Índex per 19 February 2020 a MCN

Last Thursday, MCN spoke face-to-face with some of the ordinary people who look set to lose huge amounts of money after investing their pension pots into Norton Motorcycles. In an unusual move, the Pensions Ombudsman invited Norton boss and former trustee of these pension schemes, Stuart Garner, to a special hearing to give him the chance to explain in person to the 30 claimants about where their money had gone. But he didn’t show up and instead left them with yet more uncertainty and unanswered questions. When you add this to the potentially hundreds of riders who’ve lost deposits or full payments for machines they never received, or the numerous bikes that were taken back to the factory to have warranty work only for them to be stripped of their…

The Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show took over the ExCeL exhibition centre last weekend, treating nearly 40,000 bikers to more than 300 of the latest and greatest machines. Amongst them was the exclusive AMB 001, a tie-up between British legend Brough Superior and supercar brand, Aston Martin. “I’d seen the pictures online, but I don’t think they do it any justice,” Sam Saich, 42, from Dagenham, told MCN. “I like the paint as well. I don’t think I could see that in any other colour. It’s got the Aston Martin ethos all over it.” This was echoed by Adam Apostol, 42, from Hemel Hempstead, who said: “It’s beautiful – it’s really Aston Martin-ish! I really like that lower sidepanel, too – it’s like sportscar styling, but I wouldn’t want…

A hard-hitting police video has been released in a bid to cut bike crime and stop scooter thieves terrorising the UK’s streets. The short video is part of the Metropolitan Police’s ‘Lock, Chain, Cover’ initiative and shows just how much crime can be committed on a stolen machine in one day. The animation shows a stolen scooter used in several crimes including phone snatches, a ram raid on a jewellery shop and fuel theft. The spree is finally brought to an end when officers use tactical contact to stop the offenders in their tracks. The force says the video highlights the importance of securing your vehicle properly to deter thieves and “shows how a stolen machine can be used to commit multiple crimes around London affecting several victims.” It also…

1 Engine 647cc 4v single is basically a copy of the old Honda Dominator unit producing 40bhp @ 6000rpm and with a five-speed gearbox. 2 Suspension X-Ride is first MASH with monoshock rear and a beefy, box-section swingarm. Front is conventional telescopics. 3 Styling White/red livery with black engine and gold rims is a modern take on 1976 Yamaha XT500 – as is that of Ducati’s Desert Sled. 4 Brakes Front stopper is a 320mm disc grasped by a radially-mounted four-piston caliper. There’s a 240mm disc at the rear. 5 Show not go? Despite style, off-road ability will be hampered by fairly high weight (169kg) and 17-inch wheels – still be a laugh, though. Fancy classic ’70s Yamaha XT500 or even retro Ducati Scrambler style…

If the BMW was able to ride the route at anything close to its 50mpg claimed fuel consumption, it would theoretically beat the 1260 Enduro by around 10 extra miles. But it can only manage 43mpg, dropping its tank range to just over 200 miles. The Ducati manages a similar 40mpg, so it’s no surprise it keeps running longer with a bigger fuel load. So why does the BMW fare so badly with its fuel consumption? Easy – it’s asked to perform at the same pace as an enthusiastic Ducati Multistrada; and it needs the same amount of fuel to do it. Efficient bikes are only efficient when they’re ridden efficiently. If the average speed on the test had been closer to 40mph, the GSA would’ve have fared better. So…

New term, new challenge After getting the school’s go-ahead, Andy set up ‘Engine Club’ in September 2017 with a view to race in the following year’s Bemsee Formula 400 Sub-64 class (for four-cylinder 400s producing less than 64bhp). Donington Park 2018 The bike took pole with rider Keith Povah first time out. Unfortunately, a first corner incident destroyed the bike, undoing all their hard work. New year, new class The club moved up to the ‘Open Class’ for 2019. A complete rebuild later, Keith took two second places before grabbing victory on Sunday. Silverstone bound For 2020 Andy and his band of students have set their sights on the Silverstone International meeting in early April. With Keith now ruled out of the riding, Andy looks set to ‘throw a leg…

Lovers of good value motorcycles have always had a soft spot for the V-Strom. Since it first appeared in 2002, the V-twin has unashamedly occupied the territory beneath the adventure bike class leaders, winning sales from down-to-earth riders who didn’t fancy paying an extra £2000 for a BMW GS that was only marginally better than the Suzuki. This new £11,299 V-Strom 1050XT aims to play the same trick, with updates bringing it close to the equipment levels of the class champs while still drastically undercutting their prices. But does it work? 1 Friskier engine The V-Strom’s 1037cc 90° V-twin is fundamentally unchanged – it’s the same capacity as the old motor, despite the new ‘1050’ name implying a hike. But Suzuki had to make it more efficient to get it…

