2003

Remembering Sheene

Remembering Sheene

Barry Sheene’s death is inspiring acts of remembrance around the world. There will be a one minute silence at the MotoGP IRTA test in Catalunya on Sunday March 11. Many Australian fans have taken to...

Sheene loses battle with cancer

Sheene loses battle with cancer

Barry Sheene died peacefully in hospital yesterday, March 10, after an eight-month battle against cancer of the oesophagus and upper stomach. The 52-year-old 1976 and 1977 world 500 champion leaves...

Ronnie remembered

Ronnie remembered

North Yorkshire Road Racing Supporters Club is holding a charity night on March 18 in memory of racer and road testerRonnie Smith, who died in January this year. The main focus of the evening will be...

Tributes roll in for Barry Sheene

Tributes roll in for Barry Sheene

Friends and colleagues of Barry Sheene have been quick to offer their condolences to his family and to praise the man and the life he led. Sheene’s greatest rival, Kenny Roberts was told of Sheene’s...

First test on production Benelli Tornado

First test on production Benelli Tornado

MCN has tested the bike that’s almost too beautiful to ride. The Benelli Tornado Novecento costs £11,500, rivals the Ducati 999, and we’ve ridden it in a test so exclusive, the bike’s designer was...

Paris Tuning Show specials

Paris Tuning Show specials

Some of the best specials in Europe were brought together for the Paris Tuning Show, the biggest of it’s kind in Europe. MCN this week (March 5) has six-pages dedicated to the show, including amazing...

Tell us your servicing stories

Tell us your servicing stories

If you’ve just had a dealer service your bike, MCN would like to hear about it. Whether you were impressed with the quick service, or found that every garage was booked for weeks, we’d like you to...

Daytona Bike Week off to damp start

Daytona Bike Week off to damp start

The weather has turned sour over Daytona Beach for the start of the annual Daytona Bike Week in the ” sunshine state ” of Florida. MCN has sent a team of reporters to the event, and throughout the...

Daytona defies the rain

Daytona defies the rain

Despite the continuing threat of rain Daytona Bike week has moved into top gear. Well first gear actually because that’s as fast as you can go in most of the town with 600,000 bikers clogging up the...

Speed camera loophole discovered

Speed camera loophole discovered

A Welsh motorist had his speeding charges dismissed due to a legal loophole which could lead to many more cases being dropped. Phillip Dennis, 34, of Whitford, North Wales, had his case dropped due to...

Bikes in bus lanes starts in Swindon

Bikes in bus lanes starts in Swindon

Swindon Borough Council has become the latest authority to start allowing Motorcycles to use bus lanes. The council has started the scheme as a part of twelve-month trial on selected routes and...

Hodgson reveals amazing injury secret

Hodgson reveals amazing injury secret

Neil Hodgson had more than 30 painkilling injections to be able to race at the opening World Superbike round at Valencia on Sunday (March 2). The injury was even kept secret from his Ducati team, but...

See the MCN Babe Squad and much more at the Scottish Show

See the MCN Babe Squad and much more at the Scottish Show

The members of the 2003 MCN Babe Squad are just some of the attractions at Scotland’s biggest ever bike show. The 2003 Scottish Motorcycle Show runs from tomorrow March 8, until Sunday March 9.

Barry Sheene – An amazing life

Barry Sheene – An amazing life

Barry Sheene’s death has touched the world beyond motorcycling, because he was not just a motorcyclist. He was an icon, a legend; the grinning Cockney who came good against all the odds. Even today,...

Rockster hits the shops

Rockster hits the shops

BMW has announced that it’s new Boxer engined Rockster will be available in dealers from March 15, priced at £7295 on the road. The company first showed the bike as a concept at the Intermot show in...

C1 rider wins court case

C1 rider wins court case

BMW C1 rider Peter Parker has won the right to ride without wearing a lid in a ground-breaking court case. Parker, 44, from Bedford, was found not guilty of three charges of riding a motorcycle...

Join MCN’s growing team

Join MCN’s growing team

MCN is getting bigger from March 19. To help us deliver an even better paper every week, we need four extra full-time editorial staff. We’re looking for two Staff Writers, one Sub-Editor and one...

The Scottish Motorcycle Show, March 8-9

The Scottish Motorcycle Show, March 8-9

This year will see the biggest Scottish Motorcycle Show yet at Edinburgh’s Royal Highland Centre. The show, in association with MCN, features the major 2003 bikes, the Carol Nash Classics Pavillion...

