RiDEの September 2017 の目次

THE WEST COAST of Scotland is simply amazing if you ride bikes. The scenery is on a scale you don’t find anywhere else in the UK and the roads are equally heroic. Miles of fabulously twisty tarmac with a million-dollar backdrop: it’s irresistible. Come the summer-holiday period, those roads do get busy, compared with how they are for the rest of the year but compared with other parts of the UK, they’re still blissfully quiet. Inverness may be the capital of the Highlands, but the gateway to this motorcycling paradise is Fort William. To be frank, it doesn’t have the greatest reputation as a biking destination: it seems everyone you talk to will recommend somewhere else; somewhere smaller or quainter or quieter. And if you can get a room in…

Can I lose my car license too? Q I HAVE TAKEN my motorcycle Direct Access at 27 years old, having driven cars and passed my car test nine years ago in Poland. However, my friend has told me I will lose my whole licence (which is now British, as I live in Britain) if I accumulate six points in the two years after I pass my test. Is this true? If it is, I wish I had not bothered taking my bike test! A YOUR FRIEND IS wrong but a few people would make the same mistake. Your first licence was obtained in a European Union country, so it is treated as a British licence under EU Treaty Rules. Your position is no different to any other full British licence…

I sort my personal items into two piles; ‘Can’t live without for six weeks’, and ‘Can live without for six weeks’. I say goodbye to Rhonda the Honda, as she goes into the wooden crate with the second pile of items - the first pile goes into an old Canadian Navy issue rucksack. I won’t see Rhonda (or the rest of my luggage) again for at least six weeks. From here we must make our separate ways to Africa. Rhonda will board a train to Montreal and then a ship to Durban. We will reunite when she has been cleared by the mighty customs machine. I go by train to New York and will fly to our final continent from there. Until then, I am just another tourist! I clean…

So; ‘Bath’ or ‘Barth’? Short ‘a’ or long ‘ar’ – how you pronounce ‘Bath’ is the definitive north/ south giveaway, even more so than red or brown sauce. The short ‘a’ (as in ‘cat’) came first in the English language – the longer ‘arr’ was a trend started by fashionable London types in the 1600s. So while Bath is geographically a southern city, and locals may prefer ‘Barth’, it was ‘Bath’ historically. Historically, you say? Bath is swimming in history – literally. The Romans founded public baths and a temple here around 60AD; the town was a key part of the wool industry in the Middle Ages; and it thrived as a retreat for the well-off in Georgian times. This year marks three decades since it was made a UNESCO…

“It slingshots through its midrange and the countryside with instant intent” THIS IS THE acid test – the moment when the truth will be revealed. Second gear, revs hovering at a leisurely 4500rpm, bike banked over and tracking round a tight little right-angle B-road bend. Ahead, a straight with nothing coming. Wind the throttle open as the bike picks upright until the twistgrip won’t turn any further. The exhaust note doubles in volume, its understated grumble mutating into a harder-edged, buzzsaw burble. Hold on and head down as the Triumph Street Triple R slingshots through both its midrange and the countryside with instant intent. Test passed? Oh yes... To explain the past four seconds, let’s rewind four months, back to the launch of Triumph’s enormously anticipated new Street Triple. Not…

#5 Gloves High-quality motorcycle gloves tend to be expensive: they’re fiddly to make and need armour and ventilation or a waterproof membrane and sometimes a thermal layer to be built in. So it would be a shame to let a good pair of gloves fail prematurely through neglect. With a bit of care, you can double the life of your favourite gloves. Wash the exterior Even leather gloves need a wash to shift road dirt from the exterior and sweat from the inside. Use tepid water and a mild soap (non-biological washing powder) for textile or leather gloves, or a specialist cleaning product like Nikwax Leather Cleaner (£6, www.blacks.co.uk) on leather ones. To soften stubborn dried flies, leave wet kitchen roll on top of them for 15 minutes before washing.…

“Because it’s not a competition… only it definitely is” SOMETIMES TRAVELLING LIGHT just isn’t an option. And when that day comes, when you need to carry several kitchen sinks, knowing a few tricks about how you can best pack the maximum amount of kit on a bike – while doing it safely, securely and without breaking the bank – will come in handy. For starters, there’s a dizzying amount of choice when it comes to luggage. Topbox, tailpack or tankbag? Hard or soft panniers? Model-specific kit or universal fit? Just where do you begin? Everyone has their own ideas, techniques and priorities, and a few riders even take a fierce amount of pride in their particular, proven system. So this month, the RiDE team has come together to demonstrate seven…

