Performance Bikes Aug

c N al
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t
‘I LOST THE FRONT AT 170mph!’
Surviving the scariest TT ever, by GUY MARTIN
new
garage
section
Owning, riding, modifying great bikes
Crazy nakeds you CAN afford
2005 KTM Superduke
2004 Aprilia Tuono Racing
2006 Triumph Speed Triple
+ The mods to make them
BETTER THAN NEW
SHeD
bUilt
SEcRETS
OF 141BHp
zRx1100
tHe USeD
600 we
all waNt
BUYINg A 2005
YAMAHA R6
S
ING JP
AMAZ
‘EVERYONE
HATEd ME’
CA
REPLI et
eg
And rwnation
trevoo ride it
t
Uncensored
carl Fogarty
interview
biMota
are bacK!
Bikes so lovely
they’ll make you
sell the wife
tHe £60
moDS
THAT wILL
MAkE
A gLAdIUS
BRILLIANT
USA $8.95 August 2010
budget
W
insanity
Rebuild your brakes
Slim down your bike
Buy a torque wrench
Set up a workshop
Owning - Kawasaki ZRX 1100
Custom tail unit
Made three years ago
by Mark’s dad, who is
now 80, and still riding
a CBR600
ZZr1400
swing arm
Almost went
straight in, and
replicates the
original ZZR
mounting points
to preserve
suspension
operating
geometry
102
Full titanium
arata system
Bought from Japan
when the exchange
rate was right. ‘You
can literally balance
the can on one finger.’
Tales
from
The
back
yard
words: Rupert Paul Pics: John Noble
Gold wheels
Ha! Done with three
£3.59 cans of hobby
paint. £190 cheaper
than a powder
coating job
Yoshi 38mm
race mikunis
Cool as it gets, rattle
like hell at tickover as
the flat slides shuttle
back and forth
Mark Puddifoot has been
through much in his life but
with the help and
encouragement of his
Concorde-building father,
he’s come out on top with this
beautiful 1998 ZRX1100…
It’s an old truth of biking that when you have a
big crash you find out who your friends are.
Likewise when you get made redundant. Mark
Puddifoot’s been through both, and still
managed to build this beautifully thought-out
1998 ZRX1100. It features some undeniably trick
bits and top-quality workmanship, but its owner
is as far as you can get from a money-splurging
catalogue rat. Instead, every detail is the result
of canny buying and favours from mates. And it
was assembled under a corrugated plastic
lean-to in his dad’s back yard, three feet from
the tomato bed, with a wardrobe-sized Mac
chest which is as useful as a wind break as it is a
place to store tools acquired over a 30-year
career as a car mechanic.
103
Main test - Used nakeds
Mr Kevin Smith happily
wheelies the Triumph
over a B-road crest.
Round a corner. Don't
try this at home – you'll
make a right mess of
the carpet...
■ 10,521 miles ■ £5299
Triumph
Speed
Triple
Bare-knuckle brawler won’t back down
082
We’ve seen a fair bit of Triumph’s Speed
Triple in the past few months. We’ve
tested a new one against its rivals (it won),
we’ve tested a lightly-used one against
Matt’s R1 (it’s far gruntier), and we’ve got
one as a long-term test bike. There’s a
reason it gets so much exposure – it’s the
best in its class. But that’s when it’s new –
what’s it like five years and a few owners
down the line?
Pretty damn good, is the answer. And this is by
no means a pristine, pampered example. It had just
been through the workshop at Jack Lilley’s prior to
sale, so it had nice new Michelins, new brake pads
and a general fettle. But although it was clean on the
outside, a closer look showed it had been owned by
someone who preferred riding to cleaning – the
TRiumPh SPeeD TRiPLe
spec
‘Beautiful? No.
Short, bug-eyed,
purposeful? Yes.’
