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January 2025

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Screw threads

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Reassuringly simple

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How hard can it be?

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Honda Transalp

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The fastest ever 750

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Honda Hornet v Suzuki GSX-8S

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Taking the Mick

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Treat yourself to a Bike subscription

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Bolton Wonderers

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Everyone loves a roundabout

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Can two wrongs make a right?

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Triples all round!

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1991 Gilera Nordwest

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December 2024

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New bikes

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’81 Triumph TR7T

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Easy as that

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‘Y’know what? I want one’

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SAM SUNDERLAND

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Trackday Clobber

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SIX MONTHS FROM HOME

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BRADLEY RAY

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THE VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE CLUB

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DAN LINFOOT & HIS DAD

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THE KTM DESIGN TEAM

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A RIDE WITH MICK GRANT

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A RIDE WITH RANDY MAMOLA

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Glorious ride: A land lost in time…

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GOING THE EXTRA MILES

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WHEN A BIRTHDAY PRESENT TURNS INTO THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME…

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Next year’s new bikes have been announced and there’s a swarm of tantalising new machinery. _Bike_’s experts cut through the marketing guff and delve behind the headlines to reveal the 13 motorcycles that matter in each category. Yamaha’s updated MT-09 and the new KTM 990 Duke battle with the venerable Triumph Street Triple R on glorious British B-roads, and the fabulous new Suzuki GSX-8R takes on our fabulous old GSX-R750 at Cadwell Park.

Mat Oxley has a jaw-dropping natter with sidecar legends the Birchall brothers, and we peek inside the WP factory. Plus, there’s an adventure spectacular: we wade into the Peak District on the glamorous MV Agusta Enduro Veloce, get completely out of our depth in the BMW GS Challenge and do some leftfield adventuring too, heading to overlooked Corsica on the underrated Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE. Plus, all the insight, humour, and knowledge you can only find in _Bike_…

#### The December issue of Bike is out now at all good newsagents, or why not :a[subscribe today and get 6 issues for just £19.99!]{href='https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/bike-magazine?utm_source=bikemagazine.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=bau_bike&amp;utm_content=newissue_bike' }

#### Classic bike engine builder **Rupert Farnsworth** crams his two-hour thread lecture (really) into 300 words

Generally you know where you are with a Japanese bike because all the threads are the same type, although you can get different pitches (the distance between thread crests) for a given size. But when you move into British stuff it gets much more interesting because they use everything.

For example, on my 1971 BSA Lightning \[a 650 twin – Ed\] you’ve got British Standard Whitworth – a coarse thread – and British Standard Fine (BSF), the fine version. Then you’ve got the later American equivalents, Unified National Coarse (UNC) and Unified National Fine (UNF), which started to take over from the British stuff. Because the British and American pitches are mostly the same, you’d think they might be interchangeable, but they’re not because the included thread angles \[a measure of the ‘pointiness’ of the thread – Ed\] are different. So, if you pick up a 7/16th Whitworth bolt, which is 14 TPI (thread per inch, a measure of the pitch), and use it instead of a 7/16th UNC – which is also 14 TPI – you’ll get in a right mess when you tighten it because the included angle in a Whitworth is 55 degrees and the included angle in a UNC is 60 degrees.

There are also British Standard Cycle threads (BSCY), which are a hangover from bicycle manufacturing days. They’re quite good because all their bolts are the same pitch – 26 TPI. Well, apart from two really small ones. There’s also British Standard Brass, which you need to know about if

you’re rebuilding a carburettor. That’s also 26 TPI, but has a different pitch angle so isn’t interchangeable with BSCY.

Then there’s British Standard Pipe threads and British Association threads. In my workshop over the course of a couple of days of spannering I’ll encounter about 20 different thread types. Because I’ve used nuts and bolts all my life, I remember which are which, but I can see it might be confusing to some people.

**»** **Need** **an engine rebuild? Contact Rupe on 07950 234497.**

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###### 13 BIKES THAT REALLY MATTER THIS MONTH

#### Shake paws with the **Bear 650** – the Royal Enfield with an odd name but straightforward appeal

Way back in 1960, the Big Bear Run in the deserts of California attracted 765 entrants. Big-name racers slogged it out in the ludicrous 150-mile event, including Triumph-supported legend Bud Ekins, but it was won by a spunky teenager called Eddie Mulder. He was riding a 499cc single-cylinder Royal Enfield Fury.

Fast Eddie’s famous win – at 16 he was and still is the youngest ever victor in the epic race – is why this new bike is called the Bear 650. But ignore the strange choice of moniker. Ignore too all the promotional pictures of it being ridden by hip types in clobber worn by no one outside of California/Shoreditch. And instead get ready to make a beeline to a Royal Enfield dealer.

