Innehållsförteckning för May 2023 från Fast Bikes

Upfront PLANET FAST BIKES – NEW METAL, NEWS & REVIEWS BMW Motorrad is 100 years old in 2023, but this one-off special R18 harks back even further into the firm's roots. Before bikes, BMW made aircraft engines, including the 132 radial engine that powered the Junkers Ju-52 airliner and transport plane in the 1930s. A stalwart of the Luftwaffe in the Second World War, the plane had two nicknames: Tante (Aunt) Ju, and Iron Annie. One of the bikes made it to America postwar, and it's that Iron Annie this special is named for. Built by Swiss BMW dealer and customiser VTR Motorrad for a well-heeled client, it's had a ground-up rebuild, with hand-formed aluminium bodywork, a brown leather seat, and a speedometer made by a Swiss watchmaker. The bodywork…

Kawasaki UK's bringing back its Dealer Demo Days from April, giving riders the chance to experience the latest 2023 models. There are 26 dates at dealers around the country, plus more TBC – and it's a great chance to try out a 2023 bike. Beginning on April 1 at Completely Gloucester, the tour runs throughout the summer months and ends on September 9 at JW Groombridge. The full calendar and more info is available online at www.kawasaki.co.uk • Norton is also offering demo rides on its updated Commando 961 – and it'll even bring the bike to your door. More details on the ‘Test Ride To You' service at https://nortonmotorcycles.com/book-a-test-ride…

WEIGHT: Still 188kg wet, the same as last year's bike. However, the fuel tank is one litre smaller, which may or may not be how the inevitable added weight of the cornering ABS and linked brakes has been offset in order to maintain parity. FINAL DRIVE: The 2022 bike has a 16-tooth front sprocket and 46-tooth rear sprocket. In stark contrast, the 2023 bike has a 15-tooth front sprocket and 48-tooth rear sprocket, just to add even more. That's one tooth less on the front and two teeth more on the rear. It's a massive gearing change which, if it doesn't put a smile on your face, you're dead inside. ENGINE: Shorter inlet trumpets, higher flow inlet port, compression up to 13.25:1, high lift cams, new pistons with machined crowns,…

People always ask what my favourite bike is. If money wasn't an issue, what would I buy? The answer typically varies on a daily basis or according to how many pints I've had, but a consistent frontrunner is Ducati's 999. Why? Because they're awesome. Yep, I'm that weirdo who loves everything about them, from the way they look to the way they ride. The only thing I don't love is the pricing, especially on the R version that'll set you back between £20,000 and £25,000. Still, there's no harm in dreaming, is there? Or, I could get off my backside and at least try to find some extra cash… Unfortunately, I'm not that good at washing people's cars, and working the streets hasn't proved fruitful so far, so £25k might…

With Alvaro Bautista finally bringing Ducati a longawaited World Superbike title (after a barren spell of more than a decade!), it's easy to forget that the Panigale wasn't always a V4. And in many ways, Ducati would probably like its fans to overlook the V-twin Panigale models because they were, in terms of track success anyway, the black sheep in the Bologna sportsbike family. Yep, despite seven years of trying, this groundbreaking V-twin was the only model in Ducati's WSB-homologated range to not win a WSB championship. But track success (or lack of it…) aside, is a used 1199 Panigale now worth considering? It's a Ducati sportsbike, of course it is – although you do need to know what you are getting yourself into, as it's not a traditional Ducati……

In the past, when race bikes were upgraded and developed in full view, it was hard to tell just what or where the upgrades were because the very vast majority of R&D was taking place under the fairings. These days, it IS the fairings and bodywork being subjected to the scrutiny of very clever people, and if you're anything like me, you find yourself all too often looking at a MotoGP bike and wondering what all the winglets, scoops, ducts and bulges are all doing. With MotoGP manufacturers now using Formula One teams, resources and know-how in the development of their aero packaging, it occurred to me that I have a contact in my phone of someone who is from that world and who has more recently been immersed in…

Fair play to KTM, it doesn't hang about. Not content with taking on brands like Husqvarna and GASGAS, as well as tie-ins with MV Agusta in Italy and Bajaj in India, the Austrian outfit is now expanding its relationship with posh German car tuning firm Brabus. You might remember the first fruits of that partnership from last year – a factory special Super Duke 1290 packed with tasty bolt-ons and a nasty price tag. And it's basically more of the same 12 months on. The KTM Brabus 1300 R Edition 23 is a ‘luxury' version of the Super Duke 1290 R EVO, with similar engin and chassis performance, but tricked up with a host of Brabus parts. The price is just as steep as last year: £37,000. The most obvious…

STREET TRIPLE 756R BIG MAC It's a great shame that by virtue of being the ‘lesser' spec'd of the two Street Triples, the R could be viewed as the poor relation to the RS and therefore overlooked. If, just for a moment, you could imagine a world where the RS doesn't exist and the 2023 Street Triple R is the only option available, I would still be able to write that it's got more power, better suspension, sharper geometry, better electronics, better gear ratios and a more playful final drive. It's still a bike that's had a hefty upgrade over the previous model in all areas – it's just not as extreme as the RS's update. Back to the world in which the RS does actually exist, the engine in…

