8 | December 2010 www.ride.co.uk

Send your pics to ride@ride.co.uk

Your bikesShow us where you ride, what you ride and who you ride with – and we’ll show the world

The Croissant Tour 2010 in Normandy. A great laugh, great roads and we even managed to keep

to the correct side this year – Joe Brock

RiDE READERS

The Heath clan on tour in Snowdonia. An excellent, dry, long

weekend – Matt Heath

My GSX-R1000 K3 – Stevie Fitzsimons

At the foot of the French Alps on my

third 954 Fireblade – are these the best

bikes ever made? – Graham Darrah

RIDE OUT

December 2010 | 9www.ride.co.uk

Enjoying RiDE on a camping trip in France – Neil

With my Busa on the ascent of Col du Galibier – Jez Moore

Rode a Harley Road King with a great bunch of guys on the

HC Travel Route 66 trip – David Royle

My brand-new Triumph Sprint ST performed brilliantly on my recent

trip to ride the TT course – Simon NuttHere is my wife posing next to her 1994 FZR600R, with my Busa behind her, taken just after a 300-mile weekend blast – Mark Senn

On a freezing cold trip to Fort William in the middle of the night for a McDonald’s.

It seemed a good idea at the time – Paul, Manny and Davie

RIDE OUT

24 Ride DECEMBER 2010 www.ride.co.uk

Words Rob Hoyles Pictures BritishSportPhotography.com

“I haven’t done a trackday for about eight years, though I have done some track-based training at Mallory,” Craig warns, with a look that straddles the fine line between nervous trepidation and

abject fear. The morning drizzle misting his visor and soaking the track probably isn’t helping, either.

It’s not unusual to be nervous about riding on a track, particularly if it’s not something you’ve done before. But the racetrack offers the perfect environment in which to work on machine control. Without concentration taken up by the day-to-day road worries of myopic drivers, dodgy drain covers and deadly diesel spills, the wide open spaces of Donington Park are the perfect place to learn without being too severely punished for any minor mistakes.

The first session is encouraging. Craig sets off to learn the correct line through the corners. It also gives a chance to learn a bit about his riding style. It quickly becomes apparent that Craig rides well within himself and that’s good – it means he can only go faster!

It’s your track day, too!A quick debrief after the first session reveals a few of Craig’s concerns. “I don’t want to get wiped out,” is one of the first things he says. “And I don’t want to get in the way, either!”

When you’re on track, especially for the first time, it’s crucial to remember that you have as much right to be there as anyone else. Craig needs to forget what’s going on behind him and concentrate on what’s going on ahead. Only then, once his concentration is focused on where he’s going will he be able to relax enough to really ride properly.

With this in mind, the second session sees Craig takes a huge step forward – though there’s still plenty that needs to be ironed out if we’re to end the day with an improved lap time and a grinning Scotsman. By the third session, the track is drying quickly and it’s time to up the pace.

Craig starts brightly, riding with an air of confidence that has appeared almost as quickly as the dry line. As a rider he’s fine, but as a track rider his faults are absolutely typical of people who only really ride on the road. There’s very little inherently wrong with that – it’s just way too cautious for a racetrack.

GettinG on trackHow do you push your riding to the next level? There’s only one safe place to try, and that’s the race track. We sent Craig Finlayson a Donington Park trackday to get day’s intensive instruction

project fIt-to-rIde

Meet Craig Finlayson. He’s a handy rider, but not so sharp as he used to be. And he knows he’s not as fit or as slim as he once was. So RiDE has given him a programme of exercise, rider training and even sports psychology to help him get his mojo back.

We’ve enlisted the help of British Superstock racer, Ron Haslam Race School instructor and regular RiDE contributor Rob Hoyles. His job for the day is to help Craig to relax and focus on his machine control in the ideal environment – the race track.

THE STORY SO FAR

MEET THE inSTRucTOR

the comfort zoneIt’s obvious that Craig’s riding well within his comfort zone. That’s no bad thing as it’s safe – just what you need on the road – but the whole point of coming on track is to stretch yourself, to explore what’s just beyond that comfort zone in a safer environment than the road, so control skills are developed. Sticking in that comfort zone means Craig’s reached a point where the pace isn’t going to change, no matter how many more laps he completes – especially as Craig’s consistency proves he now knows which way the track goes.

