Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2025 i BIKE

Productivity in the Bike shack has dipped this month. Mother nature is to blame. We've spent the past week enjoying blue skies and dry tarmac, and the nice meteorologist on the telly says the coming days will be even better, with temperatures in the high teens. The office has been a place of road-trip daydreams rather than worry about deadlines. This picture was taken almost three years ago on the North York Moors. Every spring I head off somewhere with a group of daft mates for a weekend of glorious landscapes, roadside banter, pub-based silliness and, of course, some great riding. Daydreaming about this sun-soaked 2022 outing reminded me that we need to schedule this year's frolics. We're off to Snowdonia in a few weeks. There's oodles of inspiration for…

This new Morbidelli T1002VX is launching a three-pronged attack on the adventure market. Firstly, you get heaps as standard: fancy three-part aluminium luggage, tyre pressure monitors, adjustable screen, heated seat and grips, bash plate, backlit switchgear, cruise control, crash bars, main stand and cornering ABS. Secondly, it's a V-twin, which differentiates it from the hordes of identikit parallel twins. And thirdly, it costs £8699. To put that price into perspective, a similarly specced Suzuki V-Strom 1050 costs £15,189, a BMW F800GS with plastic luggage is £12,700 and an equivalent F900GS with no luggage would set you back £15,687. Price-wise, the only competition are other Chinese-made adventure bikes such as the Voge DS900X at £8889. We first showed you it in the March 2023 issue when it was going to be…

After a dismal 2024 when Honda's two factory riders came last and second last in the championship, things are looking up for the Honda Racing Corporation. Factory rider Joan Mir was running seventh on the new RC213V in the first MotoGP race of 2025 before lobbing it, while Johann Zarco finished seventh on the LCR Honda and Luca Marini came 12th on the other factory bike. By recent standards, that's miraculously good. So, what's happened aside from Repsol clearing off after 30 years and letting Castrol paint the bikes? ‘The 2025 bike has undergone a number of refinements, in particular in the torque delivery and in most of the electronic strategies of the traction control and wheelie control,’ says the factory team's new technical director Romano Albesiano, who previously guided…

It's the oldest trick in the MotoGP journalist's book. Whenever you sit down to interview a rider you start with the easy questions: flatter his ego, or, in pit-lane speak, ‘tickle his balls’. Only later do you hit him with the hard questions, so if he decides he's had enough of you and storms out, you've already got enough to write the story. That's how I start this interview with MotoGP's latest sensation, Pedro ‘The Shark’ Acosta. We're talking in KTM's paddock office, and I've scribbled some numbers in my notebook, which lies on the table between us. Everyone knows that last year's MotoGP championship was a Ducati walkover. The Bologna brand won 19 of the 20 Grands Prix and filled 53 of 60 podium places. Who filled the other…

‘I think the K5 is the best bike Suzuki ever made. The K3 and K4 were great, but they were big and felt a generation behind. I had a 954 FireBlade at the time and the K5 was another world – it made my Blade feel 20 years old. It moved the game on. ‘As a performance bike, it was the benchmark for years. The K7 was a lot heavier and seemed to be a worse example of a K5. That helped keep K5 prices strong. These days if a K5 or K6 (identical but with new colour schemes) comes into our showroom, they're straight out the door. They command a good premium over a Fireblade or R1 of the same era too – the 04-05 ZX-10Rs have a similar…

It's going to be 42 degrees in the city,’ says Damo. ‘You should be alright down on the coast, though.’ I hope so. It had been mid-30s when I arrived in Melbourne and that was plenty warm enough for me. England's inability to shake off winter had been getting me down. My brother's over in Australia and says it's quite warm. So, a last-minute flight and I'm standing in Seven Hills in northern Sydney, looking at a brand-new BMW R1250GS Adventure. ‘It's the last one in the country,’ confides Brian of BikeRoundOz. ‘We don't normally buy Adventures, but they have to make space for the new 1300, so the deal on this was too good to turn down…’ A brand-new Adventure for my adventure around the ‘island continent’? Perfect. My…

My arms ache. The concentration taken to get here has been immense, and going back down again will be truly challenging on the narrow, slippery trails. But it's more than worth it for this vantage at nearly 4000 metres, opening onto a world of jagged peaks and drifting clouds. This is China. Whatever your expectations for the country, it probably doesn't include snaking mountain roads, remote villages perched on cliffs, breathtaking panoramas of snow-capped peaks, and of course brilliant riding. I'd been in Chongli working in summer 2023 and made friends with Ibin. His English was excellent – still a rarity in China – and as we relaxed after a long day, he showed me amazing photos from a motorcycle trip he'd taken. By that night I'd already texted my…

