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Can two wrongs make a right?

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Screw threads

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January 2025

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Reassuringly simple

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How hard can it be?

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Honda Transalp

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The fastest ever 750

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Honda Hornet v Suzuki GSX-8S

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Taking the Mick

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Treat yourself to a Bike subscription

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Bolton Wonderers

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Everyone loves a roundabout

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Triples all round!

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1991 Gilera Nordwest

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December 2024

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WHEN A BIRTHDAY PRESENT TURNS INTO THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME…

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New bikes

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’81 Triumph TR7T

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Easy as that

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‘Y’know what? I want one’

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SAM SUNDERLAND

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Trackday Clobber

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SIX MONTHS FROM HOME

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BRADLEY RAY

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THE VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE CLUB

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DAN LINFOOT & HIS DAD

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THE KTM DESIGN TEAM

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A RIDE WITH MICK GRANT

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A RIDE WITH RANDY MAMOLA

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Glorious ride: A land lost in time…

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GOING THE EXTRA MILES

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Get set for showtime!

#### Today’s bikes are capable of mileages our forefathers would have deemed impossible – and we have two rather unexpected things to thank…

  
As children, most of us were told that two wrongs don’t make a right. But for bikers two things that can make our noses wrinkle – cars and exhaust emissions – can, it turns out, make things good for us. They’re the primary reason why bikes don’t break and do massive mileages.

Clean air is what we all want and need. Worldwide there’s been progressive tightening of emissions limits in this regard for many years, with the first regulations raised in California in 1966 due to ever-worsening air quality. The car industry, of course, fought back in their normal way by claiming there was no real way of meeting the regulations and it would bankrupt them. They squealed and squealed until it was obvious The Man wasn’t going to back down, then met the rules after all. However, the cost in good ol’ American hosspower was monumental. ‘Derated’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. ‘Eviscerated’ would be closer.

In 1973 the first automotive catalytic converter was produced, enabling a massive step forward in emissions control. The first ones were simple ‘two-way’ jobs that only converted hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions, but they did allow tuning options that the previous best technology – thermal reactors, basically big empty boxes in the exhaust that kept gases hot for as long as possible in the hope HCs and CO would miraculously disappear – could not. Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) were later dealt with in a two-stage catalyst system where the engine was run slightly rich to reduce the NOx using some of the HC and CO in a first cat, with what was left of those then being oxidised in a second one after air had been squirted in by a pump. Complex, but it worked. Then it was realised that with sufficiently accurate control of the air/fuel ratio a single cat could do the job, and so one of the most fantastic devices ever was invented: the three-way cat (TWC).

Call me sad, but the TWC is a stupendous piece of kit. In this smallpackage all the hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms magically get rearranged to produce just nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide. Once it is ‘lit’ this happens with 99.99 per cent efficiency as exhaust gases fly through. There is absolutely no doubt it saved the spark-ignition engine.

Anyway. When cats were introduced, engines were down on pre-regs outputs, but it was obvious it was a device that could massively reduce emissions. Obvious to all, including legislators. The stage was thus set to keep ratcheting down emissions limits, and to require compliance over ever ‐longer mileages. And to keep increasing requirements to a level that would have been impossible beforehand, while monitoring things over longer periods. Naturally, this gave rise to evermore powerful engine control systems (fuel injection, electronic throttles, variable timing – you name it).

As an example of increasing requirements, for cars we have to show emissions compliance for over 150,000 miles. On-board diagnostics have been mandated in the US and Europe so that sensors continually diagnose whether other sensors are working properly, and if not the dreaded malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) is thrown. Any problems have to be reported. In the US, if your product shows a tendency to fall out of compliance the Environmental Protection Agency can force you to recall and fix them. Every. Single. One. Through MIL lamp reporting the agency also noticed that, in general, cars had a tendency to show problems with their emissions systems after someone had spannered them badly, so they made it illegal to require any maintenance to anything in the ‘air path’ (from air filter outlet to catalyst system outlet). Except the spark plugs, which I always think is weird. This included cam drives and boosting devices. Both had to take a massive leap in durability as a result.

Other things were needed. Oil consumption had to be nailed because of HC emissions, so understanding of piston/liner dynamics had to be improved. Friction had to be reduced because burning more fuel inherently leads to more emissions (we really had to do this for CO2 emissions reduction, but it’s true for criteria pollutants, too).

> ‘Next time you smell clean air, remember achieving it has been good in more ways than one’

It’s all harder with direct injection (DI) and we haven’t mentioned particulate emissions. But you can see that, due to technologies developed and deployed because of emissions regs, the modern engine is an astounding achievement. At modern emissions levels it cleans the air; it’s way cleaner than cigarettes, barbecues, or cooking your Sunday lunch; it’s more efficient and powerful than ever; it’s super-driveable even with ridiculous power; it’s durable like you wouldn’t believe; and it’s convenient and cheap, providing great utility – in exactly the way that a battery electric vehicle doesn’t.