Turning their excellent and hugely popular Interceptor 650 into a scrambler might be mildly predictable, but the execution is cock on. Perched a tad higher and with an extra 10mm of ground clearance, the Bear has Himalayan-looking big piston upside-down forks but with more road-biased 130mm wheel travel, and twin shocks with 115mm of movement. Interceptor wheel sizes are 18in at both ends, but for scramblering the new bike has a 19in front and 17in rear. Wheelbase is up from 1398mm to 1460mm and there’s a larger rear brake disc, too.

Clearly, then, this isn’t a motocross bike. However, the desert sleds that tore around the US in the 1960s were generally simple, stripped-back roadsters with a few parts beefed up for romping across the scrub. And this means the Bear is convincing.

Those generally home-brewed sleds often kept the original low exhaust, which is why the new 650 doesn’t have a high-level pipe. That, and the fact it means there’s room for luggage and your passenger’s legs won’t get grilled. The two-into-one system saves a kilo (kerb weight is 216kg with the 13.6-litre tank 90 per cent full) and is responsible for the changes to the output of the air-cooled 648cc parallel twin. Maximum power stays at an A2-pleasing 47bhp but there’s extra midrange thump and 3 lb.ft more outright torque, resulting in 42 lb.ft at 5150rpm.

All the retro-ness is balanced by the neat colour TFT ‘Tripper’ display, which has phone connectivity and supports Google Maps for navigation. The 650 also has a USB-C port and LED lights and all that gubbins.

There are loads of colour options, with prices starting at £6749 – a few hundred more than an Interceptor. Bikes are expected before the end of the year. Form a disorderly queue.

It’s the chirpy but flexible 648cc twin used in the other 650s, but there’s more low and midrange shunt and a boost in peak torque.

Forks and shocks are by Showa, and give the Bear more wheel travel front and rear plus additional ground clearance. The rear ABS can be turned off too, but don’t get carried away – think beach blasts and light trails, not extreme enduro.

#### :a[Head into stores to grab your latest issue, or why not subscribe to Bike and never miss an issue! Right now you can enjoy 6 issues for just £19.99 with our festive offer - what are you waiting for?]{href='https://www.greatmagazines.co.uk/bike-magazine?utm_source=bikemagazine.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=bau_bike&amp;utm_content=article_reassuringly_simple' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'}

#### Answer: very. BMW’s GS Challenge is well organised and welcoming. And bollocking difficult…

By **John Westlake** Pics **Dave Mackison/BMW**

Look up ‘delusional’ in the dictionary and it says: ‘A motorcycle journalist who believes he will cruise through the GS Challenge because he did a trials course two years ago’. I genuinely believed it wouldn’t be that difficult. Fool.

The off-road event started in 2008 as a way of selecting the British team who would go on and compete in the GS Trophy – a massive global competition for BMW riders that’s been held on the planet’s most glamorous dirt locations, from Patagonia to Thailand. That’s clearly hardcore, but the UK event I’m at is open to everyone – novices are welcome. Hence my misplaced confidence. The delusions start crumbling on sight of the first challenge. The aim is to ride an R1300GS round a small, slippy pen while picking up tennis balls from the top of traffic cones with your right hand and then dropping them into a pile of tyres, without ever putting a foot down. ‘So you have to ride round full-lock corners on dirt while your throttle hand holds tennis balls?’ I ask the BMW man in charge, just to be sure. ‘Yes. And you’ve only got 40 seconds to do it.’

Needless to say my run is a lurching, foot-dabbing, cone-bashing disaster as I utterly fail to steer, balance and manipulate tennis balls. I score maximum penalties within eight seconds. Stupid fricking game. How can anyone do that? The next contender is the only other member of our group who’s never done the Challenge before, and he crashes into the barriers. See, impossible.

Then one of the veteran GS Trophy contestants has a go and chugs round on tickover, calmly doing full-lock, one-handed turns while tucking tennis balls into his jacket and then firing them neatly into the tyre receptacle, like some GS-mounted Roger Federer. Barrier-crasher and I desperately want another go to redeem ourselves so we can feel less incompetent, but we’re ushered to the next challenge.

Like all the others, this is held in Walters Arena, a sprawling 4000-acre patch of Wales on the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons. It’s the base for BMW’s Off Road Skills operation and is an extraordinary place, with every off-road surface on offer apart from sand. Muddy climbs, rocky trials sections and nadgery forest trails are linked with super-fast gravel tracks that criss-cross the whole park. A more picturesque playground is hard to imagine.

