2013 Yamaha Ttr-110 on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Rainy BSB tests are nothing new

THE combination of bad weather in the UK and a European testing ban means that most BSB teams will now start the season with very little track time. This sounds like a disaster for the top teams but history has proved this isn’t necessarily true and it sometimes doesn’t matter how much pre season preparation has taken place.  Back in 2002 Sean Emmett won on the IFC Ducati at the opening Silverstone round after first riding it in unofficial practice the same weekend. Steve Hislop took the other win on Pauls Bird’s well sorted Ducati. More recently in 2009, Leon Camier took an untested new model R1 Yamaha to victory at the Brands Hatch opener after GSE took delivery of the bike just the week before. Sylvain Guintoli won the other race on a well developed, well tested Crescent Suzuki. You could argue if no one has had testing then it is a level playing field but you have to feel for riders moving up to the superbike class in the world’s toughest national series.  Tyco Suzuki’s PJ Jacobson is one such rider but having spent some time with him over the past few weeks he seems to be taking it all in his stride. It may be the confidence of youth or maybe the fact he has won in every other class he has entered in his short BSB career, but I suspect he fancies at least standing on the Superbike podium at Brands (He also does a bit of ice racing which is not dissimilar to the this year’s UK testing).  The testing ban was implemented with all the best cost cutting intentions and if it had been any other year in the past decade all would be well. The teams may be feeling frustrated but the fans should be excited. With so many unknowns, the 2013 BSB opener at Brands Hatch could be the best ever!

My Cadburys Boost YZF 750 comes back to life.

After winning my 3rd BSB title in 1998, as an end of season bonus, Yamaha UK kindly handed over my beloved Cadburys Boost YZF 750. There were three of these ex factory bikes in Rob Mac’s team; one went to me, the big man still has one, and the third was sold for a sum that was never disclosed. I had three cracking years on this special machine battling against team mates Whitham, Walker and Hislop and breaking most lap records along the way. The hard charging Bayliss, Reynolds and Rymer were also thrown into the mix on occasions just to make life even more interesting.

2014 Yamaha MT-125 Announced for Europe

Yamaha has added a new 125cc model to its suddenly burgeoning MT series of naked streetbikes in the European market. The 2014 Yamaha MT-125 joins the MT-07, the MT-09 and the MT-09 Street Rally, all of which were introduced in the last year. Unfortunately for the moment only the MT-09 has been announced for the U.S.