Tigerday today. I have been out photographing the Tiger 1050 at various locations around Manchester today. Salford Quays and Trafford Water park mainly. I think I have got some good static shots now so action remaining. It was cool riding the Tiger around town today, fairly high riding position allows a good view over the traffic and the engine pulls cleanly already from 2.000 rpm with good push from 3.000. All good for town work really. And wheelies... At Salford Quays I was chased away by security for not having permission to photograph there that day. Bollocks and luckily I already had some shots. I have heard that they want royalties from images sold with the Lowry in the background. Greedy bastards! Anyway, I have paid good money both at their theatre and restaurants several times so that will have to be enough. I will however give them a ring next time. See the pictures here. Tor
17/11/2006
Pictures are out! I just added 223 extra images from the EICMA show here. Hope that's good enough for you all. The Erik Buell interview turned out at 1800 words whilst the show report itself is 2.700 words + another 1500 words on various subjects. There's just so many new bikes at the EICMA show, but it's still my favourite show even though there is a lot of work for me to do always. The Tiger 1050 is behaving well even on the very windy motorways we have in the UK at the moment. During the weekend I'll wind down by riding Tigerboy, but the camera needs to come with me as I need a lot more Tiger images. Laters, ciao!
16/11/2006
You are probably wondering what the hell is going on now since there are very few pictures from the show out and info not updated. I can feel the pressure sinking in and deadlines and printers in industrial estates cursing me. Text is ready for most of the new models and will be updated shortly. However, last night I arrived London Luton at midnight coming back from Milan. Then I had a three hour ride on the Tiger 1050 from London to Manchester. Then I published what I had scribbled in the blog at the airport and went to bed! Now I'm still trawling through press kits and FTP'ing the press kits that are difficult to get online to the editors that I work with. As we speak some gorgeous images of the Bimota Tesi 3D is speeding through the wireless network onto the backbones of Europe to arrive at their various destinations. Soon there will be a proper report from this years eventful EICMA show in Milan. Tor
15/11/2006
I'm now at the airport in Milan. I've had a bottle of beer after two busy days. I haven't had time to update much at all on the site unfortunately, so I have decided to publish everything at once tomorrow. I had to serve the editors relying on me as their reporter in Milan and I still have transcripts to do from both my interviews with Giandrea Fabbro (Ducati 1098 designer), Casti' (Claudio Castiglioni) and his son Giovanni, the Bimota men, Ferrari engined Terra Modena owner and Erik Buell. It took ages to upload the odd 1.5GB of picture material I have collected to the FTP server in France from the press room in Milan. I am now facing a three hour ride in about four hours before I am back home. It'll be a long night and I'll blog more later. I did miss that Liverpool flight by the way and had to go down to London Luton instead early next morning. A real pain in the neck! TS
14/11/2006
13/11/2006
Tiger-talk today ahead of the EICMA coverage from Milan. I have already racked up around 140 miles on it. I was surprised to see the sun was out this morning and it promised to be a very nice day on the Tiger 1050 first and then head over to Milan. The Tiger press fleet had not arrived yet when I entered the Hinckley factory just before lunch. So I had lunch with the Triumph staff whilst waiting. A nice and warm chilli whilst discussing why it's so expensive for the manufacturers to attend all the international motorcycle shows. Triumph attends all the big international shows (Birmingham, Cologne and Milan) but lets local dealers do the rest. The Tiger 1050 world launch have barely started in Spain, but the weather has been appalling over there so I got a very good deal riding the Tiger on UK roads properly already now. And it finally arrived the Fusion white (albino) Tiger 1050. Suddenly I had very little time and had to settle with just a few shots on a service station along the M6. I had planned to ride through the Peak district rather than the motorway, but time left me with no choice. That also dictated how I used the throttle and the needle stayed on the east side of the speedo most of the way. White lightning past many cars and they wouldn't know what hit them until the white beast had past. The 1050 triple engine comes in a 114bhp version with 100Nm of torque. The figures are down on both the Sprint ST and Speed Triple, but riding it you wouldn't think it actually is less powerful. The midrange is really good and I used it a lot even though I used the revs greedily. Not because I needed to, but because I had to. It was fun and I almost thought I'd rather ride the Tiger 1050 more than go to Milan. But, duty calls and I raced out to Liverpool airport like a maniac. Did I catch my flight? Read my blog tomorrow and I'll tell you along with more EICMA stuff. TS
