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Have a happy new year and make sure you get some of that bubbly tonight to welcome 2006. Personally I am aching to pull all the Christmas decorations down from the walls and make the Xmas tree into firewood as soon as possible. So that I can get back to work! TS

Just to let you know we're back in business after Christmas. TS

Sorry for not updating the blog much the last week, but the last week leading up to Christmas is very busy for all of us. Today I thought I should take the last Christmas photos that will grace the front page of the site. I think it will involve a Cagiva Raptor 1000, the Cat & Fiddle and Santa Claus. Cat & Fiddle is great this time of year. It has never been nicer to stop for a hot chocolate or why not check out their home made Christmas pudding with brandy sauce at the Cat? We shall see later as I have plenty of Christmas shopping left to do before some of my family comes to England tomorrow to celebrate a Norwegian/English Christmas in Buxton and Sutton Coldfield. They want me to show them Manchester off course, but what they do not know yet is that Buxton is a million times nicer. It does not look like we'll have any snow  for Christmas eve and day, but we have got a sled just in case. Now I would like to use this opportunity to wish you all a Raptortastic Christmas and a happy new year

Raptor 1000 was due for service and new rear tyre today. I booked it at Hunts in Manchester as they have worked on my bike before and the service is great. Changed all fluids and oil filter as well as getting a new clutch adjuster fitted. It had to be manufactured on due to the fact that the Honda ones did not fit. The original one had somehow vibrated loose. My main concern with the Raptor these days are the suspension. I am aching to do something with both front and back suspension as this would improve handling considerably. One day... TS

Returned the Superduke today in great winter weather. When I arrived at KTM UK they all laughed at me because of that video. I opted to use some of the new offroad gear as I wanted to bed in and adjust those Alpinestars Tech 10 boots before actually going offroad with them. And it was lovely to see those white boots get some dirt on them too. TS

It was a gorgeous day today and loads of bikers at the Cat & Fiddle pub. Have a look at the Bandit with the knights face armour in front of the headlight that I shot today at the C & F.  Rode around the A54 and to the Goyt valley today as well and got some sunset pictures. I am returning the Super Duke tomorrow morning and I can only hope for nice weather again. Claire, the girls and I went to listen to Christmas carols yesterday in Castleton and the Devil's arse cave. Rather nice location and I recommend everyone that passes through Castleton in the Peaks to have a look at the Devil's arse. And there's some nice pubs too that serve local mulled wine (that's why I came along). TS

Finally got the action pictures sorted today. It's difficult this time of year due to short days and not much sun. Today I was lucky though and here is a couple of the pictures. More under Raptorama. We're having a Christmas party tonight so no time to write much today. TS

You have probably seen that embarrassing KTM Superduke video I made by now. I think it is up on the top 3 list of the stupidest things I have ever done with a motorcycle. Well, I didn't actually push the bike over, the sidestand and engine vibrations did it. But I should have found somewhere else to do that bloody video. I know who is picking the bike up next week after me and have apologised. Fast Bikes would never have apologised would they? However I am a decent person and I am very sorry. Not that it's much damage to the bike, but the guys at KTM UK still have to replace an engine cover and bar end weight. And I'll be picking up the bill. But if another journalist had sent me this video I would probably have laughed my guts out. There is no nice people in this business. Rolling burnouts with that Brussels sprout tree and a Santa mask coming tomorrow... If you're wondering why I am riding the KTM on Austrian plates here in the UK that's because the bikes comes directly from the factory in Mattighofen in Austria. TS

Christmas at Raptors & Rockets has started as you can see from these images. There's all sorts of comments to be made, but I'll let you guys do that and post later. I have been riding today as well and popped by Hunts in Manchester to book my bike in for tyre change and service next week. Xmas game. TS

Went out really early today to get some sunrise pictures. It was freezing and I passed a car that had slid of the road and down into a valley. The Police were there and everyone looked ok. I rode really carefully as the tarmac was slippery. Anyway, here's one of the pics. Loads more under the Raptorama link. TS

Finally picked up KTM 990 Superduke today. Most of the new 2006 riding gear arrived today too so I got a chance to start breaking it in during the 240 miles of riding today. The combination of the MX2 racing suit and Venture off-road jacket worked very well despite of the cold weather. But it was very cold breaking in the new GP Pro gloves as they are thin and vented. I brought with me my warm gloves as well in case fingers would start falling off. I didn't bother asking for special colours on the off-road gear and the stuff that arrived were all orange which should fit most KTM's nicely. Superduke is orange alright which is good this time of year. Stopped on the way back from Brackley where KTM UK is based for some still shots of the Duke. Brackley is between Oxford and Silverstone conveniently accessible from England's two major motorways linking North and South, M1 and M40.

Loads of servers around the world seems to be having problems these days with viruses and malicious software. My server has just received some new anti-spyware to keep unwanted stuff out. You can never be completely safe from that stuff so stop being stupid and never respond to hoax E-mails and never open E-mails that's obviously virus spam. TS

A tiny little worm called the Internet Trojan sneaked in yesterday and caused some computer trouble. So much so that I packed my laptop in the backpack, jumped on the bike and rode the Cat & Fiddle road in pissing rain over to Carlos in Didsbury to get some help solving the problem. After a few hours the problem was solved and the laptop cleaned. So tomorrow everything is ready for KTM's V-twin streetfighter. TS

Enough snow and ice was gone today for me to ride from Buxton to Manchester. I had to go to renew my passport that expires 10 January 2006 and it's a good opportunity to get that machine readable passport to avoid trouble at the US customs in case I'm going to the US next year. But 80 quid! That's a steep price even though the damned passport is really valuable to me. So for 2-3 weeks I am stranded on the British isles, I can't go anywhere else which is a bit frightening. What if Honda sends me that invitation for the Sepang Fireblade launch now? You might have noticed it has been less news and new bikes since Milan and it's just natural. You can still depend on this news section to bring the latest, but at new angles until I just place Santa Claus on the top of the page. Then you'll know Yule tide is due for me as well, but not before. I am working on getting KTM's 950 Supermoto over here to Buxton before Christmas and maybe one or two offroad bikes too so that I can get my new Alpinestars offroad kit really dirty. I have never used the legendary Tech boots before and now there's a pair of Tech 10's on it's way. I guess it's early Christmas for this elf. Tor

The first proper snow fell today in Buxton. Not much, but enough for me to dream about a offroad bike with a good pair of knobbly tyres. Unfortunately all that's available to ride for me now is the Cagiva Raptor 1000 with Bridgestone BT14's so I stayed in instead. Chatted to one of the Ducati North Europe chaps today regarding the world launch situation and it's gloomy if you cover North Europe. I cover much more than NE, but the invitations has to come from somewhere, and for me that would need to be either from Scandinavia, North Europe (Benelux and Scandinavia) or the UK. I was told that for the Sport Classics launch only one single Scandinavian journalist got an invitation and he weren't a freelancer. Now Ducati, how do you expect to sell bikes if the press aren't invited to ride the bikes? I am not sure exactly how turbulent it is in the Ducati camp at the moment, but there is no launch dates or plans yet for the new S4RS. But it will probably just sell itself (not) We give the new bikes loads of build up before the launches and presentations after and then there comes a point where you have to ride and test the bikes to have anything valuable to say about them. I am still struggling with the Husqvarna press kit as the disc just spins wildly without doing much. There is about 11 images of a 251 total that I can see. I am waiting for a replacement and then I'll present some Husky's. TS

