Panigale privileges

These just in - Phil Aynsley's Panigale photoshoot of a pre-production 1199S. Photographed in Sydney, Phil unfortunately didn't get to see just how the 'frame' and engine tied together, despite wanting to. Build quality appeared (given it was a pre-production unit) to be the same as a 1198.Missed opportunity? For me, the post 916-series bikes have had too many little screws and bits of plastic that smack of accountancy rather than engineering - here's hoping the 1199's a great leap forward.

Spunky moped

This from Spanish heroes Radical Ducati - a 48 Sport, yours for 3,000 Euros. Oddly they emphasise you can't ride it - hope this isn't the start of the hang-it-on-your-study-wall thing that has deprived the world of so many Bianchi Superleggeras

It's complicated

It was quite a shock to see good-egg Stuart Mayhew of North Leicester Motorcycles staring back at me from the Sunday Times yesterday - yet another bod caught up in the mire of running a business when some busybody told him to buy a performing licence because the public could hear the workshop radio. Same legislation prevents me listening to music on show stands and I know someone who was told he needed one because he worked from home and the phoning-in jobsworth could hear the radio on in the background. You guess it - they worked for the Government.


So you can probably guess I don't have much sympathy for Wednesday's strike, and was a fan of Margaret Thatcher, not least because I hated school milk. Mrs T got rid of that as education secretary, because she didn't see why school's should subsidise feckless parents who couldn't be bothered to give their kids a decent breakfast. In fact I only lost sympathy with the-lady-who-wasn't-for turning when she waged war on the Argentineans, which was when my rather more jingoistic friends took up her cause. And she shouldn't have sold off our gas and water to the French...

Those were tough times, taking piecemeal jobs to complete my HND business studies course (which I paid for) but I understood we had to reign in pressure groups (yes, including unions) who were rightly only interested in their own members' interests, even if their actions were sending my family's modest business dangerously close to the rocks. Problem is, then as now, few people look beyond the trees for the woods, let alone years down the line. Where were all the protests and strikes a decade ago when it was clear most people's lifestyle was simply down to borrowing by consumers and governments alike? Why did no-one point out you can't have increasing pensions in a world of falling investment returns and rising life expectancy? Because if you borrowed the money to pay for it, the problem goes away...for now. And hopefully for a future generation to worry about (and btw - youth unemployment's been rising steadily since 2002, so why all the fuss now?) But guess what? The can wasn't kicked far enough down the road and we have to clear up our own mess. Seems fair to me...

Tax the bankers? They'll move, and already some of us have realised the EU's plans to do just that will kick the UK economy where it hurts. Stop folk like Philip Green hiding his profits offshore? Great idea, but the UK already has the most complex tax system in the world, and we're too dim to cope with change. An example - our chancellor wanted to simplify employee taxation by combining income, employers and NI taxes. Anyone who's had employees will tell you how frustrating it is to calculate these deductions only to send a single cheque to the tax office. In fact the only reason you bother with all the paperwork is you know you'll be hung out to dry if you have a inspection team land on your doorstep and make your life a misery for a week before fining you. So simple idea - add the three taxes (currently about 45% at the margin for a typical full timer) and abolish the departments that administer and enforce the various schemes. You'd save a fortune, as would the grateful employers who'd be spared the paperwork. Didn't happen though, because various factions would have delighted in "Basic income tax rises to 45%" headlines, without mentioning nobody's going to pay more tax and the exchequer would save a fortune.

So while the government tries to work out how to tax those who should pay (like Boots, who are based in Switzerland...) we can make a difference. Don't do business with anyone who's using clever accounting to avoid paying their share, and make it your business to find the facts rather than the media's take on them. Ordinary people refusing to buy South African goods helped bring down apartheid, and the Israelis take more notice of you not buying their fruit than any whining government minister. Make your choices wisely, and accept that any boost to the economy by government is worthless if the rewards get blown on imported plasma TVs and foreign holidays.

But not Italian motorcycles, obviously...

Macau madness

Near neighbour to us (He's in Yeovil) Martin Jessopp claimed the runners-up spot in today's Macau Grand Prix, completing a fantastic one-two for the Riders Ducati team. But bloody hell - if this is what it takes to come second...well, we never had it. Martin, you're a legend.


Jessopp's team mate Michael Rutter (below, but not at Macau) won the race for Riders and Ducati, claiming a seventh victory around the famous Guia street circuit. Rutter made history by beating Ron Haslam's tally of six wins, but Jessopp was only 4.772secs behind in second, beating several top road riders including Ian Hutchinson in third and John McGuinness in sixth.

British Superbike racer Jessopp was delighted to get his Macau GP chance and paid tribute to British Superbike Championship veteran Rutter: “The last two years I’ve been learning from Michael. I hit the wall pretty hard on lap 1, so I settled down after that. I think Michael was playing with us for the first couple of laps.”

Rutter said of his team mate: “Martin has been there all year – he’s come along and learned a lot. It’s been a brilliant season.”

Sadly this might be the last Macau bike GP: long-time bike race co-ordinator Mike Trimby has said this is his last, and the organising committee will now think about whether the two-wheeled part of the festival will continue. Our hope is when they see this photo and the noise it's generated they'll realise it's a must-do.

Rider's/writer's block

Just back from an excellent motoring writers' conference at the National Motor Museum with a truly inspirational keynote speech by Haymarket and Autocars' Steve Cropley. Turns out we admire the same writers' - Jenks, LJK Setright, Churchill and Hemmingway, and I loved his typically robust Australian views on writers' block. Turns out he's also a biker with old Brits dating back to 1909.


I managed to catch him at lunch, and ask what he thought of motorcycle magazines and why Haymarket don't have one. "Too many egos, which is why we got rid of TWO,"(latterly Visor Down): was his shock-horror proclamation: "Motorcycle journalists spend too much time telling the reader about themselves, and not enough about the experience." Like me he'd been surprised that Bike recently devoted just 600-odd words to a five day trip through Norway on the new Guzzi Norge: "They described a couple of corners nicely, but I came away knowing nothing about the bike." I listened and learned: turns out Haymarket scribblers are discouraged from even using "I" in their copy...

More worrying was that the conference seemed mainly to feature middle-aged car nuts looking for a "change of direction." Then I read that 100,000 people in the UK have registered as newly self employed over the last four months alone. Joining the dots, it's not hard to see where those folk who loose jobs but have too many assets to claim benefits have gone. One delegate moaned to a speaker that he never received so much as an acknowledgement for his unsolicited submissions to editors. Well, chum, 100,000 "Thanks, but no thanks" letters would make a hell of dent in Autocars' postage budget...

Italian anti-style

Think all Italian bikers are slim and stylish? Uh-oh. These chaps work hard to make us slightly podgy pale faced Englanders feel much better about ourselves. When I saw the lady on the back of the Guzzi, for some reason Ram Jams seventies hit Black Betty popped into my head: now it's an ear-worm that will stick with me all day. Oh, black betty, bam-a-lam...

Ago and me

Ago's head spins as he spots another young lovely, when he's supposed to be extolling the virtues of the Castiglioni's replica MV Agusta 500/3; over £200,000 to you, sir. That's me on the right pointing out to Benzina snapper Spike that the idiot's got the gearshift on the wrong side...


Nice as the bike was, I think the detailing's better on the Kay's bikes that I've seen. In fact I find them indistinguishable from the real thing. and just guess based on condition. Like the bike below, casually left by a caravan at Stafford with no explanation. Love it.