WSBK ; Chaz Davies edges out Tom Sykes in QP1 at Nurburgring

For a long while Tom Sykes seemed to be ruling this afternoon’s QP1 at the iconic circuit of Nurburgring, after shaving off a little more than nine tenths of second from his FP1 lap time, only the Kawasaki rider lost the top position when Chaz Davies, on a very hot last lap, edged him out by a mere 0.017s as the BMW rider showed off his skills on the circuit that gave him his first World Superbike victory last year.

It was another tight session with eleven riders packed into less than one second.

Michel Fabrizio was once again the fastest Aprilia rider as he was third and just one tenth adrift from the BMW Goldbet rider. Leon Camer had a big improvement as he jumped from seventh to fourth and three tenths from the top of the timesheets and he was followed by Jonathan Rea and Aprilia’s Sylvain Guintoli.

Loris Baz dropped to seventh, as he lead Leon Haslam and Eugene Laverty who were finally able to break into the top ten in 8th and 9th, while Marco Melandri closed out the top ten.

Carlos Checa crashed out at turn 8, the Dunlop Kurve, on his first lap out leaving him with no recorded lap time and the risk of not taking part in Saturday’s Superpole, while Davide Giugliano binned his Aprilia at turn 4, but at least he did it after recording the 12th best time of the day.

2013 WSBK Nurburgring QP1 results:

1. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′55.034
2. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′55.051
3. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′55.142
4. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1′55.342
5. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′55.434
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′55.609
7. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′55.648
8. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′55.683
9. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′55.691
10. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′55.705

from Twowheelsblog

Moto GP; 2013 Silverstone: Jorge Lorenzo commands FP2

Jorge Lorenzo laid down the hammer during the second free practice at sunny Silverstone. The Yamaha rider immediately lowered Marc Marquez’ best morning time, as he shattered his own previous 2012 circuit record - and this was on his third lap out - with a stunning 2.02.734, which he was unable to improve on, but showed off a envious race pace.

The reigning world champion wasn’t the only one to lower his lap times as everyone improved almost a second in the warmer conditions and with more rubber on the track, despite all the bumps that created some problems with the suspensions.

Marc Marquez ended up second fastest as he was able to cut the gap to just 0.224s and he was followed by his team mate Dani Pedrosa was able take third, but he was on hard tires. Alvaro Bautista put his Honda into fourth and he was 0.017s faster than Valentino Rossi.

The Italian concentrated on using a hard tire as he moved from a lowly eleventh up to fourth as he did a mini long run, while Cal Crutchlow was right on his tail in sixth.

Andrea Dovizioso was seventh and he definitely improved not only his position but also his lap time. Bradley Smith put his wheels in front of Stefan Bradl and they were already more than one second adrift from the top time.

Nicky Hayden closed out the top ten he was more than 1.3 seconds from Lorenzo and four tenths from his Ducati team mate.

Bryan Staring crashed out at turn 12 with less than four minutes in the session. The Australian limped away with the help of a marshal showing off a huge hole on the rear of his leathers.

2013 MotoGP Silverstone FP2 results:

01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 2’02.734
02- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.224
03- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.458
04- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.729
05- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.746
06- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.771
07- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 0.924
08- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.016
09- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 1.050
10- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.355

from Twowheelsblog

KTM 250 SX DE bikenstein by Sylvain Berneron

My buddy Sylvain Berneron of Holographic Hammer just sent me a cool new DE Bikenstein he designed, based on the KTM 2013 250SX 2 stroke in a kind of cafe racer style! It would be pretty sick to go up in the austrian mountains around the Kiska studio! 

The second bike is also based on a KTM 250SX and was done for El Solitario MC.

‘75 Honda CB360T - ‘Cowboy’

Written buy guest writer Phil Guy.

By all appearances Erik Harland Ludwig of Denver, Colorado, is living a fair approximation of the Man Dream. The 26-year old lives in his shop, ‘Machine Shed’, just him, no women (not permanently, anyway), no potpourri or cotton tips, just tools and grease and auto parts. By night he manages Meadowlark, quite possibly Denver’s smoothest bar, and by day he strips back and builds up, fabricates and assembles. Motorbikes or cars, it doesn’t matter, he loves both. No big surprise then that tearing out of this vortex of gritty cool is this raffish dirt rat, affectionately known as ‘Cowboy’.

The base? A ’75 CB360T. ‘Bought stock and nowhere near running,’ says Erik. The motor was stripped and rebuilt, getting new hardened internals in the process. The carbys, too, rebuilt and re-jetted. The frame was detabbed and the sub-frame shortened, and gained a rear hoop of Erik’s making. The tank is from a ’72 Husky 400 Cross, and demanded some top tube mods for the right fit.

Like many rat builds, the provenance of some parts are known—‘I made the tail light from random rusty metal bits and shaped the lens from the stock tail light’—while others, not so much—‘I think the headlight is an old rusty fog light bucket for a car.’ And what about that seat? ‘It’s a rolled up Mexican blanket that was lying around the shop, held on by my grandfather’s old broken belt. I use the blanket when I go camping up in the mountains.’

Erik did all the work himself, even mounting the tyres. (‘A pain in the ass,’ he recalls.) Custom fabrications include the metal electronics box under the seat, the starter unit and kill switch on the bars, and a simplified wiring harness. The rear fender was taken from a ‘78 CX500, cut short and kick-up to a ducktail.

‘It’s insanely fun to ride,’ Erik says. ‘Especially in the dirt.’ We don’t question that at all—we just hope that blanket stays in place over the bumps!

Not surprisingly Erik is now getting requests for commissioned builds. It wouldn’t surprise us if he got a request or two for a life swap either.

[Photos by Sara Ford]

via PIPEBURN