Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Fast Bikes

FB: Why did you introduce the 790? AS: We wanted to fill that middle gap between the 690 Duke and the 1290 Super Duke! From the very beginning, the aim was to create a weapon; something sharp, light, fast and agile, yet still have a usable machine that wasn’t intimidating. It’s been a tough challenge to get every bit right! FB: Who’s it aimed at? AS: In all honesty with the middleweight market being so huge, we wanted to make a bike which fitted a wide range of riders. From those jumping up from smaller bikes to people who go for a hard ride at the weekend, we wanted to cater for the widest audience without diluting the riding experience. FB: Will it kill off the 690 Duke? AS: Absolutely…

It’s true that, as a general rule, motorcycle helmets all serve the same purpose of protecting your head. The conventional motorcycle helmet has two principal protective components; a thin, hard, outer shell typically made from polycarbonate plastic, fibreglass, or composite materials, and a soft, thick, inner liner usually made of expanded polystyrene (EPS). To date, it has been widely thought that the single most important component with regard to safety in a crash is the foam lining, and the more foam used, the better the impact resistance. Technology plays a major part in the development of safety equipment across a host of sports genres, and as that intelligence advances, so too do the safety features deployed in mandatory gear such as motorcycle helmets. EPS is lightweight and can withstand compression,…

“THERE’S LOADS OF GREAT ROADS AROUND HERE, AND FANTASTIC MEMORIES!” If you’re doing the Snowdonia route, or similar, then we cannot let this one lie, because it’s so close by! And this route takes in lots of different roads, from proper sized towns, to a coastal route and mountain passes too, all over fast, slow and twisty roads. Plus, having stayed in Caernarfon a couple of times while on SBOTY duty at Anglesey circuit, we can confirm it can be a fun place to stay and, therefore, to start from, by heading south on the A487 for a wee while, before turning off onto the A499 towards Trefor, with the ocean on your right. Staying on the 499, it’ll eventually curve away from the coast to the south, past Llanaelhaearn…

“A LOT OF LOVE GOING ON FOR THE ALKHAM VALLEY ROAD HERE!” As if we’d neglect the south-east, eh? Of course there are several roads down these parts, but we’ve chosen one with a little bit of everything, including some seaside, those famous White Cliffs, and a mixture of fast and slow which should suit all – a little bit of everything. We’ve started things off from the Battle of Britain memorial, something brilliant to visit, but then one heads east on the B2011. Almost immediately turn left up Cauldham Lane, cross the A20 and then bear left on Hockey Sole Lane before turning right on Alkham Valley Road. Enjoy this stretch thoroughly, then head through Temple Ewell picking up the A256, a short zip turning right on the A2…

I’m no stranger to Italian engineering. We’re talking years and years ago now, but I’ve had all sorts of Italian bikes and cars, and I used to have so much bother with them all. It got to the point where I just thought stuff this, the next thing I buy will have to say ‘made in Japan’ on it. I’ve had Moto Guzzis, Cagivas, all sorts and every time I’ve had one it’s been a long time before I’ve gone back to Italian machinery again. Deep down I have always loved Italian bikes though and after a lot of thinking about it I decided I’ve been long enough without one now so it’s about time I gave it another chance. According to the blokes over in the MV Agusta factory…

Q My wife and I both hold unrestricted motorcycle licences, and we both ride our CBR 600 RR. We have matching helmets and quite similar kit. One of us was caught by a speed camera, and when I, as registered keeper was asked to name the driver I provided both of our names. I have now been summonsed for the offence of failure to name the driver, which I accept was probably me. I ride the bike more than my wife does. The stretch of road is one which I do ride. It was only 34 in a 30 and my wife and I both have clean licences. My wife has not been summonsed. She is not a willing to say that she was the rider but I need my…

Well we finally made it to the Excel London Motorcycle Show, despite Tim and I doing our level best last month to completely cripple ourselves. And what an event it was. We were there to do a flat-track style riding display and it was bloody brilliant fun. They split us into two teams; we were The Young Guns with Rich Cooper and Lee Jackson, and we were up against The Old Timers who were Carl Fogarty, Jamie Whitham, Ruben Xaus, Neil Hodgson and Chris Walker. The guys running it did say that we should take it in turns to let each other win… like that was ever going to happen. There was a big banked up corner and you could carry so much speed around it, but there was a…

