Practical Sportsbikes

Practical Sportsbikes magazine is about buying, fixing, restoring and riding sportsbikes from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Every issue of PS – the magazine home of new-wave Japanese and Italian classics – is packed with: - The most inspiring and ingenious reader restorations - The most in-depth road tests and buyers’ guides - Unmissable workshop tips and how-to features Practical Sportsbikes gets under the skin of the bikes that really matter to our readers and explains how best to maintain, rebuild and enjoy them. So if you’re in to sportsbikes from the 1970-1990s, PS is essential reading.

Practical sportsbikes welcome

Full of joy • Well... kinda like joy, but different

Contributors this month

PS T-SHIRTS ON SALE NOW • Be like celebrated East Midlands style icon Gary Hurd in your very own Damo-designed dove grey PS T-shirt

specials we like • From way out West in Los Angeles, to Chiba in the Far East, specials galore...

It’s not what you ride, it’s how you ride it • Write a letter to The PS and if it’s Star Letter material you win a full year’s subscription to the very same. Aye

PS social club • Bikes and goings-on from our Facebook group

IN YOUR SHED

SAME AS IT EVER WAS • Low key, and subtler than its rivals of the day, some accused the CBR600F of being anodyne, dull almost. But a quick reassessment reveals the F to be as capable as ever

VENHILL POWERHOUSE BRAKE LINES AND TOOLS

BAD COMPANY • Matt Bello-Baamonde has never been put off Suzuki TL1000s by their reputation for flicking owners at the scenery. If anything, he likes them with even more attitude, as his trio of unique S and R specials shows

THEY’VE GOT HISTORY • When the Feeley brothers witnessed international Superbike racing for the first time, little did they know it would spark a family feud that rolls on – and on

SELECTOR FUNNY FRONT ENDERS • Forever the preserve of the very rich (Bimota Tesi), attention-seeking youth (Gilera CX), or the technically curious (Yamaha GTS) – are any among this weird trio worth a fresh look?

Practical sportsbikes

OVER THE HILL • Life’s never easy when you’re pushing 60 – and so it proved for this grizzled track veteran when he tried hustling Yamaha’s mad three-wheeler up Barbon Hill Climb

APRILIA RS250 • One of the finest final expressions of quarter-litre lunacy. And well worth going for – while you still can

What’s problem? • Bike not running right? Our experts have answers to the toughest questions

THE REAL LONG-TERMERS • Raced, crashed, bent, commuted on, stashed in a garden, then at long last treated to the love and care it deserved all along

LIVING WITH AN RD500LC

PROJECT ZX990 TURBO HANDS-ON APPROACH • Who needs experts? Not us. Not this month anyway. And maybe not for the next 10 years this takes to finish. Meanwhile a kustom radiator is made kurtesy of the Fengineer

360° GARAGE • He has to be one of the world’s fastest BIG blokes, but aside from that he’s busy making BMWs go quicker – and wrecking his workshop with an XR69

5 Phil’s favourite tools… • With the exception of the degree disc and burette, none of this is stuff you’d find in the average shed

HOW TO FIRE UP A RANDOM ENGINE • PS resto territory often involves breathing life into an unknown motor. First, check if it’s worth doing. Second, follow some simple rules when going about this key task

Edging ever closer to the edge • Only in the world of Project 300mph is an easy 250mph ‘slow’. There’s work to be done

Going for broke once again • After the demise of the FZ he tries again with a robust ‘modern’ four. Will the Bandit 12 survive?

Keeper (for now) • Should it stay or should it go? Old Farmer Chris thinks he’s decided....