If you’ve got this far, you’ll be asking what on earth this has to do with motorcycles. They’re not subject to the same emissions limits – either in absolute terms or monitoring. The fact is that bike and car manufacturers share the same suppliers and consultants, their engineers move between them, and they use the same processes and tools to develop and make their products. Consequently, the whole ecosystem just improved massively. Bikes just couldn’t help but get better as well.

When I was a greenhorn engine development engineer at Norton and Lotus, I used to bemoan evermore difficult emissions targets. Then an experienced old hand said to me: ‘No, lad, you’ve got it wrong. Meeting these limits is bloody hard. And bloody hard means more people are employed for longer…’ Ever since I’ve said bring it on. Effectively the only limit we cannot achieve cost-effectively is zero. So they can ban the engine – that’s exactly what the politicians have set for tailpipe CO2 . Given the historical efforts of all those super ‐clever engine engineers, that’s hardly fair, is it? Especially when it’s the fuel that’s the problem, not the engine per se.

All that said, I find myself horribly conflicted on one thing. Emissions regulations have taken something big from the biking world – the two-stroke engine. However, this was mainly down to the type of stroker that we had grown to love: the crankcase-compression type. We could now fairly readily meet bike emissions levels with a two-stroke using things like DI, stepped pistons (as used on the Wulf engine), and variable compression ratio (easy-peasy with a two-stroke – just see the Lotus ‘Omnivore’ which used it to be able to consume pretty much anything). In these challenging times no one is going to invest in that sort of thing. Or will they? Hope springs eternal…

So, there you have it. Meeting ever-decreasing limits over longer distances and continual snooping by the vehicle controller itself has made everything super-reliable and durable over pretty enormous mileages. Everything had to step up. It’s been improving steadily and quickly over the past few decades, and the result for every vehicle fitted with an engine has been remarkable. Next time you are out for a ride smelling the clean air, remember that achieving it has been good for us in more ways than one.

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Grab your tickets now, as the Devitt Insurance MCN London Motorcycle Show roars into town February 14-16, 2025. Celebrating the best of all things two wheeled, the show promises displays of the very latest models from the world’s leading manufacturers, a live action extravaganza which will see racing heroes go head-to-head, three fantastic stages hosted by your favourite motorcycling celebrities, the latest premium kit and accessories at bargain prices, with much more still to be announced.

**Live flat-track fun**  
Prepare for hair-raising live flat track racing action as the biggest names in British biking battle it out on a thrilling indoor circuit. A purpose-built indoor flat track circuit, a squadron of Britain’s best biking talent past and present, and three days of adrenaline-pumping action. How does that sound?

Taking place inside London’s ExCel, riders include 23-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness, and current TT lap record holder and Bennetts British Superbike star Peter Hickman. The pair will be in the mix among more of Britain’s top racers competing on a tailor-made flat track circuit in an effort to become the 2025 Devitt Insurance MCN London Motorcycle Show mini indoor flat track champion.

**Henry Cole Live Stage**  
The new-for-2025 Machine Mart stage sees TV’s Henry Cole, Allen Millyard, and Guy ‘Skid’ Willison, come together to tell unheard stories, provide plenty of laughs, as well as astounding you with their legendary motorcycles and engineering expertise. Fans will also get the opportunity to meet Henry and his guests for a chat and even a quick selfie!

**Boorman’s back**  
The king of motorcycle adventures returns to host the popular Charley Boorman Adventure Base Camp stage, supported by Oxford Products. Expect new tales from his latest TV trip, the

Long Way Home, a pannier load of useful tips and tricks to use while planning your next adventure, and how to overcome challenges on the road and plenty more insights from the Long Way series star.

## Save cash by booking advance tickets now

#### Classic bike engine builder **Rupert Farnsworth** crams his two-hour thread lecture (really) into 300 words

Generally you know where you are with a Japanese bike because all the threads are the same type, although you can get different pitches (the distance between thread crests) for a given size. But when you move into British stuff it gets much more interesting because they use everything.

