Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i BIKE

» Last year, we asked Bike’s guest road tester – former BSB, WSB and MotoGP rider James Haydon – which rider he’d pick for his dream BSB team. ‘Bradley Ray, no question,’ he said. ‘He’s very fast, learns quickly, doesn’t crash much and is a really nice kid.’ And in the first race of the season the bespectacled 20-year-old (in the lead below) made Mystic Haydon very happy by winning both races on the unfancied Suzuki. More BSB on p48…

» The Trail Desert Challenge is a growing initiative instigated by rally organisers to get adventure and hobby riders along and riding major rally events. And this year sees it hooking up with the Morocco Rally. Run alongside the main race, as a kind of non-competitive side show without actually racing, the Trail Desert Challenge is a fantastic way to experience awesome terrain. ‘There are some fantastic roads in Morocco where adventure bikes will be in their element,’ says event organiser, former racer and Dakar sporting director for ten years, David Castera. ‘Our goal has been to create an event of the highest quality where everybody feels at home. The route has been designed to show off the full splendour of the Moroccan desert.’ Daily distances will be between 200…

The fact that Philip was largely positive about the H2 SX after riding nearly 5000 miles in one long weekend speaks volumes. It would be very easy to hate a motorcycle during such an intense ride if it had any major flaws or irritations. And despite Philip’s misgivings about the H2’s tank range being too low for serious touring at 180 miles, we’re inclined to forgive the Kawasaki for this because of its ability to tear a hole in space-time when instructed. That supercharged engine is almost worth the price of entry on its own. There are some irritations though – the low speed off-throttle fuelling is jerky and unpleasant, the non-adjustable screen creates turbulence and the quickshifter can jolt. But overall this is a superbly polished sports tourer with…

‘We’d been fearless from the moment we reached the top of the mountain. We took it as a given that we were riding through snow, near freezing to death’ THE KARPAN HIGHWAY was rolling up and down. Sometimes we rode over tarmac, but mostly over snow. At 2500 metres above sea level the clouds were so low it felt like I could pull them out of the sky. We passed a military convoy. Soldiers dressed in green camouflage stamped their feet to get warm, AK-47s on their backs. I waved at them, but nobody returned the greeting. I ploughed the Guzzi through the snow at 15mph, when I heard a sudden muffled sound behind me. I checked my mirror. Fuck, Jose was lying next to his motorbike. And he wasn’t…

‘None of the bikes this engine powers can be called sensible, and this one is suitably bonkers too’ » Motorbike design can be overdone. Just look at Aprilia’s Moto 6.5 by Philippe Starck. It looked more like a kettle than a motorcycle. But Husqvarna have built today’s bike of the future. They’ve captured that idea of simplicity: a scooped single seat leads into a tank that’s muscular and robust, over an engine with a wheel at each end. Simple, and also compact. The exhaust is kept small by adding a pre-silencer, and tank and tail almost look like a single unit. It’s exactly what custom builders have been doing for the past twelve years, except totally futuristic. Just like when Flash Gordon decided what rocket ships would look like in…

PLANNING ROUTES Satnavs plan routes from one place to another, and they get you there. But what kind of routes are they planning? Most offer Avoid Motorways & Tolls, Quickest Route and Shortest Route options, but the fun ones also offer curvy and scenic routes. Garmin call it Adventurous Routing and TomTom call it Winding Roads, and they even provide an option for ‘hilly roads’. Some bike satnavs also allow you to design and download your own routes and be sure that which ever satnav you choose is capable of uploading GPX files. There are huge user communities that share great riding routes – arguably TomTom have the edge when it comes to these communities with more users and an interface that allows Points of Interest (POIs) to be updated.…

Advisory fix reveals more than worn pads ONE OF THE ADVISORIES on the FZ1’s latest MoT was that the front brake pads were close to their wear limit – odd, because they’d had plenty of meat on them when I last looked in November and though I’d done 2000 miles since then, it was all gentle wintery stuff. Anyway, I duly splash out on some EBC HH sportsbike pads (£39.99 for both sides) that a mate recommended and get the bike up on the Abba Skylift to put them in. The joy of the Skylift is you can get the bike into a 45-degree wheelie position so the front calipers are at eye level making caliper fiddling blissfully easy – changing the pads is a ten minute ache-free job. The…

THE RON HASLAM RACE SCHOOL puts customers on a fleet of Honda sportsbikes and ushers them round Donington Park. All kit is the School’s own and customers are fully insured with no excess. Fall off and walk away. Instructors are current or ex-racers and class sizes are tiny. The half-day £310 Premier Experience puts two riders with one instructor, and the £460 Elite provides 90 minutes of one-to-one tuition on the School’s Fireblades. But there’s a new class for 2018: the £350 Premier Plus. That’s what I’m trying today. First there’s a scrummage round the salubrious Race School wardrobe followed by comprehensive briefing. Then we meet our instructors in the paddock. I’m paired with Phil Hyde, club racer, sidecar passenger with world round experience, and lover of wheelies. I’m on…

