More or less in line with the normal product evolution for the iPhone, Apple had recently released its iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S

As you can see, the form factor’s not really changed too much: the volume controls have been shifted a little downwards but other than that, it’s more or less the same size (I’ve not got the micrometer out to check).

What has changed is the processor and it does feel much snappier, a feeling borne out by the benchmarking on CNET UK’s iPhone 4S Review.

The camera is supposed to be much improved with a few new gizmos: we’ll see.

The killer app or at least the headliner is Siri: a more intelligent voice recognition and command app. At first, it looked as though this was somehow missing and I initially thought that the way I’d set it up (see below) was to blame. It wasn’t: it just needed enabling in the phone’s settings. First impressions were good, but other than the novelty factor I won’t be using it at the office, for instance, though I see it really being of use to me when I’m in the car and a text message comes through: Siri can read it out and send a dictated reply. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s done through my Mazda RX-8′s Bluetooth sound system or the iPhone’s loudspeaker.

Setting it all up was something I thought would be a nightmare, but I followed Apple’s instructions, backing up my ‘old’ iPhone 4 and then when setting up the iPhone 4S, restored from that backup. I just needed to enter all my passwords again – good security touch that – and then sync the songs, films and photos, etc. One last step was to reorder all my Apps the way I like them and resync and I was there. A couple of hours tops.

What took longer was the download of the IOS 5.0.1 update, but that was a necessary evil. I left that downloading whilst I went out for the evening and when I got back I did a quick update and was there.

So was upgrading worth it? For me, yes: I now have the ‘old’ iPhone 4 working for my photography side and everything sync’d with the iCloud. I was running out of space on my iPhone 4 32GB and so the increased storage – I went for the 64GB version – is welcome, even though you only get around 58GB available for some reason. The feeling of a speedier interface is nice too. There’s not so much of the wow! factor I got from moving from IOS 4 to IOS 5, though, but it is a nicer phone overall.

What next? Well what can they do with the iPhone 5? It can’t get smaller or screen size will be reduced. If it’s thinner, it would surely be easier to break as it became a wafer in your pocket. Maybe they’ll just cram more features and storage and speed into it?

As for battery life, I discovered this little tip:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/29/iphone-4s-battery-location-services-bug

Worth reading and acting on? We’ll see. I like the way the time zone is updated when you’re abroad, but I suspect that’s overridden anyway with your cellular provider – Vodafone seems particularly dodgy in this regard from my experience.

We ended up at Halfords and after looking at a few bikes, I settled on the Carrera Kraken 09 20″. Carrera pushbikes are – as far as I know – only sold through Halfords who use their purchasing clout to bring a relatively high specification bike to market at a lower price point than you would otherwise expect. Its specification is as follows:

• Alloy Rims: Yes
• Approximate Weight (KG): 13.64
• Brake Type: Hydraulic Disc
• Chainset: Truvativ Isoflow with Power Spline BB
• Exact Frame Size: 20″
• Fork Lock-out : Yes
• Fork travel: 120mm
• Forks: Suntour XCR 120mm Travel
• Forks – Adjustable damping : Yes
• Frame Colour: Grey
• Frame Material: Aluminium
• Frame Size: 20+
• Frame-: 7005 Aluminium
• Front Brake: Tektro Auriga Comp hydraulic disc brakes
• Front Mech: SRAM X5
• Gear Shifters: SRAM X5 27 Speed Trigger
• Gender: Mens
• Handle Bars: Kalloy Alloy 31.8MM
• Headset: Semi Integrated
• Hubs: Fomula Alloy Black
• Number of Gears: 27
• Pedals: Wellgo Alloy Black
• Quick Release Wheels: Yes
• Rear Brake: Tektro Auriga Comp hydraulic disc
• Rear Mech: SRAM X5
• Rims: Double Wall Alloy
• Saddle: Carrera
• Seatpost: Kalloy Alloy 31.6MM
• Stem: Kalloy Alloy 31.8MM
• Suspension: Front
• Tyre size: 26 x 2.3
• Tyres: Continental Speed King
• Wheel size: 26

Carrera Kraken 09 20"

Not at all bad.