For example, on my 1971 BSA Lightning \[a 650 twin – Ed\] you’ve got British Standard Whitworth – a coarse thread – and British Standard Fine (BSF), the fine version. Then you’ve got the later American equivalents, Unified National Coarse (UNC) and Unified National Fine (UNF), which started to take over from the British stuff. Because the British and American pitches are mostly the same, you’d think they might be interchangeable, but they’re not because the included thread angles \[a measure of the ‘pointiness’ of the thread – Ed\] are different. So, if you pick up a 7/16th Whitworth bolt, which is 14 TPI (thread per inch, a measure of the pitch), and use it instead of a 7/16th UNC – which is also 14 TPI – you’ll get in a right mess when you tighten it because the included angle in a Whitworth is 55 degrees and the included angle in a UNC is 60 degrees.

There are also British Standard Cycle threads (BSCY), which are a hangover from bicycle manufacturing days. They’re quite good because all their bolts are the same pitch – 26 TPI. Well, apart from two really small ones. There’s also British Standard Brass, which you need to know about if

you’re rebuilding a carburettor. That’s also 26 TPI, but has a different pitch angle so isn’t interchangeable with BSCY.

Then there’s British Standard Pipe threads and British Association threads. In my workshop over the course of a couple of days of spannering I’ll encounter about 20 different thread types. Because I’ve used nuts and bolts all my life, I remember which are which, but I can see it might be confusing to some people.

**»** **Need** **an engine rebuild? Contact Rupe on 07950 234497.**

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In 1948 Brian Adams turned 21. For his birthday his father offered him the choice of a slap-up party or a motorcycle. Brian chose the motorcycle – a 500cc Matchless G80. It cost £112. Brian added the option of a pillion seat, which brought the price up to £120. During the war the Ministry of Supply sent Brian to university. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Had the war persisted Brian was destined to be a boffin at Farnborough, but with the outbreak of peace he had two weeks to kill before starting a career in industry. What to do...?

Inspired by The Motorcyclist magazine Brian decided he and the Matchless would head for Europe. Friend Barrie Edwards (a metallurgy graduate) would share the pillion and the expenses. And so on 10 August, 1948 Brian, Barrie and the Matchless G80 rolled ashore in France, complete with homemade panniers, a modified pillion perch (Barrie was 6ft+), a diary and a camera. Welcome to post war Europe from the saddle of a very stout birthday present. Brian, in his own words...

We landed at Dunkerque after a night at sea in an unpleasant atmosphere. We left the docks at 8am and rode to Arras and the Hotel L’Univers. 15/- each for dinner.

We walked around Arras, purchased some peaches and set out. The road was good. We rumbled along at 60mph sucking peaches and admiring the view: sweeping fields of grass and corn, fields with wild poppies and military cemeteries with their thousands of crosses. On reaching Laon we climbed the steep hill to the town and ate our lunch after looking over the cathedral. Reims was reached shortly afterwards and the Matchless was a source of interest to the crowd of tourists in front of the cathedral. This was a peculiar place – beautiful but with an air of commercialism.

Beyond Reims a patch of clay on the main road took the front wheel away and the ‘whole issue’ went down with a hell of a scrape. We sustained a few bruises and two stays were broken on the panniers. We spent the night at the next hotel in Vitry- le-François. ‘Yes we can let you have a room for the night. Passport?’ I’d lost it in the spill. An hour later the Gendarmes in Reims rang through, they had found it.

We left Vitry at 11am. The roads were excellent and we cruised at 60mph in spite of the pouring rain. The rain persisted until Langres was reached. We rode all around the city’s malodorous but picturesque back streets. We booked into the Hotel du Commerce, then later walked around the ancient city walls.

We spent the night of the 13th miles from anywhere in the Hotel Greffier. We woke to a downpour, strapped on the luggage and started a zig-zag descent with sheer drops to the Lyon-Geneva railway. Beyond Thonon we climbed for two hours through the bottom of the rain clouds before coming to the most delightful place you ever saw: a small village of Alpine houses and buildings at the foot of two snow capped peaks around which clouds swirled at amazing speeds.

Last night we stayed in the Chalet Nantegue. Then this morning, as we began to ride there was a strange noise. It was caused by 1000s of grasshoppers on the slopes at the side of the road.

We descended for many miles towards Clues. Outside St Gervais we ate a six course lunch in our shirt sleeves. Mont Blanc could be seen in the distance towering above nearer peaks.

St Michel was a dirty town and so was the hotel we stayed in. However, the food was beautiful (as was the mam’selle who served it. Dinner, wine and bed & breakfast was 15/- each and this was the only hotel where we had to wash in the old type handbowl with jugged water. We rose at 7.30am and I purchased some 1/2in thick wire from a cycle shop to strengthen the broken pannier. We were going to cross the Col du Galibier via Valloire. The Col is famous for the passage of the Tour de France. The road went up the side of an almost precipitous hill and I should think the average gradient was about one in eight for about eight miles. Amazing scenery and a most shocking surface.

