Índex per July 2015 a RiDE

HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES mixed with a vast array of bikes at April’s Prescott Bike Festival. The historic motorsport venue in Gloucestershire saw four-times World Superbike champion and King of the Jungle Carl Fogarty and three-times British Superbike champion John Reynolds mix with adventurer Charley Boorman and Hulk star Eric Bana, a biking mate of Boorman’s when he’s not starring in Hollywood movies. All were there to enjoy the bikes and Boorman was seen giving his Norton a good thrashing up the hill. You didn’t have to be famous to enjoy Prescott, though. For £35 anyone could take their bike for a couple of runs on the hillclimb circuit and the turnout couldn’t have been more diverse, with jet bikes followed by monkey bikes, classics after modern race machines. When not watching…

SPECIFICATION APRILIA TUONO 1100 Price Tuono RR £13,135, Tuono Factory £14,635 Warranty two years breakdown, two year European cover Engine 1077cc 65° V4, 4v per cyl, l/c Power 175bhp @ 11,000rpm Torque 89lb.ft @ 9000rpm Front suspension 43mm Ohlins upside-down forks, fully adjustable Rear suspension Öhlins shock, fully adjustable Front tyre 120/70 ZR17 Rear tyre 200/55 ZR 17 Wheelbase 1450mm Brakes 320mm discs, Brembo M430 calipers, ABS Seat height 840mm Fuel tank 18.5 litres Kerb weight 212.5kg IN A WAY Aprilia have done themselves an injustice. The Tuono V4 1100 is the most powerful naked road bike around, with a new engine, enough electronic sophistication to embarrass Apple and more attitude than a gang of teenagers on heat. The Tuono is also the Italian firm’s biggest-selling bike, yet they see…

SPECIFICATION MV AGUSTA TURISMO VELOCE 800 Price £11,899 Engine 798cc dohc inline triple, 4v per cyl, l/c Power 109bhp @ 10,000rpm Torque 61lb.ft @ 8000rpm Transmission 6-speed, chain Chassis steel trellis Front suspension 43mm usd forks, adjustable preload, rebound and compression Rear suspension monoshock, adjustable preload, rebound and compression Front brakes 2 x 320mm discs, 4-piston calipers Rear brake 220mm disc, 2-piston caliper Front tyre 120/70 ZR17 Rear tyre 190/55 ZR17 Wheelbase 1460mm Rake/trail 26.5°/108mm Seat height 850mm Fuel tank 22 litres Dry weight 191kg WELL, YES. AND quite a good one as well. But first let’s define terms. If your idea of a touring bike is a Honda Goldwing, a BMW K1600GT or even an R1200RT, then this isn’t really a touring bike. If it wasn’t for the optional…

WHERE’S THE HEART of England? As a place of brilliant roads through green fields and leafy lanes, we’d vote for Worcester. The roads lack the majestic views of the Lake District and they’re busier than the quieter corners of Yorkshire, but this lush landscape couldn’t be more English unless you painted the Cross of St George on every road sign. There’s a quiet beauty to the B roads that link sleepy stone-built villages. Our day’s ride heads through the Malvern and Cotswold hills, sidestepping Gloucester but stopping in quaint market towns and a brewery. You can take it as a relaxed, slow ride, or if you prefer it’s a thrilling 190 miles of rural riding guaranteed to make your heart beat faster. STAGE ONE Worcester to Ledbury 45 miles Leave…

THE PRIZE IS obvious. Build an adventure bike to compete with BMW’s iconic R1200GS, sell it in big numbers and get rich. KTM tried it with their first big-bore adventure bike – the 950 Adventure, which hit the showrooms in 2003. And again with the more refined 990 version in 2006 and then 2013’s 1190 Adventure. But as KTM, Triumph, Honda and Yamaha have all discovered, toppling the GS is no easy task. This time, KTM have gone in another direction with the 1290 Super Adventure. Superficially, it targets the bigger of the two big GSs, the R1200GS Adventure. Like the German bike, the KTM comes with beefy engine bars, a massive 30-litre tank and longer travel suspension. What’s different is the KTM has 158bhp and the latest advanced electronic…

