Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i Fast Bikes

We all got very excited when Suzuki announced it was entering the super naked class. After the disappointment of the lardy B-King, the prospect of a naked GSX-R1000 was extremely appealing. Suzuki's litre sportsbike (which was now in L-generation) may have been lagging behind the competition in terms of outright performance, but it had evolved into a wonderful road bike with bags of midrange thrust and a beautiful throttle connection. If Suzuki took this as its base for a super naked, it was a sure-fire hit – especially as being a Suzuki product, you just knew its price tag would be temptingly low. Sadly, it didn't. As seemed predictable during the company's somewhat troubled and lacklustre period in the 2010s, the decision was made to cut corners, and when the…

Ever seen a red squirrel? Unless you live in the right part of Scotland, it's unlikely: the ginger rodents have been outcompeted by their dull Sciuridaen relatives from North America, the eastern grey squirrel. And we all prefer the tufty-eared red variant over the grey, don't we? Why is that? My theory is that it's mostly just because they're less common. If the red squirrel discovered firearms, they would soon be in charge, the greys would be screwed, and we'd whine about that. It's the same with bike technology. Everyone loves a single-sided rear swinging arm – but mostly because they're unusual and look cool, like the fluffy red squirrel. Also like the red squirrel, they're simply not as good at the job in hand – though that means holding…

At the turn of the century, Triumph was on a roll. Its T595/955i Daytona superbike had, after a shaky start, offered a genuine alternative to the Japanese litre sportsbikes – as did the Daytona 600 and 650. Bikes like the Speed Triple were carving out niches of their own. There was plenty of other capable high-performance goodness, like the Tiger 900 adventure tourer and Sprint ST sport tourer. And stuff like the mental Rocket III 2.3 power cruiser (which appeared a little later) showed that the firm was becoming a bit less conservative in its aims. So, when whispers began in 2001 about a full-on Hinckley hyperbike, we were all ears. A Brit-built 1200cc inline-four, using the same design principles as the Daytonas, making 180bhp, in a slick-handling 200mph Autobahn…

If you follow Allan Millyard online, then you'll know what the Norton Nemesis is. Petrolhead Saint Millyard is currently getting the National Motorcycle Museum's Nemesis into commission, and his various videos of the restoration are compelling viewing. The Nemesis appeared in 1998 as a flagship V8 superbike, headlining one of the many attempted relaunches of the British marque, and it had an incredible spec sheet. The engine was a 1500cc V8, designed almost like a mini Formula 1 car race engine by quixotic engine designer Al Melling. Melling's firm was primarily a car outfit but had done some work for Suzuki on its GSX-R engines, among others, and also designed engines for the British TVR sports car maker. Everything about the Nemesis was cutting-edge: the forks and brake calipers were…

It's hard not to get hung up by the hype of new metal, such as the R9 and Ducati V2, but if your bank balance is anything like mine, it pays to get a little nostalgic every now and again, and remember all the awesome, pre-loved and massively more affordable supersport options kicking around. Having grown up in an era brimmed to the rafters with 600cc sensations, the likes of Kawasaki's ZX-6R, Honda's CBR600, Yamaha's R6 and Suzuki's GSX-R600 need no introduction. And then there are the triples, such as MV's F3 675, and perhaps my favourite of them all, Triumph's Daytona 675. It's fair to say that without these high-revving headbangers, the world would be a much duller place, and while they might not sport a 25-plate registration or…

When Triumph released the Daytona 675 in 2006, it didn't just shake up the supersport class, it redefined it. While the big four Japanese brands were locked into inline-four 600s, Triumph went rogue with a 675cc three-cylinder that offered a torquier, more road-friendly alternative without sacrificing track prowess. By the time the first-generation 675R rolled out in 2011, Triumph had refined the Daytona into something truly special. This wasn't just a slightly sharper version of the standard model, it was the ultimate first-gen Daytona, boasting Öhlins suspension, Brembo brakes, and a sprinkling of carbon fibre. Today, the 675R remains one of the most desirable middleweight sportsbikes on the used market, and it's also one of my favourite all-time bikes to ride, packed with character, punch, and a unique look that…

We've talked much in recent issues of Fast Bikes about the bargains that some of the latest new bikes represent, and it is true that we are genuinely living in exciting times when brand-new bikes with a lot of power, lots of spec, lots of tech, and levels of performance that even just 10 years ago were out of reach for many in terms of affordability can be bought for less than £10k. It is also true that as good value as the current crop of latest bikes are, the most bang for buck will always be in the used bike corner of the dealership… and then there's the world beyond the dealer, where used bikes exist that aren't worthy of taking up valuable floor space in a showroom. This…

“A BIT OF POKE FOR SUCH A MACHINE IS A PREREQUISITE, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU FACTOR IN THAT THE KERB WEIGHT FOR THE TIGER IS A HEFTY 214 OF YOUR FINEST KILOS.” Let's be honest, we all want the world on a platter these days. But unless you're lucky enough to have the cash for two wholly different styles of bikes, the likes of Triumph's new Tiger 800 Sport could be the tonic to such a quandary. Based largely around the thinking of its smaller-capacity but big-selling Tiger Sport 660, the new 800 is in place to bring more power, more sophistication and more capability to the market. Priced at roughly £11,000, it's not cheap, but nor is it lacking in performance or features, with perhaps the biggest talking point being…