‘Cruise round a bend, whack the throttle open and bark up the next straight – minimal fuss, and no need for electronic tweakery‘ ‘Big bike appeal and a friendly throttle will doubtless draw owners out of the city for day trips’ THE ORIGINAL SCRAMBLER is a proper Ducati success, selling 46,000 in three years and endearing itself to owners with retro looks and easy handling. It’s so successful it’s spawned six models ranging from the entry-level Sixty2 to the off-road-ready Desert Sled. And now Ducati have built the big version with a big engine and a big price. The big question is do the 1100’s ambitions hinder the original’s perky charm? It definitely looks bigger, leaning on its sidestand dockside in Lisbon, Portugal. Dual underseat exhausts plump up the rear…

» The MCN Festival (19-20 May, East of England Arena, Peterborough) has all manner of attractions, but the one that caught our eye was test rides – loads of manufacturers are bringing their entire ranges for anyone to have a go on. So turn up early and go straight to the manufacturer stands… 9.30am: Ducati Panigale V4. This’ll wake you up. Plus it might be wrecked by lunch. 10.30am: Triumph Bonneville Speedmaster. Get your breath back with this retro goodness. 11.30am: Husqvarna 701 Vitpilen (see p106). Prepare to spend 30 minutes giggling. 12.30am: Kawasaki H2 SX SE (see p30). Perfect 200bhp pre-lunch sharpener. 2.30pm: Triumph Tiger 1200 XRT. Heavy with burgers, you need cosseting. 3.30pm: Yamaha MT-10 SP. It’s not your bike so switch the wheelie control off. 4.30pm: KTM…

»…they stay the same. The jury is still out on how much effect World Superbike’s new technical regulations have had. The top four after the first two rounds still consisted, as ever, of the factory Kawasaki and Ducatis, suggesting not much change. The one notable difference was the presence of a Honda deep in the top ten in all four races. This had precisely nothing to do with the tweaks to the technical rules and everything to do with the rider, Leon Camier. It’s difficult not to conclude that Leon has never fully realised his potential on the world stage since his dominant 2009 BSB win caused the organisers to invent the Showdown. But we shouldn’t blame Leon for that.…

» Having just read about the dilemma in which Peter Neath finds himself as explained in his letter ‘Enough is enough’ (Bike, May 2018) I am here to help with this very simple, yet handy, formula… The ideal number of motorcycles to own = x + 1 (Where x = the number you currently own) This is mathematics which is an absolute and therefore not open to discussion or question by, say, her indoors. I hope this helps Peter navigate his way through the bike ownership issue. Dave Holloway, email…

PERFORMANCE TESTING » Obviously it’s fast, but the standout figure is the 40-120mph time – it pulls fearsomely from naff-all revs in top. Brakes feel effective but it’s a long, heavy bike and braking distance suffers. PERFORMANCE 0-60mph: 3.04s 0-100mph: 5.63s 1/4 mile: 10.18 s @ 145.09 mph Top speed: 180.73 40-120mph top gear: 10.91s Braking 70-0mph: 53.95m (ABS on) SPEEDO ACCURACY 30mph:31 60mph:62 90mph:94 FACTS AND FIGURES » When Philip ran out of fuel in France he’d done 214 miles on a tankful (the last 10 done at 50mph). That’s 51mpg at mostly 80mph. Also, the tank size is 19.5 litres if the bike’s on the POWER AND TORQUE » Look at the torque curve and you can see why the H2 tears off at 8000rpm – huge torque…

ANDALUSIA, HOME TO some of Spain’s most beautiful and bendy roads. Miles and miles of corners. Almost perfect riding terrain. Unless you’re on the hunt for a long straight. I finally find one: white lines heading, with at least a quarter-mile laser precision, toward the hills. It’s the first straight line opportunity I’ve had in 20 minutes and I snick the bike into second gear – in first the thing would wheelie on full throttle. Prep the electronics by tapping into Sport mode – traction control level one, full power – check my 20mph starting speed on the LCD dash, and whack open the throttle. The CB1000R springs forward, snapping the chain taut in an instant and pulling the weight back into the soft-ish rear shock. 30mph is hit a…

BALANCE YOUR WEIGHT, use a light grip on bars, good speed and look where you want to go,’ says Chris Zimmerman. He’s chief instructor at Andalusia Enduro Park and our group leader on this two-day ride from Malaga to Granada and back. We’re in a river bed, somewhere in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about to get our first taste of riding the new BMW F850GS in deep gravel. Vesa, an exuberant Finn, takes Chris’ ‘good speed’ instruction seriously and blasts off first, sending a rooster tail of pebbles spinning out from the back of the bike. Tobi, a marginally more measured German, follows. Then me. At a more modest pace. We’re riding on a cushion of loose stones that’s interspersed with large rocks and bits of wood.…