SPECIFICATION 2015 KTM 1290 SUPER ADVENTURE Engine 1301cc dohc 75° V-twin, 4v per cyl, l/c Power 158bhp @ 8750rpm Torque 103lb.ft @ 6750rpm Transmission 6-speed, chain Chassis tubular steel trellis Front suspension 48mm semi-active usd forks, fully electronically adjustable Rear suspension semi-active monoshock, fully electronically adjustable Front brakes 320mm discs, 4-piston radial ABS calipers Rear brake 267mm disc, 2-piston ABS caliper Front tyre 120/70 R19 Rear tyre 170/60 R17 Wheelbase 1560mm Rake/Trail 24.9°/107mm Seat height 860/870mm Fuel tank 30 litres Kerb weight 259kg Servicing First service 620 miles Minor service 9300 miles Major service 18,600 miles Parts Mirror £60.24 Clutch lever £53.40 Gear lever £72.78 Brake lever £77.52 Front indicator £30.12 Rear indicator £30.12 Exhaust can £418.68 Left crankcase cover £138.60 Right crankcase cover £41.94 Oil filter £9.96 Air filter…

YOUR NEW BIKE is superb – just what you wanted. But anything mass-produced will be a compromise – why put up with that? Instead, make your bike yours. Whether it’s brand new, or used but new to you, there will be room for improvement and personalisation. Commuters and adventurers may want panniers. Taller riders may want a bigger screen. Those who ride through the winter will definitely want heated grips and better lights; those who don’t will want to plug their bike into a battery charger while it’s sleeping. None of these parts needed special tools or skills, aside from the Torx keys that every BMW and KTM owner will be familiar with. Our aim here is not to replace the instructions, or indeed your common sense, but to offer…

WALKING ROUND the MT-09 Tracer, I find my thoughts keep returning to the price. Its list price is £8149. For a brand new bike. Even with on-the-road charges, it’s still only £8284. How have they made it for this money? I keep looking for signs of penny pinching, of budget-slashing compromises and I’m not really finding them. There are touches that might be better. The fit of the seat is a little gappy so from some angles you can see the staples that fix the cover on. The nest of pipes and wires behind the engine isn’t very tidy. The grabrails are just bent bits of metal screwed down with large fasteners… But you have to be desperately looking for faults to clutch at these straws. Besides, would the bike…

LET’S NOT LOSE sight of the wood for the trees. There are so many interesting details on the 2015 R1200R that it’s easy to overlook the important thing: the fundamental soundness of this latest evolution of BMW’s oddly unpopular naked twin. I really liked the previous model. It struck me as a bike that I’d buy, if I had the money and needed a bike to use – and enjoy using – every day. Fellow admirers of the R would go around saying things like: “It’s got all the good stuff the GS has, but it’s lighter and lower and cheaper and simpler, and you look less of a twerp riding one down to the shops.” I tried not to join in, as my enthusiasm for the GS might tie…

STAR PICTURE Surveying what I’d just ridden – the stunning north side of the Stelvio Pass – on my BMW R1200RT. An awesome road, and a great bike on which to ride it – Andy Palmer A run out on my BMW K1600GT to the North York Moors. Photo taken a short distance from Blakey Ridge before heading over to Stokesley and home via the Yorkshire TT. Fab day – Daren Garraway Me on a Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic hired from Las Vegas H-D. That’s one more ticked off the bucket list. When the temperature hits 108°C you don’t need a lot of gear – John Baldwin My daughter Bryony enjoying a day out in Sidmouth – Marcus Ballyn Tour of the Yorkshire Dales, with my 18-year-old nephew on his…

EARLY SUMMER highlights include Valentino Rossi making his first appearance at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 25-28. Rossi will race at Assen on the Saturday before flying to Goodwood to ride his Yamaha MotoGP bike up the hill on the Sunday, as part of Yamaha’s 60th birthday celebrations. Other bike aces taking part include John Surtees, Jim Redman, Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer and Casey Stoner. Details: www.goodwood.com  The British Superbike championship resumes at Snetterton on June 21. If you buy a set of Pirelli Angel GT tyres before the end of September, you can claim a free three-day ticket to a BSB weekend at Oulton Park, Snetterton, Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park or Assen. Details: www.britishsuperbike.com , pirelli.co.uk/moto  The Bournemouth Wheels Festival…

