Bike news

GILERA is expected to unveil a new 600cc sports bike at the Milan Show in September. Italian scooter giant Piaggio, Gilera’s parent company, has confirmed plans to reveal its first big bike since the...

THE sound of a race bike at full chat is pretty exciting when you’re stood behind one as it flies past in a race. It’s even better if you manage to wangle your way into the paddock and get behind one...

IT’S not every day you get the chance to ride two new British motorcycles for the first time. And when they’re bikes like this, it’s an even more novel experience. The latest models from...

KAWASAKI is working on a tourer which is destined to rival Yamaha’s all-new FJR1300. A new bike, thought to be called the ZZ-R1200, will be 2002’s answer to Yamaha’s 145bhp tourer, which has attracted...

IT’S more than a decade since the term EXUP (Exhaust Ultimate Powervalve) entered the bikers’ vocabulary. Back then, most riders knew it was something to do with the exhaust and that it helped power.

OVERRIDING your natural survival instincts is one of the toughest things a human can ever do.As a species, we’ve spent thousands of yearsrelying on our innateself-preservation instincts to get us home...

THIS is the first picture of the biggest-capacity four-cylinder bike Suzuki has ever made – the new 2001 GSX1400.The photo appears to have been leaked from Suzuki’s own press material, which is due to...

MODIFIED R1s can be found at every pub meet in the country, but few are as desirable as QB Carbon's Yamaha. More than £12,000 has been lavished on the bike to turn it into the ultimate R1 - and it's...

HINDSIGHT is a marvellous thing. How many times have you bought a bike – or any product for that matter – only to find a glaring fault become noticeable after a few months? Wouldn’t it be great if you...

By Steve FarrellDESPITE its best efforts, MZ is still best known to most people as a manufacturer of stinking, low-tech commuter bikes. But now it has its sights set firmly on superbike riders – and...

HONDA is to mark the 40th anniversary of the Monkey bike by creating an up-to-date version of one of the strangest and best-loved machines ever made. In standard form, the bike should be capable of...

FEW Kawasaki ZX-12R or Honda Blackbird owners can honestly say they need more power - but that hasn't stopped the development of two kits to give both bhp beyond belief. American tuner Muzzy has come...

SUZUKI'S GSX-R1000 is hardly lacking when it comes to performance, but that hasn't stopped tuning firm Harris working its magic on one of the first bikes in the country. This GSX-R, which will be...

MOUNT ETNA in Sicily is an active volcano and, at 2000 metres high, it’s also the tallest in Europe.It erupted only last year and almost always has a plume of smoke boldly rising from its crater. So...

IT looks like a scooter, behaves like a motorcycle and has the kind of name you’d associate with a giant-sized hot beverage from a burger joint. Say hello to Yamaha’s Tmax – a new concept in...

THE rider in front disappears from view. I lean the bike into the chicane before the start-finish straight, feeling the racing wets digging in. The bike boots it out of the first-gear corner, lifting...

DAVE is a thief, and he can nick your bike in less than 20 seconds. He’ll steal it to order and then flog it to someone who can either change its identity and re-sell it, or dismantle it and sell the...

PRETEND for a moment you’re a race bike – no, don’t run away, I haven’t gone mad. I just want to try and explain to you how tough a season’s racing is.The chances are you own or have ridden a bike in...

THEY’RE used in World Superbikes and Formula One racing cars, and your road bike could have one in a few years. What are they? Semi-automatic gearboxes, that’s what. We know that Ducati will be using...

YOU’RE stood at the side of the track. It’s quiet other than the rustle of the wind in the grass. The people around you have all fallen silent in anticipation. Away to your right you hear the familiar...

THERE’S an orange bike, a red bike, a purple bike, a green bike and, of course, a blue and white bike. They’re all parked up on paddock stands with mechanics milling around them, fitting tyre warmers...

MOST of us go touring in summer. But if there’s one time when you should really try something different on your bike, it’s autumn. This is the time of year when heavy-duty gloves come out of the...

I’VE ridden plenty of Suzuki GSX-R750s in my time. But the number two on the front of this one marks it out as being Very Special Indeed. And I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.You see, the...

THERE have been some great British motorcycles over the years. Triumph’s Bonneville, Norton’s Commando, BSA’s Dandy (well, maybe not). But, even in light of the very latest machines like Triumph’s...

FEW people in the world will ever get to look at, let alone hear, ride or even own an MV Agusta Series Oro. Only 50 of the magnesium-laced " gold " series bikes have ever been built. All...

I’M sitting in a jammed-up one-way system, snicking the gearbox into neutral. The idling engine’s heat is starting to make its way through my jeans.Traffic jams are an annoyance on most bikes,...

IT was all a bit ironic. Here I was in the middle of Germany, howling along on an exotic FireBlade-engined bike I had travelled halfway across Europe to ride. But along with its Japanese-made engine,...

IT was just like gazing at the stars. The more I looked, the more I saw. Except this wasn’t the sky. This was a very special Honda SP-1. And instead of seeing planets, I was gawping at a machine which...

TRACKDAY bikes – R1s, Blades, GSX-Rs, 916s, BMWs. Er, excuse me? Let’s try that one again. Track day bikes – R1s, Blades, GSX-Rs, 916s… BMWs?Surely Munich’s big Boxers are designed to clock up the...

FITTING an aftermarket silencer or complete exhaust system is the most common modification we make to our bikes. We do it to add a bit more power and personality, and to shed a bit of weight.But, as...

FOR some people, enough is never enough. Mountaineers always want to climb higher mountains, athletes always want a quicker time and those strange people who try to set world records by eating...

LIGHTWEIGHT wheels are standard equipment on race bikes. But how much difference could they make to our own machines? They are certainly more than an expensive pose. They can reduce the unsprung...

MISTAKE: ASSUMING DRIVERS CAN’T/WON’T ATTEMPT THE SAME OVERTAKE AS YOUHOW many times have you gone to overtake a slow-moving vehicle only to have a car pull out from the queue behind it to attempt the...

THE CBR600 rider in the distance is scything through the pine-lined canyon switchbacks.His mind is set on one thing – trying to put as much distance between himself and the bike screaming up behind...