Fast Bikes 319 October 2016 preview

AR WAIT OVER! CHARIOT RACI R 35 YEA G CAL AND S SHEENE POSTER CELEBRATION

T IN TOW THE SCARIEST SEAT

OCTOBER 2016 ISSUE 319

The story behind the most popular sportsbike ever, the Honda CBR600 – and why it’s still a brilliant buy

USED TUONO TEST:

ALEX LOWES:

THREE’S A CROWD:

BY ’ECK, CHIEF:

Aprilia’s original naked nutter

“My 2017 pre-season starts now!”

Brutale vs MT-09 vs Street Triple R

Guy Martin caught speeding

ISSUE 319 OCTOBER 2016

IT’S THE NEWS

Upfront..............................................8 Concept time from MV – plus lots more

GEARED UP

Products.......................................... 18 Our big boot round up – plus some trick kit!

GET IT FIRST

Subscribe ...................................... 124

Get that winning feeling by getting Fast Bikes delivered every month – with 25 per cent off!

THE KNOWLEDGE

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

28

CORE TEST

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER MV BRUTALE 800 VS YAMAHA MT-09 VS TRIUMPH ST-R

Aprilia’s Tuono was the first naked superbike – but how has it fared over the years?

MASTERCLASS

Riding ..............................................92 Keith Code considers technique and technology. Brains on people!

Technical .........................................94

James Holland of JHS fame offers more insight and no little expertise...

FEATURE

Legal ................................................97

What a venue to launch KTM’s new RC16 MotoGP racer. It gives you wings...

YOUR LIFE ON BIKES

Red Bull Ring................................... 12

Gentleman’s Racer..........................23

Two brother’s make a carbon fibre superbike.

But how the hell did they do it?

Conti SportAttack3.........................53

When three briefs offer three outcomes...

Chatter ............................................98

Awesome little mods – plus lots more!

Travel and Tracks.......................... 100 Get to these great places. You’ll like ‘em!

We test some new rubber from Continental.

OUR LIFE ON BIKES

Addiction.........................................62

Summer in the city – and the country – is awesome on this stable of utter belters!

A Ducati 999R is special. But this one is very special indeed. Commence drooling now!

Staff bikes..................................... 102

Kawasaki ZX-10R KTM 1290 SuperDuke R • Yamaha MT-10 • Triumph Speed Triple R

•

Cal Crutchlow Poster......................66

Well, we thought it best to celebrate the win!

40

THE HONDA CBR600 HAS BEEN A REAL LEGEND FOR 30 YEARS

Halsall Racing GSX-R1000............... 73 Suzuki’s superbike gets a thorough blasting from Dangerous Bruce. Old, but gold!

•

MV Agusta F3 800 Ducati Monster 1200 R • Suzuki GSX-S1000F • •

RACE SECTION

Pit Pass.......................................... 110 A quiet month to consider things. Oh, hang about, it was a mega month in racing!

Race Feature ................................. 116

Alex Lowes’ season has finally got under way

SUBS

COLUMNISTS

Dangerous Brod ............................ 122 A massive month – for Brod’s credit card...

See page 124 for the best dealls

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

When will the summer break end for Chaz?

Steve Parrish................................. 130 Steve and an incident with an anchor...

E

56

SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. PRETTY BOY HANGS OUT THE SIDE OF AN F1 CHARIOT RACER!

BUY

GEAR

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NEW NORTON We’ve known for a while that Norton had something a bit special in the pipeline, and the image of a new superbike heartens us greatly.

We spoke to Norton’s boss, Stuart Garner, a , scene. Now after securing some significant government funding, pressing ahead with apprenticeships and its own academy, and finally securing some decent speed at this year’s TT with Davo Johnson perched on top, Norton is now dipping its toe into the top-end sportsbike scene. Powered by the same V4 configuration of the TT bike’s Aprilia

Sussex-based (with a Leicestershire technical centre) Ricardo Engineering, that has previously worked with the likes of BMW on a number of high profile projects. Norton has ’

,

.

,

,

and a TTX shock) and BST carbon fibre wheels, the pricing of the bike will, of course, reflect the level of investment in the project, thus will be comparable to a Ducati 1299 Panigale S. How and when it’ll end up becoming a reality is anyone’s guess, but we’re expecting some sort of prototype at Motorcycle Live.

Form an orderly queue now!

The Oschersleben 8-hour endurance event marks the end of the 2016 season, with the upcoming Bol D’Or commencing the start of the next season. Although the events are less than a month apart, the FIM wanted the season to run over the winter to secure some more publicity for it. So Paul Ricard kicks things off in fine style, with the Suzuka 8-Hour being the last event on the calendar. We see problems with riders switching brands for the main season, and we’d love to see some action down under in the depths of winter, but it makes for an interesting season ahead.

