New Bike Specifications

WSBK all set to debut at the Buddh International Circuit

June 12, 2012 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Ladies and gentlemen, the prestigious World Superbike Championship is finally making its way to Indian shores.

Jaypee Sports International Limited (JPSI) and Infront Motor Sports have inked down an agreement to hold the WSBK championship rounds on the 9^th and 10^th of March.

The WSBK championship, founded in 1988, consists of a series of rounds which are held on permanent racing facilities and each round had two races and the results of each race were combined to determine two annual winners, one for the riders and the other for the manufacturers. Almost all the renowned superbike makers such as Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Ducati, Aprilia, and BMW take part in the World Superbike Championship which is regulated by the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme).

JPSI MD and CEO, Mr Sameer Gaur has stated that they are extremely happy to announce the World Superbike Championship at the BIC. The WSBK is specially significant for manufacturers and customers because it uses highly modified production superbikes, thus differentiating it from the multimillion one-off prototype machines in MotoGP. The event it will be a treat for the eyes of Indian motorsport enthusiasts who had thoroughly enjoyed the F1 Indian Grand Prix last year at the Buddh International Circuit.

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.