2006 October blog

Happy Halloween folks! As usual I have added some Halloween decoration under the news link. Tomorrow I'll remove it. Yesterday I returned the Aprilia RS and had a chat to the guys in Walkden. From around 5-6000rpms the transition to the power is quite uneven. That is mostly due to emission regulation as all harmful fumes are burnt in the exhaust. For this reason the inertia of the silencer glows and stays very hot most of the time. With replacement exhaust and jetting the RS should be a dream to ride. TS

Right, here's the NEC summary: Worked until 22:00 in the press room on the 26th. Since I was basically waiting for a slow FTP connection I edited loads of babe pictures whilst waiting. Rupert Williamson at Capitalize kindly waited whilst I transferred images. Great stuff and organizing again at the NEC press room. When I finally left the whole area was sealed and barriers out so that no car could leave without help from security. On the nimble Aprilia RS125 I could easily sneak past. Fuel light had been on since a few miles before I arrived at the NEC so I was a bit worried about how long the reserve would last. The M6 through Birmingham was closed as it had roadwork everywhere so had to do an alternative route through the outskirts of the city centre and the traffic was horrendous even at 11 O'clock at night. So I headed up the only road I know towards Sutton Coldfield and found services just before running out of fuel. When I finally got back to Manchester after pinning the throttle on the RS125 pretty much the whole way (100mph max) I burnt the midnight oil and finished the NEC work. Today I rode the Cat & Fiddle road with Carlos and did a few shots that turned out very dark. The day has been gorgeous, but had to stay in to watch the MotoGP from Valencia before heading out. What a race in terms of surprises! Great to see Troy Bayliss on the top of the podium! And great to see Nicky Hayden claiming the world title too! He's a good guy and can probably live up to the world champion status better than most next year on the 800. TS

Hello from the NEC in Birmingham. I am now in the press office. I have uploaded some high resolution images to the editors that I work with on this one and then I updated the site with some pictures of the new CCM's and one of the many gorgeous bikebabes walking around. Much more later. 2: at 20:15 I am the only journalist left and I just had to get security to open up the bike park again as it was closed. Still about an hours worth left of FTP'ing images to a server on the other side of the globe. TS

I am still enjoying the small 2-stroke from Aprilia. To be fair, the performance is not that small. 39bhp from a 125 single is pretty cool stuff really. It has chucked it down all day, but I nipped out for a short spin anyway. Tomorrow I'll be riding down to the NEC on the RS125 and hopefully I'll get some dry weather so that I can enjoy the scenic route rather than the M6 motorway. I'll be hooking up with Martin Leyfield down at the NEC to send him around chasing ladies for photo sessions. I'll be doing a fair bit of the same, but will post updates during the whole day as well. I don't expect many new bikes that I haven't seen already at the Intermot, but there's always something. I'll be telling you about them first and I know that NEC runs a smooth press office where they stay until the last journalist have finished. Which is how it should be (do you hear me over at EICMA in Milan?). At the home show I also have the flexibility of my own transport and just an hour or so ride home. I might even pop by the show later in the weekend this time, but we'll see how it goes. I forgot to mention the other day that I told BMW that I would eat my helmet if they didn't show something new at the EICMA show in November. Their comments was that they wanted to see the pictures where I am eating my helmet. We shall see my dear friends at BMW-Motorrad, I am not chickening out just yet (do they make chocolate helmets by the way?). TS

Picked up the 2006 Aprilia RS 125 today. It's a really nice looking 125 and definitely up there with the Mito 125 now. I haven't done a lot of miles yet as Aprilia are based really close to where I live, but I can already now say that it feels so light and nimble. It should be a delight to trash it up the mountain roads in a day or two. The new engine have not done that many miles yet so I have to be a bit careful and make sure the digital heat gauge shows three bars or more before keeping the revs up for any longer period of time. My motorcycling life is filled with contrasts such as today when I came on my Cagiva Raptor 1000 with noisy pipes and monster torque and went on a tiny 125 2-stroke with laughable noise and no torque. It's the kind of stuff that makes life worth living. I think that I've said this before, but I'll say it again, don't limit your motorcycling life only to Harley's, Offroads or sport bikes. You are missing out if you do! Tor