‘I never viewed others as heroes. I would watch them…I could see exactly what they did, and I’d go practice it’ A SCOOTER? ARE YOU SERIOUS?’ Asking a world champ to ride a commuter bike through London is a funny kind of icebreaker, but apparently he’s cool with it. In fact, Freddie’s already got a Honda X-ADV, that bizarre 750cc scooter with off-road leanings, on long-term loan from Honda Europe. Having met him near his North London home, we’re riding to Brands Hatch where, almost 38 years ago to the day, he made his UK debut at the Easter Transatlantic races. I may as well admit I’m in awe of Frederick Burdett Spencer junior. He was the first GP star I encountered as a cub journalist 33 years ago, at…

» The experts Giles Lamb Giles Lamb is an ex-bike cop and instructor for rapidtraining.co.uk. Call 01296 630638 Gary Baldwin Gary is an ex-bike cop, crash investigator and ex-racer. Also instructs for Rapid Training Crispin d’Albertanson Nurburgring coach and Hopp Rider Training instructor.hoppridertraining.co.uk Expect to be rusty » At the end of last summer we were floating beautifully in and out of bends at a fair lick using well-honed acceleration sense and judging cute little overtakes to perfection. Our memory of this is strong so when the first dry road of spring arrives there’s a real risk we’ll arrive too fast for all manner of hazards. When I worked as a traffic cop I went to a lot of bike crashes at the beginning of the riding season – most…

» TomTom Rider 450 World Sat Nav £349.99 Lifetime world maps, speed camera alerts and TomTom traffic. There’s also 16GB internal storage (which is a lot), a memory card slot, 4.5in screen and universal Ram mount. The £430 450 Premium adds a car mounting kit, anti-theft and a carry case. » Garmin Zumo 595LM Bike Sat Nav £529.99 A new, premium satnav with 5in, sunlight-readable, glove-friendly display. Rugged overall design with IPX7 water rating – it’s good for rain or snow. Alerts for areas of caution, such as railway crossings and sharp curves in the road. » Ram Mount X-Grip £34.99 Available in two sizes, the smaller fits the likes of an iPhone while the larger £43 version manageag phablets. The rear is Ram’s ‘size B’ rubber ball, which connects…

» Southern Scotland is made up of the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway, and it’s a brilliant place to ride a bike. It doesn’t have the highest mountains or the biggest lochs, but there are miles and miles of stunning roads, awesome scenery, rolling hills and valleys, wide open spaces and best of all, few tourists… » The three Lochs Run is a gem. Start out from Moffat on the A701 – signposted the scenic route to Edinburgh. It’s a good, flowing warm-up with grippy bends through the Devils Beef Tub, a deep hollow formed by four hills – Great Hill, Peat Knowne, Annanhead Hill and Ericstane Hill. Turn right at Tweedsmuir and head over the hills to Talla and Meggett reservoirs. It’s a narrow road with good passing places,…

‘Whenever you go to Guy’s it’s never a quick job. He always makes you a brew in the biggest cups and has a nice piece of cake on offer’ THE TEAM IS WELL on with building the bikes for the classic endurance race at Spa in June and everyone in the team is playing their part, including my team mate Guy. He is a very busy man with work and filming for his next TV adventure so he’d not actually seen the bike yet, but he’s pretty clued up on GSX-R’s and endurance racing, so Pete Littlewood (the team manager) and I took one of the bikes over to his house for him to cast his eye over. Riding with a French team on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 he finished…

‘The SE explodes out of your hands north of 7000rpm’ LET’S START WITH a whimper. Numbers don’t lie, right? The ZX-10R SE is among the heaviest, the longest and the laziest steering in its class. Its torque trace mostly bumps along the bottom compared with peers. And, at £18,949, it looks barely any different to the base model (£4650 cheaper). So, what can redeem this aging beast from the east? Kawasaki’s answer is its – and Showa’s – first semi-active suspension. In an exclusive arrangement with Kawasaki, Showa have deployed their excellent Balance Free forks and shock solenoids controlled by in-house-developed algorithms running in a dedicated suspension control unit. These react in one millisecond and are informed by sensors measuring the stroke rate of the suspension, the inertial measurement unit…

