Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021 i BIKE

‘90 percent of the specs people present are bullshit’ When Triumph revealed the progress of their electric bike project, the motorcycle world swooned and swallowed the press release whole. But one of the world’s foremost electric bike experts has cautioned that although the Triumph looks fantastic, it could easily cost over £25,000. Miquel Gimeno-Fabra is assistant professor of mechanical and electrical engineering at Nottingham University and led the team that took second place at the Zero TT in 2018. His team’s bike went on to take four world land speed records. Here’s what he thinks about the Triumph TE-i project. What were your initial thoughts on seeing Triumph’s plans? I am sceptical of this sort of project because 90 percent of the specifications people present are bullshit. But I don’t…

The bike that made The Great Escape jump in 1963 really wasn’t up to that sort of nonsense. Though prepared by British Triumph dealer and ISDT Gold Medal winner Ken Heanes, there was only so much he could do – the oildamped rear Girling shocks were abysmal and the forks were, if anything, worse. After the jump, the bike ended up being sold to a farmer who used it for herding cows then left it in a barn for decades. It was found and restored by Dick Shepherd and is now on display at Triumph’s museum in Hinckley.…

[BRITISH SUPERBIKE] ‘I want podiums’ With Hickman on the new M1000RR, BSB’s first female team owner has high hopes for this season The chaos inflicted on racing by Covid has obscured one important change to this year’s BSB paddock – for the first time, a major team is now owned and run by a woman. Faye Ho has taken over Smiths Racing (riders: Peter Hickman and Xavi Forres) and quietly set about developing the team into a potential championship contender. The Macau businesswoman has set up a new base for the team in Louth, complete with an all-new workshop, engineering bay and spares area, along with a dyno just down the road. The team – now called Faye Ho Racing, or FHO –will be running BMW’s new M1000RR, which comes…

Triumph Trident 660 Triumph padlocked their gizmo cupboard and went back to basics when they built the new, £7195, Trident. And do we miss all those 2021-style whizzbang adornments? Do we f... According to a nice man in a crisply-ironed Triumph polo shirt, 2012’s Trophy was a turning point at Hinckley. Back then all models were still signed off by Bloor Senior and there was an aversion to new-fangled electronics and technology. Designers and engineers had to flutter their eyelashes to get the fully-loaded Trophy passed – but the response of both critics and customers showed cutting edge was where to go. Triumph went full throttle across their range with the more-is-better approach, highlighted most by the evergreen Street Triple: the middleweight naked got ever racier, sharper, ever more powerful,…

Ducati have never been backward about treading their own path. Think WSB twins with giant pistons that helped Foggy beat the fours, and 2010’s Multistrada, the Genesis of the sports adventure bike. They were also first on the modern retro scene with the brilliant Sport Classic range but, as it turned out, they were too early to the party and dropped them. Ducati were again in danger of being early to the party when, in 2017, the SuperSport arrived. Aimed at riders who love their sportsbikes but who were tiring of brutal riding positions and soaring power. Fed by the same liquid-cooled 937cc V-twin you’ll find in the Hypermotard 950 and Multistrada 950, the SuperSport is very fast without being a handful and makes all the right Bologna bangs and…

It’s been a funny old year since Bike’s last PCP guide, to say the least. Most of us have never experienced such tumultuous times but vaccines willing, and with a fair wind behind us, things are at last beginning to improve. At least here in the UK. And so thoughts turn to summer rides and the prospect of a new bike. It’s been a while now since the PCP entered our lives, and it remains the most popular way onto a new, or preloved, motorcycle. And with good reasons. Monthly payments are kept low, which is great. But more importantly owning your dream bike is there for the taking: Triumph’s fantastic new Trident for £65.93 per month; Yamaha’s new for 2021 MT-09 at less than £100 pm; BMW’s R1250GS for…

Advice, guidance and things to do with bikes A screwdriver is a screwdriver, right? I’ve always gone cheap, but Mrs A bought some Wiha for my birthday. The 12-piece set has flat, Phillips, Pozidrive and Torx with sizes conveniently written on ‘SoftFinish’ handles, designed for optimum torque and recommended by doctors at the German Campaign for Healthier Backs. Yes, really. I genuinely can’t believe the difference in fit, reduced effort and greater control over my old trash. A glorious reminder of the pleasure from the right tool for the job. RRP is £103, but mine were £30 from B&Q. diy.com…