Finished the text on the BMW K1200R test today. See most of it under the Raptorama link. Also the presentation of the new Guzzi's are now out under the news section. MV Agusta Brutale 910 R next. Other than that I am working on getting the launches I need for as many of the '06 bikes as possible. That will be a priority next week. I'll also receive the new riding kit I will be using in 2006 at the end of next week. I'll post some pics then. Other than that I've got cold Guinness in the fridge and one cold Swedish Christmas brew from Ikea that I'll enjoy whilst the girls are watching 5 hours of Pride and prejudice. The only problem is that the TV will be taken so I'll be sitting in front of the computer which normally means I'll do some more work. TS

Only a bloody month left to Christmas and I'm doing cool front wheel slides on a K 1200 R in a round about in Sheffield. And just after that roundabout that leads out onto the M1/M18 Northbound is the bumpy road that almost shook me out of the seat of the Raptor 1000 on the way up a week ago. I never thought a steering damper would have been useful on the Raptor with Italian chassis. I always knew the TL1000S needed it, but once in a while it can be handy on the Raptor 1000 as well. Anyway the K1200R loves the motorways and it's been the only place to sample all that power this week due to ice cold tarmac and a mixture of frozen leafs and muck on the countryside twisties. And boy come 6000rpm with a pinned throttle and the 160bhp streetfighter moves. More in Raptorama about how the K1200R behaves in different situations. Returned the bike to BMW Motorrad UK just north of Doncaster and rode the Cagiva home. You really do notice the lack of heated grips because even with my Dainese Antarctic gloves my fingers were frozen stiff after just a few miles. Luckily I only had about 50 miles to ride. TS

Last chance for us to get the action shots today of the K 1200 R as it's time to return it tomorrow. How nice it was then to wake up to fog thick as porridge outside. Claire and I went out anyway into the ice cold fog and as soon as we got higher up we rode above the fog and it was sunshine, but still very cold. Specially since I was wearing leathers for the shoot. Thank you BMW for those heated grips. But as soon as we entered the icy fog again nothing helped to keep the cold out. So from Buxton we only went a few miles south on the A515 for the photo location close to Tissington and in the village itself. Brought hot coffee with us and drank it in a field just outside Tissington whilst watching the muck spreader going back and forth doing his muck-spreading business. TS

BMW K 1200 R in the twilight zone photo series below. The shots were taken in the Peaks today after a little trip to the Cat & Fiddle for home made leek soup and a hot chocolate to get some heat back into the blood circulation. All weekend I have been working on the site to get the Milan stuff up to date. Now it is with more than 250 images of new bikes. It was a bit delayed this time due to some Scandinavian and Benelux magazines  needed my material for tight deadlines. The images were FTP'd from Milan and the first article as well which meant I could not do everything from Milan. Now after the first weekend all is back on track. And what happens? Macao GP images start popping in. So have started editing those now.  I have also edited the Birmingham video's so they will be added soon as well. Enjoy the K1200R shots. TS

It's been ranging from minus 5 to 7 degrees the last couple of days during the night. Today it was still cold during the day and I simply can't use all that K 1200 R horsepower up in the peaks now. Not enough grip basically. Due to this we just settled for a couple of stills in the afternoon sunshine. I have started playing around with the Electronic Suspension Adjustment on the K 1200 R which allows you to choose between comfortable, normal and sport. I do not mind BMW's blinker buttons, but I do mind having to cancel it with my right thumb. I have registered that if you're unlucky you could blip the throttle when you want to cancel the blinkers which could lead to unpleasant situations. Why not design so that you can activate and cancel on the respective button? This morning I was working to yet another tight deadline for EICMA 2005 material. But finished in time for a short spin on the BMW before it got dark again. Then I worked on the bike babe material and published. During the weekend some material from the Macao GP should arrive as well for a photo special. Usually the photography from that event is pretty amazing. It's just as crazy as the Isle of Man TT. TS

BMW K1200R day today. Good to be back where I belong after the last week or so with travelling between England and Italy. In the saddle of the naked speed monster from BMW. 163Bhp with no fairing is pretty hardcore stuff and specially today on the motorway when it was below freezing. Luckily BMW has fitted heated grips on the K1200R so my hands were the only warm parts on my body. That engine from K1200S is a gem though and it pulls like an ox. It got dark by the time I got anywhere near nice places to photograph the bike so that's why you get these night shots in stead. I love night photography and wished I remembered to do it more often with the test bikes. There is one with the use of flash as well. Flash is not nice when it's dark. Just when I was going to pick up the BMW this morning I found the battery on the Raptor to be almost dead. This is what all this travelling has done to it. No riding and cold days and nights just drains the battery. Got it jump started for the first time ever. I have tried before and that big V-twin just wouldn't start. In Buxton the hills are a bit steeper and just at the end of the last hill I got the thing started. Full choke until warm and then half choke. Stupid as it were I reduced choke even more and revved a bit. Blurrp. That's the worst sound you hear when you're going somewhere important. But, I knew that I had managed to jumpstart it once on this very hill so pushed it back up the last hill and luckily for me it started again. No foolishness this time and I went off straight away and did not stop until at BMW Motorrad UK. I have had problems with batteries on the Cagiva Raptor 1000 before, but then I swapped from some crap battery to Varta and it has been fine since. But when it gets cold nothing but charging the battery or riding the bike on the motorway every day helps. Loads more EICMA stuff coming by the way. I just haven't had time to do the full show-service yet this time. It was also confirmed I am going to the KTM Adventure 990 world launch in Fuerteventura, Spain in February today (Editors: I am your man and I've got a set price for these events) TS

I have just arrived back to the UK from Milan. Today all I did was to sort some FTP problem in the press room and take pictures of pretty Italian ladies. It might sound glamorous to you, but I have now gone non-stop without sleep for 30 hours. Due to the business with Silvio Berlusconi's lunch and various problems from the organisation side of things at EICMA I have been delayed or interrupted in pretty much every single thing I have tried to do. I had to keep a deadline yesterday after we were told we had to leave the press room whilst I was in the process of writing an article about the bikes shown. That article had to be finished by 06:00 the morning after (this morning), so I pushed on through the night and sent the finished article 06:15 from the Hotel reception. After I had finished that I designed the stuff you could see on this site this morning and then had breakfast. Packed all my stuff and went back to EICMA. Did the babes photos and FTP'd some more stuff and went to the airport and flew home. Still there is loads of stuff to do and I have GB's of material I will work on and publish. You aint' seen nothing yet. Tomorrow I'll be heading to Doncaster to pick up BMW's super powerful K1200R for a weeks test. You'll get all the action here and under the Raptorama link. I'll add images here soon as well. TS

In the press room at EICMA 2005 in Milan now. Managed to get some work done, but now the security guard wants to lock the building so I am off to find my hotel in the centre of Milan. Back tomorrow with loads more new bikes. TS

