2013 Honda Gold Wing on 2040-motos

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Moto blog

Bahrain track days

A few months ago, expat (and ex racer) John Beddall made contact to ask if I fancied doing some track day instruction out in Bahrain.  After thinking about it for two seconds, flights were booked and a plan was put in place to look after around forty riders for a day at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).  Young Taylor Mac was also recruited to look after any tasty riders that I couldn’t deal with   The Brits out there love their bikes, however, quite a few locals also turned up plus a few others from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.  Most were on high end Superbikes, like S1000s, Panigales and RSV4s but there was also a healthy number R6s and new 675Rs.   Although this fabulous Hermann Tilke designed circuit is around ten years old incredibly it has never hosted a bike race.  The highlight of the year there is F1 but being owned by the Bahrainian Royal family, there is no desperate need for the circuit to operate as a profitable business.  The track reminded me of Qatar but much more interesting as some great undulations have been built into its desert location. We shared the track with Supercars on the day (20mins on/20mins off) and as you might imagine it was betty swollocks for seven hours in the 30 plus temperatures.  As usual there was a few offs with poor old RS1000 Aprilia mounted Andy breaking his femur early in the day.  Two other buddies appeared to swap bikes mid air in another incident but fortunately escaped unhurt.In the evening everyone stayed for an al fresco dinner in the paddock with the craic going on for hours as the Fosters kept flowing.   All in all it was a brilliant trip and it has left me thinking there could be cost effective ways of getting Brits out there for track days next winter.  I'll keep you posted.Cape Town next to make my racing comeback at the Killarney 8 hour on a CBR150 Honda.  Hopefully I can manage the beast, I'll post a full report next week.

Mahindra teaser video revealed

WE GAVE you the heads up last month on Mahindra Motorcycles' plans to enter the lucrative Indian motorcycle market - and here's a teaser video showing one of the company's machines on track in Italy. The Indian company will offer a variety of motorcycles, ranging from low-cost entry models to premium two-wheelers, said Anoop Mathur, the head of Mahindra’s motorcycle wing. The company is already an established scooter, 4x4 and tractor manufacturer.Despite their optimism, Mahindra is aware the company is moving into a competitve market, dominated primarily by Honda.

Italian Authorities Seize Alleged Knockoffs from EICMA Show – Again

In what’s become somewhat of a dubious EICMA tradition, Italian authorities have seized scooters from various show exhibitors because their designs allegedly infringed on the designs of other manufacturers. Back in 2011, authorities seized a three-wheeled scooter called the Yiben YB 250 ZKT because it was deemed to resemble the Piaggio MP3. Last year, authorities seized six models from five exhibitors that allegedly infringed on the trademarked design of Vespa scooters.