The old XDiavel was always one of those bikes that we assumed had compromising photos of Ducati's CEO stashed away. How else could you explain its continued presence in the line-up? It didn't sell well and its feet forward, cruiser-esque styling seemed out of kilter with the rest of Ducati's all-action range. So, when the XDiavel quietly disappeared in 2023 we thought that was it. Mr Domenicali had got his incriminating pictures back and the wily old cruiser bit the dust. But no. Here it is again with a V4 engine, a fresh look and a new emphasis on ‘medium range touring’. The old bike's 1262cc V-twin motor is replaced by the V4 from the latest Multistrada, giving it 166bhp at 10,750rpm and 93 lb.ft of torque – enough to…

It seems quite odd to be writing about an inline four-cylinder engine. Odd because for so long the layout personified the idea of the Universal Japanese Motorcycle and was the go-to layout, yet now everyone seems to favour parallel twins, or V4s, or triples instead. And especially when one of the greatest in collective memory – and the unit still considered a benchmark – is the Suzuki GSX-R1000 K5. I remember talking to Rupert Paul when he had one after it was launched. He was frothing about it in a very true-bike-enthusiast (and not just bike journalist) sort of way. It seemed an ideal blend of attributes for the (bloomin’ fast) road rider – power and torque were just so. How? The K5 represented both the application of sensible new…

Blackbirds are remarkable value for money, very well engineered (I'm an engineer by trade), very stable, quiet, and handle well if you fit the right tyres (I like Mitas Touring Forces). I've rebuilt 17 – I buy them in different states of disrepair and then work on them until they're right. I love them. I modify mine with VFR ‘bars and seat, because the standard seat is too narrow and gets uncomfortable after about 40 minutes. Now I can be in the saddle for six hours with no bum-ache at all. Also, if you don't thrash it you can get 300 miles out of a brimmed tank. The engines are pretty bulletproof unless you wheelie them – it has a wet sump, so it will pick up air and can…

Honda's New Rider programme offers a complete package to get folk on two wheels. It includes everything: CBT, training at one of the many Approved Honda training schools all over the country, your tests, a new motorbike and even the riding kit. The whole lot is then bundled into monthly payments, with the bike on PCP and everything else on an RUL (restricted use loan). Taking a CB500 Hornet as an example, after a deposit of £1041.40 the caboodle comes in at £133.83 per month for 36 months. That's for the whole shooting match: training, tests, new clobber, spanking-fresh bike. Honda also have a ‘Level Up’ scheme. Book with one of their approved schools to upgrade from A1 to an A2 licence, or A2 to a full A licence, and…

Diving down into a valley, the tight road ahead is unknown. The view over the hedgerows is not one I'm familiar with, and as the narrow tarmac twists through the centre of a farmyard the cows give me a look that says ‘and who are you?’. This genuinely feels like I could be anywhere. Except that, well… I'm not actually being particularly adventurous. In fact, if I hopped the gate and toddled to the top of the curiously pointy hill in the next field, I could probably see where I live. According to the trip meter on the Moto Guzzi V85 TT, I've only covered four miles since I left my drive. Yet despite having lived in the same village for the past 20 years, despite going past it probably…

Honda are good at piggybacking, plagiarising, flat-out copying, and generally working their position as the pre-eminent big dog in the corporate two-wheeled bear pit. They also invent. And when they do, the result is invariably very, very good. So it was with the 1986 CN250. Variously, depending on sales territory, the Helix, Fusion or Spazio (as in Italian for space, as in room, not the Milky Way), this 244cc automatic redefined step-thru scootering for the time, and for all time. Its competition at the high end of scooter engine capacity at the time was from Italian firms Lambretta and Vespa, both with 200cc two-strokes. Cult scoots, severely outdated, never outmoded, yet relics of the 1950s. The CN was a revolution. The almost recumbent riding position was the first indicator this…

METALWORK This is what Yuichi is famous for – he beat out the shape of the tank, tail piece, front mudguard and rear hugger. REAR END The swingarm is standard, but the rear wheel is from an R nineT. The rear shock is now Öhlins. ENGINE Yuichi wisely left the 1649cc inline six-cylinder motor alone – at 160bhp it hardly needed more power. He did make his own exhaust system though. FRAME The huge standard beam frame is replaced by Yuichi's handmade trellis. BMW's girder forks are replaced by conventional Öhlins. Brakes are by Beringer. ‘Balance between streamlined body and muscular engine’ There are good reasons why only a handful of the world's looniest custom builders have tried to customise BMW's K1600GTL tourer. For a start it's colossal – 348kg,…

