Tanks for the engine!

Mad bastards...

IT'S NOT everyday a bike-builder gets his hands on a tank engine to play
with but that’s what happened to German motorcycle nut Tilo Niebel at the
Harzer Bike Company.

The bike Niebel's built uses a motor from a Soviet T-55 tank, The machine's 19-ft long and 9 feet wide. The builders says the biggest problem has been finding tyres and wheels to fit the mammoth 4500kg project.

Rioting continues over joyriders' death

RAMPAGING gangs of youths continued to set cars ablaze and clash with riot
police last night as violence spread to at least six towns in the northern Paris suburbs, 24 hours after two teenagers were killed when their motorbike collided with a police cruiser.

Police and French officials urged calm, fearing the continuing violence was about to spread to the troubled public housing projects nearby where there were the bloody riots of two years ago.

It has been claimed by the relatives of the victims that the police fled their damaged vehicle after in collision with the motorcycle and did not stop to
assist the youths after their bike hit the police car early Sunday evening
in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris.

Police said that the two teens, aged 15 and 16, were travelling at high speed and were not wearing helmets at the time of the crash.
"I call on everyone to calm down and let the justice system decide who was
responsible," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said during an official visit
to Beijing late yesterday.

Last night demonstrators in Villiers-le-Bel threw Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police, who responded with rubber-coated bullets and tear gas. Eight police officers have been injured in the scuffles so far on top of the 21 police officers and fire fighters injured in the initial outbursts of trouble on Sunday evening.
“We have seen cars set on fire and building attacked in six other towns outside Paris,” a police spokesman said.

Speeding Police Chief wastes court time

MEREDYDD HUGHES, Britain’s most senior traffic policeman, has been slated for wasting court time after he failed to answer a speeding charge yesterday.

Hughes, 49, the was due to appear at Wrexham Magistrates’ Court charged with driving at 90mph in a 60mph zone. Sources say the high-flying copper pleaded for an adjournment as he couldn't find a solicitor to represent him. Funny that.

Supersonic Hughes, who was allegedly caught on camera on the A5, has admitted committing two speeding offences in the past and having six penalty points, despite being one of the UK's strongest critics of speeding motorists.

Teenage joyriders killed in Police pursuit

Published: 26 Nov 07

TWO FRENCH teenage bike thieves were killed when their motorbike collided with a police car.

The incident sparked riots in the northern suburbs of Villiers-le-Bel and Arnouville, near Paris. Sources said the two were riding a stolen mini-motorcycle, and that neither was wearing a helmet.

Witnesses have accused the police of leaving the scene and of preventing local people from trying to help the youngsters as they lay in the road. The brother of one of the victims has called for the officers involved to be convicted.

The mayor of Villers-le-Bel, Didier Vaillant, appealed for calm and said he would ensure there was "an impartial investigation, for full light to be shed" on the accident.

A brother of one of the dead teenagers, Omar Sehhouli, said the rioting "was not violence but an expression of rage".

In 2005, country-wide riots erupted after the electrocution of two teenagers from another Parisian suburb - Clichy-sous-Bois - in an electricity sub-station. They were reported to have been fleeing police at the time.

Relations between police and young people in many deprived areas have continued to be tense ever since.


Source: BBC News

Suzuki Confirms China Factory

FOLLOWING A thread in news earlier today Visordown can confirm Suzuki will set up a new joint venture to build a motorcycle factory in China.

The Japanese bike-building firm's second factory will make up to 500,000 motorcycles per year. Production is due to start around April/May 2009. The joint venture will be funded by the company to the tune of around £25m, giving it 40% stake in the Changzhu Haojue/Suzuki Motorcycle Company.

The company says it is expanding its motorcycle production in China and
India, the world's two largest bike markets, to meet demand.

Suzuki to build factory in China?

Suzuki is likely to announce later today that it will build its first motorcycle factory in China in just over a year’s time.
"We are in talks and will probably make an announcement by the end of
today,'' said Yoichi Kojima, a Suzuki spokesman.

Suzuki, based in Hamamatsu, Japan, is expanding motorcycle production in China and India, the world's two largest motorcycle markets, to meet demand in
both countries and to help boost overall volume drives in Europe. The company
currently makes motorcycles in China under a joint-venture with the Jinan Qingqi Suzuki Motorcycle Co.

Visordown understands that Suzuki will produce 500,000 motorcycles a year at
a second factory starting in early 2009.

Two other Chinese motorcycle makers, Nanjing Jincheng Motorcycle Co. and
Dachangjiang Group Co. Ltd., also produce Suzuki's motorcycles in the country.
Suzuki made 1.15 million motorcycles in China in the year ended on March 31 and sold 1 million units. Suzuki started selling motorcycles in India on its own from last year.

