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Moto blog

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!

Colin Edwards Announces Retirement At End Of Season

Colin Edwards has announced he will retire at the conclusion of the 2014 MotoGP season. The announcement came during the pre-event press conference ahead of this weekend’s Austin MotoGP race — Edwards’ home round. The two-time World Superbike champion cited a lack of progress from winter testing as one reason for the decision.

The problem with electric bikes...

This weekend sees the running of the most famous car race of them all, the Le Mans 24hrs, and to be a driver of one of the front-running cars has got to be fairly high on the list of jobs that will make ladies swoon. Speed, danger, noise, fame, physical fitness and lots and lots of money, the key elements of any top-line race series, tend to ensure that its star competitors manage to appear cool. But the latest press picture from Yamaha – publicising the firm's link with (Yamaha shareholder) Toyota's Le Mans effort – manages to strip away every last shred of of swagger from the team's drivers by plonking them on Yamaha EC-03 electric scooters.