After the tennis ball farrago I’m on the brink of a huff and am considering riding off to explore rather than face further humiliation. But the next challenge looks easier – all you have to do is thrash down a dirt track, skid round a cone and thrash back. Except it’s not as easy as it looks because there’s not enough width to turn the bike on full lock, so you really do have to skid it round –‐if you don’t carry enough speed to lock the rear, you’re in three‐point‐turn hell.

Luckily I’m not first for this one, so I study Roger Federer’s full-bore approach and remind myself that it’s not my bike – all the challenges are completed on BMW Off Road Skills’ R1300GSs that they use for training, so if I do get it horribly wrong at least I won’t be paying. After only one minor altercation with some metal barriers I cross the line at full chat and beat the allotted time. My Challenge card is marked with its first (and, as it turns out, only) clear round. Halle-bloody-lujah.

Then it all gets trickier, like one of those computer games where every level introduces new realms of weirdness and seems impossible until you play it constantly for three weeks. We pull up at a queue managed by two chipper old ladies who look like they’ve taken the morning off running a tea shop. They explain that the next challenge is in the dark, dank woods in front of us – so dark, in fact, that riders disappear as they enter the thicket and all we hear is muffled shouts and the occasional mad revving as bikes are dropped. Riders emerge on or beside their motorcycles, all being pushed by marshals.

‘How many people have cleaned this one?’ asks Mr Federer. ‘None,’ chirps Mrs Miggins. I ride in and immediately see why. It’s a slippery hell-hole made up of wet tree roots and loose dirt, with the course requiring numerous full-lock turns around the trees. Amazingly, I manage to get round the first bit with only one dab, managing to ignore mysterious, shadowy goblin figures skulking in the trees.

Then I arrive at a slope. It’s not steep, but is criss-crossed with wet roots, has a wicked camber and there’s no run ‐up. And I’m on a 237kg R1300GS. Judging by the number of shadowy figures – probably marshals rather than goblins, on reflection – I know this must be the killer section. Channelling my inner Dougie Napkin \[Lampkin you idiot – Ed\] I dial in some revs, drop all my weight backwards on to the rear tyre, and feed the clutch out with a dribble of finesse. The GS digs in, bounces over one tree root, churns some mud, hits another root, slides sideways and flops dirt-ward. I prop it up with my right leg then feel the GS magically lift itself upright.

‘You did well there,’ says the marshal, puffing at the effort of hoiking me and the GS vertical by its luggage rack. ‘Did I?’ I ask, in dire need of compliments. ‘No, not really,’ he chortles. ‘But at least you didn’t drop it like everyone else.’ And so the day continues, with entertainingly dour marshals encouraging, cajoling and picking us up as we blunder our way round the course. In the afternoon we get to repeat the challenges and I start to enjoy myself more as my attempts become less pathetic. And when we get to the dank dark wood I discover they’ve removed the uphill section and I make it round without stopping. ‘That was only nine dabs,’ says one of the tea ladies. ‘Is that the best so far?” she asks her colleague. ‘Oh God no…’

For me, the highlights of the day aren’t the challenges, but the miles of deserted gravel tracks between that we all ride on the bikes we turned up on. I’m riding _Bike’s_ long term test F900GS, which underwhelmed me during the four-hour ride to Wales, its parallel twin not uncorking adrenaline no matter how miraculously the suspension controls all that travel. It felt capable rather than exciting.

But for fast trail riding it’s magnificent, making average riders like me feel Dakar ready. Suddenly the motor’s featureless torque plateau makes perfect sense – open the throttle round a third gear corner and the tail slides out so progressively that even I don’t feel compelled to slam it shut. Just hold your right hand steady and marvel as you drift out of corner after corner, feet up and grinning. After a while it occurs to me that the Enduro Mode electronics might be helping rein in the engine, so I turn them off and nothing changes. It’s all down to that motor.

And the suspension is just as dirt-friendly. On the road the yards of travel feels like overkill, but on bumpy gravel tracks it’s a godsend, gliding over minor imperfections and letting you hit chunky rocks and potholes without banging your hands loose from the ’bars. Confidence inspiring? Hell yeah. It feels like a big 450 enduro bike rather than the R1300GS’s smaller brother.

Before the end of our final firetrail thrash I’ve undertaken a mental handbrake turn and gone from wondering what the point of the F900GS is, to wanting one rather badly (along with a 4000-acre playground). Even the noise is better off-road – with walls of trees beside the trails bouncing back the exhaust note, I can appreciate the Akrapovic’s bark at the top of the rev range. It’s turned from a competent commuter into a wicked-fast trail weapon.

