2000
Move over Colin, it’s my turn now
24 November 2000
THE rider in front disappears from view. I lean the bike into the chicane before the start-finish straight, feeling the racing wets digging in. The bike boots it out of the first-gear corner, lifting...
This man could steal your bike in 20 seconds
17 November 2000
DAVE is a thief, and he can nick your bike in less than 20 seconds. He’ll steal it to order and then flog it to someone who can either change its identity and re-sell it, or dismantle it and sell the...
Spot the family resemblance
10 November 2000
PRETEND for a moment you’re a race bike – no, don’t run away, I haven’t gone mad. I just want to try and explain to you how tough a season’s racing is. The chances are you own or have ridden a bike in...
Tuck in, hold on and go flat-out
03 November 2000
YOU’RE stood at the side of the track. It’s quiet other than the rustle of the wind in the grass. The people around you have all fallen silent in anticipation. Away to your right you hear the...
Semi-automatic for the people
03 November 2000
THEY’RE used in World Superbikes and Formula One racing cars, and your road bike could have one in a few years. What are they? Semi-automatic gearboxes, that’s what. We know that Ducati will be using...
A bike is only as fast as its rider
01 November 2000
THERE’S an orange bike, a red bike, a purple bike, a green bike and, of course, a blue and white bike. They’re all parked up on paddock stands with mechanics milling around them, fitting tyre warmers...
Time for a change of scenery
13 October 2000
MOST of us go touring in summer. But if there’s one time when you should really try something different on your bike, it’s autumn. This is the time of year when heavy-duty gloves come out of the...
Give us a go, Mr Walker
01 October 2000
I’VE ridden plenty of Suzuki GSX-R750s in my time. But the number two on the front of this one marks it out as being Very Special Indeed. And I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. You see, the...
All that glitters... is almost gold
15 September 2000
FEW people in the world will ever get to look at, let alone hear, ride or even own an MV Agusta Series Oro. Only 50 of the magnesium-laced ” gold ” series bikes have ever been built. All of them are...
Britain’s answer to the R1
15 September 2000
THERE have been some great British motorcycles over the years. Triumph’s Bonneville, Norton’s Commando, BSA’s Dandy (well, maybe not). But, even in light of the very latest machines like Triumph’s...
Beyond reason
08 September 2000
I’M sitting in a jammed-up one-way system, snicking the gearbox into neutral. The idling engine’s heat is starting to make its way through my jeans. Traffic jams are an annoyance on most bikes,...
A little bit of what you fancy
08 September 2000
IT was all a bit ironic. Here I was in the middle of Germany, howling along on an exotic FireBlade-engined bike I had travelled halfway across Europe to ride. But along with its Japanese-made engine,...
Tale of the unexpected
01 September 2000
TRACKDAY bikes – R1s, Blades, GSX-Rs, 916s, BMWs. Er, excuse me? Let’s try that one again. Track day bikes – R1s, Blades, GSX-Rs, 916s… BMWs? Surely Munich’s big Boxers are designed to clock up the...
Casting light on the secrets of the black box
01 September 2000
YOU know what the problem with that is… that’s your cerebral oscillator confounding your collectivisor, that is… Modern bikes can be such conundrums of electronic complexity that you won’t be alone if your eyes start glazing over when your mechanic begins explaining why yours won’t start. It’s easy to give up, hand over the key and wander off in the hope that there’s a taxi rank nearby, without...
The sum is greater than its parts
01 September 2000
IT was just like gazing at the stars. The more I looked, the more I saw. Except this wasn’t the sky. This was a very special Honda SP-1. And instead of seeing planets, I was gawping at a machine which...
You can’t have too much of a good thing
25 August 2000
FOR some people, enough is never enough. Mountaineers always want to climb higher mountains, athletes always want a quicker time and those strange people who try to set world records by eating...
Why exhausts are left to the experts
25 August 2000
FITTING an aftermarket silencer or complete exhaust system is the most common modification we make to our bikes. We do it to add a bit more power and personality, and to shed a bit of weight. But, as...
The real deal on wheels
18 August 2000
LIGHTWEIGHT wheels are standard equipment on race bikes. But how much difference could they make to our own machines? They are certainly more than an expensive pose. They can reduce the unsprung...
