Head for the Sunshine

In this case I plumbed for the fabulous Almeria Circuit in Spain. The track is part of a complex of two circuits, the other is called Andalusia. I have ridden that too. It’s good but Almeria is better. It’s website proudly boasts of 365 days of sunshine a year. That will do!

All Arranged!

Three of us got together and arranged the whole thing via Focused Events. They Loaded our three Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat bikes into a truck and took them and gear etc over there and we then just had to organise flights from our base in Scotland.

The Thundercat pairing. All ready for track action in sunny Spain

Down to the Action!

What a fantastic four days we had on track! The Thundercat certainly held its own! We were getting noticed. With the YZF’s being the oldest and smallest bikes there that isn’t surprising. Whether it was people coming around asking what size engine they had fitted or if they had been tweaked or tuned.  None of them could believe we had been on track and overtaking multiple Kawasaki ZX10R’s, Yamaha R6’s and so on riding twenty year old bikes. We were just having great fun. These bikes are amazing: There is no better feeling than going around the outside of an expensive, powerful bike on an old Thundercat!

Almeria Circuit. Check out that sunshine!

Prepping up the bikes in pits

Yep it is a twenty year old 600

Yes that is a 27 year-old Thundercat going around the outside of an expensive superbike

In the words of the song. Yes sir I can boogie!

All three of us, John, Brian and I came out here and had great fun. Not only that, but we also learned a lot and improved our riding. Danny Webb, ex World and British Superbike racer was impressed with us! He said that we exceeded his expectations: I think he thought we would be a bit well, sh!t!

Cheap can be Quick!

I got my best track time over the four days on the black Thundercat I brought to test, for which I only paid £350 to bring over as back up. I used my usual mount which is the white one in the pictures for three days. But the lads were moaning I was beating them because I had work done to it. So I took out the cheap black bike. I was two seconds quicker on it! The white one was still set up for Knockhill circuit and the black one had gearing better suited to Almeria. This just goes to show you don’t need to spend a fortune to have great fun on a track bike.

Team Thundercat on Tour

Danny Webb was impressed with me!

Collateral Damage

I am going home with a pair of boots trashed, Knee sliders trashed, and a clutch needing a little TLC.

New sliders might be needed

and boots…

But the most important thing is all three of us are going home, fit and healthy with great memories.

We will be doing this trip again and I think we did the Yamaha Thundercat community proud. If any of you fancy doing a track day just do it and if I go again, you are welcome to join me!

Great fun, great experience, great pals.

Story & Pictures:

Stuart Moss – February 2024

Editor:Tony Donnelly

Boring Bits:

Costs:

£480 – Focused Events for the first bike. £250 for an additional bike.

(This is a good price, four days at Knockhill is £600)

This included:

Bike transfer/delivery to and from the Almeria circuit from their base in Stoke.

Hotel accommodation (B&B) for four nights in decent 3 star hotel. Nothing flash, but comfortable and clean

Flights:

£60 per person

Obviously the above will vary dependant until time of year etc, but a useful guide.

Insurance:

£90

Oh and allow for new sliders, boots and clutch!

We went in late February 2024

Blog is based on a Facebook Post from the UK Yamaha Thundercat owners group and used with permission

The post Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat – Track Action From Almeria Circuit Spain appeared first on BikeMeet.

Impressive and Expansive Collection

As you might expect the museum boasts an impressive motorcycle collection. They span the decades and genres with road, racing and off-road machines all well represented. Many are housed on a mezzanine level above the main display floor. That has its focus all things four (or some cases more!), wheeled. The automotive display is really superb and contains some proper rarities: Rotary engine Citroens, a range of American funeral ‘Flower Cars’, record braking bikes, trucks, all sorts, even aero engines and an Abbot Self Propelled Gun!

Way more on display than just bikes. These rotary engine Citroen cars are just the tip of the ice-berg

At the time of my visit in the summer of 2022 entry fee was £16. I consider this to be good value when you consider the range and quality of the exhibits

The Suzuki Hayabusa/Yamaha Thundercat hybrid record bike…

The Brazilian take on a Superbike. Amazonas/Kahema 1600, complete with a flat four engine taken from a VW Beetle. Capable of 130 mph apparently. Not with me on it…!

There is a particularly interesting display based around the amazing privately owned British/IoM/USA  funded manned Space program Excalibur Almaz. The project dates back to about 10 years ago. I’ve never heard of it. I didn’t even know anything about it.