It has been a working weekend for me with loads of writing to do. The write up from Aprilia's off-road press conference in Milan is finished and sent out. Now all I have to do is pack again for my early morning flight back to Milan again tomorrow. I will try to get in to the exhibition halls tomorrow to have a look and maybe take some pictures. We'll see what happens. If all goes to plans I will pick up BMW K1200R on Thursday as well to do some serious riding again after all the show biz. I will try to do some updates from Milan tomorrow. TS

The coctails served at the Aprilia off-road party that followed the press conference in Milan were just 50/50 booze and mixer I promise you. Read about the press conference here. I was hanging out with the other UK guys, Polish Pete (FB), Tom Rayner (MCN) and Paul Walker (AWS) and we all agreed that the coctails were strong and the woman hot. We also agreed that the food after the press conference were a bit crap too, but hey, who are we to complain anyway. At the party after the press conference that was mainly dominated by men there were suddenly loads of Milanese girls. Must have been hired help we reckoned. The band played 70's funk as you can see on one of the video's I have added under the news section. It was mainly an Italian event with very few foreign journalists, but I did find some of the usual suspects such as Fotis from Greek magazine 0-300 and we continued drinking at the hotel which were a 5 star Marriot. Poor Greek guys had to stay another night at the hotel due to a strike at all Greek airports. TS Pic: Tom Rayner

Sorry for not blogging much the last week. There is just so much to do now in the build up to the Milan show. Tomorrow morning I will fly from Stansted with Aprilia to their Offroad press conference in Milan. I expect a full briefing on all the new offroad bikes, RXV, SXV, Pegaso Trail and probably a few words about the Adventure bike Caponord too. Hopefully we'll get to see something else new too... I'll be back reporting 10 November and you can read all about what happened at the Aprilia party after the press conference right here. TS

Milan is suddenly all over me today. Booked flights and hotel yesterday for the EICMA 2005. Received photos from Benelli and MV Agusta of new Milan metal today. Invitation to go to Aprilia's pre event press conference arrived today. I tell you this, I will be flying return between Manchester-Milan two times in less than five days. Bizarre, but it means I can bring home the latest from Aprilia and the offroad range in particular before the next guy.  You might also have noticed that I feature on the top headlines in three of the European heavies today with news and photos. Motorrad, Superbike and Motoren & Toerisme. All cracking magazines covering different aspects of motorcycling in German, English and Flemish/French (I did almost write Belgish, but luckily I came to my senses) I also sent off loads of difficult questions to Ducati today to dig deep into the matter of  Sport Classics, 1200cc L-twins and powerful V4's. Other than that I did spend loads of time speaking to Italians on the phone. It's always great because most Italians know their limitations in the English language, but they are still very able communicators. Except for the old granny I mistakenly phoned in Pesaro, she didn't understand anything poor woman. I apologised and got the right number next time. Today's photo is of the last Benelli I tested, the TNT. I guess Ciao is suitable today. TS

Trick or treat? Poor kids knocking on our door today. Claire is working the nightshift as an A&E Doctor and I am up on third floor working not hearing anything from downstairs. I did have sweets ready, but ended up eating most of them myself. Isn't Halloween all about being bad and slightly evil? No, sorry kids, I'll put the sweets out next year so you can help yourself. Hope you liked the Halloween special I placed in the news section today. It will be back next year, but here is one of the photos. The picture is from 2001 when I tested a 200bhp Yamaha R12, yes you heard me right. A tuned R1 brought out the devil in me so to speak. TS

Arrived at the NEC around 07:30 in the morning and rigged up in the press room. As soon as the doors into the halls opened I went in and got a few photos of BMW R1200GS Adventure, Ducati ST3 s ABS and 999R Xerox replica while they were still covered up and published. It is always good to walk quickly through the stands in the morning to get a overview of where to go for the press conferences. The day started well and I could publish with no problems to this site. However with a different FTP tool I had problems transferring files to the other publications I served today. So I had to resort to E-mailing which takes about the same time, but in a less organised way as you can't E-mail folders and there's a limit of 10MB per E-mail on my E-mail server. I messed around with the laptop the night before to catch a Wi-Fi network where I stayed. It did not work and somehow I had managed to activate the Windows firewall. Now I already use a personal firewall and tried to open that just to test. It did not occur to me at the time two Firewalls were creating problems. But now it's sorted and my stuff is already published world wide. After getting all the photos and start sending them I went out for a last round to shoot some video. Now whilst doing that I got stuck drinking champagne with some of the guys from Superbike and MCN and by the time I finished doing that it seemed all the babes had gone. I have not got a good overview of the video yet, but I suspect I missed some video action. I have agreed to swap some still shots for high definition digital video so that might just save me. Today's photo is from the MSCP stand at the NEC. I haven't got a clue what they are trying to achieve by crashing a Ducati SS800 and then bring the bike to the NEC. You should try not to crash your bike I guess is the message, but that's the same as I say too. That yellow on the tarmac I recognise from a couple of weeks ago. TS   

I'm off to Birmingham today to set up base in Sutton Coldfield which is just a few miles away from the NEC.  Today's photo is of the new CCM FT35. CCM is a small British bike maker based just a few miles North from us. I have now added images of all the announced new bikes under the news link except for the two Ducati's. They will be presented here in Raptors & Rockets just after noon tomorrow. Sit down and enjoy the show. TS

Just finished one motorcycle show and the next one is up already this week. I am preparing for the Birmingham gig at the moment. It will be much more busy than I imagined with 6 world launches from four manufacturers. Then in three weeks we do the Milan show as well. No rest for the wicked. I am transferring a lot of material at the moment from the motorcycle shows, tests and news. More than 7GB from here already this month. That is quite much for me since I use the facilities at the press rooms to transfer from the shows. And I am not downloading DVD's. Today I have been on the phone to Italy whilst transferring images to other publications to find out what's going on in the time ahead of the Milan show. You can read about our findings in the news section. As always feel free to comment on anything you might find on the site. I have been a bit slow adding your comments to the comments link, but rest assured they will be added in due time. There was bad news from Suzuki today as well. At last years NEC show in Birmingham the Suzuki birds wore bikinis and they were all stunners. This year they will not wear bikinis. So you will have to make do with the photo I have added to the blog today from the 2004 international motorcycle & scooter show in Birmingham. Take care! TS

Before.........     and after........

