GOOD PACE AND THIRD ROW ON THE GRID: ALEIX READY FOR THE FIRST RACE OF THE SEASON

LORENZO CONTINUES TO IMPROVE, CONSISTENTLY RECUPERATING PHYSICALLY

There are certain sessions where you have to look deeper into the analysis, without stopping at the final position. That was the case for the first qualifiers of the season today in Qatar, where Aleix finished with the eighth best time (1'53.315) and a spot on the third row. However, the timer also shows that less than one tenth separates him from the second row, whereas just over 2 tenths kept him from finishing on the first row.

These stats confirm both the extraordinary level MotoGP has reached, where riders are increasingly more often separated by incredibly small gaps, and the good form demonstrated by the Aleix/Aprilia duo.

On the other side of the garage, Lorenzo Savadori continues working hard, able to count on a consistently improving physical condition. The Italian is gradually making up the time lost during the winter tests, trying to improve the settings on his RS-GP. Tomorrow, he will be adding more, fundamental miles to his apprenticeship.

ALEIX ESPARGARO'
"I can confirm what I said yesterday in terms of feeling with the bike. I'm having fun riding the new RS-GP and I believe in its potential. We may still have some limits in qualifying. I did some very good laps without mistakes, but it wasn’t enough for a spot on the second row. Race strategies will be fundamental. Today we saw some incredible times, but tomorrow in the final laps, race pace will go up quite a bit. We’ll see how this will translate for us. Today we did a few long runs, but this bike’s true potential is still unknown."

LORENZO SAVADORI
"Thanks especially to the good conditions of my shoulder, we are trying to work on the bike to make up for lost time during the winter tests, where I was unable to do more than 2 or 3 laps in a row. We are still lacking something, despite the fact that I could have improved my time in qualifying if I hadn’t made a small mistake. We’ll see tomorrow. Some of our rivals don’t seem so far away in terms of pace, but I'm curious to see how the RS-GP performs."

Over 100 stunning customs will be on display...

On Sunday 23rd May the beautiful regency Town Hall in Cheltenham will be packed full of top drawer custom and retro bikes from all over the UK. 
This is a great opportunity for some of the UK's finest bike builders to show us what they have been building in their sheds over lockdown. It's also a fabulous chance for visitors to jump on their bikes and blast through the Cotswolds into Cheltenham for a great day out with their mates.

The whole show takes place inside and around the wonderful Town Hall and the stunning Imperial Gardens, there is a licensed bar and cafe inside the Hall and outside in the gardens!

Due to Covid protocols we can only have half capacity in the hall at any one time so we have introduced a morning session and an afternoon session. It's an all ticket event with limited numbers.

To buy your tickets please visit http://www.ticketsource.co.uk and just enter kickback in search button.

KICKBACK: The UK's Custom + Retro Bike Show is at the Town Hall in Cheltenham GL50 1NQ on Sunday 23rd May. Open from 10am - 1.30pm and 1.30pm - 5pm.

Aleix and Aprilia pick up where they had left off, with an extremely solid performance on the first official day of the MotoGP season in Qatar. The Spanish rider’s feeling with the new RS-GP was clear from FP1, where his times were consistently on the high end of the standings, despite the less-than-optimum track conditions. The more indicative FP2 session was a repeat of the earlier one, where Aleix stayed in the lead for quite some time. Traffic on the track at the end of the session kept him from shaving a bit more off his time, but his final eighth place and, more importantly, his great consistency, place him among the possible protagonists of the weekend.

The good news for Lorenzo Savadori came especially from his shoulder, significantly improved with respect to the recent IRTA tests. The Italian still doesn’t have a perfect feeling in acceleration, which is where Lorenzo and his team will focus their work tomorrow.

ALEIX ESPARGARO'
"I am satisfied with this start. After the tests, which went well, I had some doubts because when the race weekend begins, the values on the pitch can change. Instead, we confirmed our level today too. I am especially happy with how easy it is for me to be fast with the new RS-GP. It is a fun bike to ride. I feel like I am exploiting it well and the times show that. Now I want to focus on qualifying because I think it is possible to do well in those conditions too. There will be a lot of aspects to assess on Sunday in the race with a completely new bike, from how it performs in the slipstream to fuel consumption. We are tackling one session at a time, but with a very positive spirit."

