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BMW's Motorcycle Racing History
By Roland Brown on 23/04/2010 16:21:43
When BMW entered World Superbikes last season you’d be forgiven for thinking that the German marque had never started a race before, let alone won any. The reality is rather different
In fact BMWs have been competing successfully in World Championships ever since 1924, when the original R32 boxer won its first ever hill-climb, then followed that by taking nine consecutive German Championships. Since then BMWs have won everything
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Motorcycle Radar: 1977
By Roland Brown on 16/11/2010 16:59:51
Wise road tester Roland Brown looks back at the years that changed biking.
.END OF AN ERAAs several new superbikes arrived, two old warriors died. Honda, who’d started the superbike revolution in 1969 with the original CB750, ended that bike’s line of SOHC fours with the CB750F2, which livened up the previous year’s stylish but slow 750F
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How Ninjas took over the world. From GPZ900 to ZX-10R
By Roland Brown on 10/05/2010 16:58:26
The original GPZ900R of 1984 sired a long and illustrious family of Ninjas that are a huge part of motorcycling today. From the mental ZX-10R to the blistering ZZ-R1400, none of them would have existed without the GPZ900 25 years ago
in Kawasaki’s own range. Its 908cc engine’s 113bhp max was five horses down on the 1,089cc unit of its aircooled, eight-valve sibling the GPZ1100. And the Ninja was far less complex than the 3bhp less powerful Z750 Turbo. But they were dinosaurs
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Motorcycle Radar: 1988
By Roland Brown on 18/11/2010 11:34:06
An Italian fightback and some guts from Norton. Was 88 a vintage year?
were quick, light and hideously expensive.DECENT PLONKNew Jap fours were led by Kawasaki’s ZX-10, which improved on the previous GPZ1000RX with an aluminium frame, plus an extra 16 horses that brought the claimed max to 137bhp. Suzuki’s uprated GSX-R750
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Motorcycle Radar: 1994
By Roland Brown on 24/11/2010 11:52:46
Despite falling almost in the middle of a decade, 1994 was a year of fresh starts.
sports-tourer, which gave Honda’s restyled and lightened VFR750F a run for its money. The year also saw the arrival of Yamaha’s 100bhp FZR600R, plus revamps for the FZR1000 EXUP, GSX-R750 (both with lighter chassis and six-pot front calipers) and Honda
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Motorcycle Radar: 1989
By Roland Brown on 18/11/2010 16:25:31
Journalist Roland Brown has ridden everything that’s walked or crawled in the last 30 years. Here he looks back at the bikes that defined 1989
minor change to the steering head of the tubular steel trellis frame; suspension upgrades included a longer Marzocchi shock with compression damping adjustment for the first time. But it was the change from 16- to 17-inch wheels that made the most
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Motorcycle Radar: 1998
By Roland Brown on 20/11/2010 15:58:33
Journalist Roland Brown has ridden everything that’s walked or crawled in the last 30 years. Here he looks back at the bikes that defined 1998
was simply its timing.Normally a debut superbike from a top Italian marque would create massive headlines, but the RSV’s unveiling the previous year had been overshadowed by Yamaha’s new YZFR1 and the equally stunning 750 F4 from reborn MV Agusta. Worse still
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Motorcycle Radar: 1995
By Roland Brown on 21/11/2010 11:03:43
Roland Brown looks back at a year that left Fred West dead, thousands killed in an earthquake, but we got the 748SP
straight World Superbike title. The only racer arguably tougher than King Carl was Michael Doohan, who overcame his mangled leg to win a second 500cc GP championship. Elsewhere Joey Dunlop’s two TT wins took his total to 19, while a fellow named James
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The Six Sexiest Bimotas
By Roland Brown on 20/12/2010 11:04:40
Their business history may be erratic and their electronics legendarily so, but the one thing Bimota have always been able to do is bolt together a damn fine-looking motorcycle. Here’s the six sexiest bikes they ever built.
success was the Formula One world championship won in 1987 by Virginio Ferrari aboard the FZ750-engined YB4. In 2000, Australian Anthony Gobert won a World Superbike round at Phillip Island on a TL1000-engined SB8K.But by then Bimota was deep in another
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Motorcycle Radar: 1990
By Roland Brown on 24/11/2010 15:58:06
1990 was a mixed year for motorcycling. Remember the Laverda Navarro?
.Bike of the YearKawasaki’s ZZ-R1100 wasn’t simply the fastest superbike the world had ever seen, it brought a whole new dimension to warp-speed riding. The Big K’s engineers used all their conventional tuning tricks on a new 1,052cc, 16-valve motor, then added a
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