Knowing where the track goes is important, because it means Craig has freed up a little brain space that, rather than concentrating on navigation, can now be used to make him go faster – and without wandering too far from his comfort zone. Having consistently lapped at almost bang on 1m 40s around the revised National Circuit, it’s time to chip away and get Craig where he should be, in the mid 1m 35s.

Braking and corner entry are perhaps Craig’s biggest weak points. That’s true of most road riders. After all, who wants to go too fast into a corner on the road and run wide or suddenly find the limit of front tyre grip? Craig’s braking happens in very distinct stages. Roll the throttle, coast, put a bit of brake on, let it off and then turn and get on the throttle, drive through the corner. He needs to develop a more positive transition from full throttle to full braking.

BrakIng, turnIng and drIvIngThe first thing is to find a few braking markers. This means spotting a point on the track where the brakes are applied – the same point for each corner, every lap. Could be at one of the marker boards giving the distance to the corner, a change in the tarmac or a sign on the trackside. Staying positive on the throttle all the way to the braking marker removes any speed-sapping nervous hesitation before the brakes are applied. And if you then find that you hit the corner too slowly, next lap the marker can be pushed back by a bike length.

Craig also has a tendency to approach each corner at least five feet in from the edge of the track. This means he makes the corners tighter than they need to be, which not only narrows his angle on entry but also forces him to run wide on the exit. The net result is that he can’t carry much entry speed and has to wait until he’s way past the apex – the midpoint of the corner – before he can open the throttle.

When he does open the throttle, there’s another problem. Craig’s tending to carry one gear too many in some turns. For instance rather than getting down to second for the Foggy Esses that lead back onto the start/finish straight, he only drops down to third. As a result, even though he’s hard on the gas on the exit, the engine is pulling from too far down the rev range. This is costing him drive and speed.

posItIve mental attItudeWhat’s the problem? “I’m scared people will stick it underneath me on the way into the turn so I’m riding

88 | December 2010 www.ride.co.uk

Triumph’s fab sports tourer, the Sprint ST, has now spawned the more touring biased GT. How do they compare as tourers and as sports tourers?

Words Simon Weir Pictures Mark Manning

SPRINT GTTRIUMPH

SPRINT STversus

Triumph Sprint GT1050cc, 128bhp, £9499

104 | December 2010 www.ride.co.uk

Corrosion is a terrible thing. Elbow grease is the cure

Last cleaned in about 1874. Swingarm needs restoring

To refresh your rear end, start by washing it

Rolling back the yearsOur Thundercat is nearing completion, but no overhaul is complete without a rear-end fettle

Words and photos Matt Hull

I’m desperate to get our Thundercat back on the road so I can finally enjoy the bike we keep raving about. But it’s

pointless if only half the job has been done. The touched up fairing highlighted just how scabby the painted steel swingarm was looking. So as the rear shock was coming out to be rebuilt by FTR Suspension (01284 752102) it was the ideal time to take out the swingarm, give it a thorough clean and a fresh coat of paint. It also meant I could check the bearings – something unlikely to have been done since it was built 14 years ago.

This leads to an interesting problem – if you take out the rear wheel you can use a paddock stand. But how do you hold the bike up to remove the shock or swingarm? If you are lucky enough to have an RSJ in the roof then you could suspend it from this. Our solution: hang the back of the bike from a pair of ladders.

Fix the two halves together firmly with ratchet straps at the pivot point, then further down to stop them doing the splits once the weight of the bike is taken. It’s best to chock the ladder feet for extra peace of mind (you could use another

strap between the bottom rungs, though it may get in the way). As the ladders are only taking half of the weight of the bike, which is less than an average adult, the force it has to cope with is about the same as if you were climbing it. But use your common sense and make sure the straps are secure and the bike is held well too. And doing this with a Goldwing could result in trouble…

Before hoisting the good ship Thundercat up, the rear wheel was removed and most of the suspension was loosened – they bolts had been done up a long time and the torque needed to loosen them could have put excess strain on the ladder tower. I’d given all the nuts and bolts due to come apart a good lashing of penetrating spray a day before, so it had time to soak in. The bolts all did as they were told, apart from the front torque arm pivot, which uses a split pin for security. This blighter had totally corroded together so the only option was to cut off the protruding ends of the split pin, then unscrew the nut. Once that was out I pushed the remaining pin out with a drift.