LORENZO SAVADORI
"The most important thing today is definitely the condition of my shoulder, which is reacting well, and that gives me peace of mind, even though it still hasn't fully healed. As for the bike, we identified the areas where we need to work, namely acceleration. At the moment, I am not fully exploiting rear tyre grip and in this category that is precisely where you can make the difference. On one hand, knowing which direction to concentrate on is positive, and on the other, the solution might not be so immediate. We have a few ideas and we’ll put them into practice tomorrow."

The number of dedicated parking places for motorcycles in Manchester car parks has more than doubled – and they are all free! A review of motorcycle parking within the city showed that demand for parking exceeded the supply, and as a result a considerable number of motorcyclists were parking unofficially, and sometimes illegally.   

There are now 127 dedicated motorcycle spaces; a mixture of on-street (63 spaces) and covered car parks (64 spaces), and full details are available on the council’s website at: https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/500346/city_centre_parking/332/motorcycles    

The measures were informed by consultation with various motorcycle community groups and organisations such as the British Motorcycle Federation and Motorcycle Action Group. They told us that having spaces in car parks and on the ground or first floors, making sure they were well-lit and having CCTV coverage was important, along with anchor points or rails for chaining bikes to. All of these suggestions have been adopted.   

A grace period informing motorcyclists of the new provisions will run from 12/03/21 – 6/05/21, where motorcyclists who are parked illegally will receive an information leaflet informing them of the new parking provisions across the city centre.  During the grace period motorcyclists will not receive a parking ticket. However, after the grace period ends, MCC will enforce penalties (£70 penalty, discounted to £35 if paid within 14 days of issue) for motorcyclists parking in the wrong place. This includes designated cycle parking spaces and racks. Motorcyclists can park in a normal pay and display bays anywhere across the city, provided that they purchase a pay and display ticket. It is advisable to write 'M' for motorbike and the registration number of the bike on the ticket before attaching this to the motorbike, to discourage theft.  

A motorcycle parking policy will be produced in order to finalise and formalise the changes.

What’s Happening in the Electric Scooter and Motorcycle Market?

Elon Musk has a personal aversion to motorcycles. He tells a story of a “nearly fatal” accident which has put him off the transport. Tesla’s main focus, and where they’ve made their name, has been four-wheel cars. The technology they’ve developed in their pursuit of excellent electric vehicles means it probably wouldn’t take much for them to eventually be a significant name in the electric scooter and motorcycle market should they decide to enter into it. For now, though, there are other people making up the landscape.  

Investors

One motivation for the development of electric two-wheelers is transport within cities. With many global cities looking to pedestrianise centres and reduce air pollution, electric scooters and bikes are attracting the interest of start-ups and businesses like Uber. There’s long-term interest in the development of this technology should cities and nations opt to fundamentally change transportation normalcy then it should pay off. It’s the natural tide-change which businesses seek to push or benefit from. The same happens in every industry. One example would be online casinos. Investors went in early online casinos and online casinos invested in helpful technology. It’s an industry which began to pop up in the 1990s with the advent of the internet and grew well but steadily. 

It seems that Lime, who Uber have invested in and to whom they sold their intellectual property to develop the technology, are interested in the electric scooters, especially, and their function as a rental transport.

For the electric motorcycle, there’s a middling demand. Yes, there is obviously scope for them to be used as a primary vehicle, one which commuters use or people use to go to the shops, etc. Despite this type of transport receiving criticism and scepticism for how far they can take, they will, in general, always get the rider far enough. Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman proved that. However, primarily, motorcyclists use them for joy. They are a hobby, as much as anything. They are part of an identity. Electric motorcycles do not have the turn of speed nor the music of a fossil-fuel powered one. This is one area which might need some creative marketing beyond the obvious turn towards environmental concerns. 

Manufacturers

As for those actually making the scooters and bikes, Harley Davidson, Honda, and Yamaha take the majority of the market share. These are household names. Indeed, Harley Davidson’s image as a chopper offers an interesting contrast to the above image of riding for joy. Their products, though, are expensive. It’s roughly $30,000 for one of their electric motorcycles. This is out the price range for a lot of customers. Honda and Yamaha, with KTM and Piaggio, are looking to standardise equipment and technology, including swappable batteries, to help consumers and the market.

This is where the market currently has its issue. Everything, so far, is too expensive for the manufacturers to consider mass-producing vehicles and there’s not quite the fully developed need for them quite yet, but it will likely all be available and recognisable soon.

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