F1 News - Williams says team's struggles are 'not because I have a child'
https://ift.tt/2wWAoOL Deputy principal Claire Williams says her Formula 1 team's struggles are "not because I have a child". Nine-time constructors' champions Williams endured their worst season in 2019, and have not won a race since 2012. Claire Williams, who has run the team since 2013, said it has been suggested to her that the issues coincided with her becoming a mum in October 2017. She said people "maybe give me a rougher time because I am a woman". Williams added: "I have had someone say to me that a lot of people in the Formula 1 paddock think that the team started doing badly when I fell pregnant and had a baby. "Am I not allowed a child because I am a woman running a Formula 1 team? It is a disgraceful attitude, and a very 19th-century attitude." Williams said she wants to "use the fact I am a woman in this male-dominated world" to change attitudes within the sport. "I would love to walk down the paddock this year having taken the team to a better place, to show that I can be a wife, I can be a mother and still run a Formula 1 team in a successful way," she said. Williams assumed the day-to-day running of the team from her father Sir Frank in 2013, and oversaw a third-placed constructors' finish the following season. But the team finished bottom last year having scored just one point with a car nearly 1.5 seconds slower than the next slowest on the grid. Williams said that, because of her role, she had "rightly" taken "a huge amount of criticism". "I am not on social media, I don't engage and I don't read the coverage as to whether people are saying Claire Williams should go," she said. "It is about what you do as a human being when you are on your knees that counts. I know the job I do and the value I bring to this team." She said "fundamental changes" are needed - not only in F1 - as to "how we address women in the workplace" because "it is so far behind the times". Her comments come in the same month six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton used his Laureus Sportsman of the Year speech to highlight the lack of diversity in F1. The first race of the new season is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 15 March. #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 February 28, 2020 at 07:15AM
F1 News - Lewis Hamilton breaks down in Formula 1 testing
https://ift.tt/2ToZeOI Lewis Hamilton suffered an engine failure that cut his running to just a handful of laps on the penultimate day of Formula 1 pre-season testing. The world champion's car had what Mercedes described as "an oil-pressure anomaly, which made the engine shut down as a precautionary measure". Investigations into the cause meant Hamilton did not get back out on track. Red Bull's Max Verstappen had an eventful day, losing control twice to take his spins to six in five days. Verstappen blamed his own error and the difficult windy conditions for the incidents. The Dutchman lost control at the chicane and Turn Five and has now had three times as many spins as any other driver in the five days of testing so far. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel also had a spin, but ended the day fastest, despite his off at Turn Five, setting a one minute 16.841 seconds best. That is still more than a second slower than the fastest time of pre-season so far, set by Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas last week. Headline lap times in pre-season testing are a notoriously unreliable indication of actual competitive form because the teams do not reveal the specifications in which they are running their cars and engine modes, fuel loads and other settings can make a significant difference to lap times. The high number of spins by Verstappen has raised questions about whether the Red Bull is suffering from an instability on corner entry. But Verstappen said he had simply not seen a patch of water on the outside of the track when he lost control entering Turn Five. He said: "I think I just touched the white line and it was still a bit of a damp patch. I didn't see it in the car but I looked back at the footage and on the onboard afterwards I saw it." As for his earlier spin at the chicane later around the lap, he said the car had been unsettled by the windy conditions: "It depends on the weather sometimes. Today and also yesterday it was very windy and all the cars are struggling in those conditions. "Overall I am very happy because I think we are always improving but we had some good laps and it won't be like this all season. We have things we can work on and we will continue on that." Red Bull introduced a major aerodynamic upgrade on to the car on Thursday, with a new front wing, under-nose 'cape', aerodynamic deflectors behind the front wheels and rear diffuser. Verstappen said he had no idea where Red Bull stood compared to Mercedes and Ferrari in the competitive order. He said: "Overall we need to step up, and we are working on that. So far this year the car is definitely an improvement, and it also has to be if you want to fight for the championship. We just focus on ourselves, and then we will find out in Melbourne where we are." In addition to Verstappen's two spins on Thursday and two on Wednesday, in addition to his two on the first day of last week's test, Vettel has lost control on each of the two days of running this week. The German joined Verstappen in spin at the slow, long-radius, downhill left-hander of Turn Five, where Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas also ran off track but avoided the barriers. Vettel lost control on the exit, while Verstappen and Bottas' incidents were on the entry. Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi also had a spin, damaging his rear wing when he lost control at Turn Four. Fastest times, second pre-season test, day two: 1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1:16.841 U 2 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpha Tauri 1:17.066 U 3 Lance Stroll (Can) Racing Point 1:17.118 M 4 Nicholas Latifi (Can) Williams 1:17.313 S 5 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 1:17.573 H 6 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:17.738 H 7 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes 1:17.985 M 8 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Renault 1:18.013 S 9 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas 1:18.225 S 10 Alexander Albon (Tha) Red Bull 1:18.393 H 11 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Renault 1:18.395 M 12 Antonio Giovinazzi (Ita) Alfa Romeo 1:19.670 M 13 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Mercedes 1:22.425 M Key: U = ultra-soft tyre; S = soft tyre; M = medium tyre; H = hard tyre #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 February 27, 2020 at 11:25AM
Motorcycle News - Honda CB250 Nighthawk scrambler by Urban Mechanics
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Despite al its strong suits, the chopper-inspired CB250 has never been much of a looker. But that didn’t stop Mike and Tom of Greece’s Urban Mechanics from recognizing the little CB’s potential for customization, and putting the Honda up on the bench.