With the swingarm ready to come out, the rear brake caliper was set to dangle in

Project tHUNDercAt

In assocIatIon wIth DevItt

www.ride.co.uk114 | December 2010

technology special

ELEC

TRONIC SUSPENSIO

N FOUR R

IDIN

G MODES

AUTOMA

TIC G

EARBOX

HAND

BRAKE

FUTUREIS HERE...THE

NEW BIKES

December 2010 | 115www.ride.co.uk

Words Simon Weir Pictures Jason Critchell

Two very different bikes arrived in 2010 offering new technology. On the one hand we have the Honda VFR1200F

DCT with its dual-clutch transmission – a gearbox with two automatically activated clutches that can run in fully automatic or manual-shift mode. Then there’s the Ducati Multistrada 1200S, with four riding modes that change throttle response, engine power, traction control levels and suspension settings at the press of a button.

Unlike most advances in motorcycle technology, these aren’t directly derived from motorcycle racing. They’ve beeb developed specifically from road users, generally by adapting technology already employed in the car world. Could one of this hi-tech duo show how bikes will develop? To help us read the future, we called in Neil Spalding – the technical expert on the Eurosport MotoGP commentary team and the man behind Sigma Performance, purveyors of top-end slipper clutches. “I haven’t ridden either bike yet,” he says before we set off on our test ride. “I’m quite curious to see what the factories have done.”

Spalding starts on the VFR and adapts readily to riding without clutch or gear levers. “I also ride a scooter,” he explains. The top end of the VFR engine is identical to the 153bhp manual version – it’s only the gearbox that’s different. The dual-clutch transmission is essentially a normal sequential six-speed gearbox, but rather than using a single input shaft and a single clutch it has two concentric input shafts and a pair of clutches. One engages gears one, three and five, the other gears two, four and six.

The clutches aren’t operated by the rider

Ducati’s Multistrada 1200S and Honda’s VFR1200F DCT are crammed with new tech – but how much of it is gimmickry and how much is real progress?

hauling on a lever. When it’s time to change gear, the bike’s ECU activates hydraulic solenoids to operate the clutches. How does it know when it’s time to change? Either when the rider presses the up or down button on the left-hand bar or, if it’s in one of its two automatictransmission modes, when its riding algorithm determines that the combination of speed and throttle opening requires a different gear. When stopping, it puts itself into first – and never stalls.

It’s a smooth engine and in the automatic modes makes the already user-friendly engine utterly effortless to use. “It’s very good, though the D-mode is awful,” Spalding says. The two automatic modes are D (for drive) and S (for Sport) and are based on riding patterns of Honda test riders. D is mild mannered and economical, changing up at the earliest opportunity and changing down as late as it can – we found it would get into top at 41mph, but held onto it as low as 38mph when braking. S is revvier, holding onto each gear for longer, kicking-down for increased acceleration more readily and shifting down sooner when braking.

“It would be so easy to improve the bike, by fitting a ‘record’ function,” he says. “Some way to let it work out how I ride – so it can learn when I would shift gear. All the sensors must be there, so it just needs to have some memory added. The engineers could build in rules, so you can’t set rolling-burnouts or anything ridiculous. But it’s so easy to use, anyone could ride it. After I’d done a dozen or so tight turns on it and got used to the throttle, I was even confident with low-speed manoeuvering on it.”

As a man who used to fix Ducatis (and

DucatiMultistrada 1200S Price: £ 14,295Engine: 1198cc 8v dohc 90° V-twin, l/c Power: 150bhp @ 9250rpm (claimed) Torque: 87.5lb.ft @ 7500rpm (claimed) Top speed: 150mph (est)Chassis: steel trellis with cast aluminium sections Tyres: 120/70-17; 190/55-17 Wheelbase: 1530mm Rake/trail: 25°/110mm Seat height: 850mm Kerb weight: 217kg Fuel capacity: 20 litres

Honda VFR1200F DCTPrice: £12,596Engine: 1237cc 16v sohc V4, l/cPower: 170bhp @ 10,000rpm (claimed)Torque: 95lb.ft @ 8750rpm (claimed)Top speed: 160mph (est)Chassis: aluminium beamTyres: 120/70-17; 190/55-17Wheelbase: 1545mmRake/trail: 25.5°/101mmSeat height: 815mmWet weight 267kgFuel capacity: 18.5 litres

Are these two bikes the shape of things to come?

HAND

BRAKE

IS HERE...