New Bike Specifications

Breaking New Ground

May 31, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

The national motorcycle racing championship 2012 starts tomorrow. Read on to know why we think the championship will be bigger and better this year

The 2012 season of the MMSC (Madras Motorsport Club) national motorcycle racing championship is about to kick-off this weekend, with the first of the five rounds to be held at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore.

The engineering services company SIDVIN has returned as the title sponsor of the championship this year and along with the other sources, the organisers will be distributing Rs 25 lakhs as prize money to the winners, an amount unheard of in Indian motorcycle racing.

To add to that, FMSCI (Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India), the governing body for motorsport in India, have made some positive changes to the structure of the championship. The 135cc and 165cc group D classes are reserved for the novice riders who aren’t allowed to modify their bikes. The new 165cc group C class will have open participation and allows certain modifications the bike while the 165cc group B and 600cc group A will be the elite classes, with no restriction on bike modifications. The effects of the changes are already visible as the FMSCI have announced 220 riders entries and nine team registrations already.

Most notable feature, however, is the introduction of the manufacturer’s championship. The manufacturers of the bikes raced will be awarded points based on the result and the one with the highest points at the end of the season will win the title. This will create competition and interest among the bike makers which will eventually bring in their active participation.

Among the one make races, Honda will introduce the new CBR 150R class and a team championship in the CBR 250R class. Yamaha will be introducing the YZF R15 version 2 with Daytona race kits and TVS will run their own one-make series along with the national championship. And there’s more! Each of these three companies will be sponsoring their prodigies in various international racing events.

Good times are here!

Breaking New Ground

May 31, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

The national motorcycle racing championship 2012 starts tomorrow. Read on to know why we think the championship will be bigger and better this year

Good times are here!

Honing Talent

May 29, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

The Apex Racing Academy promises to teach you something you will never forget. We find out how well they do so

There is no doubt that the Indian racing and motor sport scenario is improving. It may be happening at a rather slow pace, but it is happening none the less. There are a number of motorcycling enthusiasts who are trying to quicken the pace of the sport’s development and act as catalysts in the process. One such is the Apex Racing Academy (ARA), held at the Kari Motor Speedway, near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, where I got an opportunity to ride and learn certain things.

Started over a year ago by Bengaluru-based enthusiasts, the ARA aims at two things primarily: transforming a regular street rider into a much safer and skilled rider and providing a strong platform along with experienced guidance for the one who aims at making a name in the racing world. The first objective mentioned here might sound rather funny, but ponder over it awhile and you will realise that as a general street rider, any person has certain ways of riding and responding to tricky situations. Their reflex actions are not necessarily the correct ones. The basic aim of the ARA for the street rider is to improve this and show the safest way to get around in dangerous circumstances.

The second ARA objective is more important and a focused one. A group of three instructors – Sreekumar Gopinadhan (Poncho), Sameer Venugopalan (Killer) and Henna – take care of the coaching part at the ARA. All three have been National Championship racers with laurels aplenty.

The coaching at the academy has been split into three levels. The first one starts with familiarisation with track riding and includes introduction to proper safety gear, track etiquette, flag signals and so on. That is followed by a track walk, which gives the students a very clear idea of their learning environment and introduces them to camber and riding lines at the track.

Real riding begins after this wherein the level one students are directed towards the concept of smooth riding with the help of throttle control drills. While on track, the students are timed in each session and filmed at the beginning and end of the course to record their progress. The lap timings at the beginning of the course and at the end of the level one generally show an improvement of three to five seconds, achieved just by riding smoothly.

As the course progresses to level two, a number of serious skills of going faster are introduced to the students. It all starts with learning how to turn into corners with counter-steering, making the turns quicker, finding the right lines and understanding the concept of outside-inside-outside way of approaching corners and making use of the complete width of the track to open up the corners. This is followed by improving vision while riding and finding reference points for planning your moves on the track. Level two concludes with two very important factors: body position and braking skills.

Level three introduces the rider to the serious elements of racing. It all starts with race launch skills, overtaking skills and tricks and race strategies, etc.

After doing a full weekend at the ARA, I realised that this one is not just a riding school, but also a special one in a number of ways. Firstly, conducting the course are enthusiasts who really want to take the sport to a higher level. They are determined to address each and every rider with personal attention, whatever his/her level. Secondly, all the coaches are extremely experienced with competitive riding and hence know the real deal out there. Thirdly, they are continuously improvising their teachings and course to better the approach of learning and to go into the depths of it. Lastly, they are very open to the idea of an honest feedback from the students so as to improve the overall experience of learning.