New one on me…

Back to the Bikes

But the focus of this review is the motorcycles and believe you me, you not going to be disappointed. In fact I rather suspect that you will be a tad mind blown. The display is in two main areas:

The first is an impressive mezzanine level which contains a huge array historic race bikes, off road bikes, classic British bikes and more modern classics. All are beautifully presented. As you can see in this series of pictures:

Triple delight

Yamaha XS500, Four valve per cylinder 500cc twin. Sold nothing like as well as hot-cakes.

The Iconic Suzuki GSXR750

No idea…

Neat Ossa

Suzuki RG250 Gamma. Tried to take on the Yamaha RD range.

Kawasaki GPz750. Underrated. I knew several lads who enjoyed running these back in the day.

Sunbeam

Beautiful Norton. Good see this famous brand in good hands now

The Suzuki RE5 with a Rotary engine

Triplet of Twins!

A Wall of Bikes!

The second area is an amazing floor to ceiling rack that runs virtually the entire length of one side of the building. This holds another stunning selection of notable road and racing bikes that span the decades. On a personal level I was delighted to see a Yamaha FZ750, a bike I ran myself for nine highly enjoyable years.

Good see the Yamaha FZ750 get a slot. 5 valves per cylinder. A fantastic bike I really enjoyed owning 

Lost in Space!

The museum staff were also very friendly and one of the tour guides talked us through the exhibition dedicated to the UK’s manned space programme of the early 1970’s. No I didn’t know the UK had a manned space programme either! Apparently the UK remains the only country to have shut down such a venture! Fancy going through all that expense and pain only to can it all. Somehow typically British… TSR2, Concorde and countless other wasted opportunities spring to mind.

Amazing to stumble across such an interesting and historic display on the island. The same gentleman also showed us around the workshops and he was articulate and engaging in his explanations of the vehicles being worked on such as Routemaster bus had had been converted to a camper!

The owner  of the museum also spoke to me at length as he was from Northern Ireland like my Dad and also had a background in civil engineering.

So the museum is about so much more than just bikes. Well, well worth a visit if you are on the island. A must see venue.

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

Check out the museums website here for details of opening times etc

Also worth a visit while you are there…

The post The Isle of Man Motor Museum – Review appeared first on BikeMeet.

In The Beginning

Generously he also let me have a go on his DT. This was the very first time I ever rode a motorbike. Well, I say ride, neither of us were exactly a budding Dougie Lampkin, but we enjoyed ourselves immensely. He knew what he was up to: I bought a Honda C50 off him I had enjoyed myself so much!

He continued to hack about on the 175 for a few more weeks but what he did with the DT has been lost in the mists of time. Sadly he doesn’t even have a grainy picture of the 175 for posterity. Stark contrast to more recent times, where we all seem to have hundreds of pictures on our mobiles of everything.

Left a Real Mark

Both of us ride to this day and have enjoyed many biking adventures all over the UK and Europe in the subsequent years.  But that 175 left a real mark on him. Like so many of us he looks back, misty-eyed, on the days of his youth and yearns for the uncomplicated joy that biking gave us all back then.

Back to The Future

Fast forward over 40 years: Out of the blue a friend announced he was having a major clear out and had a 1979 DT125MX up for grabs at a good price. The DT had not been used in over a decade and was in need of some ‘weekend-work’ as they say! It was in a poor state. That didn’t matter, a deal was struck. OK it was a 125 rather the 175, but close enough for the nostalgia bug to kick in.

Collection

The bike had to be collected from the south coast near Portsmouth. This called for that great tradition; a ‘boys day out’ to collect the bike! Andy headed south in his camper van with another lad, Mick for company and a bike trailer wiggling along behind

On arrival the DT was found to be ‘as described’, as we say when giving feedback on EBay! The Yamaha really was as rough as bear’s posterior! Ah well, it will look great when it’s done! The deal was sealed, the bike dragged from the back of a cold lock up and strapped to the trailer ready for the return trip.

A path had been cleared to the DT. This one’s day had come!

‘Honestly Andy, the priest just used it for visiting local families on a Sunday after mass’ 

The deal was done

A quick celebratory pint was in order before the long haul north. A drama free run followed apart from reaching base only to find the seat had gone west on route. Amazingly Andy recalled going over a severe speed bump a few miles from home. He doubled back and found the seat. I love a happy ending!

The deal appropriately sealed 

‘We’re being followed!’

The Assessment

The first stage of any rebuild is assessing the scale of the task at hand. This can be summed up easily in this instance: BIG, like really big. But the clean up and strip has got underway and the parts ordering began. The real question at this stage: Go to the ‘Full-Monty’ on a pukka restoration, or go for a fun bike with a bit of so called patina?