Where did that go? One minute I was waiting with great excitement for the arrival of the mighty Scrambler 1200XE, and seemingly the next, I was watching it being loaded into the back of a van going back to Triumph. Eleven and a half months and 9000 miles have not only flown by, but have also gone without hitch - well, with the exception of a puncture, but that wasn’t the bike’s fault. Triumph got the 2019 Scrambler 1200XE just right, their first bite at the scrambler apple back in 2006 with the 900 Bonnie-based version produced a model that was heavy and lacking in pace. Fast forward back to the present, the new Scrambler, with its 1200cc engine, pulls like a train, meanwhile the chassis and suspension help deliver…

Ex-BSB star James Ellison will make his roads racing debut at the 2020 North West 200. The vastly-experienced 39-year-old was runner-up in the 2009 BSB series and competed successfully in MotoGP, WSB, World Endurance and AMA. “I’ve wanted to do the North West for many years,” he explained as he attended the newcomer’s induction for the Northern Irish road race last week. “I wasn’t able to race there earlier in my career because I was tied up in other race series. This year I’m only committed to World Endurance.” And he says a chance encounter led to his decision to race on the roads. “When my friend and sponsor Brad Clarke told me he was entering the 2020 North West I said I would spanner for him,” Ellison said. “But…

Sam Lowes’ preparations for the 2020 Moto2 season have been dealt a huge blow after the Brit injured his right shoulder testing at Jerez. The 29-year-old Brit crashed on the second day of the test and was taken to the hospital where it was revealed that he’d suffered a fracture and dislocation to his right shoulder along with ruptured ligaments. Lowes will now miss the official test at Jerez this week and is unlikely to feature at the Qatar test later this month. But despite the setback, he remains characteristically positive. “Luckily my winter training programme went really well, and I’ve been feeling good with my fitness,” he told MCN. “My rehabilitation starts immediately and I’ve been in the oxygen chamber, alongside physio and working on my mobility. It might…

Valentino Rossi says Yamaha made a risky but correct call promoting hot shot Fabio Quartararo (right) into its factory team for 2021 – even if the move came at his expense. If Rossi decides to race on next year, he will have to move to Yamaha’s Petronas SRT satellite team, with the factory squad featuring Quartararo and Maverick Viñales. Quartararo was the rookie sensation of 2019 with seven podiums and six poles and to fend off interest from Ducati, Yamaha recently confirmed his switch to the factory squad. Rossi has admitted he fully understood Yamaha’s eagerness to sign Quartararo and said: “Yamaha made the right choice because last year Quartararo was impressive for everybody. People in the paddock knew that Quartararo could be competitive – but not like this. He…

While we used to save up for years, or take out a personal loan or straight finance, the greatest number of financed new bikes are now bought on PCP. Why? MCN readers who’ve done it mainly cite one of two reasons: cost, or ease. The overall outlay is certainly less with PCP; as long as you don’t pay that final balloon figure (which means you never actually own the bike). Equally, if you want to change bikes during the contract period or even swap brands during the process, that’s pretty easy, too. This flexibility and low monthly outlay makes PCP about as close to a win-win situation as you’re ever likely to get where motorcycles and bank balances are involved. But it might not be right for you, so make…

Ducati Multistrada 1260 S GT 1262cc | 209kg | 155bhp | 825/845mm Cash price £19,041Deposit £4770.86Mileage 5000pa Rate 7.5%APROptional final payment £9407 New for 2020, the Grand Tour is (as its name suggests) a fully-loaded Multistrada S that has everything you could ever need for a serious trip away. It is, as Ducati claim, a bike for those who love to travel without compromise. The Testastretta DVT motor has bags of grunt and you get panniers, an exclusive seat and a four-year warranty. Kawasaki Versys 1000 SE GT 1043cc | 257kg | 118bhp | 840mm Cash price £16,445Deposit £2464.06Mileage 4000pa Rate 6.3%APROptional final payment £7412 The Versys is a great adventure-tourer with a creamy 1043cc inline four and in SE Grand Tourer spec comes with hard luggage, engine guards, handguards,…

