So off I tootle, down the long and dull Motorway known as the M1 with only a basic idea of the GB Racing product, I have seen it before on sale, I have seen it on people's bikes but never really sure how this stuff comes into existence I am intrigued, as the journey progresses the cold April morning gets warm and dry and recharged by the heat of the sun I arrive at my destination - a small, unassuming factory building tucked in a residential street. You can tell it is the GB Racing factory, not from the signage on the building but by the mass of pickup trucks and Motorhomes parked outside in full livery, that would be their race support trucks then.

Graham Banks is the top guy in the business and he sits me down to introduce his product and from the outset you can hear the pride and confidence in his voice, started off from his own trackday jaunts in 2005/2006 on a GSXR 600 the first products were to protect his own bike and as with most good businesses grew organically into the brand we see today. With his engine covers in small production he began a partnership with Crescent Suzuki to supply models for Suzuki bikes but this soon outgrew the initial arrangement, having dipped a toe into production Graham then moved to another popular product in the shark fin, this is a small piece of equipment that it generally compulsary on a race paddock, the purpose is to stop hands and toes being drawn into the chain and sprocket in case of a crash by way of deflection.

GB Racing produced a shark fin that was a little thicker and rounded across the edges to encourage fingers and boots to slide away on the outside which seems fairly obvious now, at this point though, most shark fins were just a thin piece of aluminium, carbon fibre or other material which allowed digits to get trapped behind and in effect fed to the chain and sprocket. Because of this sound design and thinking, GB Racing picked up a reputation and with it the supply contract for the Triumph Triple Challenge, one of the support races for the British Superbikes. The aim was simple, produce a product that would allow the bikes to crash well, leading to fewer engines breaking, less chance of oil leaking and as a result lower the cost of racing. What they found is that the GB Racing product exceeded their expectation and despite crashes being inevitable, the GB Racing engine covers saved a lot of major damage and allowed riders often to pick the bike back up and get back on.

Over the years the GB racing engine covers have inevitably evolved, from purely functional covers in the beginning they are 3D CAD designed for added style too, they are run through a process of design against the primary engine covers and then sent on to have a sterolithic created - a kind of 3D model which is their prototype to nip, tuck and scrape away any excess, from there the design is finalised and the tooling created for the injection mould and this is all done right here in the UK and most of it at their New Barnet factory. Many of their products feature important little details such as lockwire holes, saving race teams a job to secure their nuts and bolts, race teams love the GB Racing product and having a look through their returns bin you see boxes full of crash damaged covers with notes attached - one of them I now have in my posession had a compliments slip that just read "sorry!"

One thing that GB Racing seem to do very well is take back their damaged product to learn from it, in the case of the R1 protectors I saw there were a number of small adjustments as the models progressed, first of all you can feel where sections have been thickened because over a number of crashes it was found that it ground away faster than anticipated, similarly areas were shaved down to reduce weight and, remarkably even to allow for greater lean angles without the covers fouling. I must admit to being very impressed at this point as it was clear that as much detail as I wanted to look into on this product their was an even greater story about how it was developed, with many products now you tend to find a company finds a need, designs a product and has it mass produced overseas with little in the way of R&D, GB Racing operate a rolling R&D programme on all of their products which is incredibly refreshing.

This all culminates really in their product getting MCRCB approval in 2008 and more importantly full approval in 2010 by the FIM, this is something no-other company has been able to achieve and is a true testament to level of quality and protection the GB Racing products offer. FIM approval runs from 2010 to 2012, after which their product is resubmitted and tested again to extend this endorsement, Graham is most proud of this and quite rightly so, with just over 5 years under their belt and a genuinely British Made product it is a real validation of the business he has strived to build, nowadays when you go through a race paddock you will see the bikes sporting GB Racing crash protection, with around 90% of British Superbikes, 90% of Isle of Man TT, Thundersport, Moto2 and more and not only secondary engine casings but their frame sliders including a totally new type of crash bung due to hit the market soon which can sit both under or over a fairing and exceeds impact tests done on rival products.

Having now seen first hand the level of detail and pride that goes into creating this product we see GB Racing's range of protection products becoming very popular with general riders and hopefully as much as a household name as other brands inhabiting the market, I set back off on my journey home, genuinely impressed that companies like this are still starting up and building such a reputation even in financially difficult times. If you are in the market or just want to have your bike protected as much as possible you will not go far wrong giving their website a visit or getting on the phone.

http://gbracing.eu