Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2021 i BIKE

Since 1957 every new Harley Sportster has come from the same mould: air-cooled engine with pushrod-actuated valves; tubular steel frame; two exposed rear shocks; low price of entry. Not any more – with the 2021 bike, every one of those criteria is ditched. The new Sportster S features a water-cooled motor with a chain driven four-valve head, a frame that uses the engine as a stressed member, a monoshock rear end, and a starting price of £13,999. After the bold Pan America, it’s another brave bike from Harley. Is it really a Sportster? ‘I do wonder if originally this was going to be something other than a Sportster, because it isn’t one really,’ says Charlie Stockwell, the chief custom builder at Warr’s Harley in London. ‘It’s in the performance-muscle category…

Nowt like a dancing, squirming, rising and falling B-road. Taking the convoluted route from A to B and calling at C, D and E. These ever-changing snakes are our natural home. We don’t hunt straight motorways or gravel-strewn tracks. And we all have favourites, roads where comers, topography, views and lunch stops deliver two-wheel perfection and keep us going back. The B664 is one of ours. Nadgery knots, humpbacks, cascading descents and hilltop sweeps, it dissects three counties and has been used for Bike tests since the 1980s. We know every grain. Now, here in 2021, this 12-mile stretch confirms why the all-new Ducati Monster is our Bike of the Year. There are clearly more powerfill, high-tech and exotic new models this year, we’ve been frothing over them on the…

BMW R1250RT º Power: 134bhp º Weight: 279kg º Engine: 1254cc º Price: from £15,820 >> Beemer’s pukka tourist is first in a field of one, but that didn’t stop the German brand from reworking the big flat twin. The base bike has fancy traction control, eco mode, hill control, cruise, hot grips, posh ABS and a cinema screen where the dash should be, complete with connectivity and proper map-based satnav. Splash out and you can have the RT with every possible assisting widget, from radar-controlled adaptive cruise control to updated electronic suspension, swivelling cornering lights and a stereo. And it all works. What the update hasn’t done is transform the 1250 – it’s extra hundreds and thousands on an already loaded cake. And it doesn’t push the RT further…

BOING! BOING! BOING! I’m no MotoGP rider who can talk chassis flex or feel the ‘ripple’ as I run over a human hair on the A15, but even I know the suspension on the latest MT-09 is where Yamaha have saved money. The front end clatters over bumps and gives me a headache. Tweaking/upgrading required. TYRES This test bike is shod with Bridgestone Battlax S22Rs and they suit very nicely. Plenty of grip in the dry, confidence inspiring and when the deluges come I haven’t felt nervous in bends. After 2000 miles they are starting to square off slightly but there’s plenty of tread left. SOUNDS BETTER, LOOKS BETTER, COSTS MORE The MT-09 has a rumbly soundtrack, even though you can’t see where the sound is coming from at first.…

‘There’s plenty of British interest in the classic race…’ Go to the Bol » The Bol d’Or race weekend is 17-19 September and should be a perfect end of summer escape. The four hour classic race runs over two legs, Friday evening and Saturday morning, while the main 24 hour event starts at 3pm Saturday. There’s plenty of British interest in the classic race apart from Team Bike, and in the main event you should be cheering Gregg Black on the works Suzuki GSX-R1000. With Sylvain Guintoli and Kazuki Watanabe, he’s already won at Le Mans this year. Circuit Paul Ricard is 650 miles south of Calais. Take a hammer for tent pegs, and earplugs if you have any expectation of sleeping. » boldor.com…

Riders in a hurry to get out of England and into Scotland normally choose between the fun, vertigo inducing, weightless floating in space moments on the A68 across Carter Bar, the quite a lot less fun A1 around the coast at Berwick- upon-Tweed, or the M6/A74 which is a three-lane motorway. But for a different route, a blast around the south western side of Kielder Forest Park in Northumberland off the A68 is worth experiencing. At the centre is Kielder Water, which is claimed to be the UK’s largest man-made lake (44 billion gallons and over 25 miles around the edge). And the forest it’s in is one of the largest man-made woodlands in Europe. The whole thing is relatively recent too, opened by the Queen in 1982, which might…

