2006 Honda Cr85r on 2040-motos

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Suzuka Eight Hour capers

Chatting to TT legend John McGuiness recently about his first Suzuka Eight Hour experience got me thinking of a few capers the boys and me managed a few years back at what is still Japan's most important race of the season. It is a unique event that starts at 11am and finishes at 7pm making  it a pukka endurance race as the last hour is run with headlights on in the dark. It is essentially an eight hour sprint that showcases the trickest endurance machinery and manufacturer’s sales can be affected the following year depending on who wins or loses.

Honda has patented a technical solution from the arsenal of the Gold Wing tourer.

The modern Honda Gold Wing is equipped with a double wishbone front suspension, which not only increases ride comfort, but also allows the geometry of the motorcycle not to change during acceleration and braking. Lever suspension, which stabilizes the bahavior, may appear on other models of the company in the future. This is hinted at by patent images of similar systems integrated into the design of completely different motorcycles - the “classic” CB1100 and the small-capacity C125 Super Cub.

Simon and Leo

If you are a track day regular this year, you may well have bumped into former racer and friendly Kiwi, Simon Crafar. I first met him in Malaysia in 1990 when he was riding for a Yamaha dealer team, sweating his way round circuits like Shah Alam and Johor Bahru but with a long term plan to make it onto the World scene. And he didn’t take long as after riding for Honda in the UK in 1992 he moved to WSB in 1994 and enjoyed success with both the Honda and Kawasaki factory teams.