IT T’S THE MOTOR CYCLE MONTHLY CROSSWORD!

Win a piston from Alex’s Triumph-motored machine

Welcome to this month's MCM Crossword - and this month we've got an amazing prize for you to bag, if you can complete the crossword and get it into us here at MCM Towers.

We’ve landed a unique prize to give away to race fans like you – an actual piston and rod from Alex Marquez’s Moto2 racebike. That’s this year’s Moto2 bike. As in, the bike you’ve seen in the Moto2 races on a Sunday afternoon.

Yes, that one.

We can’t quite believe it either, but it’s true. This is a piston from Alex’s Triumph-motored machine, the Team Estrella Galica 0,0 Marc VDS bike that he contests in the global championship – we don’t need to tell you how rare this sort of thing is.

This particular piston has been pulled directly from the 765cc triple by Triumph itself and then given to us to give to you (should you be the lucky winner whose completed a correct crossword and your name is pulled from the upturned MCM helmet). With a letter of authentication from Triumph, the piston comes with proof that it was at the heart of the bike that contested Moto2 races this year at Argentina, Texas and Jerez.

Incredible, eh? We’re very jealous of you (because we’re not allowed to enter) so all that we can now do is to wish you luck and ogle the piston for the remaining time it’s sitting here on the MCM editorial desk before it gets sent to the lucky winner of this month’s Crossword competition.

Across

1: Standard front suspension, not upside-down. (12,5) 9: Originally Swedish, this brand has passed to Italian, German, and now Austrian hands. (9)

10: A Belle Vue Speedway rider beats your King. (3)

11: Usually somewhere between first and second, unless you get a false one! (7)

14: Keeping your knees and elbows tucked in gives you this sort of riding style. (4)

15: Darkened, but not a fully reflective visor. (6)

16: Senor Pedrosa, recently retired MotoGP alien. (4)

17: BMW’s valve-timing innovation to reduce emissions, which debuted on the new 1250 GS. (8)

19: Lubricating fluids for your motor. (4)

20: Ray, Rhodesian post-war racing star who beat Geoff Duke at his best before being killed at Imola. (3)

22: The Mountain at Cadwell Park causes many riders to do this. (4) 23: Sweeping fast Isle Of Man TT section before the brakes come on for Ballacraine. (5,3)

25: Pulled off a stunning last-gasp win at Silverstone this year. (4) 26: Traditionally, the waving of a national flag does this to a race. (6) 28: Cock __ __ North, traditional prestigious road race meeting held at Oliver’s Mount. (1,3)

29: Century-old Italian bike maker with silver and green corporate colours, now Chinese owned. (7)

31: If you fall off, northern folk might say you land on this. (3) 32: From small components that keep the electrics running, they are starting to become the major power supply for some bikes. (9)

34: Flying Dutch present-day World Superbike star. (7,3,3,4)

Down

2: Classic bike clubs and rallies such as 12 down could be said to be indulging in this. (9)

3: Fastest racing Scot in the late 80s and early 90s, with two sons also racing today. (5,9)

4: The colourful county famous for Choppers. (6)

5: ___ Majora, tiny Italian racing team of the early 1980s. (2) 6: Most popular number of cylinders, and strokes, in modern motorcycles. (4)

7: Rotax-powered mid-80s racer built by its rider Manfred Herweh and named after a German hypermarket chain that wasn’t fake. (4)

8: Stability makers for a road bike’s front wheel. (8,7) 9: Amazing night-time thoughts of the models labelled CB 250 & 400 in the 70s & 80s. (6,5,5) 12: Annual Vintage MCC run for classic bikes under 250cc. (8,6) 13: Signor Drudi, famous for Number 46’s helmet designs. (4) 18: A route for your engine’s powerband. (3) 19: Common text acronym and BSB Suzuki team that races mainly in black. (3) 21: Vespa scooter that relies on 32 Across instead of gasoline. (9)

24: Annual off-road event that’s been running for over a century, nearly a week long and a team contest to boot. (4)

27: Amalgamation of two British marques featuring a parallel twin engine from Meriden and a Gold Star tank with a Victor frame. (6)

29: Mr Parkes, multi-talented Aussie who’s raced everywhere from MotoGP to BSB to World Endurance. (4)

30: Supermoto-style naked, sounding it too, from 9 Across when they were German. (4)

33: Tiny metric volume measure, abbreviated. (2)