HOW TO SPOT THE ULTIMATE MAD APRILIA V4 A COUNTERFEIT USED CUSTOM TUONO THE NO-LIMITS NAKED SHOCKING EXPOSÉ OF FAKE KIT TRIUMPH ROCKET III TESTED
THINK
November 2016 Issue 674
SMALLER TOURING SCOTLAND ON HONDA’S CB500X
30
PAGES OF TRAVEL & ADVENTURE
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50 YEARS OF MODS & ROCKERS
WHEN ‘RAMPAGING TEENAGERS’ TERRORISED SOUTHEND
HARLEY’S NEW MOTOR THE MOST IN-DEPTH TEST OF THE EURO 4-BUSTING 1745cc V-TWIN PLUS H-D ENGINEER’S TAKE ON GOVERNMENT’S $12 MILLION FINE
ESTABLISHED 1962: THE ORIGINAL AND BEST BIKE MAGAZINE
Contents
PAY LESS MSL November EDITOR: John Milbank: jmilbank@mortons.co.uk DEPUTY EDITOR: Bruce Wilson: bwilson@mortons.co.uk SENIOR DESIGNER: Justin Blackamore DESIGNERS: Fran Lovely, Charlotte Turnbull PRODUCTION EDITOR: Dan Sharp PICTURE DESK: Paul Fincham, Jonathan Schofield PUBLISHER: Steve Rose: srose@mortons.co.uk GROUP KEY ACCOUNTS MANAGER: Steff Woodhouse: swoodhouse@mortons.co.uk 01507 529452 / 07786 334330 ADVERTISING MANAGER: Martin Freeman: mfreeman@mortons.co.uk 01507 529538 ADVERTISING SALES: Zoe Thurling: zthurling@mortons.co.uk 01507 529412 SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER: Paul Deacon: pdeacon@mortons.co.uk CIRCULATION MANAGER: Steve O’Hara: sohara@mortons.co.uk MARKETING MANAGER: Charlotte Park: cpark@mortons.co.uk PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Dan Savage: asavage@mortons.co.uk COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Nigel Hole ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: Malc Wheeler EDITORIAL ADDRESS: MSL Magazine, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR WEBSITE: www.mslmagazine.co.uk GENERAL QUERIES AND BACK ISSUES: 01507 529529 24 hr answerphone help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES: Jane Skayman jskayman@mortons.co.uk 01507 529423 SUBSCRIPTION: Full subscription rates (but see page 16 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £50.40. Export rates are also available – see page 16 for more details. UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS: Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR CUSTOMER SERVICES NUMBER: 01507 529529 TELEPHONE LINES ARE OPEN: MONDAY-FRIDAY 8.30AM-7PM SATURDAY 8.30AM-12.30PM DISTRIBUTION: COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. 01895 433600 PRINTED: William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton The publisher accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. If you are sending material to us for publication, you are strongly advised to make copies and to include a stamped addressed envelope. Original material must be submitted and will be accepted solely on the basis that the author accepts the assessment of the publisher as to its commercial value. © Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISSN: 1478-8390 MOTORCYCLE SPORT & LEISURE (USPS:001-522) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. USA subscriptions are $66 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. Periodical Postage is paid at Bancroft WI and additional entries. Postmaster: Send address changes to MOTORCYCLE SPORT & LEISURE, c/o Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715-572-4595 chris@ classicbikebooks.com
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30 KNOWLEDGE
NEW 7
News: Beware of fake kit
76
Used test: 2009 Triumph Rocket III
16
Subscribe and save cash
82
Test ride: Aprilia Tuono V4
18
Your letters: Win a Kriega pack
85
20
Autonomous cars and motorcycles? Leon Mannings
Legislating towards perfection: Kevin Cameron
86
Workshop: Triumph bobber
22
Test ride: 2017 Harley tourers
88
Long-term test: BMW C650GT
30
Honda CB500X on the Scottish NC500
89
Long-term test: Honda Africa Twin
38
Test ride: Coventry-Eagle Flying 8
90
42
Telling us who they are: Maynard Hershon
Long-term test: Royal Enfield Continental GT
91
Long-term test: Suzuki GSX1250FA
44
50 years of mods and rockers
92
Long-term test: Suzuki GSX-R1000
50
Brits and pieces: The High Sider
93
Long-term test: Triumph Speed Triple R
94
Long-term test: BMW F800GS
95
Long-term test: Yamaha XSR700
Monkey adventures
96
Long-term test: Kawasaki 1400GTR
UK: Carrot cake included
97
My bike: KTM 1050 Adventure
54
Ireland: Two bites of Ireland
98
My bike: BMW R1200GSA
58
India: Making the leap
62
Places to go
63
Short back and ride: Richard Millington
100 Tested: Draggin Selvedge jeans, Givi pannier racks, Rukka Navigator suit, Halvarsson 310 Lady jacket, Knox Covert gloves.
