1999 Honda Valkyrie Interstate 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.

Bradl learns Laguna on a 'Blade

As neither the 125GPs or the Moto2 classes race at Laguna Seca, Stefan Bradl smartly used his time between the Le Mans and Catalunya Grand Prixs to learn the California track and the Corkscrew ahead of the US GP on July 29th. Riding a loaned Fireblade from Honda America, the German took the to undulating circuit on a trackday, reportedly passing other riders very politely - watch a small glimpse of him here. “Moto2 and Moto3 don’t race at Mazda Raceway so we thought it was a good idea to have a first taste of this tight and twisty circuit." said the 2011 Moto2 champion said.

Rumored 2013 Honda CBR500, CB500 Captured in Spy Photos

Spy photos have emerged out of Thailand depicting two new Honda motorcycles reputed to be a new CBR500 and a second, naked version, possibly to be named a CB500. The photos were posted on the CBR250.net forum by someone claiming to have inside knowledge of the new 500cc Honda models which would be produced in Thailand where the CBR250R is currently manufactured. The faired version is equipped with dual headlights like the Honda CBR600RR instead of the VFR1200-derived Y-shaped light used on the CBR250R and its smaller siblings the CBR125R and CBR150 offered in some markets.