttle with traction control, rider modes and switchable ABS. This road-orientated…

Racer High Racer – £150 Top-spec CE certified glove. Kangaroo leather palms with Knox palm sliders to prevent snagging on contact with tarmac, so reducing the chances of wrist injury. Carbon fibre armour provides high level of protection. Third-fourth finger brace and perforated gauntlet. Alpinestars SP-8 – £70 These gloves are aimed at the sports rider who wants track-level protection. Full-grain cowhide construction with foam padding on impact zones and a moulded plastic knuckle protector. Extra layers of leather prevent wearing and increase protection. A good choice for a tighter budget. Dainese D1 Carbon – £140 Cowhide construction with extra goatskin overlays across the palm and thumb. Carbon knuckle protectors and Dainese’s Distortion Control on the little finger. Pre-curved fingers and elasticated inserts for comfort. Long version gives better wrist…

‘Can’t wait to unleash merry hell on Alpine passes’ SHUTLINES Locked properly accessory panniers have big gaps along the seal on the front edge. They don’t seem to let in water but spoil the otherwise excellent finish. WARNING Intermittent warning messages on start-up range from non-threatening ‘C-Light failure’, to worrying ‘MTC Failure’ to scary ‘Suspension!’ SIDESTAND One week into ownership the screw-in sidestand tang broke while kicking it down. Note blue threadlock in hole where it used to be. This problem is not unique to our bike... VALVES A tiny detail, but I love angled valves because they make it easy to use forecourt air pumps. All bikes should have them. LEAVE MY HOUSE on my daily commute. Burble loudly along my road, turn right at the end, over…

TOPBOX Big 35-litre topbox can take an adventure style full-face lid but induces mild weaves at silly speeds. PRICE:£360 CENTRESTAND Shouldn’t this be standard? It’s a bit awkward to use with the left side pannier fitted because you can’t get your weight onto the lever. PRICE:£160 HOT GRIPS These should really be standard too, they’re essential on any bike that’s built for big trips. PRICE:£295 SCREEN 85mm taller and 30mm wider than the standard fitting, and it’s coming off again. It’s noisier and more turbulent than standard. PRICE:£115 PANNIERS Left pannier takes 40 litres of gubbins, right (with exhaust cutaway) just 30 litres. Closing system is a bit fiddly. PRICE:£525 CRASH BARS The potential devastation wreaked by a low-speed off-road get-off makes the climbing frame essential. PRICE:£385 SPOTLIGHTS I’m not…

IF, AS A KID, you never tired of yanking the back brake of your push bike and skidding wildly across streets, playgrounds and Mrs Miggins’ garden, you’ll understand why a group of middle-aged blokes are at a flat track school: going sideways is fun. The trouble is, doing it on a motorcycle using power instead of brakes seems to be the preserve of gifted road racers and speedway riders, very few of whom are 49 and work in an office. But there is a way. Pete Boast’s Champions Flat Track school promises to take complete novices and get them sliding confidently. So here I am with five mates from the pub admiring a row of titchy Honda dirt bikes (most 100cc) inside a Lincolnshire barn that’s been converted into a…

Mike Armitage Deputy Editor Breakfast runs in crisp air, home to tinker with something old in the shed, trundle to a local event in the afternoon. And sunset at the pub. John Westlake Contributor Lazy start, faff in the garage,then load the trials bike onto the back of the car and head off to the local practice ground. Lovely. Rupert Paul Contributor Helping my friend Peter Boast at a classic race meeting, though going out for a ride will do. Ideally on the new BMW Scrambler.…

‘I just want to seize the moment now, putting as little trust as possible in the future’ Where are you right now? In Tehran, Iran – about halfway through my journey. What’s the big idea? My plan is to travel from Singapore to Europe on my Vespa scooter. I set off from Singapore in May 2015 and have ridden through Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Northeast India, Nepal, India and Pakistan. After Iran I will head to Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, then to the Balkans and towards Western Europe. I do not have a fixed route in Europe. I prefer to let spontaneity guide me. Why did you go for a scooter over an adventure bike ? I have a Vespa Excel 150, with manual gears. I’ve owned it since I got my…

OVER A HUNDRED years ago Harley-Davidson and Indian waged often deadly battles on board tracks. Then the two American icons carried their rivalry on to dirt ovals. Indian won their last National Championship in ’53, then went bust. Since the modern Grand National Championship began in ’54, Triumph, Yamaha, Honda and others have split a dozen titles; Harley-Davidson’s won fifty. But Indian are back on the warpath. Polaris Industries recently unveiled the race-only FTR750 motor and Jared Mees – the current no.1 – will headline an Indian factory flat track team in 2017. Polaris’s engine is a massively oversquare (by flat track standards) water-cooled DOHC 750cc V-twin which revs to over 11,000rpm. On the engine dyno it’s already generating ‘over 100’ horsepower. Interestingly, because it is a flat tracker, it’s…

