8h d'Oschersleben ; LE MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA YART DOMINE LES ESSAIS / MONSTER ENERGY YAMAHA YART DOMINATES QUALIFYING

Les essais qualificatifs des 8 Heures d’Oschersleben, troisième manche du FIM EWC, se sont déroulés sous le soleil sur ce tracé très technique.
A l’issue de deux journées de qualifications, le Monster Energy Yamaha YART s’est révélé le team le plus rapide en piste devant le SRC Kawasaki et le GMT94 Yamaha.

Après leurs mésaventures lors des 24 Heures du Mans puis des 8 Heures de Suzuka, le Monster Energy Yamaha YART met toute son énergie pour tenter de décrocher un bon résultat en Allemagne. « Nous ne donnons plus de consigne pour le championnat car nous sommes très loin au classement », explique Mandy Kainz le team manager. « Un seul mot d’ordre : aller vite, dominer nos adversaires et prouver que notre Yamaha et nos pilotes sont les meilleurs du plateau. » Et cela a payé puisqu’ils ont réussi à placer leur machine officielle en tête à l’issue des qualifications. « La moto est nouvelle, » confirme Broc Parkes le pilote australien. « Cela a été difficile, mais nous avons tout donné et nous avons progressé tour après tour pour mettre au point notre R1 afin qu’elle convienne aux trois pilotes. »

Le SRC Kawasaki, victime de plusieurs chutes à Suzuka qui ont totalement détruit la moto, a dû en reconstruire deux en un laps de temps très court pour pouvoir disputer l’épreuve allemande. « Notre deuxième place sur la grille est inespérée vue les circonstances, » commente Gilles Staffler, le team manager, « nous avons mis toute notre énergie à mesurer les performances des motos et à les régler pour être compétitifs. Cette deuxième place nous rassure et nous sommes confiants pour la course. »

Deuxième du championnat à 29 points derrière le Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, le GMT 94 Yamaha, champion du monde en titre, a réalisé une belle troisième place sur la grille. « Nous ne bénéficions pas de pneus de qualification, » explique le pilote espagnol David Checa, « et c’est pénalisant par rapport à certains de nos concurrents. Mais les essais sont une chose et la course en est une autre. On sait par expérience qu’il nous faudra être performants et réguliers tout en respectant une stratégie de course si nous voulons nous imposer. »

Le Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, actuel leader du championnat, s’est quelque peu laissé déborder par excès de prudence lors de ces essais. Après la chute d’Anthony Delhalle hier, le SERT ne place sa machine qu’en septième position sur la grille. Mais l’expérience de cette équipe lui permettra sans aucun doute de rectifier le tir en course.

Malgré le pilote le plus rapide du plateau, puisque Markus Reiterberger a le meilleur temps individuel en 1.26.330, le BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com n’est que quatrième à la moyenne des temps des pilotes sur les deux jours.

Le Honda Racing, en septième place hier, a complètement changé la configuration de sa machine et a réussi à se hisser en cinquième position, Sébastien Gimbert réalisant le meilleur temps de sa série aujourd’hui. Mais leur gros atout reste la gestion de la consommation en course qui leur permet de réaliser entre deux et quatre tours de plus par relais par rapport à leurs concurrents.

Côté Superstock, si le Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki, actuel leader du championnat, n’est que deuxième de la catégorie en se plaçant neuvième sur la grille de départ, c’est l’équipe locale Völpker NRT 48 & Penz13 by Schubert Motors qui crée la surprise. Elle s’impose en réalisant une excellente sixième place devant quelques grands teams de la catégorie EWC. « C’est la première fois que je roule en Endurance, » s’exclame Dominik Vincon, l’un des pilotes. « Notre BMW fonctionne vraiment bien, nous avons de bons pneumatiques et nous sommes réguliers. C’est étrange de se retrouver coéquipiers alors qu’habituellement nous sommes concurrents sur le championnat allemand IDM. Et nous sommes en train de devenir de bons amis ! »

Weather conditions were sunny as qualifying wrapped up at the Oschersleben 8 Hours, the third round of the FIM EWC, on this very technical track. After qualifying sessions spread over two days, Monster Energy Yamaha YART emerged as the fastest team, ahead of SRC Kawasaki and GMT94 Yamaha.