»Launched in 2008, Guzzi’s Stelvio tried hard to be an Italian GS – look at its air-cooled 1151cc twin-cylinder engine, single-sided shaft drive rear, the subframe shape and fittings, plus the bespectacled face. Guzzi’s problem was that anyone who wanted a GS was going to buy a GS, not a wannabe with less low-down grunt and off-road ability. However, for road riders the Stelvio had real charm, with steadfast handling, all-day comfort, great quality and Guzzbox character. And it still has. Prices start at £4500 but, if you can, spend a grand more for a better-handling, better-looking NTX version from 2012-on with panniers and huge 32-litre tank.…

Every road has a number, but some roads get named as well – think Cat and Fiddle, Snake Pass and the Atlantic Highway. The A832 is one that sadly lacks such a name but if it were down to me I’d call it the Great West Coast Rollercoaster (GWCR). The GWCR is a spectacular and varied 90-mile blast, a two hour diversion off the A835 between Ullapool and Garve, Scotland. And for two-thirds of its distance the A832 is also one of the best bits of the NC500. But it doesn’t feel like that at first... Head south from Ullapool on the A835, taking a right turn onto the A832 after about ten miles, at the Corrieshalloch Gorge National Nature Reserve. Here there is no great mountain panorama, instead you…

Every now and then American customiser Roland Sands does something that’s so brilliantly simple other bike builders must weep into their beards when they hook their peepers on it. This time, instead of making KTM’s excellent 790 Adventure any lairier, Roland turned it into this foxy retro trailie by just adding a few key components. ‘A friend of mine with a 2019 790 Adventure said he wanted a classic silhouette but also wanted to keep everything about the stock KTM that works so well,’ says Roland. ‘The standard KTM has an aggressive aesthetic – it’s bright orange, with lots of sharp lines – and is without doubt one of the most functional and high-performing adventure bikes on the market. Our challenge was to meet in the middle – take a…

With all Moto2 teams having to use identical engines and tyres, the phrase ‘level playing field’ gets plenty of air time. But actually it’s more like a billiard table, because the domination of chassis supplier Kalex means most of the grid have the same frame, swingarm and aero too. So is Sam Lowes’ fantastic start to the season (he leads the championship as Bike goes to press) purely down to him? Or does his MarcVDS bike have anything to do with it? We ask the team’s technical director Naoya Kaneko… How much difference can you and the team make? A lot because the Kalex chassis is fully adjustable, so everything you can change in MotoGP we can do with this. Also, because we have fewer electronics than MotoGP we need…

Will Suzuki’s Hayabusa crack 200mph? That’s been the topic of debate since the GSX1300R first appeared in 1999. Fair to say most tests have Suzuki’s hyperbike topping out anywhere between the high-180s and mid-190s. The potential for a true 200 is clearly there, but how can it be unlocked? GT Motorcycles’ Mike Grainger knows about extracting pace from ’Busas, having used his own ’99 model to set a European speed record. ‘To get 200mph you need 200bhp at the back wheel. You can get close with a standard Hayabusa by fitting a quality 4-1 system and getting the ECU reflashed. I get mine done by Brock’s Performance in the USA.’ Suzuki claimed the first ’Busa (1999-2007) produced 175bhp and later bikes (2008-2018) 194bhp, but manufacturers measure horsepower at the crank.…

There’s a reason why the first question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? rarely requires a postgraduate diploma in quantum astrophysics, if that’s even a thing. When you’re just starting out, accessibility is key – and that’s true whether you’re buying a motorcycle, or staring at Jeremy Clarkson. Since 2014, Harley-Davidson’s welcome mat has been their Street 750 – a friendly, smooth, water-cooled, Indian-built roadster with a bargain six-grand price tag. The level above it was their 883 and 1200 Sportsters: more traditional, rawer, air-cooled, American-made and phenomenally popular. But cast an eye over Harley’s 2021 UK line-up and you’ll find neither family. The Sportsters don’t meet Euro5, while the Streets fell victim to Harley’s decision to pull out of India. All of that leaves this, the Softail Standard,…

My name is Jeroen and I have been a long distance traveller since I was 20. I am now 34. My trade is/was teaching and when I wasn’t doing that I was travelling: Europe, USA, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Nicaragua (sometimes on a motorcycle, sometimes not). Yet, like so often happens, the years started to drift by and my life, in Belgium, as a teacher became less and less satisfying. So, I quit my job and made paper thin plans to move to the last continent on my to-do list. Australia. This time it wouldn’t be a holiday, this time it would be a new life… I made a good start in Australia – I had a nice place to live, a well paid job and beautiful motorcycle roads in my…

