Shakey's leaning

Shane Byrne is now back to BSB, but to me and he still deserves a place in WSB ... with style.

Go for it Shakey !

Superlight kit

Came across that the other day.

It looks like a MotoGP bike or it could also be Adrea Iannone's Moto2 ride, but it all started from this off road crosser.

450GP.com provide kits to transform a thumper crosser into an ultra light supermono. Choose your weapon among the 450cc range and cut sharp track corners with your new 140kg 70+ bhp kitted toy.

How sweet these kits got to be. Just look at the parts list and drool.

Cycle ergo

Whether you're looking for a new bike (winter always comes with loads of opportunities after all) or just want to know how life would feel on the latest liter motorcycle exotica, you should definitely visit Cycle-ergo website. This website's moto is so simple and obvious that once you've performed your first try, you will certainly find yourself coming back later with new ideas. Just fill a simple form with your height, inseam and preferred arm straightness, then chose a motorcycle you would like to know more on how it is to be sat on and voila.

Then, if you are a 6+ foot bloke like me, it will become so blatant the last generations of sportbikes - whether in the 600 or 1000 class - are built for midget riders. Tall guys, please look elsewhere. I know it's nothing new here as bike manufacturers have been trying to reduce drag for years now, but putting aside the fact that riders are becoming taller (not every day, but it's a statistical fact) at the design step simply means building a sportbike nowadays is just a matter of technical performance rather than trying to figure out how potential riders would actually fit on it.

Me on an Aprilia RSV4. Nice belly protection, isn't it ?

Would the tall riders please wave your hand if you're feeling concerned ? Are tall monkeys forced to buy BMW R1200GSs ?

Me on a BMW R1200GS

Well no actually and there are a lot of nicely designed, tall rider friendly motorcycles to discover on Cycle-ergo. Bookmark update !

Pipeburn 2010 retrospective

Be sure not to miss out one of the first (and already among the best) motorcycle retrospective of the year. Best custom builds published on Pipeburn throughout the (soon to be past) year are gathered in one post here.

This year's production's been great. Hope to see more of these next year ! Hey Pipeburn guys, keep the good work coming !

Line drawings

As winter approaches (weather guy says it's going to snow on tusday around here), I think it's the right time to strip the R1100S again. The idea would be to have all the refreshing jobs done during the winter so it's ready when spring comes back. What I have on the list is fairly simple : 

- a full paint job with a paint scheme that still needs to be decided (maybe you can help, see below)

- a front suspension rebuild

- a front bearings swap

- an exhaust headers grind

- a couple more thingies with parts to come and already arrived.

Anyway, I talked about this custom patin scheme idea of mine (based on a black and white theme) on the Pelican forum last week to gather a couple of thoughts and pictures of similar projects. One suggested I could use the existing line drawings found in some other posts and draw my own paint scheme by hand. And that is precisely what I'm going to try out. But not being the most artistically inventive person on earth I'm sharing these raw drawings with you, so you can also suggest a paint scheme by just droping me an email with yours attached.

Have fun drawing.

Environment

These shots were taken in a pub near my (not so anymore) new job. I like the place and you can guess why ... I'm not into those fat Goldies, but it's a biker-friendly place and food's not bad at all.

At last ...

... Rossi's test riding his Ducati.

The best comment so far ? The one spotted on Visordown : "Jorge who ?"

Death of PS Performance rumors

I've been reading on several trustworthy websites and forums an insistant rumor in which PS Performance, the well known motorcycle accessories reseller, is dead. Since I don't really like propagating rumors, I kept this for a couple of days before mentioning it here. But now that it seems to be confirmed and since the websites stays up, it's really worth mentioning so nobody places an order anymore. A few have, have been billed and will never see their items (nor their money back), so beware.

And it could be worse than it seems. I've found a couple of forum posts where guys living near their offices wanted to check for themselves. The only thing they could find once arrived is a closed door, empty offices and a pile of shredded paper. Need even worse ? Well the local police is already gathering claims from cheated customers and the file is growing huge. The cherry on the cake ? The police says Saïd, PS Performance founder and current owner, is nowhere to be found.

Better stay away from them for the moment.

KTM SMT

It's been weeks since I had decided I would try a KTM one day. Whether it would be a 690cm3 single or a 990cm3 twin was still to determine, but I was eager to try one of these bikes. With the Duke 3 showing a bit more often now as a second hand choice, I really wanted to know how it feels on the road. What better thing to do then than to pay a visit to the local KTM dealer ? And that's exactly what I did on Saturday, enjoying the one and only day of decent weather of the whole week-end (a 3 days week-end around here).