Well, Yamaha is spelt correctly…

The first new part of many…

More in part two..

Story: Andy Preece

Words: Tony Donnelly

Pictures: Mick O’Brien

The post Yamaha DT125MX – Field of Dreams appeared first on BikeMeet.

In the corner of many a bikers’ garage, shed, outbuilding or even occasionally garden lies a forlorn motorcycle. Generally speaking, the poor thing has been there a while. In the case of the ones abandoned in a garden they may even be beginning to disappear into the foliage.

Yamaha DT175. Shivering like an abandoned puppy.

Emotional Attachment

It could be the bike they ran as a kid and never sold. Or a bike that they just fell out of love with and stopped riding. Possibly the thing had developed a minor issue or broken down and they never got around to sorting it out. Sometimes it is a bike that once belonged to a now deceased relative. Now they cannot bring themselves to do anything with it. Every bike under a cover, acquiring a layer of dust in barn or gradually becoming one with the hedge has a back story.

This my FZ600. It only languished for a few moths, before it sprung back to life. But it has been dormant with it’s new owner since 2009!

If you ask the owner about selling the bike to you as you really like it, always fancied running one or just want a project to keep yourself busy, the answer is often the same:

‘I’m going to do it up…one day’

Ok, fair enough you think. Old father (or mother) time continues to tick by. The dust thickens, the tyres go flat, mice set up home in the airbox or the vines tighten their grip.

Many Years Later

A few years later you bump into them again and ask, ‘Did you ever sell that bike?’ or ‘How did you get on renovating that old Yamaha?’

All too often the reply that comes back is ‘No, but I will get around to it one day’

This process gets repeated a couple of times. Meanwhile the poor old bike is gradually turning to dust. The mice from the airbox have bred about 200,000 little friends and you can no longer see where the hedge stops and the bike starts.

Tomorrow Never Comes

Eventually the owner of the bike has to move house, get’s threatened with divorce, or even tragically occasionally passes away themselves. The bike then gets disposed of and sometimes there is a happy ending eventually. We saw this recently with the example of the VF500 restoration we featured

All too often though the poor old bike gets carted off to motorcycle heaven. One day never came…

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

The post One Day appeared first on BikeMeet.

The Cool Ones had Bikes

It was the same when I started my apprenticeship a few months later. Some lads had mopeds; a Honda CB50J, a Fizzie and a Honda SS50 stick in my mind. A few of the older apprentice lads had graduated to bigger bikes: 250 Yams on L plates and one even had a Kawasaki Z650!

Honda SS50. Typical transport for a teenager of the late 1970’s. This one is in a museum..

Even the introduction of the two-part test and 125cc rule in 1982 didn’t interrupt the standard progression too much: You started out on a 50 or 125 and then worked your up through ‘the ranks’: 250 to 550, 550 to 750 and then maybe even a mighty 1000 such as a Z1! Your future was mapped out…

Record Sales

Bike sales in UK were just over 300,000 units pa in 1980. A record figure that represented the high-water mark. Bikes such as the much-maligned Honda CB250N Superdream sold by the thousand. I believe they sold in excess of 30,000 in 3-4 years on sale.

The mighty Honda CB250N Superdream

Fast forward to 2024 and bike sales are nowhere near those numbers now, despite showing a bit of an uplift recently. Numbers are around one-third of the 1980 total. This despite an increase in population in excess of 10,000,000 in those years.

Grey Hairs and Flat Caps

Rock up at a bike meet or a popular biker’s haunt such Matlock Bath or Willingham Woods and many, in fact the majority of attendees are not in what could be described as in the first flush of youth. It’s the same with the on-line biking community.

You need to keep your shades on as the sun glistens off our grey hairs and bald ‘chrome-dome’ heads! Many of them are in fact those same folks who rode those CB50Js and FS1Es all those years ago. The group has migrated in many cases away from sports bikes to more upright alternatives such as adventure or naked bikes.

Visiting ancient monuments on R1250GS. Somehow Ironic in the contest of this article

Some of the braver souls are still speed-junkies and plumb for the latest breed of hyper naked bikes. The Yamaha MT10 or MV Agusta Brutale are good examples of this. Anything basically doesn’t kill their back, knees, hips, wrists or ankles etc! Another group now ride cruisers partially for the look and the vibe. However, the low-seat height plays a role I am sure on the quiet…

The Youth are Missing

What you don’t see much of at a typical meeting is younger folks on 50’s or 125cc bikes. One or two perhaps, not little packs like we used to. Neither do see rows of the outside schools, colleges or training schools…

In fairness you do spot quite a few youngsters on knackered twist and go mopeds with cheap, noisy exhausts. However, we are all too aware that these types are not budding motorcyclists of the future, but all too often lads up to no good. As seen on such reality TV shows as ‘Police-Interceptors’ etc, Even this ‘demographic’ is quickly migrating to awful electric scooters now!

