2015

Travel: Why flying can give you more riding time

Travel: Why flying can give you more riding time

Why you should seriously consider alternative transport for you and your bike on your next trip ’m writing this column on a train. My bike’s a few carriages ahead of me, strapped down on an open-sided...

Ron Haslam’s hangar full of bikes (and a plane)

Ron Haslam’s hangar full of bikes (and a plane)

When you’ve won TTs, raced GPs and spent a lifetime fettling, a shed just isn’t big enough. You need a Haslam Hangar…   otorcycle racers have a long history of growing old disgracefully. The likes of...

Winter kicks - MCN’s guide to sub-zero fun (Part 1)

Winter kicks - MCN’s guide to sub-zero fun (Part 1)

Stop hibernating on the sofa waiting for the new biking season MCN shows you how to have a kick-ass winter hristmas is closing in, which means woolly jumpers, comfy sofas and the Coronation Street...

RECALL: Yamaha 2015 YZF-R1 and YZF-R1M

RECALL: Yamaha 2015 YZF-R1 and YZF-R1M

Yamaha is recalling every single 2015 YZF-R1 and YZF-R1M sold so far to replace the gearbox following a number of failures on the new model. News of a recall affecting bikes in North America and...

7 bikes you could buy instead of a 916

7 bikes you could buy instead of a 916

They lost to Ducati’s iconic twin on the track, but make brilliant road bike buys today. Suzuki GSX-R750 SRAD (1996-1999) First beam-framed GSX-R was inspired by Suzuki’s 500cc GP racer, and...

Barry Sheene's Desert Island Discs

Barry Sheene's Desert Island Discs

It’s 1977, and Barry Sheene is choosing the eight records he’d take with him to the famous desert island   y the time Barry Sheene was famous enough to be asked onto Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs he’d...

Picture story: Big bad Boris will see your Kawasaki H2 and raise you...

Picture story: Big bad Boris  will see your Kawasaki H2 and raise you...

Boris Murray’s double-engined (2x750cc) Triumph ran on 92% nitro-methane, had just one tall gear and a 4in slick. With it, Murray (who built it, tuned it and rode it) set and held records with all the...

My Life in bikes: Ian Simpson

My Life in bikes: Ian Simpson

‘Doing two classes was great for prize money!’ Five-times British champion, three-times TT winner and five-times NW200 winner  Have you always been into bikes? Yes, my whole life. My dad had a bike...

Campaign to get McGuinness to open new M6 link road

Campaign to get McGuinness to open new M6 link road

A campaign to get Isle of Man TT star John McGuinness lined up to officially open the new M6 link road next year when it’s finished has been started on Facebook and is asking for more support. The...

Unseen Dunlop exhibition at London Show

Unseen Dunlop exhibition at London Show

Joey Dunlop was the world’s most naturally talented road racer. Synonymous with the Isle of Man TT races, Dunlop clocked up 26 TT victories and 40 podiums. Across all classes, from Ultra Lightweight...

Moto Foto winners revealed

Moto Foto winners revealed

The 2015 MCN Moto Foto competition, brought to you by Carole Nash, saw thousands of stunning biking images taken by talented amateurs pass across the judges’ desks, and the winners were revealed at...

End of the road for MCNLive!

End of the road for MCNLive!

After 22 fantastic years MCNLive! has finally reached the end of the road. For over two decades we partied hard, danced our socks off and boozed until we dropped but it’s now time to call time. But...

Electric Superbike creates a buzz

Electric Superbike creates a buzz

This is the first glimpse of the all-new British-designed and built Saietta NGS electric  superbike, which promises blistering performance from its radical engineering and design. Beneath the...

Superprestigio 2015: Serious fun

Superprestigio 2015: Serious fun

What started out as an end-of-season flat track blow-out for Marquez and his mates has suddenly gone full factory  hree years ago, when Marc Marquez rode out in front of 5000 Spanish fans for the...

9 top tools you didn’t realise you needed

9 top tools you didn’t realise you needed

Get that last-minute list off to Santa with nine cunning bits of kit that’ll transform your garage life in 2016 Electric impact gun Impact guns offer a peculiar mix of delicacy and brute force.

MCN Job opportunity - MotoGP Reporter

MCN Job opportunity - MotoGP Reporter

If you love bike racing, love global travel and love writing for a massive brand – this is the best job in the world! Rub shoulders with Valentino Rossi, ask Marc Marquez difficult questions and get...

World Ducati Week returns for 2016

World Ducati Week returns for 2016

The Ducatisti’s favourite annual event is back on for 2016, as World Ducati Week rolls into the Marco Simoncelli Misano World Circuit from July 1 to 3. The ninth running of the WDW will provide the...

New MCN December 16: 5-in-1 Christmas double issue!

New MCN December 16: 5-in-1 Christmas double issue!

In this week’s edition of MCN, available in newsagents, on iPad and Android from December 16: 5-in-1 Christmas double issue Free glossy BSB calendar* Plus three action-packed pullouts Foggy’s Biking...

