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SYM has just launched the updated version of its Maxsym 400 maxi-scooter in China.

While updates usually refer to the manufacturer doing slight changes to the motorcycle, SYM has completely redesigned the scooter.

Hence, SYM refers to the Maxsym 400 as an all-new scooter, replacing the previous model, which is undoubtedly lacking in styling and performance.

SYM claimed that the scooter had been fitted with a lighter chassis, resulting in an impressive 18.5 per cent weight reduction.

SYM R&D centre also rearranged the engine position, battery, and water tank, to increased handling flexibility.

The revised model also get a set of a telescopic fork at the front and standard pre-load adjustable rear shock, including a keyless ignition system, adjustable windscreen and traction control.

The Maxsym 400 is now powered by a 399cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, single-cylinder engine (Euro 5 compliance) capable in producing 34hp @ 6,750rpm and 39.5Nm @ 5,250rpm.

It was one of the most thrilling Moto3 race over the last few years, which saw 16-year-old KTM Ajo rider, Pedro Costa won his maiden victory in Qatar last Sunday.

However, the race was stained by a fight between John McPhee and Jeremy Alcoba.

The Petronas Sprinta and Gresini rider were a part of the lead group in Sunday thrilling encounter at Losail before they both involved in an accident at Turn 1 at the start of Lap 15.

Alcoba ran into Darryn Binder rear tyre and crashed out before the bike flicked and hit McPhee’s head and took out the rider from his machine.

McPhee, who endured the same fate a week before, lashed out at Alcoba in the gravel trap and managed to land a kick, with the latter also retaliated.

McPhee later issued an apology for the incident.

“I let my emotions get the better of me in Qatar, having been taken down for the second week in succession as a consequence of another rider’s mistake.

“I must apologise for my conduct – I didn’t react well to the incident.

“It is an adrenaline-fuelled sport, with obvious inherent danger; having a competitor’s bike strike my head triggered an out-of-character response, and I’d like to apologise to the fans, my team, Petronas and our partners.

“I accept the penalty and will move onto Portimao focused on the task at hand,” he explained.

Both of the riders were hit with EUR1000 fines for their behaviour and will start the Portuguese GP from the pitlane.

Alcoba will start 5s after the rest of the pack while McPhee is forced to wait for 10s before setting off.

Jorge Lorenzo always knows his way with words and never shy to drop a bombshell involving current and past MotoGP team and rider.

As a three-time MotoGP world champion, he has the right to express his opinions on the race’s important aspect.

In order to voice out his opinion louder, the former Yamaha, Ducati and Honda rider decided to become a YouTuber by launching his own YouTube channel, Jorge Lorenzo Official.

The channel shows the 33-year-old former MotoGP champion giving us a free and unparalleled insight into the sport.

Through a series named #99Seconds, Lorenzo gives us an unbiased prediction and post-race insight of the 2021 MotoGP season.

Although Lorenzo delivers his talks in Spanish, you can turn on the English subtitles provided.

Nevertheless, this just proved how well the Spaniard is coping post-MotoGP, which definitely will open a new path for other ex-racer to follow suit.

After presenting the all-new Hayabusa and the recently launched, Burgman 400, Suzuki continues to knock on 2021 with a teaser of another great novelty, the new GSX-S1000.

The 17 seconds video showed a glimpse of the naked machine features but reveal an all-new triple LED headlamp setup which expected to boost the overall look of the new model.

The new GSX-S1000 is expected to maintain the 999cc inline-four engine but updated to Euro 5 homologation in order to be allowed to sell in major parts of the world.

The previous generation launched six years ago, offers 145hp @ 10,000rpm and 106Nm @ 9,500rpm but we can safely assume a slight power change for the new generation.

The new Suzuki GSX-S1000 will be officially launched via online platform on April 26.

It was only 35 days ago since Johann Zarco was given a chance to test the Ducati GP21 at the pre-season testing in Qatar.

Who would have thought, the 30-year-old rider, who was in limbo after his surprise departure from KTM in 2019, now leads the championship with 40 points after securing back-to-back second place at Losail International Circuit.

The Pramac Racing rider finished 1.092s behind Maverick Vinales in the first race before losing out to race-winner Fabio Quartararo on Sunday.

