Many moons ago. I'd just returned from Mallory after riding my Honda RS125. I was dropping the bike off at my sponsor's place when he threw me the keys to his 'good as new' NS400R. "Try a real bike" he said.

Off I went up the road. The exhaust note sounded like a tin bucket full of angry dried peas. Acceleration wasn't that much better than a 125GP bike if at all, but then the shock came when I tried to stop the thing.

As some of you may know, a 125GP bike stops quicker than you can squeeze the brake, but this old battleship NS was in serious need of a very big anchor. I overshot the turning I was aiming for by a good 50m.

When I eventually got back on track, throwing this nail through the twisties was a frightening experience. From a razor sharp 125 in the afternoon to a bent Bangkok bus in the evening. Horrible.

Anyway, I reckon you should go back to the wire wheel idea Luke. That'd be a better plan.

Dunno what this has to do with 16" hoops, but Andy did mention performance and handling in his last post so I reckon that's good reason for this post.

We did manage to get one to handle, but had to fit RGV250 forks, FZR 17" wheels, TZ brakes and good tyres.