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

Honda’s latest innovation is the E-clutch – automatic electronic control of the clutch when starting, coming to a halt or changing gear (or as Honda describes it, when the ‘driving force changes’. The company already has a name for innovative transmissions, thanks to its well-established Dual-Clutch Transmission (DCT) which allows push button or automatic gear changing on a six-speed box. Available on a whole range of bikes, from the NC750 to the Africa Twin and Goldwing, it’s been a great success, with the Goldwing DCT now outselling its manual counterpart. The E-clutch is different, in that there is still a clutch lever and there appears to be no automatic option. The rider still has to choose when to change gear via the

Suzuki is challenging online scooter retailers by launching its own ‘click to buy’ scheme, rolled out to its 125cc scooter range. After buying habits changed during lockdown, manufacturers are looking at ways of engaging buyers directly online and making the purchase process as simple and quick as possible. Available on the new Address 125, Avenis 125 and Burgman Street 125EX, Suzuki’s ‘click to buy’ scheme aims to do just that. Buyers hit the ‘click to buy’ option on the relevant model page (or visit buy.bikes.suzuki.co.uk) enter their postcode and choose a colour, after which they will be pointed to the nearest dealer which has the bike in stock. In fact, dealers shouldn’t lose out, because once the customer has added their details

Japanese manufacturers appear to be hedging their bets on what will power the motorcycle of the future. We know that they are working on battery-electric bikes (witness Kawasaki’s new pair of 125-equivalent electric Ninjas) but both the big K and Suzuki are also working on alternative types of propulsion. Kawasaki has announced a hybrid petrol/electric, Ninja 7 Hybrid/HEV with a 451cc parallel twin, plus a small 1.4kWh battery and 12bhp electric motor, giving a total output of 69bhp. The result, says Kawasaki, is a mid-size bike with 650-700cc equivalent performance but with the fuel consumption of a smaller bike – they are claiming 70.5mpg on the standard WMTC test, enough with the 14-litre tank to give a range of 217 miles.

Most of us know the veteran overlander Nick Sanders for his record-breaking motorcycle trips around the world, but his latest attempt is on something else – a Yamaha electric bicycle. Nick is no stranger to pedal power, having pedalled his way to several cycling records before turning to motorcycles. He entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1981 by cycling around the world in 138 days, cutting that to just 79 days three years later. He still holds the record for fastest cyclist around the coast of Britain – now aged 65, he’s decided to opt for some electric assistance. This will be Nick Sanders’ 11th round the world trip, and he left his home in Wales on 3rd September, planning to