Loaded! 2012 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 End Of Year Sale (boulder, Co) on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Simon and Leo

If you are a track day regular this year, you may well have bumped into former racer and friendly Kiwi, Simon Crafar. I first met him in Malaysia in 1990 when he was riding for a Yamaha dealer team, sweating his way round circuits like Shah Alam and Johor Bahru but with a long term plan to make it onto the World scene. And he didn’t take long as after riding for Honda in the UK in 1992 he moved to WSB in 1994 and enjoyed success with both the Honda and Kawasaki factory 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.

The Best Racetrack You’ve Never Heard Of

Last week I had the opportunity to ride one of the best tracks in the world, but you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s called the Autopolis International Racing Course and is located in northern Kyushu, Japan, a 90-minute bus ride from the nearest city, Kumamoto. Autopolis is a wonderfully flowing, 2.9-mile track that rises and falls like a symphonic overture, with inclines that range up to 7.2% uphill, 10% downhill.