BIKE

Productivity in the Bike shack has dipped this month. Mother nature is to blame. We've spent the past week enjoying blue skies and dry tarmac, and the nice meteorologist on the telly says the coming days will be even better, with temperatures in the high teens. The office has been a place of road-trip daydreams rather than worry about deadlines. This picture was taken almost three years ago on the North York Moors. Every spring I head off somewhere with a group of daft mates for a weekend of glorious landscapes, roadside banter, pub-based silliness and, of course, some great riding. Daydreaming about this sun-soaked 2022 outing reminded me that we need to schedule this year's frolics. We're off to Snowdonia in a few weeks. There's oodles of inspiration for…

1 John Westlake Rather than speculate on Honda's fresh MotoGP speed, John did it properly – and tracked down the team's technical director. Proper journalist doing a proper job. Honda RC213V, page 18 2 MFG and JC Few writers deliver tests with the authority and light touch of Martin Fitz-Gibbons. Few snappers capture the magic of a road trip like Jason Critchell. It's a dream combo. Tortoise versus hare, page 30 3 Chris Cope In a world of sound bites and AI flannel, it's a joy to still have fabulous writers. Chris’ test of the new Speed Twin on the UK's longest B-road is considered, informed and ace. History in the making, page 44 4 Jamie Turner Everyone knows the ‘Gixer K5’ engine was a masterpiece. Our tame professor of…

METALWORK This is what Yuichi is famous for – he beat out the shape of the tank, tail piece, front mudguard and rear hugger. REAR END The swingarm is standard, but the rear wheel is from an R nineT. The rear shock is now Öhlins. ENGINE Yuichi wisely left the 1649cc inline six-cylinder motor alone – at 160bhp it hardly needed more power. He did make his own exhaust system though. FRAME The huge standard beam frame is replaced by Yuichi's handmade trellis. BMW's girder forks are replaced by conventional Öhlins. Brakes are by Beringer. ‘Balance between streamlined body and muscular engine’ There are good reasons why only a handful of the world's looniest custom builders have tried to customise BMW's K1600GTL tourer. For a start it's colossal – 348kg,…

This new Morbidelli T1002VX is launching a three-pronged attack on the adventure market. Firstly, you get heaps as standard: fancy three-part aluminium luggage, tyre pressure monitors, adjustable screen, heated seat and grips, bash plate, backlit switchgear, cruise control, crash bars, main stand and cornering ABS. Secondly, it's a V-twin, which differentiates it from the hordes of identikit parallel twins. And thirdly, it costs £8699. To put that price into perspective, a similarly specced Suzuki V-Strom 1050 costs £15,189, a BMW F800GS with plastic luggage is £12,700 and an equivalent F900GS with no luggage would set you back £15,687. Price-wise, the only competition are other Chinese-made adventure bikes such as the Voge DS900X at £8889. We first showed you it in the March 2023 issue when it was going to be…

The old XDiavel was always one of those bikes that we assumed had compromising photos of Ducati's CEO stashed away. How else could you explain its continued presence in the line-up? It didn't sell well and its feet forward, cruiser-esque styling seemed out of kilter with the rest of Ducati's all-action range. So, when the XDiavel quietly disappeared in 2023 we thought that was it. Mr Domenicali had got his incriminating pictures back and the wily old cruiser bit the dust. But no. Here it is again with a V4 engine, a fresh look and a new emphasis on ‘medium range touring’. The old bike's 1262cc V-twin motor is replaced by the V4 from the latest Multistrada, giving it 166bhp at 10,750rpm and 93 lb.ft of torque – enough to…

There's been talk of a full-on Chinese superbike for years, but these exclusive shots of QJMotor's SRK1000RR production prototype show that the finished article is not far away – insiders say it will go on sale in China by mid-2025, topping QJMotor's range of 13 sportsbikes (see box). The new flagship is powered by a 921cc inline four-cylinder engine that's claimed to make 161bhp at 13,600rpm and 66 lb.ft of torque at 11,000rpm (Yamaha's three cylinder R9: 117bhp; 69 lb.ft). Though QJMotor are capable of designing their own engines (see new Morbidelli, page 12), this one is the result of a deal with MV Agusta from 2020. That arrangement fell apart when KTM bought a stake in MV in 2022, but QJ kept the rights to build MV's 921cc design…