The UK motorcycle test keeps getting more complicated, more expensive and, some would argue, more irrelevant to a lot of riders. Over the years, I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have called for inclusion of a section of off-road riding in the UK Motorcycle test, or even... Read more
In recent years, press launches have slowly found a consistent home in Spain, so it was nice taking a long-haul flight to sample Yamaha’s MT-10 SP. Home of some of the world’s sexiest roads and backdrops, Cape Town hosted the updated Öhlins-infested MT and a bonus chance for a... Read more
With the exception of Fatima Whitbread, brutal has never been associated with beautiful: a motto perfectly suited to Yamaha’s MT-10. An ingenious concoction of R1-derived sportiness and sheer naked lunacy has given us way more to cogitate than its Johnny Five aesthetics, proving that beauty isn’t purely skin deep.... Read more
Months ago, we were cordially invited to the Ducati Scrambler Sixty2 launch in Barcelona. Both of us. 44T en masse. Brilliant. The downside? Sharing a bed. This is Ducati’s first assault on the A2 segment and the A2 segment’s first premium entry in a field of budget, sparrow-limbed steeds.... Read more
Better later than never – and filmed primarily at the glamorous resort of JHS Racing – here’s our comprehensive review of Yamaha’s MT-10 in video formateo. Baron blagged his way onto the world press launch for 44T near Almeria in Spain and came back incoherently jizzing over its crossplane... Read more
Love them or loathe them, modern retros are currently booming. Some major manufacturers are even declaring the segment as priority and, while the hipster fashion over function theme isn’t everyone’s cuppa, the scene has opened motorcycling to a broader audience. Ducati unveiled the Scrambler brand-within-a-brand at the end of... Read more
According to Ducati, yellow superbikes from Bologna only sold during springtime when daffodils were in bloom. While I do miss the slightly unorthodox yellow Ducatis, I wasn’t fussed about pantone specifics on the approach to Valencia’s super-fast turn one aboard the new 959 Panigale. Or that exhaust. In a... Read more
I’ve often wondered if vehicles have a soul. It’s a silly notion that inanimate objects can have a bearing and influence over one’s life, or indeed bestow it with love or fear or mediocrity. These things enter our lives as blank storyless books, empty pages waiting to be filled.... Read more
When you get offered a chance to ride the most ridiculously powerful and excessive production bike ever created, you say yes – even on a cold, damp, murky autumnal day in front of 30,000 expectant race fans. Kawasaki’s supercharged H2R has owned 2015 in terms of horsepower and willy-waving... Read more
Could this unpretentious thing of blueness be one of the bikes of 2015? Maybe not in the aesthetical pleasures department but dynamically, the Suzuki GSX-S1000F is a superbike-derived weapon that genuinely surprised us. It doesn’t brag a gazillion horsepower, nor does it boast any wiz-bang chassis components, but that... Read more
If you’ve been living in an inexplicable underworld in recent times, you’d be forgiven for overlooking the 30th anniversary of the GSX-R. In fact, given the relative lack of celebrations and new Suzuki releases to cover this milestone, you’d be forgiven anyway. At the same time Route 66 opened,... Read more
For a class so current and as prevalent as any, the A2 ‘sportsbike’ category has been bereft of some major players until recent times. First there was Kawasaki, shortly before Honda joined the fray. Years later, KTM unleashed the RC390 and showed everyone else how to build a budget... Read more
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