Sommaire pour June 2018 de RiDE

 This is a story of four bikes, all equally sophisticated, in two groups: on one side we have the smooth, unflappable shaftdriven Triumph and BMW, designed and refined to ease your passage (especially the Triumph’s heated seat, ahem). And on the other we have to the sportier, more highly-tuned chain-driven KTM and Ducati: just as top-spec but built with an extra dollop of thrills. “This is the closest test I’ve ever been on. I can’t split them” And that’s the big picture; when your choices come so comprehensively tooled-up, your winner is either which one has the cornering lights and a USB port or, more likely, it’s the one that delivers the flavour of road adventure you prefer. There’s no good or bad choice (unless your KTM plays up). “On…

TanklockED tankbags From £120 www.givi.co.uk Tankbags are incredibly useful and modern tankring connections are a great facility for quick removal if you nip into a shop or at a café stop. But they’re also vulnerable to theft if you decide to leave them on the bike. Givi’s new range of lockable tank mounts change that. The design is an evolution of the company’s existing lockable mount but much more secure. It features a proper lock that uses the same type of key as Givi’s panniers and topboxes, so you can have one key for all your luggage. The smallest of the three new bags is the ST605 (£120), a five-litre hardshell example with removable waterproof smartphone pouch and zip pulls designed to be padlocked together. The UT809 (£177) is 20…

What makes it so special? It’s nestled in the lovely countryside of Suffolk. The town — it’s really little more than a village — is largely made up of ancient crooked timber buildings, many dating back to Lavenham’s heyday in the 15th and 16th Centuries. At one point it was one of the richest towns in the whole of Britain. Where did that dosh come from then? Sheep. Or more specifically, wool. There were huge fortunes to be made in the wool trade in the late middle ages, with a large proportion of wealth concentrated in East Anglia — not because of the sheep, but the ease of trade with the Continent. The merchants lived very well, as the size of their houses and the beautiful Guildhall in the village…

IN THE WONDERFULLY innumerate tradition of BMW’s middleweight GS models, don’t let the F750GS’s name fool you. Much like its equally wrongly numbered predecessors the F650GS and F700GS, which both actually had 798cc, the F750GS displaces 853cc. OK? The F750GS features an identical, all-new parallel-twin motor to the F850GS. However where the 850 makes 94bhp with 68lb·ft of torque, the 750 makes a more relaxed 76bhp with 61lb·ft of torque through changes to the fuelling map. BMW claims the parallel twin motor does 69mpg, giving a theoretical tank range of just over 220 miles from its 15-litre tank. It also features a 19in front wheel (the F850 has a 21in item) to run wider tyres, which may limit its off-road ability but makes for far-more assured roadholding. For me, that…

THE MORE DESIRABLE your bike, the greater the risk of it being targeted by thieves. The majority of large-capacity new bikes are taken not from the roadside but from their owners’ homes. As with on-street security, the first line of defence is secrecy: if nobody knows you have a bike in the garage, nobody can steal it. Try to minimise the time the bike is on display. Wheel it out to wash it, then put it away. Don’t leave it on the drive. If the bike lives outside, keep it under a cover, ideally in a back garden away from prying eyes. Fit a ground anchor and chain the bike to it. If the bike’s in a wooden shed, consider fitting a shackle to the wall or (better) cutting a…

“You need to trust me. I’m going to push you so you can learn” IF YOU HAVE an adventure bike but haven’t taken it off-road, you’re missing the chance to sample one of motorcycling’s great pleasures. You probably know that. But even if you are keen to give it a go, there are a few hurdles to get over before the nirvana can be sampled, two of them being fairly significant: first, you need to learn the basics of riding rougher, more slippery terrain where you might drop the bike; second, you need to find out where to go to practice safely. Of course, you can always book yourself onto an off-road riding course, with several to choose from that will put you on one of their bikes. Getting the…

FOR AS LONG as there have been nice things, there have been thieves. And for almost as long as there have been thieves, there have been devices designed to stop them thieving. The first padlock dates back to Roman times, while bicycle locks have been around for more than 100 years — almost as long as the bicycle itself, tellingly. Sadly security remains every bit as crucial today — hence this month’s feature on page 94. And it was just as important when RiDE was launched to the world on September 21, 1995. In our very first issue, beside a first ride on the Bimota Mantra (remember them?), the claim from Yamaha that its Thunderace would be “the bike to beat the FireBlade” (err…) and a group test of used…