TOURING 51 52
64
Born to roam: Jolandie Rust interview
70
Back for basics: South Africa training
104 Classic test: 1977 Suzuki GS750 114 Adventure 2017: Steve Rose
58
38
Test Ride 2017 Harley-Davidson Touring range
MILWAUKEE’S
FINEST As regulations tighten, Harley-Davidson launches its all-new engine. There’s a lot riding on this…
22 The original and the best – established 1962
Test Ride
A BRIEF
HIGHLAND FLING Round-the-world adventurer Nathan Millward heads for the Highlands of Scotland to tackle the North Coast 500‌ on a bike that far too many will dismiss as a commuter. The motto: whatever you ride, just get out there and ride. WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: Nathan Millward
30 The original and the best – established 1962
Day Ride
CARROT CAKE INCLUDED MSL reader John Franklin believes he’s found Britain’s best road…
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: John Franklin
I
had ridden a bike to Scotland twice before. In 1970, it rained, and my waterproofs were stolen in Pitlochry from the back of my Triumph Tiger Cub. I tried again in 2012, as part of a round Britain ride for charity. That time, the rain started in Corbridge and ended a week later as we recrossed the border. It was so wet, my tent sank. But my brother and I decided to give Scotland another chance. We’ve always ridden bikes, but with a huge cultural difference between us. When I was on my Tiger Cub, he was on a Lambretta. Now I have a BMW F800ST, he has a Yamaha TMAX. I suspect he may have been quietly upset when his son, Big Jim, took his direct access and bought a Bandit 650. As it was mid-May, camping was out of the question, and the weather forecast suggested snow and sub-zero conditions. B&Bs were pricey, so we opted for bunkhouse accommodation based in Tyndrum and only 400 yards from the infamous Green Welly cafe. For £45 a night, we had our own room with bedding, kitchen and bathroom plus a shared lounge where in the evenings we could laugh at footsore long distance walkers. More to the point, it was a great base for day rides, with roads heading west and north into the Highlands, or east across to Pitlochry.
52 The original and the best – established 1962
ABOVE: from the left are Graham, John and Big Jim.
BELOW: Bandit 650, F800 and TMAX all proved good at the touring thing.
HAGGIS HUNTING
The ride up hadn’t started well, with rain and fog as we rendezvoused at Darwen. Big Jim is young and immune to these things, but I’m neither. I shouldn’t have fretted as next day dawned half decent, and apart from hilarity navigating Glasgow, and a nadgery bit of road along Loch Lomond, we flew up to Tyndrum. Big Jim got to experience overtaking in all its forms and learnt to be in the right gear to do so, none of which mattered to Graham’s twist ’n go TMAX, which would just take off like a scalded cat. Only when we found safe places to go a bit quicker did my F800 have the legs of the other two bikes.
Big Ride
MAKING THE LE EAP
Michele and Big Thumper – they did get to know each other eventually.
Michele Harrison was bored with a career in finance, so she quit the job, passed her bike test, flew to India and bought an Enfield. Sounds easy? It wasn’t... WORDS & PHOTOS: Michele Harrison
I
am not a natural biker. I came to motorbikes mainly because I was so useless with cars. But it wasn’t always like that. At the age of 17, I applied for a provisional driving licence and begged my parents to teach me in their little orange Renault 5. Although I was keen, I had a lot of trouble with the gears and the car kangarooed along the narrow streets of central London. This was when Sundays were dead and the roads really quiet, which was probably just as well. Lessons with my mother were slightly tense, but that was nothing compared to those with my father. If I had heard of Macaulay Culkin divorcing his parents I probably would have served my father with divorce papers, unless he got there first. Wisely, my father banned me from any further contact with cars until I turned 21. His own father, who was extremely patient, in his eighties, and perhaps less attached to his car, then took on the task of instructing me. After a week, he signed me up for the test and to my astonishment I passed. I was especially surprised since I had forgotten to take off the handbrake – the examiner helpfully pointed this out at the first junction. After that I never drove, except for the odd vacation when I rented automatic cars on big empty American highways. But then, on another holiday in the Canaries, I rented a moped and loved it. What control! What freedom! Back in London, I bought myself a Honda 90 and freed myself from the tyranny of London’s public transport. It then only took the reading of Ted Simon’s book Jupiter’s Travels for me to start fantasizing that I would buy a Ténéré and cross the African continent... one day.
