Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i Fast Bikes

There are times in life where you must pinch yourself – and quite often they involve a motorcycle. Just the other day I was out in Germany, minding my own business, riding at 120mph on the autobahn… as you do. The next thing I know, horns are honking, lights are flashing, and a lady in a big Mercedes is fast approaching my rear end at an unholy rate of knots. If I hadn’t moved over, I’m sure she would have ended up giving me a free ride on her bonnet, as I can only imagine nothing was getting in her way – least of all a Brit on a bike, dawdling in the fast lane. I had to laugh because the experience was so out of kilter for most of…

“I’M PUSHING TO THE LAST LAP. I’M JUST WAITING. MAYBE HE [BULEGA] DO SOME MISTAKE MAYBE IT’S POSSIBLE TO WIN.” How much has the 2025 bike changed compared to your title-winning bike? TR: A lot. Because of the new rules, we are not using the same chassis like last year. The bike has changed a lot. The chassis and also electronics are not working like last year. Last year I’m easy riding, because when I am pushing so hard, the bike is also working. But now I am pushing so hard, the bike is not working. Every corner I try to do without a mistake. I am pushing so hard – this is not easy sometimes. Also, not easy 23 laps. Ducati is very strong this year. Everyone knows. Now…

Some bikes are just born with a bad attitude, none more so than the 2004 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R. Bristling with aggression, the original litre Ninja was unleased on the world with a point to prove. The bods at Kawasaki were fed up of being the whipping boys of the premium sportsbike class with their outdated ZX-9R and, rejuvenated through a new brash attitude, they were going to do something about it. The result of this now seriously fired-up Kawasaki was a bike targeted at dominating the track – and if it scared a few road riders along the way, then that was all the better… Boasting a claimed 172bhp (182bhp with RAM-Air included) from an all-new engine, Kawasaki then packed it in a chassis that was incredibly compact to ensure…

It’s a sign of the times when you go to a BMW launch at which it is presenting no less than FIVE new or updated models, and only one of them is a sportsbike. In fact, reflecting on the 2024/25 launch season, of the 10 bikes I’ve ridden, nine have been nakeds. We can no longer say things like the market is changing and there’s a shift towards naked bikes – it HAS changed. We are well and truly no longer at the dawn of a new age; we’re living in it right now. All the manufacturers know this, which is why the naked sector has seen the most amount of activity in one launch season that I can recall in my 22 years of writing about bikes. It’s not…

Many questioned Honda’s decision to reintroduce the CBR600RR into the UK last year, but despite speculation it would flop, especially considering its £10,999 price tag, it has sold well. This is great to see as its proves that UK riders still have an appetite for a ‘proper’ supersport bike that can cut it on track, rather than the slightly lacklustre new generation of ‘road-biased’ sportsbikes such as the Yamaha R7, Triumph Daytona 660 or Suzuki GSX-8R. But that £11k price tag is still a heck of a hurdle to overcome, which is why a used 2013-onwards CBR600RR looks like an extremely tempting prospect. It may lack the new model’s wings, traction control, variable power modes or quickshifter, but if you peel back the tech, underneath they are remarkably similar. Some…

We all love an underdog, right? Well, that’s what I kept telling myself as I lashed my soft luggage on the Tiger Sport 660, trying pretty hard to ignore the smug looks on Dave’s and Rich’s faces. Sure, they’d bagged the bigger bore, more powerful, and undoubtedly more comfortable options for this 1000-mile blast, but I was quite excited at the prospect of the Trumpet, which looked so much better than its rivals, if nothing else. Well, assuming you didn’t look at the dash, that is. As with the last-generation 660 and the more recently released Tiger Sport 800, the clocks on the bike look as archaic as a 1980s Casio, only they’re much harder to ignore. The irony is that there’s a nice amount of tech on the Triumph,…

“I HAD THE HELMET AND JACKETS OUT READY AND THE BIKE OUT ON THE ROAD READY TO GO BEFORE SHE COULD CHANGE HER MIND.” ANDY TIME ON TEST: SEVEN WEEKS ODOMETER MILES BHP: 136 GAIN: 0 NEXT AIM: Sharpen up the brakes Ever heard of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? Well, neither had I. And don’t worry, you don’t need to remember this for an exam at the end. Chances are, though, you have felt the effects of this psychological concept, otherwise known as the frequency illusion. This is where you buy a new car or motorbike, then you start to see it everywhere, and while not remembering what it is called, just knowing that this perception has a name is interesting, even just mildly. I have managed to get out to…

