Finally the R6 got the better of the snow. As you know the R6 has got several titanium parts, snow is only water crystals and with a bit of salt and sun the white stuff just melts away. How great is that folks? We had to shoot at several locations today as the clouds has this bad habit of moving the sun around. Claire followed me in the car and I feel I have got what I need of action shots now. Some stunts perhaps is the only shots I did not bother with now. I just felt lucky to be able to ride at all with the weather that has been around here the last three days. But that same weather made for some fantastic shots today with great contrasts. Claire did the job for me once again. The locations we went to was first close to the A57 near Sheffield, but that was too far East and some rain and sleet caught up with us. So we moved West, but not too far. First to Edale (where I'm wearing that tasteful body warmer) where our spot was gray, but sunny on the other side of the valley. Moved on from there to Chapel en le frith and shot a couple of pix before we had to chase the sun closer to Glossop where we got the best shots. Among others the cover shot. We were all done in less that three hours and headed to the Grouse Inn for dinner. There'd been a hunt on (Fox hunt, only bloody scabby foxes are now protected as if they were Bengal Tigers in England) and the parking lot was almost filled with as many real horses as the R6 sports. Some of the riders mentioned they could have had good use of my leathers for riding horses. This is true as horse riding is a action sport where you can get severely injured if you fall off. Same as with bikes to a certain extent. Someone mentioned that my leathers probably cost a fortune, true, they do, but I almost mentioned that you need at least two horses to make one too (or was it cows? four legs anyway). I wonder how many Foxes would be needed to make one? TS

Why does it have to snow just the day after I pick up the new Yamaha R6? this is the reason I haven't got any nice pictures yet. But tomorrow morning it is supposed to be some sun so I'll be out then. Action pics scheduled for Saturday. TS

I headed off to Surrey to pick up the R6 slightly late. It takes me about 3 hours to ride down from Buxton. It was still snow on the ground here in Buxton, but on the main roads it was almost dry. So I could keep the usual pace all the way except for the inevitable congestion on M1 and M25. Reached Yamaha UK about four minutes before 5 and headed off with the R6 straight away back out onto the lovely M25 and M1 again. I could really feel the wind-chill at this point so stopped for a long brake, a tall mocha and 15 minutes with my hands under the blow-drier. My Scott winter-riding gear with my thickest woollen sweater underneath keeps the chill out for quite a while. It is completely waterproof as well, but style is down the drain. As opposed to my old Arlen Ness Marquee suit. For gloves I use Dainese Antartic. They are double insulated and features a inner waterproof glove and unrivalled protection. Some warm long-johns, a buff, boots and helmet and that's it. Considering the conditions I ride in quite often where today was only 1 or 2 above freezing at the warmest for 400 miles the gear is good. Now, the bike is a screamer. I love that fly-by-wire throttle already. If that is what it takes to get a perfectly smooth throttle response I am all for the Top Gun stuff (except the beach volleyball stuff). Talking about the Air-force, the R6 got plenty of attention yesterday at Paddington services from some stranded Royal Air-Force personnel. Their Land Rover had broken down and they were awaiting a Hercules to land on the M1 to airlift them back home (not). If the Royal Air force use the AA I guess they are still there now. I have broken down close to that services before and once it took me 20 hours to get back home (it only takes 3 hour remember) Anyway, the R6 has got a totally different feel to it than the Daytona 675. First of all the engine revs beyond anything else with a supersonic scream. It is a bit funny with the new muffler as the soundtrack has moved a bit. It's like moving your surround speakers around in your living room and all of the sound is not exactly where you would expect it to be. It's pretty cool I have to admit. I will be riding during the day tomorrow to scrub those new Dunlop Qualifiers in. Another mention too, the headlights on the new R6 is damn good as they probably need to bee when you start seeing the blue shift warning lights in 5th... A true Japanese sayonara today and next week too as I will swap the R6 for the MT-03.  More pix and everything before and after the weekend. TS

Ok, I know you'll hate me for telling you this, but in a months time I'll be in South Africa riding BMW R1200S, F800S and F800ST. I can't wait to see what BMW has done to improve that 122bhp R1200S. With the Power and Boxer cup MotoGP warming races BMW engineers have got miles of racing experience and loads of it will have benefited the new R1200S. We get to ride it on track too, the Killarney circuit not far from Cape Town. But don't hate me too much as it will be a huge job writing about all three bikes and having bbq's at the local vineyard. I am incorruptible when it comes to bikes anyway so you'll get the low-down regardless of where I ride. If all goes to plan I'll be on Yamaha's R6 tomorrow. It snowed yesterday so I guess it will take a couple of days before I can use all 16.000rpms. Watch out for the official pictures from the Ducati Monster 695 presentation in Paris tomorrow too. TS

