suzuki gladius
Q: IS thIS the world’S GIrlIeSt BIKe? Words alan seeley Pics rory game
Gentlemen. It may have come to your attention that certain members of the fairer sex have taken up the pursuit of motorcycling, having forsaken their previous positions as pillions. Still, even the most sexist among you would have to concede that it’s got to be better than having the ladies sit around talking about macrobiotic yoghurts, lipsticks and Posh ‘n’ Becks. Yes, we live in an enlightened age of sexual equality, where women can do pretty much everything men can. With the possible exception of peeing standing up. However, if there is one thing we know about women, it’s that they don’t like being patronised. So the idea that a bike might have been designed with female riders in mind should be enough to have them looking beyond the row of Gladiuses (Gladii?) in the local Suzuki dealership in favour of checking out GSX-R colour options. And if we’ve read the ladies right, only those self-titled ‘biker chicks’ – the type who favour Shaun the Sheep rucksacks, Loptoff Lugs and pillion rides with performance bike-owning boyfriends nicknamed ‘Mad Dog’ – might look twice at the Gladius if they’re thinking of graduating to the rider’s seat. So is the Suzuki Gladius really a girl’s bike, or is that just our prejudice born out of an aversion to pink and pastel bodywork detailing? Given that it has the 645cc beating V-twin heart from the likable and loveable SV650 at its core the Gladius is off to a reasonable, if aging start. 008
Gladioli are easy to look after and very colourful, although the pinkcoloured varieties are probably best avoided...
Suzuki gladiuS
PRiCE £4700 ClaiMEd POWER 72bhp@8400rpm ClaiMEd TORQuE 47.23lb.ft@6400rpm TOP SPEEd 130mph (est) CaPaCiTY 645cc BORE X STROkE 81.0mm x 62.6mm RakE/TRail 25.0°/106.0mm BRakES 290mm front discs with two-piston calipers, 240mm rear disc with one-piston caliper TYRES 120/70-ZR17 160/60-ZR17 WHEElBaSE 1445mm WET WEigHT 202kg WEBSiTE www. suzuki-gb.co.uk PB RaTEd ■■■■■■■■■■
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kawasaki z1000 First ride
t r a n s f o 016
words john mcavoy pics kawasaki
KAWASAKI Z1000
PRICE £8295 (est) ENGINE 1043cc, fourstroke, liquid cooled four CLAIMED POWER 136bhp@9600rpm CLAIMED TORQUE 81lb.ft@7800rpm BORE X STROKE 77.0mm x 56.0mm RAKE AND TRAIL 24.5°/103mm TYRES Front: 120/70 ZR 17 Rear: 190/50 ZR 17 WHEELBASE 1440mm CLAIMED WET WEIGHT 218kg FUEL CAPACITY 15 litres WEBSITE http://www. kawasaki.co.uk PB RATING ■■■■■■■■■■
r m e r
A damn good bike in disguise…
Let’s get the snakeskin seat out of the way first. The man responsible is the unfortunately named Mr Fukomoto, Kawasaki’s senior designer who has been responsible for the style of every new Kawasaki since 2003. He tells me that it is ‘to be different’. I like his attitude, it’s very ‘because I can’. But I’m not keen. Mercifully, not all the colour schemes have it. There is no component carryover from last year; this Z1000 is new from the ground up and totally bespoke. They claim the alloy beam frame is 30% stiffer and the new 1043cc engine is up from 953cc. It makes 13bhp more power, 10lb.ft more torque and is chained to a rear sprocket that’s two teeth bigger than last year’s one. That’s surely a recipe for fun. There’s fully adjustable suspension at the front but there’s still only rebound adjustment on the rear, despite it being a different shock. Kawasaki mean business with the 2010 Zed. A new ‘Transformers’ look completes the er, transformation. Only the name remains the same. This is the first ‘super-naked’ bike I’ve ridden that feels like every single component on it is working in absolute harmony with the others. There’s no sensation that the front end feels vague or the rear has a mind of its own, like on most bikes of this genre. It has the same neutral and direct feel you normally associate with a sportsbike. Riding the Z, the attention to detail and effort that’s gone into delivering Kawasaki’s ‘riding impact’ objective is clear. For example, the fuel tank is visually heavily dominant