Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies took to the Le Mans circuit today for the first two practice sessions of the French Grand Prix. Although dark clouds threatened to dampen the sessions, the riders were lucky to enjoy dry track time throughout. Lorenzo started the day missing some rear grip from his YZR-M1 on corner entry but was able to make some set up changes and improve in the second session to finish the day third in the combined times.

Spies enjoyed a positive first day at Le Mans apart from a fast crash going into turn two midway through the second session. The Texan rider was unhurt and able to immediately continue the practice on his second bike. A consistently quick pace saw him wrap up day one in fifth place on the combined times.

You name it, in this suit, I've ridden through it. From the hottest of days to the coldest of December nights, my Held Hakuna Matata textile suit has seen me through it all. I guess you could say it's been my breed and butter motorcycle gear over the past year-and-a-half, having clocked up just about 30,000 kilometers of wear during that time.

It's a suit I can depend on, regardless of the motorcycle I'm riding or the distance I'm traveling. All I know is that in this kit I'm going to get to my end destination comfortable and dry. And that ticks the box of a quality textile motorcycle suit for me.

But it's not just the comfort that sells this suit to me, it's practicality and style too. There's a pocket for just about everything, waterproof zipper throughout – that actually work – and an easy to remove and refit body warmer integrated into the jacket. It's also kitted with good quality CE approved body armor throughout.

The way most motorcycle companies are treating their customers in respect of the availability of spare parts is most execrable. In my own case, it was the Honda Sonic 125 some time ago, which I sold only because I was tired of waiting for weeks on end to get some important spare part. Now my Kawasaki Ninja 250R has been lying idle for the past two months because the authorized dealer/workshop where I live, is not able to deliver a simple spare part.

We should have a location, where we can report such things as short messages to Motorcycle Thailand and even give a change to the motorcycle companies to reply/explain why the customer is let down.

Touching upon another germinal issue, I also wish that the directors/managers of motorcycle manufacturing companies would leave their cosy offices once in a while and ride pillion on one of their own fancy creations for two hours at a stretch on an average bumpy rural road. Maybe, they would then realize that comfort has to take priority over style. Is it not idiotic that every day millions of pillion riders have to suffer the torture of those so-called seats just because manufacturers (as also we, the customers) are so much obsessed with style?

Whether or not you understood it at school, geometry plays an important role in determining how your motorcycle feels and handles. So it can't be ignored. But you don't need to be a geek to tell the difference between rake and trail.

Walk around any motorcycle showroom, flick through magazines or read articles on Internet, and you're guaranteed to come across a motorcycle specification panel at some point. But apart from glancing at the peak power and torque figures, which other information do you retain? No, not a lot; we're the same. Which is hardly surprising, given the density of information packed into a specification panel. And if the numbers don't mean much to you, they're a tad boring too.

But there's often an important story hidden away in these information cluster-bombs – and it's nothing to do with how much power the engine makes. These figures, if you're able to interpret them, tell you what to expect when you try and ride down a twisty back road, and how it'll behave while using countless tanks of fuel heading up to the North of the country. The language in which these insights are written is geometry.

Don't panic – there's not risk of after-school detention. The measurements we're talking about are grouped under the 'geometry' banner, you don't need a white lab-coat to understand, use or even calculate the basics for yourself.

Think of a motorcycle with a long wheelbase and another with a short wheelbase. Chances are, you thought of a tourer or cruiser first, and perhaps a 600cc sportsbike second. Why is that, and are you right?

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.