The GS Trophy enters its second half and Team CEEU strengthen their lead.
After three consecutive high-mileage days, the BMW Motorrad GS Trophy riders today were allowed some respite, with a stage distance of 230km it was set to be less a strenuous day. Only it wasn’t! The day again featured a ‘black run’ to properly test the riders’ technique and ended with a suitably physical Canadian theme – the ‘Logger Games’.
jeudi 11 septembre 2014
WRC, Australie : Les Citroën donnent le rythme / Citroën sets the pace
Le pilote Citroën Kris Meeke a signé le meilleur chrono du Shakedown devant son équipier Mads Ostberg et la Hyundai i20 WRC de Thierry Neuville. Jari-Matti Latvala et Sébastien Ogier (VW) n’ont réalisé que les 4e et 5e meilleurs temps.
Le Coates Hire Rally Australia, 10e manche du Championnat du monde des Rallyes FIA 2014, s’est élancé ce matin avec la séance d’essais officielle longue de près de 5 km, reprenant une partie de l’ES1 à l’envers.
Leader éphémère en Allemagne, le Britannique Kris Meeke s’est montré le plus rapide à son 3eet dernier run (2min52s9) au volant de sa Citroën chaussés des nouveaux pneus Michelin LTX Force H4 (hard). C’est la 1ère fois que Meeke remporte un Shakedown en WRC, un exercice dans lequel brille régulièrement Jari-Matti Latvala et sa VW/Michelin, les plus rapides en Pologne, Finlande et Allemagne.
Mais ce matin, sur les pistes glissantes de Nouvelle Galles du Sud, le Finlandais n’a réalisé que le 4e temps (2min54s3) devant son équipier Sébastien Ogier (+0s1). La séance a été dominée par les Citroën DS3 WRC/Michelin de Meeke et Ostberg, finalement 2e à 4/10e de seconde à son 4erun. C’est aussi à sa 4e tentative que Thierry Neuville a arraché le 3e meilleur chrono en 2min53s7.
Le balayage est un facteur important en Australie et en tant que leader du championnat, Sébastien Ogier ouvrira et balaiera les pistes sur toute l’étape du vendredi (95 km chronométrés). Ce sujet est d’ailleurs au cœur des conversations avant un Conseil Mondial de la FIA très attendu sur l’avenir du WRC.
Triple vainqueur en Australie, Mikko Hirvonen (Ford/Michelin) a réalisé le 6e meilleur temps devant le Néo-Zélandais Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) soutenu par une centaine de fans ayant traversé la Mer de Tasmanie. Andreas Mikkelsen (VW) n’a signé que le 8e temps devant Kubica (Ford), tout juste à 2 secondes du vainqueur. Le réveil fut plus difficile pour Elfyn Evans (Ford) et l’Australien Chris Atkinson (Hyundai), seulement 10e après son 4e run.
En WRC-2, il n’a fallu que deux passages à Ott Tanak (Ford) pour devancer son équipier Jari Ketomaa de près de 2 secondes, et Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford/Michelin).
Le Coates Hire Rally Australia s’élancera demain pour une première étape de huit spéciales. L’ES1 est programmée à 9h18 (1h18 heure française).
Citroën’s Kris Meeke was fastest on shakedown, ahead of team-mate Mads Ostberg and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). Jari-Matti Latvala and Sébastien Ogier (VW) were fourth and fifth.
The Coates Hire Rally Australia, Round 10 of this year’s FIA World Rally Championship, began this morning with the short practice stage (less than 5km) that used part of SS1 in the opposite direction.
The brief Rallye Deutschland leader Meeke posted the best time (2m52.9s) on his third and final run in his DS3 WRC equipped with new hard-compound Michelin LTX Force tyres. It was the Briton’s first WRC shakedown win.
VW’s Latvala, the shakedown victor in Poland, Finland and Germany, was only fourth (2m54.3s) on today’s slippery test in New South Wales, a tenth better than his team-mate Ogier.
Ostberg made it a one-two for Citroën when he posted a 2m53.3s at his fourth attempt. Neuville also used his fourth pass to go third (2m53.7s) in his i20 WRC.
The phenomenon of ‘road sweeping’ is often an issue in Australia and Ogier, who provisionally tops the championship, will be first on the road for all of Friday’s 95 competitive kilometres. Indeed, the subject of road orders is once again a major talking point ahead of the next FIA World Council meeting.