Tokyo Motor Show was a bit like expected regarding the models on show. Loads of concept models. But we did get a look at how a new V-max will look like. Yamaha has not disappointed anyone this year. From a victorious M1 and Valentino Rossi to the high tech R6 with loads in between. It seems Yamaha has got good momentum going for them in their 50th anniversary. Our man in Tokyo came up with the goods for us and our friends. Thanks Dave. Now guess what, next Thursday in only one week is show time again! This time it is the international motorcycle show in Birmingham, UK. There is a promise from BMW Motorrad to show us a brand new model. We think we know which one it is and we will reveal our thoughts under the news section soon. It is not the F800S and we do not believe it is the R1200S either. I have done loads of work on the site lately. I have added 58 films. They all needed to be compressed and the rendering process takes time even on a fast computer. But now it's done and you can now look forward to a video clip of every single bike we test. The first new videos that will be added will origin from the NEC show next week. I have also added logos to every image on the site to protect from image theft. You might think it would not be necessary on official manufacturer images, but it is. Many of our scoops are official images and we have to protect our site.  Stay put. Tor

Spent the whole day today riding the crash damaged 620. The fairing might be scratched, but the bike still handles as it did before I crashed it. The top funny looking fairing now looks even funnier since one of the two aluminium stems supporting the top fairing and instruments broke. It wobbles like jelly when riding over bumps (not the bike, the top fairing) but we can still read the speedometer. The whole incident was just an amateurs mistake and we are professional enough to admit it. Try to get as much lean as possible for the photos and power it out of a bend with less than warm tyres and whoops. As a matter of fact we almost wiped out a family of sheep throttling along that road. Maybe I was too occupied thinking about mint sauce and dinner than riding properly. The sheep and I survived, but I think it would have had more entertainment value if the photographer had actually got some shots or film of the incident. All the value we get now is a big bill from Ducati and lost pride. Anyway, we know that you enjoy seeing photos of other people's misery  (I don't blame you) so here's another one. We also checked out Ducati's 2006 Monster S2R 1000DS today at Ducati Coventry, but we could not ride it today as the bike has not been run in properly yet. Another day. Tor

Oops... Thumbs down to me, not the bike. The Multistrada 620 handles great, but I did not this time. Sorry for crashing the bike like an idiot and I will probably have to eat some words about this matter. First press bike crash in 5 years and I am sorry it had to be the Ducati Multistrada. We have now confessed our sins and will go and hide in a corner until Monday. TS

Got the action shots of the Ducati Multistrada today. Most of them turned out quite well. Check some of them out under Raptorama and Headlines. TS

What is Raptors & Rockets? We are not your usual motorcycle E-zine that is for sure. We do run some of the things you would expect from a motorcycle publication, but we also provide material to a worldwide motorcycle press corps. You will have read our articles, seen our photos or news scoops in all corners of the world. Not always credited, but we are involved with the biggest players in the market. We have dedicated our motorcycle journalism specific skills to run a cutting edge news service. We utilize a broad web of contacts all over the world which is increasing by the day. All this to benefit our clients and you, the reader. At the same time we ride bikes every day all year round. There should never be a dull moment here. This web site gets an update every single day and more often than not several updates. When there is an embargo date to keep we stay up all night until we can publish. We will stretch and walk the extra mile to perform better than the next guy. Unfortunately you can not read our full articles on new motorcycles here since this is one of our sources of income. But you can read them elsewhere. We do let you in on all the day to day stuff here in the blog and always a short review in Raptorama. We also have our DVD which is a full feature film packed with bikes. I just watched one of our onboard films of the MV Agusta Brutale 910 again and I can promise you you will not be disappointed. It is the only bike we have tested where you can actually hear the engine sound over the wind noise at 100mph+ Raptors & Rockets 2 will be packed with all the best moments from 2005. We dare say you have got something to look forward to. No action shots of the 620 yet as it poured down with rain today and the fog was thick as porridge. All the best, TS

Picked up the baby Multistrada from Ducati Coventry today. The weather was surprisingly good today as I was expecting rain. The rain just arrived, but that's ok as I am in my office writing this now. We will make an attempt to shoot some action shots tomorrow if the weather will permit. I will be riding the Multistrada 620 around in the Peaks regardless of weather, but it would be nice with some sunshine. I stopped off the A6 just north of Bakewell to shoot some still shots that you can check out in Raptorama and one on the front page as well as these here. I shot 62 stills and two films. How many photos have you got of your bike? We sometimes take hundreds of a single bike to make sure some of them turn out good and from all angles. It is one of the things I enjoy doing after picking up a new test bike and I always try to get some stills straight away. This way you can see them the same day as they were taken. More on the Multistrada 620 after we have put some more miles on it. TS

Can someone Japanese help me please! I am trawling through various Japanese sites to see what little fish my net brings in, but it's killing my eyes looking at signs I cannot read. You can check out today's catch by looking at the photo.

Tomorrow I will head down to Coventry and pick up Ducati's smallest Multistrada that was launched in Sicily earlier this year. It should be good fun. I enjoy riding small fun bikes. The last bike we tested in the 600 fun bike segment was Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada. It is a very good opportunity to check out the differences. I have tested the 620 i.e. Monster previously and it was tiny. It will be interesting to see how the small L-twin fares in the larger Multistrada chassis. We were supposed to test the 999 now, but it was still waiting for some parts from Italy. Parts of the UK press corpse just can't resist breaking sports bikes as soon as they get their hands on them. I wont mention any names but what I can say is that I stopped buying the rag months ago because of that frigging beano that they never seem to run out of masks the fact there is no content. To be fair it might be someone else this time so that's why no names was mentioned, just the beano. My legs are still stiffened by the long walk to the top of Scotland on Saturday so they will be more happy now on the Multistrada anyway. So thanks beano magazine. TS

Climbed Ben Nevis today. Ben Nevis is the tallest thing on the British Isles and located up north in the Scottish highlands makes for an excellent motorcycle ride as well. Claire and I stayed at a B&B in Fort William. A couple of minutes drive North is Glen Nevis where the box office smash hits Braveheart, Rob Roy and Highlander was filmed just underneath Ben Nevis. The summit is at 1344m (4406ft) and we spent a bit more than 5 hours up and down including a good lunch and a fun alternative route in almost a straight line down. It was quite steep downhill that way so my ankles and feet had to work so hard that I will feel it for days. I am not too keen on following the beaten track and even managed to persuade Claire to come with me rather than following the sheep down the Ben Nevis highway. It felt good having a shot of Whiskey at the bottom. Now I have been on the top of Scotland's highest mountain, Norway's highest mountain and halfway up the ski-lift on Europe's and France's highest mountain and on the top of all the rest in a aeroplane so that has got to be enough I think. My Dainese Hemsedal ski/all-weather jacket did really well by the way. It was the first time I used it for serious walking and it works. TS

Which bike was your favourite from the Paris international motorcycle show? I admit I had weaknesses for Yamaha MT-0S. But I have to confess I have been catching up with old episodes of American Chopper lately. Maybe there is a bigger market outside of the US now for customised bikes such as MT-0S. Those American Chopper guys are not for real! I have come to the stage now where I actually think everything JR and SR do is hilarious. Went out on a little ride to Manchester today to pick up some snus, Swedish sort of chewing tobacco, from a mate that has just been back in Scandinavia. Perfect with Scotch. Apropos Scotch, Claire and I am heading up North tomorrow and we will do a touring feature to Scotland. On which bike (I set myself a challenge there) is not clear until tomorrow afternoon. I love this time of year, the air is crisp and you appreciate the few hours of sun so much more when you're out in the elements. We are not just going to ride, we will have some of the local homebrew or water of life as they call it (we have to walk to the top of a mountain as well Claire told me) I keep telling Claire that I actually come from Norway and that I have climbed the top of many mountains before and that there is no need to do it again. We won some tickets to see Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel in Buxton Opera House the other day in a raffle of all things. The best price I have ever won in a raffle because the gig was really good even though it was my first encounter with this band. Today's photo was taken at the Cat & Fiddle on the way to Manchester today. TS