Pricing was (I thought) good: on offer in-store at Grimsby at £400 which was £50 off their previously advertised prices. Ordered and paid for and collected yesterday but not tested yet: that test will follow, especially in view of what happened next…

Having already decided to get a pushbike for London – my base during the week – I started looking at Decathlon’s stock of similar spec’d bikes and found them to be more expensive: price matching produced a heavier bike with cable-operated brakes, for instance.

So I looked at Halfords’ website and was horrified to see that the Carrera Kraken was being advertised at 20% off for web sales even though you could collect in store! Another order placed and I went to collect it at £320 (boxed) from Halfords’ Old Kent Road store. The assistant failed to locate a boxed one as it seems that their stock was assembled and on show. The bikes hadn’t been fully built or safety checked so I have arranged to pick it up this evening.

Thule 970 Xpress

Thule 970 Xpress Folded

As the bike will be fully assembled, shoving it inside my Mazda RX-8 R3 isn’t now going to be an option. I had ordered a Thule 970 Express from Wiggle (at £54 delivered) but they hadn’t processed the order after a day, so thinking this might happen, I had cancelled the order before going to Halfords. They had some in stock (at £60) so I bought one. It fits to the demountable towbar in just a minute or so and folds flat when not needed but I do find the fact that the whole shebang is effectively hanging off one support only a little disconcerting.

In the end, the combination of the time of day, the occasional spray and muck left over from gritting (even though it hadn’t been icy) and the way I drive meant it took 2½ hours.

The routes themselves were almost identical, the only difference being the route in or around Grantham.

And the other differences were:

1. the Garmin had the speed camera database to warn me of “accident blackspots”;
2. as the Nokia was on the cradle and connected to the car kit, every spoken direction muted the radio which is a tad annoying when the voice prompts get a little frantic; and
3. the Nokia’s display also shows the current speed (good) and the time left rather than the ETA (bad).

Looks like there’s still no ideal solution for me, but the Saga-driver Nokia is closest as it’s so nicely contained within the phone.

The USB connector is also the port for charging the unit on the move and unfortunately the connector is only located by four tiny soldered points and as it’s plugged in when in the car and then out to remove it for security and then plugged in to update the Points of Interest (speed camera locations, for example), etc. (repeat ad infinitum).

The trouble with that is that – as in my case – the connector eventually gives way as it did for me on 2nd September and the unit cannot then be updated or charged, so I ended up spending a fortune on batteries on a recent round trip to Scotland.

It’s a real pity as the unit was fabulous.

Right at the very bottom of the posts, it does say “Original post by RHM and software by Elliott Back” but that merely makes them appear to be articles by different writers for the motorcycle-tech blog website which, of course, they’re not. Presumably it’s being done to scam advertising revenue or some other such scheme?

We’re taking action against the webhosts at the moment with a view to having the website taken down.

I started attending a couple of years ago as an antidote to the winter blues and sourced leather race suits and sticky tyres, etc. at around the same sort of time as the show was evolving into a London motorcycle show, if you see what I mean.

For some reason unknown to me, MCN has decided for this year to move it to the new ExCel centre on the Isle of Dogs and SuperBike’s publishers decided it might be good to arrange an alternative event the week before at the Ally Pally – maybe as a spoiler? Who knows?

Even before I looked at the hideously expensive parking fees at the MSN show venue (free at the Ally Pally), I’d decided to ‘do’ the Ally Pally show as usual.

So I arrived with a mate and his son at 10.15am today (Saturday, 27th), having unfortunately missed out on the buy-one-get-one-free ticket offer to SuperBike subscribers, paid my £12 and in I went, walking past the SuperBike subscription desk where they were offering the free fleeces they’d omitted from the NEC show (which was a bit of a pisser, frankly).

Once inside, there was more room to move around than usual because there were fewer stands present, presumably because the Ally Pally show was only running for three days and the MCN show would have been getting much more exposure.