There’s no denying the new electric BMW CE 04’s style – it looks like it’s destined for the next Blade Runner rather than Basingstoke. But the maxi scoot’s £11,700 price could prove a powerful deterrent. ‘I can’t see it being hugely competitive at the price,’ says Alec Sharp, owner of English Electric Motor company, the UK’s biggest e-bike dealership. ‘I’d be more than happy to see it succeed because when people see the big brands bringing out their own electric vehicles, it gives electric more credibility. But can’t see them selling many.’ Price aside, the scooter looks solid. The liquid-cooled motor is derived from a BM car and makes 41.4 bhp and 45.7 lb.ft, which is good enough to zip it up to 75mph. It will charge from 20-80 percent…

SYLVAIN GUINTOLI Busiest man in MotoGP Suzuki’s test rider Sylvain Guintoli has just taken on another job... June was pretty busy,’ Sylvain Guintoli tells Bike. ‘There were four GPs, we had the MotoGP test in Barcelona and the next day we went to test and race the 24-hour bike in Le Mans [which he won – see Bike last month], then from there back to a two day test of the GP bike in Jerez.’ And Sylvain has just started working for BT Sport as a roving reporter. ‘Doing the BT job is compatible with my other jobs because it’s not at the same time. Obviously the testing happens between the races so that’s ok, and unless I’m called to do a wildcard race, the weekends are free. And the…

New bikes versus our dyno, scales and datalogger ON THE DYNO Power 126.2bhp @ 7600rpm Torque 101.2 lb.ft @ 6400rpm This is why everyone loves BMW’s big opposed twin – just look at that mountain of hard-hitting torque right off tickover. You can ride all day and never need to stray above 5000rpm. Ignore the midrange wibble, you don’t feel it on the road. AT THE PROVING GROUND 0-60MPH 3.22s Quick? Yes. This is enough to embarrass most 1000cc sportsbikes, though it’s easy to bog down or get wheelspin. 1/4 MILE 11.4s Over 123mph in eleven seconds from a standing start is going some, especially as the screen makes it feel quite calm. 70-0 MPH 52.6m Good enough to worry sportier tackle, this shows the worth of the Telelever and…

Point of view Nursing pints: Armoy road race fans enjoy the spectacular action from the back of a farm trailer as Derek McGee (KMR Kawasaki) and Joe Loughlin (ILR Paton) leap Lagge Jump during the Supertwins practice. Ring rusty fallers Paul Jordan slides off at Acheson’s Leap during practice. Friday’s qualifying sessions saw ten crashes as race rusty riders made their first foray on to the roads after a long lay off. Darryl Tweed and Neil Kernohan joined Jordan in crashing on the fast approach to Acheson’s. Dunlop domination Michael Dunlop uses every inch of the Armoy tarmac as he steers his Synetiq M1000RR BMW out of the final corner on the rear wheel during his victory in the Race of Legends event. The superbikes are reaching 150mph as they…

You can’t help but admire Indian. Their big and brash 2013 cruiser relaunch forced Harley into a refresh and Polaris into realizing there was no point continuing with their Victory branded bikes. That’s quite a feat. From 2015, Indian’s entry-level Scouts and Bobbers gave Triumph a run for their debit cards, too. And then, in 2019, came their boldest and most Eurocentric bike – the FTR1200. Flat-track inspired and launched on the back of Indian’s revived Wrecking Crew’s dominance of US dirt oval racing, the FTR was also Indian’s sportiest bike. Its Scout-derived V-twin was reworked by Swissauto to give a riotous, and a bit raw, 118bhp spread over three riding modes, all strapped into a new tubular trellis frame sporting quality Sachs suspension and Brembo radial brakes. It looked…

SHE’S NICELY LUBED UP If it’s the better-looking pre-unit construction motor (separate engine and gearbox) then you need to check/change three lubricationers: the engine, the gearbox and the primary. Engine oil is 20W50 and needs renewing frequently – ideally every 2500 miles (or once a year). Check your transmission lube using the level plug on the side of the gearbox after a 20-mile spin, and use 10W ATF to keep the primary’s level in order after you’ve checked it with the primary chain case’s level plug. When you’re thrusting a fresh oil filter into the motor it needs to be pre-soaked in engine oil to avoid the time it takes to build up oil pressure on the first post-service start-up. Forgetting to do this can mean oil starvation and inevitable…