Burger off, ya southerner! Nah then old luv, tha can tell poncey Martin Fitz-Gibbons to stop coming up here slagging-off our Northern burgers (Long-term test, August). “Britain’s best biking burger is at the Bike Shed” at more than £13? ARE YOU MAD? That’s the deposit on a house in Doncaster. Who pays that for a burger? I’ll tell you who... the same silly buggers who pay £1300 for a textile jacket and trousers, that’s who. Martin says; “Squires was busy for a weekday.” That’s because there’s no jobs up here and all we have to do is ride some of the best biking roads in the world, then call in at Squires for a burger or bacon sarnie. It may be grim up North, but it’s cheap. Up here the…

in association with RIDE Owning a motorcycle isn’t just about riding. It’s also about the work you put in, keeping the bike washed, polished and perfectly prepared. It can be a lot of work, which deserves to be rewarded. And it can be, if you enter the Love Your Motorcycle competition. All you have to do is go to www.ride.co.uk/love-your-motorcycle and upload a picture of your bike looking fabulous. Each month, two entries chosen at random will win an SDoc100 Classic Cleaning Kit worth £49.99. Better hurry, because in a few months we’ll stop accepting entries. Then we’ll present a shortlist of the best entries and ask readers to vote for their favourites. Each month, two voters will also win an SDoc100 Classic Cleaning Kit. At the end of the…

September trip with my wife Vicky, looking down from the Cime de la Bonette. Andrew Scowcroft This photo was taken outside the walled town of Carcassone in the south of France during our 10-day loop of the south, helped by your routes. Joe Grimes This is my fiancée and our Kawasaki Versys 1000 in the South of France, en route to Castellane Martin Yoxall This is my girlfriend Sue and I arriving at the tiny hamlet of Galey in the French Pyrenees. Chris Gould This is my BMW R1200GS Adventure Triple Black atop the Pyrenees, September 2016 . Less than two weeks old at this point and 1700 miles on this amazing bike. Barry Johnson Me, Chris, Keith, and Alan on our recent trip up the Pyrenees, above the clouds…

THERE’S A GENTLE hum of tourists talking, traffic trickling past and the wind flapping the flags of the memorials. Omaha Beach is beautiful in the sunshine. Hard to imagine the violence of the D-Day landings in such an idyllic setting. I thumb the starter of the Tiger Explorer and set off, heading for the next landmark. There’s a pleasant rhythm to the riding along the Normandy coast - yes, the speed limits are low in summer and there’s tourist traffic, but what’s the rush? This is laid-back riding, where the stops are just as important as the miles that are between them. Besides, if you want a real ride, it’s better to get away from the coast. The hordes of holidaymakers saturate the seaside - more drawn by the miles…

HEAD DOWN AND eyes flicking from apex to exit and on up the road, I threw the Tiger Explorer into another hairpin, chasing the vanishing point - and a local rider - up the Col du Ballon. As it came upright, I wiped rain from my visor. Such a shame; last time we were here, it was beautiful. That’s the thing with mountains; the weather’s changeable. On this trip, we got the rainy day. When we were here in 2013 for the first Guide to France , we had brilliant sunshine. Indeed, I’ve ridden in the Vosges a lot over the years and this is only the third time I’ve been caught in the rain. It really is a shame. Not just because it messes up our photo schedule, but…

EAST OF THE Auvergne is the least populous part of the French mainland: the Limousin. The hills are lower and more richly wooded, the roads even quieter. There are ancient half-timbered towns to explore, quiet castles and amazing food - the Périgord region is famous for its truffles… We’ve based our routes here around the easily-reached village of St Étienne-de-Fursac, but if you wanted to range further south, we’d consider staying in Brantôme or Treignac. Hotel tip: Hotel Nougier (www.hotelnougier.fr) OFF THE BIKE ORADOUR-SUR-GLANE A fascinating but somber memorial - a village wiped-out by the Waffen SS in 1944, preserved in a desolate condition. There’s a pleasant modern village next to it though, with good facilities when you need a pick-me-up after your visit (www.oradour.info). POTTERING ON Limoges was historically…

