The Manx Grand Prix is returning to its traditional two-week format, after it was reduced to a single week, post-Covid. Race goers, hoteliers and licenced victuallers were not best pleased, with the historic event cut to five days of practice sessions followed by a single weekend of racing. Add in the Isle of Man’s notoriously fickle weather, and it looked like the MGP was destined to shrink – 14,229 spectators turned up last year (down from just over 16,000 in 2019). But for 2025, the fortnight-long MGP is back, with all four races taking place over the late August Bank Holiday weekend, followed by five Classic TT races and a parade lap. The extended timetable should also give more flexibility to

A pothole which heals itself sounds like a road user’s daydream, but international research teams at Swansea University and Kings College London reckon it could come true. The teams have added tiny plant spores soaked in recycled oil to bitumen, which mends cracks as they form by fusing the asphalt back together. In laboratory tests, small cracks were self-repaired within an hour of first appearing. When the road surface is compressed (as by passing traffic) it squeezes the spores’ oil, which softens the bitumen enough for it to flow into small cracks. Potholes begin when minute cracks form, allowing water in. With the cycle freezing and thawing, plus the weight of passing traffic, eventually these grow until the bitumen collapses into

In a teaser comment on social media, Kawasaki has hinted that it has a two-stroke motorcycle in development. Admittedly, it is only a hint, but a significant one, in a ten-second post in which the company responds to pleas from two-stroke fans with the phrase, “We heard you!” More substantial evidence that Kawasaki is working on a two-stroke came in July 2024, when it submitted a patent application for a new stroker motor employing fuel-injection, a turbocharger and inlet valves operated by a camshaft. These changes could make a new-generation two-stroke far less polluting than the old-school engines, and more efficient in fuel use, while retaining their traditional benefits of high power and relatively low weight. It looks like any claims

Smaller, cheaper sub-500cc bikes are soaring up the sales charts, according to the latest detailed sales figures from DfT and DVLA. For the first six months of 2024, sub-500s took five of the top ten seller spots for over 125cc machines. Triumph’s 400cc single was the star performer, with the Speed 400 grabbing second place (1135 sales in January-June 2024) and its Scrambler 400X cousin in fourth (1000 sales). The Speed 400 actually outsold BMW’s new R1300GS, though the evergreen R1250GS remained best seller overall, at 1324. Other smaller bikes in the top ten were the Royal Enfield Meteor 350 in seventh place, the Honda ADV 350 in ninth and Enfield’s Himalayan 452 in tenth. That was backed up by MCIA sales

We’ve heard of barn finds, but this is something else – Charterhouse Auctions is planning to offer a bike that’s been in uninterrupted storage for over 90 years! Maybe the term ‘barn find’ is pushing it a bit, but the British Motor Traction, built circa 1900, was loaned to the Science Museum in 1933 by the owner’s family, who recognised it even then as an historic machine. Did it ever go on display? We don’t know, but soon afterwards the Museum put the bike into store, and there it stayed until Charterhouse was recently commissioned to put it under the hammer. Charterhouse boss George Beale said: “Whilst it is amazing to think this bike has been hidden away for all these decades,

Paul Varnsverry, the highly respected motorcycling clothing expert, is launching a campaign aimed at eliminating uncertified and potentially unsafe bike kit, currently being imported into the UK and offered for sale online. Varnsverry, Technical Director of clothing consultant at  PVA-PPE, is started a petition aimed at alerting Government to the dangers of untested kit. In conversation with MCN, he praised the efforts of Trading Standards in the last three years, in checking bike shows and high street shops for sub-standard kit. But he added that clothing offered online is attempting to circumvent these checks. “I started noticing a significant number of vendors selling untested, non-certified clothing,” he said, “using social media to bypass the usual checks and balances put in place

Ariel motorcycle production has ended. That might be a surprise to those who associate the name with Britain’s glory biking days of the 1930s and the ‘50s, but for the last ten years, Ariel has been building the Ace, a VFR1200-powered super naked bike. Designed as a two-wheeled equivalent to Ariel’s lightweight Atom sports car, the Ace was a striking design using a trellis aluminium main frame and high tech girder forks. Power came from Honda’s 1237cc V4 from the VFR1200, mated to the optional DCT transmission – with 175bhp, it gave the Ace stunning performance, but the end of VFR production seems likely to have influenced Ariel’s decision to end production. The last customer bike, finished in Gulf colours, was

Staffordshire Police have been fighting bike theft by equipping specially trained officers with drones and Honda CRF300L off-road bikes – and the new strategy is working. Operation Transom, put into action on Sunday 15th December, saw officers from three Staffordshire units – Park Hall Country Park, Werrington and Bucknall – target areas where anti-social riding had been reported. Inspector Becci Price said: “On many occasions the actions of those involved have not only been anti-social but also reckless and criminal. Riders risk injuring themselves, other road users and pedestrians. They will be dealt with accordingly through disqualification, arrest and prosecution.” Operation Transom worked by using the CRF-mounted officers as deterrent patrols and a drone for additional information. Two stolen bikes were