2006 Honda Vtx 1300c on 2040-motos

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.

I'm buying a Honda SH300i scooter

I want to buy a second bike to get across town on the daily commute as I currently ride a 183bhp ZX-10R to work and while it's a peach of a bike, it tempts me into doing bad things on a daily basis. This has to stop. My criteria is fairly simple: I want something that is cheap to buy (close to £2k), cheap to run, frugal on the fuel, easy to ride, nimble through traffic, dull enough to not get nicked and ABS is a deal-maker.

Honda NM4 Vultus Concept Revealed

Honda revealed a new concept model called the NM4 Vultus, a futuristic-looking 745cc motorcycle with a massive front fairing. Despite the fact it looks like a mockup made for a movie like the Kawasaki-based bike in the recent Robocop reboot, Honda says the NM4 is indeed planned for production. The NM4 was designed by a team of young engineers in their 20s and early 30s, and that’s demographic Honda wants to target with its new concept.