The rain lashes down that evening and all 200 competitors gather in a clearing where the Off Road Skills operation has set up a marquee, bar and street food vendors. As the beer flows – we’re camping, so anaesthesia is essential – I’m swept along by everyone’s enthusiasm for making a large motorcycle do improbable things on dirt. And it is genuinely astonishing what the R1300GS can achieve; earlier on our group watched slack-jawed as a Dutch chap rode one round an enduro course like it was a 125 motocrosser. It was like Eddie Hall excelling at ballet.

So, would I do another GS Challenge? Heavily refreshed by Welsh beer and swept along by the GS crowd’s bonhomie, I briefly consider it. Maybe I should buy a trials bike and practise. But I’m deluding myself again. What I really want to do is go trail riding round Wales on our F900GS…

**Ex-Dakar Rallyist Si Pavey manages BMW Off Road Skills and offers some tips…**

‘Over decades of teaching people to ride GSs off-road, we’ve discovered the biggest factor is mindset. If you can truly believe that low-speed skills are the foundation of everything else, you’re on the right path as then you’ll practise them and see dramatic improvements. We all want to jump puddles and do skids, but you can’t do those safely and reliably unless you’ve nailed the foundational skills.

‘Firstly, you need to be comfortable with the weight and balance of the bike when it’s stationary – being comfortable with one foot on the peg and one on the ground at a standstill, turning the bars when you stop to stabilise the bike… these are simple skills that can make life easier when the bike is moving.

‘Every time you lose balance on a heavy bike it’s a big job getting it back. It’s not like a little bike that you can muscle. A lot of people want to rush through the low‐speed balance stage and get to the more exciting stuff. But if you nail the low-speed skills, when the bike is unsettled by a bump or a rut, your default reaction will be the right one.

‘Even off-the-bike practice helps – moving the bike around, walking with the bike. It improves your feel for the bike’s balance. Then go to a car park and turn around in tight spaces. Those skills set you up well for the more advanced off-road techniques.’

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#### **New bikes versus our dyno, scales and datalogger**

#### Honda’s parallel-twin XL750 has the looks, price and spec-sheet brags to be a valid proposition. Which is why it sells so well. But what do you actually get for your cash? Time to deploy our datalogger, scales and dynamometer

**Largest and most torquey mass‐produced bike of all time gets even more clout. Obviously**

**What’s new?** There’s a new engine map which takes the 2458cc inline triple to a gargantuan 166 lb.ft of wallop and 180bhp – that’s an extra 15 nags. There’s a new exhaust to help hit Euro5, too. There’s a light dusting of chassis changes, involving redesigned 10-spoke cast aluminium wheels (to better show off the single-sider swingarm) and some new tyres from Metzeler. As before, there’s an R version with mid-mount ’pegs and some attitude, and GT with forward controls, pulled-back ’bars, a pillion backrest and a screen.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The Rockets were already a staggering duo, with handling, nimbleness and manners the defied the long, low, weighty chassis and that cartoon rear tyre. None of that has changed. What is different is the motor, which was already stupid and is now even more bonkers. Off-the-throttle wheelspin in the dry? Step this way.

**Trendy Svarty grows an extra cylinder and develops a new level of refinement**

**What’s new?** Replacing the one-pot 701, the 801 uses the 104bhp parallel twin from the 2018 KTM 790 Duke. It’s designed to be more grown up than aKTM with a tubular steel chassis, calmer geometry, high-spec WP suspension and the 990 Duke’s electronic widgets.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The 801 rides somewhere between a snappy 790 Duke and a mild-mannered roadster. It’s accurate in fast corners even with its dual-purpose tyres, has strong brakes and perky power, yet uses relaxed steering geometry that brings a sense of calmness. At £10,499 there are cheaper scramblers and more well-rounded street bikes for the money, but the Svartpilen’s refinement, performance and style feel worth it.

**Trinkets-and-baubles version of the glorious naked triple**

**What’s new?** The revised SP shares the engine and chassis updates applied to the base MT-09 earlier this year, but it has an Öhlins shock, KYB forks, R1M-inspired paint (with a clear-coated brushed-alloy swingarm), Yamaha’s first use of Brembo Stylema calipers, and keyless ignition. Oh, and a Track mode plus two extra rider-customisable ones.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The SP is more composed and capable than a regular MT-09 and has a strong enough sporting feel to justify the SP tag – and the £11,806 asking price. With its enhanced braking, quality chassis and greater set-up options, it’s a proper naked sportsbike and a valid alternative to a Street Triple RS.

