Fast Bike June 2017

OLD BUT GOLD TRA O ACTION CONTROL TROL DUCATI 916 VS 959

FRIEN ND OR FOE?

JUNE 2017 ISSUE 327

YAMAHA’S NEW R6 CLASS LEADING TECH SORTED HANDLING ENDLESS FUN

PLUS:

KNOW YOUR LIDS N ECTIO FUELLING TO PERF TESTED R RS MICHELIN’S POWE : KTM’S 125 TEENAGE KICKS AND 390 DUKES ONA 955I TRIUMPH DAYT BUYER’S GUIDE

2017’S FINEST SUPER NAKEDS SPANKED APRILIA TUONO FACTORY VS YAMAHA MT-10SP VS BMW S1000R VS KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R

ISSUE 327 JUNE 2017

IT’S THE NEWS

Upfront............................................ 10 Win a sweet Scorpion can – find out how!

GEARED UP

Products.......................................... 14 The best products money can buy!

GET IT FIRST

Subscribe ..........................................8 Do you enjoy spending more than you need to, or searching high and low for a copy of Fast Bikes? Thought not. Save yourself the grief and subscribe today!

THE KNOWLEDGE

Bull Busters .....................................80 A new section – this month tackling pricey ‘advanced’ fuel available at the garages.

Used Buyer’s Guide.........................82

A British blast from the past – Triumph’s 955i.

MASTERCLASS

Riding ..............................................88

18

YAMAHA YZF R6

YAMAHA’S NEW R6 IS HERE – BUT IS IT ANY GOOD?

It’s all about ‘feel’ this month with Mr Code!

LAUNCHES

Technical .........................................90 How to get more boom from Yamaha’s R6.

The new R6 looks stunning, but is it too little, too late, for the Supersport class?

Legal ................................................93

KTM Duke 125 & 390 .....................28

YOUR LIFE ON BIKES

TESTS

All the best blurb from the best readers!

Naked Sportsbikes .........................34

On why crashing at a track day is all on you...

Chatter ............................................94

OUR LIFE ON BIKES

Project bikes ...................................97 Charlie’s TZR and Bruce’s Moto3 projects start to take shape.

Staff Bikes..................................... 105 New bikes start to trickle in! ! !

Yamaha MT-10 Kawasaki ZX-10RR

! !

KTM Super Duke R Triumph STR 765

Yamaha YZF R6 .............................. 18

KTM’s latest learner and A2 headbangers are released for the yoofs!

KTM’s new 1290 Super Duke R, BMW’s new S 1000 RR and Yamaha’s MT-10 SP takes on the new Aprilia Tuono V4 1100 – who’s the king?

FEATURES Fuel’s Gold....................................... 51 All you need to know about adjusting your bike’s fuelling – it’s important!

Ducati 916 vs Ducati 959............... 58 It’s a time-warp test, old versus new!

RACE SECTION

64

ONE STUNNING DUCATI 899 PANIGALE TRACK BIKE!

Pit Pass.......................................... 114 All the news & views from the racing!

Race Feature ................................. 119 Ex-FB boy & BSB champ Shane Byrne raps!

COLUMNISTS

Pretty Boy ..................................... 126 Carl gets out racing, but it’s a sad outing...

Chaz Davies .................................. 129

SUBS

First win of the year for boyo!

Steve Parrish................................. 130 More froth & bluster from Mr P!

BUY

GEAR

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TRACTION CONTROL – WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT, HOW IT WORKS, AND WHY YOU WANT IT!

IBE R C

See page 8 for the best deals

WELCOME

Keep calm!!!

I

f you ever wake up with a stolen R6 in your bedroom, don’t panic. Be smart and blame it on someone else. That’s what I did… and I nearly got away with it. To put things in context, there was a bit of tomfoolery following the enlightening launch of the new Yamaha at Almeria circuit, which you can read all about in this issue.

With beers flowing and people desperate to pass the time in the most creative of ways, a demo bike from our hotel’s lobby ended up being ‘lifted’ two floors and dumped in my room. How we laughed, until we got caught by the organiser, whom I’d written a note to blame it on. You live and learn.

Fictitious names from here on in.

Did you watch the opening round of MotoGP? What a fantastic round that was, even if the pre-race excitement over a bit of damp track nabbed a few superstars of kudos. At least, that’s how I thought until I went out to Losail later that same week. In one of those surreal opportunities, the chance came to head to the Doha circuit and bang in a few laps on Michelin’s new Power RS rubber under the glitz of floodlights. That’s when I saw first-hand how slippery that place gets when the dust storms blow over, as they did during our test. Add a bit of moisture into that scenario and it’s appreciable how slick the shiny-surfaced circuit must become. Thankfully, there was none of that rain nonsense during the RS test, which proved to be a handy, fast road tyre. Trouble is, according to ‘Pretty Boy’ Stevens, there’s some stiff competition for Michelin, as he discovered during a similar timed launch in France, putting Dunlop’s new SportSmart 2 Max through its paces. Both tyres are reviewed inside, so have a good read if you’re in the market for fresh rubber. And, even if you’re not, still have a good read. It’ll help pass the time.

