Features

Something of an evolution of the official Suzuki square four it might have been, but the TSR did at least look to new avenues of frame design to keep competitive. The name was bond… Ciba-Geigy bond (a bonding material invented for aircraft construction – Ed) if we’re being precise about what held this race bike…

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In one of his most frank interviews ever, Carl Fogarty lifts the lid on what he had to do to become one of Britain’s most successful bike racers ever. Words: Bertie Simmonds Photographs: Don Morley and Mortons Archive “Looking back now, I didn’t need to be as selfish, as outspoken and arrogant as I once…

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What made Bathurst’s Easter races the most important motorcycle destination in Australia? In a two-part series, writer HAMISH COOPER and photographer PHIL AYNSLEY go back to the Seventies and Eighties to find out. An unlikely circuit on the outskirts of a small Australian town was the country’s mecca of motorcycling for decades until the late…

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Certain bike-and-rider combinations seem made for each other, to the point where it’s hard to mention one without thinking of the other. Carl Fogarty and the Ducati 916; Mick Doohan and the Honda NSR500; Valentino Rossi and the Yamaha M1. Although he also rode Yamahas for several years at Grand Prix level, Barry Sheene will…

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In the second excerpt from his book: Moto GP a photographic celebration, Phil Wain concentrates on those brutal rivalries that pushed past the politeness of the sport and accelerated it to another level. KEVIN SCHWANTZ WAYNE RAINEY 1988-1993 When Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz went racing, they were hell-bent on beating each other. And when…

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Steve Wise was the greatest all-round rider in US motorcycle racing. Across 11 seasons (73-83), Steve won AMA Motocross and Supercross races, stood on the podium of the Daytona 200 with Roberts and Lawson, won an AMA Superbike National, and was the dominant force in the Carlsbad made-for-television race The Superbikers. Words: Norm DeWitt –…

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Four more World Championships in the Honda years, the Daytona 200, F1 car racing and the Le Mans 24 Hours – and then that Isle of Man TT comeback… Words: Bruce Cox Photographs: Don Morley, Mortons Media Archive By the time his career entered its second decade in 1966, Mike Hailwood had won four World…

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Shane Byrne’s Ducati one week, Bruce Anstey’s MotoGP inspired Honda RC213V-S the next – Peter Crawford discovered what it was like to ride the 1960s and 70s equivalents while chatting to Ray Knight, one of motorcycling’s true firsts. “It all started when I met Barry Ryason, the first editor I came across. He was racing…

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It may have been nearly 200bhp and needed extra weight adding to get up to the 130kg minimum, but the Elf 500 was born of sidecar tech. Kind of. The heart of any motorcycle is its engine, but all the more so in the case of the Elf 500, whose wide-angle Swissauto V4 motor gave…

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The early 1980s saw a resurgence in Production racing on the mainland.

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