New Bike News from [URL]http://www.net-motorcycles.com[/URL] Terrier Twins Hunter S Thompson: "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Completely irrelevant but I just felt like throwing it into the ring... Or, HST again, "Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism." Those nice folks at Motorcycle Daily have a reasonably coherent report on the new BMW F800's. Two interesting factoids emerge, the petrol tank is under the seat rather than in the usual location whilst the pistons move up and down together, like all those old Brit twins. The latter more down to Teutonic rigidity in design than good engineering, needing an extra balancer to quell the vibes compared to designs such as the ER-6n where the pistons move out of phase and only have a torque reaction along the crankshaft to balance out (a design idiom more or less perfected by the GS400/425/450/500/650 twins). The nice thing about the placement of the petrol tank on the F's, means it's a relatively easy job to tear the cosmetic mess of plastic off the bike and completely redesign it. Nice of MCN to confirm that both GS and R versions of the F will be available next year, something already announced in this column (BTW, we also beat them to the use of New Bike News by a couple of aeons, inspired by Mark Williams' New Music News)... the Motorcycle Daily test sort of confirms that BMW have taken all the nice bits from their big Boxer twins - ride quality, comfort, etc - and allied them with lots of power and torque in a relatively lightweight package. It may even be so good it f..ks up the sales of the big Beemers! The guys at Triumph must be kicking themselves that they blew the chance of getting there first and poor old Yamaha deserve to die a death if they don't do a naked 900 TDM weighing less than 350lbs pronto. Sorry and all that, but I predicted the emergence of new era Big Vertical Twins years ago and these new Beemers are just the starting point not the end of the game. I would even posit a direct connection between the sixties Honda CB450 Black Bomber - the first reliable Big Twin that could be caned mercilessly - and the F800! I can feel my poor old wallet twitching, anyway... And, yet more outrage, the power characteristics of a good vertical twin ARE superior to a V-twin! And, apart from a couple of models aimed at the local market, the Tokyo Motorcycle Show came and went without much noise; a sign of the future? Velvet Vespa Whilst it is easy enough to take the piss out of scooters, even compared to things like Honda step-thru's, it is a pity that neither the Jap's nor Italians pay much attention to such fundamentals as power to weight ratio and, churning out their cute new GTS250IE, Vespa doesn't exactly inspire with a dry mass of 330lbs and just a late sixties power output of 22hp from their new four stroke single cylinder mill. Auto everything should make it easy enough to ride though the claims of supreme handling will be tested when its twelve inch wheels fight through UK diesel and ice infested winter roads. Pricing is also likely to be highly amusing... but apart from the major fact that the grey version is likely to blend perfectly with the tarmac it is most likely a major leap forward over older Vespas. Meanwhile, those hard working importers of Chinese motorcycles are going to unleash 250/350cc thumper trail bikes at half the cost of the Vespa! Keep checking eBay! Bavarian Basher Kawasaki ZX14's marks another bit of evolution of the old style of fours, wonderfully refined and powerful (200hp) but still burdened with the across the frame four width and nigh on 500lbs of mass. Triumph's 675 triple indicates the future much more than this new bruiser, but as an autobahn destroyer it will probably kill the big BMW's, topping out, with a following gale and downhill canter, at 200mph! A damn sight less dangerous than pocket-bikes - some wholly illegal, not even numberplates - roaring through cities at knee height, I'd say! Another minor variation on a Chinese theme can be found here, if you are into odd styling allied to 200cc's. Main Monster Ducati's Monster gets a make-over for next year, engine increased in size to 695cc whilst the mass is a mere 370lbs. Not a bad deal by modern standards but weirdly they seem to have styling problems, these days, the curve on the back half of the tank completely wrong! Still time to fix it, any consulting fees gratefully received. Meanwhile, Triumph's 675 Daytona triple is getting rave reviews in the press, likely to be a big seller this year; may hit Ducati sales just as hard as the Jap's! Will the company have the wit to use the engine in a minimal backbone steel chassis to reintroduce the Trident to the range? Something like 80hp, 350lbs, single front disc, rear drum, etc all wrapped up in proper styling rather than the Speed Triple mess, would go down well in die-hard Brit bike fanatic quarters (lots of lamenting by the ancient mariners that they can't fit their ruined bodies on to the 675!). May even make good sense to use the 675 engine as the basis of a new Tiger variant; lightweight KTM's and BMW's redefining the game. Not a bad report on the 675 in the newly revamped and expanded Motorcycle Sport magazine; alas, the rest of the glossy rag held very little of interest, so another old favourite dying a death (only been reading it for thirty years, so what do I know?). Fans of old Brit's should also note that 8th March there is a Triumph Night at the Ace Cafe. Weird Times China Motorcycles typical of UK importers of Oriental bikes, and managing to sell all the bikes they can get their hands on, having a range of 125-250cc trailsters and the odd commuter replica. Do a search on eBay.co.uk for more importers. A bit more on welding your own frame can be found here. Could do with a little bit of fine-tuning but worth a look if you're into older Brit's, Triumph-Motorcycles.Net. Lonely fans of that other big twin, the TDM, can look here. Big vee-twin manufacturers, Viper Motorcycles, rolling out new American motorcycles, now built around their own engine design, from a larger, improved production line coming on stream in April. Hope they do a Vincent version in the future. If you want an example of the sheer dislocation from reality of website designers then have a look at the new Vee-Max site, assuming you have all the right plug-ins and a fast broadband connection - and don't mind being deafened by gross rap music. Punters are allowed to comment on the new design so feel free to get vicious! At the other end of the motorcycle game, Derbi seem to be doing quite well. more news and two million words on new and used bikes at [URL]http://www.net-motorcycles.com[/URL]