What have you done wrong today?
18 August 2000
MISTAKE: ASSUMING DRIVERS CAN’T/WON’T ATTEMPT THE SAME OVERTAKE AS YOU HOW many times have you gone to overtake a slow-moving vehicle only to have a car pull out from the queue behind it to attempt...
When you’ve got a Busa under the bonnet…
11 August 2000
CARS? Heavy, slow, boring shopping trollies with way too many wheels, in my experience. Ideal for supermarket runs, bad weather and luggage carrying. But for having fun? Forget it unless you’re...
Who do you think you are son, the invisible man?
11 August 2000
I’M currently riding at 62mph. Nothing exceptional about that, except I’m in a 50mph zone. Some would argue there’s nothing exceptional about that, either, apart from the copper up ahead pointing a...
250 v 600 = no contest
11 August 2000
THE CBR600 rider in the distance is scything through the pine-lined canyon switchbacks. His mind is set on one thing – trying to put as much distance between himself and the bike screaming up behind...
Why no YZR500i?
11 August 2000
WE’VE become used to seeing fuel injection replace carburettors on bike after bike, and the electronic system is now nearly as common a sight on road bikes as disc brakes. But if fuel injection is the...
The people’s champions
04 August 2000
WHERE were you on Sunday afternoon? If you were sat beside a certain track in Kent, or glued to the BBC’s Grandstand, you don’t need telling how big the World Superbike series has become. The...
Just nipping out to buy another RC30, dear
01 August 2000
SOME people collect stamps, others collect beer bottles. Some are even lucky enough to own a few bikes. But there’s one man for whom only the very best will do – that’s why he’s got a collection of...
Only if you’re Carl Fogarty
01 August 2000
IT’S the number plate that gives it away. The legend ” T4 FOG ” just above the chunky rear tyre reveals that this is no ordinary Ducati Monster. Yes, the owner of the machine glinting seductively in...
Be prepared to change your mind
21 July 2000
IT’S good to challenge yourself, to take yourself aside and question your beliefs from time to time. It’s even better if you can do it in glorious sunshine. As I sit reflecting on my newly-shifted...
S’pose I’d best go in the fast group, then
21 July 2000
THE GSX-R rider nods in the direction of the gleaming red Virgin Mobile R7 as it’s wheeled out of the back of a van in the middle of a bustling paddock. Surprised that such a humble rent-a-van could...
Somebody pinch me
14 July 2000
I’M sitting on a bike I once only dreamed of touching. This seat is usually reserved for genuine racing heroes. Kenny Roberts and his son are among the very few who have graced it. The mid-day...
Cars use front-wheel drive – so why don’t bikes?
14 July 2000
Some ways of doing things are so universal that people don’t even think to ask if there’s any other option. Until, on occasion, some lateral-thinking genius comes along, turns convention and accepted...
The queue-jumper
14 July 2000
THE sweet smell of two-stroke wafted around me as I waited for the lights to turn green on a gridful of impatient, wide-eyed loons. My senses were wound to maximum. The instant I saw green I was ready...
Fancy going for a blat, Bazza?
07 July 2000
AS a kid growing up in the ’70s, like many of my peers, I had an Evel Knievel wind-up toy Skycycle, complete with stars and stripes-clad Knievel doll. After about a year of playing at Knievel, I...
Prepare for an Indian summer
07 July 2000
THE scenario had been acted out many times before. A V-twin Harley-Davidson was locked in combat with a four-cylinder Indian, their riders crouched over the tanks with the throttles at the stop...
Blades: The Gathering
01 July 2000
CULT status is usually accorded to things which aren’t actually that popular. Red Dwarf, for example isn’t anywhere near as big as Neighbours. Honda’s FireBlade is a glaring exception to this...
It’s gonna get you
23 June 2000
UNRELENTING rain smacks off my visor. Somewhere in the pitch-blackness, in the turbulent air behind me, something evil has picked up my scent. I hear the unmistakable sound of a V-twin engine...
Cool calipers take the heat out of the hardest braking
23 June 2000
YOU can expect to see them on the front forks of a bike in a pub car park near you very soon: Radially-mounted brake calipers. If you have eagle eyes and an anorak attention to detail, you’ll have...