This coming week will be a very eventful one. I watched the first full F1 race today from Brazil in respect of Michael Schumacher. It was his last race in Formula 1 and a new era starts (I'm not going to watch that many races as F1 will never beat MotoGP or WSBK for thrills). Next Thursday is press day at the NEC show in Birmingham and we'll be two photographers on the floor to get all the new bikes and babes. The NEC show always feature a lot of glamorous babes and we'll shoot them all. Then it's time for the most exciting race this year at Valencia when the two top MotoGP teams will fight it out for the title. Rossi vs. Hayden usually means Rossi will pick the longest straw, but Nicky have beaten Rossi more than once this year and surely the motivation will be there. I guess Repsol Honda will use team orders to control the hormones of Spanish man for the future, Dani Pedrosa, this time around. Too much is at stake for Honda. Personally I felt a bit blue after partying at just Blue in the Northern Quarter in Manchester with mates this weekend. I love the Northern Quarter and it's very close to where I lived in Manchester before. Tomorrow I'll head up to Aprilia HQ or the garage in Walkden to pick up the mini racer RS 125. I love the little things and hopefully the weather will be nice enough for a couple of rounds on the Cat & Fiddle road. Since moving from Buxton to Sutton Coldfield I have missed the Cat & Fiddle so much that I'm now back in Manchester. It's THE party place in England outside of London and I didn't realise how much I had missed that until I got back in business this weekend. These last two years have been incredible, I have gone from big city life in Manchester city centre to rural Buxton to suburbia hell in Mere Green, Sutton Coldfield and now back to Manchester. You wouldn't notice a thing as I can pretty much work from any place in the world, but the quality of pictures will be better when the Peak District creates the backdrop. See you around... TS

I've had a rest now, but also continued to provide INTERMOT stuff. In retrospect the 2006 INTERMOT was a bit of a anticlimax. Loads of boring new Japanese bikes that have received nothing but the most necessary EURO 3 upgrades. But we did get some new exciting bikes such as the R1, GSX-R1000, B-king, Z1000, 1400 GTR, CB600F Hornet, 690 SM, HP2 Megamoto and XR 1200. Even though I am sure I will love the new Triumph Tiger 1050 when I get one to test, the excitement was taken away as Triumph have let too many people ride the prototype. I haven't read one of the prototype tests fully, but realise that it's old news by the time the world launch takes place. So I'll be taking my time to get some great photography of it instead. Benelli is somewhat still managing to cause grief. The piece of shit press kit we were handed at the Intermot only includes some sketches and drawings that I already had a month ago. So I have been on the phone to Pesaro to get some pictures of the Due 750 and BX Cross 450. I have explained that I work for several editors that are on tight deadlines, but still no one have managed to send me a single picture of the bikes as they were shown at the Intermot. I have also had one cancellation for the Tre-K test as this magazine wanted track shots of the Cafe Racer that I only rode for reference. Just a bullshit excuse to use some cheap crap from one of the many civilians attending the Misano event. I will finish the Tornado 1130 test reluctantly and borrow some pictures from someone in Italy. On Monday I am picking up Aprilia RS 125 for a roadtest. It has actually taken this long to fix the bike after T.W.O's eminent and brilliant test rider Neil McKenzie seized the last engine in the bike. I really want to keep the 125 stroker for a while this time as I want to know how it's like to live with one, but knowing Mr Walker over at AWS UK he'll want it back before it breaks again. I'll at least make sure that I am riding it down to the NEC show in Birmingham next Thursday. I tried as best as I could to wind up MCN a few weeks ago, but no one took the bait thus far which is a shame. I guess I'll just have to keep scooping. I mentioned the NEC show here in the UK next week, but I am already in full EICMA Milan mode. I am looking forward to that show as I have planned to stay two days to reduce the stress and have proper chats with everyone. I hope there's no pre-event hassle and just a straightforward show so that I can do my own pre-event round at Eicma between the airport and my hotel in central Milan. Just like last year. This year I will grab Sergio Robbiano as soon as I see him to get all the latest. I think Aprilia have given him strict orders not to say anything so I will go lightly and grill Leo Mercanti more in stead. We know about the RXV/SXV past, V4 present and future, but I now want to know what's next after that. Back to the Intermot a moment and the BMW news. Cool as the Megamoto might be, there's nothing new about it. Just a new front cowling and road wheels. Nothing new about the K 1200 R Sport apart from half a R 1200 S fairing either. The three X's was new, but I suspect that BMW have got more for us. I'll eat my helmet if they don't show something new in Milan as well. Tor

