Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2025 i Fast Bikes

For years, the supersport class has looked every bit as depressing as my bank balance - a fading shadow of its late 1990s and early 2000s heyday when 600cc inline-fours screamed around every circuit and filled dealer showrooms with impunity. Euro regs, dwindling sales and the march of affordable litre bikes meant the middleweight sportsbike sector looked to be going the same ways as the dodo. Fast-forward to 2025 and the supersport game looks very different… and very much alive. While we've seen the recent return of Kawasaki's ZX-6R and Honda's much-loved CBR600RR, we've also seen some manufacturers taking a refreshingly different approach to the conundrum, embracing larger capacities, greater tech, and offering the kind of excitement and practicality that'll work just as well on the roads as the track.…

There's always that one annoying bloke on track, popping up when you least expect it, deep on the brakes or when pitching into a corner. At Donington, on track with a bunch of mates with their litre bikes, I was that bloke… and I couldn't help myself. To address the elephant in the room straightaway, the V2 on track against a 1000cc is up there with the proverbial knife at a gun fight. It's not for a lack of trying, but the massive deficiency in power output renders the V2 easy pickings against the bigger boys, yet with a bit of added determination and a few extra rolls of the dice, I came away from my three sessions onboard the Panigale with a massive smile on my face. Not only…

I'm not competitive… but Big Mac is. He was testing bikes at the same time as me and, having found ourselves neck-and-neck down the backstraight at Donny, he refused to brake before I did. And, likewise, I was not prepared to give him an inch until after he'd flinched. Which eventually he did, so I squeezed the R9's brakes for all they were worth and found myself smacked down by the ABS algorithm. With the front brake lever squirming like a fish out of water and the turn in point to Foggy's passing me by at an unholy rate of knots, I had to bail on the esses and concentrate on the metre-wide strip of tarmac I'd seen being used and abused the day before by half the World Superbike…

With the unveiling of a ‘new’ GSX-R1000 for 2026, eyes are sure to turn towards the used market as whenever a model is back in fashion, buyers’ imaginations are sparked. However, as Suzuki's litre sportsbike is now approaching its 25th birthday, there are a fair few options out there. You could go for an original K1/2 model, although they are a bit raw. The K5/6 is regarded as the quintessential example but they tend to be over-priced, and the K7/8 is a bit disappointing. Our advice? Look towards the generally underrated K9-L1 generation… Launched in 2009, the GSX-R1000 K9 hit the ground at the worst possible time for Suzuki. Not only was the world plunged into an economic crisis, Yamaha stole all the litre-bike thunder with its crossplane R1, and…

Did you know that in 2023, GB Racing supplied 4721 individual engine protectors to race teams? No, neither did I, but then why would I, given that the humble engine protector is probably the least sexy accessory or part on any race bike? I doubt very much that the word ‘trick’ has never been used when referring to an engine protector. However, when you consider that a very large percentage of those 4721 engine protectors were supplied as replacements, maybe ‘unsung hero’ is a much more appropriate choice of words. Imagine a world where all of those 4700 crashes occurred without any protection to the engine. Now imagine just how much oil would have found its way onto the track as a result, and in turn how many other crashes…

What originally made you want to ride in the RRV450 series? Connor Tagg raced No°100: “It seemed the next best step, moving away from two-strokes before going on to 600cc bikes.” Will Hodgson raced No°14: “When I started racing, I was a year too old to enter the Superteens, so when Ian told me about his idea of the RRV450 championship, it was basically the same thing but on 450cc four-stroke twins. That and the fact I had the privilege of being the first to race and help develop the bike before the championship came to fruition in 2009. So in 2010, I had to be on that grid for the first season. I guess I took for granted how easy Ian made it to go racing with the 450s…

Whatever you know about the Panigale V2… forget it! Following in the footsteps of the 959, Superquadro-powered iteration comes a whole new proposition for 2025, with the headline fact that it makes about 30bhp less than its predecessor. Yep, you read that right. On paper, it sounds like a massive downgrade, right? Arguably, it is - but Ducati would say the loss in ponies is a worthy sacrifice and perhaps one of the boldest moves we've seen from any manufacturer in recent times. As the old adage goes, power isn't everything. Weight, handling, chassis stiffness, electronics… these are the tools that turn raw horsepower into lap times and help crank up the smiles-per-mile. And on that front, the V2 is a masterclass. A 17kg weight drop, a new monocoque frame,…

