Bike Devil’s Week on Two-Wheels: 14 September 20

Today is the day the COVID-19 ‘rule of six’ comes into force in England and we have to choose our favourite six people to socialise with at one time! All jokes aside, from today, new rules from the government come in for England which mean social gatherings of more than six people will be illegal. If you haven’t heard about it already – where have you been?! With the weather set to be nice this week, it’s just worth bearing in mind as to how many people you plan to meet up with…

*Spoiler alert about MotoGP coming up*

What a weekend for the MotoGP. The race for the title is wide open – with five different winners in six different races – it was Franco Morbidelli who took the top step of the podium this weekend at Misano. It was his maiden MotoGP victory and done at his home track – which we can only imagine made the momentous occasion even more special. He was the fourth maiden winner in the opening six races, the last time that happened was 1949, the first motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship season! Bagnaia of the Pramac Racing team finished second and Mir third on his Team Suzuki ECSTAR machine.

Due to crashing out of the race, Quartararo is no longer leading the standings and has slipped to second place, Ducati’s Dovizioso now sits at the top with a lead of six points. The paddock is back at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli again this weekend…

So, from racing where the manufacturers are pitting their machines against each other, to a project where they’re working together – the ‘e-Yan Osaka’ trial, run in cooperation with Osaka University. Often referred to as the ‘Big Four’, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki will start work to develop a standardised set of specifications for electric batteries. We think it’s great news and this could have a huge impact on the standardisation of battery tech – the only question we have is why it took so long?!

Have you seen the limited edition Suzuki GSX-R1000R? Released to celebrate the firm’s 100th anniversary this year, it will go on sale in October with an RRP of £16,999 and it looks pretty trick. There will be just – wait, see if you can guess… – 100 units coming into the UK. It features the same retro-inspired livery as the GSX-RR MotoGP machine – the blue and slate arcing back to Suzuki’s early GP machines from the 60s…

You will have seen the Bimota Tesi H2 machine – if you haven’t, again, where have you been?! There’s an initial rule of 250 units and will be available from 1 October. They’ve been on pre-order since last week so if you’re interested, you need to get a wiggle on. It’s expected to cost over £50,000 – we’ll be right back, just emptying our piggy bank…

We brought you the news of the Ducati e-scrambler back in July – at the time it was only available in a distinctive ‘Scrambler’ yellow – now you can get the £3835 Urban E-bike in a more understated matte silver.
In kit news, the futuristic EVOJET helmet from SHARK is in dealers this month. A new style modular helmet, the huge visor is connected to the chin bar of the helmet. We can’t wait to head to our local dealer and get our hands on it to check it out in more detail.
Back to bikes, it’s the last month that Indian Motorcycle is running it’s aptly-named Ride, Post and Win competition. It’s pretty simple really, take a test ride at an authorised Indian dealer before 30 September 2020, post about it on social (tag the dealer and use #IndianTestRide) and you could win a ‘trip of a lifetime’. Oh and for just taking the test ride, you can get a cool ‘Test Rider’ mug! We’re a sucker for a free gift!
That’s all folks – see you in two weeks!