Touring on a monkey bike: how hard can it be?

Touring on a monkey bike: how hard can it be?

Monkey Bikes: Possibly fun but ultimately pointless machines which only exist because of Japan’s peculiar fascination with miniaturisation. Too slow to go on the motorway, too small to use in town...

Suzuki RG250 FG Restoration

Suzuki RG250 FG Restoration

Gary Croft had his work cut out when he set about restoring this stolen/recovered Gamma   uzuki’s RG250 Gamma was a landmark ’80s sportsbike. Not only was the original 1983 RG the first...

Interview: Valentino Rossi on fame, fights and the future

Interview: Valentino Rossi on fame, fights and the future

From being a painfully shy racing prodigy, Valentino Rossi has grown into a bonafide global celebrity. So how’s he coping?  n a rain-lashed Saturday afternoon in January 1998, I was standing outside...

Move over Donner and Blitzen. Bikers are here to spread Christmas cheer

Move over Donner and Blitzen. Bikers are here to spread Christmas cheer

Father Christmas beams down from her gleaming red Vespa. Behind her, a group of elves compare their tinsel-strewn sportsbikes while Batman adjusts the enormous Christmas tree sprouting from the...

Video: Ducati 959 Panigale first ride

Video: Ducati 959 Panigale first ride

The new £13,250 Ducati 959 Panigale has the unenviable task of following up the utterly brilliant 899 Panigale, and with those exhausts the 959 was instantly on the back foot the moment the bike was...

Victory take step towards future with Combustion

Victory take step towards future with Combustion

Victory Motorcycles have revealed the final instalment in their 1200cc concept series at the International Motorcycle Show (IMS) in New York City. This concept, called ‘Combustion’, is powered by the...

9 Bits of biking advice you should ignore

9 Bits of biking advice you should ignore

When it comes to improving your bike, everyone’s an expert… but you should steer clear of these ‘helpful’ tips 1. ‘Stiffen the suspension and it’ll handle better’ When bikes were mushy, bendy old...

Pro-Am: “We didn’t really care if we died”

Pro-Am: “We didn’t really care if we died”

Flicking kill switches. Kicking rivals. Hanging on to grab rails. Pushing riders off the track. It’s 1981, so it must be the Yamaha 350LC Pro-Am race series   ndy Smith Then: marketing man for TW...

Two-stroke aftershave could be a reality

Two-stroke aftershave could be a reality

For those of you who love the smell of two-stroke fumes, a company in the US is trying to put their two-stroke aftershave into production via crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The creators of 2 STROKE...

Miles Apart

Miles Apart

You no longer need a tourer to take you on the trip-of-a-lifetime. Here are three different sides to the long-distance coin or years, BMW’s R1200RT was the definitive distance weapon. But these days...

RC213V-S for sale while stocks last

RC213V-S for sale while stocks last

Honda are still sifting through hundreds of customer orders for the road-going RC213V-S launched this year – and the UK boasts the largest number of orders taken in any single country, with more than...

Scrambler has big ideas

Scrambler has big ideas

The storming success of the 803cc Scrambler model has already spawned a smaller-capacity 400cc version that was unveiled three weeks ago at the Milan show, and it seems that the rumoured 1100cc...

BMW target the TT with e-superbike

BMW target the TT with e-superbike

BMW are thought to be prepping a bike for the 2016 TT Zero electric race at the Isle of Man TT with the  awesome electric S1000eRR the firm showed last month. BMW are remaining resolutely tight-lipped...

Honda plan superbike double

Honda plan superbike double

Honda are planning to unleash two new sportsbikes with a heavily updated CBR1000RR Fireblade and an all-new RVF1000 V4, which will draw much of its inspiration from the RC213V-S MotoGP replica. If...

Unforgettable ride: what happened when we rode a YZR 500 on the road

Unforgettable ride: what happened when we rode a YZR 500 on the road

‘WHAT THE **** WAS THAT?’ was how we originally headlined this unforgettable story from August 1994, when Kevin Ash unleashed a pukka GP 500 on the roads – hiding behind the legal figleaf of headlamp...

BSB legends get ready to rumble at the MCN Motorcycle Show!

BSB legends get ready to rumble at the MCN Motorcycle Show!

Slide, the fast-paced, handlebar-bashing, celebrity-packed race series at the Carole Nash MCN London Motorcycle Show is back for 2016 with an impressive line-up of star riders from BSB and road...

New MCN December 9: World first test of Africa Twin

New MCN December 9: World first test of Africa Twin

In this week’s edition of MCN, available in newsagents, on iPad and Android from December 9: World first test: Honda’s new Africa Twin! Free 16-page Sports Review supplement Exclusive interview:...

My life in bikes: Cristiano Silei

My life in bikes: Cristiano Silei

‘I wanted a racy bike but got a 125 custom’ ainese CEO and former Ducati marketing boss talks about his helmetless youth and lust for a custom Scrambler    Where did get your love of bikes? My father...