2014 Yamaha Zuma 125 on 2040-motos

Yamaha Other tech info

Type:Scooter Phone:(888) 416-4195

Moto blog

Anti clockwise Knockhill and riding in the North East with GP winners.

I was both nervous and excited for my first ever reverse direction track day last week at Knockhill. From rushing downhill into the left hand off camber hairpin to sweeping up onto the start/finish, nothing bears any resemblance to riding round clockwise. I actually raced my 350LC in the opposite direction in 1982 but it still took a few laps to get my head round what essentially is a brand new track for Scotland.

Yamaha Reports Q1 2012 Results

Yamaha reported a 5.3% decrease in worldwide motorcycle sales over the first quarter of 2012 despite a 25% increase in North American sales. In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, Yamaha sold 1.599 million motorcycles worldwide, down from 1.689 million motorcycles sold over the same quarter in 2011. Most of the decline was due to Yamaha’s performance in the Asian market.

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!