Innehållsförteckning för December 2024 från Fast Bikes

It's funny, but more often than not, whenever the subject of icons or golden eras comes up, the late 1990s and early 2000s often have the strongest case for being the time when being into bikes, specifically sportsbikes, was the best. Now this might be because it's well-documented that the average age of a motorcyclist these days is rising, thus it stands to reason that many of today's active bikers were active then and, like myself, in their prime of youth. Therefore, the majority of bikers today will have rose-tinted glasses for that moment in time. It seems that to many, the golden era of superbikes was indeed that 10ish-year period when manufacturers seemingly had free reign to pretty much do whatever they wanted with model updates and when racing…

2024 ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE Racing Icons This is Honda at its absolute best, deciding to do something and doing it quickly, decisively and successfully. By 1999, the era of 750cc superbikes was all but over, and while the rule change to allow 1000cc four-cylinder bikes to compete didn't come in until 2003, Honda had had enough of its RC45 getting whipped by the near-1000cc V-twin Ducatis so made its own 1000cc V-twin to go head-to-head with the Italians on a level playing field. The SP-1 is the result – and in the hands of Colin Edwards, it won the World Superbike title the first time it was asked to in 2000, and again in 2002, and then the brand pulled out of the championship altogether. Point proven. This withdrawal from…

I'll admit that rolling out of pitlane for 20 minutes on track with half of the British Supersport and Superstock grids on the ZX-7R did feel a bit like taking a knife to a gunfight. Under normal circumstances, when the other riders and bikes would have been the usual fast group standard, I wouldn't have been so worried, but on this occasion, it should have been called the Really, Really Fast Group. I was on the heaviest bike, with the least peak power at the top of a peaky power curve of all five bikes we had available. I accepted my fate – that I'd be passed a lot during the session by people and bikes much faster than me – and got down to the business of giving the…

2024 ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE Racing Icons You can't discuss icons without including the Ducati 916/996/998 – it's the law. The bike was so dominant over such a lengthy period of time that its iconic status is based on more than just the mere fact it was utterly groundbreaking in terms of concept and, of course, looks. No, the 916 could also walk the walk, as well as talk the talk. It contested nine world championships between 1994 and 2002, winning six and finishing second in two, with the only sub-par performance coming in 2000 when Carl Fogarty suffered his career-ending crash at the start of the season, leaving the rookies Ben Bostrom and Troy Bayliss – who was brought in mid-season – to lead the team. It's a staggering display…

MICHELIN POWER GP2 As regular readers will know, we take our big tests very seriously, and to ensure we get the most from the bikes and the experience, we depend on control tyres that are every bit as up for pushing the limits as we are. This year we got stuck in with Michelin's new Power GP2; a fast road and track-capable hoop. What's so special about it? Well, lots. Like many premium offerings from this sector, it provides dual compound technology (2CT) rubber both front and rear, with a harder-wearing centre and softer shoulders for high-performance levels of grip thanks to the input of Carbon Black. As is the case with Michelin's MotoGP tyres, the GP2s also benefit from a resin which broadens the operating temperature range of the…

FEATURE A DATE IN THE DESERT It turns out that being miles from anywhere, deep in a desert and slow-roasting like a prune isn't the most fun way to pass the day. To put it frankly, in that moment, feeling sick as a dog and as scared as a child, the thoughts of being lost to the dunes and chewed on by the occasional passing camel consumed my brain – all I wanted to do was tap out, but the only thing I could do was go on. Of course, I never imagined I'd find myself in such a place when I rocked up at a posh golf resort hotel on the outskirts of Agadir several days earlier, with its manicured grass, abundance of fresh food, and the happy, smiling faces…

LONGTERMERS: Exhaust special JOHNNY TIME ON TEST: FIVE MONTHS ODOMETER MILES BHP: 116/126 WITH RAM-AIR (MEASURED) GAIN: 8BHP NEXT AIM: Ride it! Pretty much since I took ownership of the 2024 Kawasaki ZX-6R, I've been itching to junk all the Euro5 emissions stuff to give the little engine a chance to breathe. I'm glad Kawasaki has gone to the trouble of fitting not one but two catalytic convertors to reintroduce the ZX-6R back to the market, thus making the motorcycling world a better place. It is true that in doing so, it has had to heavily compromise the bike's ability to make all of its potential power, but it is a small price to pay, especially when it's so easy and relatively cheap to bypass. First of all, it's important…