BE CAREFUL WHAT you wish for. I’ve been waiting for a new RS in BMW’s boxer line-up ever since the R1150RS shuffled out of the range a decade or so ago. True, we had the almost-a-sports-tourer R1200ST for a couple of years, but it was more of dumbed-down RT and never sold well in the UK. No, what I want is a proper RS - a sports tourer with the emphasis on the ‘sports’. Practical but fun; comfortable but sweet-handling; powerful but reliable. On paper the new R1200RS ticks those boxes and I’ve been looking forward to trying it since I rode the naked R1200R (which shares most of the RS’s running gear) a few months back and loved it. The danger is, I might be expecting too much. I…

A2 ready The 41bhp output and 169kg kerb weight ensure the R3 fits comfortably inside all the power and power-to-weight limits for young riders with an A2 licence. Engine A new 321cc parallel twin. Yamaha are also making a smaller-bore 250cc version – the R25 – for lucrative developing markets, but the UK will only get this R3. Everyday use High bars, a low seat, a light clutch and progressive power delivery make the R3 a very easy ride. Despite the sporty looks, it would work well in town or on a dual carriageway. SPECIFICATION YAMAHA R3 Price £4892 Engine 321cc dohc parallel twin, 4v per cyl, l/c Power 41bhp @ 10,750rpm Torque 22lb.ft @ 9000rpm Transmission 6-speed, chain Chassis steel diamond Front suspension 41mm forks, non-adjustable Rear suspension monoshock,…

Pedal or petrol power, we all ride Just read Kevin Raymond’s column in the May issue about some motorcyclists’ aggressive attitude towards the Lycra brigade on bicycles. All rather strange, I thought. Since when did a cycle (or anything) hold up a motorbike? The whole point of a motorbike is that you make progress at whatever rate you feel appropriate. Also, as a keen cyclist and motorcyclist I would say we have much in common. If you stop, other bikers stop to ask if you need help. It is exactly the same on a pushbike. When you stop on either sort of bike, like-minded people stop to chat – it is great camaraderie and a feeling that you belong to an exclusive group. The old adage “Two wheels good, four…

Electrics The first bikes are nearly ten years old now – old enough for corrosion in connector blocks and earth points to be an issue. Pre-empt future hassle by checking, cleaning and protecting with dielectric grease. Interlock switches on clutch and sidestand also give trouble. TPS The Throttle Position Sensor is sensitive to minor maladjustment. It’s worth double checking it at every service, because it makes a huge difference to power delivery and throttle response. Grease It’s a Suzuki. It seems Suzuki don’t do grease much these days. Suspension linkages, swingarm pivots and head bearings will benefit from a good splodge of appropriate lube. Gearbox Strong and sweet-shifting normally, but gives trouble if abused - inept clutchless shifts while wheelying is a favourite cause. On a test ride, roll on…

IT’S AN ACHE familiar to anyone on two wheels. Not in the knees, or the neck, or the backside. This is the ache in the soul – that yearning to slip the yoke of urban, domestic and salaried slavery and go where bike and geography takes us. The feeling usually starts around lunchtime on Friday, as if our subconscious knows we’ve got nothing planned this weekend and so yes, we should be putting some space between us and the daily grind. By 3pm it’s decided: nip home half an hour early, grab ill-fitting throwovers, stuff them with pants and waterproofs, then point ourselves in the direction of outta here and pull the trigger. This Friday, that place is the tiny village of Applecross on the extreme west coast of Scotland…

If I have a day to myself, this is the route I’ll take. I spend half my life on the A2, so instead I leave Canterbury as if going to Margate (on the A28) but at Sturry train station turn left to Herne Hill (on the A291). After the garden centre, turn left on the back road to Bullockstone. In Herne Bay take the old Thanet Way (A2990) to Whitstable. Keep going to Seasalter, then pick up the coast road to Faversham. There’s a stretch on the old A2 towards Sittingbourne, but after the roundabout turn left on the road to Doddington and stay on it to Lenham. At the Lenham crossroads turn right on the A20 towards Harrietsham. Then turn left at the roundabout, to go past Leeds Castle…

The story so far… Steph Jeavons is half way through a two-year solo ride round the world on a Honda CRF250L, visiting every continent – and that includes Antarctica. I HAD SET myself the target of seven continents before I left my home in Wales. It had taken me 12 months to find someone to agree to take me and Rhonda, my CRF250L, to Antarctica. Now I found myself part of an eight-person crew on an Aussie sailing yacht called Ice Bird. The five-day crossing from Cape Horn to Antarctica would involve some of the roughest waters in the world, and I’d be at the mercy of the ever changing weather. I felt annoyed to be the first to get seasick, although soon five of the eight were puking in…