WALES, AS WINTER fades into spring. Mountain, lakes, castles… and brilliant roads. The perfect place for a start-of-the-year adventure with the latest adventure bikes. The Triumph Tiger 1200 and the new Ducati Multistrada 1260 S are heavily updated versions of massively popular models but can they catch the market best-selling BMW R1200GS? And where does the dark horse, hi-tech, hi-spec KTM 1290 Super Adventure S fit into this complex, competitive market? We set off for Snowdonia to sort them out. “The Beemer feels as if it rides itself” Llanberis to Blaenau Ffestiniog 30 miles “We couldn’t have timed this better.” Chippy peers up from behind his camera pointed at an Iced Chocolate R1200GS TE Exclusive. The BMW flagship is bathed in a pool of sunlight, melting into the snow-speckled Welsh…

ALONG WEEKEND ON the near-Continent in late spring is the perfect way to start the summer. It’s a good shakedown before any bigger tour, without actually piling on too many miles or costing a fortune — just a stress-free ride somewhere foreign enough to feel like a real holiday. Somewhere that brews a decent beer is a plus, too… So there are many reasons why we love riding in Belgium, though the quality of the roads has become a bit hit-and-miss in the past few years. Many are still fabulously well-finished but others have deteriorated to near-British levels. One thing that’s still un-British though is the level of traffic, with very few vehicles on most country roads. There’s one other big attraction of going to Belgium: the Bikers’ Classic at…

Cover for riding the Ring Q I HAVE CHECKED my insurance policy and it specifically excludes “toll roads with no speed limits” and in addition, mentions the Nürburgring. I am planning on riding in Germany and I am concerned that I will not be able to use unrestricted autobahns. I would also like to ride the Nürburgring. Is this policy even legal? I thought we still had free movement in Europe. Can my insurers stop me, legally, riding a German public toll road? A YOUR INSURANCE IS governed by English contract law which must be compliant (for the time being at least) with EU law, which puts a trans-European structure on how insurance is governed. The short answer is, the contract is perfectly lawful. Your rights under EU law are…

“The CB1000R stands out — it’s a Honda with spirit” ELECTRONICS Three rider modes tame the beast in lower gears but let you enjoy the power at high rpm ENGINE Based on the outgoing CB1000’s engine, revised internals mean more torque and power but combined with rideability and fun CHASSIS Lower overall weight and new Showa forks and shock mean the CB1000R handles as well as it looks - which is excellent ON THE FACE of it there isn’t much to get excited about Honda’s 2018 CB1000R. Yes, it’s a cool-looking ‘neo-retro’ but it’s too easy to assume that, like its predecessor, it will deliver a disappointingly ride for a machine built around a sportsbike motor. The old CB’s problem was its aggressive styling hinted at a bike with a…

LEAPING LEISURELY ON the custom bandwagon, Suzuki’s new SV650X gives the company’s much-loved middleweight an on-trend café-racer makeover. Surprisingly, this has been in the pipeline for more than two years. We know this because back in March 2016, Suzuki whipped the covers off a show bike called the SV650 Rally Concept, which this new X is virtually identical to. That’s a long lead time for a pretty modest list of differences. Clip-on bars (which look a lot like those once used on the half-faired SV650S) give a much sportier stance than the one-piece handlebar of the standard SV. The X also has a different headlight cowling, two plastic panels that reach back from the headstock to the tank, and a ribbed seat (a £185 option on the regular SV). That’s…

WHY DON’T YOU borrow a Z1000SX demo?” RiDE reader Ruth Clarke has just saved the day. We’re here to compare her original, 2011 Kawasaki Z1000SX with a new, 2018 bike, only to find a cock-up on the bike-courier front has left us deficient in the area of new sports-touring Kawasakis to the tune of one. “Try calling Wheels Motorcycles in Peterborough,” Ruth suggests. “I have their number on speed dial.” So thanks to Garry at Wheels, we’re back on the road half an hour later. Ruth started riding in 2012, having previously persuaded her biking husband to abstain from riding for six years because “...bikes were dangerous”. Why the change of heart? “I was driving to work, saw a bike and thought, ‘ooo, that looks like fun’’,” laughs Ruth. “So…

Yamaha MT-09s 2014-2015 MT-09 All-new naked roadster built around an 847cc inline triple engine. Upside-down forks, radial brakes and aluminium frame. £4400-£5500 2016 MT-09 Engine management updated to match the Tracer 900, with three-stage traction control and switchable engine mapping. £5000-£6000 2017 MT-09 Update, with revised bodywork (based on the MT-10), modified spring and damping rates, compression damping adjustment at the front plus a slipper clutch, quickshifter and new Euro4-compliant exhaust. £6800-£7200…

