the total braking force much. And car systems have been in development for years. The first car with ABS was a Jensen FF Interceptor launched in the late 1960s. Mass-produced bikes didn't have ABS until the BMW K series in 1988.Crucially, bikes stop

1 START STOPPING"Most crashes on the brakes are down to the initial input. A panicked grab can result in a locked front wheel and a trip down the road. In the dry you can just slam it on, but not so in the wet. What you need do then is get some

The banter started the instant we booked our places on Santa Pod’s famous ¼ mile strip. Back and forth across the office psyching-out comments about botched clutch starts, acceleration, wind resistance and reflexes. Excuses were made, bike selection justified and the tension moun...

HistoryLike most other bike sports, club racing was being organised almost a century ago. It was 1909 when the British Motorcycle Racing Club was first formed at Brooklands, legitimising amateur racing. In the late 1960s GPs were at a bit of a low ebb. Pure-racing bikes were gett...

I have an ambition. I don't want to climb Everest, sleep with a supermodel or fly as a passenger in a Tornado. No, my ambition is fairly achievable. I just want to own a Ducati 916.For me the 916 is the defining bike of my adolescence. I was 17 when it was launched in 1994 and fr...

wheel. In an earlier test the front tyre had blown. The only 15-inch tyres rated to 400mph were Firestones that stopped production in 1967, so we were forced to use 23-year-old tyres on our runs. After an earlier accident we swapped the tubed wheel for a

. Sometimes they really piss me off! Here's why... " says special correspondent Ron Jury1. Bikers who stop just in front of me at a set of traffic lights when I've already overtaken themI've stopped at a set of lights, so why does this idiot feel the need

't just dump it, slip the clutch for the first few metres, just enough to get the bike moving fast before fully disengaging it and opening the throttle to the stop. Forget what's ahead, the runway is clear of traffic, instead concentrate on the engine

to the stop exiting the corners and I’ve yet to actually get the bike spinning. The combination of race compound tyre and a hot Spanish track seem to be providing enough grip to drive the bike forward rather than spin it. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing

was beautiful. Mum told me dad was wandering around the garden without a shirt on in his shorts and sandals (maybe Scotland wasn't such a bad idea after all!). What could go wrong?Stopping at the first service station just before Bristol things seemed