Time to head back to England today, but not before popping back to the International Motorcycle show and do a last update of the site. Now how clever is this? I decided to use the Paris Metro system to get to CDG airport since I had plenty of time. All well planned and I knew where I was going. My hotel was in Mairie d' Issy only two stops on the Metro from Porte de Versailles where the show is and walking distance as well, but I decided to use the Metro today with all the luggage. I bought a ticket to CDG straight away which cost 8 Euro, but jumped off at Porte de Versailles to finish some work. By the time I had published and was back on the Metro station the ticket had expired. I tried to explain that it was silly money to pay 8 Euro for two stops on the Metro, but the same story today as with the batteries yesterday and I just forked up another 8 Euro. I jumped off at the correct junction but ended up on the wrong train and had to get off at Charles de Gaulle Etoile. I went towards the exit to check where the hell I was and found that the bloody ticket did not work anymore after accidentally sending my suitcase through. I just jumped the barriers and went to the info desk. A bit more understanding here and provided me with a new ticket to get back into the Metro system. So back on another train in the wrong direction and I gave up, jumped another barrier and found a taxi to the wrong terminal at the airport. After a 15 minute free coach ride to the other side of the airport and I was finally where I was supposed to be for the first time today. Luckily I still had time for a cold pint and had two sips before Police and security came running in and told us we had to leave this specific area of the airport due to a search for something. Probably my unused Metro tickets. So had to leave the pint as I had to leave the Metro idea and found another coffee shop at the other side of the terminal building. Here I could finally relax until my flight was due. The morale is; Always use a taxi even if you have got plenty of time. TS

Bonjour! I got up early today to be first in the queue for the press facilities. When I arrived at the Paris Expo the Paris press office was staffed, but still they would not let me start working until 08:30. I find it odd that more than half of the staff can't speak a word in English as well. I mean, International motorcycle show, not local French motorcycle show. I happened to misplace a used set of my rechargeable batteries for my flash and they were gone when I came back. No one would have stolen them, but since the word rechargeable is ancient Greek to the French I was offered help to find a place to buy new AA batteries. It was impossible to explain in English or even French it seemed that all I wanted to know was whether someone had handed them in. I gave up. I always carry two sets of rechargeable batteries, I just wanted the first set back. A good thing it wasn't one of the £50 battery packs for my camera.  So I started shooting the bikes that was not on show yesterday. I was in Hall 1 shooting photo and film of motorcycles whilst the other journalists watched hours of Asimo the robot and silver coloured Silver Wings. One day I am really bored I will watch that Robo CD from the press kit too. Anyway, Raptors & Rockets were first in and last out of the show. I brought quite a few DVD's with me to give away to contacts etc. So wasn't it great that all the DVD's I had grabbed before leaving for Paris were empty covers? Did loads of handshaking and spent time with old friends from Norway's MC-avisa and MCN's army of news reporters. I bet there weren't a single person working for Emap in the UK today. Loads of the people I intended to say hi to showed up on a few of my photos later without me having noticed at the time. That's show business for you. I am sorry I could not say hello to everyone, but we'll catch up next time. One of my missions other than updating Raptors & Rockets was to provide material for Hong Kong based Ibike. If you can understand Chinese then check them out at Ibike.hk I love French food, wine, Paris, Champagne, Alps, roads, women, cognac and cheese but I simply can't stand the French Robert De Niro (He sounds just like De Niro, but speaks French) Tor Sagen reporting from Paris, fed-up-with-duck liver and Monsieur Robert De Niro. Au revoir

Reporting from Paris today. Due to a bike accident my taxi was stuck in a queue on the Paris ring road. The taxi driver shook his head and probably mumbled something about these crazy bikers in French. Little did he know about my business in Paris and my sympathies was of course with the unlucky biker. Dropped my luggage off at the hotel and went straight to the Paris expo. You can check out the photos in the Paris link. Today's photo shows you what you must do if you haven't got a minibar and have to do some work in the hotel room.

Today Yamaha showed all their cards for 2006 and I bet there were a few people surprised by the amazing looking concept MT0S. Yamaha did it with MT01, now do it with MT0S as well please! I am off to Paris tomorrow and will try to give an update tomorrow afternoon or as soon as... Tor

Last journey on Honda Gold Wing 30th anniversary today. The air temp varied between 12 to 17 degrees from Buxton to London. It got a bit chilly after 400 miles compared to the last weeks so it is obvious Autumn is here now. For the ride back I was back on my Cagiva Raptor 1000. From the biggest motorcycle in the world to one of the smallest. That was easy but it was painful, however, to part with the stereo and long distance comfort! 

Congratulations to Valentino Rossi and Yamaha for the 2005 world championship! Rossi could not finish with a win due to an increasingly stronger Ducati duo in Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa. Ducati and Bridgestone must have had something up their sleeves, specially since Checa took the third podium place to make a Ducati sandwich with Rossi in the middle. This tells us how good the package with the bike and tyres has become during the year. Good luck Loris and Carlos!  I still have the Honda Gold Wing which is due back tomorrow. I know which way will be the most comfortable, but I always enjoy being back on my own Cagiva Raptor after almost any test. It's got character alright. We will also write more about the MV Agusta Brutale 910 during next week. Next Friday is show time in Paris and I will fly over on Thursday to rig up for Friday. I'll check in to see what's going on the 29th as well. Photos will be posted under the Paris 2005 link. Tor

Finally time for the Brutale 910 today. Unfortunately it poured down with rain until noon. Good thing the bike has got Dunlop D208 RR's that stick to the wet tarmac like a leech. More on the Brutale 910 in Raptorama soon. TS

Honda Gold Wing is a whole lotta bike to wash. It still only took me 10 minutes and with the stereo going. The Wing is a pig to get on its centre stand. You actually need to place something underneath the back wheel, reverse over it, then put the centrestand legs down and use the reverse or push really hard backwards at the same time as you use your body weight on the stand.  There are Wing owners out there that has owned their Wing for years without using the centre stand. A shame that really. Maybe it is time for a motorised centre stand as on the BMW K1200LT. Because if something requires too much technique it is not really user friendly is it? Anyway the Wing is clean and ready for a long trip to the South West tomorrow. More specific Dorset. We will pay 3X-motorcycles a visit and also ride MV Agusta Brutale 910 if we're lucky (say hi if you see us on the blue Wing) Most importantly it will give us a good impression on how the Wing is on a 500+miles journey. But first I have to get up 06:00 in the morning to get Claire to the hospital she works in Sheffield so that I can pick her up straight after work and hit the M1 Southbound as soon as possible before the suicide candidates start jumping the bridges (yes it has happened and it took me 20 hours to get from London to Manchester after returning Yamaha's R1 because of the incident-another story for another day) I was going to connect the Wing to our in-house Autocom intercom system today only to find out the Autocom has got a 9-pin connection and the Gold Wing only a 5-pin connection. I will check if I can find an adaptor somewhere tomorrow. Let us know what you did if you came across something similar and how you solved it! E-mail TS

