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British MX: New Faces On The Irish Podium

After a month's hiatus, the Maxxis British Motocross Championship rumbled back to life with the annual round in Northern Ireland. The weather leading up to the round had been good, and for a change it looked that the championship would see some weather similar to the round at Lyng, but it was not to be. The round piggybacked on a road race in the area in that the traditional race day on Saturday was moved to Sunday, in the hopes that it would improve the spectator figures.

SBK08 : Virtual Reality or just Reality

It’s Sunday morning and the glint from the sun outside bursts through your motorhome curtains. It’s a lovely sunny day, with a gentle breeze, perfect weather for popping down to the coast, but you can’t think about that today, no you’ve got work to do. You roll out of bed, and head for the shower. Half an hour later after a light high protein breakfast, you are pulling on your leathers and following your strict routine to make sure that you don’t incur any bad luck through the morning warm up. You hear some fans chanting your name from outside, although from the inside of the motorhome it all sounds like you watching it on TV. A quick look in the mirror, grab the sunglasses, crash helmet and the sponsors obligatory baseball cap and you take a deep breath and then head for the door.

The REV'IT! Replica One-Piece Leather Suit & Stealth Gloves

REV'IT! have provided us with one of their top-range suits, the Replica which is as it sounds is a replica of the MotoGP suit that Honda's Randy de Puniet wears whist racing around the worlds circuits at over 200mph each week. Notably, Karl 'Bomber' Harris also wears the suit in the brilliant BSB series, and as you should know, has put it through its paces with a number of cringe-worth crashes. One involving being hit by a flying bike at over 100mph. I'm thinking that if it's good enough for Randy to walk away from his crash at Catalunya last weekend and Karl's experiences, then it's good enough for me.

World MX: The French Grand Prix Brings A Refreshing Change

Wow, after the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago, this round has got to be one of the most exciting rounds yet this year. The weather forecast on Friday was sketchy to say the least, and when flight BA 7987 turned south for France, it certainly looked like most of the Grands Prix this year bar one so far - rain. With some tailwind, the Boeing 737 turned south west ten minutes early, descended through the broken cloud cover and neatly into the capital of Aquitaine.

Making History : Scott Redding

A year is a long time in racing, but 35 years is an eternity. It has been 35 years since a home grown talent has managed to win the British Grand Prix, thankfully that is a statistic that can now be put to bed. In a display that has won many plaudits from some of the top riders in the sport today, Redding was cool, calm and decisive in every move he made, through a tough and extremely gusty race, and ultimately providing the 90,000 strong crowd with the perfect cure for the harsh weekend weather and renewing our hope that we may have a champion in the series again one day.

NW200 - 2008, My Roadtrip Diary

48 hours ago I was at home contemplating cleaning my bike before a track-day. That was before londonbikers.com invited me to work along side the 2008 NW200 Ducati Team in a bid to promote the NW200 week events racing, and to get more people riding to the NothWest 200's 80th Anniversary next year in 2009. Each year the NW200's turn out gets bigger, but they want more families, more after race events, and most of all even more bikers to ride there and experience the high voltage atmosphere and the fabulous road racing.

The New Ace Café Racer

British culture is littered with icons. From the monarchy to the Mini car, white cliffs of Dover to the Beatles, the English pint and cricket, these icons are known and loved by the British and recognised around the world as representing the drive, imagination and passion of the British people.

World MX: British Grand Prix Blasts Mallory Park

When it was first announced that the British Motocross Grand Prix was going to Mallory Park in Leicestershire, I was sceptical. Mallory Park is after all recognised more for its road-race circuit than motocross. Of course, there is space for a motocross track because a track already exists, but my concerns were more about the camping and the all-too-notorious traffic. After several phone calls between the promoter RHL Activities and myself, which promised that traffic and camping were taken care of, I felt somewhat more positive. And then, months later, on Saturday the last day of May, I find myself cautiously driving down Kirkby Mallory's Church Road to Mallory Park.

NW200 – The Ride, Race & Total Experience

And So It All Began… The alarm on the clock sounded, and the display read 3:30am. It was that time to get up and ride the 287 miles to Holyhead, and all by 8:45am. I knew then that I was going to be on my way to the North West 200 Road-Race in Northern Ireland, man was I excited!! I met Clinton at the petrol station by the Ace Cafe; we filled up the bikes and set off at 4:30am on the long ride towards Wales. The TomTom told us we should arrive at 8:49am, so Clinton and I had to make up some time, the roads were clear, we opened our throttles, and why not!

MotoGP The Season So Far - Pulling No Punches

The say that sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind, well we’ve reached the 1/3 stage in the MotoGP championship and with silly season just around the corner, I’m going to be brutally honest in my report of the season so far and give my opinion on possible rumours and possible team changes for 2009. Yes I know we’re only six races in but believe me, there are already backstage murmurs of rider changes and contract negotiations taking place in the paddock.

