MSL UNCUT
Real world rides, real world riders
UNCUT latest: Last added to: 5 June
DESTINATION QUEBEC - Parts 1 & 2
Quebec's people are often described as a nation within a united Canada; but as Ian Kerr found out, the area which they inhabit is pretty unique too...
One miserable winter’s day, I decided I needed a good holiday to look forward to. I was idly flicking through a bike magazine and read an advert that included motorcycle tours in Canada. Some 20 years ago, I’d spent a long, hot summer with some friends up at Lake Mekinac (Indian word for Turtle), near Trois Rivieres in northern Quebec.
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DUCATI 1098R TECHNICAL:
Racer with Lights
In creating the new 1098R as its passport to regaining Superbike supremacy under the new 1200cc twin-cylinder rules, Ducati took the new 1098 launched a year ago, and completely revamped it. A key issue
in development was the greater restriction on tuning imposed by the new regulations, which meant this literally had to be a racer with lights. The F08 factory Superbikes raced by Troy Bayliss and Michel Fabrizio in the coming season...
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DUCATI 848 FORMULA EXTREME -
Destined For Daytona
Designing a dohc Ducati desmoquattro with no intention at all that it should ever be raced, is a bit like saying you can’t have a red one - it goes against the grain. Yet it was a totally streetbike strategy which drove the development of the new 848, with zero racetrack credentials at R&D stage, says engine design chief Marco Sairu.
TRIUMPH ROCKET III TOURING TECHNICAL: Bigger is Best
The Touring member of Triumph’s flourishing family of Incredible Hulks follows its Rocket lll/Classic forebears in employing an identical version of the British manufacturer’s unique all-aluminium 101.6 x 94.3mm liquid-cooled three-cylinder in-line 12-valve mega-motor, mounted longitudinally in the frame and measuring 2294cc - or a crucial 140 cu.in. in American terminology, a nice round number which, three years after its debut in the summer of 2004, still says "Beat that!" to Triumph's showroom rivals for the customer dollar.
HARLEY-DAVIDSON’S TWIN CAM 96B ENGINE: Milwaukee Music
In launching its all-new six-speed Twin Cam 96 powerplant one year ago, an engine design marrying 21st-century technology with its traditional pushrod format, Harley-Davidson made a move arguably as significant in terms of its core product range as the replacement back in 1984 of the neo-vintage Shovelhead engine, with its cast-iron cylinders and variable build quality, by the more modern Evolution aluminium motor.
VYRUS VARIABLES: Back to the Future
Rimini-born Vyrus virtuoso Ascanio Rodorigo has lived and worked all his life in the motorcycling hotbed of the Riviera Adriatica, beginning as a 20-year old wrench for the local Bimota factory race team in 1973 under the aegis of his idol, Massimo Tamburini.
That number 59 adorning the 650 Grifon says it all, for 1959 was the year that Italjet was founded by Massimo Tartarini’s father Leopoldo – known better as ‘Poldino’ to the many friends he acquired in more than half a century of two-wheeled achievement.
Aprilia Shiver 750
The creator of the Aprilia
Shiver is one of the most modest and least known of the Italian
progettist who collectively shape the way that motorcycles
the world over continue to evolve, both from a conceptual and a styling point of view – what they are, as well as how they
look.
MV AGUSTA F4 R312
Every so often, we are given stories that we're simply not able to squeeze into the magazine. This month, it's all the background to our great MV Agusta story, the team behind the machine...
Vee Two Super Squalo visits Isle of Man TT for final real world testing, now in production as world’s most powerful and fastest-accelerating catalogued streetbike, with 203.9 bhp from Ducati 999S motor via Sprintex supercharger
Triumph’s new Street Triple 675 first of several new models from British manufacturer, including Rocket III Tourer, 1500cc parallel-twin cruiser, Tiger Cub 675 dual-purpose trailbike, and 1100cc three-cylinder Daytona Superbike
Bimota continues path down comeback trail with new hub-centre Tesi 3D, has begun work on tricked-out DB7 Superbike with Ducati 1098 testatretta motor