Stopping for a rest I examined the machine and discovered one of the pannier bags had gone missing. I left Barrie at the side of the road and retraced my steps, standing on the rests and peering over the sides of the road, looking for the bag which held my best shoes, hair brush, some of Barrie’s shirts and my waterproof leggings. Farther down the road an attractive French girl helped me in what was unfortunately a fruitless search.

I got back to Barrie in the late afternoon. He had enjoyed the most amazing solitude imaginable, while just occasionally a distant bell tinkled and broke the silence as a cow moved.

We descended the Galibier and eventually reached Briançon. The bike had become plastered in grey Alpine mud and dust till only the wings on the ‘Ms’ on the tank could be seen. We too were quite filthy and pleased to find a hot bath.

We set out at 8am and climbed the Galibier pass. Four miles from the summit the surface was so bad Barrie had to dismount and walk. Through the tunnel at the summit we drank our reward ‘pick- me-up’ at what must be the highest road house in Europe.

Today we climb the Col de la Cayolle. It was raining and as we climbed the torrent at the side of the road became very swollen. In some places nimble mountain sheep jumped off the road onto what seemed like sheer drops. That night we stayed at the Hotel de Terminus near Nice.

It was now Wednesday and we had to be in Dunkerque for the Saturday night boat. We set off towards Grasse. We spend the night in La Mure where our bedroom was over the sewer-less public lavatories.

A horrible skull and crossbones marked the descent into Grenoble, frightening enough for me to change down to first

We reached Paris. After lunch we pressed on through yet more rain. We ‘hooked-up’ with a Jaguar and French motorcycle for about 15 miles to pass away time. We rolled into Dunkerque at 19.30.

Landed in Dover and accompanied two other motorcycles as far as London. Reached home at Hednesford at 18.00.

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Next year’s new bikes have been announced and there’s a swarm of tantalising new machinery. _Bike_’s experts cut through the marketing guff and delve behind the headlines to reveal the 13 motorcycles that matter in each category. Yamaha’s updated MT-09 and the new KTM 990 Duke battle with the venerable Triumph Street Triple R on glorious British B-roads, and the fabulous new Suzuki GSX-8R takes on our fabulous old GSX-R750 at Cadwell Park.

Mat Oxley has a jaw-dropping natter with sidecar legends the Birchall brothers, and we peek inside the WP factory. Plus, there’s an adventure spectacular: we wade into the Peak District on the glamorous MV Agusta Enduro Veloce, get completely out of our depth in the BMW GS Challenge and do some leftfield adventuring too, heading to overlooked Corsica on the underrated Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE. Plus, all the insight, humour, and knowledge you can only find in _Bike_…

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###### 13 BIKES THAT REALLY MATTER THIS MONTH

#### Shake paws with the **Bear 650** – the Royal Enfield with an odd name but straightforward appeal

Way back in 1960, the Big Bear Run in the deserts of California attracted 765 entrants. Big-name racers slogged it out in the ludicrous 150-mile event, including Triumph-supported legend Bud Ekins, but it was won by a spunky teenager called Eddie Mulder. He was riding a 499cc single-cylinder Royal Enfield Fury.

Fast Eddie’s famous win – at 16 he was and still is the youngest ever victor in the epic race – is why this new bike is called the Bear 650. But ignore the strange choice of moniker. Ignore too all the promotional pictures of it being ridden by hip types in clobber worn by no one outside of California/Shoreditch. And instead get ready to make a beeline to a Royal Enfield dealer.

Turning their excellent and hugely popular Interceptor 650 into a scrambler might be mildly predictable, but the execution is cock on. Perched a tad higher and with an extra 10mm of ground clearance, the Bear has Himalayan-looking big piston upside-down forks but with more road-biased 130mm wheel travel, and twin shocks with 115mm of movement. Interceptor wheel sizes are 18in at both ends, but for scramblering the new bike has a 19in front and 17in rear. Wheelbase is up from 1398mm to 1460mm and there’s a larger rear brake disc, too.

Clearly, then, this isn’t a motocross bike. However, the desert sleds that tore around the US in the 1960s were generally simple, stripped-back roadsters with a few parts beefed up for romping across the scrub. And this means the Bear is convincing.

Those generally home-brewed sleds often kept the original low exhaust, which is why the new 650 doesn’t have a high-level pipe. That, and the fact it means there’s room for luggage and your passenger’s legs won’t get grilled. The two-into-one system saves a kilo (kerb weight is 216kg with the 13.6-litre tank 90 per cent full) and is responsible for the changes to the output of the air-cooled 648cc parallel twin. Maximum power stays at an A2-pleasing 47bhp but there’s extra midrange thump and 3 lb.ft more outright torque, resulting in 42 lb.ft at 5150rpm.

