APRIL 2002

22/04/02 : Went to the Streetfighters performance bike show at Sheffield on saturday, once again some wicked bikes were on display along with the ladies, a gallery of these (bikes that is) will appear shortly. News just in, Swedish importer of Italjet Hojladan have now updated their site in English. Hojladan are not only a dealer, they also race and build several project scoots every year, right now they have four very cool projects in their shop having their finishing touches done for the summer season. More news on these bikes to follow... Meanwhile Italjet UK tell me they are about to pick up the new Blue Flame exhaust this week and it should be available to purchase within 6 to 8 weeks. Italjet haven't yet dyno tested the pipe but I'm told it is noisy (now that's what we wanna hear)! More news as and when it arrives...

15/04/02 : OEM (Obering Engineering) produce some very finely crafted products indeed and these include precision footpegs, bar end wieghts, key fobs and tax disc holders. The good news is after I recently enquired with OEM about their footpegs, they kindly agreed to make some for the Dragster. OEM are currently prototyping the footpegs and they'll be made from billet aluminium, CNC machined and available in various anodised colours. Basically you won't find a better looking footpeg anywhere, more news on the pegs soon...
 
Those of you who went to '020' the London Motorcycle & Scooter Show last month will have noticed Italjet's latest race replica, 'Monster Mob'. Italjet teamed up with the Monster Mob superbike squad to produce this bike, style wise it sports a Monster Mob racing livery in red/white/black, a black frame and black wheels. The difference with this race rep is it's a 125cc as opposed to the usual 50 which seems to be the norm with race replica's these days.
 
Pipe dreams... It's been some time now since we heard rumours about Italjet's exhaust which Janspeed were originally going to produce, exhaust manufacturers Blue Flame have since been assigned to the project and by all accounts Italjet are now happy for the final model to go into production. Pictures and performance figures to follow...
 
UPDATE: Dragster Gallery Collection 17 now on-line.

11/04/02 : Of interest to you if reside in the US or can make it to this event; Amerivespa which takes place in Portland, Oregon between 30 May and 02 June. By pre-registering I'm told you get a whole host have goodies (t-shirt, rally patch, rally pin, meal tickets, raffle tickets plus a limited edition Amerivespa/Shag girl flask). Not bad for $30, separately it would cost you $65. Head on over to www.amerivespa.org to pre-register.

04/04/02 : Now you can join the MALOSSI VILLAGE - so what is it exactly? The MALOSSI VILLAGE is an official Malossi club and everyone can become a member. The following details were sent in by Paolo Di Lorenzo in Belgium:
 
BECOME A MEMBER OF THE MALOSSI VILLAGE AND RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE MALOSSI MERCHANDISE:
 
For only €45 a year you will receive a membership card and the following exclusive MALOSSI gear:
 

a MALOSSI key-ring (value €3,84)

a MALOSSI t-Shirt (value €31,07)

a MALOSSI embroidered cap (value €12,15)

10 MALOSSI stickers (value €6,20)
 

Furthermore, as a member you will receive free, every quarter, the MALOSSI NEWS to keep you well-informed about Malossi events and activities. Members will be sent invitations for events organised by X-RACE. Become a member and you'll also get the chance to win a weekend break in Paris or Rome (full details upon membership).
 
HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER: Simply print-out this form (Microsoft Word document), fill in the details, then send it off along with a recent photo to the address shown on the form. Payment must be made by bank transfer. If you have any questions or queries, you can email Paolo Di Lorenzo and he will do his best to answer them.

02/04/02 : The sprinting season kicked-off this Easter at York Dragway with the first round of the Streetfighters Straightliners series which took place on Sunday (31/03/02). Team-100-mph-Lambretta were there (of course) and Stuart Owen's first run of the day gave him his best time to date on this particular strip with 13.13 seconds @ 100 mph. Scotty's new engine barrel also gave marked improvements over previous performance, Scotty's best time for the day: 13.41 @ 98 mph. I have to mention though Richard Haywood who hails from Wakefield, 16.76 @ 73 mph was his first and quickest run of day (and indeed the first time he's run his Dragster up the strip). Since Richard's a bit of a stunt wiz too, his quarter-mile wheelies went down well with the crowd and his first wheelie run of the day clocked in at 20.07 @ 69 mph, a few pictures of Rich's stunt antics can be found in the Gallery, this man's a star!
 
If you're interested in a bit of sprinting action, the next round of Straightliners takes place at Elvington on the 14th of April. For a full list of race events, check out the Racing Calendar.
 
UPDATE: Dragster Gallery Collection 16 is now on-line. More to come!