What we learnt from the first pre-season test of 2017?

18:32

•

F1

After all the hype, drama and anticipation surrounding the new look of the 2017 cars, we've finally witnessed what they look like. 

The first pre-season test at Spain's Circuit de Catalyuna has come to an end. Here's what we've come to learn so far:

1. The looks

(Image credit: Scuderia Ferrari)

As expected, the new cars do look meaner and cooler than their predecessors, and those chubby Pirellis do give them an aggressive stance. But there's a divided opinion on the shark fins. Having said that, I think it would be safe to say that everyone's united in their dislike for those 'T-wings'. And yes, there's gotta be a way around those ugly thumb noses. *cough Force India cough*

2. Overtaking will be an issue

The new cars have a lot more downforce than their 2016 counterparts. They're slated to break lap records at a number of circuits this year. Having said that, we might not see too many overtakes despite the increase in speed. More downforce means that it becomes difficult for the car behind you to follow. The turbulent whirlpools created in the wake of the leading car means that it's a lot harder to stay close to the car in front. Lewis Hamilton has been the most vocal of all the drivers regarding this issue. It's a concern that he recently raised at the end of day 3 of the testing while they were doing race simulations.

3. Can Prancing Horse be the dark horse for 2017?

(Image credit: Scuderia Ferrari) 

Yes, I know, calling 'Ferrari' a 'dark horse' is like calling 'Sauber' an 'Italian stallion' but let's be honest, given Ferrari's form over the years, coming into the pre-season testing, no one really expected them to perform the way they did. Kimi Raikkonen topped the time sheets on his both outings on the second and the fourth day while German teammate was a close second on the third day of the testing. However, both the drivers have downplayed Ferrari's strong start as don't wish to get ahead of themselves. 

4. Mercedes still remains the team to beat

(Image credit: Mercedes F1)

Without making any big splashes, Mercedes were outright leader on performance. Though Ferrari outpaced them on a couple of occasions, it could well be the case of Mercedes sandbagging though they keep denying it. Red Bull Racing were more closely matched to Ferrari than to Mercedes. If the current numbers are taken into consideration, there's a positive chance that 2017 will be a much more closely-fought season than the 2016 one.

5. Honda can't make McLaren great again

(Image credit: Honda Racing F1)

The speculations that McLaren will make big inroads in performance and it will run close to the leaders were put to rest when their new orange and black car took to the track.  

Something tells me, putting an orange tone on anything is guaranteed to NOT make something great again!

BONUS: We might have found Maldonado's successor

I don't want to jinx it but it looks like the days of clipped front wings, broken suspensions and flamboyant crashes might be back. Ladies and gents, I give you, Lance Stroll. The Canadian's crash on day 3 not only cost Williams a front wing a suspension but the repair work meant they couldn't get the car ready in time for day 4 and missed the final day of testing.

The unforgiving folks of world wide web had a field day criticizing Stroll after the rookie crashed into the barriers at turn 5 on day 3 of the testing, his third of the week. Given how fast the fans catches up with these things, Stroll already has a website similar to the one Maldonado had: Has Lance Stroll Crashed Yet? 

Will Kimi get his icecream?
Will Lance Stroll crash again?

Will McLaren build an engine and make Honda pay for it?

All these and more questions will be answered when the next round of testing gets underway. Comment in the box if you already know the answers to the above questions.

READ MORE

Dakar 2017 was CS Santosh’s coming of age

03:03

•

Rally Raid

A detailed analysis of CS Santosh's third Dakar outing

CS Santosh at Dakar 2017 (Image credit: Hero Motosport)

Every year in January, a bunch of off-road enthusiasts – the world’s toughest ones, to be fair – packs their bags and heads to South America for an adventure known as the Dakar Rally. Covering almost 10000 km of the toughest terrain across three countries in a span of two weeks, it’s the toughest rally anywhere in the world. Since 2015, holding the Indian flag high at Dakar is the Bangalorean CS Santosh. 2017 was his third outing at the event and his second instance of crossing the finish line, that’s a respectable 66% completion rate at this unforgiving rally. This year, while Aravind KP became the second-ever Indian to participate in Dakar, CS still remains the only Indian to have seen the chequered flag.

While CS Santosh couldn’t eclipse his debut runwhere he finished 36th, his final finishing position – 47^th – wasn’t all that bad after all given the fact that at one point he was languishing in 81^st place.