**Chinese A2-legal sportsbike in new more blingy ‘S’ guise**

**What’s new?** It’s the common or garden 450SR sportsbike, with its 449cc parallel twin (with rumble-tastic 270° crank), TFT dash, and Ducati Panigale-ish looks. But for this new SR Svariant there’s a single-sided rear, upgraded forks and a different pipe. It’s as racy as A2 bikes get.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The 46bhp twin is charismatic and fun yet refined and smooth. Light and agile chassis, too. The SR Sis a little sportier and has a more prone stance than rivals like the Kawasaki Ninja 500 and Honda CBR500R, making it feel less ‘learner’. And at £5699 the CFMoto undercuts them by £800 and £1000 respectively, too. The CST tyres aren’t great, otherwise the 450 is a marvellous little thing.

#### This Team Classic Suzuki GSX-R750 has lapped the TT quicker than any other 750. We take it for a wobble…

In the Classic Superbike race at last year’s Manx GP, Michael Dunlop pedalled this GSX-R750 SRAD around the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course at an average of 126.681mph. The fastest-ever lap by a 750cc bike, it would have put the 28 ‐yea r‐old 750 in eighth place during qualifying for this year’s Superbike TT against all the BMW M1000RRs and Honda Fireblades. Clearly, it’s a bit special.

This is evident before I’ve even trundled out onto Cadwell Park’s undulations. The racer feels oh-so-different to my own SRAD road bike – the footpegs are tucked high, the seat is way taller, and the four-cylinder engine responds so crisply to a mere whiff of unleaded it makes me wonder if my own bike’s airbox is full of papier mâché.

And out on track the GSX-R is simply wonderful. The way the motor builds revs, accelerates and devours its close-ratio gears is sensational – on Cadwell’s start straight the low clip-on ’bars gently sway as the Suzuki tries to wheelie in third and fourth gears. Tipping into corners is effortless, the 750 turning with the immediacy and precision you only truly experience on a proper race bike. Today’s sportsbikes are epic, yes – but this is another level. The best bit is the front end. Feel from the traditionally mounted brake calipers and forks is exquisite, letting you place the chassis exactly where you want and carry oodles of corner speed. Or at least make a wobbler like me feel like that’s what they’re doing.

It’s not just corner entry that stands out, though; it’s the way the delicious chassis and rich stream of clear feedback let you alter lean angle and direction mid-turn. I’ve ridden race bikes before that have clearly been exceptional, but made me feel a tad inadequate. The Team Classic bike fills me with confidence.

It’s the fastest-ever 750 around the Mountain Course – and it’s the greatest one I’ve ever been lucky enough to ride.

#### Both twins, both 750cc-ish, both pleasingly popular. But the Honda CB750 Hornet and Suzuki GSX-8S are actually quite different animals. We inflict trial by datalogger and dyno to see which can stick its chest out further

#### BMW weren’t the only manufacturer to understand what an adventure bike was before they became a thing. A floundering British firm were on the ball, too…

Trust the old British motorcycle industry to poke its toe into a potentially vast market at just the right moment then run out of money and go into receivership two years after the event. The 1981 Triumph TR7T (Tiger Trail) was cobbled together after desperate French Triumph dealers pleaded for something they could punt to rival the 1980 BMW R80G/S – and the Meriden Workers’ Co ‐operative (as Triumph became in 1977) excelled themselves.

They knocked the TR7T together from their own parts bins and European-supplied cycle parts in a few months. Frame was the usual central spine oil-bearing affair, engine was a mildly detuned 744cc Tiger unit. The 21in front wheel and a pair of Marzocchi shocks were the major chassis mods for dual-purpose credibility. And it worked.

At 185kg wet, with 40bhp and 34 lb.ft, it was nippy enough for the time while the R80G/S weighed the same and boasted 50bhp. The GS, let’s not forget, was essentially an R80/7 engine in an R65 frame with a 21in front wheel. These were the only twin-cylinder trail bikes larger than 500cc available, and both from manufacturers with rich histories in big, twin-pot trailies. The problem for the Co-op was that BMW could crank their GS production up at will, while the Meriden factory was operating on a lamentably hand-to-mouth basis.

They barely had the funds to pay Marzocchi for the shocks, German firm Bumm for the mirrors, Radaelli for the steel wheel rims… and ended up making just 165 Tiger Trails.

The TR7T proved a decent competition tool; a Tiger Trail won the 750cc and above class in the 1981 Rallye des Pyrénées – beating BMW’s R80G/S to the trophy. Yet where Triumph posted that minor win, BMW brought home the big prize with a Paris-Dakar victory in 1981 (repeating the feat in ’83, ’84 and ’85). Face it: a Meriden-era twin would not be first choice for anyone planning to even reach Dakar, let alone win a Paris-Dakar. Globetrotter Ted Simon bravely employed a Triumph twin to circle the world via some fairly inhospitable environments, but he was not racing a relic with its roots in a 1937 design, merely hoping to visit his next destination without recourse to the tool roll.