GET ON TRACK WITH TEAM FAST BIKES! Yep, you heard that right. Working with MSVT and Bridgestone we’ve decided to go ahead and launch our very own trackday at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire on June 10. With separate groups for Novice, Intermediate and Advanced riders, there’s no excuse not to join the Fast Bikes crew and fellow readers for a day of frolics and throttle abusing goodness around one of the nation’s best-loved stretches of squiggly tarmac. And to guarantee you’re entertained in more ways than one, we’ve lined up a whole host of prizes and giveaways for those of you lucky enough to join us on this very special gig… which we’ll be teasing out over the coming months. But for now, get that date…

MSC WATERPROOF 10,000MAH POWER BANK TESTED BY: Martin MILES: N/A TIME: 3 months PRICE: RRP £49.95 WEB: www.mobilesolarchargers.co.uk You know how it is – you use your phone as a sat-nav, you forget to charge it or it’s a fruit-based product with dire battery stamina. By the time you whip it out to take a few photos of that lush Ducati V4, all its good for is a paper weight! Thanks to Mobile Solar Charger’s portable power pack you can do everything you need to and still have enough juice to get you home. There’s several types of power bank on the market – most commonly the small cylinder version – but this premium 10,000mAh version is fitted with LG Lithium batteries that allows for multiple…

It was four years ago that Yamaha launched the MT-07 and they could never have guessed it would’ve become such a chart-topper. A third of the brand’s hypernaked sales are ’07s, and with volume demand more consistent than a Saharan weather report, it looks as though this little gem is going to be a linchpin in their line-up for a very long time – especially now it’s had a bit of a fettle. Money talks and with a price tag so low it left other manufacturers spitting feathers, there were one or two areas that weren’t exactly premium, let’s say… such as the suspension. If you like a ride with more bounce than a pogo stick, you’d have found yourself a fan of the original MT. But for the rest…

Four years ago Michelin launched their Pilot Road 4 – a sport-touring tyre that covered you in every sense; from riding in the pissing wet to having a little hoon on a track day. Four years, 1.5 million tyres and €641 million in development later (throughout the entire Road range), Michelin say they’ve stepped up the game once again, offering an all-new product with improvements in wet performance, dry performance and even longevity. How have they pulled this off, you might be wondering? Well, Michelin have been incredibly busy creating an all-new Two Compound Technology (2CT) system for the rubber for starters, which sees performance enhanced by using different construction in the front and rear tyres to improve longevity in the rear without sacrificing feel in the front. Genius! After…

Land’s End has always been a destination for bikers, especially those choosing the long riding task of either starting or ending there, via a visit to John o’ Groats in Scotland! But down in the furthest western reaches of our country there’s lots of biking roads to enjoy, and a loop twixt Land’s End, Penzance and St Ives is more than worth your time plus, like many of these routes we’re covering, the scenery is often stunning – if you can take your eyes off thrashing duties! Turning right away from Land’s End onto the B3315, you follow this all the way, looping up to Penzance. A quick biking stroll on the eastbound A30 around Penzance (unless you want to stop for whatever reason of course), before hooking left on…

If you like your rides mostly flat, then the Norfolk Fens are for you! This route here though takes in a great many different roads, including a long coastal jaunt. Not all of them are fast, and there are restrictions in many places, but it’s still one to enjoy and the bonus is, there are many other roads near and off this route which should be able to sate whatever riding desires you may have. Starting off at the seaside town of Hunstanton, itself already a popular destination for bikers, head south on the A149 for a brief stint, before making a left on to the B1454 towards Docking, go through there and carry on until you hit the A148, turning left for Fakenham. Stick on the 148 north of…

“ENJOY EXPLORING THE MYRIAD OF BRILLIANT ROADS AROUND HERE...” Ah, Lincolnshire, home to both Cadwell Park and FB’s HQ, too! The most amazing thing about it though, is the roads. There some seriously fast, seriously fun roads and the best bit is that a lot of the time, they’re pretty quiet to boot. For this particular route, we’re starting off at the seaside town of Skegness, or the Costa Del Skeggy, or however you prefer to address it! Start off by heading west on the A158 from Skegness, zapping along towards Horncastle. When you reach the town’s centre, turn left on to the A153 and don’t forget to give FB Towers a peep on your horn when you pass Mortons Media on your left! It’s also worth mentioning roads such…