After their mishaps at the 24 Heures Motos in Le Mans and the Suzuka 8 Hours, the Monster Energy Yamaha YART squad went all out to notch up a good result in Germany. “We’re not giving championship-targeted instructions anymore, since we’ve fallen so far behind in the standings,” said Mandy Kainz, the team manager. “Our only aim right now is to ride fast, dominate our rivals and prove that our Yamaha and our riders are the best in the line-up.” That approach has paid off: they’ve managed to get their official bike to top place after the qualifying sessions. “We have a new bike,” Australian rider Broc Parkes confirmed. “It was tough, but we gave it everything we had, and improved our R1 set-up lap after lap to suit all three riders.”

The SRC Kawasaki team had several crashes at Suzuka that totally destroyed the bike, and had to rebuild two bikes in a hurry to get back into the fray in Germany. “In the circumstances, second place on the grid is an unhoped-for result,” said Gilles Staffler, the team manager. “We focused all our attention on measuring the performance of the bikes and setting them up to be competitive. This second place is reassuring, and we’re feeling confident about the race.”

Currently second in this year’s championship standings, 29 points behind the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, reigning champions GMT94 Yamaha won themselves a handsome third place on the grid. “We didn’t have qualifying tyres,” Spanish rider David Checa explained, “and that gave some of our rivals an edge over us. But qualifying is one thing, the actual race is another. We know from experience that we’ll have to put in a great, consistent performance while sticking to our race strategy if we want to win.“

Current championship leader Suzuki Endurance Racing Team erred on the side of caution during the qualifying sessions. After Anthony Delhalle’s fall yesterday, the SERT bike will be starting the race all the way back in seventh place. But the experienced squad will undoubtedly make up for lost time during the race.

The BMW Motorrad France Team Penz13.com riders’ average times over two days put them in fourth place, even though they have the quickest rider in the line-up: Markus Reiterberger lapped the fastest individual time of 1.26.330.

The Honda Racing team managed to climb from seventh place yesterday to fifth after totally changing the bike set-up, with Sébastien Gimbert lapping his best time today. But their fuel strategy during the race remains their biggest advantage: they squeeze in two to four laps more than their adversaries between stints.

In the Superstock class, current championship leader Junior Team Le Mans Sud Suzuki slipped to second in the category by placing ninth on the starting grid – not least because local squad Völpker NRT 48 & Penz13 by Schubert Motors created an upset, zooming to first in the category by placing sixth on the grid, ahead of some EWC heavyweights. “This is my first endurance race!” exclaimed Dominik Vincon, one of the riders. “Our BMW is working really well, we’ve got good tyres, and we’re consistent. It’s funny to find ourselves being team members: we usually compete against each other in the German IDM championship. And we’re becoming good friends here!”

Ecuador with Bikes part 3

The next morning we woke up well rested and tucked into an enjoyable breakfast at our hostel. Josh oiled the bikes, and then we were off on the third day of our adventure. The route out of Baños was beautiful and took us through green winding roads. Shortly out of the city, we hit a traffic jam which was caused by failing debris that had slid down the rock face.

On our way to Puyo we decided to stop and see a waterfall Lauren had heard about called Pailon del Diablo which means “Cauldron of the Devil”. Since we had all of our things with us Josh elected to stay behind and watch the bikes while Lauren and I went down to check it out. The waterfall was pretty amazing and Lauren got some great shots from above by crawling through a small cave that climbed about 20 ft up from the viewing landing.

While Lauren and I were hiking around viewing waterfalls, Josh was bored back at the bikes and decided this would be a great time to buy me a gift - a small Hello Kittyesque tom tom drum, which I found elaborately strapped to my bag for the rest of the ride. Hilarious.

After exploring for a bit we were back on track, riding through the Amazon Basin jungle. We stopped in Puerto Misahualli to see the local mischievous monkeys - our friend who used to live in Ecuador said that she had her earring stolen out of her ear without even noticing, so we kept our distance. The day had been pretty sunny up until then, but while in Misahualli clouds began to drift in so we decided it was time to leave.

As we neared our final destination for the night, Papallacta, we began to ascend in elevation again, and it began to get cold, drizzly and darkness began to fall. After some close calls winding around slow moving semi trucks on 2 lane roads, one of which we had to pass on the right side next to a ravine, we finally made it to Papallacta, a small village only a few hours drive from Quito that is famous for its thermal hot springs and spas.