Even the most hardened scooter hater would be pressed to argue against the benefits of a comfy, high power, weather protected, twist-and-go on the dull A1, the tedious M25 and then the congested A3 for the 160 mile ride to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Honda’s Forza 750 has all the traffic splitting ability and ‘eat my dust’ acceleration of any decent Powered Two Wheeler, but with showerproof screen and footboards, underseat storage and a compelling ease of use. But it’s the way it works on the wriggly, giggly B2146/B2141 across the South Downs, the last few miles of the journey, that might surprise the cynics. With engine management and gearshifts set to ‘Sport’, and with the ability to also shift ratios manually (via small paddles on the left hand…

Brilliant boxer » Flat twins are BMW’s signature, but they’re not the only firm to use the layout. Honda and MZ tried boxers, but Brit firm Douglas had most joy. This is Freddie Dixon, winner of the first sidecar TT in 1923 on a Douglas outfit that leaned in corners, controlled by relaxed passenger Walter Denny. Built by Dixon, it also used disc brakes and won races as a solo. ROAD TEST BACK ISSUES BLUE = Available just on iPad RED = Available on iPad and Android O RANGE = Available in print only Simple solution » ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ no longer stands. We’re not as fixated on sportsbikes as we were, but the real problem is that BSB and WSB bikes are too far removed from…

‘… tons of good spectating spots. Plonk yourself at Lodge and enjoy’ British Superbikes Oulton Park, Cheshire 24 – 26 September » At one end of the spectrum is Silverstone – flat and featureless – and at the other end is Oulton Park. What a glorious place to watch racing. There are huge changes in elevation and tons of good spectating spots. Plonk yourself at Lodge and enjoy. britishsuperbike.com CRMC Classic Weekend Croft, North Yorkshire 2 – 3 October » If you’ve got a short attention span try a Classic Racing Motorcycle Club meeting. With over 20 races and parades each day there’s hardly any time spent staring at an empty track and the paddock is a racing motorcycle history book come to life. crmc.co.uk Grasstrack Scholar Green, Cheshire 29…

Ferdinand Porsche is famous for the VW Beetle, world-beating Auto Union racing cars, and those rear-engined automobiles that bear his name. He was also pals with a certain Mr Hitler and worked on tanks, self-propelled guns and flying bombs during WWII. Less well known is Ferdinand’s interest in bikes. He got a licence at 18, rode a BMW R42, and worked on the (Nazi-backed) BMW streamliner that set a speed record of 173.67mph on a German Autobahn in 1937. Forty years later the company bearing his moniker revived its interest in two wheels. This is the Porsche ‘Alternative Motorrad Konzept’ or AMK, which roughly translates as ‘Whacky Future Bike’. The work of their Austrian design studio, the idea was a crossover to entice car drivers nervous about a vehicle you…

There are just two Yamaha R1s in BSB, but as Bike goes to press, one is leading the championship and the other is fighting for third. Not bad for a machine based on a six year old road bike. So how does the old R1 manage to beat BMW M1000RRs and V4 Ducatis? ‘We’ve been flat-out with changes in the last year,’ says Chris Anderson, the technical director of McAMS Yamaha and crew chief to one of its riders, Tarran Mackenzie. ‘The Yamaha wants to wheelie [the Ducati and BMW S1000RR have contra-rotating cranks to help reduce this] so we built a different spec engine to bring down the torque and increase the power. We’ve got a new cylinder head spec, new cams, new air-filters with different bell-mouths and a…

Love trackdays? Got some cash sloshing about? If so, here’s your next purchase: KTM’s new RC 8C track bike. Well, we say KTM, but although it’s powered by the 890cc parallel twin from the 890 Duke R, the rest of the machine is designed, developed and built by tiny German manufacturer Kramer. KTM have essentially just put a new fairing on Kramer’s 128bhp, 140kg GP2-R racer (see Bike, July 2020). We can see why though: the GP2-R is a jewel of a bike that’s brimming with innovation and neat touches to either make it faster or more resistant to crashes. The fuel tank, for example, doubles as the rear subframe and is made of rotomoulded plastic which Dakar bikes use – it’s tough. And by moving the fuel back and…

