When we met the head of ‘MADasL’ (-get it?) Ducati Track Bike Hire, Mark Lumb, during a lovely trip to the Thundersport GB Test Day at Mallory Park and he told us about his business, we instantly thought: ‘what a bloody good idea!’

The way it works is quite simple really. If you fancy going on a track day or entering a round at club level, but you haven’t got your own bike or you don’t want to put your pride and joy on the line, just give Mark a call and he can lend you a shiny purpose-built Ducati 900SSie or 748.

Both of Mark’s Ducatis have finished in the top five of the Thundersport GB Streetfighter Class and they’re fitted with ‘standard’ exhausts, so you know that you’ll be quick but you won’t fall foul of the ever more stringent noise limits imposed on most UK race circuits nowadays.

Now we would never want to put you off from using your own bike, because there’s a certain satisfaction to be gained from racing and winning on your own machine, but consider the expense of: bike stands, generators, tyre warmers, fuel, vans or trailers for transport, servicing, repairs and countless other things to worry about and, all of a sudden, hiring a bike with all this included seems like an even better idea than we first thought. Especially as with MADasL, you just need to turn up, ride and enjoy your day!

Prices start from £250 with a fully-returnable damage deposit of £500, and remember, for that you get everything I mentioned above plus support throughout the day and maybe even a few cups of tea and coffee! MADasL will lend you a bike for most circuits in the UK, and the cost can go up or down depending on where you’re riding and if you’re eligible for a group discount.

The best way to get a really accurate price is to let Mark know exactly what you fancy doing so he can give you a quote. You can email him on 8madasl@googlemail.com or ring him on 07534 071 550 – you’d be ‘MADasL’ not to!

One of the only two hopes for Britain in this year’s MotoGP, James Ellison, has decided to put his trust in fellow Brits, Knox Armour, to protect him during his eagerly anticipated return to MotoGP on an Aprilia CRT machine this year.

As the sole rider of the UK based Paul Bird Motorsport team, James has chosen to keep it British and wear the new Knox Track vest, which comprises of a Level 2-approved back protector and chest protectors fitted into pockets at the front.

The vest uses Meryl Lycra, which is very breathable and moisture-wicking due to its raised channels and vents so, even as it heats up on track, James will be cool and fresh. And because no one likes smelly safety kit, unlike any other garment of its type, the Knox Track Vest can be unzipped, and the chest armour removed so that the vest can be washed.

The vest is designed to be stretchy, light, thin and to sit snugly even under a tight race suit, so it is perfect for the active rider, who requires a high level of comfort and movement without compromising on safety. In fact, rather than just ‘not compromising’ on safety, the Knox Track Vest actually exceeds the highest safety rating possible under current EU testing regulations.

It comes in sizes S-XXL and you can get yours from www.planet-knox.com for around £149.99.

As far as we’re concerned it’s a top piece of kit, but don’t take our word for it, this is what a certain Mr Ellison had to say: “It feels so good on, and I must admit I’m pretty impressed at how non-intrusive it is with my full race kit on” – good enough for us James!

This one piece suit is built for racing, track days and “Performance Riding” (which we take to mean riding slightly faster on the public highway than perhaps you should!). Named to pay homage to Japan’s twin ring race circuit, the Motegi leather suit has a durable and abrasion resistant full-grain leather construction, of 1.3mm full-grain leather, with Aramidic fibre stretch panels on the sides, arms, crotch and back of the knees and lightweight, contoured mesh calf panels which give a better fit and which avoid that discomfort you can get when you stuff traditional leathers into your riding boots. There’s a mesh liner to keep you cool and comfort on longer rides and Alpinestars exclusively profiled ventilated back hump is aerodynamically sculpted for superior air flow and reduced drag at high speeds.

But it’s not all about comfort. The rider protection includes advanced CE certified protectors on the elbows, shoulders and knees for impact protection, CE level 2 certified Bionic Race Back Protector, removable CE certified GP protectors in the elbows and shoulders with injection moulded shells and dual density foam padding, race-derived, CE approved GP-R knee/shin protectors feature a floating construction for a precise fit in the riding position and TPR reinforcements on the shoulder to give additional abrasion and shock resistance in that all important and very vulnerable area.

The multi-level stitching is designed so that in the event of an ‘off’, tearing is kept to a minimum, which is good to know, even if you’re not planning to crash on a regular basis!

The suggested retail price is £ 599.99

It’s available in black and white, black gold and white (pictured) and black red and white.

For stockists go to www.alpinestars.com

The guys at Triumph Race Support are no strangers to modifying Triumph Daytona 675s, so when Harvey Bowden approached them last November and asked if they could build a street-legal, race-ready Street Triple 675, owner Si Westwood was up for the challenge. He’s been working with 675s for over four years and has just become the leading technical advisor for the new Street Triple Cup Race Series.