Top speed:
148.40mph
0-60:
3.35sec
Power:
105.26bhp
Torque:
63.39lb.ft
Weight:
189kg
Wheelbase:
1429mm
Rake/trail:
23.5°/84mm
Seat height:
815mm
Fuel capacity:
18 litres
Buying one
target Price
Dealer £5000
target Price
Private £4000
The 2005 Speed Triple was the
first of the 1050cc versions,
using the engine from the
Sprint ST instead of the old
Daytona 955i motor. The extra
grunt suited it perfectly and it’s
changed very little since, bar a
mild update in 2008.
What to look for
smoke
Like all Triumphs, the Speed
Triple needs a close eye on its
oil level. They use a lot when
cold, so let it get too low and in
the blink of an eye it’ll all be
gone and you’ll trash your
crankshaft. Avoid anything
with a knocking bottom end.
finish
Not bad, but if neglected the
exposed alloy soon corrodes
under the lacquer and the paint
on the bottom of the fork legs
peels allowing the alloy to
corrode where it meets the
chrome stanchion.
seized brakes
Common on all Triumphs.
Recon calipers are available.
crash damage
As well as the obvious stuff like
engine cases and bent/broken
levers, check the frame near
the headstock casting welds.
Any flaking of paint there, walk
away fast.
rear shock looked like it had been in a swamp,
an excess of chainlube coated every nook and
cranny it could fling, and the fork bottoms,
fasteners and exposed alloy footrest hangers
were all suffering from creeping corrosion
that’d be hard to put right. But as John said, ‘For
all its rough edges, that Speed Triple rides really,
really nice.’ And so it does – you wouldn’t guess
it had five years and over 10,000 miles on the
clock from the feel of it. It’s still got that taut,
together feel of a nearly new bike. Looks good
too, according to Kev S: ‘It’s beautiful. Well,
maybe not beautiful, but short and bug-eyed
and purposeful. It doesn’t look dated.’
What’s also amazing is that it doesn’t feel
dated. The 2005 Speed Triple got the bigger
engine, the upside down forks and that brutally
truncated rear end, but it was still basically the
same bike as it had been in 1998. The magic
ingredient has always been balance – whether
you’re pitching into a blind bend or hooking
third on the back wheel, there’s a feeling of
predictability, of solidity, that inspires you to
trust what you’re feeling through the tyres and
suspension, to relax and concentrate on where
you’re going. Crucially, that balance is skewed
to one environment – the road. Take it to a track
and you can have fun, sure, but you’ll soon run
into the limitations of excess weight, ground
clearance and relatively soft suspension. You’ll
also be yearning for another 3000rpm and an
extra 40bhp at the same time as you realise
chronic windblast would stop you using it even
if it was there.
But we’re not on the track, and the Speed
Triple is in its element. Following a Tuonomounted Kev Smith down a seriously bumpy –
and serious fast – road, I watched in horror as
he was kicked right out of the seat on a midcorner bump and the bike gave a couple of
mighty weaves before settling down.
Committed to the same line, I gritted my teeth
and... nothing. The Triumph just flattened the
bump and moved on. The KTM’s a tougher
customer, and there are times when it feels
better – especially turning in hard from heavy
braking –but then at the next bend the KTM
will decide it doesn’t want to play, or the
Triumph will just demolish it with a burst of
torque on the way out anyway. The Speed
Triple’s here to stay, that’s for sure.
083
3600 garages
Project bike
How to
Rated kit
Chooser
Rebuild your
calipers
Brakes are overrated right? All they do is
slow you down? Well, only if they work...
Words: Mark White Pics: Matthew Roberts
128
When it comes to bike maintenance and brake calipers,
most owners seem to think wiping the brake dust off the
outside while washing the bike on a Sunday afternoon
counts as a job done. The more fastidious may pump the
pistons out a little and clean them during a pad swap but
the only way to ensure full and safe brake operation is to
strip the calipers and fully service them. Once a year for
your average sportsbike is often enough and should be
considered as crucial as an oil change. It’s not as hard as
you may think and knowing you have a system you can
trust when you squeeze the brake lever is surely worth
the effort. It’s certainly more constructive than spending
a couple of hours tidying the garden. Here’s how…
1. Preparation
2. Slacking off
Gathering the special tools you need for a job like this is a great excuse
to build up your collection. Brake piston removal pliers are pretty
cheap and a sure fire way of not marking the precision machined
surfaces. Your local bike shop should be able to supply you or they
can be bought online. Other necessary tools and sundries are cheap
and should be part of your staple kit.