GREAT ESCAPE
After years of office drudge, I finally quit my job and took off to India. My reasons were rather banal: like many people in their thirties, I found myself in a career I hated. Some people choose a job in their twenties and love it, some choose a job and love it initially and then become disillusioned. And some feel 58 The original and the best – established 1962
PAKISTAN
TIBET NE PA L
INDIA BANGLADESH
BURMA Mumbai Bay of Bengal
Bengaluru
BORN TO ROAM Africa has been ridden through, traversed and conquered, but seldom by a lone female rider. Jolandie Rust took 18 months and 45,000 kilometres to circumnavigate the entire continent on a BMW F650GS Dakar… INTERVIEW: Nathan Millward PHOTOGRAPHY: Jolandie Rust
INSET: At Hurghada in Egypt. On a small tour of the area, organised by the Ministry of Tourism.
W
hen she was just two years old Jolandie Rust – ‘Jo’ to her friends – packed herself a napsack and set out to explore the neighbourhood. Now aged 32, the Johannesburg resident believes she was born an adventurer, with an eternal need for exploration built into her DNA. NATHAN MILLWARD: How did this trip on the motorcycle come about? JOLANDIE RUST: The original plan was to cycle
around the African continent on a bicycle, and having made it all the way to Northern Angola, about 3500 kilometres into the trip, I was robbed not far from the border with Congo. Four men with machetes stopped their trucks, got out and ordered me to give them all of my belongings. I fled into the bush and hid,
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Aprilia Tuono V4
PERSONALITY
DISORDER
Aprilia’s Tuono Factory is the most ‘no-compromise’ aggressive super-naked out there. Riding it in anger can seriously alter your personality. And that’s why Steve likes it so much… 82 The original and the best – established 1962
Part four
Workshop:
Triumph Legend Bobber
A chance meeting helps Chris Tunbridge complete his stunning Triumph project…
WHO IS CHRIS TUNBRIDGE? Specialising in flawless paint finishes (and an insistence that everything is done by hand), this trained tool-maker has spent years working with his customers to ensure he creates the bike they really want, from original restorations, to totally bespoke machines. Chris’ workshop has seen everything from custom cruisers, through classic BMWs and Yamahas to the dual-sport Ducati Monster featured in MSL’s February 2016 issue. Visit www. ctmotorcycleservices.co.uk or call 07714 266627.
I
n the final stages of any build it’s so easy to lose hours and hours on small details that will by and large go unnoticed. Paul Sumner delivered his 2001 Triumph Legend TT 900 Triple to me as a slightly-started project, alongside a headful of ideas. You join me now having done the bulk of the work, which was a lot of preparation, paint, and modification… The floating rear fender was painted following the same process as the tank (July issue of MSL), and had a massive visual impact on the bike. Unfortunately, despite the thickness of the mudguard mount there was still far too much bounce, so I fabricated some discreet bars to triangulate the assembly. These bolted to the side of the mudguard and down to the swingarm, and in gloss black didn’t detract from the overall look too much. Then it was on to the freshly-painted, crazy-tall
86 The original and the best – established 1962
handlebars, and fitting the small switches I’d machined holes for. Keeping things tidy, I also converted the carbs from cable to button pull using a choke knob from a Triumph Stag and a small piece of 8mm round bar that I machined down to suit. I made a battery-box mounting bracket that sits above and behind the rear shock – when the seat came back from the trimmers they’d made a matching strap for the box which ties everything together a treat. Now able to really crack on with the electrics, I built a bespoke loom for the bike – the plan was to keep things simple, which turned out to be problematic when it came to wiring in the ECU. Despite obtaining three different wiring diagrams, I failed to find a single one that matched the 10-wire configuration from the ECU. I had the whole loom built but I could not get a spark
– hours turned into days without success. As I was about to admit defeat, a beautiful Triumph Stag (not the one I got the choke knob from) pulled up outside my workshop – the chap was lost and needed directions. We struck up a conversation about restoration – me bikes, him cars – until we got to talking about the bobber and eventually onto the subject of the ECU conundrum. “I would be happy to take a look at it,” he says. “I’m a lecturer in electronics.” What are the chances?! He took a good look at everything I had, turned the dial on my digital tester to the positions it never sees and did some calculations. An hour later we had a nice fat blue spark… Tony of Sandling, I thank you to this day! Time to bolt it together. I had to fabricate and weld a small bracket to the three-into-one exhaust headers. Paul wanted a