Yamaha's been in the game plenty long enough to know that if something isn't working, it's time to shake things up. Over the last decade or so, it's proven to be the master of doing so, developing many a product range such as the MT-series, while keeping its eye out for other opportunities. Despite dwindling sales in the sportsbikes sector, across all manufacturers, it's nonetheless worked hard on fine-tuning its R-family. While we were gutted to learn the R1 would follow the R6's fate and cease production as a road bike at the end of 2024, the news of an R9 coming to fruition helped dry those tears and fuelled no end of speculation about how cracking a CP3-powered protagonist would be. Fast-forward to the back end of 2025 and…

“BRAKES ARE A FUNDAMENTAL PART OF ALL RIDING. AND THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND THEM HAS IMPROVED ALMOST UNIMAGINABLY.” “W hat do you need brakes for? They only slow you down.” I've been using this clearly brilliant dad joke in brake features for decades now, and I'm unwilling to give it up just yet (sorry, not sorry). The joke is a paradox, of course: better brakes will slow you down more, which makes you go faster around a track. More powerful stoppers let you push your braking point further back, meaning you spend more time flat-out on the straights. Funny, huh? But brakes are a fundamental part of all riding. And the technology behind them has improved almost unimaginably over the past 50 or 60 years, with massive leaps in performance and…

“THIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY PERFECT MACHINE TO MASTER FOUR-STROKE RACING. IT COMBINES RAZOR-SHARP 250GP HANDLING TRAITS WITH THE SMOOTH DELIVERY OF A FOUR-STROKE ENGINE” - JEREMY MCWILLIAMS” The year 2009 was a memorable one for many reasons. Valentino Rossi took yet another world championship title in MotoGP. Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time - a record that still stands today. Sony sold its floppy disk for the very last time. But what we lost in floppy disks, we gained in Aprilia motorbikes because something else happened in 2009 - the Aprilia RRV450 was born. When I tell people that one of the personal bikes I own is an Aprilia RRV450, this is often followed by a confused look as cogs turn trying to find an image in the…

If you've been a naughty biker, you need some decent legal advice, get it from mail@vuhitedalton.co.uk Q I was watching 24 Hours In Police Custody with a few friends, and we got talking about dangerous riding or pulling a wheelie. Could this end up with one of us in custody? A Potentially, yes! The police need to show a NEED for an arrest. So, they cannot just go around nicking people willy nilly. Well, they can, but it leaves them open to a civil claim for damages - a few hundred quid or into the thousands for false imprisonment (see the case of the Mark Richardson v the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police). Don't give the police an easy reason for an arrest; for example, by failing to give…

STAR LETTER GET THE RIGHT COVER… Hi, I was sorry to read about Gavin Grewal's friend who died while on tour. Gavin's comment on travel insurance covering motorcycling is always a concern when buying it, as it's buried in the T&Cs. A right pain if you're comparing several quotes. My approach is to download all the T&Cs documents, which are usually in PDF format, and search the documents for ‘motorcycl’ (covers both motorcycle and motorcycling). Reasonably quick and easy to spot the ‘only under 125cc’ term! Best regards, Chris Hall FB: Hi Chris, we share your thoughts on Gogo's passing. He seemed a truly cracking bloke, as is Gavin from White Dalton. Thanks for putting your advice out there for others. You're right - getting proper cover can be an…

ALPINESTARS SMX-AIR JACKET Autumn's coming in, but there's still scope for a summer jacket, we reckon. This SMX-Air textile jacket from Alpinestars is extensively vented, with massive mesh panels, but has a close-fitting wind-cheating liner inside which makes it useful for cooler rides. You'll need a cagoule for the rain, mind. The impact areas use tough abrasion-resistant 450D Polyfabric, it comes with CE level one armour in elbows and shoulders, and it is ready to fit a back protector or Tech-Air 5 airbag vest. Looks great in this buff/blue/black colourway, but also comes in black, black/red or black/orange. www.alpinestars.com RRP: £235 BETA 3080/C15 CHAIN TOOL A good chain tool is a sign of a proper bike workshop, and this Beta part is a cracker. Super heavy duty, it comes with…