Not only that, the Frenchman is currently top Ducati rider, edging Ducati factory rider Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller.

“I did not expect to be leading the championship when I came here 35 days ago to start testing and learn the Ducati.

“I still have things to control better, to feel more comfortable and have more options during the race. So if I can still grow up in that way and use the full potential of the Ducati, then I can enjoy myself also at other tracks”, Zarco said.

Zarco can breathe easily now, having made one of the hardest decision in his life, to quit a factory team (KTM) to pursue a better machine that suits his riding.

“What happened two years ago is part of life. I took some decisions, and I’m pretty happy now that I’m back with the top guys.

“The first two races were a lot of fun and it was such a nice feeling. So it’s not the time to think of redemption or something like that. Just live your time and right now is this moment with Pramac and Ducati.

“What I decided two years ago, it’s done. So, happy. I cannot say I took the right decision or not. I took a decision then I did my way and thanks to Ducati I’m here,” he added.

Some people are born to race and do it naturally. Others wait for the stars to come together to realise their calling. And that is what happened to race rider – Nik Hadi.

A stockbroker who heads a foreign investment bank in Malaysia, Nik is a man that has won the 2019 championship, multiple races, and yet says that he can never perfect the start of a race, Nik’s calling came when he visited the Ducati showroom in Petaling Jaya with a friend who wanted to buy a bike. He walked out of there with a Ducati of his own, though he had never ridden a bike.

“Now looking back, I can’t believe that I actually bought a Ducati 848 when I had no intentions to,” says Nik.

“Then actually learning how to ride it in the compounds of the showroom with the sales guy as my teacher. And when the bike was eventually ready for delivery, I could not ride it back home because I had no license, so the guy who sold the bike to me, who later became a good friend, had to ride it back for me.

“And every night after that I used to ride the 848 around my neighbourhood. And I learned everything by myself, with a couple of minor mishaps along the way of course.”

Nik is also quick to admit that his bike control wouldn’t be as good as others who started riding at a much earlier age.

“I started with a superbike right away where else others would have started with smaller bikes and learned the ins and outs of a bike before eventually moving up to bigger bikes, giving them an advantage over me.

“I used to then attend track days after that with some friends, and from there got quite competitive. And we were chasing the faster racers because why not, and learned from there.”

But before that, there were plenty of rides up Genting every weekend, and there were the usual long-distance rides to Penang and such on the 848. Not exactly the most comfortable bike to go touring with, but lots of fun anyway.

On the topic of competitive racing, Nik is quick to point out that he is a fan of the Ducati brand but acknowledges that it hasn’t always been easy racing the iconic Italian brand.

“There aren’t many privateers or teams that race Ducatis, I guess that comes from a cost and parts perspective. But’s also not very competitive right out of the box, so you need to spend a lot more money to make it competitive. It is simply much easier to race the Japanese bikes than say a Ducati or a BMW.

“That was a challenge, so I did not go into the race to win, it was more of passion and interest and to challenge myself. I knew it was going to be difficult but I am a fan of the brand and wanted to challenge myself to get the bike to be competitive.

“And from a fitness perspective, that too was a challenge because I joined in 2018, and I was already 42 then and racing against much younger competition. They are like half my age. I was in it for passion more than anything else.”

On how expensive it is to race and to acquire spare parts for an Italian bike that is racing competitively, Nik says, “Naza does carry quite a good parts inventory, in fact, I was surprised to learn that Naza has a lot of parts when I was trying to source some from overseas. So that was impressive. You do have to source some parts online if you need something quick though.”

But Nik did not always race a Ducati though.

“For my first race, I actually competed with my friend’s BMW S1000RR because my bike was not ready as yet. I ended up crashing that bike quite badly, it was nice but very different in character. But I also did not spend time to properly tune the bike to my liking, so it could have been different. But that was the only time I did not race a Ducati Panigale R.”

When asked how different it was racing a BMW as compared to racing a Panigale, Nik went into the finer details – “The engine configuration is the main difference between the two bikes – the BMW is an inline-4 where else the Ducati is an L2. This naturally makes the BMW wider around the tank and hence feels bigger underneath you and makes cornering different. It is a high-revving engine so that means more high-end power.

