New MCN May 1: The Ultimate Superbike Test

Ultimate Superbikes
2013 sees a raft of new superbikes enter the fray, but they’re all the ‘exotic ones.’ Bristling with high tech and hewn from unobtanium, they have price tags to make your eyes water and are completely irrelevant to all but the lucky few who can afford them. But which ones are the fastest?

Just too little too late?
Yamaha’s much maligned and mostly ignored FZ8 has at last undergone a significant update for 2013 – but you’d be forgiven for not noticing. So is the sum total of these subtle changes enough to transform it from nearly-man to contender? We pit the new model back-to-back with the old ‘un to find out.

Smile, Ben – We’re just prying
Ever wondered what sort of pad a former WSB champion and current MotoGP star calls home? Ben Spies was kind enough to show us when we visited his Texas home.

MCN Buying & Selling
Great deals, advice, parts and kit in our weekly buying and selling section. This week, Arrow’s new race day exhaust system, new helmets from Caberg and Shoei, and our riders’ toughest and most used kit..

Middle Class Triumph
Used buying guide: The perennial thorn in the side of the Japanese supersport machines, this week we give you all the knowledge you need to buy a used 600 Triumph.

Yamaha Plan Life After Cal
Cal Crutchlow’s brilliant start to the 2013 season has propelled him right to the top of the 2014 wishlist for a number of teams and manufacturers. But, despite his potential, options for a factory ride are seriously limited.

Sykes’ Greatest Ever Race
After coming withi9n 0.5 points of winning the WSB crown in 2012, Tom Sykes was expected to pick up where he left off in 2013. In the opening two rounds, injury and technical problems saw his challenge stall, but at Assen he got into full swing with an utterly dominant race one win and second in race two.

The rise of the adventure bikes has been relentless for the better part of a decade, and for good reason. Superbike-fast ones, long-legged ones, fuel-sippers, dune jumpers and little rippers, today they’re jsut bikes of all types with a better view and more comfort…

BMW R1200GS
With over 180,000 sold, the old GS was the benchmark, dominating the class it invented 30 years ago. The new bike had to be brilliant. It was.

Ducati Multistrada
Ducati’s Multistrada was designed to suit the firm’s ageing but still sportsbike-loving boss Claudio Domenicali, and it did it almsot perfectly.

Fast road riding on an adventure bike…
How to ride an adventure bike really fast, as told by the world’s top exponent of the art – Pikes Peak race winner Carlin Dunne.