Perched on the narrow Ducati, feeling the rumble of the big twin below and watching the mirrors shake themselves to within an inch Of their lives, I Couldn't help but unleash a wry grin behind my dark visor. What I'd just done was perhaps not that saintly, but the buzz off the back of blitzing this thing around my favourite backroads was preventing the sensible part of my brain from kicking into action. It'd been a long time since a motorcycle had felt so refreshingly playful, engaging, and so effortless to abuse, performing in step with my ambitions to seek and destroy each and every apex that'd come our way. Many months after pulling the pin on the Pani around a racetrack, I'd finally had that chance to scratch an…

The thing that blows my mind is that Yamaha never went down this route sooner. Seriously, the Japanese brand's decision to unleash its CP3 motor in a pukka sportsbike platform is up there with putting butter on bread; it just makes sense for so many reasons… and especially so because it seems to have really done its homework and delivered to the market a bike that people actually want. To look at, you'd think this is an out-and-out race bike, but it's far more chilled than the R9's aggressively sharp bodywork would have you believe. For starters, it's a surprisingly long and spacious machine, stretching you out in a good way without necessitating a chiropractor on speed dial after each and every ride. I'd go as far as saying it's…

“THE ‘GREAT BIKE’ THEORY OF MOTORCYCLE DESIGN. THE IDEA THAT EVERY NOW AND THEN A BIKE COMES ALONG WHICH REDEFINES A CLASS OR EVEN CREATES A NEW ONE.” Back in the Victorian era, there was an idea called the ‘great man’ theory. The notion was that historical events were all down to the actions of ‘great men.’ People like William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton and Napoleon Bonaparte had the chops to advance the whole of human civilisation on their own, purely because they could create great works of art, were extremely smart, or could lead major nations through massive wars. The ‘great man’ theory has been discounted in recent years (though some 21st century leaders seem keen to bring it back). And we're not sure it stands up to much scrutiny:…

We have a really special bike for Addiction this month. The Paton S1-R Lightweight is a bespoke race machine, designed for one job, with the minimum of compromises. That job? Win races at the Isle of Man TT, in the Lightweight and Supertwin classes. And this bike has managed it over and over again, winning every year since the Paton marque was relaunched in 2017. Paton might sound like a classic British name, but it's actually an Italian firm, with roots going back to 1958, when it was set up by Giuseppe Pattoni to build proper GP race bikes. The modern firm is owned by the people behind the SC Project exhaust brand, one of two firms making MotoGP exhausts, which hand-builds the bikes at its own factory near Milan.…

2010 BMW S1000RR Private: £6000 Dealer: £7500 The first generation of RR now feels a bit raw to ride but is still incredibly impressive both in terms of performance and electronic assists. Engine: 999cc, liquid-cooled, 16v, DOHC inline-four Power: 179bhp @ 13,000rpm Torque: 106Nm @ 9750rpm 2009 HONDA CBR1000RR FIREBLADE Private: £4500 Dealer: £6500 A great road bike with bags of midrange and a lovely throttle connection, the Blade is quite old-school but a delight to ride and very reliable. Engine: 999cc, liquid-cooled, 16v, inline-four Power: 162bhp @ 12,000rpm Torque: 107Nm @ 8600rpm 2009 YAMAHA YZF-R1 Private: £6000 Dealer: £8000 The first crossplane R1 is a touch lardy but still makes for a brilliant and unique sportsbike that sounds amazing with a set of cans on. Engine: 998cc, l/c, 16v,…

TIME ON TEST: 15 WEEKS ODOMETER MILES BHP: 136 GAIN: 0 NEXT AIM: Quite simply… more miles. We live in a world, it seems, where everything has an app for our smartphones to connect to. From a fridge that can let you know when food levels are getting low to bathroom scales that rudely announce via your phone that your body fat percentage from all your midnight snacking Is the reason why the fridge is most likely empty. So, naturally, it makes sense that a brand-new motorbike should also have an app – and, as it happens, there is one for the Ninja called Rideology. This is one app I did allow myself to get a little excited about, but at the risk of sounding spoilt, I was left feeling…