Weekend reads

Marvellous Motobirds: The story of the UK’s first all-female biking stunt team

16 April 2021 by Emma Franklin

In 1972, 17-year-old lab technician Mary Connors was idly flicking through a local newspaper when she spotted a small ad: Girls required to ride motorcycles, full training given. “I honestly thought...

Now's the time to try off-road riding

16 April 2021 by Emma Franklin

I always thought that handling a bike at high speed on a circuit represented the very pinnacle of skill, not slithering around a field getting mud sprayed up my back. Oh how wrong can a person be? “I...

Take control of your own touring destiny | How to undertake a solo motorcycle tour

15 April 2021 by Alison Silcox

With destination set to ‘Home’ the satnav tells me there’s a little over 1000 miles ahead, and just before midnight I’ll be back in moonlit Peterborough. It’s at this point, a lightbulb flickers and a...

Ride your own adventure: It’s time to take your first steps off-road

12 April 2021 by Michael Guy

Leaving the tarmac behind on a £20k fully loaded BMW R1250GSA is the elephant in the adventure bike showroom. Every manufacturer spends millions developing bikes capable of handling the rough stuff,...

Share your biking obsession: Get someone back on two wheels

09 April 2021 by Jon Urry

I’m sure we all know someone who, for one reason or another, holds a motorcycle licence but has given up riding. A dormant biker, just waiting to be gently awoken back to the world of two-wheels. In...

Creating a Monster: Has the 2021 Ducati Monster turned its back on tradition?

03 April 2021 by Phil West

We recently got the chance to ride the all-new 2021 Ducati Monster, almost three decades after the firm took the wraps off the original prototype at the 1992 Cologne Motor Show. Entering production...

MCN legends: Kawasaki Z1

19 March 2021 by Phil West

If the CB750 was Japan’s first large capacity four, the Z1 was the world’s first superbike; raising the performance bar to unforeseen heights; leading a new era of big Japanese multis and setting the...

Why you need to own a two-stroke... or two

12 March 2021 by Emma Franklin

The world is changing. Fossil fuel powered vehicles now have just nine years left before manufacturers stop producing new petrol and diesel four-wheelers. Bikes will follow suit, and in time the...

From Wimbledon to F1 and the Olympics... Suzi Perry has done it all

08 March 2021 by Michael Guy

In a career that has spanned more than 20 years, Suzi Perry has weaved her way into the fabric of motorcycle racing. Having interviewed riders from Carl Fogarty and Mick Doohan to Valentino Rossi,...

The Great Malle Rally offers two-wheeled escapism without a passport

04 March 2021 by Jordan Gibbons

Raindrops on hairpins and cold sandy beaches, bright chrome air cleaners and damp tyre screeches, hiding your smartphone so it never rings, these are a few of my favourite things. Cream-coloured...

Twin peaks: a history of Ducati's iconic V-twin engine

05 February 2021 by Phil West

This year is a milestone for Ducati’s iconic, Desmodromic V-twin – or ‘L-twin’ as the Italian firm call their 90-degree engine layout. Related articles from MCN 75 years of MV Agusta Two tribes go to...

Captain Sir Tom Moore, 1920 – 2021

02 February 2021 by Jordan Gibbons

Former British Army despatch rider, motorcycle racer and charity fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore has died after contracting coronavirus. Capt. Moore burst into the public conscious in April 2020,...

The rise, fall and rise of Aprilia: 50 years of motorbikes from Noale

29 January 2021 by Phil West

Just weeks after its world launch, the most eagerly anticipated bike of 2020, Aprilia’s RS660, is proving to be well worth the wait. The 100bhp twin, complete with mould-breaking, ultralight 169kg...

Bucketlist: Ride a classic banked circuit

03 January 2021 by Phil West

Most bikers have experience of race circuits, either through racing, trackdays or simply spectating. It’s an experience that rings a far greater appreciation of the adrenaline-fuelled thrills and...

Watch: Nick Sanders on the Snowdonia 360

16 December 2020 by Gareth Evans

In this week’s special 5-in-1 MCN we have a supplement about inspirational things you could plan to do in 2021. Among them is Nick Sanders MBE’s trip around the Snowdonia 360 – Wales’s answer to the...

Ohvale UK Cup: How Peter Hickman is nurturing the next generation of UK racing stars

04 December 2020 by Dan Sutherland

Peter Hickman is one of the most versatile British motorcycle racers of the modern age. Having won the National Superstock 1000 Cup championship 16 years ago, he’s since become a multiple British...

Evel Knievel Laverda leaps back into the limelight

25 November 2020 by Phil West

A bike used by Evel Knievel has been discovered, restored and put on public display. Knievel, who died in 2007, is best remembered for using Harley-Davidson XR750s in the 1970s, most notably for his...

Boxer goodies: Polish custom house create stunning café racer BMW R100RT

18 November 2020 by Dan Sutherland

A Polish motorcycle custom house have transformed a 1982 BMW R100RT into a modern café racer. Warsaw-based Eighty Six Gear Motorcycles spent a year-and-a-half turning the 49,700-mile classic into the...

The Tesi H2 marks Bimota's return – but where did it all begin?

13 November 2020 by Phil West

With orders now being taken for the supercharged, hub-centre-steered Bimota Tesi H2, it’s worth revisiting the Italian brand’s glittering, yet chequered, history. Related articles on MCN Bimota KB4...

Our bikes: Richard Newland's Ducati 996

05 November 2020 by Richard Newland

There’s something exceptionally pleasing about big V-twins. The flatness of their delivery, their deceptive speed and gluttonous dollops of torque. The way they build power with a surging tide that...

Dream Ducatis: Michael Neeves tangos with a trio of Superleggeras

04 November 2020 by Michael Neeves

Ducati’s Superleggera is a rare, exotic beast. Only 1500 have ever been built: 500 magnesium-framed 1199s in 2014, 500 carbon-framed 1299s in 2017 and new for this year 500 carbon-framed V4s. They’re...

Celebrating Black History Month: As one of the few mixed race riders in bikesport, Asher Durham hopes he can inspire others

30 October 2020 by MCN

Asher Durham is a BSB Junior Superstock 600 racer who started in motocross and then became the youngest ever rider to compete in the 125cc British championship at the age of 13. He went on to be a...