The TR7T cost £1800 in 1981; the R80G/S was £2300. Both are now comfortably around the £10,000 mark if you can find a decent example. The G/S went on to become something of an institution, and the modern Triumph range boasts some impressive big trailies in a market that is now huge compared to what it was more than 40 years ago. The 1981 TR7T blazed that trail.

#### Isle of Man first-timer **Dom Mattock** finds visiting the Manx GP is something he could – and should – have done yonks ago

The Snaefell Mountain course has long held fascination, and I got really invested when Ian Hutchinson won five TTs in a week in 2010. Ever since it’s been my intention to go. But two things have stopped me. Firstly, being organised is a prerequisite and you need to plan 18 months ahead, which I can’t. Secondly, my head is full of ‘what if?’ questions, so l decide the answer is the easier-access Manx GP – ‘TT Lite’ – with pals Gary and accident-prone Chris.

#### **Getting there’s a doddle, right?**

The 2.15am Steam Packet ferry from Liverpool, land at our Douglas accommodation first-thing Thursday. One day of practice, two days of racing. Return on the Sunday. Perfect.

Then weather intervenes, and our crossing is cancelled. After frantic replanning. Chris and I book a ferry from Heysham the next morning, but this brings further complications for Gary who books a flight instead. D’oh.

The ride there via Hartington, Buxton and Settle (with the terrific Monks Road from Heyfield to Charlesworth) is great, though. At the ferry terminal we immediately bump into chatty comrades from all over Europe and settle in. Chris suffers badly from getting hangry, so I get pizza delivered direct to the terminal.

#### **How is my pride and joy treated?**

We’re anxious how our bikes –BMW S1oooR and Ducati Streetfighter V2 – will be secured on the ferry. I’ve heard dodgy tales, and details on the Steam Packet website are slightly opaque. Turns out they’re strapped down over the seat, and it’s done speedily and efficiently by ferry operatives. In fact, getting on and off the ferry couldn’t be breezier. Having sailed through a Force 9 gale, we’re unleashed with minimum fuss into Isle of Man sunshine.

Douglas seafront is geared for bikes. There’s dedicated parking but also no objections to parking on pavements. Aermacchis, Laverdas and ancient R-model BMWs from Germany and the Netherlands are everywhere.

A rearranged schedule has practice at 1pm. We head south, our journey taking in the Southern 100 course conspicuous by the black and white painted kerbs and scaffold gantries. I stop to point this out to Chris, who is blissfully unaware due to being hangry again.

After watching in awe as Chris puts away three fully loaded breakfast baps, a pre-arranged meet with friends takes us to Port Erin. We exchange superlatives about its beauty, then take the A36 (known as The Sloe) to Foxdale.

It’s like a mini-Mountain section, with beautiful tarmac and kind cambers that encourage breezy swinging rather than tear-arsing, and jaw-dropping views. ‘This place is remarkable, beyond my expectations,’ enthuses Chris. Ballacraine gives us our first taste of bikes crashing down gears and tipping in before blasting to the Black Dub. We see McGuinness on a Paton 5oo followed by Dunlop’s 250 two-stroke and Rutter on an XR69. The huge variances in line and speed are fascinating. The day concludes with a ride up to Governor’s Dip and a Thai meal.

There’s a network of roads outside the track and places are accessible while it’s live, but you need a plan. We go to the legendary Creg-Ny-Baa and sit for a cuppa with a chap and his son, who tells stories of past trail-riding derring-do and watching Dave Jefferies in his pomp. It’s ace. We also bump into fellow Leicestershire dwellers Barney and Mark Stackhouse, part of a triumvirate of Laverda Jotas.

Racing starts. This is also ace. Watching a Wiz Norton scream knee-down past a beer garden should be on every racing fan’s list. More weather delays allow us to hop to Ramsey and Parliament Square, but seems that’s it for the racing. Shame. But with the roads opened we go to Ginger Hall, turn around and ride to Ballacraine. It’s pouring down over the Mountain, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alive. Back at our hotel – wet, shattered, cold – Chris says: ‘That was one of the greatest biking days I’ve had. The place and people are amazing. I’m definitely coming back.’

After more disruptions, the ferry back is simple. We slog down the M6 and A5o, and get home tired, happy and having had an epiphany. This is what it’s all about.

#### Like cruise control, heated kit and a voice ‐controlled TV, Honda’s E-Clutch is something you never know you need until you try it. And as **Paul Lang’s** discovered, it makes the CBR650R truly desirable

By **Paul Lang** Photography **Adam Shorrock, Paul Lang**

If I had £1 for every time someone has asked ‘what’s an E-Clutch do?’, I’d still be skint. But I’d have enough loose change for a lamb bhuna and some keema rice, which, given the price of a takeaway these days, is not to be sniffed at. Then if I forgot my rucksack when I picked it up, I could wobble home on the Honda CBR650R with the carrier bag swinging from my sweaty grip, thanks to the genius of it.