Only Going to Get Worse

Sadly some of the biking community are reaching the point where riding simply isn’t an option anymore. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. I do know one chap who at 86 years of age still enjoys riding either his 2021 Honda CB650R or his CB250N regularly, However he is the exception rather than the rule. The hard truth is that by the time we reach 70-75 or so the majority of us will be jacking in riding, I’m 59 this year so I can see that point, albeit in the distance. It saddens me the odd time that it crosses my mind. However I am just getting on with my riding for now.

What I do find saddening is the lack of younger riders joining our ranks. Societal changes, the focus of the UK economy, the complexity (and expense) of getting a full bike-licence and a shift in what the younger generation are interested in. All are playing their part in the decline.

Changing World

Huge factories are now a comparative rarity, so access to relatively well paid jobs and the money to support an expensive hobby are not available. Interest in all things mechanical isn’t at the same level when compared to my youth.

This brings us to the final nail in the coffin…cost: A Yamaha MT-125 is £5102 today, before any extras or on the road costs. Add in insurance, riding gear, training and test fees and you see why a 17-year-old on one is a rare sight.  Of course, you can do it less expensively than this with a Chinese 125 or a secondhand bike, but you get my point.

I was in a full-time job at sixteen back in 1981. Today with further education almost the norm someone can be well into the 20’s before being in a proper job. Buying bike is a priority for very few,

This decline has been going on for nearly four decades now. Those that do come into motorcycling and earn their full licence are faced with increasingly expensive larger capacity bikes. It’s easy to see why the cheaper Chinese bikes are gaining ground on the more traditional offering from Europe, Japan and the USA.

In my opinion the sub thirty year olds of today are more cautious than we were. Risk adverse, even. They seem to party and play less hard than we did. Perhaps are imagining that?

In the Meantime – Crack-On!

Anyway, I don’t know where biking will be twenty years from now. In the meantime I just going to crack on and enjoy my riding and the camaraderie that our world offers. I just will be getting ever more creaky and cranky as I do!

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

The post Is Motorcycling Dying Out? appeared first on BikeMeet.

King of the Hill

The head bike mechanic was a chap called Dennis. He was ‘King of the Hill’ locally and looked up to by many of the local bikers, especially the young lads.

Sitting in the showroom, gleaming, was his latest acquisition: A brand new Honda CBX1000. One of the very first in the country. At the time it seemed impossibly huge to me. A real road warrior. The mighty six-cylinder engine hanging in free space. The cylinder block canted forward at a slight angle and the chrome exhausts cascading down the front of engine like Niagara Falls in full flow.

The mighty CBX

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. What a great looking engine

I sat on the beast, and everything seemed to be scaled up when compared to its peers. Even such icons as the Kawasaki Z1 were dwarfed. Two cylinders stuck out either of the voluminous petrol-tank. Hefty cast clip-on bars fell to hand either side of pair of prominent instruments conveying revs and speed.

All very impressive and imposing. I even got to ride another example years later. What a behemoth! It steered and cornered like a ‘Super-tanker’! However, that turbine like six-cylinder mill just dominated the whole experience.

The Italian’s Got There First

But the big Honda was not the first six-cylinder bike to hit the market or was even the first six made by Honda! No, the first six hitter of the modern era was the Benelli 750 Sei of 1975. Beating the Honda to the market by a good three years. This was altogether more delicate take on the theme. Based on expanded SOHC Honda four-cylinder engine that Benelli had been producing under licence for a couple of years already.

The Sei was stylish bike and again the exhausts were a key element of the package: Each side had three dramatically stacked and angled silencers. The tank mounted clocks added to it’s stylistic flourish. The Sei was a real statement bike for Benelli.

Both the CBX and the Sei stayed on sale until 1984. The CBX loosing a certain something as it developed into the faired, mono-shock CBX-C touring bike. The vast frame mounted fairing and panniers detracted from the bikes look and stance in my opinion.

6×2 =12! The Big hitters together at the Sammy Miller Museum

The Sei meanwhile morphed into a 900cc bike but kept its cool, stylish Italian icon persona. These days it rare to see either a 750 or 900 Sei, but they still are an impressive sight when you do.