The pair started by stripping the CB250 down to a rolling chassis, and upgrading the suspension. The stock Showa forks remain in play, though they’ve been serviced and fitted with small internal spacers to preload the springs a tad more.
Not jiving with the build’s intended scrambler vibe, the factory cast wheels were also chucked aside in favor of a set of spoked hoops now shod with knobby Continental Twinduro rubber.
Next came the bodywork. The baby Nighthawk’s tank was plucked, binned, and replaced with a slightly smaller cell off a Honda 125, which boasts a similar silhouette.
Giving the build its ‘arrow’ moniker is the piece de resistance: an elaborate set of hand-formed, one-off fenders.
At the back, a short convex fender comes to a sharp point, while an inner fender shields everything north of the back tire.
“There’s also a second level [not visible in the photos] that enables it to double as the rear turn signals,” says UM.
But it doesn’t stop there: where the top of the new headlight mask curls up over the front of the top triple, the UM duo have installed a slightly-angled Motogadget Motoscope Mini, along with a small integrated toggle switch and warning light.
“The seat is stitched in high-quality marine leather. The stuff is mostly used in yachts and has a special coating that lets it withstand sunlight and salt,” say the UM crew.
The stock exhaust was also binned to make room for a full custom system. Polished headers now feed back beneath the engine before exiting underneath the rear brake, and ending in a blacked-out SuperTrapp can with a custom with a reverse-cone tip.
Other finishing touches include toothed MX-style pegs, rectangular micro LED front indicators, an off-set custom license plate hanger, and a Nissin caliper biting a custom-drilled rotor.
Mike and Tom have delivered a stellar-looking scoot that ‘goes as well as it ‘shows.’ Urban Mechanics | Facebook | Instagram Motorcycles via Bike EXIF https://ift.tt/2Mf9b0c February 27, 2020 at 11:25AM 2/27/2020 Formula E Marrakesh E-Prix: 'Not making F1 will haunt me for life' says Mitch Evans - F1 News
F1 News - Formula E Marrakesh E-Prix: 'Not making F1 will haunt me for life' says Mitch Evans
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Formula E driver Mitch Evans says not getting to Formula 1 will haunt him for the rest of his life. Evans, 25, who will try to protect his championship lead in the Marrakesh E-Prix on Saturday, said the journey to F1 is "brutal". He told BBC Sport: "It was tough. I worked so hard and got so close, but Formula E was starting to grow and Jaguar gave me a lifeline. "F1 is brutal - I've beaten a lot of the guys in the [F1] championship." The New Zealander, who has two Formula E victories, won the GP3 - now Formula 3 - title in 2012, and spent four years in what is now Formula 2 while fighting to get to F1. "I was so set on F1. It's so hard, it's many, many years in the making trying to get there and I came a long way from New Zealand - to not get there was extremely tough to take. "I know I'm more than capable of being in F1, but it's so political that timing is everything - it's probably going to haunt me for the rest of my life. "But it doesn't hurt as much as it does a few years ago because I'm in a really good place in my life now." Evans is managed by former F1 driver Mark Webber, who spotted him while racing in Australia and helped him make the move to Europe in 2010. He joined Jaguar in 2016 when they entered Formula E and is the team's most successful driver. His second career victory came in Mexico this month following a masterful overtake at the first corner, which led to a dominant victory. "I'm extremely competitive and I want to win for the team that has given me the opportunity, and that's the best feeling. The next thing to top that is the championship." Exciting, competitive racingFormula E has been designed so that no one car or team can dominate. Last year, there were eight different winners in the first eight races, and all cars have the same battery and chassis. Teams can develop their own drivetrain (which delivers power to the wheels), all of which means a pole position or a race win should be achievable for all. "It makes the race extremely exciting because everyone has got a shot at victory," says Evans. "Even if you have a bad qualifying and you're starting towards the rear, you still know that you're in it. In F1, if you qualify 12th, the chances of you staying there are pretty high. "But it also adds to the satisfaction that when you do get it right. It's stressful but it should be competitive and it should be unpredictable. "[Winning is] hard to explain because it's just such an amazing, rewarding feeling. It gives you more hunger to keep it up and repeat it." #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 February 27, 2020 at 10:00AM