All the retro-ness is balanced by the neat colour TFT ‘Tripper’ display, which has phone connectivity and supports Google Maps for navigation. The 650 also has a USB-C port and LED lights and all that gubbins.

There are loads of colour options, with prices starting at £6749 – a few hundred more than an Interceptor. Bikes are expected before the end of the year. Form a disorderly queue.

It’s the chirpy but flexible 648cc twin used in the other 650s, but there’s more low and midrange shunt and a boost in peak torque.

Forks and shocks are by Showa, and give the Bear more wheel travel front and rear plus additional ground clearance. The rear ABS can be turned off too, but don’t get carried away – think beach blasts and light trails, not extreme enduro.

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#### Answer: very. BMW’s GS Challenge is well organised and welcoming. And bollocking difficult…

By **John Westlake** Pics **Dave Mackison/BMW**

Look up ‘delusional’ in the dictionary and it says: ‘A motorcycle journalist who believes he will cruise through the GS Challenge because he did a trials course two years ago’. I genuinely believed it wouldn’t be that difficult. Fool.

The off-road event started in 2008 as a way of selecting the British team who would go on and compete in the GS Trophy – a massive global competition for BMW riders that’s been held on the planet’s most glamorous dirt locations, from Patagonia to Thailand. That’s clearly hardcore, but the UK event I’m at is open to everyone – novices are welcome. Hence my misplaced confidence. The delusions start crumbling on sight of the first challenge. The aim is to ride an R1300GS round a small, slippy pen while picking up tennis balls from the top of traffic cones with your right hand and then dropping them into a pile of tyres, without ever putting a foot down. ‘So you have to ride round full-lock corners on dirt while your throttle hand holds tennis balls?’ I ask the BMW man in charge, just to be sure. ‘Yes. And you’ve only got 40 seconds to do it.’

Needless to say my run is a lurching, foot-dabbing, cone-bashing disaster as I utterly fail to steer, balance and manipulate tennis balls. I score maximum penalties within eight seconds. Stupid fricking game. How can anyone do that? The next contender is the only other member of our group who’s never done the Challenge before, and he crashes into the barriers. See, impossible.

Then one of the veteran GS Trophy contestants has a go and chugs round on tickover, calmly doing full-lock, one-handed turns while tucking tennis balls into his jacket and then firing them neatly into the tyre receptacle, like some GS-mounted Roger Federer. Barrier-crasher and I desperately want another go to redeem ourselves so we can feel less incompetent, but we’re ushered to the next challenge.

Like all the others, this is held in Walters Arena, a sprawling 4000-acre patch of Wales on the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons. It’s the base for BMW’s Off Road Skills operation and is an extraordinary place, with every off-road surface on offer apart from sand. Muddy climbs, rocky trials sections and nadgery forest trails are linked with super-fast gravel tracks that criss-cross the whole park. A more picturesque playground is hard to imagine.

After the tennis ball farrago I’m on the brink of a huff and am considering riding off to explore rather than face further humiliation. But the next challenge looks easier – all you have to do is thrash down a dirt track, skid round a cone and thrash back. Except it’s not as easy as it looks because there’s not enough width to turn the bike on full lock, so you really do have to skid it round –‐if you don’t carry enough speed to lock the rear, you’re in three‐point‐turn hell.

Luckily I’m not first for this one, so I study Roger Federer’s full-bore approach and remind myself that it’s not my bike – all the challenges are completed on BMW Off Road Skills’ R1300GSs that they use for training, so if I do get it horribly wrong at least I won’t be paying. After only one minor altercation with some metal barriers I cross the line at full chat and beat the allotted time. My Challenge card is marked with its first (and, as it turns out, only) clear round. Halle-bloody-lujah.

Then it all gets trickier, like one of those computer games where every level introduces new realms of weirdness and seems impossible until you play it constantly for three weeks. We pull up at a queue managed by two chipper old ladies who look like they’ve taken the morning off running a tea shop. They explain that the next challenge is in the dark, dank woods in front of us – so dark, in fact, that riders disappear as they enter the thicket and all we hear is muffled shouts and the occasional mad revving as bikes are dropped. Riders emerge on or beside their motorcycles, all being pushed by marshals.

‘How many people have cleaned this one?’ asks Mr Federer. ‘None,’ chirps Mrs Miggins. I ride in and immediately see why. It’s a slippery hell-hole made up of wet tree roots and loose dirt, with the course requiring numerous full-lock turns around the trees. Amazingly, I manage to get round the first bit with only one dab, managing to ignore mysterious, shadowy goblin figures skulking in the trees.