Speaking of passing time, a lot of hours have gone into this month’s core test, which took place across a few days of road and track riding.

The super naked sector’s booming, and it’s understandably fruitful when you consider the performance of each of our four contestants; BMW’s S1000R; KTM’s 1290 Super Duke R; Yamaha’s MT-10SP; Aprilia’s new Tuono – which we’re the first to ride on the roads here in Blighty – hurrah! With a pack so focused, it should come as no surprise when I say no bike disappointed, but there was one clear winner. Want to know which one handed it to the others? You better turn the page then.

We tested the new R6 on track... and in a lift.

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BOSS MAN

‘Dangerous’ Bruce Wilson dangerous@fastbikes.co.uk

WINGMAN

Benjamin ‘BJ’ Kubas Cronin beej@fastbikes.co.uk

FAST MAN

Alastair ‘A-Force’ Fagan fit@fastbikes.co.uk

AD MAN

Charlie ‘The Sheriff’ Oakman coakman@fastbikes.co.uk

NEW MAN

Carl ‘Pretty Boy’ Stevens teaboy@fastbikes.co.uk

TECH MAN

Neil ‘Know it all’ Charlton

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NE W S & REV IEW S PL ANET FAST BIKES – NE W ME TA L,

RACE, ROCK ’N’ RIDE LAST CALL! Indeed, this will be the last time in print we’ll be able to remind you to get set and ready for this year’s RRnR festival at Santa Pod Raceway on May 20th & 21st. It’s a veritable motorcycling smorgasbord of awesomeness for you to get your teeth into, and if you fancy making a weekend of it there’s camping available, plus Saturday night entertainment and, of course, some bars to go along with it.

The main attraction though, as you may have guessed, is the quarter-mile strip, and you plus your buddies can take part yourselves to see just who’s quickest in the Fast Bikes ‘run what ya brung’ competition. We’ll even throw in trophies and everything! There are different classes to enter, which you can check out on the RRnR website to see which you belong in, and

some of us may be there to have a crack, too.

There’s a round of the National Drag Championship on as well, meaning you’ll be able to see how the pros handle the strip and their stupidly powerful drag bikes. That alone should be reason to attend, but there’s plenty more like stunt shows, trade stands and lots of seriously cool bikes old and new, including several incredible race bikes to drool over.

Last and certainly least, even if they’re damn impressive, there’s some four-wheeled action on show with monster truck demos and a jet drag car to blow your ears to smithereens. See, more adrenaline fuelled action than anyone deserves, all in one place! Head to www.racerockride.co.uk for more info and to book tickets – now!

Ooo, he’s a bit good!

We’ll bring some sweet machines for you!

She may just kick your arse...

The ‘Rock’ part!

A lot of cool stuff will fly down the strip, don’t miss it!

10 JUNE 2017 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM

This should be you...

SUBSC

This could be yours!

E RIB

UP FRONT

See page 8 for the best deals

WIN! A SCORPION CAN! We’ve teamed up with purveyors of fine exhaust cans, Scorpion, to offer you guys the chance to win one of their smart and sexy cans for your very own bike! And, if you win, you’ll have a choice to make.

You can either win and receive the can in the th post. Or, the far better option, if you ride to Scorpion’s HQ, they fit the new can (sending your stocker back to your address), and then stick your bike on their dyno machine to see what gains it’s

made, and ride back with a brand to new beat emanating from your pride and joy. Better, right?

To be in with a chance of winning this can, head to our Facebook page from May 2nd onwards.

There yyou’ll find the competition post. To enter, simply post your name and what bik bike you own in n the comments section – and then wait for that message to pop into your inbox – Good Luck!

For full T&Cs head to: http://mrtns.uk/tc

WORLD GP LEGENDS 2017 From humble beginnings to something which is now annually looked forward to by thousands, the World GP legends series steps up a notch in 2017. You’ll still get to see stars from the past riding iconic 500cc two-strokes, but now those same old boys will be racing on modern tackle, too. Yamaha are one of the first to sign up to provide bikes (R1s in classic racing colours), and it looks as though others will join the fray.

This will allow the old boys to go hammer and tongs but with some electronic backup to give those old bones their best chance of staying in one piece. These lads may be getting on, but they’re still fast, and still pure racers at heart – no matter what their age!

“We’ve had an outstanding success with World GP Bike Legends”, said ‘87 500GP champion Wayne Gardner. “In three years we’ve gone from an idea to 43 million TV viewers and spectators, and this shows that the fans love their classic bikes and catching up with and talking to the

Legends riders. Yamaha are the first of the manufacturers to join us and will be providing their latest sportsbikes for this season.

“We’ll still have the classic 500s parading over the weekend, but the races will be with the latest

sportsbikes. This will make the racing safer for the riders and allow them to reunite with their brands.”

The first WGPL meeting of the year is at Silverstone on July 28th-30th – don’t miss it! www.worldgpbikelegends.com

The boys are back again!

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