Ducati Diavel 1260 1262cc | 218kg | 157bhp | 780mm Cash price £17,141Deposit £4160.91Mileage 5000pa Rate 7.5%APROptional final payment £7956 Updated with fresh paint schemes and the introduction of a Dark Stealth look, the Diavel 1260 strikes a balance between looking cool and yet still performing in a way most uncharacteristic for a cruiser style of bike. A real head-turner of a machine, the Ducati is certainly something to be seen on as well as great fun to ride. Harley-Davidson Superlow* 883cc | 258kg | 52.3bhp | 705mm Cash price £9045 Deposit £ 1973.18 Mileage 3000pa Rate 9.9% APR Optional final payment £5325 This is the entry-level Sportster 883 with a low seat height, and aimed at less experienced or shorter riders. If you want the ‘real thing’ on a…

Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman may have completed their latest ‘Long Way…’ adventure, reaching LA in December after setting off from South America in September aboard electric Harley LiveWires, but it seems the journey was anything but trouble-free. With the TV series yet to air, details about the trip have been scarce as Harley attempt to keep the story quiet ahead of the screening. But Hollywood actor Ewan has been discussing the journey on US chat shows which appear to indicate the electric bikes created their own unique problems. Speaking to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show last week, McGregor revealed that after the electric bikes ran out of charge the duo had to knock on strangers’ doors to ask for help in recharging them and even get tows! ‘The…

When #ride5000miles member Nigel Hart learned he had prostate cancer two years ago he used his love of biking to boost his recovery. “I had always pined for a motorbike, but my wife had always said ‘no’,” Nigel explained. “Then, within the space of a few days in the summer of 2017, I heard that two of my friends had received devastating diagnoses. “I was in a bad state when I got off the phone and my wife took one look at me and said: ‘Go and buy your bike.’” A week later, Nigel had a Honda CB125F in the garage. Three months later, he had passed his test and purchased a Triumph Tiger 1050. Nigel found the Tiger hard to hold up and experienced a couple of tumbles, before…

This is Indian’s new ‘Elite’ version of its range-topping full-dresser, the Roadmaster. Costing £9300 extra, the Elite has a unique, two-tone paintjob which, Indian says, takes over 30 hours to complete and finish by hand. There’s also special, machined alloy wheels, colour-matched pushrod tubes on the 1890cc ThunderStroke V-twin plus an uprated 600W ‘PowerBand Audio Plus’ system that’s 50% louder than standard. Helping to select those blaring tunes is Indian’s latest Ride Command system with a seven inch glove-friendly screen complete with sat-nav, LED lighting, heated grips and even dual heated leather seats!…

HONDA ATC 110 My sister Kirsty on my first bike, an ATC Honda 110, in 1979. Our dad Mick raced the 250R version in 1982. Richard Scott YAMAHA RD250 My 1978 Yamaha RD250. I loved this bike from the brilliant, late 1970s two-stroke era! Steve Wright GARELLI TIGER CROSS My brother Charlie in a classic 1970s picture! Annie French YAMAHA PW50 This is my son Noah, 5, getting his first bike, a Yamaha PW50, for Christmas, in hero Valentino Rossi’s colours! Jon Hargreaves TRIUMPH SCRAMBLER I passed my test at 54 and aim to keep my first bike forever! Peter Dunham YAMAHA V50 My first bike with my dad c.1996, a Yamaha V50 which got me into bikes. Dad passed when I was 17. I hope he’s proud. Donald Barclay…

Contrasting styles from Ducati and BMW, with Ducati black on white and BMW white on black (the Ducati can be inverted if you wish). The BMW’s is the more sparse standard dash, and the more colourful and modern – but the Ducati manages to cram more info without looking cluttered. The BMW’s trip, av. speed and mpg, range and other settings can only be scrolled individually; the Ducati’s show more info at once. Both bikes use pictograms of the bike to illustrate various parameters and settings. DUCATI DUCATI SWITCHGEAR Backlit for night viewing gets an extra star. A simple scrolling button, and a long and short push-to-enter button deliver a dazzling array of options. BMW BMW SWITCHGEAR BMW’s scroll wheel is good, but easy to toggle in error when pressing…

For those not of a scientific disposition, the mere mention of physics and maths conjures up images of sweaty palms and sterile classrooms littered with equations and scientific trinkets you were never quite what to do with. However, at The Park School in Yeovil they do things differently – bringing physics to life through the medium of motorcycle racing. Led by the school’s Head of Physics, Andy Gill, the school’s ‘Engine Club’ sees five Year 10 and 11 students strip and rebuild a Kawasaki ZXR400 racer, before entering it at a round with the British Motorcycle Racing Club. “When you teach physics it can sometimes be sterile when it’s in a room and you don’t link it to anything that the students can see, or that excites them,” Andy told…