If you’ve been a naughty biker, you need some decent legal advice, get it from mail@whitedalton.co.uk Q I recently purchased a Kawasaki ZX-6R brand-new. It was running it nicely before its first service; I haven’t ragged it yet. When it got to 500-odd miles, I booked it in with my local garage for an oil and filter change. They did the work quite quickly and off I went. On my ride home, the rear wheel span up and I lost control. I had no idea at the time, but the rear wheel got coated with oil from an improperly-fitted oil filter. This was the reason for the crash. The garage is telling me it is a brand-new bike (covered by a four-year Kawasaki warranty) and that I should claim via…

BMW CONCEPT RR To lovely Lake Como in northern Italy, where the annual Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este car and bike show takes place. BMW is one of the organisers of this high-end gig (it makes Goodwood look like the BMF show, apparently) and always shows off a concept car and bike or two. This year, it was the turn of the firm’s 1000RR superbike range to get the concept treatment, with this, the BMW Concept RR. It’s a little less madcap than some of the wild creations of past years, and much of it looks like a straight lift from the firm’s M1000 RR homologation superbike. That includes a 230bhp version of the inline-four 999cc DOHC 16v ShiftCam M1000 RR WSBK engine, in the standard cast aluminium main frame. The…

It’s hard to believe it’s already been 20 years since the iconic Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K5 was released – and it’s even harder to believe that it’s also been 20 years since I last rode one. Somehow, despite having had the privilege of riding pretty much every significant bike in the past two decades, the only time I’ve ever ridden a K5 was when it was first released to the world in, as the name suggests, 2005. So, with it reaching this ripe old age, I thought it was about time I had my second go, to see if the first and only impression it made on me back then – which has stayed with me ever since – is repeatable and still valid. That the 2005 GSX-R is simply…

“RELIABLE, EASYGOING AND STYLISH, THERE’S LITTLE TO DISLIKE ABOUT THIS GENERATION OF BLADE.” Looking back, the early 2000s were brilliant for four-stroke motorcycle development. Over in MotoGP, the stink-wheels had been phased out and instead a grid full of roaring four-strokes were lining up to do battle. And one manufacturer was dominating the show – Honda. A far cry from Honda’s pitiful performance nowadays, the RC211V was leaving all in its wake, and with a young Italian called Valentino Rossi on board (whatever happened to him…), it took the inaugural four-stoke MotoGP title in 2002 and retained it in 2003. To be fair, things went downhill in 2004, mainly because that Rossi chap jumped ship to bitter rival Yamaha, but the headlines had been written, and when the all-new 2004…

As day follows night and not wanting to miss out on another fast developing sector, BMW applied all the changes made to the F900R to the F900XR Tallrounder. The result is actually not a bad proposition and well worth consideration. In terms of the 900R and the 900XR chassis, the only difference – and it is the only difference – is longer travel suspension. The front forks have 170mm of travel compared to 135mm and the rear wheel travel is 172mm, compared to 142mm, and that’s it. As a result of both bikes having the same steering head angle, the longer travel forks do mean that the wheelbase on the XR is longer by 20mm, which is quite a decent amount. In terms of differences between the 2025 900XR and…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH SIZED TO SUIT… If the Roadtecs have whetted your appetite, you’ll be pleased to know they’re available in a range of sizes… Fronts: 120/70/17 110/80/19 120/70/19 Rears: 150/70/17 160/60/17 170/60/17 180/55/17 190/50/17 190/55/17 For more info and pricing, visit www.metzeler.com Primarily designed with durability, wet grip and outright performance at its heart, it’s a hoop I’d tried first-hand on its launch on the TT course and came away genuinely impressed by its versatility and capability, being as happy in the wet as it was at full chat over a closed section of the Mountain course. One of the most innovative features of its design is the Dynatread, which adapts according to the stress it’s being put under. At a slower pace, with less load applied, the tread…

Given that the ‘sports’ element of sports touring might err too much on the side of cramped rearsets and bars that put more stress on your wrists than the most extreme Only Fans sites, I opted for a bias towards the comfort side of things for our blast northwards, with a big bruiser Beemer as my steed for the trip. And although the K1600GT may initially appear to be the old man’s choice (and, much as it pains me to say it, I was the oldest on the trip), thanks to its expansive fairing and range of comfort-inducing tech (heated grips and seat, electrically operated screen and a radio), it’s also something of a street-sleeper as the super-smooth 1600cc powerplant creams out an impressive 160bhp. So, while Bruce and Rich…

Most of the material design choices on a motorbike are obvious nowadays. Engine crankcases are made of aluminium, as are pistons, blocks, and heads – only a madman would try to make a cast-iron head, as happened 60 or 70 years ago. Cranks are steel, as are gears and shafts. Valves are stainless steel on normal bikes or titanium on performance machines. Wheels and fork outers are almost all aluminium, fork inner tubes are steel, fairings are plastic, and rubber tyres are, err, rubber. There’s one major component where there’s still a fundamental choice, though – the main frame. Almost every bike on the road has a frame made from either steel or aluminium, and the choice varies by the type of machine and cost. Flagship adventure machines like the…

