The Institute of Advanced Motorists' (IAM) response to the news that there were 127 deaths on London's roads in 2014, 27 of which were motorcyclists, last year is as follows:

IAM's director of policy and research Neil Greig said: "Motorcycling is gaining in popularity in the capital where it offers an excellent solution to London's congestion problems, but it is worrying that deaths are on the increase. Drivers are clearly learning to look out for pedestrians and cyclists but the vulnerability of motorcyclists is often forgotten. As well as biker awareness campaigns for all road users the IAM would like to see easy access to extra training for those taking up urban commuting for the first time."

www.iam.org.uk

Kawasaki rider James Hillier is looking to claim the fastest speed ever recorded for a motorcycle on closed roads at the Isle of Man TT after registering over 206 mph on his Strava GPS app on the famous Sulby straight riding a Ninja H2R in a parade lap.

The Quattro Plant Kawasaki rider declared himself nervous but excited at the prospect of guiding the closed-course-only Ninja H2R around the 37 ¾ mile circuit complete with its integrated supercharger and 300+ horsepower.

With the TT organisers wisely allowing him his own time slot as part of an afternoon of parade laps, the 30-year-old Ringwood, Hants rider adjusted the on-board-camera-equipped bike to his needs using the unique adjustable side sections of the seat to locate him during intense acceleration. His crew for the TT event also adjusted the suspension to cope with the array of different road surfaces he would encounter across a lap of the World's most famous pure roads course.

Ushered to the TT start line, Hillier's crew removed the tyre warmers and the TT winner accelerated down Bray Hill in an unsilenced cacophony that impressed even the hardiest TT fan. And with instructions to enjoy himself aboard the exclusive machine, Hillier spent little time waving and the majority of his unique lap hard on the gas in what he termed as a once in a lifetime experience.

"That was insane, simply insane", a clearly shocked Hillier declared to Manx Radio as the tyre burnout smoke cleared in the TT winners enclosure at the conclusion of the lap. "The first four gears are just over in a flash and the acceleration is mental.

It was fast everywhere and over the mountain, well, it was simply incredible. I had my cycling app Strava switched on for the whole lap and down Sulby straight I gave it full gas in top gear and it topped out at over 206mph.Wow!"

The Ninja H2R along with invited Ninja and Ninja H2R owners makes an appearance next at the World of Kawasaki event at Rockingham Speedway on 28 June.

Lisa and Jason from Two Wheeled Nomad, inspired by their years of living on the road, have put together a list on what they believe makes you a proper ‘adventure-rider’! WARNING -  contains funny stuff...

You’re a real moto-traveller if:

• When you’ve ran out of toilet roll, it’s goodbye socks.
• The 80 mile tow back.
• Your reaction to cold showers is “Oooh, the water pressure’s good!”
• You’re always on the scrounge for plastic bags and get excited about those ones with strong handles. And Zip-lock bags are the future; they rock your world. (A wild criterion, we know)
• Sourcing a truck for your broken bike when marooned on the roadside just becomes a routine formality.
• Getting blown off the road in gusting winds, missing a wild animal racing across your path by a hair’s breadth at 50mph and negotiating 75 gravel hairpin bends in the space of eight hours, is just a normal day.
• You’ve experienced enough coffee, milk and boxed wine explosions inside your pannier so you’ll ride no distance without brown parcel tape or an equivalent.
• You’ve been towed bike-to-bike at least once.
• There’s no length to which you won’t go in order to smuggle your ‘five a day’ fruity lovelies across a country’s border.
• You’ve mastered the ‘Survival’ level in a foreign language; precisely enough to ask for what you need but not enough to understand the response.
• Keeping schtum, playing dumb or even ‘not quite there’ in front of a fake cop has become the norm to prevent these time-stealers hindering your riding day.
• Like in the film Avatar, you fuse naturally with your motorcycle like a mythical Greek creature; half man, half moto.
• You love your wheels like a person, sometimes more than your peachy partner.
• When your ‘marvellous other’ informs you that your moto-trousers reek of ‘crotch’, you casually dismiss it but wonder why that just doesn’t bother you.
• Rocking up to a civilised establishment like a cafe, with a face smeared in dirt doesn’t compel you to seek soap and water first. You place your food order with the ‘afternoon shadow’ and then locate the toilets.
• You are convinced that you’re the cat with 99 lives having been saved from yourself by your moto-angel more times that you’ve had hot dinners.
• When your instinctive reaction to crashing is, ‘Bloody hell, I hope my bike’s okay and still rideable’ before checking for personal injuries.
• Outrageous flirting has become a highly entertaining pastime, even if it means you’re only saving a resultant $3 USD off your room.
• You’re (as a woman) prepared to display all levels of feminine charms—like wildly waving your hair around and over-the-top giggling—knowing they’ll often work wonders as distraction techniques with male traffic police insistent on seeing your full complement of papers.
• You can summon real tears in erupting a mini thunder storm on your face so as to rapidly retrieve your parcel of moto-parts from the clerk in foreign customs.
• You’d rather sleep rough next to your motorcycle than take a comfy bed and leave your wheels unsupervised on the street.   
• Better still, you’d rather park your wheels in your room for the night.
• Flashing your blindingly white backside while crouched near a busy motorway is something you’ve become increasingly comfortable with when nature calls.
• You’ve dined on pasta with jam or rice coated in mustard at least twice.
• You consider home as anywhere you kick the side-stand down.