The Rivals Respond

The launch of the CBX in particular seemed to trigger a response from Kawasaki, The Z1300 featured a monolithic slab of an enter. Notably the big Z was water rather than air-cooled.  The bike stylish in a square jawed sort of a way. Who remembers the exploits of Dutch stunt rider Arto Nyquist? Hopping of the back of his Z1300 and being towed along behind as his wooden clogs showered sparks from their titanium soles! He also pulled the odd monster wheelies on this mightiest of the big Z’s. An impressive sight and well worth checking out on YouTube.

Kawasaki Z1300

About twenty years ago Allen Millyard, the genius who creates beautifully engineered home-built specials, which are literally museum quality, first came to prominence with his amazing conversion of a Z1300 into 2300cc V12! Today that bike is on display in the Marber Museum in the USA. An amazing place that is on my bucket-list to visit.

Six Specialist

Oddly Honda have produced two other notable six-cylinder bikes: The petite RC-166 an exquisite 250cc race bike and the legendary Goldwing.

The RC-166 which, unlike the CBX, was a delicate piece of precision engineering. Like a classically elegant Swiss watch. Think Rolex Oyster Perpetual or possibly a Longines. The Honda is beautiful to its very bones.

However, while the watch would just emit a gentle, regular ticking heartbeat, the RC-166 emits a guttural 20,000 rpm howl. Genuinely spine-tingling. All in 1964! Amazing.

The RC-166. Pictured at a classic bike show a couple of years ago

The Motorhome of Motorcycling

The third six-cylinder Honda is, of course, the legendary Goldwing fitted with a water-cooled flat six. The ‘Wing’ evolved from the original flat four 1,000cc bike of 1975 through a few generations to become a flat six 1500 from 1987.

The 1200cc four it replaced was already the Winnebago of motorcycling. The 1500cc (and later 1800cc evolution) took this to another level. It even had a ‘reverse-gear’, so you wheel the 300kg behemoth a little more easily. The Goldwing isn’t really my sort of bike, but it is certainly imposing and impressive.

The Goldwing has evolved into this. I prefer the CBX  to be honest

What I do like is one of a couple of other applications of the flat-six lump. Namely the gloriously titled F6C Valkyrie. A stripped back cruiser it is a wonderful piece of excess for excess sake. Much like some Harley-Davidsons, but with that creamy six soundtrack.

The F6C makes mote of a feature of the flat-6

However, when fitted with a freer breathing exhaust they can sound like a P-51 Mustang a low fly-by. Absolutely glorious. A friend has one and seems to be totally smitten with it.

A Dying Breed?

Today there is still a choice of six-cylinder bikes: In addition, the Goldwing BMW offer their K1600GT. For people who a R1250RT simply isn’t enough! It has been on the market for several years now, but I have only seen a couple. Another touring bike it lacks the flamboyance of the Honda, and it is very much a Teutonic take on excess, and none the worse for that. For some reason I can’t get images of the enormous Messerschmitt Me323 Gigant out of my head! A German transport plane of WW2 fitted with six engines appropriately enough. I prefer my BMWs to have four less cylinders and fewer kilos thank you very much.

BMW K1600RT – This one belongs to a rider who are their fourth example

I should give a nod to the Horex VR6 too. A brave design that a couple of different set-ups have been battling to bring to the market without success for around a decade. I doubt it will ever be a significant player especially with the electric bike spectre looming in the future.

What can we conclude from all this? The six-cylinder bike is an interesting niche in the overall firmament of motorcycling. From manic 1960’s race bikes, stylish Italians, crazy Dutchmen, brutish Sumo bikes they have all featured. Sadly such fabulous excess is on borrowed time. It has been a hell of a party, but the sirens came be heard in the distance: The door is about to be busted down as the ICE engine in all its forms slips into the history books over the coming decades as zero emission bikes come to the market.

I for one, will miss, even mourn them…

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

The post The Joy of Six appeared first on BikeMeet.

Stir Crazy

Like many of us I have not ridden my bike for a couple of months, and I am now getting a little ‘stir-crazy’ to say the least of it, Right now all the usual suspect keyboard warriors will bleat on about how they ride all year around and are ‘real bikers’. That’s lovely; you crack on! I’ll leave that rather pointless debate to others.

More importantly I awoke on Sunday morning to be greeted by what I think is called sunshine and temperatures nudging towards double-digits. The recent rain at least had the benefit of washing away much of the salt that been spread on our roads too! Time to get the bike out!

