Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från Fast Bikes

Back in February, when Triumph launched its heavily updated Street Triple 765 to the media, it also announced a bling ‘Moto2' edition, but didn't bring it to Jerez, in Spain, for us to ride. At the time I will admit to not really understanding why you would do that, especially when you've gone to the expense of hiring Jerez race circuit. Why wouldn't we all be let loose on a track where a round of the Moto2 world championship is held, on one of its bike bearing the Moto2 logo, on account of Triumph being the engine supplier to the class, and tie it all in together? Having just got in from my first hour or so riding the Moto2, I now know why… It's actually pretty obvious – and…

FEATURE WINNING AT TWINNING I'm not quite sure what lured me to the Multi first, other than the fact it was so big, gangly, and anything but my normal pick of motorcycle. In my head, I'd already packaged this bike as the least exciting, capable or desirable of the trio, but that notion didn't last long. It was a sizeable bike, that was for sure, with high bars, low pegs, and a ginormous piles-defying padded seat. To cut to it, it had all the traits you'd expect from a consummate mile-muncher, made all the more appealing by its easy-on-the-eye dash and intuitive switchgears. As for the screen, that thing was huge, to the extent that I didn't know whether to look through it or over it… and then I discovered it…

FEATURE WINING AT TWINNING Three bikes, one engine, three very different experiences. Of course, you could have anticipated that from just looking at this trio, but through getting stuck in and having a blast on each of them, I got one hell of an education. To cut to it, my favourite was the Monster because it was the easiest to ride, the most lively and characterful too. I'd go so far as to say it was pleasant surprise to rip around on, reaffirming that the model really does have a strong future ahead of it, some 30 years after the first one rolled off the production line. I don't think I can say the same about the Hypermotard. I get why Ducati has built it, and there's a big part of…

Ever wondered why BMW never made it on the GP grid? Well, here's the answer. In about the year 2000, a ghost was floating around the coffee machines in the corridors of the Italian motorcycle manufacturers. “Pssst, have you heard? BMW is doing a MotoGP bike with an engineering company from Modena.” Nothing much was ever known about this project, and I didn't know any of my colleagues who really ended up going to Modena – so it's high time to shed some light on the mystery and the men 20-plus years later. Oral Engineering was founded in January 1995 by three men in Modena, the CVs of two of the partners representing a piece of Italian motorsport history. Mauro Forghieri, born in 1935, was technical director of the Ferrari…

LONGTERMERS TIME ON TEST: SIX WEEKS ODOMETER MILES BHP: 197 GAIN: 0 NEXT AIM: SERVICE After receiving the Zed a bit later into the year than I had preferred, I was concerned how often I'd be able to get out during the better weather days, but we've had some good fortune over the last few weeks with plenty of dry time to get out and about to appreciate this bike. Here in Lincolnshire, there are quite a number of decent roads to ride, and like many areas – a big sense of biking community. This feeling was proven when I attended my first bike night of the year at PHR Performance (Peter Hickman Racing) in Louth, where visitors could have a look around his set-up, showing the workshop and dyno.…

FEATURE SUPERSPORT IS BACK On the basis that the Triumph Street Triple 765 Moto2 is in all but name and fairing a modern-day supersport bike, and with Kawasaki announcing the reintroduction of the ZX-6R to its range alongside the all-new ZXR400RR, it got me thinking if we are witnessing the rebirth of what was once by far the single most popular genre of sportsbikes. Where Triumph has erred on the side of caution by using Moto2 stickers to identify the Street Triple as a supersport bike, instead of a fairing for fear of putting off punters, Kawasaki has gone all in and fully faired its two bikes and painted them a shouty green. It's impossible to overstate just how significant the move is by Triumph and Kawasaki to be dipping their…

Something a wee bit different this month. The FIM Endurance World Championship has a really special character all of its own – that's partly down to legendary events like the Bol d'Or and the Suzuka 8-Hour, and partly to the sheer madness of racing a bike for 24 hours, all through the night. The Yamaha factory bike is run by the YART team (Yamaha Austria Racing Team), with Niccolò Canepa, Karel Hanika and Marvin Fritz racing. As we went to press, just before the last round of the series, the team was sitting second behind TSR Honda France, and looking to win at the Bol d'Or to take the title. The YART bike is a no-nonsense hardcore factory machine: it's based on Yamaha Japan's Suzuka 8-Hour racer, so uses that…