‘It howls like a tuned racer on the throttle’ So, what’s it like to light the fuse on a 197bhp supercharged super naked? Mental, is the obvious answer, but then you’d probably guessed that because the Kawasaki Z H2 is the most powerful naked we’ve ever swung a leg over… for now. The 205bhp Ducati Streetfighter V4 and MV Agusta Brutale RR are coming soon. Supercharged madness Why a super naked needs to have quite so much power is unclear, but we salute Kawasaki for giving us so much of it. Making just 3bhp less than the ZX-10R, the Z H2 force-feeds your senses with unrelenting, genuine superbike levels of acceleration when you hammer its monstrous motor through the gears. Addictive, and something you never quite acclimatise to, the Kawasaki…

‘I was always going to go back and have another go’ When lying in a hospital bed with a life-threatening brain tumour and about to undergo 16 hours of complex surgery, not many of us ordinary folk would put competing in the Dakar Rally – the world’s toughest motorcycle race - at the forefront of our minds. But that’s exactly what Mick Extance did back in December 2017 as a way of maintaining motivation and a focus to pull him through what would be a long and intense recovery. While he’s not exactly a household name, the 57-year-old former British Enduro champion is the most successful British rider in Dakar history in terms of finishes. In 2009, he finished 26th and he has consistently been one of the top privateers…

HOW TO POSITION FOR A HAZARD 1. VIEW FINDER Scan the road and roadside to identify potential hazards, then prioritise avoiding any imminent threats with positioning. 2. MOVE AWAY Move away from the danger to give yourself as much space as possible. 3. SAFETY ZONE Changing your road position to move away from the hazard will also create movement so the driver is more likely to see you. 4. PREP TO ACT Reduce your speed and balance your clutch, throttle and rear brake, so you can change your line or stop if necessary. 5. MOVE ON Once past the hazard you can start concentrating on the next. Remember, your priorities may be subject to change.…

Getting your licence can seem like just another box to tick, but the new-found freedom that comes from a full Category A pass can lead to a whole world of adventure. Army officer and MCN reader Steve McGlynn discovered just that when he first took to two wheels 18 months ago. “My driving experience includes pretty much everything you can expect in the Army,” says Steve, “and achieving a bike licence was the last thing on my list. It’s been a very steep learning curve, but in many ways it has given me the most satisfaction.” Steve’s first bike was a Yamaha MT-125, which he bought to gain experience between his CBT and test. “I chose the Yam as it was physically the biggest of the bunch,” he says. “I…

Why do we ride? For the sensations. Yes, bikes offer traffic-beating abilities and economy, but the truth is that a bike delivers sensations no other vehicle offers – balancing through corners, feel through the controls, acceleration, wind blast. And the sound of a bike is right up there. The engine is the heart of any machine, and what the sound of its beats does to your emotions really matters. Here’s our pick for used aural excellence... £2500 TRIUMPH T595 955cc |188kg |125bhp |815mm seat height • Dealer up to £4000 • Private up to £3000 • This one 1998, 20,000 miles Triumph’s inline three-cylinder engines have been described as haunting, wailing, grinding and droning. But until you ride one you can never really appreciate the aural texture and ever-changing…

1 Calipers need care A brake caliper contains moving parts which are exposed to road grime and so need regular cleaning and servicing. Prior to overhauling, remove the calipers from the bike by removing caliper bolts, cracking banjo bolts and carefully draining brake fluid before removing lines. When purchasing new parts, ensure you buy OE-spec seals as replacements. 2 Pull out the pads With the calipers removed from the bike, next you need to take out the old brake pads from inside – if the pad material is worn past its limit then now is a good time to replace them with new ones. Make a note of how the pads are retained – there is often a pin that goes through both the pad and a sprung anti-rattle shim.…

‘Once bitter rivals their relationship has mellowed immensely’ Petronas SRT team bosses have refused to rule out forming a sensational dream team in 2021 featuring Yamaha MotoGP legends Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. The Malaysian squad is Rossi’s only option to race on with Yamaha beyond 2020 after it was confirmed last month that his official factory seat will go to French star Fabio Quartararo next season. The Italian has already said that should he delay his retirement he’d be happy to switch to the Petronas-backed squad, which currently fields Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli. That declaration came after the nine-times champion confirmed he hasn’t the financial backing to run his own squad under his VR46 banner. And Lorenzo’s name has now also been linked with Petronas, with some hinting the…