MotoGP News - Marc Marquez: Brother Alex must earn Honda MotoGP contract renewal
https://ift.tt/32vxsEx Marc Marquez says his younger brother and works Honda MotoGP team-mate Alex must "earn" a contract renewal, and that he will not "impose" his preference on the Japanese manufacturer Motogp Motorcycle Racing News via MotoGP news - Autosport https://ift.tt/2uOa9Ei February 27, 2020 at 09:36AM
Motorcycle News - Riding Gear – Ruroc Atlas 2.0 Helmet
https://ift.tt/2TqF8nw Extreme sports headwear experts Ruroc entered the world of motorcycle riding gear back in 2017. Their ATLAS helmet boasted an impressive list of features and unique styling developed off their snowboarding helmet range. To kick off 2020, the British company has entered into the second phase of the ATLAS saga. The new Ruroc ATLAS 2.0 has just gone on sale but I managed to get my hands on one early. Here’s a look at some of the ATLAS 2.0 features, updates and my first impressions. Motorcycles via Return of the Cafe Racers https://ift.tt/2M9riRb February 27, 2020 at 05:44AM
F1 News - The drama, pride and tragedy of F1's last Moroccan Grand Prix
https://ift.tt/3acSmLo The 2020 Marrakesh E-Prix will be the first FIA open-wheel World Championship event in Morocco since the 1958 Formula 1 Grand Prix. Although the Marrakesh race has been going since 2016, this is the first season that Formula E has been given FIA World Championship status - putting the formula amongst the elite rank of motorsport competitions. But the story of that race in 1958 is worth revisiting - as it was right up there with Lewis Hamilton's last-corner overtake in 2008 in terms of astonishing season-ending drama. The contextWhat was certain going into the last round of the 1958 World Championship was that it would be won by a British driver for the first time. Between Vanwall's Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks and Ferrari's Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins, British drivers had won all but one World Championship races that season, the exception being Maurice Trintignant's freak triumph at Monaco. (There was also an Indy 500 that counted to the championship that year, but life's too short to get into that now). The title had nearly been decided at the Portuguese Grand Prix two races before, when Moss had dominated and Hawthorn had spun on his last lap, having to get out his car and try to push-start it. It was only thanks to some advice from Moss as he passed Hawthorn on the slowing-down lap - "push it downhill - you'll never start the bloody thing that way!" - that Hawthorn finished at all. Even more extraordinarily, a marshal had seen Hawthorn turn his car round and thought he had done it against the flow of traffic on the circuit. This was against the rules and Hawthorn was threatened with being excluded. Moss, summoned as a witness by the race organisers, insisted that Hawthorn had performed his turn off the circuit on an escape road. Hawthorn was reinstated. Had Moss not supported him, Hawthorn would have been disqualified and Moss would have world champion there and then. But he did and so he wasn't. Instead, going into this last race, Hawthorn had 40 points to Moss' 32. The scoring system at the time only counted their best six results from the 11 races meaning that Hawthorn could only improve his total if he finished second or higher. But if Hawthorn finished third or lower, a win and fastest lap for Moss would put him on 41 points - and give him the title. QualifyingHawthorn's mood on arrival at the Ain-Diab circuit was immediately darkened when the dust sheets were pulled off his Ferrari and he saw the number 2 painted on it. That number had been the one used by both his team-mates Peter Collins and Luigi Musso when they had been killed in races earlier that year. Hawthorn insisted on swapping numbers with Olivier Gendebien. Fortunately, the Belgian agreed and Hawthorn's mood improved - to the extent that on the Saturday he took pole. Moss was only one tenth of a second behind him, however. At the time, the grids were not staggered, so Moss was starting right alongside Hawthorn, right in the middle of the track. To his left was his talented young English team-mate - not Brooks, who had only qualified 7th, but Stuart Lewis-Evans, a rising star at Vanwall in the days when teams could run three or more cars. The raceIn order to prevent Hawthorn getting the second place