With any bike, regardless of whether you're buying it from a total stranger or your best mate, make sure to give it a HPI check. Not only will you save yourself the heartbreak of buying a scrapped, stolen or financed bike, but you'll also have loads more info about your purchase. I ran a HPI check on the ZX-7R and the news was all good, with the mileage and timeframe of its last MoT tallying up with the story I was given. I also learned how many past owners it'd had and that there was nothing of concern noted against this machine. You can find loads of services for these searches online, ranging from two quid to a tenner to perform. I paid the latter and got a comprehensive overview…

FEATURE PROJECT R7 Before Chris ‘Spanner' Anderson at MSS Performance could get his mits on the R7 and get rid of all the ‘road poo', as he refers to it, the Bathams R7 had to spend an afternoon at K-Tech for some quality time with James Harpen. James runs the R&D department and BSB race service. He's been at K-Tech since he left school and has probably forgotten more about suspension than most people will ever know. As well as that, he's been building Rutter's suspension for longer than either care to remember. K-Tech is also technical partner of Bathams Racing, so along the way, it's looked after Taylor Mackenzie, Richard Cooper and Dan Linfoot when they all rode for the team in Superstock 1000. As with any new bike, K-Tech…

MASTERCLASS Legal If you've been a naughty biker, you need some decent legal advice. Get it from mail@whitedalton.co.uk Q I am a bit peed off. It has been a terrible winter and I managed to get my bike out for a quick ride on a sunny Sunday. It was cold but bright. I was riding home when I hit a pothole and buckled my rear wheel. It is damaged beyond repair and I need a replacement wheel at the cost of £200. I wrote to the local authority asking for compensation and it told me to go away. Apparently, it has a defence to pothole claims? A The last cold snap in March 2023 caused more havoc to our already badly deteriorated roads. I can tell you the local authority is…

COLUMNIST Jeremy rides in the Race-R Pro but you can get the latest version the Race-R Pro GP, which has been developed using computerised simulations and wind tunnel tested to meet the demands of all racers. Prices start from £1049.99. Bike racing – it's a young man's (or woman's) game, right? Bashing fairings and heads, trekking round the world, sacrificing every spare minute in a quest to go faster. Demanding complete physical and mental effort at all times. But it seems that no one has told Jeremy McWilliams. The man from Antrim, Northern Ireland, is entering his 60th year, but as we spoke to him, he was packing up his Shark lid and racing leathers to fly to Daytona and race in the King of the Baggers there. It's a…

The Isle of Man TT will be up and running before we know it. And the organisers are running the usual annual launch event next month, at the Mountain View Innovation Centre just outside Ramsey on Saturday, April 15. Tickets are now on sale if you're on the Island already or looking to make the trip, and the show will have all the big names there, including John McGuinness and Peter Hickman, who'll be riding a Honda Fireblade and BMW M1000 RR respectively. For all us mainlanders, the evening show will be recorded and shown for free on the TT+ online streaming channel soon after. More info: https://ttplus.iomttraces.com…

STREET TRIPLE 765RS You've really got to doff your cap to Triumph. Not only did it conceive the Street Triple 675 in the first place back in 2007, in the process setting the gold standard for performance, desirability, build quality and price in the middleweight naked class, it's continued to set the standard ever since. That's 16 years with a target on your back, roughly 5800 days when designers at all your competitors have gone to work each day to come up with something better… and, being blunt, have not managed it. Don't get me wrong, the sector is loaded with bikes that are all brilliant and worthy of your hard-earned cash, but I'll bet you a year's subscription to Fast Bikes magazine that you can't find a middleweight naked…

The Monster's been around for 30 years in one form or another and was part of the Ducati range during the 851 era, then the 916 era, and then 999, 1098 and the twin-cylinder Panigale all came and went… all the while, the Monster just kept getting made up from bits from other bikes in the range and maintaining popularity until 2021, when it broke away from its original formula. Ducati has shifted more than 350,000 Monsters over the years, so be in no doubt that the Monster has made a bigger contribution to the #1 plate on Bagnaia's MotoGP bike this year than the more relatable Panigale. Ducati says that the 2021 Monster is the fourth generation one, but I'm not so sure. It is true that there have…

FEATURE HONDA NSR250R SP Once a familiar sight and smell, two-stroke smoke is now something of a rarity, but one thing is for sure… it'll never get old. The influence of the blue haze is enough to get most motorcycle enthusiasts giddy and reminiscent, thinking back to times long gone. The bikes. The rides. The mates. I missed the two-stroke era by a handful of years, and when I started road racing in 2014, they were all but phased out on that front too, apart from in the form of the Aprilia 125 Superteen Challenge still running at club level, but even that was counting down its days for the four-stroke invasion. On the MotoGP scene, the 250GP class was replaced by the four-stroke Moto2 class in 2010 and two years…