So here's a semi-logical account CS Santosh’s South American adventure:

A tough rally by some margin

I met Santosh barely 8 days after he returned from Dakar. One could see that the grueling rally had impacted him physically. Hours of non-stop riding and weather changes in the range of 45 degrees to 5 degrees in span of two weeks, had taken a toll on his body. Not weak by any stretch of imagination, just a bit leaner compared to his pre-Dakar athletic frame. Occupational hazard in his line of work, one would say.

And that tells half the story of how difficult this year’s event was. “Overall, it was a really tough Dakar, it’s different from what I had expected and that caught me off-guard especially with how technical it was; for 60-70-80 km every day, it was really technical with slow speed. It was enduro trials kind of stuff. It was physically really demanding and it was a tough Dakar – one of the toughest ones they’ve done in South America,” said the 34-year-old.

This was due to the fact that lot of people over the years had complained of the rally being too fast (and dangerous). As a result, the sports director, five-time champion Marc Coma, decided to make the rally slower and a lot more technical. Slower speeds keep the event safe while the technicality aspect still ensures that only the best racers come out on top.

Navigating his way through vegetation (Image credit: Hero Motosport)

Navigation: How difficult can it be?

Turns out, very.

To give a perspective of the compounded navigational difficulty, here’s what Santosh had to say: “I think we didn’t realize how difficult it would get. Because while making the road book, we had to pay extra attention. Earlier we’d just mark the road book thinking it wouldn’t be that hard in terms of finding our way and where they want us to go but this year they made it too difficult. Every note was so long; sometimes, in a single note it would have three sub-notes. So we had to make extra notes in a note which was very difficult to read while you’re riding. The places where we’d navigate were river beds with vegetation and there were no track so it was kind of difficult.”

The Error

Due to a navigational error during stage 3, Santosh missed a Way Point (WP) which resulted in him incurring a huge time penalty. “I think I made that mistake which cost me an hour and 20 minutes. Plus that day, I lost more time because I was so exhausted and spent in the first 70-80 km. that when the stage actually became nice and fast later on, I got passed by more riders that day. I hit a wall. I had no energy. Even though the penalty was only an hour and a half, I believe because of all these reasons, I lost two and half to three hours that day,” said the 2016 Desert Storm Champion.

“I would’ve finished in the 30s had I not missed the Way Point and lost all that time,” he added. Which sounds fair because if you deduct 2.5-3 hours from his final classification timing of 42hours, you get into the mid-30s territory in the standings.  

In for the long run (Image credit: Hero Motosport)

Hero-Santosh: one-night stand or a match made in heaven?

The Bangalorean chuckled as I asked, “In three years, you’ve ridden for three different teams on three different bikes? In the fourth year, will it be a fourth team?”

“No, no, I’m loyal and I’m looking for a long-term relationship and I think with Hero I have that,” he explains.

One can sense that there’s a certain honesty to his answer. With this team, he’s a lot more settled. When he rode for the very first time in Dakar with Kini-Red Bull Team in 2015, he was the doe-eyed rookie at Dakar who was living his dream and soaking up all the knowledge he could from his team – especially from his superstar team-mate Marc Coma.

His association with Suzuki in 2016 was always going to be a short-term one. Though the bike and team was built around him, the machine as well as the association was held together by scotch tape (a really old one), which reached its logical conclusion in mid-2016.

But this Hero-Santosh partnership seems different. Santosh seems happy and settled with this team. And Hero’s machine is right up there with the best of the lot. By Santosh’s own admission, his last year’s ride – Suzuki – not only had reliability issues but it was almost 40 kmph slower than the big guns, i.e. KTMs, Yamahas and Husqvarnas. Fortunately, Hero has got it all – pace as well as reliability. 

The only Indian who conquered Dakar twice, @cs_santosh22 continues to be an inspiration for riders around the world. #dakar2017 #heroatdakar pic.twitter.com/HeGZfCPaIP

— Hero MotoSports (@hero_motosports) January 16, 2017

Look ma, new ride

Hero’s already started working on a new bike for the next Dakar. Speaking about his soon-to-be-launched ride, Santosh said, “It’s in the works right now. We’re building a new motorcycle from the ground up. The suspension’s already sorted and we’re going to move the fuel. Currently we’re carrying a lot of fuel in the back but in the new bike the fuel’s going to be centralized. This is going to be a huge turning point for us and I’m really excited to see what the motorcycle is going to do for us.

