It has been confirmed that the partnership between John McGuinness and Honda Racing has ended.
The news was delivered by the 23-time TT winner himself during the Joey Dunlop Foundation’s annual charity dinner.
News has speculated on whether the “King of the Mountain” will join Norton, Tyco BMW, Kawasaki or run his own private team for 2018.
It was only last month when Honda Racing confirmed that Ian Hutchinson and Lee Johnston will race on board their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 for 2018. Both Hutchinson and Johnston have a lot of road riding experience and together with Honda, they will attempt to conquer all of 2018 road racing events from the North West 200, Isle of Man TT, and Ulster GP. (more…)
A new billboard near the Penchala toll plaza is advertising the latest models from Benelli including their 2018 Benelli 752S.
The ad also showed another new model that is the 2018 Benelli 402S which we think is going to be launched soon.
We expect the 2018 bikes to be launched in the first half of 2018 with the price tag of somewhere below RM40,000.
Most of us who frequent the many highways especially in the Klang Valley area can notice a number of motorcycle advertisements placed on billboards. Not a lot of motorcycle manufacturer tend to use this particular service to promote their products except for one who has been going all out for this particular market method. We are of course referring to Benelli. (more…)
The 2017 Kawasaki Ninja 650 & Z650 were launched back in January 2017, these are two of the most versatile bikes Kawasaki has launched to date.
Kawasaki Japan stated that there will be an Akrapovic full exhaust system for those who wish to have a performance upgrade.
The Akrapovic Racing Line (titanium) full system exhausts offer weight reduction for better handling and performance boost for more power and torque.
The 2017 Kawasaki 650 series has been around for almost a year now and we honestly have to say that they’re probably one the most versatile middleweight bikes we’ve seen especially for 2017. Both the Kawasaki Ninja 650 ABS and Z650 ABS took us on some amazing journeys in both style and comfort. (more…)
He didn’t sustain bad injuries in the accident although his tongue required seven stitches, besides losing his phone and money.
Azlan is slated to begin his 2018 season preparation soon.
2017 Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) 600cc champion, Azlan Shah was involved in a traffic accident later yesterday.
“I was travelling home from Sunway. The road was very dark and I suddenly hit a lorry. I blacked out immediately and realised I was in the hospital when I came to,” said the rider when speaking to Malaysian daily, Berita Harian.
Onlookers rushed Azlan to the Selayang Hospital after witnessing the crash which totalled his Toyota.
“I’m thankful that I escaped relatively unscathed, although I’ve lost my cellphone and money,” he continued. He received a deep cut to his tongue for which it received seven stitches. “I could eat or talk much due to the multiple stitches. It’s only porridge for me at the moment.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd4_sCCAW0B/
Azlan will be heading to the Chang International Circuit at Buriram, Thailand to being his pre-season preparations today.
“The accident will not affect my focus on defending my championship this year. My determination and motivation remains unchanged from last year. It’s going to be more competitive this year but I believe I could still put up a big challenge.”
Azlan will be riding for the Manual Tech KYT Kawasaki Racing team from Indonesia this year.
Aaah… What a wonderful weekend it’s been, brought on by perpetually cloudy skies, light showers, hence low temperatures. There’s finally time to catch up on a few movies with the family.
‘Let’s watch something entertaining. One without needing to be analyzed,” said the Missus. Darn, I was just thinking about The Arrival. Ok, something entertaining. Let’s re-watch Deadpool, then. It’s a great movie. It’s got plenty of good ol’ action rolled in together with (slightly perverse) romance, over-the-top clashes, and of course, the off-kilter humour expertly executed by Ryan Reynolds.
I’ve probably watched the film more than five times and still love it, except for a little detail during the first car chase scene on the freeway.
Why? Hollywood, Bollywood (especially!) and almost all filmmakers have always got things wrong when it comes to motorcycles. Don’t any of these producers or directors ride?
Engine note
The Ducati Panigales in Deadpool sounded like inline-Fours, the Triumph Speed Triple in Hitman’s Bodyguard was like a small V-Twin despite having an Arrows pipe, John Connor’s Honda XR100 four-stroke single in Terminator 2 had a two-stroke sound, both Suzuki four-stroke dirtbikes in Black Rain sounded like Suzuki GSX-R’s, the two Ducati 916s in Fled alternated between the Desmo V-Due and ZX-11, the ZZR-250 in Kill Bill sounded like a ZZR-600….
However, Harleys sound exactly like Harleys.
Turbocharged + supercharged + hypercharged cars
The hero gets on a sportbike or high-powered bike and takes off. But the bad guys in crappy cars always catch up despite traffic that rivals Bangkok’s during rush hour. They must have fitted turbochargers, superchargers, NOS and teleporters in their cars. Naughty bad guys.
Custom transmission
You can hear the bikes upshifting again and again in almost every chase scene which involves motorcycles. Motorcycles don’t have 18-speed gearboxes like those on big rigs. This phenomenon applies to car movies, as well, for example in the Fast & Furious series.
Bikes can jump over everything
Yes, they’d jump over traffic, people, fences, and spaces between buildings, but inexplicably without ramps, and still end up perfectly okay after landing. The X-Fighters riders can learn something here.
No helmet, no problem
The rider in attention, regardless if protagonist or antagonist, could ride at high speeds and still see without a helmet. The Dhoom series of movies took it further, as the riders rode to nearly 300 km/h without helmet, safety gear and while sitting fully upright. Try riding your bike at 140 km/h with the helmet’s visor open and see how it feels like.
Self-stabilizing bikes
Back to Terminator 2 and the thrilling chase scene where the T-1000 drives a big rig to hunt down John Connor on the two-stroke sounding XR100. The killing machine managed to ram the motorcycle a couple of times, but our hero stayed up. Hello, we’d go down like nangka busuk even if whacked by another bike, what more by a truck!
Transform and roll out!
No, we’re not talking about Michael Mann’s abomination, but road tyres that to transform to offroad tyres and back, depending on the road surface. This was clearly apparent in Mission Impossible II.
We came across this nugget of a video while scouring through the thick web surrounding YouTube videos and thought it’ll be interesting to share with our Bikes Republic followers.
Destin Sandlin, the owner of the YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay (SED) had heard about some guys – Phil, Mike and Everett – who created a transparent engine head cover and visited them to truly see what actually goes on in the combustion chamber of an internal combustion engine.
The builders took a 1920’s Briggs & Stratton side-valve engine and replaced the stock head with a thick perspex cover. Destin then shot the action at 20,000 frames per second.
Let’s watch the video below:
The video clearly shows the four distinct strokes of a four-stroke: Intake, compression, power and exhaust. But what’s really apparent are the movements of the fuel/air mixture, combustion flame propagation and exhaust gas evacuation.
Remember that we also spoke about the spark being introduced before the piston actually arrives at TDC (top dead centre – where the piston is at its highest point in the cylinder) during the compression stroke? Well, you could see that here too.
