Motorcycle Sport & Leisure September 2014

Issue 648

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32

50 YEARS OF TOURING

five decades of fun

THE BEST SUPER TOURERS

to suit your needs

MSL September 2014

MOTORCYCLE Page Touring Mini Mag

SPORT & LEISURE

FOR THE FUN OF RIDING

◆ Ariel Ace 1200 ◆ Ducati Monster 821 ◆ Moto Morini 11.5

ARIEL ACE

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RIDDEN + RATED

TWO free mega competitions worth

162bhp. Made to measure. It’s here.

The REAL behind-the-scenes story.

£2500 The trip of a lifetime riding the Alps AND top hyper-touring tyres in our brilliant FREE giveaway

2015 BMWs:

IT’S A

AND the new Special Edition K1300S revealed

Ducati’s 821: 21 years in the making and fabulous

THE GS CHANGES

MONSTER

www.mslmagazine.co.uk

PLUS: Buyer’s Guide: Honda Deauville ◆ The GS Diaries ◆ Helmet fitting made easy ◆ Stay dry like a pro rider ◆ Morini’s 11.5 new naked ◆ Suzuki’s mad rotary RE5

No. 09 September 2014

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MSL September EDITOR: Tony Carter: tcarter@mortons.co.uk PUBLISHER: Steve Rose: srose@mortons.co.uk DEPUTY EDITOR: Bruce Wilson DESIGNER: Sarah Scrimshaw REPROGRAPHICS: Simon Duncan GROUP PRODUCTION EDITOR: Tim Hartley GROUP KEY ACCOUNTS MANAGER: Steff Woodhouse: swoodhouse@mortons.co.uk 01507 529452 / 07786334330 ADVERTISING TEAM LEADER: Richard Sinclair: rsinclair@mortons.co.uk 01507 529538 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 PRODUCTION MANAGER: Craig Lamb: clamb@mortons.co.uk PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Dan Savage: asavage@mortons.co.uk COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Nigel Hole ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: Malc Wheeler

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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 32 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £49.20. Export rates are also available – see page 28 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 DISTRIBUTION: COMAG, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QE. 01895 433600 PRINTED: William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton

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40 112

CONTENTS

90

NEW 6

ONE TO RIDE

9

NEWS

14

THE MSL MEGA COMPETITION

20

SCOOP TEST: ARIEL ACE 1200

Another cracking route to head for when you find yourself nearby on a sunny day.

A new Buell Superfighter thing and BMW’s changes to its current bikes, too.

A trip for two, for a week in the Alps at a four star location, with a hire bike thrown in for mountain-skimming good times. Yeah, it’s that good!

Powered by a Honda VFR1200, the Ariel Ace is the newest British motorcycle that is set to show the world a thing or two about just how good our skills with a milling machine really are – but how well does it actually go? MSL has found out first for you.

30

POSTBAG

34

TRIED AND TESTED

40

More from you and your kind (which are identical to us) via the MSL mail room.

70

TOURING BIBLE

76

ONE DAY TOUR: SWINDON TO WALES

Don’t believe the hype. Or the tech.

Well, not always.

An involving switchback route for plenty of fun in a few hours.

MSL has been putting the latest Interphone Bluetooth system and Alpinestars cruiser gloves through their paces.

DUCATI’S NEW MONSTER – THE 821

It’s got a revised power delivery, new looks and an (apparently) better riding position. We went to the world launch of Ducati’s latest to see what’s what.

50

TOURING

78

It’s a memorable run in a memorable part of Europe.

82

KNOWLEDGE 88

THE HOW TO: GET THE PERFECT HELMET FIT

An essential part of kit and an essential part of getting that essential kit right.

90

102

108

50

LIFE-CHANGER: GREECE ON STEP-THRUS

Nope, we’re not making this up. It’s the mad tale of a mad trip.

THE 11.5 MORINI

It’s one of the grand old marques of motorcycling and it’s delivered a new version of a classic model for us to drool over. Hail the Morini. You’ll like it.

LONG WEEKEND TOUR: PORTUGAL

112

LONG TERM LIFE: PART FOUR

The National Road Rally outing heads the reports this month. Lots going on elsewhere, too.

BUYER’S GUIDE: DEAUVILLE

An original idea that’s now spawned many successful children. Here’s where it all started and there’s quite a few of them on the market these days.

STAYING DRY

Tips from the pros about the clever way to be clever in the wet stuff this year.

REFLECTIONS: SUZUKI RE5

A classic bike from the 1970s that’s well worth a look or two to get your biking juices flowing. mslmagazine.co.uk 5

Letters Sponsored by

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THESE DVDS

Remember to keep sending in your letters, as here at MSL we want to know your thoughts!

Plus every issue’s star letter will win two fantastic free DVDs courtesy of Duke Video!

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JOEy DUNlOp – NO OrDINary JOE

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Never-before-published pictures of the Ballymoney hero are provided from his family’s private collection, are also included in the documentary.