“It’s going to be more agile, faster and much easier to ride. For me it’ll make a huge difference. Guys like J-Rod can ride any motorcycle you put them on. But for someone like me if you give me a motorcycle that’s easier to ride, it’ll be a drastic improvement in my pace as well as my overall standings for sure.”

And the best part is that the guys at Hero are planning to turn on the ignition key by May to give Santosh a good six-month run ahead of Dakar 2018. “The team’s working really hard and hopefully by Merzouga we should have the bike ready,” said Santosh with a gleaming smile when asked when we can hope to see his new ride. 

The rookie team had a dream run at Dakar 2017 (Image credit: Hero Motosport)

What next in 2017?

The best part about CS Santosh is that he’s aware of the chink in his armour and he’s ready to work on it. “I’ve assessed my weaknesses. It’s liberating to know what I need to do to be ready for the next Dakar so that I’m going to address – in terms of fitness and being stronger. So I’ll definitely be a lot stronger going into next Dakar,” he admits.

At the same time, he will be putting a lot more miles under his belt during 2017. “In India, I’ll be doing Desert Storm and Baja India with Hero. For the first time we (Team Hero) will be competing on the Indian soil so that’s going to be big for us. Besides that I’ll be doing Merzouga as well.

“And on the sides, we’ll be racing Powerboats here in Mumbai. So it’s going to be a packed year for me,” Santosh exclaims.

That’s correct, CS Santosh has recently developed a new hobby – Powerboat Racing. He’s been training for it since months now and he’s also had to pass a written examination in order to get his license for Powerboats. Thence come March, he will displaying all his talent – this time on water – during the upcoming P1 Powerboat Racing Indian Grand Prix along the Mumbai coast. 

All in all, 2017 is going to be the make or break year for him. For this year, he has it all - experience, understanding of his weaknesses and a machine to match up to his strengths. This is his best chance till date to take things higher by a few notches and prepare himself for a full-fledged assault on next year's Dakar for that coveted top 20 slot. Only time will tell.

READ MORE

Aras Gibieza: Third Time Lucky

14:47

•

Motorbike Stuntriding

From Salman Khan riding bike to Aras stunting in 43°C, the Gixxer Day tour was an eventful one

Aras Gibieza with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan (Image credit: Neville Sukhia)

Aras Gibieza is no stranger to the Indian soil. He toured India twice in 2015 entertaining audiences in nearly a dozen cities; owing to the affection and the fandom that he received during those trips, the Lithuanian returned once again in 2016. But this trip would be unlike anything he’s experience ever before. Firstly, Aras Gibieza shared the arena with one of India’s biggest superstar – Salman Khan. While the Dabangg Khan didn’t pull off any wheelies, that didn’t stop the Mumbai crowd from cheering their lungs out. Secondly, according to the meteorological department, April 2016 had been the hottest month in the recorded human existence. At Aras’ hometown Vilnius, the mercury peaks out in summer months at a scorching 17°C. When Aras landed in Delhi for his first show of the Suzuki Gixxer Day Tour, the temperature was hovering around a lukewarm 43°C. As we walked into the air conditioned tent next to the stunt arena minutes before his show, the bike mechanic was seen holding Aras’ helmet against the air conditioner. As a stream of water dripped out of his helmet’s air vents, Aras exclaims, “Hey, look, my helmet’s sweating too!” While the Suzuki GSX-S 1000 is liquid cooled, in India, Aras had to be ice-cooled to keep him from overheating. The helmet was packed with ice till seconds before every stunt show to keep him cool and focused enough to pull off those physics-defying stunts.

As the helmet’s air vents acted as water outlets, we sat down with the two-time European stunt biking champion to ask him a few geeky questions and understand the sport better:  

So, which was the toughest city to ride in?
Weather-wise, it was hot everywhere. But from riding point of view, Shillong had the toughest tarmac. It was dusty with lot of bumps and the tarmac kept scraping away. My training of riding on ice helped me there.

Do you specifically train for ice and snow?
I don’t specifically train for ice and snow but where I live, we have ice 3 months in a year and during that period I can’t skip my training. So, in 2009, I built my tyre for ice riding and tried it for the first time. Realized it was fun and so I continue doing this every winter. 

Aras performing on Shillong's bumpy tarmac (Image credit: Ayan Sil / Red Bull Content Pool)

 
Do you think the same tyres would’ve helped you Shillong’s bumpy surface?
Those tyres have spikes on them. It wouldn’t have helped me there; on the contrary, it would’ve made it even worse. It would’ve scrapped out even more of the loose gravel. Grip would’ve been an issue. With spikes, you can only ride on ice.
 