Ducati Monster 797 803cc | 196kg | 74bhp | 835mm Cash price £8141Deposit £2042.91Mileage 5000pa Rate 4.9%APROptional final payment £3964 Stylish, fun, and simple; it’s great to see Ducati have kept an air-cooled two-valve engine in a Monster package. There’s no traction control, but you do get the excellent Bosch 9.1MP ABS module and Brembo M4.32 calipers. The frame is a pleasing tubular steel trellis affair and the 16.5-litre tank is also steel. A great way into Ducati. BMW S1000R 999cc | 205kg | 162bhp | 814mm Cash price £11,570Deposit £2037.13Mileage 5000pa Rate 5.9%APROptional final payment £5631.82 The S1000R is a stripped-down pre-ShiftCam S1000RR and comes boasting the kind of power figures that are guaranteed to give your neck muscles a workout. However, as well as being totally bonkers to…

This wacky, leaning four-wheeler, powered by a 998cc Yamaha R1 motor, is the latest creation from French custom builder Ludovic Lazareth – and if you’ve a spare €100,000 (£84,116) you can have one. The LM 410 is the latest in a long line of extreme Lazareth machines. A previous one, the LM 847, featured a 470bhp Maserati V8 car engine and caused a sensation at the Geneva Motor Show. With that machine proving impossible to gain approval for road use, Lazareth decided to build this slightly toned-down, R1-powered version with 10 models being offered to the public. He said: “The LM 410 uses the visual signature of the LM 847 but is much more conventional. It was designed to be lighter, more manageable and accessible to as many people as…

Forget the tech and just get riding Am I the only motorcyclist left in the world who doesn’t give a monkey’s about colour TFT dashes? Is this all people have got to talk about? Has the bike industry become so boring that the instrument display has become the most important feature on a motorbike. Hey… I’ve got an idea for a great invention – how about producing a set of rollers to support the rear wheel? Then we can all rev our bikes in the garden and play with our phones, apps, intercoms and other worthless technology and not have the inconvenience of actually going for a ride. What a load of b*******! Paul Bredael, email Dry roasted nuts? How very naughty of Martin Fitz-Gibbons to be photographed sitting astride…

What a proposition it would be to see Rossi and Lorenzo as teammates again. Two old sparring partners who have won 14 championships between them. It’s a PR dream and would be a master-stroke by Yamaha. ‘AT THE END OF THE DAY NOBODY IS TOO OLD TO LEARN’ These are two riders that haven’t forgotten how to do it, so win lose or draw they’d be a major draw! And if I was running MotoGP I’d be working to pull it together immediately. We’ve all seen how well satellite teams can work, look at Zarco – he was fast at Tech3 Yamaha and then went into an official team and it all went wrong. I can see Rossi working well in a satellite team and he could also hide behind…

It’s Britain’s best road test route. A tough 250-mile mix of A and B- roads, a stretch of motorway, plus plenty of towns, villages, blind corners, ballistic straights, and a huge range of grippy to slippy tarmac. There are two cafés, an off-road section for adventure and trail bikes, track time for sportsbikes when needed and Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground and the dyno for hard and fast data when needed. You want answers? We’ve got ’em. 1 Tank commanders With 30 Italian litres on one side of the pump to fill, a bone dry 1260 Enduro costs nearly £40 to brim from empty. That’s never going to be less than a shock when putting fuel in a bike. The BMW’s 23 German litres cost a tenner less at almost £30…

After the hectic chaos of the run around Northampton, peeling off the A43 at Silverstone and heading cross country to pick up the M40 at Junction 11 is the first real chance the bikes have had to get into their stride on a classic stretch of middle-England back lane. This is where steering accuracy counts as we thread a straight line along a gently undulating, winding tarmac snake across the fields and between hedges. The air is ripe with the promise of spring, hopefully not too distant – and the Ducati is magnificent, engine muscle creasing the air with subsonic waves like a pounding drum and fantastic 21st century chassis tech conducting its percussive soundtrack. I could do this all day, every day, forever. Behind, the GS hangs gamely on,…

The Dakar Rally may be the world’s toughest race to ride but it’s also one of the most expensive to enter. Entries start at £15,000 – and that’s just to get you and your bike in the event! “Then you’ve obviously got other costs on top of that,” says Mick. “If you were to buy a KTM 450 EXC-F and convert it into a rally bike, that’ll cost you £15,000 but a proper rally bike is nearer £30,000. You’re looking at a minimum of £50,000 to do the Dakar once you’ve included a spares package and tyres.” Mick bought his KTM with his own money from a dealer and then spent months making modifications which include the GPS and road book, K-Tech suspension, a 19-litre fuel tank at the front…