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30 mslmagazine.co.uk

Forget about the fairings?

Dear MSL, It seems like fairings have now become the sorts of things we have on the sorts of bikes that we ride when we want to please others rather than ourselves.

Look at bikes such as Triumph’s Speed Triple, the BMW S1000R and the Ducati Diavel.

No fairings there and they’re motorcycles that are all about fun and forgetting little things like practicality or sensible riding.

Yamaha has tried to sex up its MT-09 with that silly urban makeover with the ‘wing’ thing across the top of the handlebars. If a bike can get rid of the fairing and still look cool then it’s getting the naked makeover, so it seems.

The thing is, all of these bikes are quite fast. So if they don’t need a fairing then isn’t it time that we accept that motorcycle design tech these days is good enough to just ditch the need

altogether? If we can do that then overall the speed that we would ride at would drop (given that it’s widely agreed that by riding a naked bike, where we can see the road beneath us more easily, we don’t ride as fast) which would have to have a positive effect on the number of serious injuries caused in crashes too.

Oh, and just wanted to add that I loved the article on the BMW S1000R in MSL. I love the look of that bike and to think that the Germans have made a bike that’s such a mad thing to ride, and that comes in at 163bhp but wouldn’t look out of place pootling around town too well, that’s got to be among the top of the candidates for Best Bike Ever, surely?

Keep up the good work.

Carl Smith Email

Hi Carl Thanks for the email, you make some fair points in it but I really can’t agree with what

you’re saying about the current crop of top naked motorcycles not being much about the practical and the sensible – almost of all them can do both of those elements very well indeed.

In fact, it’s a really valid point about the big naked bikes of the moment. Try one if you haven’t been out on one of these bikes already and you’ll be amazed at how useable they are. One of my all-time favourite bikes is the Ducati Diavel because not only is it madder than a bucketful of spiders when you want it to be but it’ll also dabble through the middle of a rammed-full city centre at 2mph with your feet up with barely a grumble.

What bike builders are now doing with this sort of motorcycle is quite incredible and worthy of note by all riders.

Long live the time of the big naked super motorcycles! TC

NEW Where is the silly stuff?

BMW: let’s have this bike on the road!

Dear MSL, ose pictures that you had recently about the project roadster thing from BMW were great. But I have a question as to why BMW hasn’t just made this bike and put it out there for us to buy.

I mean, there’s not a lot to it in terms of anything special and there’s certainly no component parts that are anything out of the realm of what BMW currently makes. So what’s to stop them bolting these parts together and just putting this bike out there?

It looks like this is a motorcycle that’s the perfect bridge between BMW’s S1000R and the R-nine-T. So come on, German people, let’s have it and have it now.

Many thanks!

Ally Price Email Hi Ally, Couldn’t agree more. It looks like a GS motor strapped to a small chassis with the right mix of top rolling chassis

parts – not exactly what we’d call a parts-bin special (remember that phrase from back in the day?) but in terms of new-tech it’s not far off from such a thing.

We’re in the same frame of mind as you Ally and we’re just waiting to hear from BMW that this concept is going on sale next year.

We haven’t heard anything official as of yet but as soon as we do we’ll let you know. TC

Borders take me back Dear MSL, Thank you for the warning to other riders wishing to travel across more far-flung countries’ borders in a recent issue of the magazine. I wish somebody had warned me about the possible long delays and red-tape trip-ups before I’d tried to get across the more east of European countries a few years ago.

I was once held up at a former USSR border for 11 hours. And all I could do was smile and be patient while the officials seemed to take great delight in doing bugger all except hold up me and my travel colleagues!

Brian Alletro Email

Only £3.08 an issue when you subscribe

Dear MSL, I’m extremely disappointed with your magazine. I’ve bought the last year’s worth of issues and scoured them from cover to cover. I’ve read really good articles and enjoyed the tests of new and old bikes, the brilliant photography and top columnists that make me think about the motorbike world like no other magazine can.

So that’s all good, but where’s the pointless pictures of you lot pulling wheelies and scraping your knees on the road? If you don’t put that sort of nonsense in MSL aren’t you worried that your riding skill will be worryingly underplayed among your peers?

Donald Cameron Email

Hi Donald, Ha ha! Lovely email, thanks for sending it. And thanks for your kind concern about Bruce and me. But we’re good thanks.

We’ll let other, less popular magazines worry about showing off with their wheelies etc. It’s not what we’re about in MSL. But you know what, I don’t want anybody out there to think that we don’t enjoy ourselves when we’re out on track. So here’s a pic to illustrate that MSL can do some silliness – but we keep it for closed tracks on sunny days only. TC www.classicmagazines.co.uk or see page 36 mslmagazine.co.uk 31

First Rides Moto Morini 111⁄2

Morini’s budget beauty It’s just three years since Moto Morini was rescued from bankruptcy.

But the introduction of the brand’s new 11½ goes to show that things are already back on an even keel.