Harvey wanted the best of everything! As Si recalls, “we put several ideas forward before he accepted our final build spec – he wanted Lexus quality and affordability.” They did, allegedly, clash on a few things, with Harvey preferring Ohlins Suspension and Si putting the case forward for K-Tech, on the grounds that their kit is every bit as good and made in the UK. TRS opt for local businesses where they can and, with Scorpion Exhausts just 6 miles away and other companies like K-Tech and Sprint Dampers nearby, that makes perfect sense.

The first items fitted to the bike were crash protection components, with products from GB Racing and Evotech Performance being top on the list. TRS try to personally test everything they sell – which is not to say Si crashes a lot, but he does have to believe in a product to sell it! Next came the newly-developed body kit with, TRS believe, the first Daytona RAM air technology to be used on the Street Triple. A new nose cone was made with large air intake and a clock bracket to completely replace the heavy stock mounts up front. This gives pressurised air straight into the airbox and is filtered through a MWR HE filter.

Underneath the bike sits a race-spec belly pan. The Triumph aftermarket belly pan was copied and made water-tight – as per the race class regs – so not only does it look good, it also does what it’s designed to do if the engine blows! At the back and also new is the single seat unit. Si explains, “we tried a Daytona one, but the different frame rails meant it wasn’t as good a fit as we needed, so it was back to the drawing board and, after many hours, the seat unit was finished. It’s a nice rounded shape which matches the Street better than the angular Daytona seat unit.”

To keep the bike street legal but too allow a quick change from road to race meant a small tail tidy had to be designed and made in-house, one which was quick and simple to change. Then came fold-up levers, braided brake hoses and very trick PFM discs with a unique design, which means the disc can be separated from the carrier in a split second. This means you only have to buy one set of discs and a second set of disc carriers to mount to your spare wheels. This keeps costs down and means the brake pads are always bedded into the disc on whichever set of wheels you are using.

Meanwhile, Scorpion were busy developing a full race exhaust system for the Street Triple. The results are a good, clean system with genuine power gains which isn’t too noisy. The TRS development bike had zero miles on the clock when it was first dyno-tested, so things were taken very gently but results were still very good.

Si uses a few different software and hardware devices to remap the bikes. Bazzaz engine management kits are a favourite, along with Tuneboy and TuneECU – free software which is used to talk direct to the ECU and make changes to fuelling and the ignition. Harvey’s bike is currently running a modified Triumph map but, when the engine has more miles on it, the plan is to spend a day on the dyno squeezing every last pony out of the bike. We hope Harvey enjoys riding it – lucky man!

Triumph Race Support: www.triumphracesupport.co.uk

The new MotoGP type starter rollers from AMR Motorsport are now available through Westcountry Windings in the UK. Made by Grand Prix chassis builder and chief engineer Alf Mossell, they carry a 12 month warranty and will take any regular car battery (not included) up to 300x180x150mm. A trailing foot switch allows for one-man operation so they are ideal for a small team, and the starters are powerful enough to start anything from classic singles to large capacity twins. The price per starter roller is £720.00 plus postage. For more details please call West Country Windings on 01279 731172 or send an email to: westco@fsmail.net.

This is a novel approach to selling your race bike – rather than stick it on eBay you can hold a raffle. That’s what the Rea Racing team is doing with this steel-framed 600cc racing machine, which started life as a road bike and became a freshly-built race bike in 2011.

The spec includes shot-blasted and power-coated frame, swing arm and wheels, new wheels, headstock and swing arm bearings, new HRC discs, Maxton forks, shock and damper, a kit loom, HRC ECU, 520 Chain and sprockets, Sharks fin, Scitsu rev counter and temperature gauge, SES rearsets, Micron full system, Ram air to K+N filter, clip ons and a race clock/fairing bracket.

The engine produces 109bhp and has been freshly painted red and black, as shown. It cost around £4000 to build and has been raced for roughly half a season, competing at Aintree, Three Sisters and Anglesey. This bike has the honour of having put its rider, Ben Rea, on the podium in every race it has started, it has set lap records and can claim to have helped Ben on his way to the Preston and District Club’s Rookie Championship.

If you are feeling lucky, you can invest in some tickets. Details of the raffle are on
www.rea-racing.co.uk. A strip of five tickets costs £10 and if you buy three strips (that’s 15 tickets) the cost is £25.

Rea Racing is planning to close raffle entries in mid-May (assuming enough tickets have been sold at that stage) and will have an independent adjudicator draw the winning ticket.

Hands up who’s bought a new part for their bike, but then been stuck in the garage for hours trying to loosen that last stubborn nut so you can get your new part on!

It’s a real pain in the arse (and hands) isn’t it! Well that could be a thing of the past with this 12-piece gearwrench set from Britool Expert.

The set contains 12 ratchet combination wrenches, starting at 8 millimetres, and going up in 1mm increments to 19, to ensure that you’ve got every base covered.

The wrenches have a high chrome finish and, more importantly, are forged in chrome vanadium steel – so they can withstand some serious pressure.

The set we’ve got isn’t particularly cheap at £133.29, but there’s no doubt over the quality, and it’s certainly true that you get what you pay for. For those of you on a bit more a budget, you can also get a 7-piece set for £95.80. For more details and to find out where to buy them check out www.britool-expert.co.uk.