Then I arrive at a slope. It’s not steep, but is criss-crossed with wet roots, has a wicked camber and there’s no run ‐up. And I’m on a 237kg R1300GS. Judging by the number of shadowy figures – probably marshals rather than goblins, on reflection – I know this must be the killer section. Channelling my inner Dougie Napkin \[Lampkin you idiot – Ed\] I dial in some revs, drop all my weight backwards on to the rear tyre, and feed the clutch out with a dribble of finesse. The GS digs in, bounces over one tree root, churns some mud, hits another root, slides sideways and flops dirt-ward. I prop it up with my right leg then feel the GS magically lift itself upright.

‘You did well there,’ says the marshal, puffing at the effort of hoiking me and the GS vertical by its luggage rack. ‘Did I?’ I ask, in dire need of compliments. ‘No, not really,’ he chortles. ‘But at least you didn’t drop it like everyone else.’ And so the day continues, with entertainingly dour marshals encouraging, cajoling and picking us up as we blunder our way round the course. In the afternoon we get to repeat the challenges and I start to enjoy myself more as my attempts become less pathetic. And when we get to the dank dark wood I discover they’ve removed the uphill section and I make it round without stopping. ‘That was only nine dabs,’ says one of the tea ladies. ‘Is that the best so far?” she asks her colleague. ‘Oh God no…’

For me, the highlights of the day aren’t the challenges, but the miles of deserted gravel tracks between that we all ride on the bikes we turned up on. I’m riding _Bike’s_ long term test F900GS, which underwhelmed me during the four-hour ride to Wales, its parallel twin not uncorking adrenaline no matter how miraculously the suspension controls all that travel. It felt capable rather than exciting.

But for fast trail riding it’s magnificent, making average riders like me feel Dakar ready. Suddenly the motor’s featureless torque plateau makes perfect sense – open the throttle round a third gear corner and the tail slides out so progressively that even I don’t feel compelled to slam it shut. Just hold your right hand steady and marvel as you drift out of corner after corner, feet up and grinning. After a while it occurs to me that the Enduro Mode electronics might be helping rein in the engine, so I turn them off and nothing changes. It’s all down to that motor.

And the suspension is just as dirt-friendly. On the road the yards of travel feels like overkill, but on bumpy gravel tracks it’s a godsend, gliding over minor imperfections and letting you hit chunky rocks and potholes without banging your hands loose from the ’bars. Confidence inspiring? Hell yeah. It feels like a big 450 enduro bike rather than the R1300GS’s smaller brother.

Before the end of our final firetrail thrash I’ve undertaken a mental handbrake turn and gone from wondering what the point of the F900GS is, to wanting one rather badly (along with a 4000-acre playground). Even the noise is better off-road – with walls of trees beside the trails bouncing back the exhaust note, I can appreciate the Akrapovic’s bark at the top of the rev range. It’s turned from a competent commuter into a wicked-fast trail weapon.

The rain lashes down that evening and all 200 competitors gather in a clearing where the Off Road Skills operation has set up a marquee, bar and street food vendors. As the beer flows – we’re camping, so anaesthesia is essential – I’m swept along by everyone’s enthusiasm for making a large motorcycle do improbable things on dirt. And it is genuinely astonishing what the R1300GS can achieve; earlier on our group watched slack-jawed as a Dutch chap rode one round an enduro course like it was a 125 motocrosser. It was like Eddie Hall excelling at ballet.

So, would I do another GS Challenge? Heavily refreshed by Welsh beer and swept along by the GS crowd’s bonhomie, I briefly consider it. Maybe I should buy a trials bike and practise. But I’m deluding myself again. What I really want to do is go trail riding round Wales on our F900GS…

**Ex-Dakar Rallyist Si Pavey manages BMW Off Road Skills and offers some tips…**

‘Over decades of teaching people to ride GSs off-road, we’ve discovered the biggest factor is mindset. If you can truly believe that low-speed skills are the foundation of everything else, you’re on the right path as then you’ll practise them and see dramatic improvements. We all want to jump puddles and do skids, but you can’t do those safely and reliably unless you’ve nailed the foundational skills.

‘Firstly, you need to be comfortable with the weight and balance of the bike when it’s stationary – being comfortable with one foot on the peg and one on the ground at a standstill, turning the bars when you stop to stabilise the bike… these are simple skills that can make life easier when the bike is moving.

‘Every time you lose balance on a heavy bike it’s a big job getting it back. It’s not like a little bike that you can muscle. A lot of people want to rush through the low‐speed balance stage and get to the more exciting stuff. But if you nail the low-speed skills, when the bike is unsettled by a bump or a rut, your default reaction will be the right one.