It’s all too much I’ve been riding for over 20 years and reading Bike for at least that long, and I always enjoy the magazine. But in recent years something has dawned on me… Modern bikes are silly. Don’t get me wrong I appreciate engineering and design, but £14k plus is so far removed from what I need it’s unreal. Take the Adventure Class of 2018 bikes (Bike, May 2018). I’d love one, but there’s no way I’m spending that on a bike. Sure I could go PCP, but what happens when I take it back after three years with 35k miles on the clock? I took my NCx in for some work and the dealer said, ‘We’ve never seen a bike with that mileage,’ (48,500 at five years old).…

WE RECKON IT requires around 5000 miles to really get to know a bike, which usually takes us five to six months. But this Big Test is slightly different because guest tester Philip Weston did 4813 miles on our Kawasaki H2 SX in a long weekend. In just four days he lapped Europe, taking in Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain and to cap it all, Gibraltar. Admittedly he missed out on several things you do over a year of ownership, such as polishing, popping to the shops and going to a bike meet. But he did fill it with petrol 33 times, rode in snow (Austria), scratched down warm, dry twisties (Monaco), sat at 80mph for an entire tankful (Spain), blitzed it to 171mph…

AFTER OVER 20 years hanging around in World-championship paddocks it’s easy to get blasé about our domestic, British Superbikes (BSB), championship. A visit to the first round of this year’s calendar certainly cured me of that. Even on a Baltic Easter weekend I found a superbly-managed paddock full of top-quality teams fielding an incendiary mix of youth and experience watched by a big crowd who turn up in family groups because prices are keen and they can mingle with the riders. If that doesn’t make for a good weekend of sport I’m really not sure what does. These are a few of the people who make BSB happen trackside and up there in the grandstands. Weather be damned… ‘We’re all suckers for racing, but you have to do it properly’…

Vitpilen as an object of desire In Kiska’s Austrian HQ, a designer is penning straight lines at a drawing board. The brief he’s been given is simple: keep it simple. The paper in front of him shows two wheels and four lines. The first two are angled up and back from the wheels – fork and rear end. The third is horizontal above the wheels – the flat top of the bike. And a fourth cuts diagonally across from headstock to rear axle. The designer pauses, adds a fifth line and annotates it yellow. It’s his personal flair. ‘Done,’ he reports to his supervisor Gerald. All these lines are still visible on the production machine. The bike is simple, compact and nods a head to current custom trends. Shallow LED…

2008 MODEL The third generation ZX-10R has more in common with the short-wheelbase ’04 than the ’06 revamp. It’s focussed and lively. Right now they are great value because the 2008 CBR1000RR looks more modern. QUICKSHIFTERS Beware ’04-’05 bikes with aftermarket shifters. They wear pre-cassette gearboxes and the strong torque can bend selector forks and round off dogs. Selection becomes vague. I’d also avoid buying a bike I knew had been fitted with one in the past. SIX-POT CALIPERS The ’06-’07 model had six-pots up front. They produce long lever travel that gets worse as fluid and lines get older. Changing pads, piston seals and lines brings back the conventional feel. Caliper mounting points are the same as the newer ZX-10s so a straight swap to ’08 four-pots is a…

WHEEL ALIGNMENT, the front and rear wheels perfectly in line, is critical to good handling. It might get messed up by ham fisted chain adjustment. Or if the bike’s had a knock. It’s worth checking on a secondhand bike, or if you’ve had the back wheel out. You can get laser alignment tools, and some folk use string, but I use a pair of aluminium straight edges. Buy some at your local metal factor. They must be rigid enough to remain straight. Angle section may be better than the square section that I use. Put the bike on a paddock stand or centre stand (the centre stand may obstruct the rulers) and run the straight edges from front to back wheel on both sides. Put the front of the rules…

OWNED FOR A YEAR NOW, my K75 has proven a reliable workhorse but the recent bout of snow and pestilence meant it sat idle for weeks on end and when I came to start it on a rare bright morning, it would barely crank over – although the anti-theft alarm shrilled its warning. Cursing done, I trickle charged it for eight hours, and even then it barely motivated the engine. After much head-scratching I deduced this was because a previous owner had (badly) fitted the long-obsolete Gemini anti-theft device which leeches current and since the battery itself was pretty ancient, it totally lost the plot. So first off I had to get a new one which in the case of the Beemer, even a mere 750 triple, is the size…

‘It’s faultless, dependable and practical…’ DAY TO DAY It’s faultless, dependable and practical. Whatever situation or weather you throw at it, the CB copes. However, for touring and/or commuting I’d definitely upgrade to the CBR650F, for its fairing. Weight tips the scales at 208kg, which means pushing it around and dragging it out of the shed is easily done. Smaller riders, like me, take note. At night though I would love more performance from the headlight. It looks like a Transformer robot but needs to be wider and throw its beam further down the road. 175 miles to a full tank is OK. STYLING Sharp lines, funky headlight and the usual bronze engine details look good, and there is obvious quality here too. Personally I think it’s a better looking…