KTM RC4

What you see is not an officially released bike by Austrian manufacturer KTM. It's a kit bike designed and produced by German company Mototech, which means you can't really buy the bike as it is shown above, but instead would buy a kit made to transform your Duke to this supermono.

It's really an interesting concept as even though the bike's not as powerful as a 600 supersport - developping the 64 to 68 bhp the Duke and Duke R are announced at - its strong ability on track is all down to its weight (or lack of weight to be more precise).

The kit is available on Mototech's online shop for around 5000€ and there's even a street-legal version. Be aware though that the tank capacity is reduced to 12 liters after the conversion.

Greeny's back and ...

... and ... well that's pretty much what it is right now. After months of paperwork, I finally got a call from the Triumph dealer to say it was ready and I could come to fetch it. The only problem is that paperwork is not over yet and there are more administrative steps on sight. But still, it now sits in the garage again waiting for some attention.

There's definitely more to come with that bike, but I'm running out of time for the moment.

Tire failure

It looks like Rossi and some other riders experienced a major tire failure at the MotoGP Assen round last week. Front and rear tire are literally missing some rather large pieces.

Adjustable paralever arm

With the raised rear end, the paralever arm has become too short. This little arm is originally designed to keep the shaft arm's angle constant (more or less). Depending on the year and options (some bike came with the sport suspension option), the paralever arm came mainly in 2 lengths : 385mm for standard and 365mm for sport and BCR. Well it's a really simplistic shortcut as it also depends on the shock length, but one can easily observe how different a standard, a sport and BCR are when it comes to suspension equipment and ride height.

With the new rear shock length (325mm), even the shortest arm could not make shaft arm as straight as it it used to be, making the bike's tail not as high as expected. A quick discussion with the nice people at MV Motorrad showed their adjustable paralever arm could be made to 355mm. Just what I needed.

Below are the new and old arms : 

The adjustable item is really easy to install and makes the rear end just the way I wanted.

Naked glories

I just love those old superbikes. They're literally oozing with race history and glorious memories.

Kawasaki ZXR750RR

Honda RC45

Ducati 888

Honda RC30