Ten year ban for pulling a wheelie

STUNTING BIKERS in Miami may have gone just a step too far at the weekend,
and their antics look set to bring in tough new laws that is likely to see their bike taken off them, their licences revoked for TEN years and a mandatory stay in prison.

State representative Carlos Lopez-Cantera went on a ride-along with the Florida Highway Patrol to check out the local problem of speeding bikers for himself.

"This guy did a wheelie," Lopez-Cantera said of one motorcyclist. "It's unbelievable. These motorcycles passed us like we were standing still." Lopez-Cantera said he witnessed racers speeding at up to 120mph on the Dolphin Expressway.
"They're just blatantly riding in excessive speeds, putting themselves and other motorists in danger," Lopez-Cantera said. "It's just too much."

Police officers had complained that they were virtually powerless to pursue the bikers and said that they were frustrated as they watch their tactics, like flipping the bike's number plates around so they can't be traced.

True to his word, Lopez-Cantera filed a bill in Tallahassee after the ride-along that would toughen penalties on speeding, stunt driving and hiding or flipping number plates.

"They'll lose their bike," Lopez-Cantera said. "Their motorcycle license will be revoked for 10 years, and it's a mandatory arrest so they will go to jail."

If there are no delays with the law-changing bill, it could be heard as soon as this December which would place it for a full vote on implimentation next year.

Rossi wins in 4 wheels Monza Rally

Rossi wins with Ford at Monza Rally Show.

Published: 26 Nov 07
VALENTINO Rossi won last weekend's Monza Rally Show, a special end of season event that combines rally excitement on a Formula One track.

Rossi was driving a Ford Focus WRC car, the same one he won the event in last year. And like last year, heavy rain made the conditions tough, by reducing visibility and traction on the course. Alex Perico took the event's lead early on, but Rossi remained fast and consistent, winning with over a 30-second advantage over second-place Subaru driver, Piero Longhi.

Rossi will switch back to business this week, when he visits Jerez where he'll test his Yamaha with Bridgestone tyres for the first time.



from rossifiles.com

Valentino Rossi has added to his growing rallying credentials by taking victory in the Monza Rally - then declared that winning feels the same on two or four wheels.

Rossi, who recently drove a privately entered 2005-spec Subaru Impreza to 11th overall in Rally New Zealand, took his first Monza Rally victory in a Ford Focus WRC - and also won the ‘Master Show’ competition, which uses a head-to-head knockout format, for the second year in succession.

Although far from a ‘full’ rally - the Monza event uses parts of the famous Italian racetrack and its access roads to create seven asphalt stages - it attracts top drivers and machines.

Last year, Rossi finished second overall behind former Le Mans winner Rinaldo Capello, but ahead of former World Rally Champion Colin McRae. This year, Rossi won five of the seven stages to beat Monza specialist Capello by a solid 24 seconds and claim his first official rally victory, and outpaced former World Rally Champion Didier Auriol by seven seconds in the head-to-head Master Show final.



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Valentino Rossi

came through to take his second successive victory at the Monza Rally Show at the weekend.

The former five-times MotoGP world champion, who fractured his hand earlier this month, drove a Pirelli-shod Ford Focus World Rally Car at the end-of-season asphalt event.

Alex Perico had set the early pace for Peugeot, but Rossi took the lead halfway through the first leg and was able to build a 33-second advantage over Subaru's Piero Longhi by the finish - despite treacherous weather conditions producing standing water on many parts of the track.
Pirelli rally manager, Mario Isola was delighted with the result: "Our consecutive wins at the Monza Rally Show should be seen in the light of the fact that we operate two separate lines of development for our rally tyres: those to be used on the WRC – of which we will be the exclusive supplier next year – and those used on non-WRC events, which are no less important to us.



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"Thanks to our know-how and the experience we have developed from every event, we are able to supply competitive tyres to all our drivers using Pirelli PZero rubber on rallies.

"We have also proved our ability to hand-cut these tyres precisely, as we did for many drivers at Monza including Rossi and [Luca] Cantamessa [who took the Group N win], in order to suit variables such as the car, road surface and weather conditions."


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For the record, Rossi had been in talks to do this coming weekend's Wales Rally GB, the final round in the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship, which runs from November 30 to December 2, however in the end the Italian opted not to take part.

To date, Rossi has done two WRC events, and last year he impressed on the Rally New Zealand, finishing eleventh overall, just 18.8 seconds off a place in the top ten in a Subaru Impreza WRC car.



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The result was in stark contrast to how he did on his first WRC outing in 2002, when he crashed out on the Rally GB in his Michelin-backed Peugeot 206 WRC just 17 kilometres into the event.
Rossi meanwhile will be back on two wheels this week, during testing at Jerez, when he is due to ride with Bridgestone tyres for the first time.



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Monza Rally Show 2005 - Valentino Rossi
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Monza rally show 2006 - Valentino Rossi in action
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