If you want to buy a great gift for the motorcyclist in your life or even just for yourself you can’t go far wrong if you choose a book about motocycles or racers. Top of the list this year has to be Jamie Whitams autobiography “What a Good Do” Or maybe even James Toselands account of his first year in MotoGP.
The perennial favorites are always the Motocourse books or Julian Ryders Moto Gp season reviews.
Personally I love the books about motorcycle adventures , reading about people who have toured the world and visited far away places always inspire me.. Maybe next year I’ll give up going round and round on the race tracks of europe and head off for a longer trip!!
There are hundreds of great gifts for motocyclists but if you’d like to view over 300 motorcycle books follow the following link.
I have to admit that I have a very soft spot for the GSXR 1000. I bought a Gsxr1000 K1 on the day they arrived in the shops and was instantly turned from an average rider to a good rider. The bike just felt right. 3 weeks after i got it I did a lap of Jerez in 2minutes and 2 seconds, which was about 30 seconds quicker than i’d previously done it on my ducati 996. The bike was just right! The bike won races at cadwell , Pembrey and Darley Moor. Gsxr1000’s also crash very well, at mallory park the front end was completely wiped out and it took a week to get it ready for racing , at oulton it slind in the wet and hit a tyre wall and catapulted over the safety barrier … a quick tweak on a jig and it was straight again.
If you are looking for a great race bike or trackday bike I can’t recommend a GSXR1000 enough
As with the GSXR1000 if you are looking for an R1 race or trackday bike you won’t have any lack of choice. Each year Yamaha have added various changes to handling, frame geometry and engine performance. Some years you’ll find that The R1’s are better than the GSXR 1000’s and other years it’s the other way around but the differences are minor and the rider will make the most difference. Do your research and you are sure to find a bike that suits you.
In the ZX10R kawasaki probably built the sweetest handling bike they have ever built. With a very tractable engine this is probably one of the best bikes for a club racer to ride. With Razor sharp handling and lots of power it will have you diving up the inside of the opposition. The first thing that you’ll notice about the ZX10R is it’s size , pocket rocket is definatly the right description.
You’ll find that one of the most hotly contested classes at every level of racing is the Supersport 600 class. The class is for homologated 600cc four stroke bikes. The bikes are closely based on widely available models that can be bought in your local dealers.A small amount of engine tuning is allowed but in general the bikes are as close to road models as possible with the majority of changes being made for safety reasons.
This even extends to the tyres which need to be Road legal, although many manufactures now make a race tyre that is technically road legal. Some organisations will allow you to run wet tyres in the event of wet races.
All Major manufacturers will have a suitable bike available with the most popular being the and the .One anomaly in the class is that The Triumph 675 is eligible to race as it is a triple.
One of the great things about this class is that any 600cc bike can be competitive in the right hands with a minimum amount of cash being spent.
I have just read the announcement of the creation of Thundersport GB (http://www.thundersportgb.com/) I am in two minds as to the Value of it. Firstly the involvement of Dave Stewart in any form of UK motorcycle sport is a good thing. Dave is the most honest and straight forward guy I’ve met. Not like some of the self serving pricks who seem to dominate motorcycle sport in the UK.
On the other hand we have the MRO series and having spent several seasons at MRO It certainly helps to raise the standard of riding. The question remains Do we need another series?
One other thing that does bother me slightly is the involvement of Motors TV. It’s great to have a televised series BUT how many people are going to watch it on Motors TV especially if the stick to their habit of airing programs at seemingly random times. TV coverage Good..Obscure TV coverage bad. If i was approaching sponsors for funding telling them that the series was on Motors TV wouldn’t not have much of a pull. On the other hand The series has to start somewhere.
I really do look forward to what dave has come up with and I hope it does live upto expectations. But i hope it’s not to the detriment of any other series or clubs.
At last The management of British superbikes and Ducati Have come to their senses and reached an agreement that will allow Airwaves Ducati to compete in next seasons Series. Hot on the heels of that great bit of news comes the news that Airwaves Ducati will be running Shane "Shakey" Byrne and Leon Camier as their riders. I suspect the budget for crah damage will need to be increased significantly. Whatever happend it’s going to be exciting.
HM Plant Honda have also confirmed the signing of Cal Crutchlow as team mate to Leon Haslam once again this should lead to some exceitement. Crutchlows move to Honda has made a space available at Rizla suzuki that will be filled by Tom Sykes, I can’t help thinking that this is a bad move by Tom, i hope i am proved wrong.
Tom’s team mate will be japanese Superbike Champion Atsushi Watanabe, poor guy I can just hear jack Burnicle calling him Sushi Wannabe. (of course James Crackhead will just stick with calling him Leon) Things are shaping up nicely now and with the Honda Satellite ("b") Teams,Yamaha and Kawasaki still to finish naming their squads there could still be a few suprises.
An insider at Red Bull has revealed that following the sucess of the Red Bull Rookies Red Bull are considering starting a Red Bull "Has Beens" team. Look for Emmet and Rutter to be signed although they can expect competition from several sources.
Max Biaggi has finally signed a deal to stay in world superbikes.
The press release states:
Italian Max Biaggi signed with the Sterilgarda Ducati team this afternoon, insuring that Biaggi will be in the 08 WSBK championship.
The Sterilgarda team ran Ruben Xaus, Marco Borciani (and for a brief period, Giovanni Bussei) in 2007 and their bikes were among the fastest in terms of top speed at the ultra-fast Monza.
Biaggi says he is happy to finally be on a Ducati and looks forward to testing.
It will be interesting to see how things go, Max has maintained all along that he wanted to be on a Ducati but i suspect he meant he wanted to be on a Xerox factory ductai not a satellite team in the first year of development of a new bike. I predict fireworks and consternation in the Sterilgarda Garage.
Yes the season must almost be over as the cabin fever already seems to be setting in. A few days ago max biaggi seemed set to rejoin Motogp on a Honda, but now the rumors seem to be that he’ll be on a factory Ducati being Run by GSE. All this seems to be the product of an over zealous Biaggi PR person and possibly hints at desperation.
Another Rumor circulating is that Hawk Kawasaki won’t be running Kawasaki’s next year. I think this will be a mistake. I accept that they have had a hard year with a bike that was well off the pace but you only need to look at how the motoGP bikes have performed this year to know that some of what they learned will filter down to WSB and BSB before the start of next season.
Finally I’ve been hearing reports that discussions between The BSB organisers and GSE are still on going. The latest reports i’ve recieved indicate that there is some considerable goal post moving coming from Ducati and that there may be more concession wanted not just related to the Pistons.
I must admid that i am a bit concerned that ducati feel that their standard pistons are not up to the stresses of racing..makes you wonder what will happen to road bike ridden with "Vigor" or taken on trackbikes. I have personal experience of just what a Poorly built ducati can be like and it’s not nice!
Last Week the BSB organisers released the calendar for next year.
Once again there are some breaks in the schedule, Personally i would prefer the races to be spaced 2 weeks apart where possible. The only big change was Donnington and Silverstone swapping places and the apparant dropping of Mondello
Once again Mallory is included on the list. It really is about time that it was removed from the schedule until they can make the circuit safer and upto modern standards. Apart from the breakfasts mallory has very little to recommend it. Personally I love the Track and have had my best results there BUT it’s not suitable for modern high powered race bikes.
I remember talk about 10-15 years ago of them extending the track out into the countryside at the exit of gerards I wonder what ever happened to those plans.