‘Clapping my bloomin’ freezing hands in agony – that's my most vivid memory’ Bike: The voice of motorcycling since 1971 Cold hands. Clapping my bloomin’ frozen hands in agony, after lapping the sunny but barely-above-zero Jarama circuit near Madrid in thin racing gloves. That's my most vivid memory of the launch of Kawasaki's GPZ600R, 40 years ago. That's distinctly disrespectful to Kawasaki's hot new challenger of 1985. Because the GPZ600R wasn't merely a quick, sweet-handling four, and arguably the year's best middleweight. It was the model that kick-started the hugely popular 600cc sportsbike category. Kawasaki were on a roll in 1985. The previous year's GPz900R (still with lower-case z back then) had restored the Big K to the top of the performance charts, where rivals included the firm's own GPz1100…

Jagged shards of rock burst free from towering mountains, trying to pierce the sky. Vast lakes, carved into the landscape by epic glaciers tens of thousands of years ago, sparkle and shimmer under the low afternoon sun. Dizzying drops, bucolic vistas and sinuous strips of empty road delicately thread these patchwork worlds together. Snowdonia has the lot. In fact, north Wales is such a breathtaking place to ride that it self-selects as our destination now that spring has sprung. We're heading west for three days and two nights of sports-touring idyll. In the ‘hare’ corner is BMW's S1000XR, a jacked-up superbike with more high-tech tricks than Penn & Teller, prodigious power and a flashy race-rep paint job. And in the ‘tortoise’ corner is Honda's NT1100, an approachable everyday all-rounder carved…

» There are no bungee points (boo), but you can secure a Kriega bag by looping straps on the rear subframe. » Sharing the surfboard-style seat with luggage leaves little room to move around, especially if you are 6ft 1in tall. » The riding position is comfortable enough for hour-long stretches. But after that, you need to get off and walk around. » At steady motorway speed, the 14.5-litre tank gives 160 miles before a ‘low fuel’ warning flashes on the screen. Annoyingly, this warning comes when there are still two bars showing on the fuel gauge. » Above 75mph, the bike delivers noise before it delivers power. It's like a teenager when you ask them to do stuff: ‘Okay, I'm doing it!’ » The heated grips are excellent. »…

Yes, I am the proud owner of a Suzuki GSX-R1000 K6 (same as the K5 apart from the digit). Yes, I have endured years of being called a Gixer Boy, even though I am technically a man. Yes, I did at one point buy blue and white leathers. And no, I will not reveal exactly where on my body I put the obligatory GSX-R tattoo. Why put up with this nonsense stereotyping? Because the K6 is a stunningly fast, mechanically superb motorcycle, available as a used purchase for a pleasingly affordable price. I took this particular K6 for a test ride on an October morning in 2016. I had recently sold a KTM RC8 and was rebounding heavily towards wanting a reliable, stable, powerful superbike with a gearbox that selected…

As an unknown quantity, I wasn't sure what to expect of the CFMoto. As a low-price, Chinese-made version of a KTM, it might be a little… you know… less than premium, perhaps. Yet after a few months I've developed a feeling of sheer smugness. This cat has had the cream with every ride. Here's why… Exclusivity: ‘Ere mate, what the hell is that?’ booms another rider at a petrol station. This isn't the first time the styling and unfamiliar badge have brought out inquisitiveness. After many miles I've never seen another – and I love that. Design-wise, it's a cocktail of inspirations for the crayon wielder at Kiska Design (who do KTM shapes and colours). Hints of Honda, KTM, Ducati and MV are all present, yet the 800 still has…

‘People take to the 500 well because of the way we train them,’ says Roadcraft's Leanna Moore. ‘We keep riders on a 125 for longer than most other schools – a lot of schools will do CBT and then the very next lesson transfer the person onto a big bike. We don't do it like that anymore. ‘We train riders for longer on a 125, until they show the consistency we're looking for. We're looking for machine control: they need to be consistently smooth, whether that's clutch, throttle, or using the brakes. We find the transition from 125 to 500cc is really easy – there are no wide-eyed moments because they've perfected their skills, and the way we transfer them with an intensive car park session [on the 500] makes…