Just Bikes

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Following the presentation of Phase 2 of their electric motorcycle programme 18 months ago, and almost three years after development of the project began, Triumph has unveiled Phase 4 in the form of their final prototype - the TE-1. Officially unveiled on 12 July, the electric Triumph prototype bears a strong resemblance to a Speed Triple, but Triumph says the production examples may not take this form. The TE-1 is the product of a collaboration between Triumph and experts in their respective fields that include Williams Advanced Engineering, Integral Powertrain Ltd and WMG at the University of Warwick, with funding supplied by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles in the UK. Development and assessment of the TE-1 prototype, regarded as Phase 4 of the EV project, started in February this year, with rolling…

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has released data on new motorcycle sales for the first half of 2022, which appears to show that the “COVID Boom” of 2020 and 2021 is over, as the market recorded a drop of 14.2 per cent for the Jan-Jun period. Overall, new bike sales across the road, off-road, OHV (comprising ATV and SxS) and scooter categories totalled 47,929 for the first half of 2022, compared to 55,840 for the same period last year. The decline wasn’t across all categories, though, with both road and scooter sales increasing for the six-month period. Offroad sales fell by more than 10 per cent and OHV sales slumped dramatically. New road bike sales of 18,164 for Jan-Jun compares to 17,331 from the same period in 2021 – an increase…

In one of the feelgood stories of the year from a motorcycling perspective, Wayne Rainey was re-united with his championship-winning YZR 500 race bike at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed and rode it up the famous event’s hillclimb course. This year marks 30 years since Rainey won his third successive 500cc Word Championship, so it seemed like an ideal time to reunite the famous American with his equally famous racing bike, but the genesis for this idea actually came more than three years earlier. Charles Gordon-Lennox, aka the 11th Duke of Richmond and creator of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, had originally invited Rainey to make his Goodwood debut at the 2020 event, which would have marked thirty years since the American’s first 500cc world title. The reunification didn’t happen in…

The 2023 MotoGP grid is falling into place, with Alex Marquez signing with Team Gresini MotoGP on 26 June. The younger brother of Marc Marquez, 26-year-old Alex will replace Enea Bastianini in the Italian satellite Ducati team. Having only ridden Honda’s RC213V in his MotoGP career to date, the move to Gresini Racing means Marquez will take on unfamiliar machinery in the form of the Ducati Desmosedici - likely the GP22 bike that’s being campaigned by the full factory team this year. “I’m really happy to announce that I’ll be joining Team Gresini MotoGP, and I’m also very excited to be starting this new adventure,” Marquez said: “It was crucial for me to change in order to recover the same type of motivation I had when I first joined this class. This was…

Reigning FIM World Superbike Champion Toprak Razgatlioglu has had his first experience on a MotoGP bike, riding Yamaha’s YZR-M1 in a private test at the Motorland Aragon circuit this past June. Razgatlioglu had former MotoGP race winner and Yamaha’s MotoGP test rider Cal Crutchlow on hand to offer advice ahead of his first laps of the Spanish track, which with its long straights, fast corners and slower sections, had all the aspects needed to experience theYZR-M1’s performance and handling. Starting with twelve consecutive laps of the 5.07km circuit to familiarise himself with both the bike and the Michelin tyres that MotoGP uses, Razgatlioglu ran a series of five- and six-lap stints thereafter, with the Yamaha MotoGP test team making adjustments between each session, based on bike data and Razgatlioglu’s feedback. In total, Razgatlioglu…