Ben Clarke

Assistant Editor (Motorcycling)

I started riding in my late teens when a mate gave me the keys to his '80s Yamaha XT250 and pointed me towards an empty field. I took my direct access at 21 before embarking on a 13,500-mile tour across the USA and down through Central America three months later.

This crash-course (quite literally a few times) started in Miami and finished in Panama City and took in just about every type of terrain you can imagine; from the racetrack-smooth bends of California’s Pacific Coast Highway to the depths of Nicaragua’s forests.

Whether track riding, long distance touring, off-roading or a simple Sunday blast, I love all kinds of riding and will give anything a go for the sake of a good story. Since joining MCN in 2018, I've been to knee-down school, gone off-roading with James Bond stuntmen and ridden tens of thousands of miles on test bikes.

For 2023, I have been riding a BMW M1000R, which I took for a blast up the German autobahn to Motorrad Days in Berlin in the summer. My previous long-term test bikes include a Honda CBR650R, Yamaha Ténéré 700, Kawasaki ZX-10R and Indian FTR S and I own a seriously neglected 2001 ‘curvy’ Suzuki SV650.

Contact me by email here, follow me on Twitter/X here and Instagram here.