2010 Honda Shadow Phantom on 2040-motos

Moto blog

Tested: Mick Extance Trials School

When it’s minus nine outside, riding motorbikes should be the last thing on any sane person’s mind. Riding them off-road, nearly two thousand feet above sea level seems even more stoopid. But that’s where I was a week last Saturday.

Honda CRF250L Confirmed for North America

American Honda and Honda Canada haven’t yet officially announced they will import the new Honda CRF250L, but the parent company has outed the dual-sport’s availability in North America. Honda has launched a new micro-site dedicated to the CRF250L describing its features including its CBR250R-derived engine. The section discussing the CRF250L’s muffler explicitly confirms an American and Canadian model, saying: “the model for the United States and Canada complies through additional settings for a spark arrestor.” The section on the CRF250L’s engine also confirms the dual-sport will be CARB-compliant, stating: “the power unit for the U.S.

Bahrain track days

A few months ago, expat (and ex racer) John Beddall made contact to ask if I fancied doing some track day instruction out in Bahrain.  After thinking about it for two seconds, flights were booked and a plan was put in place to look after around forty riders for a day at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).  Young Taylor Mac was also recruited to look after any tasty riders that I couldn’t deal with   The Brits out there love their bikes, however, quite a few locals also turned up plus a few others from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar.  Most were on high end Superbikes, like S1000s, Panigales and RSV4s but there was also a healthy number R6s and new 675Rs.   Although this fabulous Hermann Tilke designed circuit is around ten years old incredibly it has never hosted a bike race.  The highlight of the year there is F1 but being owned by the Bahrainian Royal family, there is no desperate need for the circuit to operate as a profitable business.  The track reminded me of Qatar but much more interesting as some great undulations have been built into its desert location. We shared the track with Supercars on the day (20mins on/20mins off) and as you might imagine it was betty swollocks for seven hours in the 30 plus temperatures.  As usual there was a few offs with poor old RS1000 Aprilia mounted Andy breaking his femur early in the day.  Two other buddies appeared to swap bikes mid air in another incident but fortunately escaped unhurt.In the evening everyone stayed for an al fresco dinner in the paddock with the craic going on for hours as the Fosters kept flowing.   All in all it was a brilliant trip and it has left me thinking there could be cost effective ways of getting Brits out there for track days next winter.  I'll keep you posted.Cape Town next to make my racing comeback at the Killarney 8 hour on a CBR150 Honda.  Hopefully I can manage the beast, I'll post a full report next week.