‘Even off-the-bike practice helps – moving the bike around, walking with the bike. It improves your feel for the bike’s balance. Then go to a car park and turn around in tight spaces. Those skills set you up well for the more advanced off-road techniques.’

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#### **New bikes versus our dyno, scales and datalogger**

#### Honda’s parallel-twin XL750 has the looks, price and spec-sheet brags to be a valid proposition. Which is why it sells so well. But what do you actually get for your cash? Time to deploy our datalogger, scales and dynamometer

**Largest and most torquey mass‐produced bike of all time gets even more clout. Obviously**

**What’s new?** There’s a new engine map which takes the 2458cc inline triple to a gargantuan 166 lb.ft of wallop and 180bhp – that’s an extra 15 nags. There’s a new exhaust to help hit Euro5, too. There’s a light dusting of chassis changes, involving redesigned 10-spoke cast aluminium wheels (to better show off the single-sider swingarm) and some new tyres from Metzeler. As before, there’s an R version with mid-mount ’pegs and some attitude, and GT with forward controls, pulled-back ’bars, a pillion backrest and a screen.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The Rockets were already a staggering duo, with handling, nimbleness and manners the defied the long, low, weighty chassis and that cartoon rear tyre. None of that has changed. What is different is the motor, which was already stupid and is now even more bonkers. Off-the-throttle wheelspin in the dry? Step this way.

**Trendy Svarty grows an extra cylinder and develops a new level of refinement**

**What’s new?** Replacing the one-pot 701, the 801 uses the 104bhp parallel twin from the 2018 KTM 790 Duke. It’s designed to be more grown up than aKTM with a tubular steel chassis, calmer geometry, high-spec WP suspension and the 990 Duke’s electronic widgets.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The 801 rides somewhere between a snappy 790 Duke and a mild-mannered roadster. It’s accurate in fast corners even with its dual-purpose tyres, has strong brakes and perky power, yet uses relaxed steering geometry that brings a sense of calmness. At £10,499 there are cheaper scramblers and more well-rounded street bikes for the money, but the Svartpilen’s refinement, performance and style feel worth it.

**Trinkets-and-baubles version of the glorious naked triple**

**What’s new?** The revised SP shares the engine and chassis updates applied to the base MT-09 earlier this year, but it has an Öhlins shock, KYB forks, R1M-inspired paint (with a clear-coated brushed-alloy swingarm), Yamaha’s first use of Brembo Stylema calipers, and keyless ignition. Oh, and a Track mode plus two extra rider-customisable ones.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The SP is more composed and capable than a regular MT-09 and has a strong enough sporting feel to justify the SP tag – and the £11,806 asking price. With its enhanced braking, quality chassis and greater set-up options, it’s a proper naked sportsbike and a valid alternative to a Street Triple RS.

**Chinese A2-legal sportsbike in new more blingy ‘S’ guise**

**What’s new?** It’s the common or garden 450SR sportsbike, with its 449cc parallel twin (with rumble-tastic 270° crank), TFT dash, and Ducati Panigale-ish looks. But for this new SR Svariant there’s a single-sided rear, upgraded forks and a different pipe. It’s as racy as A2 bikes get.

_**Bike’s**_ **opinion** The 46bhp twin is charismatic and fun yet refined and smooth. Light and agile chassis, too. The SR Sis a little sportier and has a more prone stance than rivals like the Kawasaki Ninja 500 and Honda CBR500R, making it feel less ‘learner’. And at £5699 the CFMoto undercuts them by £800 and £1000 respectively, too. The CST tyres aren’t great, otherwise the 450 is a marvellous little thing.

#### This Team Classic Suzuki GSX-R750 has lapped the TT quicker than any other 750. We take it for a wobble…

In the Classic Superbike race at last year’s Manx GP, Michael Dunlop pedalled this GSX-R750 SRAD around the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course at an average of 126.681mph. The fastest-ever lap by a 750cc bike, it would have put the 28 ‐yea r‐old 750 in eighth place during qualifying for this year’s Superbike TT against all the BMW M1000RRs and Honda Fireblades. Clearly, it’s a bit special.

This is evident before I’ve even trundled out onto Cadwell Park’s undulations. The racer feels oh-so-different to my own SRAD road bike – the footpegs are tucked high, the seat is way taller, and the four-cylinder engine responds so crisply to a mere whiff of unleaded it makes me wonder if my own bike’s airbox is full of papier mâché.

