IN
THE
WIND
P30
REA TO RUN
NUMBER 1
I
t seems strange this is even news
these days, but with the torrent of
riders choosing not to display the
champion's number, we thought we'd mention
Jonathan Rea will be running the number one
plate in this year's World Superbike Championship
(WorldSBK).
Rea took to Twitter at the end of last year, ask-
ing fans across the world, "So the big question for
me in 2016, should I run my championship num-
ber or keep 65?" However, with the WorldSBK
entry lists being recently published, the Northern
Irishman has decided to go with the World Cham-
pion's traditional number on his factory Kawasaki
ZX-10R.
In recent times WorldSBK has seen its cham-
pions wear the number-one plate (Tom Sykes,
Sylvain Guintoli, Max Biaggi), but in MotoGP, only
Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner, and Jorge Lorenzo
have worn the number one plate since 2001,
when Kenny Roberts Jr. wore it for Suzuki. Marc
Marquez mentioned he never wanted to run the
number-one plate as he believed it brought bad
luck, and Valentino Rossi has famously never
worn the number one.
But we're old school here at Cycle News, and
are pleased to see the number one will be on at
least one big bike this year after Jorge Lorenzo
will be using his traditional 99 in MotoGP. CN
Number one
it is for Rea
in 2016. Can
he be the first
WorldSBK
rider in years
to defend the
title with it?
YAMAHA SC_07 GASOLINE CUSTOM
SERIOUSLY ROCKS
Y
amaha's Yard Build series
has yielded yet another seri-
ously badass custom machine,
this one coming from Portu-
guese duo Alexandre Santos
and Osvaldo Coutinho of the
oddly titled "it roCks!bikes."
What you see before you
started out as a standard Ya-
maha VMAX, crafted to look a
bit old-school dragster with a
touch of café racer. Aside from
the obvious bodywork transplant
that now includes a monocoque
seat/dummy tank design, the
real fuel tank has been moved
under the seat and
the bike blinged
up with lots of LSL,
Rizoma and Motoga-
dget accessories.
The drag-bike look
is emphasized by
the massive Mickey
Thompson rear slick
tire.
The build, painted
in the iconic speed
block yellow and
black color scheme,
was created to celebrate the
60
th
anniversary of the VMAX
and the 60
th
anniversary of Ya-
maha Motor Company. CN
Hard to believe this
thing started life as a
Yamaha VMAX!