■ 17th Sept – Bol D’Or 24 Hours ■ 18th March – 12 Hours of Portimao ■ 22nd April – Le Mans 24 Hours ■ 20th May – Oschersleben 8 Hours ■ 24th June – 8 Hour Europe race tbc ■ 30th July – Suzuka 8 Hours

THE WORLD’S FASTEST…TRIUMPH As we went to press, we’d yet to hear whether Guy Martin would be putting the pedal to the metal in an attempt to become the world’s fastest tea drinker - on a bike!

For such a high speed challenge, the Triumph USA team are being very patient – and rightly so given the speeds involved. The

build up to the big runs at Bonneville saw Martin ramp up his speed, to eventually surpass the previous record of a Triumphpowered machine (that of 245.667mph held

by Robert Leppan in his Gyronaut X-1, set 50 years ago!) and hit 274.2mph on the Bonneville salt. However, that speed is still over a ton short of what he needs to take the outright record. The current record is held by Rocky Robinson and his 2,600cc twin engine

–

MOTORCYCLE LIVE

This year’s Motorcycle Live event is being held a little earlier this year, from the 19th to the 27th of November. Cheaper tickets are available if you head to www.motorcyclelive.com, or you can pay full price and get a free Spada bag. We expect rather a lot of new machines to be announced this year, and this’ll be the first time to see them on these shores…

Get yourself to the NEC this year!

Where’s the tea cup holder?

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T

Race Boots

Hot off the heels (get it?!) of our gloves special, we follow up with some super sweet boots this time around. It would appear on the outside, that crafting a proper set of boots is a lot easier than making decent gloves. We’d all be forgiven for thinking that’s the case, but it just isn’t.

The sheer range of movement your foot/ ankle/lower leg is capable of means there are all sorts of potential injuries a boot manufacturer must try and protect against.

But much like gloves, there’s always the protection versus freedom of movement and loss of feel debate to be had. Some race boots can be properly stiff and unforgiving, at least until they’re wear in and this can take much longer in some cases than others.

Manufacturers try and allow for a lot of feel where you need it, at the gear change for example, and most achieve this in a decent fashion while keeping the protection quotient high.

GAERNE GP1

DAYTONA SECURITY EVO III

’ l .

£269.99

www.motogear.co.uk

SPADA CURVE EVO

There are however, many different price levels when it comes to boots. Some cheap (but certainly not budget), and some that would make you spill your tea when you see the asking price.

We’ve collected a vast number of different boots here for you to peruse which should meet all wallets, from less than £100 to well over £1,000. Just remember the important bit though - always buy the very best you can stretch to. Enjoy!

ri

’

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t

v y

£1,289

www.tranam.co.uk

RST PRO SERIES

DAINESE TORQUE D1 OUT

g

r

i

.

£119.99

www.spadaclothing.co.uk

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£379.99

www.dainese.com

£169.99

www.moto-direct.com

VAN DER HEIDE

There’s finally light at the end of a long tunnel for the van der Heide brothers...

I

t’s many people’s dream to build their own bike – but very few manage to achieve it. Those that do command our utmost respect, the likes of John Britton and Erik Buell created real legacies from their vision, engineering skill and dogged determination, while the shed builders like Allen Millyard (creator of the Viper eight-litre V-10) are also talked of in reverent terms here in the office and beyond.

But the process of building a bike from scratch, even if you’re using a donor motor, is one whose complexity is almost endless.

Not only do you need the vision, but you also need a huge array of skills (and no little money) to get the job done. Being able to translate what you’ve got in your head onto paper is the start, and by the time you’ve got to the end you’ll need to have acquired CAD

Building a carbon fibre superbike doesn’t sound easy – and Rolf and Sjorn van der Heide prove that was exactly the case…

WORDS: ROOTSY IM AGES: S T UDIO TA RGE T PRESS, KEL EDGE

skills, Finite Element Analysis talents, be a quality engineer, become a materials expert, be able to get your hands dirty, know your way around an engine, be able to set a bike up, magic yourself into a marketing and website expert, and the list goes on.

That’s why it doesn’t surprise us to hear that it’s taken five years for Dutch brothers Rolf and Sjorn van der Heide to create this rather attractive creation – the Gentleman’s Racer. That’s not far off the time taken by big manufacturers to get from a sketch to making it for real, and although the brothers have borrowed an engine from Aprilia there’s still been a huge amount of work poured into the project – work that has very clearly paid off.