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE EICMA… It says December on the front of this issue, which is (we know) madness on par with Easter Eggs appearing in the shops next week. But while it's only early October here as we go to press, there'savery festive feeling in the air. Not baby Jesus's birthday (though we've already been stocking up on mince pies and panettone in preparation), but the annual pagan festival of MOAR MOTORBIKES, ready for the EICMA bike show in Milan. Yes, the world might be going to hell in the proverbial handbasket, and we are all essentially doomed, but while the big corporations keep churning out sweet, sweet new machinery, we're going to keep our peckers up and smile through the despair. All of which is…

2024 ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE Racing Icons The SRAD was only around for three years, yet somehow it feels like much longer. Introduced in 1996 and discontinued in 1999, it was unique in many ways, but one of its claims which often gets overlooked is that it was a bike which changed from carburettors to fuel injection without there being a new model or even any other significant updates. The late 1990s and early 2000s was a period when manufacturers were making the switch to fuel injection, and it usually came when there was a new model. The Fireblade got it on the 929 and the R1 when it was replaced in 2002. Kawasaki never gave the ZX-7R fuel injection and neither did Yamaha with the YZF, preferring to just discontinue…

I'll be honest, my first session on the SP-1 was underwhelming, and I had to try to come up with positives to say about it. The Honda felt clumsy on downshifts, especially into slower corners like the chicane after Mansfield and the hairpin after Hall Bends. I also found the engine to be a bit flat and not overly exciting, and to cap it all off, it felt a bit low at the rear, meaning it needed quite a lot of input to keep it on a line, and generally the handling felt lazy. I wondered what the fuss was all about. That said, I really liked the riding position, which has a really nice, tall seat that feels quite close to the handlebars, which are nice and wide. It's…

2024 ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE Racing Icons In the showroom, the YZF never had the cache of the 916, or the lines of the ZX-7R, or the bad-boy image of the SRAD. But on track, thanks to a big effort by the Yamaha factory, the YZF was the biggest thorn in Ducati's side. Ducati would have scored a perfect nine British titles in nine seasons if it weren't for the YZF/McKenzie combination. The Cadbury Boost-sponsored bikes won the title in '96, '97 and '98, so it wasn't a one-off flash in the pan, a blip in the natural order – it was a sustained kicking that the boys from Bologna were on the receiving end of, but more of that in a bit. The road-going YZF was introduced in 1993 and…

Along with the Yamaha, the Ducati has a vastly different riding position which initially takes a while to get used to. In the Ducati's case, it's how narrow it is, and how restrictive the seat is front to rear. Granted, I'm not the smallest of people, but there is no question that the seat had virtually no room to slide back into when I wanted to get into the tuck position on the straights. The other instantly noticeable thing is how narrow the bike is, which you would expect given that it is a narrow V-twin engine beneath the fuel tank. However, even compared to the other V-twin, the Honda SP-1, it is positively skinny. The upshot of the unique riding position is that the Ducati makes you think the…

Aprilia's getting in the habit of this: releasing a no-holds-barred, super-trick version of its RSV4 at the tail end of the summer and selling a handful of them for a mental price tag. We imagine it's some sort of self-funded operation by the race team; they build 30 mad bikes from the spares cupboard and spend the cash on a massive Christmas party. Maybe. Anyway – this year they've gone all-out, so much so that we reckon the 2024 machine is more than worth a spot in our Addiction feature. As ever with this sort of thing, the lack of cost-conscious race regs mean the engineers can have some fun, so we have a 1099cc V4 engine rather than a dull 999cc four. We also have a load of ground-effect…

STAR LETTER SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE Dear Fast Bikes, As a hardcore sports bike enthusiast, I find Fast Bikes magazine excellent and engaging. The Blade on Blade feature came at the right time when I am looking at new sports bikes. Currently ride a Kawasaki ZX-10R. Many of my biking mates have track bikes but also have additional, more sedate touring bikes such as the BMW R1250 GSA reviewed in the mag. As a trackday enthusiast, I liked Joe's article about how to get the most out of trackdays and, again, relevant to me with a passion for riding sportsbikes on track. I met Christian Iddon at a Jamie Whitam Track day at Knockhill this year. It was exciting and challenging to ride alongside a BSB racer who has great personality,…