Also evident was the amount of ‘totty’ wearing skimpy SuperBike bikinis. Funny how not so many years ago, the suggestion that scantily-clad women would be at these bike shows would have been shot down in flames as sexist and un-PC when instead, as I said to Michael, these girls would probably be making some good money just by being there and smiling for photographs.

We decided to go and watch the stunt show at 12.30pm which unfortunately wasn’t what I would call a stunt show with roadbikes but was instead a pair of guys on GasGas trials bikes doing some pretty amazing things. So all in all, not too bad then!

The best stand placement of the day would have to be putting “the Mad Count” (featuring DVDs of people stunting on the roads in London) right next to the London BikeSafe (i.e. police) stand.

So overall it was OK, but not quite as good as last year. Will I go again next year? Of course! Michael’s going to the MCN show next week for a comparison, but unless it’s pretty special, SuperBike could know that “if we build it, they will come.”

I hadn’t taken my camera as none of the big manufacturers were there but I was forced to take some snaps with my phone. Click on the thumbnails for larger sizes.

The Thursday was Trade Day which is the day when the photographers, journalists and all the industry bods attend – looking slightly out of place in suits and ties – and Joe Public is grudgingly allowed along (having paid more for the privilege than on the rest of the main show days).

The benefit of attending on Trade Day for Joe Public is that you have far more room to move around and there are far fewer other visitors crowding the exhibits.

Kawasaki were showing off their updated Z1000: the good points are the radial-mounted calipers and the better engine covers, but the bad points are the hideously bloated silencers – presumably to meet Euro 3 emissions regulations – and the awful side fairings which house the flush-mounted indicators. Kawasaki also had their ZZR1400-based uber-tourer, the GTR1400, which also has an over-long and bulky silencer. Kawsaki also had a ZRX1200R on their stand but frankly it looked exactly the same as the 2005 model … and probably was!

Suzuki were also showing what damage they could do with over-long and bulky silencers with their B-King – previously a concept that looked brutal, the final version has a J-Lo fat-arsed looked about it that makes it pig-ugly. Triumph, with their Daytona 675, can clearly get it spot-on: the Japanese could do what they did so well 30 years ago and learn a lesson from the Brits again.

Apart from that – or maybe including that – it was a pretty lacklustre show apart from one thing: the arrival of the Chinese! How does a 650 V-twin sports bike for £4,000 sound? Exactly! Quite what they’ll be like to ride and what the quality is like remains to be seen, but it was an eye-opener. The supermoto-stylee one in the photo was also impressive, ticking most of the right boxes.

And finally a small whinge for the SuperBike stand: I renewed my sub as usual but no fleece tops this year.

Lawks! It’s tiny: see the photo of it next to my Nokia 6230i for comparison.

It comes with the UK maps preloaded onto a teeny 128MB Transflash data card, a cigarette lighter 24V/12V power lead (it runs on 2x AA batteries otherwise), a USB cable and drivers CD, suction mount, dashboard mount (for the suction mount to fix to) and instruction booklet.

I had it working in under five minutes in my Ford Mondeo ST200 despite the heated windscreen elements (which can make things more difficult for the GPS, making it want an external antenna in some cases).

It took just a few seconds to set my home address and calculate a route home which it then reclaculated every time I deviated from it. The unit gives quite loud instructions and turn information and the volume can be altered or turned off. I used the “3D” view but there are two top-down views of the routing too and brightness, etc. can also be altered.

When I got home, I updated it for speed cameras, etc. The USB cable is used for modifying the maps and adding points of interest, such as speed camera locations which I downloaded from PocketGPSWorld and added to the unit in a few seconds using the downloadable Garmin POI Loader software.

As for on-bike use, the i3 is not marketed as a bike unit – it’s not rugged or waterproof but is claimed to be sunlight-readable which is handy. It fits in neatly-ish between and in front of the clocks using the sucker mount, but I’ll have to see if I can get a sturdier bar mount or something similar.

For an on-bike test, I wired up an accessory socket to the Kawasaki ZRX1200R and used the supplied cigarette lighter adaptor, running the cable from the accessory socket under the seat, under the tank and behind the clocks to the i3.