The concept is born partly from a parental wish to build his own bike, and also from technical skills and a creative vision from OCTOBER 2016 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM 23

FEATURE

WORDS: VA L EN T INO MOS SY P I C T U R E S : J O N N Y G A W L E R , VA L E N T I N O M O S S Y, M O R T O N S

It came, it saw, it conquered. Then it conquered again, then conquered some more. But even mighty conquerors can be vanquished by the march of time, and so it is with the perennial Honda CBR600. Here’s its last hurrah…

IAN CARSON’S

ti R

WORDS: BENJAMIN J KUBAS CRONIN

PICS: JOE DICK

on

ati in 2005. It was actually on the Duc ’ve had this bike from new, back scuffs ll sma the all out d sorte it, ht stand at the NEC that year. I boug it. It’s actually a tribute to my dad and so on, then started to play with , in fact. So, for me, I’ll never bike the on sit als who passed away. His initi ion quid or fifty pence, never mill a h wort sell it for that reason, whether it’s ally added an HM seamless actu g too. I’ve mind that it’s such an amazing thin hard to choose a favourite it’s but n, take were res pictu quickshifter since the because the missus was tly mos but , tank part on her. I did fit the larger fuel It’s been measured at fuel! for stop so often getting so fed up with having to best ‘R’ nt even now. I still think it’s the 153bhp at the wheel, which is dece atis too.”

Duc per’ ‘pro last the of one and version Ducati has ever made,

I

“

HALSALL RACING SUZUKI GSX-R1000

Age ain’t NOTHING but a NUMBER...

Costing six times as much to build as the road legal GSX X-R1000 it sttarted off ff as a , exactly tl ho h w much better a bike is Ha lsall Racing’s g s Bennetts S Suzuk ki’s BSB racer?

L

WORDS: DANGEROUS BRUCE WILSON

ess than 48-hours after two top ten finishes at the Snetterton rou nd of BSB, Tommy Bridewell’s Ben netts Suzuki GSX-R1000 superbike – built by Martin Halsall’s eponymous Racing Team – was being wheeled out the back of the team’s van and into one of Donington Park’s garages for a more imp ortant event.

Laid carefully and awaiting the bike’s arrival was a branded gara ge mat, onto which Halsall’s pair of eng ineers, Colin Davies and Ian McMahon, wheeled the

IMAGES: GARETH HA RFORD

bike, before lifting it off the ground with fancy paddock stands and fitting digitally controlled tyre warmers. The whole procedure had a complete air of professionalism to it, effortle ssly drawing the attention of all in the per iphery. As the engine oil was carefully war med (by a plug-in heater under the sum p – how factory is that!) and the bra nd new Pirelli slicks began to cook on a med ium setting, the anticipation for the Wil tshire swearbox himself to arrive on the scen e was building.

But Tommy wasn’t the ride r scheduled to blast this 215bhp, £75,000 masterpiece around the circuit on that day . I was...

Parked in the same garage was my road going GSX-R1000, which mir rored the silhouette of the pedigree race bike convincingly from 20 metres.

But a quick game of ‘spot the difference’ highlighted a multitude of alterations, with the most blatant being a complete rem oval of all the required road gubbings; hea dlights, sidestands and number plat es were

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RACE SPEC

KTM RC390 CUP

RACE SPEC

WORDS: CARL ‘PRETT Y BOY’ STEVENS PICS: KTM, DOUBLE RED

O

kay, I know what you're thinking - where are the big bad super-exotic race bikes that we can all drool over? Well we thought we'd change things up a little with one of the simplest, yet most effective ingredients for fun; all for a rather swell price. Do we really need 210bhp for a track day at Brands Indy? Nope. You need one of these bad boys to craft your skills, as getting the most out of a little bike surpasses taking a big bike to 50 per cent of its ability, or it does in my humble opinion!

So what makes one of these little KTM's tick? Firstly, it's worth mentioning that this model is the 2015 RC390, and not the 2016 one. Speaking to Richard from KTM UK, this is because of the updated fly-by-wire throttle that comes on the new model, which would make cheating easier; thus creating an uneven playing field. This also means you haven't been done over if you already own one from the year before, which is a pretty nice move from the Austrian brand for the series. Moving onto the bike though, when I tell you how much power they run, you're not allowed to laugh.

Coming in at 44bhp as standard, these Cup bikes are all restricted to 38bhp with

an actual mechanical throttle stop that is connected to the throttle bodies, which drops off all power at 10,250rpm. In reality, they do carry a tiny bit more oomph with an impressive looking power curve, all thanks to that lovely little Akraprovic system and remap, which means you have to really rag the thing hard to get the very best from it.