World MX: Damp Italian Grand Prix Delivers Surprise Results

When you think about Italy you probably think about Roman ruins, old palazzos and cobbled streets. And wine and pasta and sunshine, fashion, fast cars and fast bikes. And hard-baked, sun-burnt ground. Not sand. Mantova, or Mantua in the local Lombardian dialect, is a fantastic old city in the south east corner of Lombardia, and it hosts the annual Mantova Starcross, one of the three or so races that comprise the pre-season in motocross. The track is in walking distance from Mantova's second-most famous landmark, the Palazzo Te, and it is, quite literally, Italy's sandbox.

Return of the King : Valentino Rossi

No wins in eight races, it doesn’t sound like a lot, well unless your name is Valentino Rossi. It’s fair to say in true Hollywood style that the King has returned and he’s looking just a devastating as he’s ever been. The last two and a half years of Rossi’s life would make the perfect script for any Hollywood wannabe writers, with a slice of despair, a touch of joy, a huge slab of disbelief, not forgetting sheer ecstasy and a heavy dose of pain to pad out the script. Then just when you think your hero is down and out and you have the bad guy about the make the telling blow, there is the classic Hollywood happy ending as our hero rises from the jaws of defeat, to ride off into the sunset and live another day. Rossi has dominated the premier class since his arrival in 2001, taking five MotoGP titles along the way, three with Honda and then just when all the critics said it couldn’t be done two more with Yamaha. The sad fact it seems these days is that the more successful you are the more people will want to see your downfall.

Michael Schumacher: Is there any Truth behind the Rumours?

There has been ongoing speculation and rumours floating around the motorcycling fraternity for the last six months about the future of a certain seven times Formula one champion and his intentions towards the two wheeled sport. Schumacher has always been interested in motorbikes, and owns a large collection of bikes, including a Ducati 1098R and a Desmosedici RR. However he has always been quick to state that his appearance at the track has nothing to do with any plans to make a move into MotoGP. Instead it is merely Michael taking time out to enjoy his hobby of going fast on bikes.

BSB: Brands Hatch R1 Rescheduled - Weekend Report

Ok so here’s the thing. Instead of the usual “he led into the first corner, then fell off, this other guy went quicker and won” kinda thing, which can be a little dull and is certainly done better by others, here’s the weekend from our point of view… which is usually through a Canon 1D but we’ll try and spare you the techno babble about photography (Lord don’t get me started on that) and just give you all an idea what goes on.

World Superbike Review : Round 5 Monza

Round five of the World Superbike Championship took the teams to Monza, a high speed challenging circuit which is set in one of the most beautiful settings on the World Superbike calendar. The circuit is steeped in history and will always hold a special place for the passionate fans of all forms of motorsport. However none of the riders this weekend were interested in the circuits existing history. The weekend started how the last meeting in Assen finished with Troy Bayliss stamping his authority over the field with a blisteringly quick superpole lap to please the passionate Italian fans that had turned out to cheer on their heroes. Troy would have been delighted to see that his only main championship rival lining up along side him for the two superbike races was Carlos Checa in forth.

Michelin Launch the Anakee 2

Nick Sanders, Ewan McGregor, Charlie Boorman, its all their fault. Showing the world that you can travel around with nothing more than a rucksack and a motorbike has led a new generation into the unknown. Making us think it would be easy to stack up the miles and travel across entire continents, encountering a barrage of changing and challenging terrains without so much as a compass and a water bottle for company.

Book Review – Into Africa

Have you ever had the urge to give up your job and go traveling for a year on a motorbike which you have only just learnt to ride? Sam Manicom did, he had invested heavily into his career, the eternal rat race to get to the top of the pile. When it was evident that the top job was not going to be he decided to do a trip down Africa instead.

BSB: Round 3 - Oulton Park Event Roundup

British Superbikes Round 3 was held at the scenic 2.7 mile Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park last week, under yet another grey, leaden sky. This was despite the rest of the country appearing to be in store for a fine Bank Holiday weekend, which didn’t do much for our spirits as we climbed into our sleeping bags, locked the car doors and hoped for sunshine when we woke on Saturday morning.

British MX: Summer Weather Spells Midway Point For The Maxxis

It's barely into May and the Maxxis British Motocross Championship has reached its midway point already. Round four of the championship, held at the Cadders Hill sand track just outside the village of Lyng in Norfolk over the Early May Bank Holiday weekend, was a relief to all riders as it heralded the beginning of summer with temperatures in the twenties and sunshine. Considering that Lyng usually gets the cold and dreary round in early March, the date was well-chosen this year, and to good effect too. The spectator turnout was satisfactory, definitely better than other rounds have experienced so far.

World MX: Blazing Action Ignites Championship In Portugal

What a difference a week makes. Last week it was rain and mud, this week it is literally summer weather that belongs in July. But – who are we to complain? Better this than pouring rain, miserable riders and miserable spectators. Águeda, a sleepy market town in the north-west of Portugal and a scant hour from the hustle and bustle of Porto, hosts the third round of the World Motocross Championship, and the complete turnabout of the weather pleasantly surprises everyone. Hot and dry from mid-week onwards, the temperatures peak on Saturday where the mercury hits 32 degrees centigrade and prompts the use of anything that can keep the temperatures down.