Racer Test

Back in the days before anyone dreamed Yamaha two-strokes would be venerated as prized collectables, the Dugdale Maxton Yamaha TZ385, that 50 years ago this year took Charlie Williams to …
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Exactly 25 years ago in 2000, Yamaha enjoyed an especially stellar race season. In the five road racing categories it contested that year, Yamaha won five out of …
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Il Dottore leaving us will be felt not only in the USA, where the bikes he created were raced successfully to three AMA National titles in the 1980s by the …
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John Britten was best known for his V1000 creation, which to this day is still one of the wildest motorcycles to grace the international road racing stages. Proving he was …
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The chance to ride the one and only factory Harley-Davidson 500GP racer ever built came on a summer’s day at Pirelli’s Vizzola test track, in the shadow of …
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It’s hard to think of any new model as immediately dominant straight out of the box as the Suzuki GSX-R750F was in its debut 1985 racing season. Nothing demonstrated this …
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Laverda used racing as a means of developing new models, and showing the finished product to be both fast and reliable. Hence the family-owned company’s proud record of success in …
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The current globalisation of road racing means that, in almost every country of the world, in every class, the same identikit array of Supersomethings line up on the grid to …
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Fifty years ago this year, 1974, saw a momentous transition in 500GP racing, marking the last time a four-stroke – meaning MV Agusta, courtesy of the late Phil Read – …
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Down the years I’ve been privileged to track-test a vast array of different road racers, from dozens of factory MotoGP and 500GP bikes, through countless World Superbike contenders, to numerous …
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