Claire really enjoyed the luxury of the Gold Wing pillion seat today. We have been out the whole day shooting action photos of the big tourer. We kept mostly to the Dovedale area today but this photo is from A515 between Ashbourne and Buxton. The Wing isn't the easiest bike to turn around when you go back and forth in front of the photographer. We needed a big road. The B-roads aren't big enough for the Wing. The Gold Wing is an imposing sight out on the roads and bigger than anything else. Still those six cylinders are there to be woken up from time to time. It works best as a glider though and even pretty fast rock n' roll does not make us want to go faster. The Wing is a gentle giant that sometimes wakes up like today when we spun violently over some spilt diesel just by our photo location. I just pinned the throttle to get grip again. Good fun being captain of the Gold Wing. TS

Honda Gold Wing day for me today. A bit of a mile-stone for someone like me to finally get to ride one. It's got six cylinders, the engine puts out enough torque to push a 18 wheeler, reverse, cruise control, radio/cd player, carpets in the luggage, windscreen wiper (not this one) and airbag (coming next year) So it's a car with two wheels then? Not really, it's still more agile than most cars and much more fun. I picked up the bike from the Honda Institute today and normally I would just grab the keys and be off. But there are so many controls and push buttons all over the place so I asked for a go-through of them from Steven,  the work shop manager at the Institute. Good thing we keep it for a while, but to be honest we have already worked out the most important functions and that is how to work the CD player. I still don't know how the engine sounds like since I listened to Audioslave the 200miles back here. That stereo works brilliantly even at high speeds, but the CD shifter is extra of course. The bike has got a few more extras. Special 30th anniversary carpets! The brake disc covers, speakers at the back and stylish exhaust ends. I will give you the low-down in Raptorama after the test, but will post some impressions here during the week and more photos. Tor

My, oh my, what a week! I have been doing more IT work than motorcycle work this week, but finally I just sat down and solved the problems with the bottleneck when loads of visitors are loading the site at the same time. Images has probably been the main problem. First I did not like the idea of thumbnails in stead of a nice bigger photo. But the thumbs work just as well. Now you can click until your wrist falls off! We bring you the news before anyone else and still we have only broken one embargo. That was a bit unintentional so sorry Yamaha. It was just that suddenly loads of photos were all over the internet. Not just one leaked spy-shot, but 5 or 6 official photos of 4 different bikes+ three spy-shots of the R6. We had to publish them. Last Friday it was time for Kawasaki's big surprise, the ZZR1400. Now, we didn't want any trouble with the Kawasaki Internet hawks, so we arranged to get the whole press release with all the details to do a more comprehensive presentation of it (to please you) Also these photos were leaked and published prematurely (not by us) My good friends over at Motards-online.com in France unintentionally broke that embargo. Now he has not got any press support from Kawasaki France so he thought it was a good scoop and did his job basically. In the end they had to remove the photos. But too late anyway since the news was spreading like burning grass. The good chaps over at Superbike magazine were also a bit early, but I am sure that was because they could not be arsed to stay up until midnight (like I did) Fair enough, it's happened before and it will happen again. Enough about the world of new bikes, did you catch the MotoGP race from Motegi, Japan today? For such a boring circuit it was a great race. If Rossi had finished where he started he would have been the last rider past the chequered flag. Now he crashed in stead which has not happened often the last couple of years. I do remember his first year in the 500's and I believe he probably crashed himself away from winning his first ever 500 championship. He has won every year after that and probably will this year as well. Great to see Capirossi on the top of the podium. He would have been there even if Rossi had not crashed. Tomorrow morning I'll head down to London town to pick up the 30th Anniversary Honda Gold Wing. I will be riding my tiny Cagiva Raptor 1000 down with some CD's and my camera in the backpack . Let's see if that baby can do some miles or not. Pics will be posted here as soon as I'm back and as usual the action shots comes a bit later. You can follow how it goes here for a week. Then we've just got time for the MV Agusta Brutale 910 before I head to Paris. That's going to be the most busy day of the year. Editors, there's still time for you to arrange for photos to be uploaded directly to your server via ftp from the show. Let me know. Today's photo is of Yamaha MT 01, just to please Yamaha (and because I look like a twat on it) Tor

Looking at this photo from my test of the CBR1000RR Fireblade vs. MV Agusta F41000 S you would not believe they have both got a 1000cc engine. The RR looks twice as big from this angle. They are just as fast, the Honda is more comfortable but the MV is much more expensive. But then again you would pay more for a original Da Vinci painting than a mass produced reproduction. Not that they are both not original, it's just that touch of true art in the F41000 that makes it more valuable. Saying that I put the Blade down as the winner of the test. As a journalist you just can't judge by pure desirability and looks. CBR1000RR has got everything you need and more. You can use it every day without feeling guilty for not washing after each ride. And you can grow old with it without arthritis and other muscle pain and worn-out limb related illnesses. Official photos of  2006 CBR1000RR was released last week. My first thought was that there had not been too many updates and it was pretty much the good old Fireblade. But only a few days later it has really grown on me. It also struck me that neither Honda, Yamaha or Kawasaki has gone all out to knock the Gixxer thou down from the throne. After all it's a paper war where the highest possible specs wins isn't it? I don't know, I'd give them all a chance and next years 1000 group tests will be tougher than ever. TS

It has been Honda's week this week. The week before it was Yamaha and the week before Kawasaki. Photos of new Suzuki's has been leaked a bit here and there. You'd almost think that the big four has planned this amongst themselves. No one has stepped on each others toes except for a few broken embargos on the dealer side. There might just be a few people that wakes up one morning with a horse's head in their beds. Anyway we are in the middle of a season people both love and hate. Most of us are thrilled about the new bikes and new dreams. The biggest news from Honda was the new CBR1000RR with new sleek design and stronger engine. The biggest (literally) news for the non believers  was the new Gold Wing with airbag. It did not take long for someone to take the Mickey and the photo shows you the result of that. Very amusing and we asked Honda for comments on this optional extra. We have returned the Triumph Sprint ST ABS we kept for a week and we are soon picking up the 30th anniversary Gold Wing for a touring test. We will try to have some fun as well.

Bye' bye' old 'Blade!

Sunday 4th we went to our first car boot sale ever! We wanted to get rid of some of the junk from the recent move. It was great fun! We sold all sorts of different things. I brought two pairs of winter gloves I had hardly used and sold them for about a fiver a pair. Someone got a bargain that's for sure. I also sold a few motorcycle videos and DVD's. We might go again next month (Cricket grounds 1 mile North of Bakewell along the A6) and then I will sell the Raptors & Rockets at bargain prices only on the day. Watch this space! TS

We went to the Chatsworth show today and watched the cavalry parade in front of the great old house.