EVERYONE KNOWS BEAUTY is in the eye of the beholder. But I defy anyone to behold the Pyrenees on a sunny day and not be blown away by them. They are, quite simply, one of the most stunning sites in Europe. Not that I can appreciate the views as Weeble and I load the bikes. The plan is to get a sunrise shot, which means getting from our hotel in St Jean-Pied-de-Port to the top of a pass before the sun was fully up. This is A Bad Idea - not only because it means getting up stupidly early, but also beause riding east, in the dark, guarantees that any rays of the rising sun clearing the shadowed crown of mountains above us are beamed directly, blindingly, into our eyes.…

I SPEND MY LIFE trying to convince anyone who’ll listen that making these guides is hard work, what with the long days in the saddle, the hours of research and so on. You’d be surprised how many people don’t believe it. Today, even I’m not convinced… From the mighty Millau Viaduct we set off into the gorges of the Tarn region. The route is twisty, scenic, on good tarmac: it’s basically brilliant. But then we pick up the D986. It’s broad and immaculately surfaced, racing across sun-kissed farmland until it climbs into a forested area and throws out a succession of tighter turns, like the Nürburgring without the traffic or Armco. Then it clambers over Mont Aigoual in a flurry of hairpins, like a great Alpine pass but without any…

TOUR 1 Brittany and Normandy TOTAL DISTANCE: 930 miles RIDING TIME: Five days DAY ONE: Caen to Dinan (150 miles) DAY TWO: Dinan to Quimper (185 miles) DAY THREE: Quimper to St Nazaire (185 miles) DAY FOUR: St Nazaire to Alençon (190 miles) DAY FIVE: Alençon to Caen (220 miles) Plenty of sightseeing opportunities on this pillion-friendly tour, from the D-Day beaches to the U-boat pens in St Nazaire to the Bayeux Tapestry. This is a relaxed route with low average daily mileages (the first is especially short to allow a visit to Mont St-Michel). TOUR 2 The Vosges and Doubs TOTAL DISTANCE: 1225 miles RIDING TIME: Five days DAY ONE: Calais to Moussy (230 miles) DAY TWO: Moussy to Montbenoït (245 miles) DAY THREE: Montbenoït to Colmar (250 miles)…

EVERYONE KNOWS OF the North Coast 500. Scotland’s idyllic tourist trail has become a must-ride route for most of us, and with good reason. But being submerged in some of Europe’s most jaw-dropping scenery would make almost any bike feel amazing. So let’s flip the whole idea on its head and set ourselves a real challenge. Why not head south instead of north? What about exploring that overlooked, often-ignored corner of the country where people actually live? Surely there’s great riding to be found in between the gridlocked SUVs and offshore-registered bankers? If one bike is capable of tackling a challenge on this monumental scale, it’s BMW’s R1200GS. Britain’s biggest-selling big bike is famously ready for anything, and its new-for-2017 Exclusive variant is the top-of-the-range road-focused GS. Cast wheels make…

THE ROAD-FOCUSED MODEL BMW R1200GS The most road-biased of the BMWs. Even here there are model variations, based on trim, from the most basic GS (with manual suspension, just two engine modes and an absence of bells and whistles) to the more popular, extra-packed TE and the new, fully loaded Exclusive. From July, the GS comes with free panniers - which would normally cost an extra £630. The figures we quote here are for the Exclusive. SPEC Wheels cast, 19in front, 17in rear Fuel tank 20 litres Weight 244kg Gears six-speed, quickshift/auto-blipper Screen manually adjustable Seat two-piece, split level Seat height 850/870mm Suspension semi-active damping, self-levelling preload. Travel (front/rear)190mm/220mm PCP FINANCE Price £15,565 Deposit £3000 Monthly repayments 36 x £185.65 Optional final payment £8344.48 APR 7.9% Total payable £18,027.88 Annual…