You tweak tyre pressure before every show. How does that help? 
That helps a lot. If it’s a bigger place, like at Mumbai’s Inorbit Mall, I need more pressure in the tyres for the circles to go wider. But for a place like Shillong where the width of the arena is less, I need to keep the circles smaller. For such places, I need to reduce the tyre pressure.
 
You change the pressure due to the surface or also due to the temperature?
No, for the temperature fluctuations, we don’t need to change the tyre pressure. To deal with temperature changes, we only need to change tyre compound. Here, because the surface was soft, for better traction, we used soft compound.

You’re used to doing stunts on your Ninja 636. How was it doing the same stunts on the Suzuki GSX-S 1000?
Suzuki is more powerful and weighs more. I’m really enjoying riding this bike. Even the engine is different and works differently. Both bikes are nice. After riding this bike only 4-5 times, I was able to do most of my tricks which I’m used to doing on the Kawasaki Ninja. So, yes, Suzuki GSX-S 1000 is also a good bike for stunting. But you need to know what you’re doing because this bike is very powerful and hence it’s difficult to control. But once you get the hang of it, it’s a very good bike to do stunts.

1000 horsepower at play (Image credit: Neville Sukhia / Red Bull Content Pool)

You ride a Kawasaki but here you had to ride a Suzuki. What modifications did you ask them to make to the GSX-S 1000 while they were prepping it up for you? 
I sent photos of my bike and told them about the modifications that needs to be done. They crash cage, hole in the seat, bigger sprocket, hand brake are some of the things. Idle screw to pick up the idle RPM also had to be set right.  

You managed to shred 3-4 set of tyres in first two shows and one training session. How did you manage that?  
It’s easy. When you have 1000cc at your disposal, it’s really easy to shred tyres.

Disclaimer: This article was first published on RedBull.com by the author

READ MORE

This Scrambler Eats Craters For Breakfast

17:18

•

Bike Building

Moto Exotica’s Eight looks like a love child of Yamaha RD350 and a cliff. But faster.

Moto Exotica's Eight (Image credit: Lakshya Khanduri)

In a country where 125cc swarm the showrooms and streets like honeycomb during breeding season, we seldom come across motorcycles that stand out from this timid flock. But creating a one-off masterpiece is more difficult than making a teenage girl understand why Justin Beiber is not the master of the universe. However, some bike builders have been carving out pieces of art so that the rest of human species can gawk at their creations. One such piece of work is ‘Eight’ by Moto Exotica.

Moto Exotica is based on the legendary Yamaha RD350. We caught up with Eight’s creator and Moto Exotica’s founder Arjun Raina to know more.

Bike Name: Eight

Story behind the name: This is Arjun’s eight bike

Type of bike: Scrambler

Engine: Yamaha RD350. Two-stroke. Crankcase tweaking.

Headlamps: Custom

These lights are porn.

Chassis: The engine bay is from RD350. Rest of it is custom tailored to suit the modifications.

Powerband: Starts from 2500 and pulls you cleanly till 9000 rpm. Mild peak at 9200 approx.

Top speed: 200 kmph. On a Scrambler so top speed is not as important as the mid-range. Arjun has a similar configuration on a Café Racer and it does 184 kmph. This is lighter and Arjun expects it to do 200 kmph.

Custom headlights spell out the number '8' (Image credit: Lakshya Khanduri)

Suspension: Front-end from a KTM 200. It’s re-valved and has been made a little softer for better ride quality on gravel and dirt. Rear-suspension is also from KTM 200. But the angle is slightly changed in order to enable a little more travel while off-roading.

Swingarm: It’s 100% custom-made because the bike required it to be a little longer. This is 6 inches longer than the normal RD350 because once you start increasing the power, the front-end lifts and you start doing wheelies; to compensate, you drop the gas and reduce the power. So, in order to keep both the wheels on the tarmac, they lengthened the bike by adding this very strong and long swingarm.

So, if you make the swingarm slightly longer, you can even do the hill climb without tweaking the engine.

Seat and Tank: They are shaped in such a way that you can glide from seat to tank easily to give better traction to the front end when the need arise. Especially while taking the tight corners.

Dry weight: 95 kg.

Power-to-weight: Nearly 700 bhp-per-tonne

Tyres: TKC 80s Continental. They’re dual tyres – can run on tarmac as well as off-road.

