Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2025 i BIKE

This year's British Grand Prix is earlier in the calendar - it's jumped from the start of August to the end of May. Given the difficulty that spring's had in breaking free of winter over the past few years, it could mean some interesting weather at Silverstone. Which might play into Jake Dixon's hands. The Moto2 star has experience on chilly windswept UK circuits. Jake won convincingly at his home round last year, so if Silverstone is treated to mist and sleet the others won't see which way he went. Mat Oxley's been nattering to him about changing bike and team for this season, and how we get more young Brits into Grand Prix. It's on page 74. I've got fond memories of watching Jake's dad. Darren Dixon won the…

In a parallel universe where Harley-Davidson are surfing a wave of Pan America success, this brutal tracker wouldn't exist because they'd already be making it - along with the Bronx naked bike, plus all manner of other spin-offs. But in our realm, where Harley are fighting to keep their cylinder heads above water, it needs custom builders to push the boundaries. ‘This started around six months ago,’ explains Black Cycles boss Noel Muller from his Australian HQ. ‘A customer had bought his 2022 Pan America on the spur of the moment and wasn't actually an adventure bike person. He asked if I could do anything cool with it.’ Naturally, Noel said he most definitely could, but didn't know what until he stripped all the plastic off so he could see…

OIL TANK This was made by Tinworksinc to Mick's design. The original had a horizontal tank which offended him. EXHAUST This started as a set of bare 1.75in drag pipes from Lowbrow Customs. Mick cut them down and added flared tips to match the velocity stack. In the 1930s, discerning American motorcyclists started chopping bits off their bikes to create lighter, faster, simpler machines. The resultant creations were called bobbers because someone with poor eyesight thought a motorcycle without a rear mudguard looked like a bobtail cat. And now, nearly 100 years later, we proudly present one of the cleanest examples of the breed ever produced. Not surprisingly, it took Mick Scott quite a while to turn a 1970 Triumph Tiger TR6R into this bobber. ‘Ten years,’ he tells Bike…

Honda have quite a bit of history with V3 engines. The first was the NS500 that raced in the 1982 and 1983 Grand Prix world championship. Honda's first 500 two-stroke, its 498.6cc V3 had one cylinder pointing forwards/down and two standing up, with a 112° V-angle and evenly spaced firing. Essentially three motocross cylinders on a common crankcase, it made 120bhp at 11,000rpm. First raced in March 1982, the NS500 was plagued by seizures. Honda redesigned the cylinder structure and increased the number of bolts holding them in place, but the key change was replacing chrome plating inside the cylinders with a German technology called Nikasil plating. The seizures stopped and Freddie Spencer got the NS500's first win at the seventh round of the season - Honda's first since returning…

I read with interest your feature about the extremely high-mileage bikes, particularly the Honda XBR500 with more than 250,000 miles on it. An amazing achievement. Or so I thought until I got to the paragraph that stated he'd put five new engines in it. Smacks a little of Trigger's broom. I'm pretty sure if I had a decent supply of engines my Multistrada could top a million miles. Drew Woodcock EACH MONTH WE GIVE AWAY A CABERG DUKE II HELMET AND A YEAR'S SUBSCRIPTION TO BIKE FOR THE MONTH'S STAR LETTER. ON YOUR MARKS Passing the baton My grandmother started this great obsession - she bought me an Airfix Ariel Arrow for my 11th birthday. From then on all my pocket money was spent on magazines until I got together…

Welcome to fully loaded biking. Titanic tank ranges. Brain-curdling cleverness. Skyscraper seat heights. Opulent comfort. Epic price tags. These three European elites exist in a rarefied atmosphere above standard-issue adventure tourers. These are the range-top flagships, models with decades of cumulative engineering know-how. All the toys, investment, and options. Their colossal 30-litre tanks take you further. Immense motors get you there quicker, and groundbreaking electronics make it all easier than ever before. These are the bikes that promise to make 2025 your most memorable riding year yet. All of which means a huge weight on their shoulders. None more so than for BMW's R1300GS Adventure, the replacement for the world's biggest-selling large adventurer. Triumph's Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer looks unchanged but is substantially updated inside. And we have Ducati's Multistrada…