The 80 mile tow back!

 See the full article on their website, with lots of great photographs and sign up for regular newsletters.

Ben and Tom Birchall took their second win of the 2015 Isle of Man TT Races, fuelled by Monster Energy, when they took a record breaking victory in Wednesday afternoon's Sure Sidecar race 2. Winning in a new race record time, they defeated Dave Molyneux/Ben Binns by seven seconds with John Holden/Dan Sayle coming home in third. Molyneux and Binns had the consolation of claiming a new lap record with a final lap speed of 116.785.

The Birchalls grabbed the lead from the outset, leading Holden/Sayle by two seconds at Glen Helen with Molyneux/Binns a further two seconds back. Tim Reeves/Patrick Farrance were only 1.5s behind in fourth as Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott and Ian and Carl Bell completed the top six.

With glorious conditions all round the Mountain Course, the Birchalls lead was up to 2.5s at Ramsey with the top three still the same but Reeves/Farrance were reported as having retired at Glen Auldyn on the approach to the northern town.

An opening lap of 115.549mph gave the Birchalls a 3.4s lead of Molyneux/Binns with Holden/Sayle still in third. Reeves' retirement promoted Harrison/Aylott up to fourth with the Bells now fifth and Gary Bryan/Jamie Winn. However, the latter pulled in to the pits to retire with Winn having lost his visor over the Mountain.

It was clear the race was going to be a record-breaking one with all three leading crews setting 116mph laps second time around, the Birchalls only two seconds outside Crowe's 2007 lap record. Their lead now stood at 7.6s with Holden only 3.7s adrift in third. Harrison and Bell remained in fourth and fifth as Matt Dix/Shaun parker moved up to sixth.

The Birchalls and Molyneux practically matched each other the whole way round the lap, the gap between the two hovering around the seven second mark and as they came along Glencrutchery Road for the final time, it was the Birchalls who got it, their third TT win in total, by seven seconds also breaking their two day old race record.

They broke Crowe's lap record with a speed of 116.783 but Molyneux was a fraction quicker at 116.785 and reclaimed the record he'd last held in 2006. Holden/Sayle came home in third for their second podium of the week.

Harrison/Aylott and the Bells had relatively lonely drives into fourth and fifth respectively as Dix/Parker secured their best ever TT position in sixth also posting their best ever 110mph lap.

Wayne Lockey/Mark Sayers, Steve Ramsden/Matty Ramsden, Rob Handcock/Aki Alto and Tony Baker/Fiona Baker-Milligan completed the top ten.

John McGuinness broke his own SES TT Zero record in today's Isle of Man TT Races with his teammate Bruce Anstey again following him home, as he did last year. Anstey was also inside McGuinnesses old lap record for the electric bike class.

John McGuinness was first away from the line but by Glen Helen Anstey had actually moved into the lead on timing, albeit with only a second separating the Mugen pair who had already established a 17 second lead over third placed Lee Johnson with his Victory Parker Racing teammate Guy Martin in fourth a further nine seconds back. Martin was a late replacement for William Dunlop who was injured earlier in the week during qualifying.

McGuinness had moved into the lead by the next timing point at Ballaugh Bridge with a lead of over two seconds from Anstey with the Team Mugen pair establishing a healthy lead at the front of the field. Johnson and Martin continued their challenge for the final podium spot with the Northern Ireleand rider establishing a lead of over 10 seconds from Martin at Ballaugh.

Robert Wilson consolidated fifth place for Belgium's team Sarolea Racing while James Cowton (Brunel University) and Michael Sweeney (University of Nottingham) were going head to head in sixth and seventh for the honour of finishing the first university.

At the front of the field McGuinness was being made to work for the race win by Anstey with the gap closing to less than three seconds but the Morecambe Missile held on to win with a new lap record of 119.279mph (18:58.743) from Anstey (118.857/19:02.785) with Lee Johnston taking third for Victory/Parker Racing with 111.620mph - 20:16.881. Guy Martin (109.717/ 20:37.987), Robert Wilson (106.510/21:15.256) completed the top five with Michael Sweeney (73.156/30:56.695) taking the University honours for Nottingham.