An item that really should be standard on all liquid-cooled motorcycles with forward-facing radiators is a strong mesh guard of some sort. Our friends Yamaha FZ8 has such a radiator and as there is always the likelihood of picking a stone and the repair costing a significant amount of cash, Yamaha genuine accessories offer an 'FZ8' etched radiator guard, that maintains the manufacturer's warranty. Cost is almost 7,000 THB and boy has it tricked up the styling!

What do you think? If your manufacturer does not offer such a tasty item as Yamaha, remember there are always aftermarket supplies like Bike Bandit who have mesh guards for just about all makes and models.

Our friend has had the Yamaha FZ8 for a couple of months now and he has grown to love the power characteristics of the engine. You can ride it lazily around town under 6,000rpm, or punch it up into the meaty zone and really have some fun. Fuel economy varies more than with most other motorcycles, depending on which part of the rev range you choose. The only thing our friend still doesn't like is that it is a little reluctant to get away from standstill at low revs.

A couple of months ago we replaced the ECU on a Kawasaki ZX10R. We didn't need to of course, but when has 'need' ever played a part in the things we change on our motorcycles? A few years ago, replacing a motorcycle's ECU would have been a very extreme thing to do – certainly something left to the motorcycle mechanical experts. For the rest of us a Power Commander and gear position indicator, or at a push a new dashboard following a crash, were the extent of our electronic subterfuge. But that's beginning to change.

As we begin to see smart motorcycles being released in showrooms more frequently, our ability to meddle with the motorcycle we own diminishes. In the past, buying a motorcycle, fitting an exhaust pipe and Power Commander was part of the owning process. It made the motorcycle feel unique to us. But try anything more than replacing the end-can on a motorcycle built in the last two years and the amount of flashing lights it triggers on your dashboard is likely to leave you with permanent retinal scarring. Trying to fool the ECU with any form of after-market device therefore is virtual suicide.

That's why we find ourselves in the odd position of considering fitting whole ECU – and why there's a trickle of increasingly smart and cheap after-market ECUs being fitted to motorcycles. So, because they're out there – and to help you avoid having your hat nailed on due to not knowing any better, we thought we'd have a peep at some of the ins and outs of replacing your motorcycle's ECU.

In its most basic form on a carburetted motorcycle (hard to find any now-a-day) a modern ECU will do two things; control the ignition timing and provide the dashboard with the information it needs to display. But on most road-going motorcycles we can add operating things like exhaust valves, cooling fans and variable length inlet tracts to the mix too. It all sounds pretty daunting at first glance – but because the ECU is already wired to everything by the standard loom, controlling these functions is frequently no more hard than telling an ECU when you want something to happen, rather than how.

BMW hasn't lost the ability to build great touring motorcycles of late, but it's definitely gained the ability to build amazing sportsbikes. BMW has changed though as we can see in the latest two BMW K1600GT and fully dressed K1600GTL.

Key figures from the six-cylinder BMW engine to note are 160 horsepower at 7,500rpm, 175 Nm of torque at 5,250rpm, with more torque at 1,500rpm than the Kawasaki ZX10R generates at peak torque. The theory with the BMW K1600GT project was based around lightweight materials: the traditional Duolever front end has been constructed using magnesium alloy, the rear-sub frame from aluminum. The engine covers have also been cast in magnesium alloy. On board the motorcycle BMW is breaking new ground with the use of an adaptive Xenon headlight. Using the same bank angle sensors that the DTC uses to determine lean angle and load, the headlight maintains a constant level view of the road. We got the change to trial the system on a test and it is fairly spectacular. For a headlight system.

Yamaha Factory Racing heads to France this week to prepare for round four of the Championship, the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France at the legendary Le Mans circuit. Jorge Lorenzo arrives trailing Championship leader Casey Stoner by just a single point in the standings and looking to take back the lead. Le Mans has delivered some great results for Lorenzo, the Mallorcan claiming two premier class wins plus one a 250cc GP victory.

Fellow Yamaha Factory rider Ben Spies heads to Le Mans determined to shake off a run of mixed results and get his 2012 Championship firmly back on track. A solid sixth last year marks his best result yet at the French track, something he will be looking to improve on this weekend.

The perfect Le Mans set up requires optimum balance and control under repeated hard braking. The challenging circuit requires riders to dispatch several tight chicanes before attacking the short straights and tight hairpins that form the remainder of the track. Le Mans is this year hosting the Grand Prix for the 55th time and is sure to attract a huge crowd of passionate race fans as always.

Too much engine oil! You've tipped in more engine oil than your motorcycle engine needs. It's not as bad as under-filling but too much oil in an motorcycle engine can cause a range of problems, the excess out of a breather pipe which can contaminate your air filter or make your tires dangerously slippery.

The solution's simple. Remove the excess. It's very difficult to do by taking out the oil drain bolt, so buy a big syringe instead. Fishing shops, pharmacies and chemists sell them and you can get really big ones from some shops (100ml or more).

Baja Auto, one of India's largest motorcycle manufacturers, recently bought another 6.3 percent stake in KTM of Austria, thereby raising their total stake to just over 47 percent. The deal was made through Bajaj Auto International Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bajaj Auto based in the Netherlands.

Although Bajaj official have confirmed the deal, no details have been divulged as yet. Stefan Pierer (KTM CEO) and Rudolf Knünz (Managing Director of Knünz GmbH and Chairman of the Supervisory Board at KTM) hold together about 51% stake in KTM.