Three-time Rally Australia winner Mikko Hirvonen (Ford/Michelin) was sixth, ahead of New Zealander Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) who has support from around 100 home fans who have come to watch the event. Andreas Mikkelsen (VW) was eighth ahead of Kubica (Ford), and the top nine were covered by exactly two seconds.
It was a tougher morning for Elfyn Evans (Ford) and local hero Chris Atkinson (Hyundai) who ended up 10th after his fourth run.
In WRC-2, Ott Tanak (Ford) needed just two attempts to beat his team-mate Jari Ketomaa by almost two seconds, while Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford/Michelin) was third.
92′ Kawasaki KZ1000P ‘Kwakazilla’ by Hajarbroxx Motorcycles
In most western civilisations, we take basic human rights for granted. Take, for instance, clean drinking water, political freedoms and the ability to ride high powered motorcycles. This stands in stark contrast to our brothers and sisters in Indonesia, where any bike that was over 200cc was illegal to import or buy unless it was for military or police use. But why should they get all the fun? Well, today’s bike is a left over from the good ol’ days of South East Asian law enforcement and it’s addressing this imbalance, big time. It’s an Indonesian Kawasaki KZ1000P Police Edition named ‘Kwakazilla’ and thanks to it, criminal getaways in Indonesia were about as successful as a North Korean metal band.
The concept was to build a cafe racer with a 4-cylinders Japanese built engine that still runs smooth and has legal papers. This bike is one of the big Kwaka’s that were imported and used in 1992 for escorting Presidents and Prime Ministers limousines when there was a large political conference that was held in Jakarta. After the event ended a lot of these bikes were sold and auctioned to civilians.
“We wanted a classic racer look, but we think that we have seen enough standard café racers lately and tried to come up with a slighty different approach” says Gifny from Hajarbroxx. “Instead of going with the 60s or 70s styled racer, we were going with early 80s styling for this bike. We think a lot of 80s bikes are underrated in terms of aesthetics, so we tried to come up with something fresh by blending the 60s and 70s simplicity with the 80s hard-edges and quirkiness.”
The engine is police stock, with K&N filters for the look and to milk the horsepower. They also used Dynatek coil wires and a NOS 4-into-1 Kerker exhaust to get the “80s-Eddie-Lawson-ish” look and some extra bite. Wheels are also stock, but the brakes and calipers are classic F08 and P108 Brembos, chosen for their retro look and reliability. Dunlop 410/18 for front tire and 425/18 for rear. They also chose to use Tommaselli clip-ons and Tarozzi rearsets.
The tail and fairing were handmade by Hajarbroxx using aluminium. They were going to use aluminium for the tank as well but ended up using galvanised steel sheets, so they could shape it exactly the way they wanted to. The seat was crafted by the infamous leathersmith Xian Leather in New York – who apparently doesn’t do motorcycle related work anymore.
In true Indonesian style, the guys at Hajarbroxx have created a truly unique bike with some lovely details and solid workmanship. We particularly love the 80s styled fairing, custom aluminium control panel and seat. It might not be the prettiest café racer on the planet, but it definitely stands out from the crowd.
You check out some of the other Hajarbroxx projects on their Facebook page.
[Photography by Krishna Kastubi]
via PIPEBURN
2006 Triumph Bonneville ‘Pegaso’ by Tamarit Motorcycles
After many years selling custom Triumph parts and building bikes under the name 8Negro, the Spanish workshop have decided to rebrand and start trading under the new name Tamarit Motorcycles. With a new name and a new found enthusiasm, the guys chose a 2006 ‘carbie’ Bonneville as a donor for this scrambler project. From it’s initial inception during a round of beers, it has become the showcase bike to show the capabilities of the Spanish workshop – especially their in house fabrication and new parts range. We are glad to present the latest from Tamarit Motorcycles, a Triumph Bonnie scrambler they call ‘Pegaso’.
After a run of five customers bikes, all built to different specs, it was decided that a bike was needed that could show the skills of the Tamarit crew. A 2006 Trumpy was chosen for the build, with the idea to build it as “a true scrambler”. Once the build brief was decided upon, the bike was stripped back and the work began for the parts required to customise it. A mix of both inhouse manufactured and outsourced parts make for a neat late model Triumph scrambler, which makes a change from the factory Scrambler model.
