Bike Devil’s Week on Two-Wheels: 16 March 2020
Well where shall we start?! When we wrote the last update, it had just been announced that the Thailand round of MotoGP was postponed and we suggested it may well be a sign of things to come.
Unfortunately, we were right – with pretty much everything* being cancelled or postponed.
We’re talking MotoGP, World Endurance, World Superbikes, AMA Supercross, MXGP, F1 and Manchester Motorcycle Show – to name just a few. Even James Bond and Peter Rabbit have been stopped in their tracks as both new films have been delayed by the virus… oh and the Queen has cancelled all upcoming events…
It was also announced that KTM, Husqvarna and GASGAS will stop production until April 10 – however in their statement, they said: “The availability of all models is guaranteed for the upcoming start of the season in the worldwide dealer network.”
At this point, we’re not on ‘lockdown’, so providing the weather behaves itself, then at least we can go out and ride! But this is all pretty unprecedented stuff…
But aside from coronavirus, what’s been going on?
It was all change over in the US at Harley-Davidson as Matt Levatich agreed to step down as President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors after being with the iconic brand for 26 years.
There was a bit of hoo-ha too when the Government decided to announce its ‘consultation’ proposing that E5 fuel would be replaced by E10 as the standard grade of the petrol in the UK to help with its #NetZero target. That’s not saying that E5 would no longer be available though, there’s the suggestion it would just be a ‘super’ grade option. The reason some riders aren’t too impressed at the move is because using fuel with a higher ethanol content can cause damage to components of older bikes…
In happier news, Indian Motorcycle has launched a Scout Bobber Sixty – priced at just £9995. Powered by a 999cc V-twin engine, it’s essentially a smaller and cheaper version of the Scout Bobber. We think it looks pretty cool and are already planning how we’d customise one if we got it!
Super Soco has launched the TSx, designed for young riders the electric machine is equivalent to a 50cc and is priced at £2999 and has a range of approximately 40 miles. It’s in dealers now. We think it looks pretty cool!
Bullit has also launched the Bluroc 250 – a new model which sits alongside the 125cc version already in the range. Powered by an air-cooled four-stroke V-twin engine, it’s available in two colours – racing green or matt grey – and costs £3599.
The Chancellor pledged a £2.5 billion pothole fund which we are positive will fill a gap – see what we did there – in the millions of potholes across the UK road network. There is also money planned to help with the uptake of electric vehicles and the Plug-In vehicle grant has been extended to 2023, meaning anyone buying an electric motorcycle will receive up to £1500 from the government for doing such. And fuel duty has also been frozen for 12 months – woop!
Finally, congratulations go to Toni Bou, as he has been crowned X-Trial World Champion again as they cancelled the penultimate date of the championship in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, so he has mathematically sealed the deal!
Stay safe, keep washing those hands…
