Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Fast Bikes

SEVEN RIVAL RIFT MX COMBO TESTED BY: TIM NEAVE MILES: 150 TIME: One month PRICE: Jersey, £64.99; pants, £169.99 WEBSITE: www.racefxb2b.com When you’re in leathers 24/7, there’s nothing more satisfying than swapping them out for some fresh new mx kit, and Seven MX sorted me with out with exactly that for our recent off-road endeavours. I put the Rival Rift motocross combo kit through its paces on the KTM 450 enduro machine and on the Electric Motion trials bike over at Inch Perfect last month and, as expected, the kit stood up to the mud and blather with no bother whatsoever. Admittedly, I did have to wear my coat on top most of the time because it was near-Baltic, but I was comfortable throughout. I’ve always been in between sizes…

Some things are just meant to be, and John McGuinness on a Honda Fireblade at the Isle of Man TT in June is just one of motorcycle racing’s non-negotiables. After being together since 2006 (McGuinness has officially been with Honda since 2000, but the McGuinness/Fireblade marriage began in 2006), they decided to have some time apart between 2018 and 2021. It’s safe to say that during this time apart, neither McGuinness nor the Fireblade got close to bothering the top step of the podium at the 2018 and 2019 TTs. The Fireblade mustered up a few trips to the podium in 2018 and 2019 thanks to Conor Cummins and Dave Johnson, but the reality is that the Fireblade just didn’t have the firepower required to be competitive. Even if the…

FB: You dominated the season last year up until the showdown. What happened? JO: “It was a really good year. It’s hard to have a faultless year from start to finish. Unfortunately, my couple of crashes and worst results came in the last three rounds, whereas other riders’ crashes came in the rounds previous to the showdown. Although I made fewer mistakes than everybody last year, I was heavily penalised because of the point in the year that I made mine. I had some issues that began after the crash at Silverstone; I started to struggle a bit physically. At Oulton I wasn’t really that comfortable, crashing on the Saturday afternoon when I was leading, finishing second place in the second race on the Sunday, and then crashing out of…

Lots of our readers dabble with enduro or off-road riding, especially at this time of year when the conditions aren’t great and the roads are saltier than a pretzel. I mean, what’s not to love about getting blathered up to the eyeballs and riding around without a worry of doing five grand’s worth of damage if you roof it – as would probably be the case with our beloved road bikes. The beautiful thing about enduro is that it blurs the lines between MX and trials riding, combining the speed of motocross with the technicality of trials, meaning it’s a great discipline to keep you on your toes. I’m a huge fan of off-road riding, but while I’m not too bad at turning left on a flat track bike, by…

LEARN FROM THE BEST. For the ultimate one-to-one instruction, which includes everything from initial bike checks to video playback and on/off track tuition, tailored to suit all abilities from a former WSBK racer, check out Dean Ellison Rider Coaching at www.Ellison42.co.uk The trackday season is well underway. I’ve been out in sunny Spain throughout January and February with No Limits Trackdays, and now we are back in the UK and enjoying some great British circuits. In among all that I’ve had a trip out to the States to ride at Colin Edwards’ Texas Tornado Boot Camp, learning some great skills that I’ll talk over below. Thanks to those who’ve sent question in this month… keep them coming. How do you set your tyre pressures in the early season? UK trackdays…

NEW DUKES HEADED OUR WAY! Ducati Panigale V4 SP2 For all you young guns out there, the SP2 moniker probably seems like an exclusively Honda deal, first seen on its VTR1000 SP2 WSBK homologation machine at the turn of the century and more recently on the firm’s CBR1000RR Fireblade. But, as any old bike geek will tell you, Ducati actually built Sport Production 2 bikes well before Honda’s VTR. In the early 1990s, the 851 and 888 Superbikes both came in SP2 form (and SP3, 4 and 5 for the 888). Now the firm has jumped back on the SP2 wagon with this, the 2022 Panigale V4 SP2. It’s an update on the current SP version (which we tested – and loved – last month), with all the 2022 Panigale…

It’s hard to believe it was six years ago that the MT-10 came bounding into our lives, kicking down our senses, and making our licences feel as vulnerable as a worm on a fishhook in a pool of piranhas. While its looks might have split opinions more so than Marmite, its unapologetic head-banging formula won over our hearts, souls, and mesmerised minds, delivering to the masses an affordable, outrageous and performance-fuelled wheelie machine, complete with wide ‘bars, a comfy seat and mirrors that showed more than just your hairy armpits. You could say the MT-10 was a pioneering performance for the Japanese brand, arriving on the scene just a year after the 2015 launch of Yamaha’s coveted MotoGP-inspired R1, which became the donor of much of the MT-10’s parts, DNA…