but is sculpted in a way that doesn’t take over when you’re riding. In fact, it adds to the experience by being narrow just where my knees rest. The Zed feels smaller and more manageable than it looks yet there’s plenty of room for obscenely tall people like me. It reminds me a lot of PB’s very own BABIYOS in the way it brakes, turns and changes direction, that is, quickly and accurately with no fuss at all. The A397 from Rhonda to San Pedro is 45km of motorcycling nirvana with just about every combination of bends you could wish for. The Zed’s fusion of stiff chassis, snappy power delivery, close gear ratios and brilliantly damped suspension all mean I can focus totally on the road. I haven’t got to leave any margin for surprises or uncertainty from the bike. Before riding the Z ed I would never have chosen a super-naked to ride a road like this. Instead I’d have preferred a bike with a more precise, familiar feel such as a GSX-R750. It’s fair to say the Z1000 has changed the way I think of this kind of bike. It is the new benchmark and sets a new standard in the class; a super-naked feeling like a superbike. Accelerate hard out of a bend and the 017
SpORTSbIkE bRITAIn
FAVOURITE MOD ‘I’m pretty chuffed with the front sprocket/rearset/rear master cylinder mount. It started out as a piece of 10mm ally plate, but I changed it with a few hours’ worth of hacksaw and file work.’
4 words kar lee PICs supplied
bikes we like this month...
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1998 hArleY flAt trAcker G AVIn CUpIT
whAt A Harley we actually like. With the motor from a 1998 Buell S1 Lightning slotted into a lightweight chrome-moly racing frame (which carries oil in the tubes) from the US, Gavin has made use of his Sportster tuning experience and created this road and track bike, which he’s named the V2RR – V-twin Road Racer. It’s still a work in progress but it’s so near completion we couldn’t resist showing you this home-brewed beauty early. There’s a whiff of Roland Sands inspiration in the air. whY Because Gavin always wanted to build the ultimate Harley, and this is the result of years of collecting parts from eBay and various bike jumbles. From dream to reality, we appreciate the thought, detailing, problem-solving and natural skill that’s gone into building it, e.g. the home-made LED tail light strip has been slotted into the tail unit perfectly. how C&J Racing in the US supplied the frame and alloy tank. ‘It took longer than expected to arrive but the welding was top notch,’ reckons Gavin, who also enrolled himself onto a machining course just so he could make the triple clamps, front wheel spindle and other various bits from a lump of alloy and a titanium bar. With a pair of magnesium Dymags, Buell X1 forks (at a bargain £45 for the pair), Penske shock, huge Mikuni HSR 45mm flatslide carb, Vance and Hines headers mated with an Arrow can, Honda RS250 tail unit, Yamaha MT-03 headlight, a host of engine mods and a smattering of carbon fibre, we have no doubt it’ll go as well as it looks. ‘It’ll be ready for next summer,’ says Gavin.
13%
27%
60%
Offers tO buy
unique
Hand built
2007 honda blade
DaryL kEarN-PrICE Full titanium Akra system, HRC quick action throttle, Dynojet quickshifter, custom-mapped Power Commander, Gilles chain adjusters, HEL lines, R&G tail tidy, flapper mod (a popular owners’ tweak to increase power below 5000rpm), Skidmarx double bubble, Pazzo levers, ex-Lougher Ten Kate rearsets… the list goes on. It’s taken Daryl two years to sort his Blade special and he’s not finished yet. ‘A Brembo master cylinder, some decent suspension and possibly a slipper clutch is next. I keep looking at supercharger kits too,’ he says. His favourite additions are the lightweight (£800, eBay) Carrozzeria wheels – ‘it changes direction like a two-stroke 250.’
32%
68%
Bolt-on Bling-ness
nice wheels
Crash, BaNG, WaLLET ‘I got a bit overexcited at rockingham this year, but luckily I had some old bodywork on it when it went down, so it wasn’t the end of the world. But to be honest, I built it to thrash, not polish!’