“Even if it conked out now, I could push it to the top” THE ROAD TO Tawang is very bad, and very high,” said one of the men watching the thin Assamese mechanic change my Hero’s battery. “It not possible on this bike. It too old, and too small.’ “This bike is going to get me to Tawang,” I replied, “I’ve ridden 2000 miles on it so far, and it’s done nothing wrong.’ Despite my retaliation, the naysayer had a point. The former Tibetan town of Tawang sits, eyrie-like, in a mountainous cul-de-sac in the far corner of the Northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Folded between the Tibetan and Bhutanese borders, and cut off for centuries from the outside world, now the only way to reach it is by…

1 MONTH AHEAD July 29-30, Aberdare Park, South Wales Aberdare fuses together the unnatural bedfellows of fast, furious, frantic road racing and tranquil, picturesque Victorian parks. The place is so quaint that track action takes a break on Sunday morning for the church. Set just half a mile from Aberdare town centre, the track itself is less than a mile long and so narrow it makes the infamous Oliver’s Mount course at Scarborough look like a motorway. Though the supermoto class has fallen off the schedule this year, you’ll still see classic and modern machinery from 50cc tiddlers to focused supersports racers mixing it on the tree-lined lanes. www.aberdare-park-road-races.co.uk Bexhill Motofest July 30, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex Bikes take over this pretty seaside town on the south coast for the day.…

Honda CBR600RR 2003-2016 > £2750-£8000 > 118bhp > 196kg > 599cc inline four HONDA’S ORIGINAL MOTOGP replica. We take the bike for granted today but in 2003, the CBR600RR was a shocking and massively exciting change in direction for the beloved CBR dynasty. The friendly, useable CBR600F had mutated into an RCV-styled, hard-edged, firm-seated, wrist-heavy, underseat-piped track weapon, with no sign of a practical centrestand or sympathetic pillion grabrail to be seen. The RR predated the 1000cc Fireblade and, in some ways, single-handedly set the course of supersports bikes for the following decade. The CBR600RR fundamentally still used the same frame and engine even in its latest – and almost certainly final – form in 2016. But there are still plenty of detail differences between the years. The original model…

“Normally incredibly tough, but they don’t like neglect” 1 ENGINE Normally incredibly tough but they don’t like neglect and long periods of disuse, especially if left parked on the sidestand. The oil drains away from the right-hand ends of the cams, which wear on startup. In extreme cases they rust, pitting the cam lobes and leading first to rattles, then expensive bills. Happily, most ZRX owners look after their bikes and top-end rattles are more likely down to valve clearances and/or a carb imbalance. Some recommend a manual camchain tensioner (noise increases ‘til the automatic one lurches to the next notch). The ZZ-R1100 engine on which this is based has a history of number three big-end failing, allowing the conrod to exit via the crankcases - often related to falling…

“Polishes remove scratches and give a new lease of life to tired paintwork” CLEANING THE DIRT off a bike is all well and good, but everyday wear and tear can take its toll on the quality of the paint. A polish contains a fine cutting compound that moves the colour in the paint around at an almost molecular level, removing small scratches as it gives a new lease of life to tired paintwork. However, if the paint is left unprotected after polishing, it will begin to deteriorate again almost immediately. This is where the wax comes in. This is often made from natural oils or waxes like Carnauba and is designed to form a high-sheen, long-lasting protection over polished surfaces. However, to save time and effort, you can get polish…

JANUARY 2011 WAS dark, cold and wet. The perfect time to hunker down inside and plan your summer tour. The trick is always knowing where to go – but RiDE had at its disposal a database of recommendations from its readers. And as we set about planning how to link the roads together, editor Colin Overland decided we should put them together in a series of regional magazines. That all sounded like a grand idea – with only one catch. Someone would have to go and ride these roads, in every corner of the country, to illustrate the project. Oh, and it’d need to be done sooner rather than later, to make sure we got the Great Rides supplement into people’s hands while they still had time to go and…

HOW DO I KNOW WHERE I NEED TO GO? That’s easy - follow us! We have a range of routes covering most areas of France. There are daytrips, four complete tours and cross-country routes to get you from the Channel ports to where you want to be. As the tours all pass through locations where we have daytrips, any one can easily be extended if you want to take more time somewhere. If you have a sat nav, you can download our routes to guide you, but road signs in France are clear and easy to follow. As long as you know the names of the towns you need to ride through, it should be fairly easy to find your way around. Bigger town and city centres can get a…

