#FuelTank

Movistar Yamaha teammates and rivals Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo have taught us a few things about themselves as this riveting 2015 MotoGP season blazes into The Pacific Rim for Round 17 at Sepang International Circuit. Rossi prefers rain, short, pudgy tracks where he can record lots of qualifying laps, and applying pressure from the rear, as it were, on race day. Lorenzo likes things bone dry, prefers longer tracks to shorter ones, and strongly prefers running from the front, as roughly half of his premier class wins have come in races in which he’s led every lap. Conditions here on race day are a pure lottery; the race could as easily be decided on Saturday as Sunday.

I love my old R1, but having been badly spoiled by things just as fun while eminently more comfortable, like MO’s 2015 Bike of the Year, the KTM Super Duke R, it’s time to take the old girl the next step from supersport to naked bike. The first instinct is to throw on a dirtbike handlebar; the easiest way to do that is with an LSL Superbike bar kit, which I have used previously and very satisfactorily on a Kawasaki ZX-9R. But I didn’t want to lose the R1’s sportbike aesthetic entirely, and did want to keep its flyscreen fairing and ability to suck up straights on the occasional track day.