Because motorcycle engineering is beautiful As a greenhorn engineer I remember seeing a drawing of Fabio Taglioni’s two-valve Ducati Pantah desmodromic valve system for the first time, back in 1980. It was a ‘wow’ moment. The intricate nature of the rockers, the perfect goal of eliminating valve springs – it truly was a beautiful thing mechanically. Desmodromic was also a Ducati USP, and you can’t put a price on that. Later that decade came the 4-valve Desmoquattro, designed by Massimo Bordi, and a truly epic achievement. The mechanical layout was almost baroque and it formed the basis of a line of bikes that secured Ducati’s status. However, let’s be clear, Ducati didn’t just do desmo systems for the sake of marketing. Desmodromics let you have shorter valve events for the…

13 bikes,1 winner Welcome to Bike of the Year 2021 The criteria for inclusion in Bike of the Year are simple: it has to be a new or substantially revamped model. We don’t include anything that is just a fresh paint job and different badges. Defining the criteria for success is much harder. Sure, we are interested in exciting new technology, bold, innovative design and original thinking. And definitely the outright performance of the machine, and how it rates against the opposition in its class is important too. But that’s not all… This is Bike magazine and we’re interested in the emotional response to the motorcycle too – how does it make you feel? The choice between technological genius and simple feelgood pleasure isn’t a stark one – all new…

‘Where nakeds are brilliant’ In every way the Yamaha MT-09 shook the naked market to its core when launched: price, fun, quality. And minty pre-loved examples such as this do nothing to harm that reputation… In these uncertain times there are some things we can take to the bank – if there’s still a branch on your high street. And one of these ‘things’ is that sportsbikes have fallen out of favour. Bad backs, too focused… and all the rest of it. We also know for certain that sales of nakeds have, as a result, lifted. And so has the choice, the fairingless are now available in all shapes and sizes from traditional roadsters and retros to ultra nakeds. Ironically, the latter – including bikes such as Yamaha’s MT-10, BMW’s…

Triumph have sold over 11,000 Speed Twins since launching it three years ago and they’re hoping this new and improved version will continue to shift numbers. As well as now being Euro5-friendly it gets upside down forks –43mm Marzocchis, but with no adjustment – and Brembo radial calipers grappling bigger 320mm discs. The wheels are new too – 12-spoke lightweight aluminium rims shod with trackday-level Metzeler RR K3 rubber. The engine is now a very similar spec to the Thruxton RS, although with a different exhaust system and engine mapping keeping it just a few horses down on the Thruxton’s 103bhp. But you do get a modest power increase over the old model (up 3bhp to a claimed 99bhp, with peak power now at 7250rpm), and a fraction more torque,…

» Ah, Mr Erik Buell. Skilled racer and engineer, and always finding solutions to unknown problems. The Firebolt is full-on Erik with fuel in the frame, oil in the swingarm, rim-mounted disc and scratch-hiding bodywork. And mixing a chassis with 250GP geometry to a Harley V-twin is out-there. It was a bit much for conservative Brits in 2003, especially as early bikes had issues (failing wheel bearings, bendy discs). But get dialled-in and the Firebolt experience is sensational. Nothing goes knee-to-knee as quickly, has such direct steering or gives such underdog rewards. All the 9R’s flaws will have been sorted by now, too. Prices are rising, so buy now.…

Schuberth E1 TUareg Used for: 4 months Price: £529 Info: schuberth.com » This is a flip-up adventure-style helmet – still a rarity in the upper price brackets. Fundamentally, it’s classic Schuberth, with rock solid build quality and a sumptuous-feeling liner – it’s super-comfortable. The flip-up mechanism is easy to use (like the C3 it’s based on), the visor is huge and gives an excellent field of view, the chin curtain helps make the lid less noisy than most and the sun visor works sweetly. There are some gripes though. The peak feels flimsy and takes practice to connect to the helmet without mucking it up. Also, it has two latches that allow it to be moved into three positions – useful if you’re riding into a low sun – but…