2014 Yamaha Yz 85 on 2040-motos

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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.

R1 noise, bike porn and a quick lap

Trawling the internet for a sound clip of the Crossplane Crank Yamaha R1 on full chatter, I came across this: a few fast laps on board with New Zealand Superbike racer Tony Rees as he works the CABS Throttle Blipper on his 2011 R1. (Skip to 7:35 for the fast ones.) CABS is a system used by Superbike teams that makes use of the R1’s digitally controlled throttle. When you change up a gear, the bike blips in the perfect amount of revs to save time on track and make downshifts as quick and easy as clutch-less upshifts.

A breath of fresh air

Dean Benstead's air-powered bike project, O2 Pursuit, which we spoke about a year ago, seems to have come along nicely since. Here's a video of the Australian's rotary air compression-engined Yamaha WR250R being taken out for a spin. Apparently it can hit 87 mph and cover more than 60 miles on a scuba-tankful's worth.