When I arrived in front of the shop, I immediately noticed that there was only one KTM bike outside and my guess was that it was the demo bike. Visiting the shop was pretty quick, as it's a really small one and it's only filled with KTM's complete motocross range and hardly a road bike (a rebuilt 690 SMC). A quick chat with the dealer later, it seems that KTM is not stocking its production, which means when it's all sold and the season's nearly over, there's no way you can't get one to try it out.

Anyway, there's still that one waiting outside and I had made the road through there, so ...I asked for its keys  and went on for a ride. So here I am riding a 990 SMT for a 35 minutes trip to my parent's house (where I had to pick up some parts) and back. During the first part of the trip, I wasn't at ease ... at all. I could not find a position on the bike, I felt like the wide bars would hit my belly any time soon and I had to lift my foot at every down shifting. Add to this that the the riding position is completely upright and the bars are pretty high making the front feeling rather vague compared to the bike I had just jumped from, and you will understand why I wasn't that happy to throw my leg over the bike again when leaving from my parent's house.

But the second part of the trip was far better, like I kind of knew what to expect from this bike. And guess what ? I really enjoyed the trip back. Now I had a rather good feeling with the front (which for me is a requirement) and could at last fully enjoy the strong engine and the "made for tall guys" ergonomics of the SMT. The KTM feels light and flickable in roundabouts. Exiting one on full throttle is made possible because it just makes you fell it can do it.

The time to give the keys back has come too soon. I really wanted to keep on feeling the front wheel getting higher and higher under the acceleration and with the only help of a small bump on the road. Sweet ! Can I ask for some more ?

Lightweight racing batteries

We've already discussed about batteries this year when mentioning Carbon Speed Racing products range. Batteries are really worth a first look when you're trying to shave some weight out of your ride as a motorcycle battery average weight is around 5kgs, which is a lot on a 160+ supersport.

Good news for who wants to prep' up his bike for track purpose : here are 2 new options for lightweight racing batteries to choose from. The first one is from Black and White bikes, a UK-based track bike specialist.

The second alternative is sold by Performance Parts limited.

Both of these batteries do cover a wide range of motorcycles. Each of these suppliers can provide with two different battery models : one for the smaller capacity engines, the other for bigger capacity, twins and thumper engines. Expect a gain of  4+kgs as those batteries' claimed weight is around 499 grams.

Scream !

Fancy a new pair of sliders ? What about these from Motrax ? :D

Important paper

It took almost 2 months to arrive, but it's finally there. This long awaited piece of paper is a certificate from BMW that states my bike complies to national driving regulations. This means I can now ride it ... well legally, I mean :D

I have to admit that waiting for that paper has been a bit stressing, because without it, the R1100S is just a useless pile of plastic and metal ... or at most a decorative pile of plastic and metal. Trust me, it's a relief to get it.

New parts arrived

Some shots of what has recently crossed the doorway.

 - nice and light bar ends from Wünderlich : lighter might shave some weight out, but the boxer engine vibes might also feel more present.

 - nice and light license plate holder from RedBee.

 - primed seat cowl : it was missing when I got the bike and since I still don't know what the new paint scheme will look like, I'd better take it primed only.

 - new BMW emblems for the new seat cowl and upper triple clamp.

 - clear rear signal lenses

 - grips : the ones on the bike are worn and cracks had already been repaired in its previous life with what looks like glue.

I've got to find time to fit them all now and that's the trickiest part of the contract these days.

Stuck inside

This is how my driveway looks like at the moment. I can't roll anything out of the garage and even if I could, rolling back inside anything two-wheeled would really be a hard and dirty job.

2 more weeks to go ...

Both knees down

Visordown the mag is dead. The formerly known as Two Wheels Only magazine I already mentioned in previous messages will no longer make it to my mailbox. It's a real pity as I really was enjoying reading every single issue. The website visordown.com is the only form the editors will keep updating. The paper version wasn't apparently selling that good. The good news is that my subscription to Visordown has been transferred to "UK's best selling motorcycle magazine" (as they say) Fast Bikes. 