First Outing

Before I knew it, having rescued the poor old thing from behind/under a pile of detritus I was on the bike and heading out for the first time in 2024. Man, it felt so, so good! Liking catching up with an old mate you have not seen in years. My venerable 1998 Yamaha Thundercat was purring along sweetly. I was a little concerned that stale fuel (3 months old) would give rise to issues with the fuel system and poor running. However, sticking to E5 seems to have staved that off.

A thirty mile wander around my corner of Worcestershire/Shropshire border country was great. I didn’t go mad. The state of our pothole strewn roads saw to that. I had to resort to the ‘council-line’ around many corners to avoid the worst of the craters and pot-holes.

Popping In

But it still felt good to be out. The weak winter sunshine gently illuminating on the charming and quintessentially English landscape that serves as my backdrop today.

I popped in a local classic car meeting; there were a few other bikes and scooters there too. From there I made my way over to The Danery. This is a pub aiming to be a go-to place for local petrol heads of both two and four wheeled allegiance. Check it out on the A448 just outside Bridgnorth.

My trusty 1998 Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat. I have owned this bike for 24 years!

Good variety at the car meet

Ducati S2R800 reminding of my much missed 1000cc example

Meaty Triumph 1050 Speed Triple

CCM Spitfire

Scooters arrived as a pack. Cool Ford Consul custom 

Tidy AJS

The Danery

Foodstop Cafe

I finished off my little mini-adventure by calling in that well known local biker haunt, The Foodstop Café at Quatt, again on the A448. I was amused to note there were dozens of bikes outside. Obviously, many others had the same idea as me! I drove past last weekend in the car, and it was all but deserted as the rain poured down from a leaden sky.

Thundercat at The Foodstop Cafe. It’s the Law

As is usually the case there was a great variety of bikes to look at. In effect a free bike show! Goldwing, TZR250, MZ, BSA Bantams, Busa’s R1s etc. Superb to see. However, the downside of this is a big queue for drinks and a buttie. I was on a bit of a timescale so couldn’t wait sadly. Just means I will have to come back all the sooners!

Superbike Selection

Two takes on the lightweight two stroke…MZ Saxon and TZR250

Behemoth Honda GL1800 Goldwing

Pretty little Bantam

The Suzuki TL1000S. Rotary damper…

Royal Enfield 500 EFI

I rounded off the ride with an enjoyable 11 miles squirt home. Even my favourite sequence of bends was clear of both traffic and pot-holes. The Thundercat ran remarkably well considering it’s period of inactivity and I was pleased my bike gear still fitted. Well at least as well as it did last year…

That’s it then: 2024 kicked off! Here’s to more fun miles for all of us over the spring and summer!

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

The post In the Bleak Mid Winter – Out and About on a YZF600R Thundercat appeared first on BikeMeet.

Long Way Round BMW R1150GS

Obi-Wan Kenobi and the Other One

One was Ewan McGreggor, a world-famous Scottish Hollywood ‘A’ list celebrity of ‘Trainspotting’ and ‘Star Wars’ fame. The other Charlie Boorman, a much lesser-known English bit part actor. They had met on the set of a film production some years earlier and became friends through a shared passion for motorcycles.

Charlie Boorman at the Festival of Speed in 2005

Many of us enjoyed the TV series and book that accompanied this adventure and another they subsequently undertook together.  There was a lot of chat on various forums (remember those?), that they enjoyed more logistical support than the D-Day landings. But at the end of the day, I found it enjoyable viewing. They have ridden the notorious ‘Road-of-Bones’ and I haven’t, so fair play to them.

Rejected!

Famously KTM turned them down a request to supply bikes for the trip. They were their first preference. They felt the comparatively light, tough and well suspended machines would be perfect for the trip. In the end BMW stepped in with a matching pair of R1150GS Adventures. OK they are somewhat portly in comparison with the lithe Austrian offering, but they are sturdy old tubs. They would need to be…

Massive Sales Boost

In the years that have followed since the show was aired, sales of the GS spec R series BMW have mushroomed. To such an extent that often top the sales charts in many countries. They have spawned a mass of similar bikes from rival brands. The ‘Ewan & Charlie Effect’ has been credited with this explosion of the genre. Many magazine articles have sniggered at ‘Ewan & Charlie wannabies’ in their full-gear riding a fully tricked out GS-Adventure. Then only riding as far as the local golf club. I’ve done it myself.

This is the crux of the argument. The accepted narrative is that the this explosion in sales is a direct result of their adventures and the exposure it granted BMW. But does this do a dis-service to BMW and the GS range? Did they in fact just have the right bike on the market just as the demographic of bikers shifted?

The old model of a spotty 16-year-old first buying a moped and then coming through the ranks of 250,550,750, 1000cc bikes etc before rounding it off with the latest mega sorts-bike such as a R1, is no more. A fraction of numbers that used to are coming into biking as youngsters.