“THE RESULT? A DOMINANT WORLDSBK TITLE WIN AT THE HANDS OF A MAN MUIR SAYS IS THE MOST MENTALLY TOUGH RIDER HE’S EVER HAD ON HIS BOOKS.” Sometimes, it just takes the right man to do the job. That’s the position BMW Motorrad found itself in at the conclusion of the 2024 WorldSBK season, when its star signing, the prodigiously talented Toprak Razgatlioglu, turned the bike that was always the bridesmaid, never the bride, into a championship winner. The key to success For BMW Motorrad, it marked the completion of a journey that started way back in 2009, when Troy Corser and Leon Haslam took the brand’s first tentative steps back into world-level racing with the first BMW S 1000 RR. The following 16 years saw BMW place a host…

“IT’S NO WILD ANIMAL LIKE THE ZX-10R, BUT BY THE SAME TOKEN IT IS MORE EXCITING THAN THE FIREBLADE.” In many ways, the 2004-2006 Yamaha YZF-R1 is a bit of a contradiction. Why? When it was unveiled in 2004, this generation of R1 was claimed to be the first motorcycle to boast a 1:1 power-to-weight ratio, with Yamaha boldly stating it weighed 172kg and produced 172bhp. Obviously, both of these figures were more than a little optimistic, the dry weight having been measured (presumably) with all fluids, battery, tyres and so on removed to minimise it as much as possible and the power tested at the sparkplug, not the rear wheel, to maximise its figure – but that’s what Yamaha said. However, in the next breath it also claimed the…

Remember when the supersport class was a simple deal? Thousands of Japanese 599cc inline-fours and a couple of £100k Ducati 748s which would blow up but look amazing while doing so (j/k 748 fans!!). Then the 675 triples appeared. Then everyone stopped buying 600s. And the supersport class became a sort of acid-fuelled melange of almost any sportsbike you fancy, apart from the litre bikes. A Heath Robinson set of ‘balancing’ rules aims to even things up, with some success, but it’s fair to say the class is much more complex these days. Which is A Good Thing, we reckon, in terms of interest. Because the next-generation supersport class now includes the likes of this, the Yamaha WSSP R9. A production-based machine, built on the basis of a three-cylinder 900…

YAMAHA TRACER 9 GT ➢Power: 119bhp ➢Weight: 223kg ➢Price: £11,216 TRIUMPH TIGER SPORT 660 ➢Power: 81bhp ➢Weight: 207kg ➢Price: £8995 BMW K1600GT ➢Power: 160bhp ➢Weight: 343kg ➢Price: £22,395 IN ASSOCIATION WITH SUPPORTED BY Is bigger better? It’s the age-old question, and one we decided finally needed toppling. For context, we’re talking sports-tourers, of which there seem a trillion different options on the market of all shapes, sizes, capacities, and focus. The genre is a very broad one –one that’s perhaps even harder to define than a person’s pronoun these days… but that’s enough about that, because we’re here to talk bikes. Big bikes, little bikes, and the ones in between. Yamaha’s Tracer 9GT has arguably been a stalwart in the sector for a good while now, with several iterations to…

I’ve had the chance to enjoy Yamaha’s 900cc CP3 motor a few times in the past and it’s undeniably a peach, but I’d not ridden it dressed as a Tracer 9. In fact, I’d not ridden the Triumph or BMW either, but I was excited for the ride ahead and a proper chance to get under the Tracer’s skin – in, hopefully, myriad conditions. You see, to me, standing before the Yamaha, I realised it’s basically a supermarket. In essence, it has almost everything you need, but not absolutely everything ever with a cherry on top. The 1000-mile journey ahead was going to be a mix of everything. Motorways, undoubtedly, but nadgery B roads, wide open A roads, villages, towns, single-track roads barely wide enough for a bike let alone…

STAR LETTER MAKE IT YOUR OWN I thought I’d send a pic in of my Streetfighter V4 to you guys. After selling my Panigale V4 (too much speed and too much heat), I bought the base model Streetfighter V4 (2021), which I’ve had for a year, and after playing about to make it how I want, it’s easily the best bike I’ve owned. It’s now got Öhlins R&T up front with an Öhlins TTX rear shock, plus forged Marchesinis that are great, but the game changer is the Rizoma flat bars, with lightech rearsets, which bring more weight over the front and a more aggressive look and style. Perfect magazine! Only thing I’d like to see change is perhaps more custom-style bikes that don’t look thrown together. Kind regards, Andy…