Let's talk video's today. I know that none of them are Spielberg quality and there's no plot whatsoever. It's something I do for fun and if some of it is edited together roughly I don't really care. The point is to get live images of the bikes with sound out along with the article and still images. In my view it's one of the greatest services that I can do on this site. It can take two-three hours to produce and render 4 minutes of video, regardless of how crap the material might be from a estetic point of view. A short article takes two-three hours to write. Still I chose to do it. I would certainly be happy to have a short clip of video available on a bike I have just read about and looked at. If you don't like the music you have to understand this: music is needed to eliminate some of the wind-noise on the onboard shots. There is always parts of the video where you can hear how the bike sounds like. I could always add some disco or Bee Gees, PDiddy or whatever. But will I? No. Will I add comments in the future? Maybe, I try sometimes to give some comments during the walk-around, but most of the time I hate it so music is better. You will just have to live with it. I encourage Carlos to do one take wonders because I don't really want highly polished and produced music on the video's. At some point there will be another DVD and then I might do it differently to suit the HD pictures. In March this site will have been on the cyber web for one year. It got so popular within only a few months that I had to stick it on its own server that I administer. The bandwidth is not shared with anyone else so if it's slow you know it is because loads of motorcyclists are visiting this very site. Not because some lonely housewife forum is discussing food recipes through a shared connection. I will do some changes when I have time, like adding one mini-site for each bike tested and link to that to speed up the Raptorama link. Since changing service provider last year I brought the design with me, but lost functionality to easily add or remove the links you can see on the left. Some of them are not in use anymore and will stay that way until I figure out how to remove them without ruining the design. Considering the fact that I write, design everything on this site (sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't) shoot stills, ride the bikes, arrange the bikes, arrange launches, hunt all the news, sell material to other publications, make all the videos, maintain the server the site is on and pay all the bills (so buy that DVD when it's ready and one for your mate too...) there is not always time for much else. I know there is one important thing I have not maintained lately and that's to add all the great comments I get to the comments link. Don't worry, they will all be added. I have all my E-mail stored in PST's and I will trawl through them at some point to add all the best, funniest and the stupidest. If you send me an E-mail you can say exactly what you want, but it would be great if you added which part of the world that you are from. People take interest in this you see. Keep the comments coming in. I do read them all with the intention of answering them all and publish (if you don't state otherwise). I have chosen not to have a forum. I do frequent certain forums from time to time and I read others. See you there. In the mean time, I know that 2006 will be a great biking year. There are loads of events I will cover and loads more bikes to be tested. Enjoy it with me. TS

Just a quick entry today. This guy does not check his answer phone too often, but sometimes I should. there was a message from BMW this time. I will be attending some BMW world launches this spring and I will confirm which one's and when next week. Next week I will know more about the Moto Guzzi Norge 1200 launch too. I will also ride the new Benelli's as soon as they are homologated. Last Friday I returned the Scrambler 900. The weather was perfect in Leicestershire and I took the opportunity to really enjoy the Scrambler that can both cruise and handle bends nicely. There was not much to see in regards of Triumph test bikes. I did see a KX plated Sprint ST, a Daytona 675 and Daytona 650. The KX plates are the same as the press bikes from Hinckley and it is likely this was a Sprint ST with some improvements for next model year. I have also finished my English version of the Daytona 675 and Speed Triple article this weekend. Next up is the Scrambler 900 article. I have also got a very exciting picture of a very exciting motorcycle that could be launched in 2007 from a major Japanese manufacturer. Look out for that picture under News next week. TS

Have just watched the Great escape again. What a great film, let alone the escape. I rode out to Monsal Head between Buxton and Bakewell today for some static shots. Scrambler 900 is such a friendly bike. It catches the eye of people that wouldn't even blink at the sight of the Daytona 675. Tomorrow it is time to return the Scrambler 900. I have also finished an article purely on the Aprilia RXV 450 & 550 for a US dirt magazine. The Daytona 675 article has been written in Norwegian first this time, but will be ready in English over the weekend. the same goes for the Scrambler 900 piece. It will also be exciting to see what the designers that work for us can come up with this weekend. TS

It's the love day and I have booked table at the A.D. 1472 Inn The Bull i' th' Thorn along the old Roman road A515 close to Buxton. But first we did some action pictures of the Scrambler 900. The Scrambler is also a reminder of English history, but just not quite so old as the pub. The rest of the pix are under Raptorama. TS