Maturing Market

We have aged as a group. Both the nature of the riding we undertake and the speeds we ride has changed. We go out less often but love a tour and our pace has dropped. We literally want to take it in and smell the coffee. Before you all scream at me, about you being a 60 year old, riding a Gixxer and you can still go like you’re in MotoGP: I am talking as a general sweep here. Look about on a bike trip or at a café. Lines of adventure bikes (and retro-nakeds), and just the odd sports-bike. Grey haired owners nearby sipping coffee at a handy cafe. Virtually nobody uses a bike for day-to-day transport anymore either.

The GS (and it’s RS and R cousins) are perfectly placed to surf this wave of creaking aging bikers. Hence it became the best-selling large capacity bike range across Europe. Seeing these sales numbers has prompted rivals to launch their take on the theme.  The Tenere, The VStrom, The Tiger, Stelvio, Multistrada and Tracer to name but a few. The rejected KTM range is thriving too.

In conclusion

So while Ewan and Charlie did sales no harm, I do wonder if they are truly the start of it all. In fact have they actually undermined it slightly? It can be seen to be uncool to be seen on a GS, but if you ride a KTM you’re somehow more on the edge. Or if your ride a Multistrada you are  saying ‘I am quick-rider, I just need to take some kit ok?’

Perhaps it sold well because its the right bike at the right time?

So there you go, We’re just getting older and slower. The GS is in reality, a sophisticated Zimmer frame…You heard it here first!

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

The post The BMW GS – Was the Success Really Down to LWR? appeared first on BikeMeet.

A Blind Alley?

Another example of this phenomenon is the rotary engine. It has many advantages which perhaps explains why engineers remain fascinated with the layout and have returned to it many times over the years.

A rotary engine is light, has very few moving parts, runs very smoothly and can boast a great power output for a given swept capacity. This later point can depend on how you measure the chamber volume of a rotary. An argument around this has raged on and off in racing (& taxation!) circles for many years.

Several manufacturers of cars and motorcycles have toyed with the rotary engine. Some out of a desire to appear different from their contemporaries, but mainly I suspect out of pure engineering curiosity.

Not Just Bikes

In the world of four wheels NSU, Mazda and Citroen have been the principle protagonists. Mazda are still clinging to the raft, so to speak, right up to the present day. They manufacture a car with rotary/PHEV set-up. They might be making the answer to a question nobody is asking.

Several Have Tried

But in world of two wheeled madness DKW, Norton and Suzuki have been the leaders in an admittedly small field.  DKW came to market first with the pretty little DKW200. A simple looking roadster it enjoyed modest sales success in the 1970s.

DKW200 at the wonderful Sammy Miller Museum

Perhaps better known is the Suzuki RE-5. Looking a little like a peculiar GT750 ‘Kettle’ the RE-5 launched with a fuel crisis looming. The inherently conservative bike market of the 1970’s combined with massive increases in prices at the fuel pumps, killed the RE-5 before it had any significant foothold in the market. I have only seen examples in museums and bike shows which tells you what you need to know I suppose.

Suzuki RE5

The last bikes on the market with a rotary engine were of course offered by Norton. Emerging from the smouldering embers of the NVT group as it collapsed. The design was picked up a by then independent Norton set up. A small team working out of tiny factory in Staffordshire developed the engine to a point where it could be offered for sale in a bike.

Better Late Than Never

Nominally a 588cc air-cooled twin rotor the first model off the assembly line was dubbed the ‘Classic’. Despite the distinctly untraditional motor the bike was conventionally styled upright ‘roadster’. What would be called a retro-naked now. They quickly sold out the batch of 100 or so bikes. The few that reached the hands of the press were well received and continue to hold their value to this day. However this is another rotary bike that I have only seen in museums and the occasional show. Not surprisingly.

Norton Classic

Water cooled developments followed. These sold in moderate numbers to a number of UK Police forces around the mid 1980’s. My long suffering Dad even got pulled over by a bike cop riding example while giving me a lift home from clubbing in Brum. I encouraged him to take on a Jaguar XJ on the overpasses that led from the city centre. It was the only time he was ever ‘tugged’ by the plod. I still feel guilty about it to this day.

Fully faired and utilising Yamaha XJ900 cycle parts the Interpol was a success for Norton. There was even a smart civvy version dubbed the Commander.