Friday 13th today. No broken legs or mishaps so I guess I'll be ok. Spoke to Aprilia, Benelli and Moto Guzzi today and Triumph yesterday. We will get a Tiger 1050 just after the world launch (mid November) for a roadtest. One of the first of the production bike. Moto Guzzi will have 2 new 'ish models at the Eicma in addition to the Sport. And then four new models by September next year. Benelli is pushing on and launching new product, if I hadn't pushed for info we hadn't known about any of them. PR is not much on the Benelli agenda these days. In the process of finishing all current writing projects and then I'll have a rest. TS

Server needs a little reboot so that I can get some work done! 15:21. 5 mins.

Intermot update 4: I have now left the building and am back home in England. Yesterday was just an endless succession of press conferences and harvesting of material and press kits. There was no time in between to update, not with only two legs anyway. I started the day at my hotel after only 5 hours of sleep. Then paid a 20 Euro deposit to bring the power adaptor with me from the hotel. I knew I wouldn't have a chance to return it so it's a very expensive adaptor! went straight to the press office and published some of the stuff from yesterday. As you will have noticed it's very little news that I haven't already published! we actually got the full 2007 Yamaha line-up. All that was missing from Honda was the Hornet and CBR125. We had all Suzuki and Kawasaki news so it was only a few bits and pieces from small manufacturers such as Benelli and Moto Morini missing. We got the Beemers yesterday and all in all the news from this years Intermot has been a slight disappointment. The Japanese wants to sell the Euro 2 models before they do the full model upgrades we are waiting for. Yet again Honda disappoints big time by doing nothing to develop and upgrade its V models, VFR and VTR. Suzuki have kept back quite a bit, but still the new B-king and GSX-R1000 are pretty cool. Kawasaki delivered a strong new line-up in the Z1000, Versys and new hard-core ZX-6R in particular. 1400 GTR also looks to be BMW's strongest competitor in the high end touring market. We know for a fact that Kawasaki have saved at least one new model or concept for later this year. I think it's got something to do with a 800cc high performance bike. Anyway, Intermot, I worked my way through all the new Honda's, Kawasakis, Yamaha's and Suzukis one by one. I enjoyed the company of my old Norwegian and Swedish colleagues and there was more talk about the future than usual.  After the BMW press conference I had to throw the towel in and head back to the press office to finish off some work and start FTP'ing some material. Luckily I got to borrow an USB cable from a collegue to download my pictures from the show. I just haven't had time yet to prepare the high resolution images for web. I collected the press kits from the remaining launches and packed my bags to leave for the airport. But first I had to head over to the Motorrad office to hand over my material from the day and the Honda and Harley pre-event press conference. In the end I had to open my office on a bench outside the Intermot whilst waiting for my taxi. Norbert from Motorrad-Online rushed out to meet me with two high speed USB memory sticks. Prepared the folders so that each was less than 1GB and transferred them to the USB sticks out in the open. Good job it didn't rain! Anyway, Motorrad has got my stuff up now before I have had time myself. The lack of ladies at the Intermot was annoying and once again we have to rely on the International motorcycle & scooter show at the NEC in Birmingham for that stuff. With less than 40 minutes left of check in I had to leave. Finished the transfer to the memory sticks and begged to get the first taxi as there was a queue by now. I made Cologne/Bonn airport in time and then the flight got delayed so I was safe. Arrived Gatwick just after 9 O'clock sometime and rode back North. Arrived home just after 1AM. I still haven't gone to bed as I am preparing pictures. I am glad the biggest show is only once a year. TS

had a very busy day. So busy that I have just now downloaded the shots from the floor. Will update more later tonight, but now I have to run to visit Motorrad and then catch my flight home. TS

Intermot update 1: I am so fucked! Forgot both UK adapter and USB transfer cable for my camera at home. That means my laptop will die within minutes and I can't publish show pictures until tomorrow afternoon. Bear with me. It was hellish the ride to Gatwick this morning and I made it with just 5 minutes left to check in. I have just attended the Harley-Davidson XR1200 press conference and am now heading over to Honda. Bill Davidson was present along with all other crucial development personnel. I had planned to grab a taxi with Roland Brown and Jon Urry from the Harley event to the Honda gig. But I went to the press room at the Intermot instead and published some of this. Then I met some Italian friends from Motorbox and shared with them in stead. 

