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.
Welcome
OUR SINCEREST APOLOGIES • Red swingarm shouldn’t work, but it does (in this instance). Don’t make a habit of it, though. That would be wrong
ps mail • You can’t write a letter to The PS any longer. The magazine does not exist. But, did it ever? That is the question
specials we like • Your final dose of SWL from around the world. Read it and weep
IN YOUR SHED • Part way through a restoration? Just completed a trick special? Don’t send us your pics, and details because this is the last issue of PS
Bike Of The Month • Specials fans will be familiar with the Butchered Classics Facebook page. This turbo Kwak is none other than the creation of the group’s founder
GOODBYE & THANK YOU • PS is over. But here are some memories of its 13 happy years…
JIM MOORE
CHRIS NEWBIGGING • Features ed ‘11-’15, Editor ‘19- ‘23
KAT POWER • A radical, enduring factory look coupled with vast amounts of urge from the aftermarket seldom fails to make the grade. Witness...
Practical sportsbikes
BIG, OLD LUMPS OF IRON... • ...well, steel and alumium alloy, and plastic, some rubber too. Yet your Jotas, CB1100Rs and Katanas still have charm. You just need money to sample it
JOTA 120
CB1100RB/RC AND RD
GSX1000/1100S
THE ONE TO BUY NOW
ON THE BENCH • RIDE IT. BREAK IT. DUMP IT IN A BARN. LOSE INTEREST. BUY A CAR
What’s the problem? • Bike not running right? Our experts have the answers to the toughest questions
Sense of sensors
Wheel deal
OUR EXPERTS
What a bind
Fork oil figures
No hot start
What a scorcher
YAMAHA YZF-R1 4XV • Fast enough to feel modern, simple enough anyone can spanner on them
THE REAL LONG-TERMERS
BARGAINS TO BIMOTA • It’s over. The dream is shattered. The closure of PS has denied Alan his one shot at experiencing long-term Italian exotica ownership. Such is life
GREAT BRITISH GARAGES
ON OUR BENCH • Old Farmer Chris and his agricultural implement, Gary Hurd and his vain attempt to get Alan ‘into the nines’ on an old Suzuki, MG and never-ready Bandit 12, plus an embittered old man and his Yam R7 minitwin
All in the head. And the mind • G and Al prep a cylinder head to take them into the nines. Will they get there? We’ll never know
Won’t be long now... sit tight... • Just when you thought the Bandit might be completed, the magazine finishes instead. Oh...
Waiting for the mad onslaught • Nothing happens, nothing’s ready, and then the insane panic kicks off for the season opener
PROJECT HUNTER