I then went for a ‘spirited’ ride to test it properly. In Map View mode, the i3 displayed the location map (with different levels of detail dependent apparently upon speed), the next junction at the top of the unit, the direction in the small box to the bottom right and – usefully – the current speed in the bottom left hand box. Even in direct sunlight, the screen was readable: I have a black visor too. I didn’t try it with the voice prompts (although there are two web sites with instructions on how to wire up a headphone socket and headphone) but found it easy enough to see the screen and the speed camera warnings.

The unit can show the planned route on a turn-by-turn basis, but on the downside, you can’t program any stops into your route or make it route via a certain road or town.

So, would I recommend it? Yes. Where can you buy one? That depends: there are a lot on eBay although prices of new ones remain high. Comet sell them too – I got mine there thanks to a discount I get – or you can buy one through my Amazon shop.

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/rpmrevipermon-21

Launch Test: Bridgestone BT-002 Racing Street Tyres

It appears that, despite being sold alongside the BT-012SS and the BT-014, the BT-002 is actually going to replace the 012SS. I’m on my third BT-012SS at the rear and my second on the front and I really like them. SuperBike say that you might associate a loss of confidence with the BT-012SS. I’ve never had any confidence issues with the 012SS – hence the repeat purchases – but SuperBike reckon the BT-002 might be a good, predicatble tyre for trackdays. Mind you, at £200 a pair they’d better be good: my last set of BT-012SS cost me £150.

Racedays Masterclass

I’ve never done a masterclass or track school: I am one of the ‘Officers’ of trackday organisers the Motorcycle Folly, though, and our Chief Instructor is Mike Edwards from the Mist Suzuki Superstock 600 racing team … and there he is with his riders in the photos! So if Mike thinks his team can benefit from a masterclass with Jeremy McWilliams then it’s a fair certainty that your average trackday rider could benefit hugely.

“The Three Peaks” – Yamaha FZ1 Fazer -v- Honda CBF1000 -v- Suzuki SV1000S

The FZ1 is the latest incarnation of Yamaha’s… er… well, it’s not a Retro, it’s not a naked bike… maybe a musclebike? Hmm. Anyway, they’ve taken their R1-with-high-bars and restyled it so it looks like a dog’s dinner. There’s some sort of oil drum srapped to the side where the silencer should be… That is one ugly bike.

The CBF1000 is a Fireblade with sensible bodywork. Again, it’s been hit with the ugly stick. If they can make the CB1300 look good, why does Honda fail so miserably with the CBF1000?

The third bike is the SV1000S which looks long and mean and like Cinderella next to the ugly sisters.

For some bizarre reason, SuperBike like the FZ1′s styling.

Prices? The FZ1 is £7,599, the SV1000S £6,049 and the CBF1000 is £5,999. Yes, the most ugly bike here is £1,500 more than the others. Put another way, it’s 25% more than the others. What are Yamaha thinking?

SuperBike plump for the FZ1 as the test’s winner, despite:

“…the broad spread of power is gone, replaced by a peakier, more abrupt motor, the loss of the sofa seat and a limited tank range … the limitations put on the bike by the chassis design.”

All that, plus 25% more cash.

“Workshop: 17 Under the Seat Essentials”

SuperBike looks at some nifty things to stash under your seat, space permitting. They say:

“Some bikes have a bigger storage space than others. The original FireBlade … [has] an amazingly capacious space under a key-operated flip up pillion seat. It doesn’t get much better than that…”

Excuse me?

This is what I keep in the space under the saddle. Headlight bulb, sidestand pucks, cards, waterproof trousers, rucksack, bungee cord and a road atlas. There’s also a torch sloshing around in that canister under the (aftermarket) seat.

  
 And this is in the container under the rear of the seat.

It’s a multi-tool, Wee Willy visor cleaner kit, pouch with pad, pen, etc., tie-down, cable lock, tape, disc lock and the OEM toolkit.

It doesn’t get much better than that…

The July 2006 issue also featured the launch test of the Kawasaki ZZR1400, but I’ll comment on that later, as there’s a full test in a later issue.