Awesome bikes come in all shapes and sizes. Admittedly, most have clip-on handlebars, sporty fairings and an average of 200bhp on tap, but that’s not always the case. Some weigh in at a whopping 240kg, come kitted with heated seats, and have fuel tanks so big you’d need a bank loan to brim them. Triumph’s all-new Tiger 1200, might – on face value – seem about as sporty as a flip-flop, but having sampled the goodness this machine has to offer, high in the hills of the Portuguese Algarve, I now know differently. Adventure bikes aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll grant you that, but if you’re a fan of brutalising torque, all-day comfort, and a soundtrack to put a Subaru Impreza to shame, step this way. Before I get…

Oulton Park, Cheshire Best bit: Druids is a double apex right-hander with a huge roller on the exit. The riders have to wrestle with their bikes to keep wheelies down to a minimum and to keep moving forward. Likely winner: Tommy Bridewell dominated the field in race three last time round but there’s no discounting Jason O’Halloran, who did the triple in amazing fashion at round one last year. Silverstone, Northamptonshire Best bit: Woodcote is a fast-paced and hair-raising corner as the bikes drift onto the start-finish straight wide-open in fifth gear, but the best passing place on the national circuit is the second and final left-hander into Brooklands. Likely winner: A safe bet would be 2021 BSB Champion Tarran Mackenzie. He’s battled for wins at this circuit since he…

Q I received a notice from court telling me that I had been convicted in my absence of driving without due care. I got nine points on my licence and a £800 fine. I do remember getting a letter from the police asking me to identify the rider of my motorcycle about six months ago. I wrote back telling them it was me. Then it all went quiet. I received nothing at all, and I am shocked to be told there was a trial without me! I have done some digging and apparently this relates to me overtaking (and pulling a wheelie) past a car. I am being honest here – I didn’t mean to wheelie. I’ve been having trouble with my quickshifter and as I overtook the car, my…

In 2008 Triumph aimed a thunderbolt at the motorcycle world in the form of a naked bike that blew the competition out of the water and totally transformed and redefined the middleweight class forever – the Street Triple had arrived. And then a year later Triumph upped the game and revealed the Street Triple R, a higher-spec version boasting an uprated chassis for even more sporting fun. So groundbreaking was the Street Triple that even now, 14 years after it first arrived, if you are after a used naked middleweight to get your pulse racing, it is by far the best option. What makes it so good? Where do we start... Unlike so many of its rivals back in the day, the Street Triple isn’t some parts-bin special that has…

If you had the choice of anyone building you a superbike wouldn’t need to look much further, you than the lads over at Raceways Yamaha in Fleetwood... they are last year’s British Superbikes champions, after all. Luckily for Glyn, he knew these lads, and that’ where the project started. He could have bought an ex-race bike at the end of 2019, but since Yamaha released an upgraded R1 for 2020 – which brought about more mid-range torque and a better top speed – as far as Glyn was concerned, it w no-brainer and it had to be a 2020 model as a Glyn purchased a new standard road-going R1, but the first he saw of it was in boxes when the redundant road-going kit started turning up at his house.…

£7K WONDERS… Just how much bike do you get for seven grand? We got a trio of treats together to find out… TRIALS WITH A TWIST The electric scene is growing by the day and it’s taking the trials scene by storm, too. We had a blast on some high-tech battery bikes in the name of LEE JOHNSTON: TT TIME! In the build-up to this year’s TT, we paid a visit to our mate Lee Johnston to drool over his bikes and take in a few tales. On Sale May 10, 2022 Buy it from WHSmith, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and all good newsagents. Failing that, try a bad one. Check out the eye-poppingly good digital edition at www.classicmagazines.co.uk Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine? Why not just…

As I write this, I’m on a plane – on the way back from sunny-ish Spain, having completed my first laps aboard my 2022 steed, the Buildbase Suzuki. I’ve actually just had a heated debate with the couple next to me who were a little upset with the fact I was mask-less. I explained my reasoning and they explained theirs. I think I’m a pretty rational person and therefore I do like to put across my point in a succinct but logical way, and I’m happy to listen to other views as I’m a firm believer in two sides and understanding other’s opinions. Anyway, I think the end result is we have agreed to disagree. Ironically though, they are now tucking into a full-blown meal with wine – which, of…