There are 78 riders in the MotoGP paddock - only three of them are British. It's a grim fact that British riders have struggled to make an impact in Grand Prix racing for almost half a century. During the early years of world championship racing, between 1949 and 1977, Britain was the biggest force of all: Barry Sheene, Mike Hailwood, Phil Read, Geoff Duke, John Surtees and others won 40 world titles across the three main classes - 500, 250 and 125cc. In the 47 years since Sheene won his last title in 1977 only one British rider has worn a Grand Prix crown: Danny Kent, when he conquered the 2015 Moto3 championship. There are all kinds of reasons for this fall from grace: money, culture, class and much else.…

RIDING POSITION A race bike with high bars. Think Freddie Spencer on his CB900F (minus about three tons). ENGINE KTM 890 parallel twin with a rocket up its chuff - higher compression, Pankl pistons, ported cylinder heads and dozens of other tweaks make for a peak output of 136bhp. WEIGHT This is the really good bit. Because there are zero road bike compromises the XX weighs 140kg fully fuelled. That gives it a power to weight ratio not far off an M1000RR. Small, agile companies often claim niches first - and that's what Krämer are aiming to do here with the world's first naked track bike. The German company - who previously only made exclusive race bikes - reckons increasing numbers of trackday riders are prioritising all-day fun rather than…

New bikes versus our dyno, scales and datalogger ON THE DYNO Testing notes: Yam's peak power is modest for 890cc, but look at the torque advantage its capacity gives over the Triumph all the way to 9000rpm. With short gears, the MT-09 is the thrust king. AT THE PROVING GROUND Testing notes: Close. Very close. The Yamaha's new brakes and tweaked ABS settings out-perform the big-name bits on the Triumph, and its punchy delivery gets it up and moving faster - an advantage it retains over the quarter-mile. Surprisingly, the the Triumph demonstrates flexibility in the top-gear roll-on.…

PRICE £274.99 Fox Defend ADV boots WHAT IS IT? Due to appear in shops this winter, Fox's new adventure boot is available in either black or brown and is packed with top-notch tech and quality materials. D3O supply protection and a BOA spinny-wheel closure system ensures they stay put, while a Gore-Tex upper will keep your feet dry. CE certification is level 2 across the board. WHAT DO WE LIKE? Fox are well known for their off-road clobber - it's what you see motocross types wearing - but they've branched out into adventure kit. These new boots come in this brown or a black option, and we rate the lower-level style and low-key looks. Always great to have Gore-Tex, too. It's a guarantee of comfy and dry feet through random…

ARTO NYQVIST Turned bike stunts into an art form and inspired an generation of lunatics, claims Mike Armitage Donington Park, 1984, and it's the first-ever truck Grand Prix. Leylands chirp their tyres, and F1 driver Martin Brundle hoons around in a big Renault. Most of the trucks are road registered, pulled out of haulage fleets and driven by enthusiastic amateurs. Every time one ends up in a gravel trap the crowd scarpers back from the barrier, as a bit of shale doesn't have much effect on six tons of wayward ERF. Barry Sheene is competing in a DAF, and Steve Parrish is driving as well (he'll make a bit of a career of it, too). Someone drives a complete lap with their wagon balanced on two wheels. Clever. The event…

In the faraway summer of 1985, American genius Freddie Spencer did something that no one else has done, before or since: he won the 500cc and 250cc world championships in the same year. That's the equivalent of winning both MotoGP and Moto2 today, but such a gruelling mountain to climb - physically and mentally - that no one has even tried to emulate Spencer's 1985 triumph. Spencer and HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) had won Honda's first premier-class world title in 1983, then lost it to Yamaha the following year. So the double - if they could do it - was their way of saying sorry to Soichiro Honda, then in his final years. Honda built a brand-new NSR500 and NSR250, only for Spencer. Thus, he was Honda's number one and…

