2022 was always going to be a special year for Honda and the Fireblade brand. That’s because it’s 30 years since the first ones started appearing in showrooms. Since 1992 the Fireblade has seen umpteen iterations; some world-beating, others not quite, but they’ve all enjoyed their fair share of... Read more
I’ve ridden my fair share of electric motorbikes. Some have been really good, others not so. But even the best ones haven’t had the range that most would consider necessary for a proper motorcyclist. An electrically powered road bike, ridden properly, isn’t going to give you much more than... Read more
Here it is. The big one. El Capitano. The don. The mother of all grouptests. Sure, 1000cc sportsbikes aren’t currently busting the sales charts, but there’s nothing sexier than gathering seven of the latest superbikes together and creating gold. And to make things sexier, we took them to the... Read more
For nearly 30 years, (since 1993) Ducati have been churning out big, brutish naked bikes under the Monster moniker. Since then they’ve sold over 350,000 of them. That’s averaging over 1,000 a month. Fair play. Personally though, I’ve never been much of a Monsterphile. I think it’s because growing... Read more
When Fagan threw himself off an SV 650 and onto the tarmac at Castle Combe, pulling his poor shoulder out of its socket in the process, he quickly rendered himself unable to fly to Italy to test the all-new, ever-so-fancy Aprilia RS 660 – what a bastard! But his loss, on... Read more
You’ve probably heard murmurings from last weekend’s Ducati Panigale V4 world press launch in Valencia, although you probably haven’t heard about a few of us taking some rental bikes (Valencia’s equivalent of Boris Bikes) and riding them down steps and swapping brake cables and basically imitating Mat Hoffman. Anyway,... Read more
In isolation, the Triumph Tiger Explorer was an excellent workhorse: comfy, solid with a sexy soundtrack. Against its more modern adventure bike peers, the Trumpet felt like a tired, saggy old granny that lacked some 21st century essentials. Thankfully, there are over 100 changes to the Tiger 1200 for... Read more
Apologies for the lack of content recently. You should, by now, have realised we’ve been submersed in trackday organisation, our exclusive Summer Holiday festival at Parcmotor where we entertained 40 lucky bastards in glorious Spanish sunshine. More on the event itself another time… Baron was hell-bent on spanking his... Read more
Es are good. Unlike The Shamen’s 1992 smash hit, I’m not claiming ecstasy pills are good. No, I’m talking electric bikes, having recently sampled Zero’s SR at a cosy little press gathering in Surrey. Celebrating 11 years of existence and a resurgence in the UK with new dealers, Zero... Read more
There’s nowt like spanking a screaming supersports weapon in the Spanish sunshine, which is exactly what we did during the 2017 Yamaha R6 press launch at Almeria. 17 years after the original release, the class stalwart gets humble yet effective updates for this season, including bastard Euro4 compliancy and... Read more
My head is buried in the R6’s new dash; I’m almost chewing on the needle as it flirts with the redline. Every limb contorted behind its fresh fairings in a desperate attempt to maximise straight-line speed. My wrists are aching from wanking pinning the throttle and Almeria’s relentless nature... Read more