Riding in the Wicklow National Park is simply fabulous, even if a lot of the roads aren’t exactly in what one would describe as ‘good nick’. In matter of fact, the very best roads for thrashing are around the park, especially in the approach from the south (if you’ve arrived in Ireland at the southern port of Rosslare and turn off the N11 motorway somewhere around Camolin). Do that, and you’ll be rewarded with tight but fabulous roads including several sections with one big wheelie whoop after another, set under a stunning canopy of trees with sunlight piercing through – it’s almost ethereal, but sets you up perfectly for the Wicklow experience. For this little round robin, start off at Glendalough (where they have amazing locally made cakes at the…

DUCATI 899 PANIGALE 2014 Private £7,500 Dealer £9,000 The 1199 Panigale’s little brother, the 899 is the entry level to the Ducati superbike world with sharp handling, usable power and good looks. Watch out for seized swingarm hubs. Engine 898cc, l/c, DOHC, L-twin Power 146bhp @ 10,750rpm Torque 99Nm @ 9,000rpm SUZUKI GSX-R750 2014 Private £6,500 Dealer £7,400 When 750cc ‘superbikes’ seemed to be on the way out, Suzuki dug their heels in, resulting in a bike that blends great performance and handling. Avoid if it has a quickshifter fitted. Engine 749cc, l/c, DOHC, inline four Power 146bhp @ 12,800rpm Torque 86.3Nm @ 11,200rpm TRIUMPH DAYTONA 675R 2014 Private £6,500 Dealer £7,000 Öhlins suspension, Brembo brakes, a quickshifter, a red subframe and carbon trims put the 675R at the top…

The sum total of what can be done with a motorcycle is changing speed and direction. But these two acts can be broken down into more than a dozen key skills supported by a similar number of perceptions. Every basic riding skill relies on our ability to accurately sense the environment and the bike. This is our intimate connection to the riding world. Our senses and perceptions provide the vital raw data input that permits us to interface, smartly or clumsily, with the bike’s controls. Taste, touch, sound, sight and smell are the traditional five senses. Taste and smell have little to do with riding. Touch gives us sensitivity to the controls. Sound can be of some help but is minor compared to sight, which we rely on heavily. But…

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. That’s been the mantra for this month after running into some slight logistical issues, but then again life is never straightforward, is it? The original plan was to get the Gixer race trimmed before sticking it on track, however after a few things took longer than anticipated, I had to make a choice – leave testing until the suspension is all sorted, or get used to riding the big thou’ on the standard kit. It’s not ideal in both respects, but I’m bloody thankful I went for the latter – which meant three days at Calafat was the order of the month for Project Gixer… It’s a marathon, not a sprint Having read ‘How to Run Your Bike In’ in last month’s mag,…

FB: Are all fork legs the same? MH: Essentially, you have two main types of fork systems which are open cartridge and closed cartridge – with many different types of system within them. An open cartridge fork basically means that the oil within the cartridge is the same as the oil on the outside with one common oil chamber, which is principally an easier fork to live with. The closed cartridge forks have a pressurised area at the end of the cartridge which is sealed off, and will essentially offer a more consistent damping that will work better in extreme conditions. The trade-off is that they’re harder to maintain. FB: How do conventional forks work? MH: Basically, you have both compression and rebound pistons within a cartridge with shims covering…

No one’s perfect, not even us (apparently). So to help us polish up our act and deliver more of the good stuff that gets you going, we’re turning to you guys to tell us what you want. More road tests; more product reviews; more technical insight; more great rides; more track action; more daft captions; more UK themed content? Whatever it is you want, we want to hear it. And by doing us the huge favour of filling in our reader survey and wearing down your fingertips, you’ll automatically be entered into our fantastic prize giveaway to win a Held by Schuberth H-R2 full-face helmet, worth £419.99, while three jammy runner-ups will each be in with a shout of bagging themselves a pair of Held’s Gore-Tex Air ‘n’ Dry gloves,…

It’s been a long time coming, but KTM have been pretty busy bunnies since they whetted our taste buds with the prospect of a class defining mid-capacity hooligan. Building ground up bikes always takes a good chunk of time, and thanks to KTM’s methodical approach – that’s seen the 790 kitted with more new features than a plastic surgeon’s plaything – it’s easy to see where the time’s gone. In essence, the whole bike’s new, and the same goes for the engine. Ditching the single cylinder notion of old, the Austrian marque’s whacked another chamber into the Duke’s mix and introduced a whole host of new qualities with its parallel universe. Thanks to a succinct design and some snazzy components such as forged pistons, dual balancer shafts, a painstakingly honed…

