Originally published in Slipstream magazine, February 2018. It’s been another year of launches, announcements and behind-the-scenes news from the global Motorcycle Industry. Some of it is business as usual, still more represents continuing trends, but beneath it all lies evidence of growing bewilderment and panic amongst the world’s top manufacturers that evidences itself in almost everything…
Has it really been that long? Yes, it’s been a whole 26 months – that’s more than two years – since I last posted a piece to BoyMeetsBike. Like many of my reviews, I still refer back to the piece I wrote on the Ducati X-Diavel; it’s a useful way to remind myself what exactly…
One of the key advantages that proponents of motorcycling will claim when trying to persuade a non-believer to join the church of leather and textiles is that a motorcycle is a much, much cheaper way to get around than a car. They’ll also claim that it’s a lot more enjoyable, but that’s very much subjective.…
I’ve come to the unpleasant conclusion that if you want to split motorcycling into groups, I’d very much end up in the very small category marked “other”. And while stereotypically people seem to think of motorcyclists as an “other” all on their own, motorcycling can be a very sociable experience. After all, go to a motorcycle…
Motorcycling has a problem. I’m not sure if it’s historic, or indifference, or simply acceptance that this is how things are, but when it comes to fuel efficiency, motorcycles are just terrible. In a world where many small cars can now achieve 60 miles per gallon (UK) in real-world day-to-day driving, how is 45mpg “pretty good” for a tiny,…
The title’s a little dramatic, perhaps, but then it was a dramatic crash. Filtering along stationary traffic after work one day, no traffic coming the other way, 10-15mph, carefully watching the line of cars ahead for hints of gaps or turning wheels that might signal calamity. Up ahead, a gap – possibly a junction. I begin rolling…
It feels to me like motorcycling has suddenly been split in two, torn down the middle by the two camps heading in opposite directions. And while I appreciate and enjoy all forms of motorcycling, I’m genuinely surprised about where I’m finding myself planting my flag. You see, motorcycling has been getting more and more sophisticated…
Do you remember buying your first bike? If you’re anything like me, and you got involved when you were relatively young, then you scraped together what little money you had for the bike, the gear, and the insurance, and were already out the door before the ink had dried on the documents. You then proceeded…
Motorcycles are what got me interested in photography. And, as a result, most of my photo library is pictures of bikes, both mine and those of other people. If you’re a petrolhead or interested in bikes, then you’ve probably had a picture of a really nice bike on your desktop wallpaper at some point, and…
It has been well documented that I have a long, long list of bikes that I’d love to walk into a showroom, plonk down my credit card, and pick up the keys for. It’s tantalising to imagine riding out of the dealership on a brand new Street Triple and doing wheelies all the way down…