Technically, with the lack of power there will be a greater reliance on rider skill (or lack of), which is good news for some! And to keep that little 36kg engine in check, KTM use Motorex KTM racing 4T oil so you can ring its neck for miles and miles on end.

And when you finally get to a corner, those Metzeler M7RRs don't do a bad job of keeping you shiny side up. Being the control tyre used in both the wet and dry they have proven themselves to be a decent tyre on track, and coming in at £150 a set you really cannot complain.

For the stopping power the standard brake discs are pretty solid, with the added assistance of some It all gets a lit tle bit Brembo KTM pads; giving a nice bonkers in the Cup! amount of bite from that little single disc.

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YOUR LIFE ON BIKES

KING OF THE ROAD

S TA R L E T T E R IT’S IN THE CAN

I’ve done a mod on my Tuono that may interest you guys! I got some generic steel cans on it that work well and sound awesome, but I thought carbon cans would suit it – but at 300 quid plus I didn’t want to splash out with out seeing what it looked like! So thought I’d try carbon effect vinyl wrap. I did some internet research, but could only find keyboard warrior claims that it will burn, wrinkle and won’t work from the knobs who have never tried it or don’t own a bike but have an opinion on it anyway! But I thought I’d try it, so wrapped the cans to see if it worked. Well, the vinyl has been on for two months, has done lots of commutes, a couple of Sunday blasts out and one trackday – and still looks mint!

It needs getting out there that this cheap mod makeover actually works! I got two cans that look new for under £12!

Barrie Johnson Top job Barrie, we always love defying convention, ignoring people telling us we can’t do something and then appreciating ace work undertaken!

As I subscribe to your our mag I was interested to read your Fugly But Fast review on the Suzuki B-King. I have attached a couple of photos of my King with some GSX-R mods – is this what Suzuki should have built? The dyno chart is not too bad either!

I have new MT-10 on order to go in garage with it, so liked your Naughty byy Nature article too!

Ian, email No, what Suzuki should have done is stuck a supercharger on it, just like they teased! Enjoy your MT-10!

HELD UP WELL…

£12 well spent!

WORTH £79 99!

You can win a set brilliant Oxford Optimiser 3X for simply writing the Fast Bikes Star Letter.

A “soft-start” charging mode to improve recovery of deeply discharged batteries as low as 8 volts. Intelligent charging will “cycle-charge” in an attempt to recover sulphated batteries. Suitable for all 12V automotive batteries including LITHIUM LiFePO4 batteries. New voltage sensors quickly detect high current drain and will automatically revert to the most appropriate charge rate. Fast and efficient charging in all modes keeps charge times short and reduces power consumption.

As a regular subscriber, I was surprised not to see any mention of any ‘Held’ gloves in your Geared Up article of issue 316. I have a pair of Held Phantom II gloves that I’ve been very impressed with. Very comfortable and they look like they have lots of protection – but you never know for sure unless you get to test them for real...

Well, the week after reading your article, I did just that, outbraking myself on a trackday and losing the front end. The gloves performed brilliantly and kept my hands safe so that I can grab another handful of throttle another day! Your article is dead right – your hands are precision instruments and deserve protection. Please give Held a mention. Not the cheapest glove, but I can testify they work really well! The only problem

You’ve got to hand it to ’em

now is I have to find £200 for another pair...

Chris Barrow Chris, we hate hearing about crashes, but love hearing about kit that stands up to the rigours of it. Anyone else like to nominate some quality (or crap) kit that they’ve crashed in?

DOWN WID DA DENCH KIDS

Louis Rendell showed me his racebike for this weekend. It looks pretty epic with its hydraulic brakes, tyre warmers and CS Racing engine! Louis’s Dad (Paul Rendell) says the IAME prepared by CS Racing engine is a really good combination. You can see Louis’s feeling pretty good about his package, good for Rendell Racing #101 and Scott Redding Young Riders Academy I say!

And check out Fast Bikes Magazine on Louis’s bike! My Dad used to be the Ad Manager there when Shakey, Gary Mason, Rob Frost, Jimmy and Hammer where all riding bikes. And look at Shakey now, he’s a legend, hope he comes to one of the Cool FAB Racing rounds, that would be well rad. My Dad calls that The Good Old Days, not sure what he means, Right Here Right Now is where it’s at!

Sullivan Mounsey Blimey, that’s a name from the past – we’ve just managed to pay off the crash damage from that era too! Say Hi to your Dad from us!

98 OCTOBER 2016 WWW.FASTBIKESMAG.COM

A pair of hooligans in the making...