The good

The so-so

It's now the second FB issue I'm receiving and I can now say how I'm feeling about it. The first issue I got came along with a mega cliché poster : a large breasted young girl posing in front of a tuned motorcycle. With that kind of content, you bet it's the best selling motorcycle magazine. All in all the rest of the mag's content wasn't that bad and at that moment I couldn't image how much I would miss Visordown. The second issue's package had a FB goodie inside : a winter neck protection. How kind, I thought, but couldn't help noticing the mag's was way thinner than the previous issue. I read the content this afternoon and it's just a motorcylce magazine, nothing more. I mean it's everything all the other existing magazines are and it's too close from that Moto&Motards retard magazine. Now I'm missing Visordown.

Different and funny, made by real bike crazy boys as well as former GP and BSB glories, Visordown was a great one. Fast Bikes isn't that good, but I guess I'll bear with it until the subscription's over (and trust me it's not for the boobies).

Wealthy kid

How good it must feel to be a kid nowadays ... well provided you've got wealthy and generous parents. As I was trying to find a toy for my nephew's birthday, I came around these.

I don't remember motorcycle toys were that realistic (for the look, that is) when I was a kid. Look at that Ducati again : Öhlins upside down fork, Brembo brakes, hard as wood seat foam, everything's there.

Come on it says "Carbon serie" on that Megablock on the right ! I mean carbon !! Of course, there's not a single piece of carbon in the box, but can you seriously tease a 6 year old kid with carbon parts ? Well it works for me, so I guess the teaser only works for dads.

Fortunately, someone here keeps telling I'm still a kid. Would that mean I can buy one of these ? Pleeeeeeaaase.

But wait, it 's too late already. That one is out of my personal collection (and is actually a flat twin).

Will you guess what my job is ?

Stoner special

What better occasion than his MotoGP win at Aragon to have a Casey Stoner-related post ? (Strong win by the way)

The displayed picture shows a Casey Stoner Ducati special. Well it's just a "standard" 1198S with a fancy paint scheme. I don't know for you, but it's enough to do it for me.

Don't look for this one in the Ducati catalogue as it's not an official color scheme, but rather a local replica made by a ducati dealer in the south of France.

Carbon lust

One word : yummy ! :D

Brammo Empulse

As I said in a previous post, I'm still a petrol head, but I truly believe we're all going to get used to electric powered motorcycle. In a half-harted attempt to start to convince myself that this is the future, I don't miss an oportunity to post what comes close to a persuading vid.

Introducing the Empulse. Look at these vids and please don't say too much bad things about these. Don't ruin my efforts at trying be greener.

Rare Sportbikes For Sale is a website I've been wandering on from time to time for a couple of months now. It could be summurized as just being a place where rare sportbike sales are gathered like a simple eBay digest, but trust me it's a bit more than that. This blog-styled website has a rather simple (some say classy though) design that helps staying focused on the good quality motorcycles pictures.

Strangely D16s are not that rare on RSBFS

Rarity means you won't find bikes you're used to see on the street or over the web very often. And this is the whole point of this place. The bike ads are selected in a careful manner from old 2 stroke GP bikes  with a consequent prize list to low mileage-exotic-super cared of-carbon fitted two wheeled piece of art (3 Ducati D16s have already been spoted and listed on RSBFS).

Where else could you find a Tesi fo sale ?

You not only get the opportunity to look at motorcycles that all have scarceness as a common point, but you also get a direct link to bid and buy them. What you're waiting for: click and buy ! But wait ! Most (not to say all to be honest) of these ads are abroad, so we "Europeons" (as we're called) can only watch. It's a cruel world ...

What were they thinking ...

Watching MotoGP today reminded me of this logo which is exhibited wherever A-Style is sponsoring a race. At first you may think this is just an unfortunate though terrible choice by A-Style marketing team, but this logo design has been chosen on purpose to errr ... say errr ... "penetrate" the market.

Sorry, but I don't want that on my shirt. It's not even suggestive, it just plain and blatant.Well at least their first marketing gaol is hit: we're talking about them. I am getting prudish ?

If you fancy this kind of things, you'll find more marketing efforts gone wrong here.

Sold !

Just a few quick words to say the Triumph is sold. I had a lot of fun riding this great motorcycle, it's the bike I turned 30 on, but I need some room in my head for upcoming projects (don't ask as I don't know myslef).

Say goodbye folks !

RSTR

You might think you're watching at a nicely painted track-focused Aprilia RSV1000. But then you will notice the single swing arm and if you were really into RSVs, the frame would also look unusual to you. You would be absolutely right as this bike is actually an RST Futura (you know the tourer) in disguise. Look closer and visit rsvr.net or apriliaforum.com for more projects like this one.

As a real dash addict I could not miss this last one.