09/11/2006
I am very sorry for being a bit amused over how the 1098 launch ended for Ducati. The whole firm tried to be super controlling about who got this and who got that. How long have Ducati been in the PR business? And why could they not see this happening? I am talking about the leakage of images and the details being spread out over certain magazines front-pages several days before the Embargo and low resolution on the internet. When I asked whether I could hand over some high resolution 1098 pictures to a couple of magazines that asked I was told they were not core publications, so they could wait until Monday despite having deadlines earlier for a later release. I am sorry Ducati, but on this one you had it coming. Better luck next time. From my perspective, being a member of the press, it's always better to work with the press rather than against it. Simply because we win each time. Now that 1098 looks like a bloody fast machine and I love V-twins. I hope it's good! Forza Bologna! TS
08/11/2006
Now that the 1098 is old news already I can move on to the next story. Today's blog will be about Bimota 3D's, 2007 Aprilia RXV's, Erik Buell and the Tiger again. Bimota released some new sketches that shows the major introduction of a trellis frame to the front of the fork-less Tesi 3D. I can't wait to see the final product as this is some serious engineering from a small Italian manufacturer. All the Tesi's were great achievements, but next year you can buy one that's cheaper than a house and that's not too bad! I have had time to arrange an interview with Erik Buell, another engineering brain, in Milan. But I have been slotted in on Wednesday morning which could be a bit stressful as I am flying back to the UK later that day. I think I'll be able to get a few words on the floor on Tuesday as well just in case. later this month, more specific on November 22, I will ride the 2007 Aprilia RXV's here in the UK. The demo takes place at the Land Rover proving grounds in the West Midlands. It promises to be exhausting as usual, so I guess I'll have to go out running when my cold let's go. Today's pictures are from the Sicily world launch that happened earlier this year. Sicily is not that big, but this is still in the middle of nowhere. Later that same day we also rode the SXV's which involved a change of clothes so we were all knackered at the end of the day. Riding Enduro's is a great way of keeping fit and I'll try and ride as many as possible this winter in between launches and other activities. Whilst doing my research about the 2007 RXV's I found this by the way: RXV test online. I thought they had now got some more info than me. But who wrote the article:-) I'll be chatting to Aprilia on Tuesday so we'll get the low-down then. I wrote that version of the copy exclusively for Dirt Rider and it was published in the US a couple of months ago. The production Triumph Tigers only arrive back to the Hinckley factory on Monday morning. That's when I will pick one up. Before I leave I will have some Tiger Frosties for breakfast. There's no end to how much fun we can have with this Tiger. Hope it's not all gone by the time I write my copy! Pictures of the new Tiger 1050 and the old that I last rode in 2004. Tor
Dynamite news that new superbike that still can't be referred to as the 1098 despite it saying so on the fairing sides. Remember where you heard that Ducati will race a 1200 despite the new bike having 1098cc's. The rumours have been talking about the R version getting a bigger engine, perhaps the 1200 (or 1198). The new bike gets the single sided swingarm, new top notch brakes and GP7 instruments. One of my Italian designer friends would have referred to the new 1098 fairing as "fat" as the side view points in a very aerodynamic direction rather than the thin and flat Tamburini 916. The beauty of a V-twin is the fact it is so narrow by nature and only radiators etc ruins that look. Suzuki went a bit aerodynamic crazy with the TL1000R as not much about that bike shouted V-twin! That's why so many people was surprised when I started up the engine on my old TL1000R. It looked like a four, but sounded like a great twin. I am still undecided whether Ducati now have done a little of the same to the 1098. First we shall see it in the flesh already next Monday. I will not be riding the 1098 at Kyalami