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CMG and racing have proven to be a somewhat unstable mix in the past. However, for some reason we feel the inexplicable urge to carry on. Things seemed to be looking up in 2005 when our racing efforts started off well enough with our Pascal Anctil coming up with a very unCMG-like podium finish in the first round of the 600cc National Amateur series.

Still slightly bleary-eyed, the CMG “B” team made up of Ronn Moffatt, Editor ‘arris and myself converged at Mosport for the annual VRRA Endurance Race at the ungodly hour of 7:30am. As per usual, everything had come together at the last minute.

The plan was simple enough. Meet Pascal (of SV650 National racing fame) in St. Jacob's, Ontario, have a few beers whilst getting caught up on the latest gup, and call it an early night so that we would be fresh for an entertaining ride with the KTM Rally Connex crew the next day.

After spending the first day of our Las Vegas launch on the track (with the morning being coached by Freddie Spencer and team), I was feeling ready for a good road blast.

So it was, less than 7 weeks after my last trip to the heart of Bavaria (see Alps Tour), I find myself once again rustling up my pitiful high-school Deutsche, drinking fine beer out of unfeasibly large one-litre glasses and crouched down behind a plexi-screen – throttle pinned – in the fast lane of the German autobahn (although not all three at once).

Ah, Yorkshire – Big puddles and willing sheep ... well, sheep.Photo: Sarah Johnston Of all the companies out there, trust the Germans to be the most logical when it comes to updates of their models. Almost like clockwork, once every five or so years, the Bavarian company launch a new version of their famous Boxer twin motor and then spend the next five years updating each R model in the line-up with said new motor. It’s logical, simple and very BMW.

The east coast of Canada is probably best known to motorcyclists for the Cabot Trail. And why not? It’s an amazing section of road and well worthy of the praise, but there’s a whole world of amazing sights, amazing roads and endless eastern hospitality to be found in the whole region. To bypass it all on the way to the Cabot is almost criminal.

After a really stressful, but very successful weekend at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant, I was quite looking forward to this final, low-pressure weekend at Shannonville, Ontario. For those of you who haven’t been following my updates, I was coming to the final round of the 2004 Diablo SV Cup with the Championship already in the bag.

It's not a bad job really. Ride a bike for a week or two, analyze what it's doing and then spew out some witty wordage. Slap in a couple of pics, post it online and it's time for the next one.

We're starting to run out of things to say about this bike.