 Intermot update 2: Not exactly so fucked anymore. I am now in possession of  an power adaptor and I have seen several other journos with the same camera as I so should be able to borrow a USB cable in the press room tomorrow. I will also be in touch with my reserve photographer to nick some material off of his camera. It's now 00:44 and I'm in the hotel room preparing stuff to be published in the morning (I will be at the Intermot again around 7-8'ish) . I have attended the Honda and BMW press conferences and am trawling through them now. I can't read everything now, but will publish the highlights. BMW gave me an embargo until 4 or 5PM tomorrow, but I think I will do something about something a little bit earlier than that. I'll give you a hint now though. Of 5 new models three are one and one is four. The fifth new model is still a secret and apparently not based on the F800! Honda launched the CB600 Hornet and it looks absolutely almost stunning. Can't believe it's really a Honda. It's got R6 'ish muffler and the exhaust pipes are drawn like no other Honda. The new CBR125 features headlights from the Fireblade and sure looks better than the old best seller it replaces. The Honda presentation itself was cheesy to say it mildly. Whoever chose the Queen soundtrack must come out of the closet ASAP! Highlights was the unveiling of the Hornet, CBR125 and the appearances of Sebastian Charpentier, Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa and James Toseland. Oh, and I almost forgot, the demo of the Gold Wing airbag was pretty cool too. I think I got a good picture. Thank God Asimo was on holiday this time. When I had got all I think I needed at the Honda gig I grabbed a press kit and made my excuses to head over to BMW. This was around 21:30 and I would rather have stayed or gone to my hotel. But the BMW gig was good and I got to shoot four of the five new models and chat to the always very knowledgeable guys at BMW. I feel slightly more organised ahead of the big day tomorrow so guess I'll sleep like a baby. I am now glad this event is in organised Germany rather than in Italy. Nothing can go wrong tomorrow! TS

Retired the old Varta and replaced it with the new Yuasa battery. Unfortunately the bike now had the right indicator constantly on. Which again told me that something was wrong with the Datatool alarm or wiring. Got the bike jump started on the second go and raced over to Sutton Motorcycles again to fix this problem once and for all. It took a few minutes to have a look at some of the options when we decided it had to be the alarm that caused the problem. Ian at the workshop blocked holes 1 and 2 and 5 and 6 in one of the boxes in the alarm box. Then we hacked the box of and sealed the part of the alarm we had modified. Now the alarm is disabled for good, but the bike starts as it should. My thanks goes to Ian and the guys at Sutton motorcycles for some great service. Now I can go to London Gatwick on Monday morning for my flight to Germany knowing that the bike is still reliable for when I get back on Tuesday night. The Intermot gives me a headache at the moment. I have four different addresses for four different hotels I have to visit on Monday. The first address is my own hotel. The second address is the hotel Harley-Davidson is hosting their event in. The third address is the Honda press conference and the fourth (where I have intended to end the evening at the bar with the Beemer girls) is BMW's press conference. At this point I haven't got a clue how far apart these hotels are. I only know that it will be a very tight schedule. So tight that I don't think I'll be able to visit the Intermot until the press day on the 10th. On the 10th I will be doing loads of stuff for loads of different magazines all over the world. Included Motorrad that are working on home-soil. They have moved their whole office to the Exhibition, but I will still be providing Motorrad-Online with extra's such as the most gorgeous babes on bikes. This means I will be running between the stands, the press room and the Motorrad offices. I also have to photograph all the new bikes. I'll be using a big lens 8 Megapixel and a small lens compact 5 Mega pixel camera as well as the services of one professional photographer for any stuff that I might miss. I also need to speak to every single press officer in the building which takes time. Then you've got all the press kits.... In between (whenever that is...) I will be sending out reports as the biggest news happen and update this site. I will use my colleagues around in Europe as my back office to make sure I target the right people at the right time in between presentations. Usually these exhibitions are my busiest days in the year and the Intermot will be no exception. I hope that you have realised that we have kept it quiet before the storm. From Monday you'll be hammered with news. TS