Life of tyres: About 7000-8000 km.

Brakes: They’re upgraded. At the front, there is a 4-pot caliper with rotor from a CBR 250 which is mod-ed and reshaped. Ditto for the rear wheel. Bibram is sister-concern of Brembo in India, for cheaper manufacturing.

Exhaust is the mirror image of the headlight (Image credit: Lakshya Khanduri)

Exhaust: There are two exhaust pipes and each of them is hand built from 45 different sections.

This is not mild-steel, this is stainless steel and it’s even more difficult to work with. We get limited by the processes that are used to work with it. This is TIG weld and there is only a certain way in which you can finish them. The upside is that this is much stronger. Some people say that performance wise, stainless steel is poor; but whatever we’ve done so far, in our experience, we’ve always had superior performance with stainless steel.

Drive (Belt or Chain): Chain

Why is the chain a bit loose?

To allow the suspension to travel freely. Over time, we’re planning to add the roller chain adjusters similar to how most of the off-road bikes have but that will happen at a later stage.

Exhaust pipes showcases the quality of craftsmanship (Image credit: Lakshya Khanduri)

Did you purposely finish the exhaust this way so that all the sections of the pipe are visible?

Absolutely. We want people to see the hard work that has gone in making these 45 sections of the exhaust pipe. You can see the welds between two sections; this shows the kind of effort that has gone in making this bike. Also, in two-stroke world, this is really appreciated. Besides, it also to gives it that raw look.

So, how did you get into bike customizing?
It’s been a long journey. When I was in class 10, we had little Shoguns and we always wanted to go faster; so, I decided to mod my bike without knowing if it was right or wrong. Then somewhere along the way, I started getting it right.

This all started somewhere around in year 2000, as a kid. Then I pursued my education and did my Mechanical Engineering. Then I did Masters in Machine Designing. I worked for few big companies then (I won’t name then). But then I realized that I don’t want to work for someone else all my life. I wish to do something on my own. So I started designing bikes under my own name.

Footrest. Doubles up as a cheese grater (Image credit: Lakshya Khanduri)

It’s been more than 10 years – 13 years since I’ve been doing it.

It seems, Yamaha RD 350 has always been your focus when it comes to bike building/modifying?

It’s not like I’m not doing other motorcycles. It’s just that, because the engine is so compact and versatile, and given the fact that how easy it is to make the changes; I’ll always keep this as a personal favourite. It pulls out close to 65 BHPs and the bike weighs less than 100 kg. From power-to-weight ratio perspective, that almost puts it in the superbike category.

Arjun is keeping his lips sealed about his next bike but he’s tempted us by saying that “It’ll be a 500cc flat racer, and it’ll set a benchmark in the world of custom bike building in India.”

Biker Build-off Open Class Winner at IBW 2014 (Lakshya Khanduri)

We’re surely looking forward to that one.


Disclaimer: The article was first published by the author for RedBull.com

READ MORE

What's a Trials Bike?

19:27

•

Trial Biking

A low-down on the Trial biking legend Dougie Lampkin's ride

(Image credit: Ali Bharmal)

Out of all the competitive two-wheeler championships, the tools of trade of drag racing and Trials Biking have the most distinct look. Today, we take a look at what’s actually holding up that tiny frame and those giant wheels. Not gum and wire for sure.

Recently, Trial biking’s biggest name, DougieLampkin, landed on the Indian shores to jump over a few everyday obstacles. We put on our spy glasses for a closer inspection of the machine and here are a few questions we were able to answer:

What is it so small compared to regular bikes?

It doesn’t have a big engine and it’s not built for long rides either. It’s built for maneuverability. The lightness and the small size makes it perfect for the riders to fling it around and over the obstacles.

Is there no fuel tank?

Of course, there is. But it’s not a big one like your city bike. As mentioned, it’s not built for long rides. It’s only for trials championship. Hence, a tiny 2.7 liter fuel tank is incorporated in the ‘U’ of the frame.

Why does it not have a seat?

Because, while doing the stunts, the riders doesn’t sit down. A seat will only add unnecessary weight. More importantly, while climbing obstacles, it’s much better to let your legs (knees) cushion the impact than to have your posterior bounce on the seat. You require few feet of play between yourself and the bike while doing stunts; that’s precisely the reason why you see that unusual ‘U’-shaped gap in the frame of the bike. 

Disclaimer: The article was written by the author for RedBull.com

READ MORE