RiDE June 2021

RiDE helps you get more from your motorcycle. Put together by a team of enthusiastic experts, with help from thousands of committed readers, every issue of RiDE is full of recommendations on bikes, kit, routes, destinations and technique. We speak directly to our readers about their biking lives & use our expertise to steer them towards the good-value option in bikes, trips and kits. We’re famed for our regular Product Tests and eery month provide a comprehensive used-bike buying guide, helping potential owners find the right bike at the right price. Finally... every issue features touring guides and riding advice to help readers explore the world on their bike.

3,95 €(IVA inc.)

en este número

In This Issue

‘It’ll help any rider to get more from their bike’

Welcome to a bloody massive issue of RiDE. I don’t think we’ve ever produced a magazine that is packed with as much useful stuff as this one. For starters, we have an adventure special that’s jammed with brilliant routes, great riding stories, kit advice from some of the legends of biking and our usual hype-busting tests. It starts on p51. But there’s loads in here for everyone. We’ve got Triumph’s excellent Trident 660 being pitched against Yamaha’s MT-07 and Honda’s CB650R to see which is the smartest buy in the real world and our head-to-head investigation into cheap, non-approved biking jeans on p109 is revealing and a little scary (trust us, don’t buy any!). But the timeliest piece for me is former editor Tim’s guide to smooth riding. After one of the…

1 min.

FRONT END

YOUR RIDES

Yorkshire Dales I decided to make a change this year and picked up a brand-new Tiger 900 Rally Pro, having never owned an adventure bike before. Our first proper ride involved 230 miles up to Ripon, Leyburn and Buttertubs, then on to Penrith and Kirkstone before heading home via Kendal and Settle. Having come from a K1200S, my back and bum were loving every moment; this was the most fun I’ve had on a bike in some time. Thanks Triumph. Harrison Blakeburn Glencoe, Scottish Highlands Here is a picture of my ‘new to me’ 2016 BMW R1200GS Adventure taken in Glencoe. I’m so lucky to have this scenery, weather (on this occasion...) and bike. Simon Thompson Orford Quay, Suffolk This is my 2011 BMW R1200R on Orford Quay overlooking the tidal (an estuary really) River…

2 min.

FRONT END

STAR PICTURE

Harris, Outer Hebrides Here is a shot of my Harley-Davidson Dyna Street Bob and my brother Paul’s Speed Triple in Harris in the Outer Hebrides. The scenery in the background is the North Harris Mountains, the tallest of which is the Clisham. We’ve been fortunate in the Hebridean islands not to have been in full lockdown for most of the pandemic; we’ve had very few cases of Covid and our vaccine programme is almost complete. Scotland is about to reopen its doors to the rest of the biker community too, so enjoy your summer, folks. Scotland welcomes you back with open arms. Steve Ferguson Get your bike in RIDE & win a BikeTrac system Each month the Star Picture will win a BikeTrac security tracker with a year’s BikeTrac subscription. As well as…

1 min.

FRONT END

‘The closest thing to the Alps without days on a motorway’

IF YOU ASK to get to Fort William, chances are you’ll be told to head along the shores of Loch Lomond and through Glen Coe, then around the coast. You’ll be told about the lovely views, the delightful roads and all the great places you can stop. These people are not far wrong. You can indeed get to Fort William by heading along the shores of Loch Lomond and if you enjoy being trapped behind slow-moving traffic, you’ll revel in it. If you enjoy being hemmed in by double white lines, you’ll love it even more and if you enjoy reading the fine print on the backs of tour buses, you’ll have reached nirvana. Ask me about the A82 at the local bike meet and I’ll tell you the best thing…

6 min.

FRONT END

WILL NEW E10 FUEL RUIN MY BIKE?

FROM SEPTEMBER 2021 a new specification of petrol – ‘E10’ – will become the standard 97-RON unleaded in Britain’s filling stations and the news has sparked concerns it could damage older bikes. At the moment, regular 95-octane unleaded is ‘E5’, meaning it contains a maximum of 5% ethanol. But in September, standard unleaded changes to make ‘E10’ the norm, with a minimum of 5.5% ethanol and a maximum of 10%. What is E10 and why are we switching? Ethanol is a type of alcohol and, unlike petrol that’s refined from crude oil, it’s made by fermenting grains, sugars and even waste wood. As such, it’s nearly carbon-neutral. The switch to E10 doubles the amount of ethanol in the fuel and Government figures claim the move will reduce CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes per year. But…

4 min.

FRONT END

What bikes could be affected?

If your bike is less than a decade old, the chances are that it was made with E10 in mind. Older machines are more likely to be impacted and you need to be careful if you have a pre-2010 bike with a plastic fuel tank. The fact E10 hasn’t been widely used in the UK means there aren’t many examples of problems over here, but the USA has allowed up to 10% ethanol in fuel since 1978 and most petrol in the country has been E10 for years. During the 2000s there was a spate of problems with plastic-tanked bikes where the tanks expanded or deformed due to the ethanol content in the fuel. A civil class-action case (Sugarman v Ducati North America) in 2012 resulted in Ducati settling with owners…

1 min.