Hands-on work Damaged gloves are hand painted during the fixing process after a crash. Yes, with a pot of paint and a touch-up brush, just like when you dinged the fuel tank on your first bike. Perhaps unexpectedly, riders are likely to go through fewer gloves each year than any other clothing item, but hand abrasions are still hard to repair. Gloves have been modified on-site to accommodate swollen or broken fingers, for example. ‘Cricket stumps’ are used in the truck to help stretch gloves out. ‘Antonietta [Secco, patternmaker] is a specialist in everything, but she's an expert in gloves,’ explains media relations manager Chris Hillard. ‘She knows our MotoGP riders’ hands inside and out.’ Looking after leather The Alpinestars race service truck is a hive of activity, whether it…

Before we assess the protracted crashfest that rendered me close to tears and saw the CFMoto 450MT tumbling down various bits of Derbyshire, let's start with some context. I feel duty bound to persuade you that the whole sorry episode isn't as cretinous as it might appear. At the heart of the saga is the Edinburgh Trial, which is one of those events that couldn't possibly happen if someone tried to start it today. It is just far, far too mad. Imagine putting this idea to your local landowners, council and chief superintendent: ‘We want 300 motorcyclists to set off in the middle of the night and navigate their way round an area of outstanding natural beauty using trails and tiny lanes in pitch darkness. They'll ford rivers, ride across…

The reason I love the Z900RS is that although it doesn't excel at anything, it's very good at almost everything. This means it's really common for owners to buy one, love its all-round brilliance, sell it for something more specialised, then realise what they're missing and buy another RS. That's what I did - I bought a 2018 model, then sold it for a Z H2 because of that phenomenal engine. But after a summer I realised I was going to lose my licence so I sold it and bought another Z900RS. As soon as I pulled away I thought ‘why did I ever get rid of this?’. It does everything so well - the handling is very good once you've set it up, the engine is great, and I…

There's half a baking tray strapped to my left foot. As if this isn't strange enough, I'm only allowed to use the rear brake, and the bike isn't fond of going straight. The dinky 100cc Honda beneath me tries to slide into, through and out of every corner - both wheels, most of the time - and the stream of other riders are laughing as they overtake me. I know because I can hear their guffaws between the mocking. This is the Champions Flat Track School, run by Bike hero Pete Boast. It's a team-building day for our favourite racing squad, Rapid Honda, with their two riders for this year's British Supersport Championship: 16-year-old Harley McCabe and 20-year-old Owen Jenner. I've been invited along to get in the way. We've…

MORE PILLION SPACE Passenger gets more legroom, plus increased seat space thanks to the top box moving back. ELECTRONICS As usual the S gets semi-active suspension that syncs with the five riding modes, but now you get a button than can lower the seat to 790mm for easier paddling. ENGINE All new 890cc V-twin that also powers the Panigale V2 and Streetfighter V2. Variable valve timing on the inlet side helps it get through emission tests while still making 115bhp at the top end. Bigger flywheel smooths out response at low throttle openings. Price of progress FRAME What frame? An aluminium monocoque uses the engine as a stressed element and connects to the steel trellis rear subframe. Double-sided swingarm is cast aluminium. AERO TWEAKS ‘Improved thermal comfort’ means more cool…

It's a head-scratcher, this one, and no mistake. I confess that when asked for my thoughts on it my first response was that I have no idea - there's very little in Honda's official announcement. So, I'll put forward some thoughts with the caveat they may all turn out to be false. Do not place any bets on the following… Obviously, it's not Honda's first V3. That was the NS500 Grand Prix bike, raced in the 1982 and 1983 championships (winning with Freddie Spencer - see page 48). It had a 498.6cc two-stroke V3 engine with a 112° V-angle -one cylinder pointing forwards/down and two sticking up - and even-spaced 120° firing intervals. And so completely different to the new 75° four-stroke engine. To start, let's break it into the…