As a Glaswegian who grew up watching Scottish football in the late 1970s, I got used to disappointment at an early age. And as a leftie hipster metrosexual Red Clydesider who now lives in London, I've been able to nurture that disappointment through the various right-wing governments, Scottish Independence and Brexit referenda down the years since. Add in recent miseries like Covid and Donald Trump, and you can say I've just about gained a PhD in depressing anticlimaxes… Luckily for me, biking's been much better than either Scottish soccer or left-wing politics. In my 36 years (and counting) of riding, I've seen some great stuff. Superbikes growing from the 100bhp Kawasaki GPz900R to the 216bhp BMW M1000 RR. Riding gear going from wellies, two pairs of long johns and a…

We'd had the incredible Yamaha R1 which turned the FireBlade into a bit of a cuckmobile in 1998. Then the R6, which did the same job for the CBR600F. So, when Yamaha announced it was launching an R7 homologation bike for SBK racing, we were all set for a triple-whammy. This piece of pure sauce would relegate Honda's RC45 and RC30 to dusty museum pieces, while giving the upstart Ducati 916 a kicking too. The spirit of the mighty FZR750R OW01 hung heavy in the air as the bike was unveiled – and what a beauty it was. It ticked all the boxes: Öhlins all-round, unique race-ready engine, gorgeous Suzuka 8-Hour race bike-style, and mad headlights. The first sadness came from the price – £22k is a lot for a…

I'm old enough to remember when KTM didn't make any road bikes at all. In the early 1990s, it was a niche dirtbike maker, turning out curious-looking off-road tools. By the turn of the century though, it had broken into the Tarmac world, beginning the crossover with supermoto-style machinery before launching the Duke 620, a single-cylinder supermoto-cum-roadster, in 1994. The Duke range expanded with a new V-twin engine, and by the mid-2000s KTM was selling some of the most exciting road bikes around – the 950 and 990 SM supermotos, and the V-twin Duke supernaked. The obvious next step came in 2008, when the Austrian outfit put an expanded 1195cc version of the Duke V-twin engine into a superbike chassis. The RC8 looked like nothing else, and while it had…

While 2025 will forever be the year we lost the R1 from the brand's road-going line-up, it will also be remembered for the deliverance of the R9, which was what prompted a flight to Spain for a spin around Jerez on the supersport sensation that had only weeks earlier won on its World Supersport debut in Australia. The new head of Yamaha's road-going sporty range has undoubtedly got big shoes to fill, slotting into this new-found middle ground of larger-capacity twins and triples that are decimating the confines of the traditional supersport sector in a way few of us saw coming – and perhaps even less fully understand. For the likes of you and I, possibly all we need to know is that this addition to the R family is…

I'm kicking things off with the CBR600RR quite simply because it's probably the most rounded of all used supersport bikes. If you've owned one, you'll know just how cracking a road bike this is, backed up by a relatively torquey motor that makes day-to-day riding easy-going. This bike right here is a second-generation model, which could be said was probably the best balanced 600 of its time. This generation ran until 2012 with only minor updates, before Honda quietly backed out of the middleweight arms race – before getting back into again last year with the heavily revised RR, which is a great option to be looked at, assuming you've got £10k kicking around. If you haven't, here are a few things to note about this much cheaper option… Handling:…

“THE FITMENT OF A SEPARATED WHEELIE CONTROL PACKAGE ALLOWS YOU TO SWITCH BETWEEN FOUR DIFFERENT LEVELS OF LOFT, FROM TAME TO OUTRIGHT ASBO.” It's three decades since Triumph rewrote the rulebook and created the performance naked sector with its T309 Speed Triple. Since then, the iterations have come thick and fast, the performance figures have gone through the roof, but the ethos behind the scantily clad renegade has remained very much true to form. While it's not the British brand's bestseller, more than 110,000 Speed Triples have rolled off Triumph's production line… and this figure is likely to get a whole lot higher following the introduction of this prime cut of British beef. Building on the firm foundation of the 1200RS, which hit the market back in 2021, the 2025-spec…

Okay, Honda's been a bit off the pace in MotoGP for a while now. But the firm is a genuine foundation stone of the series: its famed RC211V V5 won the first title in 2002 and took another two titles with Valentino Rossi in 2003 and Nicky Hayden in 2006. The 800cc V4 replacement RC212V had a tougher time, only snatching one title with Casey Stoner in 2011, and the current 999cc RC213V scooped six titles with Marc Marquez between 2013 and 2019 (only missing out in 2015). And for 2025 there's another milestone – the end of the Repsol branding, which has been the main sponsor for Honda's premium race bikes since the mid-1990s, all the way back to Mick Doohan's NSR500. It was always a bit of a…

AND THEN THERE'S RC213V-S Amazingly, when Honda did finally produce a MotoGP replica for the road, it messed it up. The ‘S’ street version of the RC213V V-four could have been sportsbike of the century when it appeared in 2015, but it was priced at a ludicrous £140,000, rendering the whole project a waste of time for 99.999% of riders. The few who could afford one were collectors, and almost all of them were parked up, never ridden… certainly not as hard as they should have been. An extra disappointment lay in the spec sheet, too. Even with that price tag, they didn't bother getting proper power out of it in road spec – it made just 160bhp, which was 40bhp down on a BMW S1000 RR costing a tenth…

If you've been a naughty biker, you need some decent legal advice, get it from mail@whitedalton.co.uk Q Can you sue someone if they flick a fag out of a moving car and it hits you through your open visor? Some of my mates think you cannot, and that it is impossible to prove. A Oh, you very much can! We can look at the law in two ways here. The first is criminal and the second is civil. If PC Plod was a biker and caught by this errant flying fag, hitting him in the face, you can bet your ass he will flick on the blues and twos and pull the driver over. The copper then has a load of options available to him: he can reprimand the driver…