Royal Enfield Himalayan

Review: 2018 Royal Enfield Himalayan

Originally published in Slipstream magazine, November 2018. Remember when the Dacia Sandero first launched in the UK? It made a big splash in the automotive press and even beyond; an actual, proper car for just £6,000 brand new. With the competition priced close to three times that amount, it was no surprise that a lot of people…

Review: 2018 Harley-Davidson Sport Glide

Those of you who have been following this mini-series will have discovered that while mid-capacity scooters tick a lot of practical boxes, they don’t provide a visceral low-speed experience to augment a sight-seeing tour through Scandinavia. Given that a feet-forward riding position is on my checklist this time around my next area of exploration was…

Review: 2019 Triumph Bonneville T120 & Speed Twin

Triumph‘s motorcycle range has crystallised into just three paths in recent years. When you walk into a dealership, you must first choose if you want practicality (‘Adventure‘), performance (‘Roadsters‘) or style (the ‘Modern Classics‘). Having funnelled their customers into ever-narrower pigeon-holes, there’s lately been little recourse for someone who would like to combine elements from…

BMW R1250GS

Review: 2018 BMW R1250GS

Henry Ford is said to have opined that, should he have asked people what they wanted from a future transport solution they would have simply requested a faster horse. Apple famously made its fortune delivering products that nobody knew they wanted, and it’s arguable that the original BMW R80GS did the same thing. Journalists at…

Review: 2016 Ducati X-Diavel

When Ducati’s original Diavel was revealed at the end of 2010, pretty much everyone thought the Italian firm had utterly lost the plot. It looked a bit like a cruiser, but packed a 160bhp 1200cc engine borrowed from the 1198 sportsbike and could accelerate, brake and go around corners in a way that completely surprised…

Review: 2016 Yamaha Tracer 700

  In many ways, the development and subsequent announcement of this motorcycle was an inevitability. More and more manufacturers are embracing platform sharing as a way to reduce both the costs and risks of bringing an extended range of models to market. After the tremendous critical and commercial success of the MT-09 and it’s half-faired version the Tracer 900,…

Review: 2016 Yamaha MT-10

In 2009 Yamaha broke from accepted form by equipping their range-topping litre bike with a cross-plane crank, delivering the sound and power-delivery of a V4 in an inline-four package. For bikers bored with more than a decade of howling exhaust notes it was a breath of fresh air, adding a much-needed bit of aural variety. Since then, more road-oriented riders have…

Review: 2016 Honda CRF1000 Africa Twin DCT

So; Honda finally joined the Adventure Bike market for reals. What’s more, they’ve revived a historic name plate, the Africa Twin, to help them punch their way into the biggest, most popular, and most cut-throat competitive market motorcycling has seen in a decade. Time to see if the ADV segment has a new king, or just…