MCN 12 January 2022

‘Acceleration is unlike anything else on the road’EMMA FRANKLIN TALKS BUSAS + WIN A NEW R7! PLUS EXTRAS, WORTH £9900! SEE P28 FOR DETAILS ON TEST Going hyper in search of cheap speed They might look rather similar, but there’s a tangible gap between the second and third generation Hayabusa. So which one offers the best bang for your buck. Can the 2022 model’s sublime refinement, tech and styling tweaks paper over the £10,000 chasm between their price tags? Only one way to find out... NEW BUSA vs OLD, PAGE 29 2022 CAMPAIGNS Make your voice count in 2022 Biking is always being threatened by legislation, a lack of understanding, or often plain stupidity. There are several campaigns that we should all be adding our voices to this year: Whether it’s fighting hard to limit the scope of the…

It’s 2002. I’m at the bleak Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire. I’ve just spent a couple of days in the Peak District riding a Hayabusa, a ZZR1200 and a Blackbird for a group test – and I’m knackered. But there’s a deserted 2-mile runway ahead of me and the test is finished... It’d be rude not to max-out the Hayabusa, wouldn’t it? While the sheer meteoric thrust and acceleration of properly unleashing a Hayabusa is astounding, the thing that actually flashed through my mind while hanging on for dear life as I gently bumped into the limiter in 6th gear was: ‘I hope I’ve not picked up a nail in the back tyre...’. The thing is, speed – however cheap or expensive it is – is something you control. I love to…

Harley-Davidson have announced updates for most of their range in 2022. We won’t list all the colour changes here as we’d run out of ink but safe to say most of the Softails and all the tourers come with a fresh lick of paint, while the entry-level cruisers have new cast wheels instead of spoked items. The Pan America gets a refresh to make the dash easier to read, hill hold control time has also been extended from 10 seconds to three to five minutes and the two-tone paint is now blue instead of orange. Sadly the prices have gone up considerably. The S (the one to have) is now £16,795 (up from £15,500), nice paint is now £375 (from £250), two-tone paint is £750 (from £450) and spoked wheels are…

As we head into 2022, the new year is traditionally time for taking stock and making resolutions and plans for the 12 months to come – and motorcycling currently has plenty of stories, issues and controversies worthy of your support. Whether it’s the heartbreaking Justice4Harry campaign, which finally heads to court later this month; Government ‘antitampering’ proposals, which potentially threaten the whole idea of modifying or accessorising your bike; or muddled, postBrexit regulations which make transporting your bike abroad a minefield, there’s much that you can help improve. Here we showcase four of motorcycling’s biggest issues and reveal how you can join the fight. 1 Act against ‘antitampering’ proposals Last September the Government introduced proposals on ‘anti-tampering’ – in other words banning mods which could potentially include exhausts, suspension, brakes and more. As the…

Six intrepid Honda C90 riders are planning an ambitious mission to cover six countries in six days to raise money for charity. John Haynes and five mates hope to cover 1368 miles on their trusty Hondas and are aiming to embark on the epic adventure at the end of May, Covid restrictions permitting. The Spanish invasion is all about raising money for Lindsey Lodge Hospice in Scunthorpe, who cared for John’s father Rod Haynes – a speedway star in the 70s who rode for Scunthorpe and Sheffield Tigers. John said: “I told Dad I was going to do this when he was in the hospice and he just rolled his eyes. But I told him, so I have to do it now. “It took us a while to source six C90s but we’ve done…

MCN CONTRIBUTOR ‘The bike is named after an Arabian desert’ This glorious neo-classic, scrambler-style roadster is the latest model from boutique performance bike brand Brough Superior. The Lawrence Nefud is based on the Lawrence roadster which the Anglo/French firm launched last year as a more modern take on the luxurious V-twins and was named after the brand’s most illustrious customer – Captain T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia. That bike was conceived as a limited-edition, more modern evolution of the heritage-inspired SS100 V-twins by Brough (which was relaunched in 2014 by then business partners Brit Mark Upham, who bought the defunct brand in 2008, and French engineering genius Thierry Henriette, formerly of Boxer Bikes). And the new Brough company began producing machines in 2016. The latest offering uses the firm’s signature 997cc, 102bhp…