TIGhT FIT ‘The hardest part of working on the bike is honda’s mass centralisation as it means everything is wedged under the tank.’
1991 honda nSR250SP Pa u L G o aT
We stumbled across this subtly modified NSR250 MC21 while putting together the 250s feature last month. An SP version (that is with the gold Magtek wheels, dry clutch and adjustable suspension) in Pentax colours, of which only 1500 were ever made. Not only has Paul rebuilt the bike from the ground up but he’s also converted the front end to RVF400 spec – front wheel is NSR, forks, spindles, spacers and bigger discs are RVF. ‘It all slotted neatly in and mating the NSR stem to the RVF bottom yoke was straightforward.’ he reckons. Tyga pipes, a drilled airbox, and rejetted carbs results in a whisker over 58 reliable horses on the GT motorcycles dyno.
16% upgraded Brakes
13% 71% sp thrashaBle loveliness trackdaY fodder
1998/2001 Yamaha R1 Mark Brush
Mark couldn’t afford the bike of his dreams so he built a replica. But then he destroyed it at a trackday and so promptly built another. With the motor from his original crashed 1998 bike, Mark used a brand new 2001 chassis, a rear sprocket from Brazil which set him back $300, YZR500 front wheel and discs, $2800 worth of paint and bodywork, titanium fasteners all round and various Öhlins and Brembo parts. His father-in-law Sonny Angel (the first US racer to compete at the TT in 1959 on a 250 Yamaha YDS1R) machined the wheel spacers. A month after completion Mark bought a real R7. Forced to break the R1 (financial reasons) it lives on as donor components in other bikes. But he’s not finished yet: ‘I’ve got a 2009 R1/M1 project on the horizon now.’ We can’t wait.
40%
28%
32%
road and track weapon
BaBiYos
dedication made metal
ThE rEaL DEaL at the 2008 Laguna MotoGP, Factory yamaha mechanic seamus Taaffe spent 20 minutes looking at the bike. ‘It’s amazing’ he was heard to mutter, saliva dribbling down his chin.
043
PB road test///tHe Best MIddLeWeIGHt tWINs
eVIL tWINs words BEN WILKINS pics johN NoBLE
Middleweight twins haven’t been terribly exciting in recent years. After all, they’re just commuter fodder aren’t they? Er, no. Not any longer... There was a time when a 750cc twin was a man’s bike. Something with plenty of poke. Something that’d get you into the ton-up club. A big bike if you will. But the humble twin slipped from its pole position and become a bike for beginners or commuters. While it didn’t happen overnight, it’s a result of development, our passion for racing and ever more performance. Bikes in this class don’t get much of a glance when there’s a 120bhp 600 sitting next to it in the showroom with its sleek bodywork and promise of instant prowess. That’s a crying shame because there’s been a quiet revolution going on. The twin is back.
054
KaWasaKI er-6n £4999 66bhp 204.5kg The commuter. One of Kawasaki’s best-selling bikes. Most likely seen nipping through traffic at 8.30am.
dUCatI MoNster 696 £6470 72bhp 185kg The café poser. A development of Ducati’s best selling mini-Monster with more capacity.
BMW F800r £6150 84bhp 206kg The stunt monkey. Most likely seen with motorised Parkour exponent Christian Pfieffer on top.
aPrILIa sHIVer Gt £6774 79bhp 224kg The all-rounder. After the roaring success of their litre V-twins, the 750 V-twin is next on their hit list.
Your PB testers are...
Ben Wilkins Road test ed Cornishman Wilkins reckons these twins are perfect on tight twisty roads that are covered in cow shite
kev smith Road testeR Quite possibly the only person in the world to have slid the rear end of an ER-6n on purpose
John mcavoy Road testeR The biggest bloke in road testing on some of the smallest bikes isn’t funny apparently…
des o’connell Road testeR If it’s been made, this swarthy Romany gypsy has ridden it. Rumour has it he originates from the Cretaceous
Chin on the tank and flat out. Middleweights are just gagging to be ridden like this
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