The one my Dad got to see…The Norton Interpol II

But perhaps the two most famous rotary bikes were also products of this small outpost of the British bike industry. The RCW588 race bike debuted in 1987 and I remember all the fuss surrounding it when I went to watch it race at Snetterton at the time. By 1989 the programme was being sponsored by John Player and the bikes decked out in a stunning jet black and silver livery.

The 1987 Norton Race bike. I think the one I saw at Snetterton

Real Performance Showed Flashes of Promise

They were super quick, especially in a straight line. Ridden by the likes of Steve Spray and Trevor Nation they stormed past conventional bikes on the straight. This gave rise to some controversy regarding their equivalency with contemporary 750cc bikes like the OWO1 and RC30. I remember them tearing up the Rivett straight during the Snetterton ‘Race of Aces’ series. Leaving all comers in their wake. They won the British F1 series in 1989.

The legendary JPS Norton race bikes, now on display at The National Motorcycle Museum

They also raced on the Isle of Man and in the hands of Ron Haslam in Grand Prix.

To capitalise on this success a road bike with those JPS colours in a ‘race-replica’ package was offered to the public. Svelte and pretty the F1 was a cracking bike. I visited the factory with some friends in 1990 and saw them being built. Today they are, like all the rotary bikes, now almost exclusively the preserve of museums, shows and private collections.

The Norton F1

The revival was short-lived and despite some further developments by a former Norton engineer the Norton rotary is a footnote in biking history rather than a landmark. It was last seen in the late noughties and under the unfortunate ‘Garner-era’ Norton set up. Today the revitalised Norton makes bikes exclusively with conventional engines.

A Last Hurrah

This leaves us with no rotary bikes on sale today. With the rise of the electric vehicles, I doubt we ever will. Pity.

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

The post The Rotary Engine Bike – A Blind Alley or Genius? appeared first on BikeMeet.

Changes for the Better

I am pleased to report that the changes have been entirely positive. More importantly the great man himself is still about and as lively as ever. Hopefully, I will be that active when (if!!) I hit 90. Though, unlike my first visit he was not about today.

All won by Sammy Miller himself. Amazing

Back in 2017 I came away thinking this is perhaps the finest collection dedicated to motorcycles I have ever seen. I have visited the National Motorcycle Museum and a number of other excellent places since, but Miller’s eclipses them all.

Immaculate

The collection is immaculately presented and I mean immaculately. Every bike gleams. There is not a spec of dust in sight. I would even challenge the competitors in TV’s ‘Four-in-a-Bed’ to find anything!

The breath of exhibits is excellent too, spanning the years from the late 19^th century to well-known race bikes from only a few seasons ago. One indicator of a good museum is discovering something new of interest every time you go. Either something new, or something you did not spot previously.

You can never have too many Yamaha Two Strokes

Mammoth by name, Mammoth by nature

The Oldest bike on display of 1898 vintage

To the newest of 2018

Some Mother’s Do Have ‘Em. Spencer’s mount…

Not quite as fast…

Taking in the Detail This Time

This time it was all the different configuration of engine layouts that caught my eye. Some were really unusual and not seen on bikes today.  Such as really off-beat ideas like a stacked, four-stroke, radial. My head hurt trying to work that one out. Mind you I struggle when asked to count beyond five…

The Stacked Radial

Radial, reminiscent of a WW1 fighter engine

Air-cooled V Twin Vincent – the best looking bike engine of all time?

Rotary DKW

Longitudinally mounted inline four.

Japanese and Italian takes on the across the frame six

Traverse inline flat four

Even the genius Millyard gets a look in

All the cabinets are full of interesting trinketry (c. Henry Cole)

It really pays to absorb some of the details on many of the exhibits and appreciate the intricate engineering that has gone into their design and build.

New Galley and a Multinational Approach

The new gallery was good to see, with many of the vintage four-cylinder American bikes such as the magnificent Henderson concentrated on this level.

The New Gallery

Mentioning the American bikes reminds that bikes of many nations are on display, which is good to see.

It was really interesting to get a glimpse of the onsite workshop. Expansive and very much not a museum piece. A couple of bikes were up on bike lifts being restored and maintained to the immaculate level I noted throughout the museum.

He still likes to get his hands dirty

His workshop made for an interesting comparison with the 1930’s era dioama 

An added bonus the museum boasts an on-site café that serves up a mean breakfast. The friends who I visited with really enjoyed their fry-ups immensely while sipped spring water and nibbled at a lettuce leaf.

Normally I say at this point that if you are in the area pay a visit. In this instance I will go further: Make a special journey. Get on your bike and get down there. You won’t regret it.

Words and Pictures: Tony Donnelly

https://sammymiller.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Miller

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