Tried & Tested Halvarssons 310 Lady Jacket
TESTED BY: Helen Milbank | £299 | www.jofama.se I’ve long been looking for that perfect leather jacket – for me it’s got to be a protective item of motorcycle kit first, but a very good looking casual piece of clothing a close second. Editor/husband John and I often ride into London for a day out, so gear I can happily wear off the bike needs to be comfortable, not too heavy, and stylish; the 310 Lady weighs just 1.92kg, so it’s certainly comfortable to walk around in. There’s no back protector supplied (though there is a pocket for one), but the main weight saving comes from using a lighter-weight goatskin construction. Goat hide is potentially less hard-wearing than cow, though the quality of leather used appears very good. But this was never intended to be a race suit, and the clear use of excellent triple stitching throughout, along with Halvarsson’s Hi Art abrasionresistant fabric between the
CE-Level One armour at the shoulders and elbows means I’m confident the jacket will give me a very good level of protection. While not antique-looking, the khaki finish has a nice, weathered look that is already ageing well, and the soft construction gives very easily – there’s almost a stretch-like quality to it. My only reservation is that I find the neck fastener presses onto my throat a little, to the point that I tend to leave the popper undone. I’m 5ft 3in, a size 12, and relatively short in the body – I wear a child’s XL body protector when riding horses – so by pulling at the bottom of the jacket, it relieves the pressure on my throat, meaning I’m pretty sure a more average-height person would find this less of an issue. The best bet is of course to try one on before buying it – I did at Branded Biker in Boston, Lincs (www.brandedbiker. co.uk), and was happy enough with the collar to still go for it.
The jacket is triple-stitched throughout.
I usually wear this with my bike jeans, but there’s a full waist zip for attaching the jacket to trousers with a large stretch panel. I like the style of the rugged metal YBS zips (which lock in place well and don’t creep), but do keep in mind that there’s no flap covering the main one, so it could be possible to scratch a tank if you laid across it. Being more of a classically-styled jacket though, it’s unlikely to be used when laying across a sports-bike tank. Besides the four outer pockets, the inside has one zipped, one with a popper and one very small open one, but I don’t tend to carry much beside my earplugs as I don’t like to spoil the way the jacket sits. Details like the soft cuff and collar linings, as well as the mesh sections under the arms make this comfortable in the heat, both on and off the bike. Like John’s Halvarssons textile kit, this is top quality, and a jacket I’m going to be proud of for many, many years.
Hi-Art abrasion-resistant fabric is used in the key impact areas.
Ventilated armpit lining is a good little detail, especially for summer.
Knox Covert Gloves TESTED BY: John Milbank | £99.99 | www.planet-knox.com 01900 825825 As a child, I suffered from hyperhidrosis – sweaty hands. The cure was a risky operation back then, so I put up with it, but even now I find my paws are quick to overheat and get damp. This means that winter gloves are of course too hot for summer riding, but in the rain, I’ve had very little choice. The Coverts are designed for hotter days, but have an Outdry waterproof and breathable membrane bonded to the 1mm cowhide outer. They’re definitely
waterproof, and while they’re far cooler than normal winter gloves (which then often lose their lining as my sweaty hands grab it when taking them off), I find the polyester lining here feels a little unpleasant and harsh. I’m more than happy to admit that this feeling is probably down to my personal taste, and it’s great to see Knox’s scaphoid protection sliders on the palm to help prevent your hand grabbing in a fall. The wrist restraint also holds the gloves in place very
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well, though I’d have preferred a more adjustable Velcro cuff restraint, or even the Boa lace system fitted to my brilliant Knox Handroids, though this wouldn’t have worked under a sleeve. There are additional 0.8mm Pittards goat leather panels on the palm and finger tips, and
these are a good summer option if you get on with the lining. The only glaring omission to me is the lack of a visor wipe fitted to the thumb or forefinger, which should be regulation on all gloves!