Norton Motorcycles can confirm that Cameron Donald has renewed his contract for the 2015 Isle of Man TT Races, fuelled by Monster Energy, with the Australian ace lining up in the RST Superbike and PokerStars Senior TT Races for Norton.

Cameron, hailing from Warrandyte, near Melbourne, won the TT Newcomers Trophy in 2005 and really made his mark a year later when he took a stunning second place in the Senior TT. 2008 saw him claim a Superbike-Superstock double victory and then setting the first ever 131mph+ lap in practice for the 2009 meeting.

He now has an impressive tally of ten podiums with his most recent coming in the 2013 Superbike Race when he took second place behind Michael Dunlop. With a fastest lap of 130.729mph, Cameron is also the eighth fastest rider ever to have lapped the 37 and ¾-mile.

Norton have also renewed the services of both Mick Grant and Steve Plater to aid further development and progress of the SG3 Norton throughout 2015.

Cameron has got the Norton factory approval to ride another class at the 2015 TT in order to keep bike fit and get maximum track time. An announcement is expected shortly on Cameron's chosen ride.

Cameron Donald commented:
"After a solid but frustrating 2014 where we made great progress with the bike but didn't show it's full potential we all agreed to keep the team together for 2015. Norton have pushed hard within the factory over winter, their engineering department have made many changes to SG3. With the enthusiasm and experience of the Norton team behind me and ex TT winners such as Mick Grant and Steve Plater involved again, we're all looking forward to a great TT. Norton is synonymous with the Isle of Man TT and I can't wait to ride the newly developed SG3 round the Mountain Course."

Stuart Garner, CEO, Norton Motorcycles commented:
"Cameron did a great job for us last year, both in riding talent and development work with the factory. The continuity a further year with the identical team cannot be under estimated. It's a huge ask to build a bike from scratch to compete against the world's best road racers, the world's best bikes at the world's toughest race! To do this we need world-class talent and in Cameron we have this. We also get a great brand ambassador for Norton, his support, feedback and presence within the team are hugely important to us, both as a company and a race team."

Ace at MCN London Show 2015

Ace Cafe London joins with firing up of 2015, and celebrating the 60th anniversary of MCN, with a stand and display at the annual Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show, held at Excel, Docklands, London, 13th – 15th February.

This multi stage, multi event and multi star-studded show includes all the major new 2015 bikes, the London Custom Bike-Building Championship, Classic Bike of the Year and an all new Live-Action Show with celebrity riders.

The Ace presence and display at the show includes the Excel debut of the Limited Edition, factory special, Triumph Thruxton Ace 900 along with an array of Ace Cafe, Rockers and StoMoCo items, together with the critically acclaimed, seminal, 312 page hard back book “Ace Times – Speed thrills and tea spills, a cafe and a culture” by author Mick Duckworth.

Show weekend at the cafe includes:

Friday 13th Feb – Bike Night from 6pm
Saturday 14th Feb – Valentine’s Special from 7pm
Sunday 15th Feb – Ride-Out to MCN Show – depart cafe at 9.30am

www.mcnmotorcycleshow.com‏

The 59 Club was originally founded as a youth club in 1959 by Father John Oates, at The Eton Mission, St. Mary of Eton Church, Hackney, London, but it was following visits by his colleague the late Father Bill Shergold, on his motorcycle, to the then notorious Ace Cafe, and meeting with the “Ton Up Kids”, that in 1962, a service and blessing of the bikes was held at the church. This set the 59 Club, a registered church charity, on the road to becoming a legend.

Seemingly overnight, from the moment of this church service, thousands of young motorcyclists joined the 59 Club and, to the sound of rock n’ roll, it became a motorcycle club which, from 1964, was to be ever identified and associated with the Rockers! Fifty years on, and having worked together from the very first Ace Cafe Reunion of 1994, through to the full re-opening of the Ace in 2001, the sharing of history, heritage, community and common values, has brought the 59 Club and Ace Cafe London ever closer together, and with the advent of ever increasing interest in these two now legendary and iconic institutions, both
have agreed to team up.

Today, lead by motorcycling vicar Father Scott Anderson, the management team of Club Leaders have partnered with Ace Cafe London who will provide full support for the 59 Club with membership administration, marketing, regalia and other areas of Ace expertise, with a view to assisting and ensuring a long and successful future for the Club into the 21st century and beyond.