‘The more I worry I’m going to make a tit of myself, the more likely that outcome becomes’ When I was growing up, riding most weekends at trials and progressing from club to centre then national and eventually international level, I couldn’t have cared less about other types of bikes. Trials was it. Then I was asked if I could go on a road test for Bike’s sister title RiDE . The thing is, I’d never ridden a road bike. But when asked, ‘can you do us a few wheelies?’ I just did. ‘Could you do a stoppie on that dark patch in the middle of the road?’ Yes. It wasn’t arrogance or the carelessness of youth, but a complete trust in my skill to judge speed, balance and feel…

‘Velvety double-cream thrust delivered with polite urgency’ BRING YOUR MARKER pen over here and let’s tick main points on the Stereotype Checklist. Wide? Yes. Very long and extremely heavy? Most definitely. So much vibration at tickover that the steering rocks and the exhaust pipes are a blur? Indeed. There’s further Guzzi folklore accuracy once aboard. Blipping the throttle makes the bike lurch to one side. The clutch isn’t exactly light, and toeing in first gear reveals fathoms of lever travel. So far, so typecast. Yet as soon as you pull away the Audace instantly morphs into perhaps the smoothest and most civilised creation in the history of big V-twins. Once above 1500rpm the imposing 1380cc motor is fantastically civilised and utterly devoid of vibes. No tingles, no low-speed jack hammering,…

I started riding motorcycles at the age of 16 and when motorcycle adventure travel became a thing I was in. I’ve ridden over 100,000km on my travels and through 12 countries. See more at motolara.com ‘We have run out of water… and the lakes shown on Garmin must have been seasonal because they are nowhere to be found’ SOMETIMES THINGS GO SMOOTHLY, but this isn’t one of those times. We have both completely run out of water as we foolishly thought we’d eventually come across a river or a lake at some point during the day. Needless to say local knowledge would have been helpful in this area locals refer to as the high desert. Rookie mistake and now we are both very thirsty and there’s a lot of riding…

Priority from the right. European suburbia is a perilous place if you don’t understand that traffic coming from the right has priority. ‘Priority from the right happens whenever there are no other signs,’ explains Edelweiss Bike’s Christian Preining. ‘It happens everywhere in Europe, from French suburbia to small Austrian villages where they’ve taken down all road signs.’ Look for yellow diamond signs, though. These tell you that the route you’re on has priority over routes joining from the right, but it’s cancelled by a yellow diamond struck out by a black line. Watch out for villages where a new speed limit isn’t expressly marked. Christian again: ‘Just the village name sign can mean an urban speed limit applies, and it’s cancelled by the village name with a red cross through…

THE FIRST THING you need is patience. Because you can ride a motorcycle on the road, you might expect you’re going to crack the off-road thing straight away but this is rarely the case. There are a lot of new skills you have to learn and you need to give it time. If you want to learn fast I would recommend getting instruction. I know I would say that, being an off-road instructor, but it saves time and effort. I’ve got nothing against just getting on a dirt bike and mucking about off-road – that’s how I learned – but it takes a long time and a lot of mistakes. If you go this route, you have to accept you’re going to have to put in a lot of hours.…

THE WORLD’S YOUR OYSTER when it comes to enduro bikes. There’s a huge range of bikes out there but when it comes to attacking an event like the Red Bull Romaniacs, well, you gotta be a bit choosy. What suits you is a start but what works best in ‘The World’s Toughest Hard Enduro’ (and I’m not arguing) is important too. It has to be a versatile bike, as capable of outrunning a Carpathian Shepherd dog as scaling a trials section. Yamaha’s WR range of enduro bikes is legendary. The two-stroke model was a launch pad for many a famous name in British enduro – notably Rob Sartin, back when open-face helmets were still a thing, and famously the WR launched a young Manxman by the name of David Knight…

‘Ride quality is unbelievable, the suspension superb’ THIS IS NOT just Royal Enfield’s charming old thumper dressed up for a new role. The Himalayan is new. People have been choosing Enfields to explore the Himalayas for years due to rugged simplicity, so the factory have spent almost five years developing a dedicated adventure tourer, purpose built for mountains and travellers. It’s even got a compass and thermometer. The heart of the Himalayan is a 411cc single-cylinder engine. Called the LS410 it still uses a carb and is cooled by air (plus an oil-cooler), however it’s a revolution for Royal Enfield as it has an overhead cam, not pushrods. Measuring 78 x 86mm, it’s long-stroke geometry with a two-valve head and modest 9.5:1 compression for low-rev performance. They claim 24.5bhp at…

WE RACED TOGETHER on 250s in the early 1990s and both of us made it to 500s in Grands Prix. And we’ve got drunk all around the world together. I retired ten years ago but he’s still loving it – and he’s 52. And still on it. He was racing an Aprilia RSV4 at Snetterton in Supertsock 1000 when I caught up with him again before he went on holiday. So what drives him on? ‘I don’t think it’s difficult if you’re focussed enough,’ he said. ‘You can do what you want at any age if you’re realistic about what you want to achieve. ‘It doesn’t really matter what your age is. If you can’t do a few laps on a bike round a track, then you have to ask…