FOR NEARLY A year RiDE has followed Avon as they develop a new tyre for adventure bikes. When we began ( RiDE , October 2014), the tyre didn’t even have a name. But the need for it was clear: the current generation of large-capacity, high-power adventure bikes had outgrown Avon’s 15-year-old dual-purpose Distanzia. Later (December 2014) we joined Avon test rider Richard Dobson as he evaluated adventure tyres made by competitors. By this stage the new tyre also had a name – TrailRider – as well as a tread pattern and a general specification. Six months on, the TrailRider is a rubber prototype and Richard is checking its stability. This is crucial: if a tyre isn’t stable, even in extreme situations, it’s worthless. The venue is Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, an…

Kawasaki ZX-6R Rider Lee Skellett My very first motorcycle, bought for just £1400, has run its course as a road bike. Now I’ll be using it exclusively as a track bike until it goes pop. MY BRAKES HAVE always been rubbish and they’ve been getting progressively worse. The lever would come back to the bar at every corner of my last trackday, and I’d have to pump it in order to generate any pressure at all. Not an ideal situation really, so something needed to be done. I have fixed and upgraded some brake bits during my time with the ShedX-6R. First the standard six-pot calipers got replaced by some freshly rebuilt four-pots from a GSX-R of a similar age. At most they were mildly better. The brake hoses were…

MV Agusta 750 Sport This MV scooped top honours at Stafford in 1995, having been bought six years earlier in very poor condition. Owner David Frier and MV specialist Dave Kay spent more than a year lovingly restoring it. It returned to Stafford this spring with many more miles on the clock but still in wonderful condition, and with various subtle upgrades that keep it running sweetly without in any way detracting from the beauty of the Italian original. Ducati 500 GP Yes, really, a 500 GP bike. It’s from 1971 and is one of only five made. Raced by Phil Read and others, it was Ducati’s first V-twin race bike, with a two-valve desmodromic engine, and led to the longer-lasting and more successful 750s. They were raced with a…

TRIUMPH’S TIGER 800 line-up is growing from four to six models with the arrival of new top-spec versions of both the road-biased XR and dirt-friendly XC. The new arrivals, the XRT and XCA, both get a beefed-up alternator designed to cope with the extra demands made on a bike’s electrical system by power-sapping accessories. They are both fitted as standard with heated grips and heated rider and pillion seats. They also come with pannier rails, foglamps and a sat nav mount. The £9999 XRT also gains a tyre pressure monitoring system, an aluminium radiator guard and a CNC-machined brake fluid reservoir. It’s available in a new orange paint scheme as well as the familiar white. The £10,499 XCA, meanwhile, gets unique footrests and comes in a choice of khaki green…

SPECIFICATION HONDA CB125F Price £2499 Engine 125cc sohc 2v single, a/c Power 10bhp @ 7750rpm Torque 8lb.ft @ 6250rpm Transmission 5-speed, chain Chassis steel diamond Front suspension 31mm forks, non-adjustable Rear suspension twin shocks, adjustable preload Front brake 240mm disc, 2-piston caliper Rear brake 130mm drum Front tyre 80/100-18 Rear tyre 90/90-18 Wheelbase 1295mm Rake/trail 26°/97mm Seat height 775mm Fuel tank 13 litres Kerb weight 128kg WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING at a 125 because it’s all your age and licence permit, or because you want something small and light for commuting, price is important. So it’s good news that the on-the-road price of Honda’s replacement for the top-selling CBF125 is £200 less, at £2499. It’s no coincidence that the CB125F’s price is £100 below that of its key rival, the Yamaha…

Reading your article about travelling light in the May issue, I was gobsmacked to see that you recommended not including a puncture repair kit (unless you have room to spare under the seat). Having been unfortunate enough to get a puncture last year, on the way home from a day trip, I was very relieved to be able to whip out my puncture repair kit, plug the hole and use the gas cylinders to inflate my tyre and get back on the road in 10 minutes to continue my journey home. Had I not had this repair kit I would no doubt have had to get the bike recovered, standing for hours waiting for an expensive recovery, or abandon the bike to the mercy of mobile bike thieves. I can…