after all, but I have been promised (by a hectic Italian press office mind...) that I can ride it in Bologna in December. And to ride the Hypermotard at the spring launch. the Desmo RR might never get a launch, even though I doubt it. The bike's too fantastic on the paper not to let journalists tell the world about it. Think about this, if we don't get to tell you about it then who will? Your local Wall street broker certainly won't and he's the only one that can afford one. To tell you the truth, I have been on a Ducati offensive lately and probably, due to my direct working methods, offended someone too. So be it, it's all about the bikes for me, not politics. I sometimes despise company politics on different matters. I'll do some more scribbling on this subject another time when I am really bored. But I will be talking to the top Ducati brass in Milan. Monday the 13th starts for me when I ride down to Hinckley to pick up the 2007 Tiger 1050. Then I fly from Liverpool to Milan in the afternoon directly to the Ducati press conference. I'll hook up with my friends around the world including local man Luc1 (his name remains a secret, just like Michelangelo), Didier from French Motards-Online and chief Ivar at MC-avisa in Norway as well as the usual suspects I always meet at the press conferences in Europe. Then I'll be back a couple of days later to ride Tigers in the Peak district. Better shout Tiger, Tiger and stay out of its path! Ciao!
Where in bloody hell should I start this blog entry! Well, first of all; On Saturday night whilst I was out in town getting completely leathered up, some fatheads had made an attempt to nick my good old friend, the Cagiva Raptor 1000. I arrived home around 03.30 at night and I couldn't believe my eyes when I tried to go through the gate to my house. The poor old Raptor just lay there in front of me with a bloody skateboard next to it! Now guess what these fatheads tried to use the skateboard for! It must have been a couple of skinny chavs that ran out of muscle or got caught red-handed just as they were about to push the bike on the bloody skateboard out the gate. Managed to get the bike upright and unlocked the disc lock to push the bike back to its position in front of the garden gate. To my bloody horror I could see that when the bike had been dropped through the iron gate the brake-fluid reservoir had broken and leaked out brake fluid! Never mind that the instrument-panel had cracked as well. And since the rear brake disc cracked a few months ago (or last year, can't remember), I just bled the rear brake system empty to avoid any incident on the road due to the disc being cracked (as in accidentally using the rear brake). So basically with the front brake disc reservoir leaking brakes were now very dodgy and I had to fix it ASAP. Anyway, on Saturday night I had to go through all my stuff since moving only a few weeks ago to find all my chains etc to lock the bike to the iron gate and then I covered it up with my bike cover. That'll keep the thieving scum away for a while. Today I went out and tested the front brakes. the double four pot Brembo set-up was still doing its job, but I wouldn't trust them in a 100mph emergency! So headed over to Hunts Motorcycles in Didsbury to see what they could do to help there and then. Being a big Honda dealer there's mostly new and newish' second hand bikes in the shop. Nothing we could nick the brake reservoir from basically. Did place an order, but advised that I would head over to my local breakers as well to see what they had. Rode very carefully to Macclesfield to Cheshire motorcycle salvage and voila they had plenty of what I was looking for. They even offered free brake fluid and for me to borrow tools to replace the reservoir and bleed the brakes there. Great stuff and in no time the brakes were as new. And how much did it cost me to replace the brake fluid reservoir do you think? £2. Now the Raptor stoppies again and that's all I need. Did have a look for the rear brake disc as well, but funnily enough (you should see the amount of junk these people stock at Cheshire) they couldn't find the correct disc. I picked up a third disc-lock chain at Hunt's by the way to make sure I can chain both the front wheel, rear wheel and the frame. Even if my bike had been a bloody MV Agusta F4 CC no thieving scum (even) would be stupid enough to make another attempt. The only problem is that it's going to take me 30 extra minutes every time I want to go somewhere. This is Manchester for you and it's the first time ever anyone have tried to steal any of my bikes. If I ever catch them that skateboard will make a big bump in someone's head. Today's blog entry is already too long for my Ducati rantings, so I'll save that for another day. It's worth waiting for as well. TS
