First rides & tests (May 2015)

I’ve just collected my new R1. I’ve had super nakeds for the past few years, so it’s the first race replica I’ve had for a long time. I love super nakeds, but I want to do more trackdays with my mates...

Kawasaki's H2 is the quickest production bike in history, but can it eclipse the Hayabusa and R1 on the ultimate road trip? The Kawasaki H2 is choking on its leash, the throttle straining in my right...

The city commute is a daily marathon of torturous endurance, but has Honda’s new CB125F got the measure of its higher – and lower–priced urban rivals? Three abreast on the start line of the London...

We’re confident the H2R is going to break 200mph; after that we’re into the unknown. We speed tested the road-going Kawasaki H2 just a few weeks ago and it kicked sand in the face of the Suzuki’s...

We're in Alcarras in Spain pitching the special version of the bike that won our recent superbike shoot-out, against two of it's newest rivals.  So here we are; the Yamaha R1M versus the Aprilia...

I’m stood in pitlane with £28,995 of Ducati Panigale R staring at me with barely contained aggression. Opportunities to ride exotica of this calibre are few and far between; make no mistake, this is a...

My intention this year is to ride. Having spent last year working on a customising project that saw my bike spend more time on ramps than it did on the road, this time I want something rideable,...

Run in and ready for the year ahead The Yamaha MT-09 Tracer is already one of the best-selling bikes of the year in the UK with nearly 1500 sold and Yamaha UK searching for another boat load to fulfil...

A Chinese sage once said: “The sparrow may be small but it has all the vital organs” and, as I spend more time with the KTM’s pint-sized supersport, I’m discovering this maxim is pretty much true for...

Those who buy the printed version of MCN that's published today will see me extolling the virtues of the KTM 1050 Adventure, a bike that doesn’t need to be cleaned every time it gets dirty. Running...

The RSV4 was always one of the best road going superbikes because it had really nice handling, it was very agile and had some of the best electronics on any superbike. What it lacked before was...

Ducati’s £28,995 Panigale R is being launched today at Imola, just 48 hours after the World Superbike circus has left the demanding and historic race track. Senior MCN road tester Adam ‘Chad’ Child is...

MCN has finished riding on the world launch of the latest addition to BMW’s S1000 family – the S1000XR, a bike the German manufacturer dubs ‘Adventure Sports’ by blending the ‘DNA’ of its hugely...

Dispatches from the Land of Joy #1. The land of what? Land of Joy… It might sound like a North Korean diktat but it’s Ducati marketing speak for Scrambler ownership and normally the sort of...

MCN is getting ready for the launch of BMW’s latest edition to its high performance S1000 range – the new S1000XR which we’ll be testing near Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday this week. The XR joins the...