Ewan McGregor is to narrate a new documentary on the life of Philip Vincent, the man behind the British V-twins of the 1940s and ‘50s which carried his name on the tank. Speed is Expensive: The Philip Vincent Story, will be available to stream from 25th September 2023 on Amazon, Sky Store, Apple TV and Google Play. The Stevange-built Vincent-HRDs were the superbikes of their day, the fastest production bikes then available and holders of multiple speed records. The most infamous was probably Rollie Free’s setting of a new American motorcycle land speed record on Bonneville Salt Flats in 1948 – infamous, because to minimise drag he rode the bike lying flat across the seat and tank, clad only in a

Honda has patented mirrors mounted underneath the bars, rather than on top. The mirrors, which according to the patent application use a conventional stalk, would mount at the top of the forks just below the top triple clamp. It doesn’t sound like a ground-breaking innovation, but Honda claims several advantages for the underslung mirrors, which are serious enough to warrant the patent. First off is better visibility than conventionally-mounted mirrors – because the mirrors are below the rider’s elbows, the view is less obstructed. This in turn allows them to be mounted closer to the centre of the bike – conventional mirrors have to be high and wide so you can see past your shoulders. A narrower mounting, says Honda, means

Over half of UK motorcyclists exceed the motorway and 30mph speed limits, but the proportion doing so fell last year, according to the latest figures from the Department for Transport. Using cameras to take a sample of traffic on free-flowing sections of roads, the DfT found that in 2021 59% broke the motorway limit and the same proportion exceeded a 30mph limit – 28% were over the 60mph limit on single-carriageway roads. Some of these speeders could have been marginal (as little as 1mph over the limit), but 14% of bikers were riding at 40mph or more in 30-limits, and one in ten were hustling along at 70mph or more on a single-carriageway road. The figures for 2022 showed a slight

A new fund has been launched to help adventure travellers finance their trips. The #GetOutDoStuff Adventure Travel Grant is being run by Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes, the Sidecar Guys, famous for riding a Honda scooter sidecar outfit around the world in 2018/19. They also run the Armchair Travel Festival, which takes place every August at Mount Edgecumbe Country Park near Plymouth. #GetOutDoStuff is in memory of David Martin, the motorcycle adventure traveller who tragically died of bowel cancer in 2021. After being diagnosed in 2016, between chemotherapy rounds he took off on his bike whenever he was fit enough, riding Lands End to John o’ Groats, through the Alps and Croatia, as well as exploring Iceland. £1666 was raised for the

Burt Munro’s legend and standing within motorcycling seems to grow with every passing year. As well as the film ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ and several biographies, he’s been accepted into the AMA Hall of Fame and the Motorcycling New Zealand Hall of Fame. Now, 56 years since he set a world speed record on his home-built Indian Scout-powered bike, the Sturgis Hall of Fame has followed suit. This is more significant than it seems, as the Sturgis list of the great and the good focuses on American riders and figures who had been judged to make a major contribution to motorcycling. Indian Motorcycles, which has been keen to publicise Burt’s association with the marque, is delighted. “Burt’s a legend,” said Gary Gray,

Honda is developing a hybrid motorcycle, with both a conventional petrol engine and electric motors connected to a common transmission. Hybrid cars are a common sight, ostensibly offering the combination of zero emissions in urban areas and a long range out of town, but very few powered two-wheelers have gone hybrid, thanks to the extra weight, bulk and expense. Piaggio sold a petrol/electric MP3 scooter in the 2009/10, while Kawasaki is due to launch its HEV (400cc Ninja twin with an electric motor) next year. Honda’s project looks to be some way off production, but according to the patent application, combined petrol and electric powertrains with an epicyclic gearbox which allows a choice of riding modes, with purely petrol, or electric,

Barely a month goes by without the Sammy Miller Museum announcing new bikes for its comprehensive collection. The latest is a 1963 Victoria 155. Nicknamed the ‘Tin Banana’ when it was new (for obvious reasons) the Victoria’s space age styling was certainly eye catching in in the early ‘60s, and doubly so now – if Dan Dare rode a moped, this would have been it. The German-built Victoria was mass produced, but very few have survived. At the other end of the performance scale, a 1950 Vincent Grey Flash has joined the collection as well. This one is a bit special, a Grand Prix bike raced by John Surtees, and believed to be a factory test machine. With four-speed Albion gearbox

IAM Roadsmart has joined the BMF, National Motorcyclists Council and other motorcycle groups to call for zero VAT on air jackets. Currently, only motorcycle helmets are zero-rated, along with cycle helmets and some industrial PPE (personal protective equipment). Research by air jacket/vest distributor Helite indicates that as few as 4% – one in 25 – of UK motorcyclists currently own an air jacket. The cost could well be putting some off, with Helite’s Turtle 2 air vest range starting at £550 and its Touring Air Jacket at £795. Making these zero rated would knock 20% off the price, reducing the Turtle 2 to as little as £440. An alternative to zero-rating air jackets and vests would be to give them the

UK motorcycle sales struggled in the first half of 2023, declining overall by 2.6% to 62,277 - high inflation, squeezed incomes and the increasing cost of consumer credit were blamed. Although bikes in the 501-1000cc class saw sales soar by 17.3%, every other sector suffered a fall. The big 1000cc-plus machines were down by 1.2%, the 125-500s by 7.2% while sub-125s plummeted by 13.9%, though they were still the biggest capacity sector at 22,163. Scooters (those above 50cc) were down too, by 13.2%. According to trade magazine British Dealer News, continued high inflation is at the core of all this gloom, with rapidly increasing interest rates showing little sign of dampening down the economy. The higher rates have in turn put

Electric motorcycle sales may have languished in the UK so far this year, but the situation worldwide looks more bullish, with Kawasaki close to launching its 125cc-equivalent e-bikes, and Erik Buell’s long-awaited Fuell now available on pre-order. Kawasaki hasn’t officially revealed much about the upcoming Ninja EV and Z EV (faired and naked versions respectively) but the 125-equivalents have recently been approved for sale in Australia, with the paperwork revealing some of the key specifications. The biggest surprise is that both will use a pair of small batteries with a combined capacity of 3kwh, and that these will be removeable for easier charging. At around 12 kilos each, the batteries should be light enough for many riders to carry indoors. The

Globetrotting motorcycle tours are finally making a return, after a long hiatus during and post-Covid. In a symbolic move, Globebusters, probably the best known of the mega-tour operators, set off on their biggest tour since Covid in late July, a 22,000-mile epic across the Americas from Alaska to Patagonia. And in a sign that adventure motorcyclists are ready to travel again, the 142-day tour was sold out – and that was at a cool £37,995 per person. Globebusters was founded over 20 years ago by Kevin and Julia Sanders, who before they got into the tour business, set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest time across America, two-up. Globebusters proved a success, tapping into the desire for some (well-heeled)

Around one million motorcycles stolen in the UK since 1973 have never been recovered. That’s according to Dr Ken German, who served in the Metropolitan Police Stolen Car Squad unit and now holds a PhD in international vehicle crime. Dr German has calculated that over 900,000 bikes nicked in the last 50 years have never been recovered – add in those not reported, off-road and race machines, he writes, and the total amounts to a cool million. Between 1973 and 1987, 675,000 bikes were stolen in the UK, of which 405,000 were never recovered. These would have been cloned, stripped to their component parts, were exported or the subject of insurance fraud. In the following five years to 1992, 190,000 were