For those wishing to join the legend or renew their membership, click here

www.the59club.org.uk

For more information about Ace Cafe and what's on, check out: www.ace-cafe-london.com

Follow us on Twitter @acecafelondon

The show promises the latest major 2015 bikes, Classic Bike of the Year and the London Custom Bike Building Championship, amongst other events and exhibits.
Visit them and they will be delighted to help you plan your next USA guided or self-guided motorcycle tour or Harley-Davidson® Authorised rental. Come and find out about our 13 day New England's Glory tour - a kind of pilgrim's ride through the birthplace of America. Or how about our River Deep, Mountain High tour - a music lover's ride through Tennessee, North Carolina and the Mississippi Delta. And we have several more....

If you want to ride in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, South America or Canada - no problem, H-C Travel will also be on hand! And on Friday and Saturday morning our adventurer and tour guide, Tiffany Coates, is with us to talk about her Ladies in Ladakh tour to India. This is the world's only women-only motorcycle tour, on our Royal Enfield Bullet 500s, to the highest motorable pass in the world - Khardung-La!

www.orange-and-black.co.uk

www.mcnmotorcycleshow.com

The Aprilia RS-GP project makes its début

Romano Albesiano: "In order to grow we need to get into the mix with our rivals right away in race conditions, bearing in mind the difficulties that such a demanding new project will inevitably face"

Fausto Gresini: "Bautista's performance is positive. Melandri needs to adapt to a completely new technical situation, but we are confident"

Sepang (Malaysia), 6 February 2015 – The first three days of MotoGP 2015 testing have just come to an end at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

Essential information was drawn from the "three days" of testing for the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini. The new RS-GP showed good potential which now needs to be completely refined. Compared to the previous version, which was developed on a base that the Aprilia Racing Department knew very well, the changes are such to require further checks.

Romano Albesiano, Aprilia Racing Manager had this to say about the first tests at Sepang: “I can confirm what I said yesterday. The initial results are definitely positive, considering the fact that the new RS-GP is taking its first steps and that Aprilia's return to MotoGP is a year ahead of schedule to fully develop the project during the course of the sport season. In order to grow we need to get into the mix with our rivals right away in race conditions, bearing in mind the difficulties that such a demanding new project will inevitably face."

The Aprilia Racing Team Gresini is already looking toward the second round of tests, also scheduled at Sepang: "The next tests will certainly give us a clearer idea of our potential. These last few days we put the Aprilia bike on the track which will be the one we use this season and we collected an important amount of data that we will use to base our 2015 development on” added Romano Albesiano. "There were a lot of technical aspects to tackle, but that is quite normal considering the fact that this was the first shakedown. I'm sure we would feel less pressure if it were just us lapping on private tracks, but that wasn't Aprilia's intention."

Fausto Gresini: “Considering the fact that the project is in its fledgling states and that right now we are obviously still not interested in lap times, I think that Bautista's performance over these three days was positive. Keep in mind also that Sepang is also one of the most demanding and difficult tracks of the championship. After testing the new Aprilia RS-GP Alvaro decided to go back and focus on the 2014 version which is giving him a better feeling at the moment. Along with the mechanics he worked quite a lot on both fronts to gather a large amount of data which will be used by the Aprilia Racing engineers to develop the technical package. As for Melandri, we knew that it would not be easy for him to get used to a completely new technical situation. Marco needs to adapt his riding style to this type of tyre and we know that takes time. We have confidence in him. The important thing is that he stays focused and determined.”

Marco Melandri and Alvaro Bautista, the riders who have the task of developing the new Aprilia MotoGP project, worked hard over the last three days, assessing new material and conducting comparison tests with the previous version of the bike. While the only change for Alvaro is the bike, Marco on the other hand had to adapt to a brand new environment with a very different technical package compared to the one he had last year.

Bautista stopped the clock with a best time of 2’01.924 out of a total of 157 laps, whereas Melandri took a total of 156 laps with his best one finishing at 2’03.641.

Alvaro Bautista: “I'm quite pleased with these first three days of testing. The team worked well, giving me maximum support. On the first two days I conducted various comparisons between the bike used at the end of last year and the new RS-GP which, in any case, is still not giving me good sensations in terms of chassis performance. So on the last day I decided to focus on the 2014 version in order to gather as much data as possible and to allow the engineers to work in view of the next tests, scheduled at the end of the month. We worked a lot on the electronics and did various setup tests and I'm pleased with what we found. The important thing is that we know which areas need improvement. We gathered a lot of data so the result is positive. Aprilia is very committed. I'm confident for the next session.”

Marco Melandri: “I admit that I was expecting a better début, but when we decided to take on this new adventure we knew that is would be a lot of hard work for us. I have to build a feeling with the bike completely from scratch. We need time and we need to think about what we found in these tests in order to improve as quickly as possible.”