WE BRITS OWE a lot to the Normans. Never mind what we called William before he became the Conqueror, this was where he hailed from. Though Caen was his capital, its massive castle one of the few buildings to survive D-Day, the story of his ascension to the English throne is famously told on the tapestry still displayed in Bayeux. But though Normandy is rich in history, it’s more than a living theme park. It’s a beautiful countryside - in some ways like the south of England, with its verdant fields fringed by hedges and divided by twisty, enjoyable roads. But the villages are very different - churches that somehow look less Norman than the Norman churches of the Home Counties surrounded by grey-stone houses built with proportions that aren’t…

WHILE THE VOSGES sit on the eastern frontier with Germany, there are more mountains just a little further south on the Swiss border. The rolling hills of the Doubs and taller peaks of the Jura hide some of the finest, least well-known riding in France. These are well-settled regions, with some stately towns and the odd interesting city. Ancient châteaux appear briefly on the skyline, frowning down on the rolling pastures and dark woods that are the key notes in this landscape. Agriculture and forestry dominate the land and the local cuisines are some of the finest in France. But we’re not here to eat, we’re here to ride - right? From the rolling hills of the northern Vosges to the high peaks of the Jura, this southernmost, eastern-most corner…

THERE’S NORMALLY MORE rain on these trips than you see from the photos, as the camera only comes out when the sun’s shining. That means the fabulous roads we cross in the Velay and the foothills of the Massif Central go unrecorded, as drizzle dampens the tarmac but not our spirits. This is riding even an unseasonal summer shower can’t spoil. The roads are constantly twisting and rising and falling - not the steep climbs and hundreds of hairpins of the Pyrenees and the Alps, but gentler slopes and more forgiving bends through a quiet landscape of well-tended farmland and dense, dark forestry. Then as we leave Issoire, heading for the Auvergne volcanoes, the clouds part momentarily. “Quick, get the camera out,” I shout to photographer Weeble as we stop…

NEVER HEARD OF the Morvan? It's perhaps not surprising when this area of low, wooded hills shares a country that includes regions such as the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Côte d’Azur, the Vosges, the Massif Central, the Millau viaduct, the Normandy beaches… well, you get the picture. There are more famous bits of the country that attract more visitors. And in a nutshell, that’s what we like about this particular region of Burgundy. It’s not a huge area - it's only about the size of the Peak District - but it is criss-crossed by a network of fiendishly twisty and blissfully quiet roads. It’s possible to put a couple of good, diverse days’ riding together, and that's why it makes an excellent destination for a short break. Hotel tip: Hotel…

YOU NEED A head for heights in the Alps. Especially on the balcony roads. Like this one, the towering Col de la Machine carved into the cliffs of Combe Laval in the Vercors. We approach it from the south, climbing the D76 from Vassieux-en-Vercors. It’s a pleasant-enough road, twisting innocently through the trees but with no real fireworks - and no hint of what’s to come. Then it dips down to a pleasant-looking café, the Hotel du Col de la Machine. We park up, get a drink, stretch our legs… and come face to face with the yawning drop on the far side of the road. Combe Laval is a deep glacial valley and we’re right at the top - the road stretching away before us, into a tunnel. Looking…

THE SKIES ARE darkening we leave the café in St Martind’Ardèche. No rain, just roiling clouds and a palpable build-up in atmospherics that add to the sense of drama as we turn onto the D290 along the Gorges de l’Ardèche. The grand gorges of France are unlike any riding in the UK. They display the landscape on a huge scale, easily enjoyed on involving roads. The road along the Ardèche Gorge sweeps through scrubby land beside the river, climbing slowly until finally bursting out to run dramatically along the clifftops. The views are immense; naked rocks and rolling hills on the far side of the vast valley. Then the road descends, in sweeping curves, to run beside the river at the foot of the cliffs. As trees close in on…

THE SOUTH WEST of France has some of the most spectacular scenery and riding in the country - and it’s packed with fascinating places to visit, too. There are unspoilt beaches on the Altantic and Mediterranean coasts, historic villages and castles plus amazing riding in the mountains of the Pyrenees, the gorges of the Tarn and hills of the Cévennes. As a touring destination, it really does have everything anyone could want. This western end of the Pyrenees is simply fabulous. Whether you approach overland from northern France or by sea, after a Santander ferry, the roads here will be the highlight of any trip. The mountains are the big attraction but there’s more to this area than just the high passes. So whether you come for the big-name passes,…