As we go to press, we're just receiving the final details on Yamaha's long-awaited R9 sportsbike. And it's quite a tempting little proposition on the quiet. Yamaha's gone above and beyond our expectations in some respects, giving the new uppermiddleweight sportster some classy chassis components and a new lightweight bespoke aluminium frame, as well as modern aerodynamic bodywork with winglets. But with peak power output of 117bhp and a wet weight of 195kg, the bare performance figures were already attracting criticism on social media, with unflattering comparisons to 15-year-old 600 supersports bikes (never change, Facebook!) This is simplistic stuff, of course. The 890cc CP3 triple motor inside the new R9 is a fabulous powerplant, with strong, torquey delivery (and compliance with the Euro5 rules that killed the old R6). On…

2024 ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE Racing Icons I'll cut straight to the chase and say that everything I wanted the SRAD to be on track, it was. It did not disappoint one bit, which I was very relieved about. I can't believe I've never ridden an SRAD on track before, but I must have ridden dozens on the road over the years, and if I'm honest, and at the risk of getting berated by readers, I never 'got' what the fuss was all about. I was always left feeling underwhelmed by the experience of riding a recognised game-changing motorbike and just put it down to me being in the wrong head space every time I had the chance. Until now… It's amazing how after all those years, all it took to…

2024 ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE Racing Icons The ZX-7R must hold the record for being the bike to be in production the longest without a single update —seven years, to be precise. Between 1996 and 2003, the ZX-7R remained unchanged apart from colour schemes. It suffered much like the other 750s from the same era, in so much it was the right bike at the wrong time. People bought Fireblades for the road and raced Ducatis, so the ZX-7R was like the other 750s, living on crumbs in the showrooms and on track, picking up sales and race wins here and there, right up until the rules changed in superbikes and 1000cc four-cylinder engines were allowed. That said, a hard-charging Glen Richards on board a thoroughly outdated ZX-7R somehow managed to…

After the 996, the YZF is probably the biggest shock when you first sit on it, but for completely opposite reasons. The seat is so low and the handlebars so high that at first you think there must be something wrong. It's a sensation that takes a really long time to get past, and I had to tell/remind myself that this is how sportsbikes were before the likes of ZX-7s and SRADs came along. The YZF is the oldest bike by a mile in the group, and in fact was the predecessor to the ZX-7R, the ZXR750, which the YZF was in production alongside. The YZF went out of production just when the ZX-7R was released, so it's no surprise that it feels like it's from another era compared to…

It's funny how nostalgia plays such a huge part in most of our lives. For me, motorcycles have always been good at transporting me back to a time and a place so while putting this test together, you can imagine all the random memories, thoughts and moments that these machines triggered. In engineering terms, times have certainly moved along, but for sheer pleasure and planting a big smile on your face, these bikes are still as great today as they were brand-new. Being cynical, you could argue they're all slower, heavier, and a lot less sophisticated than anything we've got on the market nowadays, but does it really matter? If fun is the focus, any one of these bikes will give you the fix you're after. Perhaps, compared to some…

Despite kicking the Japanese manufacturers' collective inline-four backsides since 2006 with its triple, in 2013 when Triumph launched the all-new Daytona 675, few would have believed that the British firm would soon be supplying the Moto2 World Championship. Although it was dominating sales and group comparative tests, the Daytona hadn't won on the world scene (it is still yet to win a World Supersport title…) and Honda was firmly established as the sole engine supplier to the Moto2 grid. Could a 'little' British firm like Triumph really threaten to replace the mighty Honda? Well, it did, and it is all down to the 2013 Daytona 675. While the original 'underseat pipe' Daytona had been through a few small upgrades during its lifespan, the 2013 model was an all-new version. Sharper,…

The Goodwood Revival is hands-down one of the best classic events of the year, and the star-studded Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy race, which shines likeadiamond in its jewel-laden crown, features arguably the greatest historic race in the entire world. Held late in the English summer at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, the Revival is three days of classic racing on two and four wheels. The parkland circuit owned by the 11th Duke of Richmond is gloriously old-school and fast, but the racing is only half the fun. Celebrities rub shoulders with professional racers, while thousands of enthusiasts show up in period costumes that make you feel like you've time-travelled straight back to the 1950s. And the outfits are just as important as the racing. It's not just the…