‘Like Germany’s B500 it was built for pleasure’ These are the roads you could build a holiday around – Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Running over 500 miles down the length of Virginia, the names alone are enough to excite, reminding me of driving games on Sega arcade machines or original PlayStations. The stage with the cliffs and the corners and the danger. The best one to drive. The route is well signed and the tarmac exceptional: A thick slick of smooth, midnight-black asphalt that sticks to the tyres like chewing gum to a trainer’s tread. Three tight turns and my expectations are rising. But then I have to stop – to pay the toll to enter Skyline Drive: $25 for a seven-day pass. From Front Royal, Skyline…

Two weeks ago Michael Dunlop announced on social media he had no superbike for the 2020 TT and as MCN went to press this was still the case, with the 30-year-old saying that he was “open to proposals”. A few days earlier Ian Hutchinson admitted he was in the same position. “I’m still in Spain putting the graft in but I don’t have a ride,” the Bingley Bullet said. Their predicament seems incredible given Dunlop has won 19 TTs and Hutchy 16. The Yorkshireman fought his way back from a serious leg injury after his brilliant five wins in 2010 to claim TT hat tricks in 2015 and 2016. Another TT double, including a Superbike win, came in 2017 before a crash in the Senior saw him break his leg…

British Moto2 hopeful Jake Dixon insists he still has plenty to learn despite being only +0.764s off the pace on his debut on board the 2020 Kalex chassis. He finished ninth overall at the end of the two-day test with new team, Petronas Sprinta Racing. It was his first real experience of the Kalex after struggling with KTM in his debut year and only experiencing the Kalex for half a day in the wet, at the end of the year. “At the end of the second day we made a step forward, but I wouldn’t say we’re anywhere near where we need to be,” Dixon said afterwards. “We were working to get me comfortable and were focused on me adapting to the bike rather than adapting the bike to me.…

Ducati Panigale V4 1103cc | 175kg | 211bhp | 835mm Cash price£20,141Deposit £5125Mileage 5000pa Rate 7.5%APROptional final payment £10,339 Now with added wings for 2020 alongside an improved chassis, Ducati’s Panigale V4 remains an incredible motorcycle boasting an electronics package that makes the staggering 1103cc V4 remarkably user-friendly. The really clever part is how Ducati have made a V4 feel like a V-twin and then given it long service intervals! Suzuki GSX-R1000R 999cc | 202kg | 199bhp | 825mm Cash price £16,745 Deposit £3666.26 Mileage 4000pa Rate 3% APR Optional final payment £7957 Both GSX-R1000 models have exactly the same engine and therefore the same power and torque output, but at £169 a month why go for the lower spec model when you could have the R? Not only do…

Honda Gold Wing MY19 1833cc | 365kg | 124bhp | 745mm Cash price £22,299Deposit £3030.23Mileage 4000pa Rate 5.9%APROptional final payment £14,587.01 Far more than just a motorcycle, the Gold Wing is an institution that has come to epitomise the ultimate in two-wheeled luxury. It is, quite simply, the standard all full-dress tourers aspire to and in its 2018 overhaul the mighty Wing was given a new lease of life that is sure to see it continue to dominate. Yes, it is expensive, but broken down to £199 a month payments over three years makes it seem far more accessible. And should you dip a toe in the world of the Gold Wing, you will quickly understand just what makes it such a special bike that commands a huge army of…

BMWF900XR 895cc | 219kg | 104bhp | 825mm Cash price £9825 Deposit £ 1693.95 Mileage 5000pa Rate 9.9% APR Optional final payment £5170.19 New for 2020, the F900XR is billed as a bike that combines athleticism with long-distance performance and is powered by the new larger-capacity 895cc parallel twin. Fun, engaging and yet still packed full of helpful safety assists and electronics that enhance the ride quality, the XR can be restricted to make it A2-legal if required. BMWK1600GT SE 1649cc | 334kg | 158bhp | 810/830mm Cash price £19,805Deposit £3798.88Mileage 5000pa Rate 9.9%APROptional final payment £9555.62 If you want to cover big miles in ultimate comfort, BMW’s K1600GT is the bike for you. Boasting a torque-laden inline six, the GT shrugs off the weight of a pillion and panniers…