A motorcycle which converts into a skidoo or snowmobile? Not as daft as it sounds, with parts of the UK possibly becoming snowbound before Christmas. Canadian manufacturer Daymak has launched the Combat, which can swap its wheels for a snow-friendly track-and-ski chassis. In motorcycle form, the Daymak Combat looks like a fat-tyred monkey bike. Designed more for off-road terrain than tarmac (it’s not actually road legal), it’s powered by a 5Kw electric motor which peaks at 19Kw (nearly 19bhp). The 4.8KWh battery is what you’d expect for a 125cc-equivalent bike, though Daymak claims a relatively modest 50-mile range, and the top speed is limited to 44mph. Converting the Combat to snow use doesn’t look like a five-minute job, with the front wheel and

We’ve heard it said before, but has the death of the two-stroke been exaggerated? For road bikes perhaps, but Italian engine maker Motori Minarelli still thinks there is life in the stroker, at least for enduro machines – it has unveiled a new engine which it says meets Euro 5 emissions standards (Euro 5 is the fifth iteration of European emissions limits that have got steadily stricter since the original Euro1 came in 1999.) The company showed the new single-cylinder 300cc engine at the EICMA show in Milan. Said to be based on Yamaha’s YZ250 power unit, which is designed for enduro use, Minarelli’s version has been designed in-house and features electronic fuel injection and electric start. The University of Modena

Motorcycles in the EU may be subject to new end-of-life legislation on recycling and reuse. Targets for recycling, and the safe disposal of certain fluids and heavy metals, are set by the End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Directive, which until now has not included motorcycles, but the European Commission is considering lumping them in with cars. The Directive prevents the use of certain heavy metals such as cadmium, specifies the de-pollution of fluids and specific components, and requires vehicles to be recycled at treatment facilities (ie not at home). Its current target for recycling is 85%, and in 2019 the EU average for recycling vehicles was 86.9%. The Federation of European Motorcyclists (FEMA) has hit back at plans to include motorcycles in the ELV

A helmet with integrated airbag – it sounds like something dreamt up by cartoonist Paul Sample for the long-running Ogri saga in Bike magazine during the 1970s. But 50 years on, it could be a reality – Italian helmet manufacturer Airoh has announced a prototype airbag helmet, which was unveiled at the Milan Show in November. Airbag systems are well established and relatively affordable in vests, jackets and leathers, but they have never been applied to a helmet until now. Airoh has teamed up with Swedish safety firm Autoliv, which specialises in airbag systems, having previously developed airbag vests as well as other inflatable systems designed to fit the front of motorcycles. Italian engineer Roberta Descrovi did the original research on

Electric motorcycles and scooter owners will have to start paying Vehicle Excise Duty (VED, better known as road tax) from 1st April 2025. It’s part of a wider end to the electric vehicle tax exemption which also sees the end of free road tax for electric cars and vans. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said that this was to make the motoring tax system “fairer,” as the Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that by 2025 half of new car sales will be electric. Of course, this comment does not apply to electric two-wheelers, whose market is still at the embryo stage – in January-October 2022, electric scooters/motorcycles made up just 5.5% of new sales. However, electric motorcycles will only have

Yamaha Motor has announced that it wants, not just to reduce motorcycle casualties, but work with its customers towards ‘a world without accidents.’ The company has already confirmed its support to the Stockholm Declaration from 2020, which set a target of reducing fatalities by 50% by 2030. Yamaha’s Safety Vision is even more ambitious than that, though no specific targets are set. Instead, the company has outlined three key principles to move this forward. One is technology on the bike to help decision making and hazard recognition – an example is the new Tracer 9 GT+, launched at the EICMA Show in October, which features a radar controlled braking system, which adjusts the balance between front and rear brakes according to the

More motorcycles and scooters are passing the MOT test first time, according to the latest figures from the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency). In fact, the failure rate has been dropping since 2013. DVSA figures show that in April-June 2022, out of over 337,000 tests conducted, the proportion of powered two-wheelers failing first time fell to 14.8%, representing a pass rate of 85.2%. Of the failures, nearly half were due to at least one dangerous fault. Less than one in ten bikes (8.56%) subsequently failed the retest. All of this represents a significant fall in failures since the 2021-22 annual figures, when a total of 962,802 powered two-wheelers were tested, of which 15.52% failed first time and 9.1% failed the retest