Unfortunately the hotel that we had planned on staying at was presumably booked for the night, which was upsetting. As we left in the cold dark we wondered if our drenched, muddy attire had played a factor in none of the rooms being available for us.

Fortunately we found a cute little hostel with a restaurant inside almost immediately and went in and asked about rooms for the night. Through our broken Spanish and the innkeeper’s non-existent English we determined prices and also we came to understand that she wanted us to bring our bikes in for the night and park them in her little restaurant so they wouldn’t be stolen. The rates were fairly reasonable and there was also a hot spring swimming pool in the back. It was a great deal and we agreed to take the rooms.

We had a delicious dinner and some kind of weird corn thing with cheese called Choclo con queso and then climbed into our swimsuits for some thermal spa time. It was wonderful after a long, cold day of riding. After that we went up to our freezing cold rooms and went to sleep in anticipation of our last day of riding.

Ecuador 2013 - Bikes Day 3 from adventuresofjb2 on Vimeo.

tomorrow part4

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Kawasaki W650 ‘Superrench’ – Angry Lane

Written by Marlon Slack.

For the last few years French brothers Ben and G have been running Angry Lane, a Hong Kong-based store specialising in bike parts and all manner of low-key riding apparel. Keen to expand their business they’ve moved into modifying motorcycles, hoping their creations will act as a showcase for the products they have on hand. Now 16 bikes in, they’ve produced this unusual Kawasaki W650 dubbed ‘Superrench’ – a slammed down tracker that ticks off the motorcycle axis of evil – polished aluminium, header wrap and Firestones – and still comes out looking fantastic.

This W650 had originally been imported from Japan by a local motorcycle workshop. ‘The mechanic had tried to modify it himself, and failed’, the brothers say. ‘Then shop owner called us to see if we’d be interested in taking it from there.’ The response from the brothers was an unequivocal ‘Hell yes!’ On inheriting the failed project they also took on the customer, an Uzbekistani ex-patriot who had a simple brief, ‘Just make it low and compact, for the rest you can do whatever you want.’ It was just the kind of vague guidelines the brothers wanted to hear.

Unlike many, Ben and G don’t wax lyrical about their approach to customizing bikes, being firmly of the belief that anyone can turn out special custom. ‘If you are passionate and have some creativity, you can easily turn an average looking motorcycle into something with more style’. They’re probably right, but I think they’re being a little humble. Especially when considering a new distraction at Angry Lane, a new shop dog dubbed ‘Clutch’. The Bug-eyed, gremlin-eared French bulldog had developed a penchant for munching on motorcycle sidestands, so much so that the brothers made up a steel bone for him to chew on instead of the W650.

Dog underfoot, Angry Lane started their work by lowering the bike 2 inches at the front and rear, fitting a short fiberglass fender over the standard front wheel before capping the rear with a modified Moon Eyes cover purchased from the United States. To keep the whole bike close to the deck, a slim AN-BU custom leather seat was mounted behind a polished, slab-sided tank.

Underneath the new seat and tank combination, the gorgeous W650 engine hasn’t had too much work lavished on it, with the undersquare bevel driven beauty offering limited returns on more serious engine work. A fat Megaton 2 into 1 exhaust was fitted, coupled with the appropriate jets and a pair of K&N air filters. But that’s about it in the engine department.

The front end is a different story, with the stock instrument cluster and headlight being ditched in favor of Biltwell grips on MX controls, Grimeca master cylinder and a PIAA ‘extreme white’ driving light. Tucked in behind the headlight cowl and in front of the shaved top triple clamp sits a ubiquitous Motogadget mini speedometer. The ignition unit was detached and mounted into the new bent aluminum sidecovers.

Despite the interferences of Clutch, Angry Lane have made a neat little custom W650 that’ll serve as inspiration for anyone lucky enough to be kicking around on one of the best built and most underrated motorcycles produced in the last 20 years. And they’ll make it a little bit easier to modify, with plans to put up the dimensions of their aluminum work on their website when it relaunches soon, a nice, rare touch in the sometimes secretive world of custom bike building.

[Photos by Jason Bonello from Velocity Image] via PIPEBURN