1 CAHORS AND ROCAMADOUR Start/finish: Cahors Distance: 145 miles Riding time: 4 hours From the historic heart of this sunny wine region, looping out to the magnificent village of Rocamadour, carved into a cliff. Hotel tip: Hotel Chartreuse (hotel-la-chartreuse.com) 2 HISTORIC VILLAGES OF LOT ET GARONNE Start/finish: Villeneuve-sur-Lot Distance: 110 miles Riding time: 3 hours A sight-seeing spectacular, visiting the gorgeous historic villages of the Lot-et-Garonne region. The modest mileage allows plenty of time to explore. Hotel tip: Le Moulin de Madame (moulindemadame.com) 3 LANDES – AND SEA Start/finish: Dax Distance: 210 miles Riding time: 6 hours A relaxed ride through the quaint villages and sleepy forests of Les Landes, to the sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast. Hotel tip: Hostellerie du Clos Pité, Pontonx-sur-l’Ardour (hotel-clos-pite.com) 4 AUCH, AYE Start/finish:…

STAR PICTURE County Kerry, Ireland My mate Alan and I just took a five-day trip around Ireland on our BMW R1200GS Adventures. This is the Gap of Dunloe – probably one of the best roads of the trip. Karl Bailey The Ardennes, Belgium This was a great Belgian ride: Liege-Bastogne-Liege, inspired by your July 2016 issue. Took one day to get there, one to follow your route of 155 miles through the beautiful Ardennes and one day back. Egidijus Vincel Black Forest, Germany My Triumph Sprint ST 1050 on a 1400-mile, six-day trip. Despite getting soaked on the first day from Ijmuiden, we were blessed with blue skies and dry roads. Paul Baker Derbyshire, England A 30-year itch finally scratched: first proper ride on my Yamaha Fazer 600 to Matlock…

The new-for-2017 Exclusive adds a dash of panache to the fully loaded TE spec level, in the form of a black (rather than silver) engine and shaftdrive unit, sparkly dark-brown paint on the beak and tank plus gold-coloured brake calipers. Mechanically and technically it’s the same as a TE, so it comes with most official extras including an LED headlight, keyless ignition, heated grips, quickshifter, hill-hold control and semi-active suspension. The shock has a new trick for 2017, in that it automatically measures the load on the bike - the weight of the rider plus any pillion and/or luggage - and automatically sets or adjusts the preload to suit. Hard luggage is extra and the total cost of two panniers and a topbox, plus pillion backrest and keys, comes to…

BMW R1200GS 2013-2016 > £8500-£13,500 > 123bhp > 238kg > 1170cc flat twin FIRST DYLAN WENT electric, then Royal Enfields went fuel-injected, and then came the biggest shocker of all: BMW’s boxers went water-cooled. After 90 years of resolute air-cooling, the famous flat twin finally embraced a pair of neatly hidden radiators that helped boost power, reduce emissions and – perhaps most importantly - futureproof BMW’s most popular model for years to come. The 2013 R1200GS was probably the single biggest leap in the model’s history: throttle cables became ride-by-wire; the engine layout rotated forwards 90º; the crank direction was reversed; the shaftdrive swapped sides; the frame was all-new and fatter tyres sat on wider wheel rims. What survived the total top-to-tail Trigger’s-Broom transformation, however, was the previous R1200GS’s sense…

When Kevin ran his motorcycle training school in Cambridge, we noticed many newer riders lacked the confidence to take their bike abroad. We decided to run short trips into Europe, with a bit of tuition en-route, to provide guidance for those who wanted to give it a shot on their own. The obvious first step in riding abroad is France and even onto Belgium, and as tame as that may sound to the very experienced, for those with no foreign miles under their belt - two wheels or four - riding onto the continent where the food, people, culture and language are different and the riding is on the wrong side of the road - can be nerve-wracking. Here’s what to expect and how to deal with it: THE CROSSING…