WORDS: Alan Cathcart PHOTOGRAPHY: Kel Edge

NEW

I

talian investment bankers Ruggeromassimo Jannuzzelli and his partner Sandro Capotosti rescued the Italian brand from the scrapheap in July 2011.

Following two years of free use of the cavernous old Moto Morini factory in Bologna – part of the €1.96 million purchase price paid to the liquidator to acquire the company, during which time production restarted but rose to a mere 180 motorcycles built in 2013, all sold via the internet – the partners have moved the company to a new, much smaller 3000m² base near Pavia, in the risotto rice fields south of Milan. ere, in a conscious strategy to open up Moto Morini ownership to a wider public, they’ve launched manufacture of a new entry level model, the 11½, retailing at €10,900 including 21% local tax (£8745 in UK). is compares very favourably with the €15,900 price tag of the top of the line Corsaro Veloce using the same essential platform, which on paper at least seems to offer a lot more performance.

I’m a morinista by conviction, as the satisfied owner of a Corsaro 1200 that’s still just as exhilarating and plain good fun to ride as it was the week I rode it

back to Britain from Bologna in the summer of 2007.

Apart from an electronic dash replaced under warranty, I’ve had no problems with the bike. Although it did get a mapping upgrade at its second service. is made the pickup from a closed throttle a little less abrupt, without sacrificing the 1187cc/140bhp 87º V-twin CorsaCorta motor’s muscular zest which is the key benefit of Morini ownership.

But that’s with a full power bike which in current Corsaro Veloce guise produces 135bhp/99kW at 8500rpm, with meaty maximum torque of 90lb- at 6750 revs. By contrast, the new 11½ I was riding has been detuned via altered camshas, different valve timing, and reduced valve li to produce ‘just’ 117bhp at the cranksha at the same revs, thanks also to a revised 2-1 exhaust system which helps minimise the reduction in peak torque to 77.5lb-, again at the same engine speed. But in fact, when actually riding it, you’d swear there was less of a difference than on paper.

No getting away from it, the 11½ is pretty anonymous looking with its matt black paint scheme extending to the engine, although the sandycoloured 800mm high seat contrasts with it to restore a little allure. is is

also extremely comfortable – broad, well-padded and supportive. As well as being 30mm lower than the Corsaro, it’s coupled with the wide one-piece Accossato handlebar sourced from the Morini Scrambler parts bin, resulting in a quite different riding stance than the Corsaro – more upright, yet ultimately very comfortable, with good leverage from that wide ’bar with relatively pulled back handgrips. is isn’t however so wide that it causes instability at speed as the slipstream catches your shoulders, as on some such bikes. But it did make easy work of carving corners in the hills of the Oltrepo wine region while riding to Ruggeromassimo Jannuzzelli’s country home to interview him there in his restored 12th century fortified castle that was once used to extract tolls from

TOP: Anonymous in the black scheme it might be, is that a good or bad thing?

Do you want more from your Morini or are you the sort of 11.5 buyer who doesn’t need to shout?

ABOVE: That seat is one of the best in the business. Plush, supportive and cool-looking too.

mslmagazine.co.uk 51

TOURING Your rides Our rides Tips and tricks

76

Swindon to Wales!

A twisty delight across the border and back.

78

Rhys gets to China

British rider Rhys Lawrey is well on his way to smashing a world record and has already become the youngest ever person to ride from the UK to China.

R

ound-the-world motorcyclist Rhys Lawrey is celebrating completing the first stage of his year-long trip, having reached Jianshui in southwest China.

While in the ancient Chinese city Rhys, who was born in Cambridgeshire and grew up in New Zealand, also celebrated his 23rd birthday.

Riding as 2moroRider, Rhys aims to be the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe on a motorcycle and has already covered 10,000 miles since leaving the Triumph factory in Leicestershire on his Tiger 800XC. He still has another

40,000 miles and five continents to cross before returning to the UK in spring 2015. e bike has required no more maintenance than an oil and filter change at 8000 miles, but the trip hasn’t been entirely plain sailing so far. Although Rhys twice got into difficulties in desert sands, getting bogged down and having a low speed fall, by far the worst experiences have been at border crossings. “e border guards in Turkmenistan were so slow that I had to stay overnight at customs, sleeping on tables and floors,” he said.

Crossing from Uzbekistan into Kazakhstan was just as frustrating, he added: “I le at

9am and was made to wait outside the compound in 40ºC heat with no shelter, using the bike as a sunshade. I didn’t get to my Kazakh accommodation until midnight.”

However, entering China turned out to be a highlight of the journey: “I was surprised by how relaxed and friendly the customs officers were – they even posed for photos with me. Being the youngest person to ride into China, and the first Triumph too, was an overwhelming feeling!”

While on the road, Rhys is raising funds for the UK’s leading youth charity, e Prince’s Trust. Follow his progress and make a donation at www.2moroRider.com

Portuguese pleasures

On the coast and into the countryside abroad.

82 Greece is the word

A life-changing trip on two wheels to civilization.

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