Motor manual

In just two months, the Knockhill Racing Circuit will play host to a variety of motorsport events, including the GT Battle – The Evolution kicking off July 1, providing a new and challenging track for drifting drivers. The top five drivers from GT Battle – The Evolution will participate in the GT Battle showdown in Irwindale, CA, USA, in December: the USA vs JAPAN vs EUROPE D1 event.

Also taking place at Knockhill in June and July: the Bikefair and Scottish Championship Bike Racing, Hot Hatch Spectacular, Bennetts British Superbike Championship, Saturday Night Stunt Spectacular and Stock Car Summer Series, and the British Championship Rally Cross.

The BikeFair and Scottish Championship Bike Racing, now in its sophomore year, is an exuberant interactive bike show for bike enthusiasts set for June 25. Featuring international trade stands, bicycle clubs from all over the United Kingdom, and biking disciplines, its main attraction is a full day of Scottish Championship Bike racing.

The Hot Hatch Spectacular, scheduled on July 2, features exciting hot hatch action courtesy of the Drift UK National Drifting Championships. It also features an exhibition from the Scottish Army.

The Bennetts British Superbike Championship is the biggest biking event of the season. Scheduled from July 15-16, the Bennetts British Superbike Championship features the worlds best bike riders all converging on Knockhill to battle for glory in the competition, which also features the Virgin Mobile Cup, GP125, Supersport, and Superstocks.

The annual Scottish Speedfair Classic, scheduled for July 23, 2006, celebrates 50 years of Ecurie Ecosse: special guest appearances by Sir Jackie Steward, a parade of champions, exhibits celebrating the world of motoring, interactive family-driven events, with prizes for spectators in period costumes, as well as classic fun fairs for the kids, parades featuring cars, bicycle clubs, buses and military vehicles, are also scheduled.

Visitors to Knockhill have no shortage of hotels in Edinburgh, with many homey bed-and-breakfasts, inns, and medium-sized hotels offering Edinburgh accommodations to anyone seeking a taste of Scotland with a roof over ones head.

For instance, the Boreland Lodge Hotel (www.borelandlodgehotel.co.uk), a warm and inviting family-run hotel only minutes away from the Knockhill Racing Circuit, is a hallowed Edinburgh hotel for Knockhill Racing Circuit enthusiasts; with its official website offering the best rates and instant confirmation online, it is an easy favorite amongst Knockhill visitors for Edinburgh accommodations. Other rooms in hotels in Edinburgh are also available, although not necessarily as easily as available online as those at the Boreland Lodge.

With even more racing events scheduled in June and July, there would be no better time to experience motorsports racing at its finest than to visit Scotland and check out the excitement at the world-class Knockhill Racing Circuit in Edinburgh.

There is just 1 day remaining before HONDA showcases the FURY, the 1st ever production chopper from a Bike giant. There has been so much of speculations, but I guess we can wait for 1 more day before it is officially launched in New York International Motorcycle Show on Friday (16th Jan). The picture above is courtesy Hell For Leather Magazine. The first scoop photos came to the net through Solo Moto who got some spy pics of the bike being tested.

The Fury has a 1312cc fuel-injected liquid-cooled shaft driven V-twin engine and certainly the longest wheelbase of any production motorcycle at 1808.5mm. To support the massive frame, it has fat 200 series rear tire is supported by a hidden monoshock while the front tire is a skinny 90/90-21.

There is also an official website for the launch called Fury is Unleashed!

The BMW bikes usually have the letters K , S & R in front or after its cubic capacity nomenclature. Now we all know the Japanese follows a typical patern (e.g RR for Race Replica and so on), but have you wondered what these letters mean to BMW? ell, at least I havent, but surely it would be nice to know!

As you will find these names (once you understand the background) tell everything about the bike. BMW started out building aeroplanes or rather not the planes, but the engines. The German Imperial Flying Corps arranged the engines for its aircraft according to its output and in Roman numerals (I, II, V, X...), and the company used this naming system for both its water-cooled and air-cooled aero engines up to 1932 – from the ‘BMW IIIa’ to the ‘BMW XV’.
But for the 2 & 4 wheelers, it looked rather odd and so BMW gave the name ‘Bayern-Motor’ followed by the output figure. They alos sometimes added the number of cylinders, their model series and project number with the name like ‘M4A1’ and ‘M2B15’, where ‘M’ stood for ‘Motor’, followed by the number of cylinders, then the model series and the final number for the project number. So the ‘M4A1’ was an ‘A’ series (large-capacity in-line) four-cylinder engine with the project number 1.

With the expansion of manufacturers, in 1933, to simplify the naming, the Reich Air Ministry apportioned fixed numbering systems to its various engine manufacturers. BMW was given the range between 100 and 199. Likewise motorcycles were given the range from 200 to 299 and cars the 300-to-399 band. The existing motorcycle models were integrated into the new system and so the ‘R 32’ became the ‘232’. But later, during the mid 30s, the sales designations traditionally used for motorcycles were retained, the nomenclature for the models reflected, as a rule, the engine displacement. For example, the 500cc boxer unit was named the BMW ‘R 5’ and its successor the BMW ‘R 51’.
Even for the boxer engines, BMW retained the familiar designation ‘R’ (followed by a number denoting the engine capacity). Other alphabets were added-on abbreviations, which also described the bike further, like G meaning Gelände for off-road and S meaning Strasse for on-road, GS for Geländesport meaning off-road sport and RT for Reisetourer meaning tourer.
For the in-line engines, a totally separate designation K was adopted. In pattern with the boxer models or the R, the K was followed by a number derived from the engine displacement. BMW followed the same pattern with the single-cylinder machine that first went on sale in 1993. This model series was given the designation F, referring to the Funduro concept. More recently, the new generation of lightweight single-cylinder machines presented in 2006 took on the letter ‘G’. As such currently BMW has the R, K, F and G series.

So when you see the R 1100S, you know its a boxer twin with 1100cc and S meaning Strass for On-Road. Similarly the K 1200S stands for the in-line twin 1200 engine which is also a road bike. This is the overall picture. But you would also come across a RS or a SS. While RS stood for ‘Rennsport’ (race sport) with the ‘SS’ designation standing for Supersport. While the RS and SS came in 1973, since 1976, BMW had the ‘RS’ - ‘Reisesport’ (travel sport), ‘RT’ (Reise-Tourer – travel tourer), ‘LT’ (Luxus-Tourer – luxury tourer), ‘C’ (Cruiser), ‘CL’ (Cruiser und Luxus – luxury cruiser); and ‘GT’ (Grand Tourisme). In 1980, came the ‘GS’ designation meaning ‘Gelände/Strasse’ (off-road/on-road) and followed it with the ‘ST’ in 1982 for the street version of the GS. It stands for ‘Strasse/strada’ (street) and can be seen on the latest R 1200 ST model.
Err... then, what about the HP? In 2005, BMW broke the coding system for the first time used on the boxer twins since 1923. They launched the new off road bike HP2 which stood for High Performance 2 cylinder and was later extended to Megamoto and HP2 Sport.

The following article is supplied by BMW and I found this excelent link through Motorcycle Dot Com. I hope you enjoyed the history class as much as I did. All pictures courtesy - BERTKNST