North West 200 – road racing in its purest form
Often viewed as a warm-up or test session prior to the IoM TT, the North West 200 (NW200) is anything but. Make no mistake the NW200 is competitive road racing in its purest form. Imagine trying to ride flat stick on a mix of A-class and B-category roads with all manner of twists, turns, lumps and bumps. And jumps. All because undulations in the road surfaces you wouldn’t ordinarily notice at legal speed suddenly become launch ramps at racing speeds.
Pick any point (roadside, paddock, pits, pubs etc) around the NW200’s 8.97-mile Triangle Circuit during race week and speed will always be a subject of conversation. With good reason. On the fastest section of the course, between Black Bridge and University Corner, the famous speed trap regularly records supersport (600cc) bikes hitting 180 mph+, while the all-powerful superbikes can easily nudge past 200 mph.
There will always be grit, stone chips, bits of foliage on a road circuit, despite road cleaners doing their best, because a bike’s air turbulence pulls muck from the roadside and onto the course. The mix of speed, sticky tyres and road debris makes for a potent, destructive mix. If it’s not the front tyre flinging stones and grit at the radiator and oil cooler, then it’s the rear tyre of a competitor causing destructive mayhem.
It could be 60 mph or 160 mph+, but the result of a pea-sized stone hitting a cooling matrix usually ends in the same way: holed and leaking engine coolant. That’s why it’s vital radiator and oil cooler protection is part and parcel of a motorcycle, be it a road-going or full-blown race bike.
The NW200 is a thorough proving ground for Evotech Performance race and road specification EP Radiator & Oil Cooler Guards – but don’t take our word for it. Ask any race technician or rider using our guards and it’s guaranteed they will say without them it could so easily have been an early retirement rather than a successful result of a race finish. Or win.
Evotech Performance EP Radiator & Oil Cooler Guards are common items at the NW200. Padgetts and OMG Yamaha are just two of the many teams that put their trust in our guards in 2022. As for riders – the likes of Michael Dunlop, Lee Johnston, Craig Neve, Glen Irwin, Michael Rutter, John McGuinness, Peter Hickman, to name but a few – who choose to use Evotech Performance EP guards, we thank them for placing their faith in our design and manufacturing processes.