One of my favourite YouTube videos; a bunch of Spanish nutters thrashing, sliding, flipping and crashing a bunch of motards and racebikes around what looks like a go-kart track. This video’s got it all: hooliganism, recklessness, wheelies, crashes, massive powerslides, five people on the one scooter all getting a knee down, and a bloke going flying over a tyre wall in a plastic bucket.
Thank heavens these maniacs did it - now you and I don’t have to. I’d be afraid I might explode if I had that much fun all at once.
BMW are going racing, and in typical German fashion, they’re not going to do it by halves. The company dangled some fascinating tidbits of information in front of us with the official unveiling of its S1000RR Superbike in Germany yesterday. Reinforcing BMW’s commitment to taking the bike WSBK racing in 2009, the covers came off the carbon-festooned race prototype - and BMW Motorrad General Director Hendrik von Kuenheim’s presentation answered a few questions once and for all.
Firstly, it’s going to be an inline 4, making around 190hp and weighing about 190kg. “In the early project phase,” said von Kunheim, “we checked out various engine concepts. And as you know, we then decided in favour of a four-cylinder, with the straight-four offering the best qualities to meet the power, performance, weight, and package requirements to be fulfilled. In typical BMW style, the engine will of course offer a number of special features, especially on the cylinder head.”
Hmm… What special features could we see on a cylinder head… Might we be talking about pneumatic valves, lifted from BMW’s very experienced F1 racing development team? Ducati’s active valve technology has already caused upset and embarrassment for opposition teams in MotoGP, could the extra top-end power and revs make the difference in Superbikes too? (more…)
We bikers are happy to routinely laugh in the face of danger in the form of cars, trucks, gravel-strewn hairpins and our own over-enthusiasm - but are we willing to regularly expose our nether regions to potentially carcinogenic radiation?
Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) Electric and Magnetic Radiation (EMF) is the type of radiation people are worrying about when they hesitate to buy the house that’s right underneath the big power lines. But could motorcyclists be shooting much higher levels of the same radiation right up their bums simply through our choice of transport? And could that exposure be leading to increased risks of prostate and colon cancer?
Randall Chipkar would say yes. We don’t want to get too far into the figures, but here’s the basics: according to the World Heath Organisation, an ELF EMF exposure level of 4 milliGauss (mG) has been shown to double the risk of childhood leukaemia, and an exposure level of 2mG is considered to elevate the risk of cancer. Now, while these are not blockbuster figures like cigarette smoking boasts (increasing cancer risk 30-fold), it shows that science acknowledges that electromagnetic radiation does contribute to an elevated risk of cancer.
Chipkar became concerned when he did a few tests on motorcycles and discovered that the stator coils, battery and electrical wiring that runs directly under the seat of his bike were causing ELF EMF exposure readings of up to 500mG to come up through the seat, subjecting the entire lower intestine, prostate, heart, sex organs, breast tissue and other major organs to reasonably intense doses of this painless but potentially hazardous radiation. For reference, a house under a power line might register in the neighbourhood of 200 mG. (more…)
Yamaha’s current shape 2006-2008 R6 is developing a nasty reputation for turning into a giant fireball in even the shortest tarmac slides. It seems the way the tank is designed gives it a predilection to puncture on impact, spilling petrol which is ignited by sparks from the sliding metal. And while it’s a heartbreaker for individual owners like the fellow in the first video - whose small racetrack highside resulted in complete uninsured destruction of his pride and joy - this next video is a real pants-dropper for Yamaha…
Because it happened yesterday during the Valencia World Supersport race, in front of millions of viewers. We suspect the 09 R6 will be redesigned to address this fault, but bear it in mind if you’re looking to buy a 600cc bike in the near future. Valencia video after the jump. (more…)
Ducati Corse seem to have run out of motorcyclists with which to perform development testing of their 800cc GP8 MotoGP bike; after one of their test riders injured himself at Thursday’s Mugello development session, they gave Casey Stoner’s bike to a car driver.
This is the third time Michael Schumacher has been set loose on a Ducati MotoGP bike. His first effort in 2005 on the balltearing 990cc GP7 saw the F1 champ 16 seconds off the pace - but on his second run last November he set tongues wagging by being only 5 seconds off the lap record at Valencia on the 800cc bike. (more…)
An oldie but a goodie; Triumph reminds us not to take biking too seriously with a hilarious video on how the outrageous Rocket 3 is built. However many times I watch it, it stays just as funny.
On a more serious note, superbike.co.uk have put together a truly excellent video that documents the *actual* Hinckley production process that brings the Daytona 675 into the world - from the raw steel that the crankshafts are cut from, right up to the final, crated product. The process takes around 4 1/2 hours of factory time, spread over about 120 different specialty workers. Watch the video after the jump - and by the end of it, you’ll be able to speak Scottish! (more…)