Another very interesting aspect of the ARA is that they also run a racing team along with providing end-to-end service. What this means is that the ARA has a model wherein once the student graduates from level three, s/he can buy an annual package from the ARA that will provide him/her with a race-prepped motorcycle, tyres, pit and grid services and, most importantly, a rider coach to guide throughout the season.

The man behind the ARA, Anil Kumar S, has been working hard for a year and has been successful in providing a platform for 118 students so far. What is worth mentioning here is that even the coaches are supportive of Anil S in every possible manner. While Poncho is a businessman over the week, the other two have their jobs to do. All three coaches make it a point to pack up from their work on Friday evening, drive over the night to Coimbatore, start the coaching on Saturday morning, continue all the way till Sunday evening, pack up, drive back to Bengaluru that night and resume their work-a-day life on Monday morning without complaining of exhaustion.

So for all those who have been wondering where to start their racing career, look no further. Get in touch with the ARA, register yourself and kick-start your racing career!

Story: Adhish Alawani

Photography: Aaqhil Hussain and Adhish Alawani

The man behind Von Dutch

May 25, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

A custom building legend with the Midas Touch

The word ‘versatile,’ has been mercilessly bandied with many famous people of recent times but we really think it is appropiate in the case of Kenneth Robert Howard, or Von Dutch, as he is popularly known to his legions of fans the world over. Besides being a motorcycle mechanic of repute, he was also a pin striper, a knife maker, an artist, and a gunsmith.

His father, Wally Howard, was a Los Angeles sign painter; and, by the age of ten, the young Kenny Howard was able to paint and letter at a professional level. The Von Dutch nickname was intended to mean “stubborn as a Dutchman”. In the early 1950s he started of earning money by doing pin striping along with fellow pin striper Dean Jeffries. Von Dutch has been a major influence in the customizing vehicles from 1950 onwards till today. Some of his famous award winning work include the flying eyeball and the custom Kenford truck, along with numerous award winning custom motorcycles and custom cars. Many custom car and motorcycle enthusiasts, regard him as one of the fathers of custom culture in the world.

Von Dutch also designed and produced the Mare’s Leg, a cut-down Winchester rifle for the very famous television series Wanted: Dead or Alive. After a prolonged battle with alcohol addiction, he died in Spetember 1992, but not before he became a poster child of rebellion, biker attitude and creative free-thinking. Kenny Howard’s legacy still endures to this day – the Von Dutch company is now a licensed American multinational brand operating in more than a dozen countries and favored by celebrities like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears.

Red Bull X-Fighters Jams in Delhi

May 25, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Red Bull X-Fighters Jams prepare to take Delhi by storm

Red Bull X-Fighters Jams is a series of worldwide exhibitions with some of the finest motocross stars from the international FMX scene putting on insane shows in front of thousands of people. The world’s best Freestyle motocross riders prepare to take off in India at one of the most spectacular locations as a backdrop at Rajpath, New Delhi.

Watch out for the Red Bull X-Fighters Jams in New Delhi, which will have the likes of Nick Franklin, Nick De Wit, Gilles Dejong and Jimmy Verburgh, bringing on the heat at the capital, burning their tyres and putting on an exciting show that will leave every one speechless.

These events already have cult status in the cities they have visited, with top riders from the region joining some of the finest motocross stars from the international scene. So gear up as Red Bull X-Fighters Jams is coming to knock you right off your seats on 30th June, 2012.

Red Bull X-Fighters Jams in Delhi

May 25, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Red Bull X-Fighters Jams prepare to take Delhi by storm

The Samurai of custom bikes

May 23, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Over the past two decades, Shinya Kimura has risen to the top of the heap of custom bike builders with his stunning ‘zero style’ design of custom bikes

Up until now, custom bikes have mostly been the fiefdom of the West. Arlenn Ness, Jesse James, the OCC family – name any renowned custom builder off the top of your head and chances are, he will be American. But, slowly but steadily, the rest of the world is also waking up to the art of custom craft and creating a name for themselves in a field that requires enormous artistic talent, painstaking attention to detail as well as a thorough knowledge of metallurgy. Somewhere near the pinnacle of this list lies Shinya Kimura.

Shinya Kimura is a Japanese born custom bike builder and founder of Zero Engineering and Chabott Engineering who originated the “zero style” of custom bikes. A Zero-style bike is typically based around a rigid goose neck, a pre-1984 Harley Davidson engine, springer front end, spoke wheels and often includes parts of the bike remaining in bare metal.