IF YOU’RE LUCKY, you’ll never experience the belly-flipping, sickening feeling of coming back to where your bike should be, only to find an empty space… Your pride and joy has gone, stolen by some lowlife. All you can do is fill out a police crime form and post a picture on social media for people to share, asking the wider world to keep an eye out for your missing motorcycle. Actually, that’s not true: luck should not be a factor. Bike theft may be an increasing problem — especially in our cities — but falling prey to it should not be a matter of chance. Taking sensible precautions and using the right products should reduce the danger of losing your bike, even if you have to travel to a bike-crime…

THERE IS ALWAYS a danger that a clever, determined, well-equipped thief with enough time to work will be able to get their hands on your bike. But you might be able to get it back if you know where they’ve taken it… Look on eBay and you’ll find low-cost trackers that need just a SIM card and a cheap phone subscription to tell you where they are. The trouble isn’t so much whether they’re accurate or whether they’re too easy for a thief to find and throw away as what you’ll do if they stay on the bike and do tell you where it is. It’s easy to imagine getting your bike back… from the gang of armed criminals who stole it? No… that’s not safe, sensible or likely to…

More than skin deep I am writing about the load of old tosh you wrote about the BMW R1200ST being ugly (The World’s Greatest Sport Tourers, April). I am not the slightest bit fashion conscious and all I ever look for is a bike that works. The ST does all of that and more. This model has all the same mechanicals as other Boxers but when they were adapted for the needs of the ST someone at BMW did something right: they made it ultra-reliable and superbly efficient. Not all Beemers are like that. The only thing I have done to my ST is fit a luggage rack and panniers. Otherwise I have just followed the service manual and kept up to it. The Style Police can take a hike.…

A HUSKY VOICE Vitpilen gets Husky on the road IN THE PAST 11 years Husqvarna has gone from being owned by MV Agusta which sold it to BMW and then passed on to KTM. There it’s been reunited with Husaberg, the company formed by staff who didn’t want to move to Italy when it was sold to MV back in 1987. At long last, the brand seems to have stability, a new direction and a fresh focus. The new Vitpilen 701 spearheads KTM-owned Husqvarna’s attack on the streetbike market, initially with a family of über-cool looking singles. The Vitpilen 701 (which translates as ‘White Arrow’) shares the 690 Duke’s format of a powerful single-cylinder engine in a tubular-steel frame with WP suspension, but differs from the Duke by its café-racer…

Lakes, Norway Mark’s Yamaha Fazer 600 and my BMW GS Adventure by a frozen lake in Norway, on our nine-day, 2555-mile trip from Northern Ireland. John McKeefry Norfolk, England My Triumph Trophy SE at Holkham Hall, with a few deer for company. Andrew Leeming Inverness, Scotland A large group of us on a 1200-mile, three-day trip around the Highlands. Here we all are by the A9 in the Cairngorms National Park. Martin Thompson Austria My Ducati Multistrada and my Son’s Yamaha Fazer on our trip to Austria. Steve Davison Wester Ross, Scotland Getting ready for the hairpins of the Bealach na Ba on the North Coast 500. Nobody said you had to have an adventure bike for an adventure. My Suzuki VanVan 125 is on L-plates. Charlie Orr STAR PICTURE…

It couldn’t be easier to plan your route: just go to www.ride.co.uk/gbro and click on the map to open the route-planner. Simply click the waypoints you want to visit to add them to your route, adjust where it goes by dragging it onto your favourite roads, then go and enjoy yourself. Better still, your Great British Ride Out might win you a prize. All you have to do is save the route with “GBRO” as part of the title and share the route with us by emailing it to ride@ride.co.uk. There’s a different prize to win every month and at the end of the year, the most popular of the submissions will be crowned as the 2018 Greatest British Ride Out and will land its creator an HJC Rpha 90…

IT’S MORE THAN 1500 miles from Dover to Bucharest in Romania. But if Eastern Europe sounds as though it’s a long way away and therefore hard to reach, don’t worry — it’s not. For my most-recent trip, I headed off on my two-year-old Honda CB500X stopping en route in Düsseldorf, Nuremberg and then Budapest – where I stayed two nights for a rest, taking pictures of the Danube and the Chain Bridge. The next day, I headed down the motorway to Romania. My first stop was Timisoara, just over the border from Hungary, where I stayed for a week. A good friend of mine, Senia who used to be the manager of Hostel Costel where I was saying, took me to a local restaurant called Fabrica De Bere. As the…