ON THE 4TH of July Vir Nakai (above, on the bike), from Mumbai in India, set off from Ducati’s historic Borgo Panigale factory on the first leg of a round the world ride on the new Multistrada Enduro. The plan is for seven riders to complete the journey, returning the bike to Bologna on 26 November after lapping the globe on a route that goes via Sweden, Russia, Japan and the USA before returning to Europe. Ducati estimate the distance at 18,300 miles. The ride has been organised to celebrate Ducati’s 90th anniversary, they started in business making electrical equipment and radios in 1926 before diversifying into cyclemotor engines in the aftermath of WWII. The route will include sites of historical significance to Ducati including the scene of an early…

Ode to Old Bill In response to Zippy’s letter, ( Bike , August 2016) I was a callow motorcycling youth aged 20 and was stopped by the police and given the most horrendous verbal assault for my standard of riding. The officer parted with the words, ‘If you carry on riding like that you’ll be dead in six months.’ I took his words on board and was grateful that although I got a severe reprimand it didn’t equate to points on my licence and my riding style changed accordingly. Fast forward 34 years and I am still alive (well I was last time I felt my wrist) and still riding and still enjoying riding bikes. The police, to be fair, see a lot of the end results of idiotic riding.…

Boxer powertrain engineer Harald Mitschke says 2020 could spell the end of the air-cooled twin >>Bike : The Scrambler’s engine response is very smooth despite complying with Euro 4. How have you done that? Harald: We have always taken care over emissions. So for us it’s not difficult to go from Euro 3 to 4. >> How do you reduce emissions? We take a lot of care to have the right injection for every throttle position and condition. It’s a lot of work. Every step and every point is optimised. Another way is the exhaust valve. If you close it you increase back pressure, giving the catalyst more time to clean the exhaust gas. >> How long does it take to calibrate the engine for every condition? (Laughs) From the…

Even as you read this, accessory company elves around the globe will be working to perfect a range of bolt-ons designed to enhance the practicality and looks of the new Tracer. But Yamaha’s own accessory elves have got a headstart and it’ll be easy to add to the Tracer’s £6436 starting price with trinkets from the Yamaha catalogue. The sports tourer tag means that most parts are aimed at increasing comfort and practicality, but there is a selection of ‘billet’ levers, oil caps, rearset footpegs, and some anodised plugs too. Luggage is taken care of by a 39-litre top box, a choice of three tank bags and two different types of pannier, both with 20-litre capacity per pannier but with a hefty and inexplicable price differential. Need more comfort? Try…

LUGGAGE The Triumph system is designed to float – just because the boxes move on the bike they are not loose or about to fall off. This works brilliantly if the Tiger is tracking through bumpy bends. The boxes do not transfer energy back into the chassis and upset the handling. All original Tiger luggage is ‘one key’, so the ignition key also fits all the locks. CHAIN ADJUSTERS The standard steel chain adjuster bolts are prone to seizing in the aluminium swingarm, a symptom of galvanic reaction, and assisted by the fact that water can get into the swingarm via large holes on the inside. The right hand adjuster tends to be more affected than the left, and if seized solid will require drilling out and a thread insert…

FIT Not all manufacturers work to the same standard sizes. Alpinestars and Dainese tend to come up smaller than most, and as far as I know nobody makes more generously sized gloves than Austrian brand Racer. Most major brands produce sizes up to 3XL. If you really struggle to find a good fit Held offer a made-to-measure service on their Phantom II race-spec glove to give you the perfect fit. Track gloves for ladies are more difficult. Alpinestars do a ladies version of the SP-8 and SP-2 models which are identical to mens in everything but size and fit. Women’s hands will have narrower palms and longer fingers than men’s and so ladies often struggle to get a good fit. Try on an XS pair of RST Tractechs before claiming…

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. SMALL FOR A REASON Honda’s Monkey bike looks like it was meant for kids... because it was. The 49cc Z100 of 1961 was intended for amusement parks, used as a kid’s ride at Honda’s Tama Tech motorsport theme park. The CZ100 road version came in 1964, with a new frame and the tank off the Sport Cub C110. Want a CZ?…

FOR THE LAST two years I’ve been mainly riding sit-up-and-beg bikes – and they changed my riding habits. At first, getting back onto a sportsbike felt very weird. It’s now been a full month on the 30th Anniversary Suzuki GSXR-750 that we’ve got on long-term test and the weirdness has completely disappeared – replaced by sheer delight. Out on my favourite B-roads I fully understand why there is such a huge following for this bike. The power is ridiculously addictive in every gear and the chassis seems to cope with everything a rural road can throw at it. But we may have to change the gearing, it does over 100mph in 2nd gear before it gets anywhere near the redline. Like all good sportsbike fans I’ve booked myself on a…