Due to various problems with hosting and additional traffic on the site I have not been able to update the blog as often as I should. Now we are hosting the site ourselves so no more messing around with obscure e-mail support and tech people that probably couldn't even ride a three wheeled bicycle. We are here for you 24/7 and the downtime has driven me halfway to insanity and blood pressure values has hit the roof. Now it is I that check the server traffic, I decide everything that has to do with anything on Raptors & Rockets. It can probably lead to more work on the tech side in the future, but for now I am happy with the situation. Stay put and you know by now that by using the F5 button on Raptors & Rockets you will get the latest news faster and better. we ride fast bikes, why should you not get fast news? TS

26/08/2005 Picked up the Triumph Sprint ST ABS today. Great ride in great weather. My test was a bit delayed due to different circumstances. One of them was that some Italian journo had left the bike up in Scotland and then they flew home! Guys, Triumph is based in the English midlands, more specific Hinckley. Hinckley is many miles south of Scotland! So Triumph had to collect the bike from a Scottish Triumph dealer which delayed my test. I was hoping for some rain during my test to check out those ABS stoppers properly. I had to make do with some gravel which wasn't to bad I am sure you will agree. The bike stops and it stops well. TS

25/08/2005 It's been raining the whole day today. Suits us quite ok keeping in mind I will be testing ABS brakes tomorrow. I am picking up the Sprint ST ABS from the Triumph factory at Hinckley tomorrow. If it rains I am welcoming it. Nothing is more fun than squeezing the brake lever really hard in the rain. I have started to plan for the Paris motorcycle show next month as well. I will be uploading photos directly from the press room to whoever wants our fresh photos that day. After R&R of course. Shortly I will introduce a special link dedicated to the Paris show to host those photos. On the home front we have been bombarded with Claire's clutter now that we have a big house to keep it in. Will I miss the flat by one of Manchester city centre canals? No not really. Buxton is an all new experience for me. It is pretty small, but still big enough to have everything we need. There's plenty of pubs, deli's and take a way's. What else do you need? My mates are only 20 or so miles away and it involves riding the Cat & Fiddle road. Buxton is good news for us indeed. I keep reading people moaning about photo shopped pictures on various motorcycle forums and it puzzles me. In most of our articles we mention that this and this photo is actually modified or based on speculation. Still there is always the one individual that has to come in and inform everyone that it is not a "real" photo. The use for us is to illustrate our information. Some of those images are great and leaves those old grey cells inside our heads something to work on. That's why we love to use them. More than 29.000 people has checked us out this month and that proves a few of us like it like it is. Well, that was enough for today. More tomorrow about Triumph Sprint ST ABS. Use that F5 button! Tor Sagen 23/08/2005 I don't like plain or ordinary. Raptors & Rockets is not supposed to be ordinary. We change colours when it suits us. We like the skin and the design of this web page to change along with our mood and temperament. Brown does not mean angry. But there is always something to get angry at for a biker. Whether it is a blind cage driver, diesel spills, bloody rain, poor workmanship that causes your engine to blow up, caught speeding, Sunday drivers, multibillion auction sites that screw you out of pure arrogance or the neighbours bloody dog barking all night long. Not all of this has happened to us, the neighbour hasn't got a barking dog. Hopefully by visiting raptorsandrockets.com you will get excited about new bikes or a nice photo. Maybe a crap one too. We are all in it together, the love for bikes and riding them. Today we have spent most of the time riding the very versatile and entertaining Pegaso 650 Strada from Aprilia. Here in the high Peaks this bike is ideal for the twisty bends and rough road tarmac. It maxes out at 113mph, but we honestly did not care about speed today. You can scratch the pegs at 40mph and power wheelie out of slow bends. No problem with the Strada. I prefer the type of bike like the Pegaso Strada and Ducati Multistrada to the Suzuki Bandits and Honda CBF's. They give me more with less so to say. Half the power but even cheaper to run and just as fun. Check your alternatives and be open minded next time you want a new bike. Maybe it's good for you to go down in cubes for a couple of years and then to go back to a thou' again. It keeps the interest vividly alive and lets you keep a bike through your ups and downs in life as well. That is how I think anyway. Tomorrows blog will probably be back to the normal spaghetti (pasta made in long strings) but once in a while something meaningful will be posted. F5. Today's photo is taken in Edale by Claire McHugh. TS 20/08/2005 Claire and I have been out on the Pegaso 650 Strada the whole day today. We have been riding in the Dark peaks around Edale and Castleton. We stopped to shoot film and some action shots in Edale. Aprilia's new Pegaso Strada is very agile on these narrow country roads and the 650cc single also suits the roads perfect. We will test the bike in Manchester and Sheffield as well to verify what we already know; the agility fits narrow roads perfect and that includes narrow streets in city centres as well. Right now a cold pint of beer is waiting for me downstairs so I am cutting the blog short here today. Enjoy the Edale pick. Tor 19/08/2005 Picked up Aprilia's Pegaso 650 Strada today. Went to Walkden (Manchester) first where Aprilia service and maintain their press fleet. No bike there. Aprilia's press boss wants us to believe he's getting old. We, however, believe there are other motives that the bike was in glorious Reddish (Stockport) in stead of Walkden. It was a great day for a little ride today. Anyway, Stockport is on my route going back to Buxton and what a entertaining little bike the Pegaso Strada is. Today's photo was taken just 30 minutes ago in the Peak District with the Cat & Fiddle pub in the background. We will be out taking more photos the whole weekend since we were a bit unlucky with both weather and time the last time we rode a Aprilia (the RSV-R). This time we have both time and weather on our side, at least for now. Tor 12/08/2005 It's good to be back! I will be updating the pages again this weekend after a one week long break waiting for the communications to be set up again here in Buxton. What a lovely place in the world Buxton is. I have been doing some riding in the mean time of course. Today's photo is from the high peaks in the middle of England not too far away from Buxton. Tor 03/08/2005 Hope you like our Yamaha M1 S that was posted yesterday. That will stay on top for a while because we're moving to Buxton. It can take up to 5 days to get everything set up again, but hopefully we are up and running again over the weekend. Today I will try to update as much as possible so that there's stuff to read in the meantime. Now all I do is pack. there's about a million pair of motorcycle boots around so I have auctioned off a couple of pairs on EBay. Our DVD is nearly sold out as well. Raptors & Rockets 2 will be launched in a few months time with all the latest bikes we have ridden. We will soon be back. TS 01/08/2006 We have gone from orange to grey. Just to keep you and me entertained since we are checking out what's new every day, aren't we? Another month gone by. Almost 2 million hits, 17.000 visitors from 92 countries. That's an average of 559 unique visitors per day. Rossi ended the month for us yesterday by winning the German MotoGP. Still the big news for Raptors & Rockets is that we are moving from Manchester to Buxton in the heart of the Peak district this week. We had a look at a house in Matlock as well, but we liked the Buxton house better. Wish us good luck because we will need it. By the end of the week I will most likely not have been able to launch all our communication systems again so it might go a bit quiet a few days. But we will be back stronger than ever with the great photo locations just outside our doors. So calling all Buxton bikers; send me an e-mail and tell me why Buxton is so good for bikers! tor.sagen@raptorsandrockets.com Just 2 miles away from the Cat & Fiddle pub, yes that's one very good reason. Tor 30/07/2005 Claire and I attended the First Bike on the Scene course in Preston today. Lancashire ambulance service has