Back in England and the cold. Due to the fuel leak on the Honda CBF1000 Honda picked up their fallen hero in a van today. They also brought my bike with them. All good until I tried to start my bike. No life whatsoever, no ignition, no light, no nothing. I asked the driver whether he was aware my bike was dead and he said he was just the driver and that the bike had been loaded for him. The workshop manager at the Honda institute was aware, but didn't take the trouble of telling me about it. I had a hot lunch date to think of so rushed over to Sutton Motorcycles and grabbed a battery charger in the hope my battery was not completely dead. When I arrived back it tested negative. No lights whatsoever which means the battery was so low that it couldn't even be charged. The only solution then was to rush back to Sutton Motorcycles for a new battery. Got it back and started charging it. I had missed my lunch date by now and also a lot of time I had planned to spend writing. It was very clear that my bike hadn't been left as I left it down at Honda. The alarm had been stuck in service mode ever since I picked it up after testing Hunts Motorcycles Honda Varadero. But it was ok and started every time. There was no chance of deactivating the alarm with the key fob so I just left it. When I got my keys back the battery in the fob was placed in the wrong position so obvious that someone had tried to sort out the alarm at Honda rather than just leaving it as it was. Hopefully the bike will be fine with the new battery tomorrow. I also received some more Intermot stuff today. Invitation to Kawasaki's 2007 press conference in Cologne. I believe Kawasaki have got some more exciting stuff to show us and I'll know on the 10th. The VIP pass to the Harley-Davidson event in Cologne on the 9th also arrived. Apparently the news are significant so I will be there. TS

Still hot in the desert. Victory, or Polaris industries rather, treated all the journalists to great big air-conditioned rooms at the Westin resort. Very comfortable and the air-condition was pure bliss after a long day riding in the heat. No cheesy Italian job this! Anyway, had breakfast at 07:30 in one of the conference rooms. I have to correct myself a bit on the cheesy part as the conference rooms were called Celebrity plaza and the Polo room. the important bit in the programme was the ride that started at 9 O'clock. I had done the full 200 mile ride yesterday, so I was already familiar with the route. I still managed to get lost on my way home, but I'll mention that later.  Since I told a cowboy story yesterday, I'll get down to the real stuff today. The bikes! I had spent half the day yesterday divided between the Hammer S and Ness signature Jackpot, so today I wanted to start on something different. Picked out a Hammer S with stage 1 kit. And boy does that make a difference to the big lump of metal! Because of the extra noise, or rather two American Pavarotti's shouting out in a very noticeable but still beautiful manner, the transmission and mechanical noise disappeared. Only 100% pure 60 degree big V-twin noise creaming my ears (think I'll use this in my article as well). I headed out up into the mountains for the first photo stop with one of the guys from Motorcycle.com. I had chatted to him the day before (come forward and I'll credit you by name dude!). He didn't know that I had a past as a motorcycle journalist before Raptors & Rockets, so I told him I have been doing this for quite a while and it's not by coincidence that I get first rides and good news material. My news and articles are syndicated all over the world and that's how I make my humble living, not from advertising at this site. Anyway, the Hammer S pulls like an ox with the stage 1 kit. Not that it doesn't in standard trim, but this sort of bike deserves to be derestricted as muchos as possible. Now the sports bit isn't what I'd call sport, I like the Hammer S much better when just called a muscle or power cruiser. Because that 250 section of meat at the rear just works against you in every bend. What makes the S more "sporty" than the standard V-handle-bared Hammer is just the handlebars. They do allow you to wrestle the bike on its ear with much more leverage and it really helps compared to the standard Hammer. And the Hammer S actually handles "normal" compared to the Night Rod Special from the Motor company. They are both brutish, but the Hammer S is somewhat kinder and more easy to get along with. When we stopped for our second shoot which was a static one we stopped at the same place where Stacey and I did yesterday's beauties. We met a CBR600RR rider at this location yesterday, in true Californian style only wearing a black T-shirt with a skull on it and a helmet. He was really impressed with the Hammer S. I almost thought Victory had bribed him, but Victory did not know that I would be riding that day as well, so he was genuine. I guess I like a lot about the Hammer S too. Not least the looks. Swapped for the Kingpin Tour after the early morning ride and decided to stay on it for the rest of the day. First, the windshield kept some of that dusty and sandy air out of my face, second it has loads of luggage space to put bottles of water and my camera gear in. Nice comfortable footboards too. After lunch at La Casa del Zorro in Borrego Springs (Mexican of course) I joined group two for their first photo session to get some more variation in my pictures. That's when I did the burnout by the way. Because of that bloody enormous patch of tyre on the tarmac I saved Victory a new clutch and rear tyre by chickening out with some water. Just as difficult to get started as with the Night Rod Special, but I didn't cheat then mind. Kevin Wing did the pics and was more afraid I'd set the desert on fire than me getting the pix. In between the Hammer S and Kingpin Tour I rode the standard 2007 Kingpin and Hammer as well as the proper wolf in cheeps clothing 8-Ball with a 106 c.i S&S kit. I got tears in my eyes after riding that machine. No more singing "on the road to Nazareth" or what the h.. that Easy rider song is called again. (You can prove to me that you actually read the blog by giving me the correct artist and song name.) Only hard full bodied V-twin acceleration for as long as I dared to pin the throttle accompanied by a great soundtrack. After reaching Salton Sea again I headed back to the hotel on highway 86 and 10. And I took the wrong junction for Palm Desert and got lost. Had to call the hotel in the end for directions and just made it in time for coctail hour. But I had wasted that hour I had planned in the pool because the sun had gone down. I felt really sorry for myself there for a moment until I remembered which planet I am on. On this trip a very privileged one. Thanks to the guys and girl (Kara) at Victory for a well organised launch. I'll have to mention the stray dog that almost killed me and the grilled roadrunners later as today's entry is too long already. Hasta la vista babies! Deluded Torro! 