Drain off as much brake fluid as possible and remove the banjos and
brake lines. Before removing the calipers from the bike’s fork legs,
slacken each caliper half joining bolt individually and nip them back
up. Trying to undo these while holding a loose caliper in your hand is
nigh on impossible. Use a good fitting socket and do the same for the
bleed nipples and pad retaining pins if they’re the screw-in type.
3. Empty out the calipers
4. Separation and stripping
Remove the bleed nipple and roll the caliper around over a drain pan
to empty out as much brake fluid as possible; stripping calipers is also
the only way to remove all old brake fluid. Simply changing brake fluid
on the bike doesn’t ‘flush’ the calipers through. Bleed nipples and
banjo fittings are often too close together for new fluid to circulate
throughout the entire assembly. Bet you never thought about that...
Remove all the joining bolts and open the caliper up, taking care not to
lose the O-ring between each of the halves. Carefully extract each
piston using the correct tool. No matter how tempted you are do not
grab the piston edge because that will only mark the piston and render
it useless. Use a twisting motion but keep the piston square in the
bore the whole time.
5. Remove the seals
6. Get in the groove
You will notice two seals in each piston bore. The upper one is a dust
seal and the lower a fluid seal. Using a suitable pick gently lever
behind each seal and pull it out. Have a look at each seal carefully and
the groove in which it sat. If there’s any residue it’s usually salt.
Discard the old seals and buy new. Seal kits are quite cheap so there’s
no need to reuse old ones.
Now for the most important part of the job. The main reason brake
calipers bind is because salt and crud builds up in the grooves behind
the seals and forces them to grip the piston too tightly. Being very
careful not to gouge the soft aluminium, use a pick to scrape out the
grooves or if you have one like I do, a soft brass wheel on a Dremeltype tool does this in seconds.
129
Guy Martin meets...Carl Fogarty
074
Norton NRS588 replica
words: Alan Seeley pics: Jason Critchell
There are few race bikes as evocative as a JPS Norton Rotary, and there
048
Tony Haywood must be wondering what the
hell he let himself in for when he agreed to let
his award-winning 1991 Norton NRS588
replica be the subject of a pB Obsession. He’s
attacking his beautifully painted one-off
bodywork with a junior hacksaw so that it’ll fit
around the radiators he’s just had to
reposition, again with the utilitarian assistance
of that same junior hacksaw. Many specials
builders would be on the verge of tears; Tony is
rather more pragmatic, ‘It’s a race bike, isn’t it?
And as such it’s a work in progress.’
Today that progress is being driven by no less a
development rider than Trevor Nation, the man who did
as much as anyone to put Norton’s bold rotary racers on
the map. He’s come to Mallory Park for a little ride round
on this incredible tribute.
Why the hacksaw? Under heavy braking and turning
for the hairpin the front Michelin is just clipping the rads.
REAR MASTER CYLINDER
Mounting holes on the Spondon rearsets
didn’t match a standard rear Brembo
master cylinder. Brembo swore they
never made one to those dimensions.
When they realised they had done,
Brembo let Tony have it FOC
TREvOR NaTION…
… dons his original
JPS leathers and
throws a leg over one
of the finest PB
Obsessions. Page 54
are few Obsessions as perfect as Tony Haywood’s stunning replica
ENGINE
Under these lusciously finished panels
lurks a genuine Norton Racing Services
588 rotary engine, originally built for a
hillclimb car. Big-power competition
rotaries can be finicky to set up but the
bhp available makes it worth the effort
THROTTLE
Clive Padgett was able to identify
the throttle twistgrip because he
supplied them to Norton. It’s
magnesium, from a Suzuki RG500
race bike and costs £300
049
Bimota relaunch
is ba
words: Rupert Paul Pics: Mark Manning, Chippy wood
Tesi 3D
Aircooled 1100 Ducati
motor, steel/aluminium
frame, hub steering
£24,700
026
DB7
1098 Ducati motor, steel/
aluminium frame
£23,700
It’s been years since Bimota had a
decent presence in the UK. Now a new
distributor intends to change all that.