been arranging this course for a while now. It is basically first aid training for motorcyclists. The course contents is: Trauma & the mechanism of injury, Basic life support, Spinal management and very importantly removal of the crash helmet (as illustrated on the photo). I will do a full feature on this course so only brief information in the blog. All I can say is that it is well worth the Gbp45! Tor Sagen 28/07/2005 It has been pissing down with rain the whole day today. So what did I do? I rode the Cat&Fiddle road to Buxton of course. This time it was to have a look at a house we are interested in. On Sunday we will have a look at a house in Matlock as well. Anything to get closer to those nice roads. And the fact that Claire will be working in a hospital in Sheffield from this Autumn on. On Saturday we have booked ourselves in on the First bike on the scene course in Preston with Lancashire ambulance service. That should be both exciting and educational. Expect a report from me on that event. TS 25/07/2006 Weather has gone all bad on us here in the UK again. Nothing unusual, just rain and cold weather. The MotoGP at Donington this weekend was a chilly experience, but the racing was warming. It is so typical with rain races, extremely exciting to watch live because a rider is missing for each round and who's next man down, but you would never bother to watch it again. The best man won as usual on Donington. The great Valentino Rossi. I have been busy updating the pages with the latest news from the US of A. The Buell XB12X, H-D Night Rod and Victory's new Vegas Jackpot is the three bikes we most look forward to ride. But what about the Street Bob, what a name. Go Bob the builder! Stats are rising and we have 1.5 million hits at this point in July with 15.000 unique visitors from 88 different countries. It is soon time for the great sell out and you might just see some advertising soon. We have not been active at all trying to get sponsors, but now the time is soon right. We know that some of you even wants advertising so that you can check out various products you're interested in. But we hope to stay pop-up free since you probably use pop-up blockers just as we do. I finally managed to sell our 2002 Speed Triple 955i engine as well. Without EBay we would not have been able to reach our buyer so go and sell your stuff on EBay. No point having the stuff lying around if you don't use it. Today's photo is of the doomed Benelli TNT. RIP Benelli. Or will the Chinese come and rescue Benelli in similar fashion as with MG/Rover? Tor 20/07/2005 Did you ride to work today? Shame on you if you had the chance to ride and then took the cage anyway! Really, you should have been on your bike. When I used to have a "real" job nothing ever stopped me from riding to work. Important meetings, shirt and tie, I always used the bike. Yes, sometimes it rains and even the best waterproofs leaks a little bit, but that should not stop anyone from riding. that said, now we are in Donington mode again with the British Betandwin MotoGP coming up this weekend. Raptors & Rockets will be there as usual of course. The weather forecast tells us it can be a little bit of everything this weekend but 22 degrees on race day. Saturday might just see some rain. See you there! TS. Today's photo is of Triumph's great all-rounder the Daytona 955i. The fastest triple that ever existed for the roads. 19/07/2005 Raptors & Rockets has been the place for motorcycle news this month. Where could you read about the 2.4 litre Harley-Davidson EPA cock-up first? Where could you see the brand new Buell XB12X Ulysses first? And where did you first hear that Cagiva is dumping the Raptor 1000 and that MV Agusta will launch their World Superbike team this winter? All here and we have syndicated our news to Superbike magazine, MCN, MCNews Australia, Moto-online in France, Promotor in Holland, Motorinfo in Hungary, MC-avisa in Norway and Motociclismo in Italy. All top motorcycle publications that many of you read regularly. Keep doing that! Last day for the GSX-R600 today so a couple of extra pics. TS 17/07/2005 We've gone all blue this weekend and hope you don't mind! Nice with some variation in life and also WebPages I think. But don't worry, it will soon enough be red again. We have had an amazing number of visitors this month from 83 different countries and still counting. A record for R&R broken many times this month. Number of visitors rocketed two weeks ago due to our early 2006 News and we had 3195 visitors Wednesday 06th July. More and more people link up to R&R every day. We'll just keep updating with more good news and pics on the pages in the next few months. Did you see Haga today? That man was on a mission on the Yamaha R1 World Superbike. Nitro Nori did not even qualify for Superpole and then he goes and wins race 2! Amazing racing from the Japanese Yamaha Rider. Not since the R7 days has there been any glory for Yamaha in the Superbikes. With Haga mostly then as well. Sayonara! TS 14/07/2005 Been playing around with the GSX-R600 today. Carlos and I went out to take some more still photos of the Suzuki as the weather was just about perfect. We checked the power band and the radial brakes at the same time as you can see from the photos. The GSX-R is so light and nimble. It is easy to understand the GSX-R600 is number ten on the top ten registered motorcycles in the UK this year. Something so fast, but still so easy to ride. Compared to the brute power in my Raptor 1000 the GSX-R is very civilized. However as soon as those five figure revs start coming the Gixxer leaves the old streetfighter slightly behind. They are both great fun though. TS Suzuki GSX-R600 12/07/2005 Not so much about bikes today. Terrorism is what's on everyone's mind these days. Bikers can't escape either and please join us in thanking the London bikers that helped out after the London bombings. If you are not interested in the politics just check out the photos of the American Freedom cruiser with the suitable name Victory freedom twin. What is terrorism? Why are there so many answers to this question? Is it not to create terror and fear? Yes it is, but that answer is too simple to explain anything. The atomic bomb was created to terrorise. Calculated terrorism is used to achieve planned chaos. In order for the A-bomb to be used as a powerful political weapon it had to be demonstrated how powerful it actually was first. All weapons of mass destruction are designed to terrorise the enemy. In that sense terror is a highly effective political weapon mostly meant to deter. Terrorism is not about killing innocent people. Death is a by-product of terrorism. When terrorism creates terror and fear it undermines faith in the establishment. Terrorism works like a cancer from within causing unrest in the masses. Terrorism is not necessarily an expression of rage but rather a political weapon. Remove the image of government infallibility and you remove faith in it as well. Sometimes terror is a necessity. When a brutal totalitarian regime such as the Nazi's of WW2 takes control of your country. Let's say Poland or Norway. Since the occupying power was stronger than the occupied countries army, the army had to switch tactics to guerrilla warfare. Sabotaging German convoys and assets, assassinate collaborators and other commando raids. The Germans would have called those terrorist attacks. When these offensive acts were executed successfully it would increase the native people's morale. To prevent this, the Nazi's would round up sometimes 10 innocent people from the closest village or town per killed German soldier and shoot or hang them in public. The most savage and brutal type of terror used to deter people from joining the resistance and as a political weapon to turn people against the resistance people. Look at what Al Qaeda is doing in Iraq and wherever it can reach young Muslims open to the extremist view on Islam. All means are used to recruit new suicide bombers and to deter young Iraqi's from joining the war on terrorism by savage mass killings of police recruits. Before the conventional Iraqi armed forces collapsed to the coalition they made sure to build bunkers close to civilian areas and even on top of civilian bunkers louring civilians to certain death. And cowardly tactics like hiding close to hospitals and among the civilian population. All this to create a political weapon where the deaths of innocent people could be used to recruit more people to the cause. Religion is then used by the Islamist extremists to justify the terrorism. Islam is not just a religion, but also a lifestyle where the family is of high importance. So by offering cash-money and paradise to the bombers family in the name of Islam it is all justified. Jihad allows a Mus