 

“The Ducati is slimmer and the two have completely different cornering characteristics. The Panigale R has more low-end torque and hence feels more powerful out of a corner. But I always lose out on top-end power. In corners, specifically, turn 5 and 6 and 7 and 8, I gain an advantage because of the torque and cornering character, so there are pros and cons, I like to have a balance of both. The Panigale feels small, so it makes turning easy.”

 

For his racing, Nik does not have any sponsors so he says he only spends on what is important. So we asked what is important to him, he explains, “So my bike is considered almost standard, I didn’t touch the engine, just full exhaust and mapping. I spent on the chassis, mainly the suspension set up. I got the K-TEC set for that which I really love.”

“So for the spending part I have limited resources so I prefer to spend on the handling part to make it really good, so whatever I can do to extract a bit more power, I worked on the radiator which I think is really important to cool the bike. So that and the full exhaust kit and the mapping. That is what I spent on which I think is necessary if you have limited funding.”

“The challenge with the Ducati is that it is tricky to do up even if you have the funds to do it. Simply because there is no one in Malaysia to do up the bike. You can rebuild the engine but who’s going to do that for you? That’s the challenge in Malaysia.”

 

In a set of questions sent to Nik via email, he mentioned that he was always a slow starter. We thought it odd that the 2019 MSBK Champion was a slow starter, so prodded him to explain how he makes up for the lost ground after a slow start.

“In all honesty, I stalled the bike at the race start a few times, and since then I have been careful. I will normally qualify in the middle somewhere, usually 7th or 8th place. But at the start of the race, I end up being last or second last. I then have to do a lot of hard work to get back up again. That is my main weakness, but I think it is all in my mind and I know I have to work on it.

“My bike doesn’t have launch control which other bikes have, and I have stalled a few times now. It makes me even nervous. But I then become more aggressive.”

But if there is not much in terms of funding, and a rider is still able to become a champion despite consistently qualifying mid-field, we think that if there is any indication of raw talent, Nik is one talented racer.

But racing is not the only two-wheeled fun he has.

“It’s my passion so I do a lot of things with two-wheels, enduro riding being one of them. So I go trail riding with friends, fast trails and technical trails though I prefer fast trails. I do mountain biking as well, and sometimes road cycling as well. I do it more for fitness and it helps me keep sharp in terms of bike control.”

The worst memory Nik has had is a crash at turn 3 at Sepang circuit, a high-speed high side.

“It was a very wet race and I was doing about 180km/h at Turn 3. It was my first ever race and I was on my friends BMW and I did not have any experience. The bike was not set up for rain though I had rain tyres on. We did not change the setting so the bike was at its most aggressive setup. We also did not have a pit board, which I regret because my team could have communicated with me to slow down because I was already leading my group by quite a gap with just 3 laps to go.

“In fact, I was already overtaking riders in the faster categories, so I was going really fast. I was doing timing that I was quite proud of especially for a first-timer. So with 3 laps to go, I overtook another rider but he was from the faster group. I guess he was shocked that someone overtook him so he rode more aggressively to overtake me. And I did not know that he was from a different group, so I rode faster than I should even though I did not need to. And that’s when the accident happened because I was more aggressive on the throttle and the bike was set up for a dry race with maximum power.

“I remember jumping off the seat and banging my head on the windscreen then nothing. I woke up at the medical centre then lost consciousness again, and woke up in the ambulance heading to the Putrajaya Medical Centre.”

So why is he not racing a BMW if the bike gave him that much confidence especially in the wet?

“It’s not so much of wanting to win per-say, it is more about passion for me. Passion for the brand. Maybe if I would have spent more time on the BMW, I would have continued with it, but it is more about passion for me.”

Nik’s wish list:
1. Our beloved country getting back on the right track.
2. Rossi winning another championship.
3. Riding with my son.

Any advice for upcoming racers?
Always practice and have lots of patience.

Any advice for competitors?
Be kind to your veteran competitor.

Nik would like to extend a special thanks to:

  • SBK Motorsports
  • Bike Art
  • Chia Motor PJ (Ktech)
  • Horizon Racing Team
  • PT Jatt

Know anyone who is an Interesting Biker? Email us at info@bikesrepublic.com and we will be happy to feature him or her.

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