“The aim is to combine form with function and minimalist frills” What’s this then? It’s called the Zero Type 5. Japanese company Plot Inc. is a massive motorcycle-parts supplier, whose owner loved custom bikes. So they started making chopper frames with Zero Engineering, a small custom shop. Their mission is to “combine form with function and minimalist frills”. The firm started in 1992, building frames for customers in Las Vegas, then for the Japanese market, but now distributes throughout the world. All runs are very low volume, with every bike a little different from the next and so, unique. What’s the hardware? The heart of all Zero bikes is the gooseneck frame, which gives the chopper a low, dragger-style look and menacing stance. The Type 5 is a hardtail, meaning…

IT’S HARD TO believe that Aprilia’s Shiver has been around for ten years, so little impact has the naked Italian V-twin made on sales charts and public consciousness alike. While its muscular big brother the Tuono bullied its class rivals and oozed star quality, the Shiver 750 dressed sensibly, worked well but unspectacularly - and was largely ignored as a result. But Aprilia has not given up on the Shiver, which now gets an update and a new name, the Shiver 900, courtesy of an increase in capacity to 896cc. This comes from a longer stroke rather than the simpler route of a bigger bore, partly because Aprilia had no intention of increasing the maximum output of 94bhp. That’s the limit from which a bike can be restricted to 47bhp…

“It was never in doubt what I was going to get...” TREVOR BAILEY, OUR Suzuki GSX-R1000 K6 owner, is happy to admit if you cut him in half, he’d be blue and white on the inside. “I’m praying the new GSX-R is the dog’s,” he says. “Suzuki has been so far behind, for so long. Until the new bike, the only electronics it had on the GSX-R1000 was a mode switch. And everyone puts it in A mode and forgets about it.” While we down a coffee before riding the ‘old’ K6 and new L7 GSX-Rs side-by-side, Trevor tells me he was born into bikes: “In 1968 my mum brought me home from hospital in a sidecar. When I was three I’d wait for dad to come home from work…

“It’s still primarily functional - a work tool for winning races” #21 Honda VFR750R RC30 Where did it come from? From the Honda Racing Corporation, thanks to a change of rules for world-class four-stroke racing. Until the late 1980s, the TT F1 series was the main four-stroke race class - full factory prototypes racing at a mix of pure road and closed circuits. Honda dominated in competition, with its exotic V4 RVF750 works race bikes. But 1988 saw the birth of World Superbikes, based on production bikes. Honda committed fully to support the new series but it didn’t have a bike to suit. So it built a production V4 racer using everything it had learned from the RVF. The VFR750R was born, but though that was the ‘official’ name on…

IN ITS SIMPLEST terms, for most road riding, a motorbike (and its rider) can be thought of as a lump of metal, flesh and leather with springy projections at the front and back. Each of these springy bits is attached to a wheel, and each wheel moves up and down over bumps so you don’t have to. There’s more to it than that, of course: there are also linkages, damping systems, and even electronic control units on newer bikes to consider. But never mind that for the time being. The most important bit of your suspension is the springs. If they are the right stiffness for your weight, bike and riding style, every ride will feel really nice. If your springs are too soft, the wheels move too far in…

How to use our routes > All the routes described in this magazine are available as GPX files for sat navs, compatible with BMW, Garmin and TomTom devices, from the RiDE website (www.ride.co.uk/France17). To preview a route, click on its title. This will open it in Google Maps – but please note that if a road is closed (say, by snow in winter or by roadworks) the previews may not show the true route. To download a route, simply click the “Download the route” link. It will be downloaded as a Zip file, which needs to be opened with Stuffit Xpander, WinZip or a similar application to get the GPX file you can use. > If you have a Garmin or BMW sat nav, we recommend using Garmin’s free Basecamp…

IMAGINE ALL THE best things about Cornwall - the beaches, the rolling hills and quiet lanes, the summers that are bathed in golden warmth without being oppressively hot. Then add all the things we like about touring in France - from fresh croissants to ancient châteaux. That’s Brittany, basically, right there. It’s a wonderful destination for the first-time French tourist, as it’s so easy to get to - if not on a ferry to Roskoff or St Malo, then one to Caen along the coast. The riding is as relaxed as you could want and there’s plenty to see and do off the bike, from exploring old market towns and seeing the sights to spending a day soaking up rays beside the sea. The only caveat is that, like Cornwall,…