Honda boffins have blended a quickshifter with a normal clutch operation and borrowed the actuator unit from their Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT). Small electric motors move the clutch plates based on your throttle position, wheel speed and the pressure you’re putting through your left foot, so you don’t need to use the lever. It delivers one of the smoothest gear changes I’ve ever experienced, both up and down the ’box – it’s eerily slick. The system can be activated or disengaged at a flick of a switch, or pull the clutch lever to disengage.

With over 30 years of riding that’s relied on left lever control, I still get nervous selecting first gear without using the clutch. The power delivery felt jerky at first and I was stalling like a newbie, forgetting which operation was engaged. But after a few months I’m a big fan. I still cover the rear brake for extra control, but with acclimatisation it works brilliantly. A launch from the lights feels like you’re flying off a MotoGP grid. B-road gear shifts are clean. There’s no helmet collisions with a pillion. And you can carry a takeaway home (don’t blame me if your onion bhajis end up rolling down the high street).

It costs an extra £130 – cheaper than most optional quickshifters. It also adds 2kg but no one will notice on a bike that’s way over 200kg. Oh, and it’s attached to a great bike. We’ve always liked Honda’s four-cylinder middleweight, and the latest CBR-R is perhaps the best yet. The power delivery is smooth and wide (especially next to rival twin-cylinder bikes), its handling is easy and natural yet with more than enough accuracy for Sunday morning silliness, and the 650 is so easy to live with… cliché time, but for crying out loud it’s a Honda. It isn’t perfect: the screen isn’t tall enough and there’s a lot of wind noise if you tuck in; the riding position feels a bit old-school Honda with outstretched arms and high knees (I don’t notice it during frisky antics but when crunching the miles I began to ache); and after about two hours in the saddle I start to develop a numb bum and tingly fingers. But these are minor on a bike with a compelling blend of build quality, performance, image and price. Maybe I’m not the right shape for its riding position, but the Honda is everything I want in the bike that stares back when the garage opens. E-Clutch seals the deal. _**PL**_

#### Ride a 500cc GP bike on the road? Who do you think you are? Except it turns out this NSR500 replica could just be the finest road-going two-stroke… ever

By **Jim Moore** Photography **Jason Critchell**

The late 1990s were arguably the pinnacle of Grand Prix racing’s battle between man and machine. A time of savage powerbands, ultra-responsive chassis and zero traction control, these were peak two-stroke – and arguably peak race bike. Ferociously competitive and staggeringly talented riders wrestling razor-sharp, unforgiving 500cc bikes beyond their limits – often with painful consequences – created a spectacle so colourful it still resonates today.

So, imagine experiencing the thrill, aggression and fizzing intensity of a pukka two-stroke 500 on the road. It’s a dream many of us have entertained. For most it remains just that, a dream. But for a few like Jamie Seneviratne, it’s very much a reality.

Regular viewers may remember Jamie and his ‘NSR500’ from _Bike’s_ December 2023 issue. We got exclusive access to drool over his HRC replica during the final stages of its build by York-based 2Moto. Jamie wanted a bike as close to Mick Doohan’s mid-’90s factory NSR500 as possible and Felix Hirzel, seasoned chassis engineer and the brains behind 2Moto, designed and built it from the ground up.

Jamie’s ‘NSR’ is a prototype, just like Doohan’s. So, although complete for our previous encounter, it’s taken months of tweaking and refinement to get ride-ready. Today, that’s what we intend to do.

I meet Jamie and Felix at an overcast Cadwell Park. As we pull up next to them in the paddock the pair are making final adjustments to the NSR. Jamie always intended his 500 to be road legal, so we’re not going on track. Instead the fast, flowing A and B-roads around Cadwell and Louth will be our playground for the day.

Although road legal, the word ‘barely’ should prefix that notion. While it’s daytime MoT compliant, there are no lights, no indicators, no mirrors and no key. Hell, there’s not even a kick-start. Firing this beast into life is a job for starting rollers, especially from cold, but Jamie assures me it will bump once warm. He did say he wanted it as close to Mick’s as possible…

Nerves build as Felix warms the stage-three tuned Suzuki RG500 square-four engine with rhythmic bursts of throttle – each blip incites a vicious crackle and a puff of sweet, white fumes from the four carbon silencers. Jamie talks me through what I need to know: ‘It’s a race pattern ’box – down for up. There’s no rear brake pedal – it’s a thumb lever under the left ’bar. Oh, and you’ll need to thrash it. It doesn’t like slow, it gets choked up.’ Roger that.