And out on track the GSX-R is simply wonderful. The way the motor builds revs, accelerates and devours its close-ratio gears is sensational – on Cadwell’s start straight the low clip-on ’bars gently sway as the Suzuki tries to wheelie in third and fourth gears. Tipping into corners is effortless, the 750 turning with the immediacy and precision you only truly experience on a proper race bike. Today’s sportsbikes are epic, yes – but this is another level. The best bit is the front end. Feel from the traditionally mounted brake calipers and forks is exquisite, letting you place the chassis exactly where you want and carry oodles of corner speed. Or at least make a wobbler like me feel like that’s what they’re doing.

It’s not just corner entry that stands out, though; it’s the way the delicious chassis and rich stream of clear feedback let you alter lean angle and direction mid-turn. I’ve ridden race bikes before that have clearly been exceptional, but made me feel a tad inadequate. The Team Classic bike fills me with confidence.

It’s the fastest-ever 750 around the Mountain Course – and it’s the greatest one I’ve ever been lucky enough to ride.

#### Both twins, both 750cc-ish, both pleasingly popular. But the Honda CB750 Hornet and Suzuki GSX-8S are actually quite different animals. We inflict trial by datalogger and dyno to see which can stick its chest out further

#### BMW weren’t the only manufacturer to understand what an adventure bike was before they became a thing. A floundering British firm were on the ball, too…

Trust the old British motorcycle industry to poke its toe into a potentially vast market at just the right moment then run out of money and go into receivership two years after the event. The 1981 Triumph TR7T (Tiger Trail) was cobbled together after desperate French Triumph dealers pleaded for something they could punt to rival the 1980 BMW R80G/S – and the Meriden Workers’ Co ‐operative (as Triumph became in 1977) excelled themselves.

They knocked the TR7T together from their own parts bins and European-supplied cycle parts in a few months. Frame was the usual central spine oil-bearing affair, engine was a mildly detuned 744cc Tiger unit. The 21in front wheel and a pair of Marzocchi shocks were the major chassis mods for dual-purpose credibility. And it worked.

At 185kg wet, with 40bhp and 34 lb.ft, it was nippy enough for the time while the R80G/S weighed the same and boasted 50bhp. The GS, let’s not forget, was essentially an R80/7 engine in an R65 frame with a 21in front wheel. These were the only twin-cylinder trail bikes larger than 500cc available, and both from manufacturers with rich histories in big, twin-pot trailies. The problem for the Co-op was that BMW could crank their GS production up at will, while the Meriden factory was operating on a lamentably hand-to-mouth basis.

They barely had the funds to pay Marzocchi for the shocks, German firm Bumm for the mirrors, Radaelli for the steel wheel rims… and ended up making just 165 Tiger Trails.

The TR7T proved a decent competition tool; a Tiger Trail won the 750cc and above class in the 1981 Rallye des Pyrénées – beating BMW’s R80G/S to the trophy. Yet where Triumph posted that minor win, BMW brought home the big prize with a Paris-Dakar victory in 1981 (repeating the feat in ’83, ’84 and ’85). Face it: a Meriden-era twin would not be first choice for anyone planning to even reach Dakar, let alone win a Paris-Dakar. Globetrotter Ted Simon bravely employed a Triumph twin to circle the world via some fairly inhospitable environments, but he was not racing a relic with its roots in a 1937 design, merely hoping to visit his next destination without recourse to the tool roll.

The TR7T cost £1800 in 1981; the R80G/S was £2300. Both are now comfortably around the £10,000 mark if you can find a decent example. The G/S went on to become something of an institution, and the modern Triumph range boasts some impressive big trailies in a market that is now huge compared to what it was more than 40 years ago. The 1981 TR7T blazed that trail.

#### Isle of Man first-timer **Dom Mattock** finds visiting the Manx GP is something he could – and should – have done yonks ago

The Snaefell Mountain course has long held fascination, and I got really invested when Ian Hutchinson won five TTs in a week in 2010. Ever since it’s been my intention to go. But two things have stopped me. Firstly, being organised is a prerequisite and you need to plan 18 months ahead, which I can’t. Secondly, my head is full of ‘what if?’ questions, so l decide the answer is the easier-access Manx GP – ‘TT Lite’ – with pals Gary and accident-prone Chris.

#### **Getting there’s a doddle, right?**

The 2.15am Steam Packet ferry from Liverpool, land at our Douglas accommodation first-thing Thursday. One day of practice, two days of racing. Return on the Sunday. Perfect.

Then weather intervenes, and our crossing is cancelled. After frantic replanning. Chris and I book a ferry from Heysham the next morning, but this brings further complications for Gary who books a flight instead. D’oh.

The ride there via Hartington, Buxton and Settle (with the terrific Monks Road from Heyfield to Charlesworth) is great, though. At the ferry terminal we immediately bump into chatty comrades from all over Europe and settle in. Chris suffers badly from getting hangry, so I get pizza delivered direct to the terminal.

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