Meet Foggy at Tesco

Meet Foggy at Tesco

World Superbike legend and team boss Carl Fogarty will be at Tesco’s Horwich store in Lancashire on March 7. But he’s not just popping in for a tin of beans and some toilet roll. He’ll be signing...

Hasselhoff off

Hasselhoff off

Baywatch star David Hasselfhoff has been forced to cancel interviews and appearances to promote a forthcoming Baywatch film due to a bike smash on his Harley. Despite that, Baywatch:Hawaiian Wedding...

First test on sharper new GSX-R1000

First test on sharper new GSX-R1000

MCN has been in Australia for an exclusive world first test of the 2003 GSX-R1000. And we’ve discovered the new frame, suspension tweaks, lighter weight and more power add up to a much improved...

Yamaha reveals twin-shock MotoGP bike

Yamaha reveals twin-shock MotoGP bike

In MCN this week you can see Yamaha’s experimental M1 MotoGP bike with twin-shock rear-suspension, breaking 20 years of single-shock racing tradition. Plus we have the first ride of the 2003 GSX-R,...

Get your riding questions answered

Get your riding questions answered

Have you ever watched a GP god, a stunt rider, or a police motorcyclist at work and wondered “How do they do that?” Well, we have assembled a panel of riding experts and legends including Kevin...

BMW donates bikes to Pentagon

BMW donates bikes to Pentagon

BMW has donated six ex-Chips bikes to help create the first Pentagon police motorcycle unit. Six BMW R1100 RT-P police motorcycles will be used for traffic enforcement in the Pentagon reservation. The...

.International Ride To Work day

.International Ride To Work day

This year’s Ride To Work day will take place on Wednesday, July 16, to coincide with the same event in the U.S. The annual event is organised by the Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCI) to promote...

Threat of congestion charge grows for bikes

Threat of congestion charge grows for bikes

Road safety campaigners are calling on Ken Livinstone to add bikes to London’s congestion charging They fear that the fact that bikes go free will add to the number of new and inexperienced riders on...

Win a Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 with Fantasy Road Race

Win a Rizla Suzuki GSX-R1000 with Fantasy Road Race

MCN’s Fantasy Road Racing competition has prizes worth £15500 up for grabs, and a top prize of a Rizla replica Suzuki worth around £12000. If you’ve ever claimed to know more about racing than your...

City of London

On-street parking: Motorcycles should be parked wholly within the bay (or you will get a ticket), they should not be left for more than 24 hours in a bay, and if a bay is suspended overnight and a motorcycle is parked there, it is liable to be removed in the morning. Alderman’s Walk Basinghall St Billiter Street Blomfield Street Broad Street Avenue Bush Lane Carmelite Street Circus Place...

Royal race fan to visit Scarborough Bike Week

Royal race fan to visit Scarborough Bike Week

It might be a bit early for you to be planning a trip to Scarborough Bike Week in September, but the Duke of Edinburgh has already announced he’ll be attending for the final day on September 21. He...

Cambridge

On-street parking: Trumpington Street – Near Fitzwilliam Street junction Free School Lane – Near Bene’t Street Botolph Lane – Near Free School Lane junction Silver Street – Near Queens Road junction Regent Street – Outside Mandela House King Street – Near Hobson Street junction Off-street parking: Lion Yard car park – entry to the car park must be made via St Tibb’s Row rather than the main...

Changes to motorcycle test from 2005

Changes to motorcycle test from 2005

The motorcycle test will change in 2005 to bring it in line with European legislation. Member states have until October 11, 2005 to implement the changes, which focus on ‘special manoeuvres’ which...

Safety cameras save lives

Safety cameras save lives

The Department of Transport has released the results of a two year long study in to the effectiveness of road Safety Cameras, which concludes that they both reduce speeding and reduce the number of...

Congestion charging begins in London

Congestion charging begins in London

Today (February 17) marks the start of congestion charging in London. With car drivers now required to pay £5 daily to drive through central London, the number of bikes in the capital is expected to...

BMW expands north of the border

BMW expands north of the border

A new BMW dealership is opening in Bishop Briggs, near Glasgow on March 1. Motorrad Central will stock the entire range of BMW bikes alongside accessories and a full service department. It aims to...

Italy raises speed limits for safer motorways

Italy raises speed limits for safer motorways

Speed limits are being raised in Italy to improve road safety. Italian transport minister Pietro Lunardi believes higher speeds will improve the traffic flow, and encourage motorists to pay attention.

Small prang erupts into a riot

Small prang erupts into a riot

A riot between rival villages erupted near Hanoi in Vietnam, after two bike riders argued over responsibility for a minor crash. The two men were uninjured, but their argument led to a three-hour...