1999 Honda Shadow 1100 on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Japanese Motocompo Anime

Last week we revealed that Honda are likely to launch the new Honda Motocompo - over 30 years since the first version. I must admit, I'd never heard of it before we ran the news story, so I got onto YouTube and tried to find footage of a very efficient and humble Japanese businessman unloading one out of the boot of a Honda Civic in order to minimise their carbon footprint, but no... I couldn't find one.

How to solve the mystery of the wildcard replacement

With the two test riders coming forward to act as replacement riders for the injured Rossi and Aoyama, it brought back memories of the days when the grid would be gifted with wildcard riders from the respective countries. The Japanese rounds were always attended by some of the top guys with experience of the 500GP and MotoGP bikes, through racing them in their domestic championships. What resulted was getting to witness the exciting and talented Japanese riders, and bring new riders to the attention of the teams.

You want a nice little car, you do.

We ran a couple of stories last week - both, coincidentally, about new Kawasakis. One was the first peek of the new ZX10R – hot stuff you’d imagine – the other, the new W800 retro parallel twin. I suppose it shouldn’t have shocked us, which story was most popular in terms of hits but it really does mark a seismic shifts in British biking attitudes that the W800 story doubled the hits of the ZX10 piece.