Turning left out of Cadwell onto the A153, I immediately feel like a magnet for every traffic cop in the county. The only indication that I haven’t taken to His Majesty’s highway on a full-on race tool is the numberplate tucked under the top spannies. And the lack of mirrors is already making me nervous. I need a few miles to familiarise myself with my surroundings and get used to the feel before letting it off the leash.

I was expecting torturous ergonomics; after all the chassis apes the dimensions of a pukka ROC Yamaha GP bike, the tank is an exact copy from Doohan’s ’93 bike, and Felix didn’t build this thing for touring. But it’s no more extreme than any current superbike, and there’s room aplenty to shuffle back and forth along the seat.

Holding on may be, though. Foremost in my mind are the numbers this thing makes: 130bhp at the wheel. Not much by today’s standards, but that’s a genuine 260bhp per litre – 51bhp more than a BMW M1000RR. And there’s no traction control, riding modes or anti-wheelie to tame delivery. Only my right wrist can do that. Indeed, the only electronic aid on offer is a quickshifter for the close-ratio Nova gearbox. Oh, and Felix’s ingenious electric chokes.

Power is only half of the story. The 130bhp available to my right hand propels a mere 122kg; that’s dry weight minus a battery. Even juiced it’s barely more than 130kg. Aprilia’s RS125 tips the scales at 126kg… So, we’re talking a huge amount of unfiltered power coupled with the delicate mass of a learner bike. A match made in heaven, right?

As I wind on a full helping of gas for the first time the answer is an unequivocal ‘hell, yeah’. The tacho needle races from 8000rpm to the 11,500rpm redline in the blink of an eye. Third, fourth and fifth gears are selected in rapid succession, my foot prodding the gear lever each time the shift light flashes in my peripheral vision.

Up ahead is a glorious stretch snaking downhill in a fast left-right before morphing into a double-lipped incline that then arcs right onto a long undulating straight. I’d expected the NSR to be twitchy, even slappy over such challenging topography, but instead it changes direction with the lightest tweak in pressure through the ’pegs, all the time holding a stoic groove that encourages more throttle.

It’s a complete assault of the senses, but in the best way possible. Having shifted back to third for the flip-flop and incline, we’re now aimed at the straight. Full gas again and the NSR lofts its front wheel over every slight rise – staying airborne an inch or so above the tarmac between two of the crests. All the while I’m banging in gears again – fourth, fifth, sixth – chest on the tank and head bobbing about just above the screen as we make for the end of the straight in a screaming 10,000rpm-plus wail.

The performance potential – both engine and chassis – is so large and intense that it’s a struggle to take it all in. What’s surprised me most so far, however, is not the ferocity and sheer intensity of acceleration, the lightness of input required to turn, or even the quality of damping as this lightweight missile skims over the road surface at blistering speed. It’s just how beautifully it rides.

Forget knife-edged powerbands, there’s an abundance of potent drive throughout the rev range. Things get really busy above 8000rpm, but Felix has tweaked all four Mikuni TMX53s to fuel so crisply and efficiently that this Honda wannabe is just as happy burbling through town as it is baring its considerable teeth on open tarmac. Journos lucky enough to have ridden Doohan’s bikes back in the day said they were docile enough low down to ride to the shops yet staggeringly potent at full chat. Jamie’s bike mirrors that ability.

On quieter roads away from town and traffic I get the chance to properly hustle the 500 through tight S-bends and 90-degree turns. The potential of the chassis is way beyond anything I can even begin to scratch on the road, but it’d murder a contemporary superbike in corners, so rapid and effortless is its change of direction.

Corner exits bring an undeniable urge to haunch over the front end, Doohan style, to keep the front wheel from launching skyward. Soon I’m climbing all over the thing, lost in a 500GP fantasy, blipping the throttle on down changes and teasing the rear thumb brake mid-turn.

Oh, and those front brakes. Holy moly. Any concerns I harboured about ceramic brakes not working on the road were brushed aside the first time I pulled the lever. An explosion of feel, feedback and astonishing power through a one-finger touch. ABS? Pah, who needs that? Smearing the front Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa into the tarmac is all part of the experience.

In building this, the ultimate race replica, Jamie and Felix have unintentionally created the perfect sportsbike, or at least in part. Ignore the lack of lights, sidestand (Jamie has to carry that with him) and rampant thirst for premix – this thing handles, turns, brakes, and excites in a way even exotica like BMW’s M1000RR fails to touch. If Doohan’s HRC Honda was the ultimate 500 GP bike, then Jamie’s tribute is easily the best road-going two-stroke ever built. We’re sure even Mighty Mick himself would approve.

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