Jeremy McWilliams is a racer who should need no introduction, having raced pretty much everything from the roads to MotoGP. He was also on hand to test BMW's GP prototype. Jeremy, when did you first ride the BMW prototype and what was your impression? “I rode the 990cc bike for the first time at the end of 2005 in Almeria. The engine was very powerful, but there was little inertia, so the power curve was quite sharp. The overall package of the bike was good, but it was difficult to control the power, lacking midrange drivability. “There was the biggest team of technicians around the bike that I have ever worked with. The bike was pretty similar to the Aprilia Cube 1000 cc three-cylinder Moto GP bike I rode in…

LONGTERMERS TIME ON TEST: FIVE MONTHS ODOMETER MILES BHP: 213 GAIN: 0 NEXT AIM: GET ON TRACK I'll get straight to it… I've only done 50 miles on the SP2 since my last catch-up. Now, before you write in demanding that the bike is rehomed and I'm sent to prison for neglect, allow me to explain. The main reason for the lack of seat time is, as mentioned last month, it got traded for my mate's V4R so we could tackle last issue's epic TT -roast test. Honestly, it's hard to explain just how much I've missed that bike over the past four weeks, especially because pretty much every bike I've ridden since has felt naff in comparison. Okay, the only exception is the V4R, on which I clocked the…

LONGTERMERS TIME ON TEST: SIX WEEKS ODOMETER MILES BHP: 207 GAIN: 0 NEXT AIM: A GOOD CLEAN, AND BACK ON TRACK Last month, I was mostly fiddling with the electronics on my S 1000 RR, specifically the suspension set-up, and ended up using one of the ‘Race Pro' riding modes to dial in the various things I wanted. Soon after, I had to get over to the Isle of Man for 11 days with Batham's Racing, working on Michael Rutter's Suzuki XR69 replica that he was racing in the Classic Superbike class at the ManxGP. With most of my luggage left on the race team's truck, I was able to pack just a few things in my rucksack, fit my trusty Kreiga tail pack to the Beemer, and head for…

ALPINESTARS HALO DRYSTAR JACKET The Alpinestars Halo Drystar adventure touring jacket has much more style than the usual ‘black with black details' winter gear – and is packed with features. There's extensive vented sections for warmer weather, with removable sleeves, and an asymmetrical front section. When the weather turns, there's a Drystar waterproof section that can go on the outside or the inside of the jacket, and it rolls up to store in a pocket. The Halo jacket is designed to go with the Alpinestars Tech-Air 5 or Tech-Air 3 airbag jackets, and comes with Nucleon Flex Pro CE armour for elbows and shoulders. A soft collar and stretch wrists adds comfort, and it comes in four colourways (including black for the introverts…) RRP: £450 www.alpinestars.com KOVIX KNX 15 ALARMED…

I've never done speed dating, but if you were to replace potential ‘life partners' with a line-up of two-wheeled propositions, I daresay that a recent meet and greet of Ducati's fleet wasn't far off the mark. Faced with a car park crammed with Panigales, Diavels, Desert Xs and such like, the world was my oyster that day, gifted with the chance to cock a leg over any bike of my choosing for a two-hour sesh around Northamptonshire's finest backroads. Throughout the day we'd have three slots to fill, meaning there was the chance to try up to three different machines, begging the question: which should I pick? The tall one? The smart one? The fast one? The one no one else seemed to want? The pressure was on. There was…

FEATURE Just like cassette tapes and mullets, Motards used to be massive. As a kid, I'd say one in three of the bikes we rode to school on were of a long travel, park bench, kick-start disposition. I never went down that route, but over the years I had a few blasts on converted 450cc motocross bikes, making about 40bhp and weighing naff all. They were a right laugh, and a seasonal highlight was watching the British championship round at Cadwell Park. The mad thing is that as fast as the supermotard scene came around in the late 1990s, it vanished just as quick in the early 2000s. Perhaps the lure of 12 o'clock wheelies, endless skids and thunderoussounding singles eventually wore thin – either that or people got pissed…

Tried Out THE VERY BEST - USED, ABUSED AND REVIEWED TESTED BY: Bruce TIME: One year RRP: £229.99 WEB: www.oxfordproducts.com If you're a track addict, chances are you'll know a thing or two about tyre warmers. Over the years I must have owned a dozen pairs; good ones, bad ones, cheap ones, pricy ones... I've had the lot, with a mixed bag of experiences to note. So, what's my take on Oxford's three-setting LCD option? Well, a year into using them, I'm impressed for several reasons. Firstly, they are great at getting up to temperature fast. We've all been there, coming in off track, jabbering away, getting distracted and only noticing 20 minutes before your session that you've forgotten to plug the warmers back on (…just me, then?). I reckon…