But the bikes ain’t going to be cheap
ack
DB6
Aircooled 1100 Ducati motor,
steel/aluminium frame
£17,400
DB5
Aircooled 1100 Ducati
motor, steel/aluminium
frame, from
£17,000
Back in the 1970s and early 80s Bimota gave the world
lessons in how to build a motorbike. While Japan spewed out
boingy, overweight XS1100s and CB900s, the tiny Italian
factory showed that bikes could be light, short and stiff.
Then the Japanese productionised that idea and, after a few years in
WSB, a disastrous foray into making their own 500 V-twin stroker and a
slew of financial worries, the Rimini firm faded into obscurity.
But last month at Brands, the day after a seventh place finish in Moto2,
two factory representatives and a new UK importer announced they
would like those days of obscurity to be over. ‘We want to develop our
range with the co-operation of customers and through racing,’ said
marketing chief Andrea Bertelegni. ‘The package for UK riders hasn’t
been right. It is now,’ added importer Graham Manchester.
These are the bikes they hope will do the trick.
OrOnerO
1098 Ducati motor,
carbon/aluminium frame
£34,000
DB8
1198 Ducati motor,
steel/aluminium frame
£21,700
Prices assume 85p to the Euro and on-the-road charges of £750
027
Buying
News &
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The lasT greaT
road 600
Modern 600s are highly focussed wonders of supersport development.
But of you want road manners too, there’s only one used 600 to choose
Words Alan Seeley Photography John Noble
010
Bag a test ride on an 05
R6, do this for an hour
or so then buy it
Yamaha’s R6 came of age in 2005. With the
apparently simple goal of a couple more bhp in
mind, Yamaha eventually wound up building a
whole new bike. Five years on and its the used 600
everyone wants, demand keeping values up to £500
ahead of its mid-decade contemporaries. The
eulogy that’s about to follow will do nothing to dent
residual values. If you’re presently on the hunt for
one, we apologise. If you’re looking to trade one in
there’s no need to thank us; just think long and hard
before you part with the secondhand market’s
hottest 600.
Back when the 05 R6 was new, like every other impetuous,
attention deficit disordered 600 fan my head was turned by the
R6’s more radical competition. The Yamaha had become the
comfortable option and its desirability suffered. Now I’m a
little bit older and a tiny bit wiser I recognise the folly of my
youth. For 05 Yamaha caved in to fashion and adopted usd
forks and radial brakes, whether the R6 needed them or not.
Thankfully they didn’t adopt the underseat exhaust of the
CBR600RR or that season’s ZX-636, preferring to stick to the
natural order of things with a very conventional and very large
can where it should be.
Our test bike retains that mighty bazooka, presumably the
previous owner had kept it bubble-wrapped in a box on fitting
the obligatory race can. In fact this low-miler – just 4225 from
new – is surprisingly unmolested and criminally underridden. The sole aftermarket addition, and it’s an official
factory item anyhow, is a Yamaha Racing tinted screen. Useful,
even if it isn’t beautiful, the R6 is roomy enough that you won't
need to be painfully doubled up to get behind it. Another
reason to look backwards for your next 600.
These days the 05 R6 is feted for its midrange. A giddy,
stratospheric 17,500rpm redline was still a year in the future in
2005 and like many I wish it had stayed there. A key
contributor to the 05’s reputation as the last great road
supersport Yamaha is that it has something resembling a
midrange south of its 15,500rpm redline. To pull off the trick,
Yamaha upped the injectors to 40mm, put longer inlet
trumpets on the two middle cylinders and messed with the
mapping to boost midrange.
That isn’t to say the 05 R6 doesn’t require revs. Anything
below 10,000rpm is essentially idling and the real action lies to
the north side of 12,000rpm. If you’re looking for easy torque
go up a capacity class and a year or two older or shuffle along
the secondhand line to that 2006 Triumph 675.
For those seduced by the lure of the chase, riding the R6 is
011