2013 Aprilia Shiver 750 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.

Get Your Face on the Aprilia RSV4 Factory WSBK Race Livery

Aprilia is giving its race fans the chance to show their support by putting their faces and words of inspiration on the livery of its RSV4 Factory World Superbike racer. Simply visit Aprilia Racing’s official website, BeARacer.com, select either Marco Melandri or Sylvain Guintoli and leave a comment on what you think it means to “Be A Racer”. Ahead of each round, Melandri and Guintoli will select their favorite submissions and have the fan’s picture and comment printed onto the fairing of their RSV4 Factory WSBK racebike.

Piaggio Reports First Half 2011 Results

The Piaggio Group reported slight increases in net sales and net profit over the first six months of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010. Net sales increased 1.1% to 830 million euros (US$1.19 billion) over the first six months of 2011, compared to 820 million euros (US$1.18 billion) in the first half of 2010. Piaggio reported a net profit of 33.3 million euros (US$47.9 million), a slight increase from the net profit of 33.1 million euros (US$47.6 million) reported last year.