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...If you had a spare £70,000, that is. PB gets a ride on the Ron Haslam-tribute Moto2 trackday bike. It’s amazing!

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the ultimate trackday bike...

Moto2 trackday bike

Words Jon Pearson Pics Jason Critchell

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s it OK if we borrow you for a couple of pictures with the bike, Ron?”“Aye, where d’ya want me? D’ya want me to wear me leathers? It’s no bother,

I can ‘ave ‘em on in a minute.” PB is trying to get a British GP legend to pose for a photograph or two. Ron’s already out the door before the engine has finished turning, asking

snapper Jason, “Where do ya want me? D’ya want me to wear me leathers?” “Er, well yes, if you want but…” JC’s sentence tails off as Ron is already away around the back of his

car and rummaging in a kit bag. Approximately two and half minutes later the British racing legend that is Rocket Ron Haslam

emerges beaming from the back of his family saloon sporting his original set of RS Taichi, ELF Honda liveried leathers. It’s an auspicious moment – Ron is lending his name to the limited-production trackday bikes FTR are punting out for double the price of Ducati Desmosedici RR.

At a glance it seems like an odd match of old 500GP NSR Honda two stroke and bang up-to-date new FTR MotoGP machine. Ron’s telling tales of the last time these heavily scuffed leather sliders were used on the mighty Elf Honda GP bike (“at a tyre test, not the last GP I did on the bike”) and I’m killing time gawping at the bikes while the FTR Moto I should be riding refuses to start.

I’m wondering where to settle my eyes in a sea of sauciness: GP-spec Ohlins suspension, OZ Racing wheels, Brembo GP-spec brakes... A beautiful curve to the footrest hangers shines out, and where’s all

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the ultimate trackday bike...“I

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News and Events

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1990 Ducati 750SS Team Tre Bello “We love PB,” says Ton Vissers, one third of the 1000SS-mounted team, “I made this racer after being inspired by the magazine. It’s a 20 year-old frame, but we’ve made some changes to make it strong again.” Ton talks me around the 750SS frame, with its Aprilia Mille front end. “We’ve done a lot of lightening to make the bike handle better. The 1000ss engine is mostly standard, except for the 749 oil cooler and home-made exhaust system.” Ton made his own Kevlar race bodywork too, from cut downs of the original, with a Honda bellypan for good measure. The other two bikes in the team are almost identical spec. “It is a great form of low budget racing and also a nice way to spend time with family – we are a team of husband, wife, brother and sister so we always have healthy competition.” I can’t help but feel the competition might be a little healthier still if he moved his transponder from the back to the front of the bike… Ducati-loving racing fanatics are always welcome in PB’s pages.

2011 Over Racing 848 Lex van Dijk I’ve been standing and staring for a long time, people are now starting to stare at me. But there’s not really much I can do – there’s never been a bike that’s appealed to me as much as this. Beautiful frame, tiny proportions and carbon bodywork – it’s ticking all my boxes. My trance is broken by a huge Dutch dude who has all the size and stereotypical presence of a Bond villain. “It’s an Over Racing frame with an 848 engine,” says Lex van Dijk, racer and owner of this stunning machine. “I import Over Racing frames and swingarms from Japan and then make bikes like this. This one has been based on a Yamaha TZ250. I’ve modified the length of the frame and the geometry to be as close to the TZ as possible, whilst being able to fit the 848 engine in there.” Lex has also ditched the Ducati fuel injection system in favour of a set of 48mm carbs. “It’s created an incredible power curve. 6000rpm to 12000rpm is seamless.” Through years of racing, he’d been able to acquire some forks from a Stobart Honda and even some discs from a 500GP bike.

Underseat pipe really slims down the once-bulky

750SS into a waif-like race bike

Home made Kevlar bodywork

was made from cut down moulds of original 750SS bodywork. It’s

immaculate

Peel off the tank and the airbox and you’ll find a pair of

carbs, not fuel injection

Lex’s Over 848 makes 125bhp

through its blueprinted engine,

but better still it now weighs just

140kgs

2011 JHP/Buildbase Ducati 848 Leon Morris I eventually make my way across the paddock to Leon’s motorhome. He’s smiling after racking up a second win to make it four wins out of four in the championship so far. I congratulate him and tell him I’ve ridden the PB 848 all the way over here to watch; he seems more impressed with that than I am of him. So Leon, what makes a winning 848? “The regs are fairly tight so there’s not that much you can do with them, but they’re a great bike so there’s not that muchyou need to do. We have a slipper clutch with uprated springs, Akra cans with decat pipe and a PC – although the non-Evo bikes can run a full system. The fork stanchions have to remain the same, but the internals can change – we’ve got K-Tech gear in here.” I ask him what mods I should be throwing at my 848 to make it even better on the road and track. “A good quality steering damper should be high on your list, as well as one of these Ducati Performance race seats. The special fabric grips your leathers and stops me from sliding forward so much.”

2000 Ducati 996 ST4 Frank Banga Drawn in by the Foggy Petronas-coloured 996 ST4, I look up to see its rider, Noordwijk’s Frank Banga, grinning from inside his awning. Pants around ankles. “Hey I’m just about to race,” says Frank as he steps out of his slacks and into his leathers. Turns out Frank’s Open Class racer is a bit of a Heinz 57 of the 916 line. “It’s basically an ST chassis – frame and swingarm, with the lightweight five spoke wheels and the Ohlins shock from a 996 SPS. I replaced the standard forks with a front end from a 1098, including four-pad Brembo radials.” The announcer gives the first call for his race. “The tank is from a 916 and the engine is from a 996 – I haven’t tuned it, because I want it to stay reliable. And I’m not the fastest rider, so I know there are improvements I can make with myself before I need to make the bike faster.” Rolling off his homemade paddock stand, Frank shouts over the bellow of his underseat cans: “Oh and the paint, well, it’s a tribute to Foggy of course. He had a lot to spare!”

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1098 front end was just a triple

clamp away; Frank said it was

a breeze to fit

This is no 996 – look closely and you’ll see the

frame and swingarm are actually from

the ST

Pirelli Supercorsa are the only dry tyre choice when it

comes to the 848. After 2500 miles on

ours, we have to agree

Ducati Performance

racing seat (£124 ducaticoventry.

com) is an alternative to grippy tank

pads

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Patriot missile

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All rise for the Triumph 675. Five years since its launch it’s still one of the best small sports machines

for the road. Jim Lindsay gives it a Knighthood…Words Jim Lindsay Pics Jason Critchell

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Buying 2006 Triumph Daytona 675

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One-to-one. Equilibrium. I’m talking about a motorcycling symmetry few achieve. But Spanish Ducati legend Pepo

Rossel has. Well, very, very nearly.“Uno,” he explains. “One bhp for every

kilogramme. 139kg with battery, oil, water and two litres of fuel. And 141bhp. That’s Radical Ducati power, not Dynojet power,” he sneers.

Pepo believes Dynojet dynamometers read on the optimistic side, whereas the one his dyno man uses (an Italian Soft Engine dyno – www.soft-engine.org) reads correctly. He wants to advertise what he believes is the ‘true’ rear wheel power, not what, in the UK at least, is regarded as the industry standard. But not to get bogged down in one of Pepo’s bug bears, let’s celebrate this incredible machine – a bike that inspired his company, Radical Ducati, to stray from their usual beat of air-cooled V-twins to build this water-pumping racer. But, typically for the Spanish Ducati specialists, they made it hard for themselves.

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