The Daytona 675 has been returned back at the factory. Now it's Scrambler time and I headed out to Mallory park to get a few shots before it got too dark. Triumph are testing at least one new bike on the roads around Mallory and I met a yellow Tiger with that new front fairing and S3 parts. Unfortunately I was riding the Scrambler and no time to stop and bring out the camera. I did turn around to see if I could catch up with the rider and perhaps get a closer look, but I never caught up and there are plenty of junctions where he could have turned off. It is about two years ago after picking up Thruxton 900 that I saw another proto type for the first time. I am still not sure whether that was an early Daytona 675 or the Sprint ST. It did have three pipes at the rear. One day I'll be lucky with the camera at hand. It took me no time riding from Buxton to Hinckley earlier today, but on the way back on the Scrambler I just cruised at 60-70 Mph all the way. Quite relaxing. TS

Been spending some quality time with Triumph's new sports triple ace today. Bloody cold it was, but as long as the sun shines I'm happy. The Daytona 675 has got a quality about it that puts it right next to the Italian exotica. The new front end from forks to fairing is well worth a long stare and I can easily imagine that you could fall in love if you bought one. Finish is of very high quality. The bike is tiny, and you have probably already spotted that from the pictures. I guess you could say the new triple gives you yet another reason to think European when choosing the next bike. I am trying to figure out the engine at the moment. Chassis, weight and size is just perfect, but during the weekend I will put it through some fast riding on fast technical roads if the weather permits. Then we'll see. The winter Olympics opens this weekend in Turin and I guess I will not be the only one following that one every day. TS

Back in Buxton! Weather is a bit different, but there is nowhere as nice to ride motorcycles in the whole wide world as in the Peaks. After sending out the material from the Aprilia RXV/SXV launch in Italy I headed out to pick up Triumph Daytona 675. The last few bikes I have tested has been either Offroad, Supermoto or Adventure so it's good to get back on a sports bike again. A proper sports bike the 675 triple is as well. It felt so nimble on the 100 miles transportation from Hinckley to Buxton. Tomorrow I will try to shoot most of the action pictures that is needed and ride in the Peaks. I'll probably be stopping at the Cat sometime during the day too. Carlos has just had his new Kawasaki Z750 serviced and we'll do some riding tomorrow. I also promise to make some video's of all the material I have from the Aprilia and KTM launches as well as the Daytona 675 soon. I have even got onboard stuff on the RXV 450. That will be an exclusive. If I need a break from the writing I'll be making video's. TS

Finally time to test the bike. After a morning briefing we were handed one bike each. I was riding with the Italian group of journalists and one Swedish from MC-Folket. I started the day on the new 990 Adventure with ABS brakes. More in the test later how that was both on and off road. After lunch I swapped for the 990 Adventure S Dakar. All of us had plenty of time on the bikes, all day as a matter of fact only interrupted by photo sessions. The launch itself was very well organised thanks to Eva Priewasser and Joachim Sauer at KTM. TS

As you will have seen it was just not possible (or bearable) to update from the 56k modem at the Club Royal in Occidental Grand Fuerteventura. So this update is in retrospect with the first images from day 1. The English magazines had just finished riding the 990 today and they were all happy with both the bikes, weather and the route. Everyone was present, Superbike, Bike, MCN, Ride, PB, FB, T.W.O, Chris Moss, Roland Brown and Kevin Ash. KTM had shipped over 30 bikes, 10 Orange, 10 black and 10 990 S Dakar. The route involved some great roads both on and off road. As well as a very entertaining beach session in front of a old ship wreck, the American Star. This will be fun! Marc Coma, Cyril Despres and Giovanni Sala was also present during the first days of the launch. They showed the journalists how things should be done. TS

On the plain again this time on my way back from Sicily to London. I think this might be the worst launch ever when talking logistics. Bikes are good, but our time on them was limited by drivers that never knew where they were going. And the drivers were all Sicilians! I am finally back in Buxton for just a few hours before heading out again to the next one. Hopefully there will be some opportunity to update these pages from there. TS

After countless miles in bloody Ford Galaxy's we finally managed to ride both RXV 4.5 & 5.5 and SXV 4.5 & 5.5 today. My group started the day on the two Enduro's. That 70bhp RXV 550 is just too much for anyone that is not a professional Enduro rider. RXV 450 is great and so is the SXV 550. More in-depth as soon as there is time. TS

On the airplane between London and Milan on my way to Sicily now. I have been travelling since 9PM last night by car, bus and plain. Tomorrow I will ride and thank God for that. Have been thinking about the Fuerteventura trip as well and I think I will have to head straight there without checking in home in Buxton. That promises another boring night in an airport. Heathrow was a Godforsaken place this morning. One of the world's largest most modern airports, and there's hardly a lift working. There will be more updates tomorrow after riding the bikes. Ciao. TS