Crash.net's Adam Arnold tested British Superbike Championship's Nvidia 125 at Donington Park earlier this year, and it changed his life (a little)...
I'm sure we've all done it at some point, giggling to ourselves at the 'tidders' screaming round the circuit.
Walking around the pits it's obvious which are the 125 riders, they were the spotty teenagers that came up to your elbow on full stretch. But once they had their helmets on they were mini-GP racers on a mission.
As the season progressed it became clear that these riders and bikes were not to be scoffed at, on the contrary.
The second round of the championship at
Brands Hatch the 125 top runners lapped just two seconds a lap slower than Karl Harris and friends in the British Supersport championship. Yes, seriously.
From that point on it was obvious that one of these 1/8th litre bikes needed to be tested to find out how they could be so closely matched despite being down on so much power. A BSS front running machine puts out over 130bhp, whereas a 125 produces just over 50bhp, yet around some tracks the ‘tidders' would be able to qualify for the grid in the 600 race.
Over the course of the season I increasingly visited the Nvidia 125 camp, partially because they gave me free food, and partially because they field one of the two female racers in the British championship paddock.
As the season neared an end, Brent Gladwin, the Nvidia team manager, finally gave in to my hint dropping and lurking over the course of the year and agreed to hand the bike over for a go round Donington Park at a test day.
“If that orange light comes on and stays on, get into the pits as soon as you can or just stop on the side of the track,” began my briefing by Brent. “If it just flashes on and off, don't worry about it.”
His tip was not meant to install such fear, but there was instantly an image of the orange light flashing, then going constant, followed by an almighty bang as the bike blew up into thousands of pieces.
“Right, if you see this blue light, change up a gear,” continued Brent. “You'll be seeing a lot of that one.”
The 125 GP race bikes are of course two-strokes, meaning they have power bands the thickness of a rubber band. In order to ‘make progress' these bikes have to be kept within the sweet spot at all times, including going into a corner, which is harder than is sounds when there is no engine breaking and very little noise on the over-run.
