Bristol Biking Girls, a motorcycle group based in the city, is raising money for Air Ambulances UK by creating its own 2024 calendar. Twenty-four women are pictured with their bikes, the images taken by professional photographer (and Bristol Biking Girls member) Sophie April – the members paid Sophie out of their own pockets for the sessions, so all proceeds from the calendar go direct to Air Ambulances UK. The calendar pays tribute to the late Steph Robertson, who founded the group in 2016 when looking for riding buddies. It grew fast, with over 300 members by 2020, when it ran a calendar in favour of ovarian cancer support group Ovacome – that too was in memory of a BBG member, Chilie

Gilera, one of the oldest names in motorcycling, is likely to make a comeback soon, though the new bikes will be built in China, not Italy. Piaggio, which owns the Gilera name (along with a whole house-full of other classic brands such as Laverda) has a joint venture with Chinese giant Zongshen, which will be building the new bikes. Actually, they won’t be new at all, but slightly reworked versions of the Aprilia Shiver V-twin, which ended production in 2021 when it could not meet Euro 5 emissions regulations. The following year, Zongshen, under its own sub-brand of Cyclone, showed its RA9 concept bike, which was clearly derived from the Shiver, complete with Aprilia’s 896cc DOHC V-twin, part-steel, part-alloy frame and

There’s a new generation of speed camera on the way, able to take legally admissible images in low light, and in both directions. Instead of a conventional lens, it uses infrared and radar technology, able to take images and video recordings in all conditions, including bad weather and low light, with good enough quality to identify number plates. The other new feature, which makes the Vector more significant for motorcyclists, is that it can capture images in both directions – conventional speed cameras usually only take images in one direction and are usually set up to face the front of a vehicle, which favours bikes, which of course don’t have a front number plate. The Vector, being bi-directional, will always find

The Manx Grand Prix is facing a barrage of criticism from race goers and local businesses alike, thanks to its shorter nine-day format for this year, down from the usual 14 days. Roger Willis, writing in British Dealer News, reported that the slimmed-down format meant most days were taken up by practice and qualifying, with race time further limited by bad weather and red flag incidents – only two and half days were allocated to actual racing. Weather issues saw Friday’s Lightweight event postponed until the end of a revised Saturday schedule, reduced from three laps to two as poor visibility hampered racing. The Classic Senior also lost a lap. There was no racing on Sunday and more bad weather meant

The Greater Cambridge Partnership has backpedalled on plans to charge bikers £5 for entering a planned low emission zone in the city centre. The plan, which was under consultation for introduction in 2027/28, originally proposed to charge cars and bikes the same flat fee to ride/drive through the city. This comes as welcome news to the motorcycle community, and puts Cambridge in line with most cities in England, Wales and Scotland, which do not (or do not plan to) charge bikes and scooters for entering urban low emission zones. London’s ULEZ is the outlier, charging any non-historic bikes which do not meet Euro 3 standards. Cambridge was clearly having second thoughts on its own ULEZ, watering down the original proposals to the

An American motocross fan has launched a petition urging all US motocross tracks to install defibrillators. Writing on the petition platform change.org, Paul Fulcher stated: “As a concerned parent and avid supporter of motocross, I am starting this petition to urge all motocross tracks and clubs to install defibrillators by 2024. This issue is deeply personal to me as my own son suffers from a heart condition, and I believe it is crucial that we prioritise safety measures in the motocross community.” He added that sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) can affect anyone of any age and fitness level, and that installing defibrillators at all tracks would provide an essential emergency response during races or practice sessions and save lives by providing

Haynes, of oily fingerprinted workshop manual fame, has opened its major new motorcycle exhibition at the company’s museum in Somerset. ‘Life on Two Wheels: The British Motorcycling Story’ made its public debut on 21st October. The Haynes Museum has in the past majored on cars, but the completely redesigned motorcycle section has been designed to be more interactive and engaging than before. “For the first time ever, this new exhibition tells the entire story of British motorcycling from its beginnings at the very end of the 19th century to the current day,” said Museum Curator, Dr Luca Hoare. “It also highlights the central role the motorbike has played in our society over the decades.” Part-funded by the British Motorcycle Charitable Trust, ‘Life

Website hits are a straight measure of popularity – better still the particular pages people are clicking on. Data from MCN’s website, with its plethora of new and used bike reviews, plus bikes for sale, makes for interesting reading, as revealed recently in trade paper British Dealer News. It’s no surprise that Honda tops the hit charts, making up 17.4% of bike review reads. The top ten almost mirrors that of new bike sales, with Honda followed up by Yamaha (11.5%), Kawasaki (10.9%), BMW (9.1%) and Suzuki (8.6%). Triumph, Ducati, KTM, Harley-Davidson and Aprilia rounded out the top ten. Dividing bike review hits by sector revealed that naked machines were the most popular at 24%, followed by supersport, adventure sport, sports/tour

BSA’s UK importer, Lukas Distribution, is teaming up with Peugeot Motorcycles to distribute the new Gold Star in France. BSAs haven’t been on sale in France since the demise of the original company in 1973, but now the UK importer will be ‘exporting’ them to Luxembourg as well as France, with plans to expand into Germany, Spain, Italy, and Austria. The Gold Star, built by Mahindra in India, has been quite a hit in the UK since it went on sale here in November 2021, but until now it hasn’t been sold anywhere else. Ashish Joshi, CEO of Classic Legends, and director of BSA Company Ltd (owned by Mahindra) said: “We are thrilled to reach this milestone in our mission to

It’s 40 years since Kawasaki launched the first bike named Ninja, and the company is marking the event with a range of special editions based on its existing sports bikes. The ZX-4RR, ZX-6R and ZX-10R will all be available in the UK as Ninja 40th Anniversary Editions. As you would expect with a special edition, they’re mechanically the same as the standard bikes, but in this case with a green, white, and blue colour scheme inspired by Ninjas of the past. Silver-painted frames and swinging arms, gold fork outers and green wheels are other nods to the past, together with an all-important 40th Anniversary decal. But Kawasaki can be forgiven for the hype, as the name Ninja is one of the icons

Honda appears to be working on a battery-electric sports bike, with retro styling which evokes Honda race bikes of the ‘60s. The company has made no secret of the fact that it’s planning to launch a series of electrics over the next few years, but without including a sports bike, though it did show the RC-E concept sportster back in 2011 at the Tokyo Motor Show. However, a recent patent application by Honda reveals that it still has the RC-E concept very much in mind. In the patent, the bike is shown equipped with a rear shock offset to the left, alongside the motor, which itself is offset to the right to make room. This is quite different to the original

Triumph has revealed its new 250cc motocross bike in public for the first time, and it will soon be joined by Ducati, which is developing its own motocross machine. The Triumph was demonstrated at the Super Motocross World Championship Final at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The official factory launch took place a few days later on 4th October. The full-on publicity, which includes a new Triumph Racing website, flags up Triumph’s debut in the 2024 FIM MX2 Motocross World Championship. A two-year sponsorship deal has been signed with Monster Energy, and the Monster Energy Triumph Racing team will be headed by the highly respected Thierry Chizat-Suzzoni and Vincent Bereni, both very experienced team managers in the MX GPs. But Triumph won’t