Assen (Holland), 17 April 2015 - The first day of practice at Assen had the Team Aprilia Racing - Red Devils riders improving in leaps and bounds between the two sessions. More than one second improvement for Leon Haslam and an impressive second and a half for Jordi Torres are a symptom of the excellent job done in the garages on the Aprilia RSV4 RFs, a process that will continue today with the customary technical debriefing which should lead to more results tomorrow and in the races on Sunday.

The demanding Dutch track was unable to intimidate expert rider Leon Haslam who concentrated on the job at hand without pushing too hard, leading his mechanics in the right direction. The improvement in the two timed sessions and especially the feeling Leon had on the bike are encouraging for Superpole tomorrow and the races on Sunday.

Haslam rode his RSV4 RF to fourth place in the combined standings with his best lap stopping the clock at 1'36.48.

Leon Haslam: "We made some good progress today. I also used the softer tyre for the first time. We are working well in terms of race strategy rather than on our flying lap. There are still various things we need to work out to get past a few situations that we still need to iron out. We aren't far from the front runners and slowly but surely we're improving, so that means we are on the right path. Tomorrow I think we'll achieve our goal in terms of performance."

One of the particularities of Assen is that there are no real reference points. It is a flat track where any mistake setting up a line can penalise the rider for an entire sector. Precisely for this reason Jordi Torres, in his rookie year on the Aprilia V4 reigning world champion bike, had to adjust his braking points and adapt to the Superbike lines. This was the focus for the morning session, where Jordi put in a lot of consecutive laps precisely to get comfortable on the track, whereas in the afternoon he concentrated on the actual setup, ending the day in sixth place.

Jordi Torres: "Our biggest step today was definitely the rider. I used the first session to get my bearings. Here at Assen I had only lapped in Moto2 and I realised quickly that the braking points and the lines are completely different. In terms of the settings I think the RSV4 is already at a good level. I'm sure we can still improve but it will be up to me to make the difference. Today was a good day."

Message from Prescott Bike Festival...

A massive thank you to all our visitors who turned up in their thousands, the sun shone and we had a great day. Hopefully you were able to join us.

The website has been updated with the link to this year's official photographs and the video is being edited right now!

You can still purchase our limited edition Prescott Bike Fest T-Shirt from Oily Rag Clothing but there's only a few left.

Onwards and upwards and we're now looking forward to our very first Shelsley Bike Festival on September 13th; Run the Hill entries are already 50% sold! You can book tickets for that here.

Thank you all for your supporting 'Blood Bikes's'

It’s on again for the second time only; Compass Expeditions biggest ride - the 128-day total circumnavigation of the entire South American continent; known as the South America 360 Expedition. 

"It doesn’t get any bigger than this" says Jerry Cook, co-founder of Compass Expeditions, "last held in 2013 we are running it again after numerous requests from past and future clients" continues Jerry.

Starting and finishing in Santiago, Chile the South America 360 travels south to the southernmost city in the world of Ushuaia before the long trek north up into and beyond the Amazon Basin. Turning west we reach the legendary Colombia before then travelling the spine of the Andes all the way south to Santiago. This is a stand-alone tour when it comes to truly exploring the entire continent; the diversity of cultures, landscapes and antiquities is unparalleled in the touring world.

Compass Expeditions is one of only a handful of motorcycle tour operators from around the world, and Australia's only, that offer these major expeditions. Aside from the epic South America 360 expedition Compass Expeditions also operates the legendary London to Magadan: Road of Bones expedition; over 105 days in length and the subject of the Beyond Siberia 2 x 1 hour documentary that was recently launched at Cannes. The newest expedition (which has sold out) is the 80 day Cairo to Cape town Expedition this coming September, " all these expeditions are operated solely by us using our own support vehicles and staff" says Jerry.

For more information on the South America 360 expedition click the link 

To contact Compass Expeditions email [email protected] phone (outside Australia) +61 3 9747 2379 (within Australia) 1300 887 327 

Happy Birthday John!

Born 16th April 1972 in Morecambe, John McGuinness, the 21-times TT race winner...

The motorcycle industry contributes billions of pounds to the UK economy each year, according to a report published today. The Economic Benefits of the UK Motorcycle Industry 2014 calculates that:

· £5.3billion is generated through net annual sales, with an added value of £2billion

· The industry directly employs 58,500 people in 5,700 businesses, plus an additional 16,400 jobs through motorcycle businesses purchasing goods and services from other UK sectors

· Pays over a £billion in tax

· Exports equal around £450 million each year, up 12% in real terms since 2008

· Tourism associated with motorcycling is estimated to support an additional 13,200 jobs

The report breaks down the industry by five sectors, which include:

· Manufacturing

· Distribution and retail

· Repair, servicing and maintenance

· Sports and leisure

· Support services, which include finance and insurance

It shows that the £2billion ‘added value’ generated by the motorcycle industry is more than the following industries:

· Retailers of automotive fuels, lubricants and cooling products (£1.2billion)

· Call centres (£1.4billion)

· Performing arts (£1.5billion)

· PR and communications activities (£1.3billion)

The number of jobs supported by the industry is more than:

· Taxi driving (36,000)

· Manufactures of pharmaceuticals (50,000)

· Agriculture, forestry and fishing activities (46.000)

· Manufacture of textiles (47,000)

Social benefits:

· Saves the NHS several million pounds a year through voluntary ‘blood biker’ services, couriering life saving products

· Used by emergency services to cut through traffic

· Addresses transport poverty through Wheels to Work schemes

About the report

The report was commissioned by the Motorcycle Industry Association as an update to a similar one published in 2010. It was produced by ICF Consulting Services Ltd and brings together some key data on the economic contribution made by the industry and identifies long term trends such as increased motorcycle use. It also assesses the impact of tourism expenditure and estimates the number of jobs supported as a result (see section 5) 

The market

The report states that the motorcycle industry has ‘demonstrated resilience’, despite difficult economic conditions. Motorcycle retail and distribution was hit in line with other retail sectors during the economic downturn. Sales declined during this period, exports actually increased slightly.

After a period of bottoming out, new registrations have begun to climb. In 2014 they were up around 10%, with similar rates of growth in the first quarter of 2015.

UK Manufacturing

The report shows around 3000 people in the UK are employed in the manufacture of high quality motorcycles, components, clothing, accessories and fuel. Triumph plays a major part in contributing to these figures, but the report also highlights the contribution of a number of smaller high value high performance manufacturers including Norton, CCM and Métisse. There are also UK businesses involved in the development and manufacture of electrical and other low carbon motorcycles. These include Agility Global, which makes a high performance electric sports bike and Intelligent Energy, which is working with Suzuki to develop the first commercial fuel cell vehicle.

CEO Steve Kenward says this document should be read by all those making policy decisions about transport: “There are now nearly twice as many motorcycles licensed (and license exempt) for the road than there were 20 years ago and the general trajectory for motorcycle use is upwards. Around a third of all new registrations are for smaller motorcycles, likely to be used for commuting, and we see this as an increasing trend with motorcycles helping to tackle congestion as part of a low carbon future.

The report is available online