According to Tamarit, the majority of the build was taken up by engineering their own componentry, making adequate molds & casts in order to be able to produce the parts en masse. Once their own touches were manufactured, the build didn’t take long at all, it was simply a matter of assembling everything they had gathered together, or made.
The factory seat and rear guard has been replaced with a unit of Tamarit’s own making, the lines flowing like an old school scrambler bike. Standing proud below that is the Papillon style exhaust, designed for this bike but now part of the Tamarit parts catalogue. Other in house produced componentry include the chain guard, bash plate and foot pegs.
At the front end sits a set of Renthal bars, with the factory grips being replaced. Perched below this is a 3/4 headlight, and gaiters fitted to give the front forks a better chance off road. A smaller speedometer and turn signals replace the factory units, the final touch being a swap to more capable offroad rubber.
From an idea over beers, to the launch of a showcase machine for their custom parts business, Tamarita have produced something different from an old favourite. The best way to describe the journey is said best by Tamarita themselves: ‘At that moment we decided to make our own parts, by hand and trying to make them so “beautiful that convey something special as if they had soul “. Amen to that.
AUTO FABRICA TYPE #2
Auto Fabrica, or ‘The Perfectionists’ as they are commonly referred to here in The Shed, are back with Type 2, another exquisite piece of engineering art, this time built around the SR500. A punchy lump chosen for it’s solid, reliable track record and it’s willingness to being stripped back to the barest of bones, ready for a ground up re-build.
Auto Fabrica’s mission was to create something that hadn’t been done before, easy to say but harder to do when so many people have used the SR for builds in the past. Of course, the simplest way to make a bike unique is to do something outlandish just for the sake of it, but that’s not AF’s style. They wanted to make a totally individual looking bike, while still adhering to the understated style they are renowned for. Not easy.
The look is a perfectly balanced blend of old school and modern design, a nod to the past but with a firm focus on the future. To create the one-off tank AF fired up a huge industrial English Wheel, once used to form aluminium sections for aircraft wings. This beast was used to roll the 2mm ali’, before it was panel beaten into it’s final form. The aim wasn’t just to create a pretty tank, it had to be functional too. It had to take into account the ergonomics of the rider, have a decent range (15 Litres) and it had to fit perfectly with the frame and everything else that had been created.
Aluminium was the metal of choice on this build. Chosen for it’s light weight, higher quality, better strength, and how much easier it is to work with. The seat unit in particular shows it was the right choice. Sleek, simple and home to the rear light too. AF consider the stance of the bike to be the most important thing of all to get right. It determines how the bike is ‘read’. To achieve the perfect stance they dropped the forks 2 inches and sourced a set of 325mm Marzzochi shocks to raise the rear. A lot of the guy’s time was spent reducing bulk, shaving off all unnecessaries to create the desired minimalist effect.
Natural grey was chosen for the majority of the tank to do justice to the clean look. But a large chunk of white has been used to subtly highlight the shape. The natural properties and finish of materials were mostly left untouched, like the exposed welds on the exhaust and the aqua blasted and polished parts on the engine. The seat is upholstered in a natural tan coloured leather, as are the other rider touch points. Performance has been improved by re-jetting the carb to make sure it’s in balance with the new exhaust system (which was also made in house). Other performance improvements come from the dropped down riding position and the huge weight loss.
Type 2 is another killer lesson to us all. Just when we think our own bikes are beginning to look quite sharp, along comes a build from Auto Fabrica that slaps us hard around the face and says, ‘try harder’. Keep on making us feel inadequate guys, it’s character building. To see more face slapping work, contact AF at info@autofabrica.com, or find them on Instagram and Facebook.
via The Bike Shed
WHY WE RIDE: mid-life crisis philosophy & motorbike riding
Cruisers and Harleys vs dirt bikes, adventure bikes and trials bikes? This video explains how to age recklessly, remain emotionally immature and be a dirty old man but not get arrested. Above all it explains why we ride motorbikes, and why turning 50 is no excuse to wimp out of the adventure that is motorbike riding (apologies to cruiser and Harley Davidson riders, this vid is just having a dig at mates who ride those beasts!).
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