he needed, Vanwall decided to deploy team tactics to full effect. They had three cars - their plan was for Moss to dash into the distance and Brooks and Lewis-Evans would block the Ferraris, keeping them at bay. If the plan was successful, Hawthorn could finish no higher than fourth. That would mean the result would not be one of his season's best, and Moss would triumph. And to begin with, it worked brilliantly. Then as now, some races could be decided on the run to the first corner - and the winner in Morocco was no exception. Moss and Lewis-Evans shot off the grid, leaving Hawthorn trailing badly. But quickly, Ferrari got tactical themselves. They sent Hawthorn's team-mate Phil Hill to go all-out in pursuit of Moss, while Hawthorn more steadily guided his car round. Unlike now, cars were delicate and prone to breaking. (Indeed, this was the reason that drivers could only count their best six results). They had to be driven carefully and precisely - one slipped gear could blow the whole thing to pieces from within. If Hill put Moss under enough pressure, he might make a mistake and be forced to retire. Instead it was Hill who made the mistake. He pushed too hard and briefly went off the circuit on lap three. Moss scampered off into an unchallenged lead. But behind him, Vanwall's plan was falling to pieces. Stuart-Evans had already been dropping back by the end of lap one. Brooks was up to third, in front of Hawthorn. Moss needed him to stay there. He didn't. Just before half distance, Hawthorn slipped out from behind Brooks - known as the "flying dentist" because of his pre-racing career - and into a crucial third. Brooks tried to keep pace. But in doing so - as Ferrari had planned - his engine broke. Moss was romping away and doing everything he could. But Hill slowed and let Hawthorn through and into that crucial second place. Then, a desperate situation for Vanwall then turned to tragedy. Lewis-Evans suffered the same engine seizure that had afflicted Brooks. But whereas Brooks had walked away from his vehicle unscathed, Lewis-Evans' Vanwall spun with its rear wheels locked, sending him off the road and causing the car to burst into flames. Lewis-Evans climbed out, but he was very badly burned. Up front things were now settled. Moss was nearly a minute-and-a-half ahead, and had also got the fastest lap. But Hawthorn only needed to get home, and had Hill as a rear gunner to fend off anyone else. But with both Vanwalls out, he was untroubled. Moss took the win, but not the title. Hawthorn was 1958 world champion by a single point. AftermathThe headline in Motor Sport magazine summed the race up perfectly afterwards: "Moss is perfection - but it is not enough." "My congratulations were genuine, but I could not hide my deep depression because of poor Stuart's crash as well as my own disappointment," Moss reflected after the race. "It really did hurt." Worse was to come. Lewis-Evans had been rushed back to England in a private plane by team boss Tony Vandervell. But despite the best efforts of specialists at East Grinstead's Queen Victoria hospital, he died in hospital of his burns injuries eight days after the race. Devastated, Vandervell closed his team. They had just won the first ever Constructor's Championship. Stunningly, the driver's champion also never raced again. Hawthorn surprised everyone by announcing his retirement from the sport, even though Enzo Ferrari had told him to "name his price" to stay on. He said he wanted to quit while at the top - though the death of his close friend and team-mate Peter Collins earlier in the season had surely been a factor. But no-one would ever really know, because only two months later Hawthorn was dead - killed in a road accident outside the English town of Guildford. And the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix was not just the end of a season - it was the end of an era. Everyone assumed that with his two main rivals having left the sport in successive seasons, Moss - four-time runner-up - would finally be champion in 1959. But he could not keep up with technology, in the wrong teams at the wrong time, as races came to be dominated by cars with engines placed behind the driver, not in front. Eventually in 1962 Moss signed a contract to drive for Ferrari, who had dominated the previous season. Surely he would finally get the title he had been so close to winning in Morocco? As it turned out, no. Moss was so badly injured in a non-championship race before the season started that he never appeared. His career was over. What Moss and Ferrari might have achieved together remains one Formula 1's great "what if" questions. "If Stirling had put reason before passion, he would have been world champion," Enzo Ferrari said after Morocco 1958, reflecting on the sportsmanship Moss showed towards Hawthorn in Portugal. "He was more deserving of it." #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 February 27, 2020 at 04:33AM