Avon Roadrider Mk2 Used for: one month Price: £240 pair (4.00-18, 3.25-19) » Tyres for classics should have an easy life, so it’s tempting to save cash by fitting obscure-brand hoops that look the part. Having barely survived a tankslapper on someone’s bargain-tyred old roadburner, my advice is: don’t. Avon launched their original Roadrider over a decade ago to rival the other main quality classic choice: Bridgestone’s BT45. And now we have a MKII which looks the same as the original but claims better handling and stability. On a 1968 Triumph 650 I couldn’t feel any change. Maybe on a track day, but we won’t be going on them. Avon do promise the sidewalls offer better resistance to ozone degradation. So they will last longer in the shed.…

‘Four lap races lasting a minute, on bikes with no brakes. See it...’ 25-27 June British Superbikes, Oulton Park, Cheshire » The delayed start of the British Superbike series will, of course, feature fantastic racing. BSB has always dished up fairing bashing classics, but this year I’m also tuning in for the Supersport class to watch Peter Boast’s protégé, 16 year old Franco Bourne in action. We’ll keep up with Franco’s progress in the magazine too. britishsuperbike.com 23-25 July The Malle Mile, Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincs » This is a kind of Glastonbury for motorcycles, a summer festival of entertainment in the English countryside – now relocated from Kent to Lincolnshire and a bigger, better venue. Off-road action and tarmac sprint (on the castle driveway) featuring classics, customs and other inappropriate…

Who’d have thought that 58 yearsaftera Triumph Trophy TR6 jumped a fence in a war film we’d be getting a new bike in its honour? But here it is, the Triumph Scrambler 1200 Steve McQueen Edition. Of course, Steve McQueen didn’t actually make the jump in The Great Escape – it was stuntman and racer Bud Ekins – and the new Scrambler looks nothing like the TR6, but what the hell: the result is by far the most handsome Scrambler 1200 so far. At its heart is the updated-for-2021 Scrambler 1200 XE, which gets a Euroj-compliant engine and new exhaust. Despite meeting tighter emission regulations, Triumph have managed to keep peak power at 8gbhp (now arriving 2j0rpm lower than last year’s bike) and torque is identical to the 2020 bike…

Owners of Royal Enfield 650s, take note: there’s plenty of performance tucked away in that humble air-cooled twin. Australian Enfield dealers Midlife Cycles recently managed to crack 132mph on their unfaired 650 with no turbo, supercharger, nitrous or fancy fuel. The team smashed a world land speed record for the class that had stood for four years. ‘It’s changed our perspective on what a Royal Enfield can do,’ Midlife Cycles’ owner Michael Catchpole tells Bike from his base in Melbourne, Australia, ‘and many of the engine modifications are directly transferable to a road bike. I run a road-going version of the race engine in my Continental GT650 that I commuted into work on this morning.’ Lifting the 650 twin’s top speed by over 30 percent and raising its peak power…

Here’s an interesting question: what can you do in about 20 seconds with a ’Busa? Well, go about a mile at flat chat I suppose. Perhaps a better thing to ask would be: what must you do in about 20 seconds? Hmmmm. Most would think it totally dull, but the answer is… get the catalyst converting the exhaust gases from a cold start. A third of a minute isn’t very long and during that time the exhaust gases leaving a cold engine have to heat the front face of the cat to about 250 degrees, the temperature where it ‘lights off’. When it’s fully lit, which has to happen not long after, with the oxygen sensor keeping it at the ‘chemically correct’ mixture ratio, a modern three-way catalyst converts over…

Lining up and ready to send Suzuki’s factory fresh Hayabusa down Sywell Aerodrome’s 0.8-mile runway the seat feels familiarly low and the bodywork still stretches out so far it feels like it’s somewhere in the next county (Cambridgeshire maybe, or even Leicestershire). And there’s more: the pegs are still unusually high for such a monstrously big bike and at a glance the view down into the cockpit is just the same as it ever was, with two big analogue dials staring right back at you. But then you start to notice the subtle differences... Numbers on the speedo only go up to 180mph, not the evocative 220mph of the 1999 original. And there, sandwiched between the clocks, is what looks like one of those mini colour TVs from 20 years…

Prices for original 1999-model Suzuki Hayabusas are climbing. You can pay five, six or seven thousand for a good one, maybe more in that wishy-washy beige and gold scheme. Which is all very well if you’re of the modern-classic leaning or want to park the bike in your lounge with fingers crossed for appreciation. But if you want the finest combination of performance and pounds from a Busa that you’re going to use – which is surely the point – then the model to buy is a no-brainer. You want a ‘generation two’ bike from 2008-on. While the original bike has all those 200mph rumours, the 2008-on model has a larger engine, improved finish, and is superior in almost every respect. ‘Earlier 1299cc models are slightly smoother than later 1340cc…

