2013 Yamaha Yz125 on 2040-motos

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Not the most sensible of commuters..

This is the white and gold 2012 Yamaha R1. It's also the bike I shall be commuting on for the next 8 months. The crouched riding position and murderous amounts of power may not be ideally suited for the London grind, but with plenty of track action planned I have to make some compromises. There are three fresh colours to choose from.

I can die happy!

As an eighteen year old Kenny Roberts was my bike racing God.  I loved Barry Sheene but as a Yamaha FS1E rider I always wanted the little American to win simply because his bike resembled mine.  The coverage of Grand Prix in the late seventies was sketchy but I clearly remember watching the epic Sheene/Roberts battle unfold at the Silverstone GP on my council estate telly.  The Dutchman, Wil Hartog was hanging in there for a while but as the laps unfolded it became a two way battle with Sheene looking favourite to win.  Sheene lost the most time as the pair lapped a certain George Fogarty so my hero Roberts eventually won by just three hundredths of a second.  I’m not sure what happened next but being a Sunday we would no doubt be skidding around later in the day at the Pines chippie pretending to be Roberts and Sheene.  Fast forward thirty four years and a boyhood fantasy came true as I headed out on Chris Wilson’s 1980 Roberts machine for the Barry Sheene tribute laps at last weekend’s Moto GP.  It crackled into life instantly and felt as sharp as any of the more modern 500s I used to race.  The temperature gauge had a maximum marker on 60 degrees so to begin with I was nervous as it didn’t move but being a hot day (although still keeping my hand on the clutch) I convinced myself it wasn’t working.    The bike felt tiny, not helped by the fact I only just squeezed into my 1989 Marlboro Yamaha leathers.  It still felt rapid though as I played out the 1979 classic in my head while getting tucked in down the Hanger straight.  Steve Parrish was also out there on one of Barry’s 500cc Heron Suzukis so we did our best to copy the famous last lap at Woodcote Corner where Sheene came so close to winning his home GP. As a lad I would have said the chances of me riding round Silverstone on a GP winning Kenny Roberts machine were zero, but in the words of Gabrielle, dreams can come true!

Think You’re a Smooth Rider? Yamaha’s SmartRiding App Will Prove It

Yamaha has released a new app that records and evaluates riding habits. The free Yamaha SmartRiding app (available now in the App store) uses the Apple devices sensors to measure basic telemetry to evaluate how smoothly you handle curves. The app requires the device to be firmly fixed to the motorcycle in either a vertical or horizontal arrangement (the app is compatible with iPhones, iPods and iPads, though I’m not sure how many people will mount a tablet to their motorcycle).