F1 News - Vietnam and Bahrain races to go ahead despite coronavirus concerns
https://ift.tt/32sGd2d The Vietnam and Bahrain Grand Prix races will go ahead as planned despite continuing concerns about coronavirus, Formula 1 says. Chief executive Chase Carey said "all systems are go" for the race in Hanoi. "The Vietnam Grand Prix will take place on 5 April in Hanoi. And to anticipate another question, we do plan to proceed with the race," Carey said. Vietnam GP boss Le Ngoc Chi said the country was "ready" for its inaugural race. "We can't wait to welcome the the world to Hanoi very soon," Chi said. Their statements come just a day after a badminton Olympic qualifying tournament scheduled for Vietnam from 24 to 29 March, just a week before the Grand Prix, was postponed until June because of "strict health protection restrictions in place in Vietnam". And that decision was made despite the Vietnamese health ministry saying on Tuesday that 16 people in the country infected with coronavirus had been cured, with no new cases recorded for nearly two weeks. On 13 February, a commune of 10,000 people 30 miles from Hanoi was put into quarantine for 20 days because of concern about the virus. Carey added that the Bahrain Grand Prix, scheduled to be the second race of the season on 22 March, would also happen, a week after the first race in Australia. "We're heading to Melbourne, heading to Bahrain and heading to Hanoi," Carey said. Teams having to deal with 'moving target'The Chinese Grand Prix, which was scheduled to be the fourth race on 17 April, has already been postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said teams were dealing with "a bit of a moving target" with regard to logistics for the first three races of the season as a result of the rapidly evolving situation with the disease known as Covid-19. On Tuesday, Bahrain cancelled all flights from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for 48 hours after discovering a number of people who had been infected with Covid-19 who had returned to the country from Iran via the UAE. And a number of other countries are imposing restrictions on travellers who have come from certain infected zones. Horner told Sky Sports: "Can you come back into Bahrain via Dubai? Probably not at the moment. We've got Honda engineers. Can they go back to Japan? Would they be allowed into Australia even at the moment?" Ferrari has taken measures in conjunction with local authorities in Italy to limit the spread of the virus, after a series of cases in the northern Italian states of Lombardy and Veneto. The Ferrari museums in Maranello and Modena have been closed and access to the factory restricted for people who have been to the infected areas. #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 February 27, 2020 at 12:45AM
Motorcycle News - Siberian Scout – Workhorse Speedshop Apaloosa 2
https://ift.tt/2T3JEcE After a wild year tearing up the asphalt at the 2019 Sultans of Sprint series, Workhorse Speedshop is back with the Appaloosa 2.0 Indian Scout. This year, rather than competing head-to-head in 1/8th mile sprints, Workhorse Speedshop has their sights set on setting land-speed records. They won’t be heading to the Bonneville salt lakes though. Instead, they’ll be racing on the frozen surface of the world’s deepest lake. With new racing livery and some special performance tweaks, Workhorse Speedshop and Indian Motorcycles will take part in the second annual Baikal Mile Ice Speed Festival in Siberia. Motorcycles via Return of the Cafe Racers https://ift.tt/2M9riRb February 27, 2020 at 12:46AM
Motorcycle News - IN YOUR DREAMS: Kawasaki ‘Nightmare’ Flat Tracker
