2008 Honda Shadow 750 Runs Excellent on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Schwantz and Mackenzie on the Nurburgring box

A 500GP bike never fails to stop me in my tracks and that’s exactly what happened when I spotted this Schwantz example from the early nineties, proudly displayed on the Arai stand at the recent Motorcyclelive show.  On loan from Crescent Suzuki and accompanied by a rostrum publicity shot from the 1990 German GP at the Nurburgring, I felt the urge to write a few words on that special weekend. I started the year running my own 250 GP team with fairly standard TZ Yamahas but was drafted in as Kevin Schwantz’s team mate after Kevin Magee suffered a serious head injury at the second Grand Prix in Laguna Seca.  With no testing and some major Spanish food poisoning I finished 8th at the next round in Jerez then followed that up with a 5th place in Misano. Next up was the Nurburgring and after qualifying on the second row of the grid, my crew chief Geoff Crust informed me he had a premonition of a race day rostrum finish. He also told me I better make it come true as he was already looking forward to a few post race celebratory refreshments. While I hoped Crusty was the new mystic meg, the truth was I would have been more than happy to buy the beers if I made it to the flag inside the top five. I had an outside chance of catching one major scalp as Wayne Rainey was riding with a nasty hand injury but I suspected adrenalin would see him through the day. I also followed Mick Doohan a fair bit in practice but he was beginning to find his feet on the Rothmans Honda so was going to be another problem.  When the lights went out Schwantz and Rainey went straight to the front I while I hung in behind Doohan and Pier Francesco Chilli, and then it happened. Coming out of the bottom right hand hairpin, Doohan and Chilli simultaneously high sided in one of the most spectacular crashes of the season. I never liked seeing any fellow riders crash but I made the most of this early race gift and rode my 160bhp/115kg RGV hard to the flag, claiming my first podium of the season.  We partied hard (win or lose we always did) that night and I went on to have my best ever season finishing fourth overall in the championship. After the last round in Australia, I finished second to Kevin at Sugo in Japan then won in Malaysia at another international race that KS didn’t attend. I also tested at Eastern Creek for the following season but then was flicked from the team for reasons that still remain a mystery. Hey Ho!       

NEW: Yoshimura ends cans for Honda CB1000R

LEGENDARY JAPANESE tuning house Yoshimura has designed a series of slip-on performance end cans for Honda’s naked CB1000R.The brand new EEC-approved cans bolt straight onto the bike's exiting pipework and feature a stainless steel end cone and integral lower Yoshimura logoed cat-converter heat shield. Even with the dB-Killer baffle in place peak power is improved, as is mid-range torque with further performance gains available if the baffle is removed.A full race mid-pipe, extracting yet more power is on the way and will be available later in the year. The Yoshimura CB1000R Slip-On, including the supplied heat shield, is over 4kgs lighter than the OE item, the Carbon sleeve, even more so at just 4.65kg.Part Number/Sleeve Type/Weight/RRP including VAT1A0-480-5B50         Stainless Steel           2.61kg                       £712.711A0-480-5B80          Titanium                    2.45kg                        £770.181A0-480-5B80B         Titan Blue                 2.45kg                        £850.651A0-480-5B90          Carbon                      2.35kg                        £896.631A0-480-5B20          Metal Magic               2.61kg                        £793.17         Noise Output (decibels)Standard end can: 94dB    @ 5,000rpmYoshimura EEC Slip-On:  94.5dB @ 5,000rpm(with db-killer in place)

Honda CG150 TITAN MIX

While there are certain countries around the globe that are known for their significant contribution to technological innovation within the motorcycle industry, Brazil has never been one of them. Until now, it seems. Brazilian Honda subsidiary Moto Honda da Amazonia Ltda., recently began sales of the CG150 TITAN MIX, a 150cc bike with the world’s first production flexible-fuel technology.