The folks at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) welcomed their new CEO, Mr Azhan Shafriman Hanif today. He will be taking over the role from Dato’ Razlan Razali, who completed his resignation tenure yesterday (7 April 2020) after 11 years of excellent service to not only the country but the overall growth of the motorsports scene in Asia. (more…)
The MCO (Movement Control Order) has left a lot of bikes and cars vulnerable to theft as the usual crowded places are now temporarily deserted without the usual heavy traffic. A group of scumbag thieves in Penang has taken this opportunity to steal a bunch of wheels from several motorcycles at the Bukit Tengah KTM train station. (more…)
As we have predicted earlier during our online interview with Petronas SRT Team Principal, Dato’ Razlan Razali, the upcoming MotoGP rounds in Mugello and Catalunya have been postponed due to the growing concerns related to the COVID-19 virus pandemic. (more…)
Okay, okay, how a bike sounds is subjective just like how a bike looks. But there’s no denying a certain emotion when we hear a melodious one. But we’ve decided to put together a list of the 10 best sounding bikes, anyhow. Do leave us a comment on which other bike or bikes that you think sounded great.
You may notice that all the bikes here are pre-Euro 4 and Euro 5. That’s when they sounded glorious!
Turn it up to 11 for some eargasm.
Like it or not, it has to be here. Harley-Davidson Twins, and Big Twins in particular do produce a distinctive sound. Credit that to air-cooling which still allows much mechanical (if not “agricultural”) sounds through. Heavy metal thunder? Roll it on.
No, not the new Ninja ZX-10R. Instead, its predecessor the ZXR-750 takes the cake. It has a warble and roar at low to mid-RPMs which turns into a mad trumpet at high RPMs. It has to be heard to appreciate.
Well, any four-cylinder engine with the traditional 180-degree crank would sound the same. But the S 1000 RR has a slight mechanical edge to that howl. Most of all, however, and everyone could agree is when the rider toes the quickshifter.
Yamaha changed their crank configuration to the now famous “crossplane.” It’s because Valentino Rossi liked the race bike’s engine with the same format. It was then adopted to the street bike. The result is a bike that sounds like a V-Four at lower RPMs then mixing in the howl of an inline-Four when the needle sweeps higher up. We were so engrossed with that we found ourselves riding the test bike much harder. Oops.
Talking about V-Four engines, the RSV4 and Tuono V4 are the last V-Four production sportbikes. The V-Four engine is a wonderful unit but it’s much more expensive to produce and maintain, besides harder to pack inside a frame. Anyhow, just ride either one of these bikes through a tunnel and pull through a gear or two. No other bikes make the same sound. That roar, that warble. Heaven.
With the start of the MotoGP 2020 season being postponed as late as August, riders and teams are already starting to feel the pressure to compete and perform their level best this season as well as prepare for some monumental changes next season in 2021.
We got a few details from the Team Principal of Petronas SRT (Sepang Racing Team), Dato’ Razlan Razali, to help clarify a few things, including the prospect of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo racing with them. (more…)
Kawasaki took everyone by surprise when they launched the 2020 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-25R carbon fibre race bike. This beautiful beast was launched as a way to promote the upcoming 250cc four-cylinder machine and also a one-make series which will take place in Japan starting 2021 with an exhibition race planned as early as 2021. (more…)