1 MONTH AHEAD THE BIG EVENT WORLD SUPERBIKES, ASSEN April 20-22, Assen, the Netherlands Always a popular destination for British superbike fans, whether it’s for World or British championship rounds. It’s close enough to be accessible, far enough to make a decent trip and most of the locals speak better English than we do, so it’s no surprise so many of us make the trip. And then there’s the track itself. It’s been dumbed down a little over the years, with a couple of fast sections tamed to suit modern machinery but riders still love it and it always provokes a good scrap. Last year Jonathan Rea took both races but was pushed hard all the way by Chaz Davies’ Ducati and his own teammate Tom Sykes. Early indications suggest…

SUSPENSION Right-way-up forks offer more travel than an R1200GS’s front end. At the back is Royal Enfield’s first monoshock (rather than the normal twin shocks). No damping adjustment but standard settings are impressively plush HEIGHT The Himalayan has Tardis-like dimensions. Seat height is lower than a Triumph Street Triple, yet its ground clearance is the same as KTM’s 1290 Adventure S. That means it’ll roll over rough ground without bottoming out and without you needing to have a huge inside leg to manage it ENGINE Air-cooled 411cc single with two valves and an overhead camshaft. Rare under-square design — its 78mm bore is smaller than its 86mm stroke — gives a low-revving character, with maximum torque at just 4000rpm. Peak power is a modest 24bhp BRITAIN’S TOUGHEST ROAD TEST B-ROADS…

“The 1100 is all about ease of use rather than performance” ELECTRONICS Despite the retro look, the Scrambler is packed with up-to-date electronics, including cornering ABS and four-level traction control SUSPENSION With 150mm travel at each end and a decent range of adjustment, the Scrambler gives a good, solid ride ENGINE The 1100 Scrambler uses a detuned air-cooled 1100cc Monster motor with revised internals and cams to give a useable 84bhp CRUISING ALONG ON a brand-new Ducati with the gentle, loping feel and off-beat exhaust bark of a big, air-cooled V-twin engine isn’t something I’d expected to be doing again. The combination of 1079cc desmo engine and tubular-steel trellis frame, a Ducati staple, last seen in the Monster 1100 EVO, seemed to have had its day. Now it’s back with…

THIS COULD BE the most important new bike you’ve never heard of. CF Moto’s 650MT is the most advanced, sophisticated and complete motorcycle to come out of China — and possibly the strongest challenge yet to the escalating prices of new bikes from Europe and Japan. It’s an upright all-rounder, powered by a 649cc parallel twin. It comes with hard luggage, adjustable suspension, switchable power modes and nose-to-tail LED lighting. And on sale in Britain, right now, for just £5139 on the road. To give that some context, its closest rival is the £7889 Kawasaki Versys 650 Tourer. Swap from Japanese to Chinese and the CF Moto saves you £2750 — that’s almost 35%. It’s a brand-new bike for the same money as a three-year-old used Versys 650, and less…

“The Elsie belongs among the greats” #34 Yamaha RD 250/350 LC Where did it come from? According to Yamaha, it came straight from the racetrack — hence the RD designation, for ‘Race Developed’. For once, the hype wasn’t far out. The liquid-cooled, parallel-twin, two-stroke engine bore a striking resemblance to the one in the firm’s track-only TZ models. The twin front discs on the 350 and the cast-alloy wheels made the road version look even more modern and purposeful — the race bike still had spoked wheels! It was light, small and packed a decent punch, with a claimed 47bhp from the 350 (which was enough to take it up to nearly 120mph with a following wind). The less-pokey 250 just made it over the 100mph threshold. What changed? From…

ON-STREET SECURITY IS all about the ‘lion theory’. Imagine walking across the savannah and coming face-to-face with a hungry lion: you don’t have to run faster than the lion, just the bloke next to you… In other words, make your bike more difficult to steal than other nearby machines. An opportunist is looking for an easy target, not one that will take time and increase the risks of them getting caught. Securing the bike starts with chaining it to something solid and fitting a separate disc lock. We would also fit a throttle/brake lock — and make sure the steering lock is on. Well-equipped thieves would probably be able to overcome all of these measures — but doing so takes time. Why risk it if there’s an easier target at…

TOO OFTEN TAKEN for granted, your bike’s drive chain is a marvellous thing. As the most efficient way of transmitting drive from the engine to the back wheel, the chain copes with tremendous loads and pressure, using nothing but a thin film of oil as protection. Oil provides excellent lubrication, just as it does for the machined surfaces spinning inside your bike’s engine. But unlike those internal components that are constantly bathed in clean oil, your drive chain is exposed to the elements — a daily bombardment of rain, grit and muck that can dry the surfaces and quickly form a destructive grinding paste to prematurely wear your chain and sprockets. And this is the problem with drive chains: they need constant maintenance. It’s good to give your bike’s chain…