In 2006 Kimura set up his own shop named Chabott Engineering to build both custom bikes as well as moving himself toward the world of art. He has also co-authored various books like “Art of the Chopper by Tom Zimberoff” and Zero Chopper Spirit – Samurai Bikes from the East and has also taken part in Biker Build-Off where he was put up against another great builder in the form of Joe Martin.

Shinya Kimura will be premiering two of his famed retro custom builds at this year’s Calendar Show. While the first of these two is a recently completed 1973 MV Augusta 750S named “Blue One”, details about the other remains undisclosed up till now. The former has already won the Quail’s Custom/Modified 1st Place Trophy and the Cycle World “Elegance in Action” Award in another event held previously. Over the past two decades, Shinya Kimura has built up an enviable clientele of motorcycle connoisseurs willing to pay top dollar for works of art that truly stand out from the usual breed. Like actor Brad Pitt, seen here in the picture with one of Kimura’s creations, the ‘Flash’ Café Racer.

Photograph courtesy: www.vanishingpointbikes.wordpress.com

Messiah on Two Wheels

May 22, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

With the Isle of Man TT coming up in a week, it is the perfect time to pause and remember the greatest motorcycling legend this event has ever produced

William Joseph Dunlop, referred to throughout the sport as “Joey”, was as much a philanthropist as he was a motorcycling icon. His achievements include three hat-tricks at the Isle of Man TT and winning a record 26 races in total in a career spanning three decades. He also won the Ulster Grand Prix 24 times and won a fifth consecutive TT Formula One world title in 1986.

Joey Dunlop was less known for his tireless charity work, which was exactly the way he wanted it – in complete anonymity and free from the glare of the spotlights. He made endless trips to Romania, bringing in truck loads of aid to various orphanages in order to help build their careers and there country. Dunlop stated that his proudest award which he was bestowed upon was his OBE for charity rather than all his amazing achievements in his very successful racing career. On 31 December 2009 Joey Dunlop was voted 3rd greatest Irish sportsperson ever.

Joey Dunlop died in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2000 while leading a 125cc race on the Pirita Kose Kloostrimetsa Circuit. He had lost control of his bike in the wet conditions and was killed instantly on impact with trees. Irish publishers The O’Brien Press published a full colour pictorial tribute to Joey following his death.

A memorial statue was erected in his home town of Ballymoney, And on the Isle of Man, a statue of Dunlop astride a Honda overlooking the Bungalow Bend at Snaefell. The 26th milestone area of the TT course has been renamed “Joey’s”. Northern Ireland band Therapy made a song in memory of Dunlop, called Joey. The most successful overall rider at the annual TT races is awarded with the “Joey Dunlop Cup.”

The Isle of Man TT this year starts on 26^th May. Stay tuned for more updates on one of the few surviving and the greatest, most challenging ever road race.

Messiah on Two Wheels

May 22, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

With the Isle of Man TT coming up in a week, it is the perfect time to pause and remember the greatest motorcycling legend this event has ever produced

The Isle of Man TT this year starts on 26^th May. Stay tuned for more updates on one of the few surviving and the greatest, most challenging ever road race.

The Rainmaker

May 21, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Rossi finally gets a podium win at Le Mans

Valentino Rossi finally was on the podium after a hard-fought race in wet conditions during the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, where he climbed from the third row of the grid to finally finish second on the podium. Starting the race in seventh place on the grid, Rossi quickly advanced to third place, at which point he encountered stiff opposition from Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow. The trio battled it out for a long time, changing positions almost every lap. Around seven laps from the end, Rossi finally put on a burst of speed, setting the fastest lap of the race and closing the gap with Casey Stoner, whom he overtook on the final lap. The Italian’s runner-up finish is his best result with Ducati so far. Jorge Lorenzo eventually won the race, with Stoner rounding up the podium.

A visibly elated Rossi stated that he was really very happy and knew that he had a special opportunity on these wet conditions today so he tried to ride perfectly and not throw it away. When he realized that he could really push hard to pass Stoner, he went to make his move and finally was able to pass Stoner. He added that he enjoyed himself and was very happy for the team and all the guys at Ducati, who all worked so hard to make it happen, and stated at the post-race conference that the team will continue working and tweaking until they become competitive on the dry.

Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager, Ducati Corse) said, “We’re very pleased with Valentino’s podium, and it also reflects the great job done by the team over the weekend. we’re overcoming little by little, although we still need to work to get it right. and now we’ll focus on other important areas of the bike. Today Vale was in a situation where he could ride as he’s capable of doing, and he gave us a great show. Vale showed everyone that Ducati, never gives up.”