https://ift.tt/2Pq8il9 Written by Martin Hodgson Telling someone ‘it can’t be done’ has proven to be one of history’s great motivators; Einstein and Edison were considered too dumb by their teachers to amount to anything, billionaire vacuum cleaner mogul Sir James Dyson couldn’t get a single company to look at his designs and Stephen Spielberg was rejected from film school, TWICE! So when Ryan Maloney was told by everyone that building a Grand National Flat Track bike for the street was ridiculous, it only lit a fire inside him to prove the world wrong. Named for the very thing it gives its doubters, this custom framed Kawasaki Flat Tracker is winning trophies, tearing up the streets and causing many a ‘Nightmare’! During the day Ryan works as an HVAC technician but when work is over for others, the lights go on in his basement and he turns his talent to bike building. “My whole family races flat track it’s definitely in our blood. I’ve been racing since I was young from dirt track to drag racing cars, I’m obsessed with going fast,” he told us. His sons have inherited the gasoline gene with his four year old removing the training wheels to rip it up on a PW50. For his next build, Ryan was kicking around an idea, “about how cool it would be to have a Grand National bike for the street and that started the negativity from everyone saying it would be horrible to ride, it won’t work blah blah blah.” But rather than back down and definitely not about to take the easy way out by simply building a race replica, Ryan jumped on the phone. The call to J&M Racing Products was for one of their race-winning custom frames that are seen sliding all around the world. Making products to suit the highest level of the sport, J&M provides frames for everything from the modern crop of AMA approved engines, through to units for old school Honda and Triumph singles and twins and the array of modern dirt bike engines. But for his project Ryan selected a centre shock item to accept a twin-cylinder Kawasaki engine. To set it up for the street the wheelbase is now longer to tame things down just a little by extending the swingarm. All of which is brilliantly controlled by a big dollar Penske shock designed to suit the frame and is fully adjustable. Upfront a custom set of triple clamps are also adjustable and suspend the beautiful set of Ohlins forks, originally intended for a track focussed 2015 Yamaha R1. The right leg is machined to lose its brake mount while the left swings a stunning Beringer 6 piston caliper with rotor to match. This is removable for days in the dirt and the rear 4 piston unit takes over. The wheels are an impressive set of Performance Machine engineered forged billet alloy items that are designed exclusively for racing and come with quick-change hubs. Ryan selected a black finish for his pair before wrapping them up in Dunlop’s AMA winning DT3 rubber. To make everything come together Anthony Cicero from 16w Fabworks was brought in to make all the CNC parts. These include one-off foot controls with sealed bearings, CNC side plates to cover up the electricals, kickstand, footpegs, rear shock reservoir mount, and shifter and brake arms, all just for this bike. In Ryan’s words, “He’s an absolute genius!” Now with one hell of a rolling chassis underneath him, it was time to bolt in the 2012 Kawasaki 650r engine. The compact parallel twin is a popular unit, not only in flat track but in road and circuit racing too, thanks to motors lightweight, bulletproof reliability and power making potential. To hop things up the twin throttle bodies now breathe through a large air filter, while a custom set of pipes goes their own way before exiting under the seat with twin mufflers. The finishing touch is a one-off alloy radiator to keep the engine cool while Ryan has the throttle pinned to the stop. To keep weight low Ryan worked with Airtech Streamlining to make a custom carbon fibre tail section with number plates to fit the frame. All of which is topped off with the perfect seat thanks to Saddleman with a brilliant diamond pattern stitched in. The fuel tank is originally intended for an XR750 but has been modified to accept a fuel pump to feed the needs of the modern engine. Then the tedious task of cutting down the wiring loom to the bare basics began. Before a set of LED lights, front and rear were neatly moulded in place to keep the boys in blue happy. The 315lb weight and race winning technology mean this bike seriously hauls ass, but it also wins trophies on the show circuit and the man who helped make that a possibility is Bert’s Graphix who laid down the eye-catching colour, “I had him paint my friend Jessica on the tank and the name of the bike Nightmare,” Ryan smiles. But those grins don’t end there, “This bike wasn’t built to be babied it was built to be hammered on and abused. Anyone that rides it falls in love and says they need it.” Which is no surprise, as this is a genuine race machine capable of rolling up to compete at an AMA Grand National but just so happens to spend its days destroying the streets instead. [ Photography by Sam Bendall at Live Moto Foto ] Motorcycles via Pipeburn.com https://ift.tt/2LY9tnG February 26, 2020 at 10:27PM |
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