Bike, Media House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6EA Telephone 01733 468000 Email: bike@bikemagazine.co.uk facebook.com/bikemagazineUK twitter.com/BikeMagazine This is my 1994 Niall Mackenzie Mista Fisha artwork T-shirt. Thirty years ago I rode my Honda XBR500 down from Scotland to the British Grand Prix at Donington Park. At the time, my advice for anyone travelling any distance on a smaller bike was ‘just switch off and keep going’ - I ran out of fuel just south of Newcastle. I don't normally buy race T-shirts but when you see one that declares a ‘banana yellow motorcycle’ is ‘going right around corners with consummate ease’ you can't walk away. Schwantz may have pipped Doohan to the line but this is the best T-shirt ever to have come in eighth. Alistair Watson, Argyll IF YOU'VE GOT…

Scott Smart The saviour of Supersport For years Supersport has been on the verge of extinction. Sales of 600cc screamers plummeted and manufacturer investment dwindled to a dribble. But for 2025 the ‘middleweight’ sportsbike class is receiving a fresh injection of interest, with a new wave of bikes including Yamaha's R9 and Ducati's reinvented Panigale V2 offering similar performance to traditional 600cc inline fours. It's supersport, but not as we know it. It's a concept born from the brain of former 500GP racer and BSB winner Scott Smart. When he became World Superbikes’ technical director in 2014, the issue was clear. ‘People were saying “Supersport is dead because there are no bikes”. Gregorio Lavilla [WSB executive director] felt it should be replaced by 650cc twins. I was adamant we needed…

If you strolled around Motorcycle Live at the NEC and wondered why Honda had attached the wrong price to their latest bikes, you weren't alone. At £8999 on the road, the new CB1000 Hornet looks way too cheap for a 150bhp sporty naked that bristles with wallet-drawing electronics. And then you realise that for £1000 more you can get this SP version, replete with Öhlins rear suspension, posh Brembo brakes, two-way quickshifter and an extra five horsepower. Given that headline-grabbing European supernakeds can cost 20 grand or more, at £9999 - or £112 a month on the example PCP finance - the pricing of the new Hornet SP is staggeringly aggressive and looks remarkable value. Assuming, of course, that it's not cheap for a reason… They must have skimped on…

‘The 8R romps out of bends like a bike with more cubes’ Five months and 2000-odd miles with our long-term test GSX-8R and I'm not where I thought I'd be. I suspected that while appreciating Suzuki's road-focused sportster is a fine thing, the shine might dull somewhat over time. I rode GSX-Rs during the 1990s and early 2000s, and thought the 75bhp parallel twin (against a claimed 82bhp) might not be fizzy enough. Especially with my ‘98 GSX-R750 SRAD as a constant reminder in the garage. I'm also a fan of bikes with a bit of charisma, edge, even the odd quirk - it's what helps you form a relationship - so expected the efficient and friendly 8R to be a tad too… well, efficient and friendly. Yet here I…

The reason you have grooves is to remove water from the contact patch, but also because the edges of the grooves produce very high-pressure areas that cut through any film of water or grime. The high pressure is created when the tyre rotates and the edge following the groove hits the road surface fractionally before the rest of the tyre, with the weight of the bike pushing down through it. That's why some of our tyres have a lot of sipes - the very thin slits. These actually close up as the contact patch is formed, but when they first touch down they create that high-pressure edge. The beauty of a motorcycle contact patch is that it's oval, with a point at the front. It acts like the bow of…

The Japanese factories had punted out factory customs with varying degree of nastiness. Harley-Davidson were the masters. Ducati had even put a toe in the water with the Indiana. The British too, if anyone cares to remember the Norton Hi-Rider. Fusty old BMW hadn't gone anywhere near the genre, with good reason. In 1997 that changed with the R1200C. Head designer David Robb (out of Boston, US) had a plan to take the Bavarians into previously uncharted territory with a bike like nothing before. He reinvented BMW's dowdy catalogue - and showed the competition how to do it. The 1200C was a revisionist take on an ancient theme; Telelever front end, Monolever rear, yet with a semi-trad custom stance on 15in rear and 18in front rubber. There was much chromium…