I REMEMBER THE FIRST time I saw the Monument to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval. I’d seen pictures of it but somehow misunderstood the scale of it. Then I came round a corner by the Newfoundland memorial and spotted - on the horizon, several miles away - the Thiepval monument. Then I understood: it’s enormous, almost incomprehensibly vast. But of course, so is the loss of life it commemorates. North-eastern France bore the brunt of the fighting in two world wars and there are signs everywhere - from the V2 rocket factories and gun emplacements around Calais to the Maginot Line forts in the hills of Alsace and, near every battle site, the graveyards and memorials. They exercise a sombre fascination over visitors, adding an extra dimension to…

TO SAY THAT there’s good riding in the Massif Central - the huge range of low mountains, high hills and dormant volcanoes in the heart of France - is to undersell the attraction of the region. For one thing, it’s huge so there are miles of amazing roads to explore; for another, it’s quiet, especially as you get further from the beaten track. We base our riding here around the town of Issoire, just south of Clermont-Ferrand; much smaller but equally well placed. To the east are the wooded Livradois hills, to the west Puy de Dôme and the dormant volcanoes. Whichever way you go, there’s fantastic riding. Hotel tip: Le Pariou (www.hotel-pariou.com) OFF THE BIKE LES PUYS The centre of the Auvergne is dominated by a chain of extinct…

THE FRENCH ARE good at many things - cooking, arty movies, and shrugging to name but a few. But they’re really good at castles. Fierce and functional, grand and imposing, large or small, the countryside is peppered with châteaux - and the banks of the River Loire are littered with them. A visit to one adds an extra dimension to a riding holiday, but it doesn’t have to add hours. True, doing justice to some of the more majestic might take the better part of a day, but many can be enjoyed in a briefer visit - and a couple of hours off the bike can go along way, sometimes. We base our Loire visit in the small town of Amboise - home to not one but three châteaux and…

THE ALPS IS a huge range of mountains, running in an arc from the Mediterranean up, along the France/Italy border, through Switzerland and into Austria. France’s western Alps hold some of the most memorable riding - especially in this northern corner of the Rhone Alps, in Haut Savoie and Savoie. This is where you pick up the Route des Grandes Alpes. It’s a series of interconnecting roads from Lake Geneva down to the sea, clambering over the great passes - including the highest in Europe, the 2770m Col de l’Iseran. The Route is 430 miles of undiluted, uninterrupted brilliance. But there’s far more to riding here than just the one route. It can’t take in all the passes and skips some of our favourites - the wildly scenic Col du…

1 ROUTE NAPOLEON Start: Grenoble Finish: Cannes Distance: 210 miles Riding time: 6 hours One of France’s great routes - though our version substitutes more interesting roads for the dull stretch between Gap and Digne Les Bains. Hotel tip: Nouvel Hotel du Commerce (www.hotel-du-commerceverdon.com) 2 ROUTE DES GRANDES ALPES Start: Thonon les Bains Finish: Menton Distance: 430 miles Riding time: 2.5 days The original ‘If-you-only-rideone-mountain-route’ trip. We’d take a leisurely pace, breaking the journey up at Beaufort and Guillestre. Hotel tips: Hotel la Cascade (Tel: +33 4 79 38 70 00); Le Catinat Fleuri (www.catinat-fleuri.com) 3 AIN TO PLEASE Start/finish: Nantua Distance: 175 miles Riding time: 5.5 hours Fantastic, relaxed riding in the Ain region in the foothills of the Rhône Alps. Hotel tip: Hotel l’Embarcadère (www.hotelembarcadere.com) 4 CASSIS AND…

I’VE BECOME A little addicted to this more eastern corner of the Pyrenees. I love how it feels; somehow wilder than the west. As well as the wide, smooth roads there are lots of narrow, bumpy ones. Modern hotels are built in ancient villages. There are deep gorges as well as lofty passes; in addition to well-tended fields and verdant vineyards there are shady woods and rocky high-mountain moors. It’s a landscape of extremes, which makes it all the more rewarding to explore. I’m making Weeble retrace sections of my last trip, visiting the castles between Carcassonne and the Spanish border. I spent two days stopping at each one, but now we’re cramming as many as we can into a single afternoon: roll up, grab a picture, move on… It’s…