Ever since Gigi Dall’Igna subtly mentioned that Ducati were working on a V4 production bike during an unrelated press junket, it’s been the most anticipated sportsbike for years. Then, a year later, Bruce attended the launch at Valencia and, on track at least, was blown away. Now, I’ve been a proper fan-boy of the big L-twin Ducati line since they introduced the first Panigale. When it comes to testing in a professional capacity though, their foibles held them back, and I often conceded the fact that when compared to the competition, just being bat-shit crazy wasn’t even nearly good enough for a winner’s gong. Yet, it was those exact foibles and unabashed F-you attitude that made me fall in love with them on a personal level. When using the word…

Wales is, we think and along with Scotland, one of the most under-used areas of the UK isles when it comes to biking. Some of the roads are simply incredible, be that in south Wales across the stunning Black Mountains/Breacon Beacons and, of course, the hopefully soon to be revived Welsh road racing course too. Like many out of the way places, road surfaces can be a bit iffy here and there, though animal life (sheep especially) can be a particular worry as they tend to jump out when you least expect it, or just sit down en masse in the middle of the road, behind a blind bend – baaaaa’d sheep... But don’t let this put you off, because it’s a joy to ride in many parts of Wales.…

The Lake District area in and around the Cumbrian mountains has been a popular destination for bikers, for decades, and continues to be so to this day – so there’s no way we couldn’t have included it here! Some of the roads and scenery are as stunning to thrash and behold as anywhere else in the UK, and often a match to much you’ll find far further afield, too. The sheer number of other routes and roads you can enjoy in the general area would astound you, so for this one we’ve kept it short (but very sweet), and will let our wonderful readers fill you in on other juicy bits a little later on! Starting from Windermere, head up the A591 northbound with the top of Lake Windermere on…

“SCOTLAND IS AN INCREDIBLE DESTINATION FOR A BIKER, WHEN THE WEATHER’S NICE...” Scotland, along with Wales, is the other biking gem on our wee isles, and it is frankly incredible that it’s a destination on our own shores, which many bikers have yet to experience. Exactly the same as many rural routes, expect the same kind of potential issues, especially with road surfaces given how much colder it can get up there (and therefore how much more ice and snow it has to deal with). This being said, we’ve mostly enjoyed excellent surfaces whenever we’ve been, with shell-grip usually in all the right places, too. This particular route is set just north of Perth and Dundee, skirting around the Cairngorms National Park surrounding Cairn Gorm mountain which, incidentally, is where…

In many ways the CBR600F Sport signified the beginning of the end for the supersport class. Honda certainly didn’t intend it to be the pivotal model that eventually led to the demise of a class they themselves effectively started way back in 1987 with the original ‘jelly mould’ CBR, but that’s the way it worked out. How did the Sport topple an entire class of motorcycle? Technically it was the first homologation special and it started the ball rolling for ever more sports-focused supersport bikes that compromised road manners for lap times… Next level While supersport bikes have always had a degree of sporting ability, what made them so popular in the 1990s was the fact they were jacks of all trades. Yes, they could be enjoyed on track, but…

STAR LETTER RACE REPPIN’ Hi guys! I bought a Suzuki GSX-R1000 2017 last year, once I bought it I noticed a few about and thought, you know what, I want mine to stand out and be different. So I was watching BSB the Assen round and saw Richie Cooper’s Bennetts Suzuki in old school retro colours and instantly thought I want mine like that, so I saved up some dosh and I rang up Dream Machine and they took it away in November and I got it back in December, I also bought the Yoshimura race system and GB racing covers, then beginning of Feb I took it to Jordan’s aBikes in Leeds to get set up on the dyno etc. and had a Woolich quickshifter/blipper fitted. The bike is…

1 Old Hall Coming over the start finish line you’ll be at a slight lean angle and gassing hard, wrestling the bike from the centre of the track to the left hand side; by the time the track runs straight you need to be well onto the lighter patch of tarmac that runs down the side of the track. Just as you come under the start lights get your body in position and hit the brakes where the dirt road starts on the left hand side of the track. There’s a few big bumps so be aware. Peel in as late as possible, just before the start of the inside kerb, and apex where the drain cover dissects the white line. It’s a late apex and it’s important that you…