Greetings from the very hot southern Californian desert! Melting away already from the morning. I had arrived one day early due to the long flight, but I was ready to ride. Hooked up with the Victory guys at breakfast and was told that I had the day off to do whatever I wished to do. The official programme will not start until tomorrow. So what did I do first? Two hours sleeping by the pool, a cold shower and then I jumped into the riding gear and grabbed what I thought was a stage 1 Hammer S. Actually it was a standard one. I had just met the technical manager at Victory and he was about to head out on tomorrows route to check it out before letting the journalists out on it. Stacey favoured the Cory Ness Jackpot and I the Hammer S, we swapped on the way. I hadn't had time to grab any lunch yet, so courtesy of Stacey we grabbed some burritos on the way up into the mountains surrounding Palm Springs. The route went all the way to Salton City through the desert. All in all about 200 miles. We almost ran out of fuel, but made it to Salton just. If we hadn't the vultures would have had us for lunch in the heat. It's very unusual for me to ride in a desert and I quickly noticed the dry and dusty warm air dehydrating both nose, eyes and mouth (and mind). We stopped for whisky on the way as we were very thirsty. I thought for a second that I should head over to the Mexican border only 20 miles away for a couple of Tequila's and salt to further improve the hydration situation, but settled for some fire water at an Indian casino in the middle of nowhere. And then we had us some hookers, as John Wayne said "Out here a man settles his own problems." Now, Stacey can testify that 90% of what I have just said is not true. But I must be allowed to get a bit carried away in the heat, ehh? I think we got back and the bikes are good!

Set off at 6 O'clock in the morning down to Heathrow today to catch my 10.45 flight to Los Angeles. I had expected more hassle on a trans-Atlantic flight, but it was smooth going all the way. I flew with United and after kicking the self-service boarding pass machine a couple of times it provided me with boarding passes to LA and Palm Springs. Since the time difference is -8 hours I got the whole afternoon at the hotel in Rancho Mirage. Went to bed early to get rid of every last bit of jet-lag. Hopefully I'll get a little ride on one or two of the new Victory motorcycles in the morning. TS