1978 Honda Hobbit Scooter 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.

More European Consumers Choosing Honda’s Dual Clutch Transmission

Honda‘s work developing its second-generation dual clutch transmission appears to be paying off, at least in Europe. According to Honda, customers have purchased more than 12,500 units with DCT since the technology was first made available on a production motorcycle with the VFR1200F in 2010. The Japanese manufacturer now offers four models in Europe with optional DCT: the VFR1200F, the NC700X, the NC700S, and the Crosstourer.

Honda World Superbike livery unveiled

The Honda World Superbike team has unveiled the 2012 livery Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama will campaign for the 2012 season. Using the official test as the first opportunity to debut the new livery, the design takes styling cues from one of the colour schemes of the 2012 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.