Practicality This is a sportsbike, so “practical” doesn’t mean “good for pillions”. It does mean reliable enough to use every day, easy to ride slow as well as fast, with plenty of scope to strap bags on the back and enough comfort to ride to foreign racetracks. Engine More low-down and midrange than a 600, not as wild as a 1000. Making a healthy 148bhp, this generation of GSX-R750 is seriously fast but surprisingly flexible for road use. Front end One of the best front ends you’ll ever experience: precise and brimming with feedback, with huge scope to tweak it to suit you. K8’s high and low-speed compression damping adjusters also mean there’s more scope to get the set-up wrong. Variants 2006-2007 K6/K7 All-new model, with stubby exhaust. Basically a…

ONE OF THE best moments in a new year is when the temperature creeps into double figures and you can start to junk all your heavy, drab winter biking gear. Where your winter boots needed to be waterproof, warm, thick and roomy enough to fit woolly socks on, your summer boots can be lighter to concentrate on better feel, with more ventilation and a greater emphasis on protection. To help find the perfect summer boots for you we have gathered a selection of various styles to test, making sure to include the most popular and widely available options. We’ve tested them on the road and on the track if applicable, and lived with them all for many months. Prices range from a bargain £90 to a jaw-dropping £1200. Some boots…

AS WELL AS the usual delights of a British seaside town, Scarborough’s got lots specifically to offer bikers, from fantastic roads to the thrills of England’s only pure road racing circuit. The Olivers Mount circuit above the town gets around the usual prohibition on racing on the road because, technically speaking, it's a parkland circuit and not part of the Queen's highway network. One of the biggest events to be staged there is the Barry Sheene Festival, due to be held on June 20-21. We rode to Scarborough in advance of the event to check out the best the area has to offer the visiting rider. “Full of contrasts, with wide open sweepers and tight tree-lined stretches” Olivers Mount and the Mere Cafe Although Olivers Mount is parkland, you can…

FANCYING A CHANGE from my trusty Honda CD250U for my next big trip, and curious about the extra stability and luggage-carrying capacity brought by a sidecar, I went on eBay and bought a 1981 Honda CB400N twin attached to a Valorex single-seat sidecar. I didn’t intend to carry any passengers so I converted it to kit-carrying mode by taking out the seat, adding a spotlight and extra battery, and carpeting the floor to stop my luggage sliding about. It was a while since I’d last been to Poland, so I drew up a loose plan for a 2500-mile, four-week trip that would take in four of the big cities: Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow and Poznan. Rather than the usual route – turn left at Calais – I fancied riding through Denmark…

Comfort The KTM can be happily ridden for 12 hours or more a day – for day after day. There’s loads of room, plus it has adjustable bars (by 3.5mm), easily adjusted seat height (860 or 875mm), footrests (by 10mm) and a steplessly adjustable screen. Heated grips are standard, as are heated rider and pillion seats. Cornering ABS Normal ABS detects wheels locking and intervenes to stop you crashing. Cornering ABS includes a bank-angle sensor so adjusts to how you’re leant over and adjusts the braking force so you can even brake in corners. In theory… Even knowing this, we couldn’t deliberately trigger the ABS in a corner. Riding modes Sport gives full power, sharpest throttle response, least intrusive traction (and wheelie) control. Street calms the throttle response (still giving…

AMONG THE MANY pleasures of acquiring a new bike to ride and live with is getting to know what it’s like to work on. Last year I had a Ducati Monster 1200 as a long-term test bike. It was a thrilling reminder of how great motorcycling can be, with a sack load of characterful power and great energy. But it was rubbish to work on, horrible to clean and came with no tools at all, which with a single-sided swingarm was a pain. Ducati want you to go to your local dealer for the simplest job, which is fine if you ride once in a blue moon, but not for RiDE readers who do many more miles. This year I am custodian of a KTM 1050 Adventure, not as exciting…

Honda CL350 K1 Rider Matt Hull Bought after writing a story about alternatives to Ducati’s Scrambler. Aim is to get this CL350 on the road with minimal effort and money. THE SUN SHINING signals the start of so many jobs. Garden, house, work a/nd the odd day out (remember me, kids?) all take precedent over the humble Honda. But although I have no time to sort the electrics and make up the new cables for an MoT, any jobs that I can fit in I will. Badges for the 350 are rare and so I tidied up the old ones. A craft knife got the old paint off and Airfix enamel has helped bring them back to their best. I must steal some time to finish the rest.…