The guy in the outdoor shop in Ullapool is puzzled; ‘I’ve sold a lot of socks today,’ he murmurs in soft Scottish Highland tones as I pay him for my snug new footwear, ‘I’ve no idea why.’ Mike and I look at each other, equally bemused, look outside at the deluge, and then look back at each other again, still baffled. This is the final day of the Great Malle Rally, a 1250-mile, six-day ride from Cornwall to mainland Britain’s northern tip. We’ve been enjoying fantastic roads but last night, under canvas, it was raining so hard that, had there been a phone signal, I would have Googled ‘hotels in Torridon’ and changed my plans. The passing of 65 soggy riders explains the sudden sock sales upturn. The alternative is…

Ewan and Charley rode their LiveWires the length of South America, but – entertaining though their jaunt was – it proved diddlysquat about the bike. Today we will undertake a far more useful mission to determine the LiveWire’s suitability for those of us living in Britain and not supported by a phalanx of backup vehicles. The plan is to ride from Bike’s HQ in Peterborough to three Harley dealerships dotted around the south of England. I’ll charge the battery at each one, see what proper Harley riders think of the LiveWire and, presumably, run out of electricity somewhere for comic effect. The total mileage is 210, so it’s by no means an arduous day for a normal bike but should be tricky on the Harley. And so it turns out...…

Over the past few years trad touring motorcycles such as the BMW R1250RT have been swept aside by tall, knobbly-tyred adventurers. They’re more energetic, just as comfy and they’ll indulge in a spot of off-roading, too. Not that anyone ever... It also doesn’t help that the RT looks like an unmarked police bike and something you’ll need to three-point turn around a hairpin. Yet, you’d be well within your rights to say these negative waves are frippery and fashion led. And you would be correct because the RT is light on its feet, exciting, calm, practical and can waft to the south of France without breaking a sweat. And just as importantly this BMW will also supply fun in the mountains when you get there, which is what makes it…

It was every bit as good as I thought it’d be, and all the better for not having cost me a penny. My RT obsession built slowly, like a hairline crack in a pipe that eventually brings down a whole ceiling. First, 1 hit 40. Then 1 wanted to ride to the Italian GP at Mugello and realised that if I took my BMW HP2 Sport there’d be drawbacks. Its punishing ergonomics would surely see me sell it halfway down France, and I’d be restricted to so little luggage (a rucksack) I’d spend the whole trip being too hot, too cold, too wet or too foul-smelling to enter the long-lunch trattorias of which I daydreamed. Massive panniers, a top box and a back seat big enough for a BBQ –…

GENUINE IS BEST If the owner has done the servicing themselves, ask where they got the oil filter from. The F4 needs to have a genuine MV filter, not a pattern part. Some pattern ones have O-rings with a round section rather than square, and they don’t handle as much pressure. Genuine filters are around £12, as opposed to £6 for a pattern filter, so it’s not worth skimping. Screw it on to 24Nm and always use the clamp that comes with a genuine part to prevent the filter unscrewing itself. CORRECT CORRECTION If you fancy the fancier and more powerful F4 R or 312 model, check to see if the engine hunts on tickover or if the throttle is working like an on/off switch. If it does the air…

‘It’d be sad if someone that talented didn’t show what they can do’ I’ll recap in case you missed last month’s story. This season I’ve decided to become a team boss and will be running 16-year-old Franco Bourne on a Kawasaki ZX-6R in the Junior National Superstock championship that runs as a support series to British Superbikes. Franco won last year’s Junior Talent Cup, but didn’t have a ride for this year so I had to do something to help out. It’d be sad if someone that talented didn’t get a chance to show what they can do. The first British Superbike meeting isn’t until 25-27 June at Oulton Park and it feels like it’s months away, but we need to get the bike sorted so that we can get…

‘Transforming SWM’s Gran Milano into a post-Armageddon road warrior is coming alarmingly close to fruition’ Transforming SWM’s caféracer-ish Gran Milano into a post-Armageddon road warrior (© Mad Max’s idiot younger brother) is coming alarmingly close to fruition due largely to the well-equipped workshop of Adam Dance at AdMoto (admoto.co.uk). So here you see the finished alloy cowling – ‘nacelle’ does it a disservice, ‘fairing’ being a misnomer – meticulously crafted to embrace the headlamps, oil cooler and USD fork legs. What was envisaged as a homage to the Ronin has since taken on a life of its own as practicalities and budget constraints kicked in, an example being the location of an oil cooler in the cowling. This initially called for something smaller than the original which hitherto sat just…