Motorcycle Sport & Leisure October 2021

It was the strangest feeling: I was at the Black Mountain Road viewpoint in Wales, and I was melting faster than the ice lollies flying out of the ice cream van parked next to me. It was so hot that you could almost scoop up the Tarmac with a spoon. I know it was the height of summer, and I know that most of the UK was experiencing the same heatwave, but this was Wales. I thought that my pasty Nordic skin would be safe from the burning sun here, but no. It was hard work being on bikes in that heat, but it made a lovely change from the cold and rain I remember from previous trips. You can read about the routes and places we discovered in the supplement that’s…

Maja Kenney Maja Kenney is an adventurer, originally from Slovenia and now living in Wales. She combines her two passions, motorcycles and travels, by writing about them and taking groups on tours. Her happy place is on her Ducati exploring the UK and Europe. Chris Moss Mossy has made a living from bikes since 1985 – first as a motorcycle courier in London, and then as a journo from 1995. He’s raced, ridden and tinkered with hundreds of different bikes, but he’s the first to admit there’s still loads to experience and learn. Dave Manning As a self-confessed motorcycle anorak, Dave’s particular two-wheeled penchant is for customised bikes – in each and every modified form they come. He’s a strong believer that every single bike ever made is worth trying, whether they have been customised…

Having seen these bikes at various stages of testing over the last few months, the arrival of the BMW Transcontinental and R 18 B shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Either way, the two bikes signal BMW’s move into the heavyweight cruiser/touring segment, as the German marque looks to take the fight to the likes of Harley-Davidson and Indian – so it’s a pretty exciting announcement regardless. Over and above the standard BMW R18, the heavyweight Transcontinental gains the obligatory bat-wing front fairing and high screen, and wind deflectors and flaps. The dash includes four analogue round instruments and a 10.25-inch TFT colour display, while the nose includes additional lights. A Marshall sound system is included, along with engine protection bars, panniers and a top case, heated seats, chrome trim and an engine…

Hot on the heels of Yamaha’s popular Tenere 700, the Tuareg 660 is the third from Aprilia’s fresh middleweight platform. It’s built around that 660cc twin engine and designed to be lightweight and capable in the rough stuff, without losing the sporty nature of the Italian factory’s RS and Tuono. Using a detuned, but higher torque version of the 660cc parallel twin found in the RS and Tuono, the Tuareg 660 tops out at 80hp with peak torque coming in at 70Nm, which is a substantial 8bhp more power on tap than the larger capacity Tenere. The Tuareg tips the scales at a dry weight of 187kg, compared with the Tenere 700’s 180kg. Aprilia will also offer its APRC (Aprilia Performance Ride Control) to give the Tuareg 660 a more sporting dynamic on…

The new Honda CB1000R 5Four is a limited edition model built by 5Four in partnership with Honda UK. It’s a homage to the beauty of classic endurance racing Hondas, built on a base of the Honda CB1000R. 5Four Motorcycles’ Guy Willison is the man behind the special edition bike. Guy is a professional bike designer and builder, and he could see plenty of potential in the CB. “Now here is an already fabulous bike crying out for the 5Four treatment. An obvious starting point? The rear. The 5Four tail tidy has no exterior bracketry so the lines are clean. We’ve also fitted a slim LED rear light, enabling the number plate to be mounted as high as possible revealing the whole of the rear tyre. The 5Four composite fairing has been designed…

While some of the super nakeds on the market are now being equipped with engines that supply a power output that rivals that of full-on litre-plus sportsbikes, there’s still an argument to choose a softer, more road-focused power delivery that isn’t in the stratospheric heights of that produced by the likes of the Ducati V4 Panigale or BMW M1000R. And while the S1000R has been in the BMW range for some time, the 2021 version is most definitely a brand new bike. The format may remain the same, but the engine has been changed, as has the frame and subframe, and the suspension too, with an impressive reduction in weight now bringing it below the 200kg mark. That frame and engine are from the new generation S1000RR sportsbike (as launched in…