Thirty years ago, turbos were everywhere. They dominated in Formula 1 and rally cars, all the best vacuum cleaners and even completely unrelated consumer products bore their name. Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki all made turbocharged motorcycles. So why did then then, and why don't they anymore?

What is a turbo? It's a centrifugal compressor that forces air into the inlet of an engine – forced induction. The special thing about a turbocharger though, is the way that it is driven. The power to drive a turbocharger comes from a turbine that sits in the exhaust manifold and extracts power from the engine's exhaust gas flow.

The turbine and compressor are attached together to form a single unit. The turbine driver the compressor via a bearing mounted shaft that runs through the center of the unit. They're usually mounted as close as possible to the engine in the exhaust manifold, where the exhaust gases have the most heat and flow energy (enthalpy) available to drive the turbine. With sufficient exhaust flow, the turbine is able to drive the compressor to very high speeds – up to 300,000rpm on smaller turbos. The compressor then forces air through some pipes, and sometimes an inter-cooler, into the engine's inlet.

Despite their small size, turbocharger compressors can flow vast amounts of air, much more than the engine they are feeding. This surplus of air in the inlet increases in pressure and forces its way into the engine giving it a bigger charge to burn, enabling the engine to make more torque and more power. The end result is that a turbocharged engine performs like a normally aspirated engine of larger capacity, but without the extra weight and friction of a larger engine. The old adage, 'There 'aint no substitute for engine size' is not entirely true.

Your motorcycle helmet is your most piece of riding kit, legally obliged to wear, for the good reason that it could save your life. But it needs looking after. Exposed to the elements, on the outside, and your greasy head, on the inside, it gets grimy and smelly pretty quickly. There are three main parts to keep clean – the outer shell, simply to look smart; the interior lining, to keep it fresh and odor-free; and the visor, so you can see through it clearly. The good news is, there are innumerable products on the market to help with each of these jobs – all manner of cleaners, treatments, sprays, polishes and potions.

Use cleaners and polishes to keep your flashy paintjob sparkling in the sun. Helmet cleaners are formulated to break down tough dirt such as road grime and splattered insects. The advantage over plain water is that you can simply spray on then wipe off, with less need for elbow grease. Cleaner-impregnated wipes are particularly useful, as you keep a stash under your motorcycle's seat and use them 'on the go'. Importantly, helmet cleaners are non-corrosive to paint, so won't having a dulling effect. Once you've removed the crud, you'll want to restore a sheen – and that's where a helmet-specific polish comes in handy.

You cleaning spray or polish is only as good as the cloth you use to apply and wipe it off with. These cloths are made from super-soft, non-scratch materials to ensure that your motorcycle helmet's shiny finish isn't attacked or scratched. Mini-sponges, such as the world famous V2, provide invaluable mobile cleaning, which you can keep in your pocket and whip out at a moment's notice – essential in the muddy depths of rural Thailand in the raining season and it also works wonders with splattered insects...

In the knowledge that selling motorcycles alone is never going to be a profitable business, dealers make a much bigger percentage mark-up on parts, particularly those that we all need on a regular basis, the consumables. And since that mark-up is percentage based – often as much as 50 or 50 percent of what you pay stays with the dealer – difference in price between brands are exaggerated. For instance, a chain/tire/helmet that costs 5,000 THB probably cost the dealer around 3,000 THB, wholesale – 2,000 THB mark-up.

But something that retails for 10,000 THB would have an 4,000 THB mark-up. Still 40 percent, but the amount above and beyond the actual manufacturing cost that you're paying is on the increase.

That might give the impression that dealers are robbing you blind on certain products, but the truth is that while some carry big margins, just as many offer little in the way of profit. If all dealers cut their margins on tires, prices elsewhere would have to rise to compensate – even if you've only been riding a brief time, you've probably already seen motorcycle shops near you disappear; few people in the motorcycle industry make a lot of money, so to survive in the industry is to walk a tightrope – offering deals that will attract you, the customer, while still paying the bills.

One of the few areas where profits o seem to flow freely is towards the top end of motorcycle kit, where, it might be argued, you're paying for the 'name' rather than simply the cost of the product. Shoei's yearly figures reveal that the cost to make its kit was just 63 percent of the income it received for it, and even after transport (1.98 percentage), advertising (5.92 percentage), salaries and bonuses (5.61 percentage) and various other expenses were taken into account, it still left an operating income that accounted for 10 percent of its overall income from sales. Compared to the money in making motorcycles, that's an impressive margin, and the men at the top get to enjoy it, with 'directors' benefits accounting for 1.14 percent of the firm's entire sales income.

If you like me have some stainless steel exhaust pipes on your motorcycle which have patches of dark color on them and wonder if there's a way to get them back to as-new condition... Stainless steel can discolor but it's possible to get it sparkling again. The quick way is to leave the exhaust in place, get some steel wool with some metal polish. Put a bit of polish on the steel wool and give the exhaust pipes a rub. It takes a bit of elbow grease but it'll bring them up nicely.

If you want to do a really impressive job, you'll have to take the exhaust system off. Running the engine to heat the studs makes them less likely to shear off. Once the exhaust has cooled, you can use increasingly fine grades of wet and dry paper to remove the surface contaminants and bring the exhaust to a mirror shine.