MotoGP Assen 2013: the paddock girls

The 2013 Assen TT will never be forgotten mainly because of two things: Valentino Rossi finally getting back to winning ways for the first time since 2010 and Jorge Lorenzo miraculous recovery from its broken collarbone after a high-speed crash in Thursday free practice (and forced the reigning Champion to fly back to Barcellona the same night, undergo the unavoidable surgery and come back the day after to bravely race on Saturday). Just for the record, Valentino Rossi’s success was his first since returning to Yamaha, his first since the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix, his 80th win in the top class, his 106th career victory in GP Racing and his eighth at Assen.

In this eventful Dutch weekend, the Yamaha Factory Racing surely guys gave us a lot to talk about for the forthcoming weeks (if not years), but there’s more to racing than, well, racing: here is our usual collection of photographs picturing some of the most charming Dutch ladies spotted here and there, on and off the Assen race track, and we are sure you are gonna love it.

However, if this nice bunch of Dutch hotties is not enough for you - though we doubt it - just keep an eye on this page as an equally imprssive photo gallery featuring the umbrella girls of the last World Superbike round in Imola will soon be up. And let’s be honest here: you just don’t want to miss it, do you?

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Jamie’s R80

Our Kevils features are normally prompted by Kev Hill & his crew turning out a new build, but this lovely cafe racer came to our attention in Biarritz at Wheels & Waves, and is owned by Jamie Ireson who had ridden it there all the way from the UK with one of our favourite photographers, Merry Michau – who took these lovely photos.

Jamie is already knee-deep in the bike business. He works  for KB customs in Coolham, West Sussex (which, weirdly, where I grew up and went to school). The company is owned by Russell Brown and they do all the fabrication for Warrs Harley Davidson, and for private clients. Jamie’s role is to help Russ come up with the concepts for each build, and he does all the CAD drawings, as he was an F1 engineer for many tears. Russ is the king of welding.

Jamie has been riding bikes since the dawn of time (he reckons) and loves all types of two wheeled machine, owning a few, including a Lambretta, MV Augusta, Yamaha XS650. He also had a custom Harley which he unfortunately wrote-off.

Jamie had planned to take his custom XS650 to Wheels & Waves (brave man – clearly immune to hours of vibration) but it wasn’t quite finished so he needed a sensible steed for the trip and came across the R80 cafe racer on ebay. At the time he didn’t know it was a Kevils build, but he was seduced anyway.

Any of you who have ridden a R-series Beemer will know that it takes a while to get accustomed to, but once you get the hang of the handling and learn to ride the torque instead of the rpm they quickly become favourites. Easy to ride and enjoyable in most situations from city streets to country blasts. Jamie took a while to get used to it too, but like the rest of us he’s been own over, and best of all it’s a BMW which he knows will start on the button and run for many trouble free miles, and at last, Jamie is on-trend too. Bonus.

In Jamie’s own words: “I get so many thumbs up when I’m out people really seem to like these bikes. I’m aware there’s a great revival of the R80 at the moment. You can pick one up for around £1500, a great bike to mess with or just to ride.”

It might cost you a bit more than that to get a Kevils BMW custom built, but Jamie’s dead right that the R-series Beemers are much under estimated by many people, and it’s still one of the most affordable street bikes out there – even as a pro build.

from THE BIKE SHED

Esses Magazine

Online mags and blogs (like this one) that fuel our passion for all things two wheels are clearly a good thing, but you still can’t beat the experience of thumbing through good old fashioned printed matter. Of course our friends at Sideburn know this well, and recently the Iron & Air crew have gone over to (or rather back to) the world of ink and paper. Now there’s a new gang on the coffee table/workbench scene. Esses magazine. It shares the same gorgeous aesthetics and top notch production values of the others, but it covers a much wider world of motorcycling so sits very nicely alongside them.

And when we say ‘wider world’ we mean it. From putting you inside the head of a professional speedway rider, to checking out the Tanzanian custom bike scene (yes there really is one).

To quote the guys & gals themselves: ‘Esses has been born out of that love of everything on two wheels. It will celebrate the excitement and thrill of riding motorcycles and will bring this amazing world – its people, rides, races, bikes and characters – to life. Yes, it’ll be all about the bikes, of course it’ll be about the bikes, but more importantly it’ll be about the people. Those who design, build, tweak, ride, photograph, collect, jump, race, polish and just plain own them.’

Having devoured issue Zero, we can safely say they’ve nailed it. We particularly enjoyed the feature on junior motocross as it’s how some of us started our two wheeled journeys umpteen years ago. The mud – the two stroke haze – the not enough body weight to kickstart the bike, oh happy days.

Seeing as it’s issue Zero, the guys asked us for feedback. The only feature we weren’t sure about was the one on Felix Baumgartner’s sky dive suit. Some readers might prefer every article to be within the world of motorcycling, but that’s just being picky and others might disagree strongly – as we’re not all so one-dimensional. Overall, it’s a beautiful magazine that’s been put together by people with seriously good craft skills, and a genuine love for all things motorcycling. In short, our kind of people. We can’t wait for issue 1.

To get hold of Issue Zero, go to essesmagazine.tumblr.com or essesmagazine.bigcartel.com

via THE BIKE SHED

Training for Red Bull Romaniacs 2013 in Ghioroc, Arad

Last week-end, with one week before Red Bull Romaniacs 2013, 10th edition, Benny, Hollger, Peter and Michael had a few days of training in Roumania, Arad - Ghioroc with Marius, the Guide.