Zero SR/S (2020) Review
Are motorcycles finally ready to embrace electric motors? 2020 will be remembered for a lot of (mostly terrible) things, but it also stands to become the turning point for electric car ownership in Western Europe. A number of regulatory and social factors...
Why I Bought a KTM 790 Duke
I’d had my Suzuki SV650N for 8 years and it was time for a change. I now own a KTM Duke 790 which is fantastic - though not the usual choice for a step up from an SV. What led me to the KTM?I had been pondering a new bike for a while, as I had outgrown my...
Moto Guzzi V85TT Review
An absolute winner on paper; can the reality live up to my expectations? Now here is a bike I’ve been waiting a very long time to ride. I never found time last year, and with the pandemic shuttering the country for months on end it’s taking some time to...
Kawasaki Ninja Z1000SX Review
Can Kawasaki's updated Sports-Touring stalwart win over a V-Strom fanboy? Kawasaki’s Z1000SX has been a best-seller for the brand ever since it launched in 2011. It almost single-handedly breathed life into the dying sports-tourer genre of motorcycling,...
Yamaha Tracer 900 GT Review
There are a lot of motorcycles that, on paper, look perfect. Ride enough bikes and apply a little critical thinking and you can start to spot the things you like and the things you don’t in each offering. Eventually, you build up a list of the best aspects...
40,000 miles on a Triumph Street Triple R
Impractical, too small, no wind protection...a perfect all-round motorcycle? Has it really been six years? My RoadTrip report reckons so. It was the 5th of October 2013 when I signed the paperwork and rode away on my brand new Triumph Street Triple R....
Unusual & Infrequent Maintenance
How many of you have ever actually looked at the section of your bike’s owner’s manual titled “Service schedule”? At best, you’ve maybe glanced at the long list, noted the intervals, and made a note to drop your bike off with your dealer or independent...
A Different Type of Riding (Part 5: Putting it to the test)
Turns out an oversized scooter makes an excellent two-up touring bike. While I ride some motorcycles purely out of a sense of curiosity, newcomers to this site may not realise that, in many cases, I’m simply documenting the process by which I search for my...
End of an Era
As we reach the end of the decade and another season packed with motorcycle shows has wrapped up it’s worth reflecting once more on where the last ten years have brought us, and where we might be going. The age of the superbike is over, and the age of the...
One Bike to Rule Them All?
Motorcyclists, on average, own more than one motorcycle. Only truly hardcore automotive enthusiasts own more than one car, the financial and logistical constraints of the format conspiring to ensure that even most performance-oriented cars need to be able...
Europe for Beginners
Top Tips for First-Time Travellers Since returning from a European motorcycling adventure last year, I’ve been trying to figure out how to turn my experiences into an interesting article for the magazine. A straight-up ride report (“…and then we carved...
Triumph Tiger 800 XRT
It’s safe to say that Triumph and I have had our differences over the years. My 2013 Street Triple R is the only motorcycle I’ve ever bought brand new, and the brand’s response to my textiles scuffing the paint on the tank within a few hundred miles was...
A Different Type of Riding (Part 4: 2019 Yamaha T-Max)
It’s been a little while since I test-rode any new motorcycles as part of my search for a comfortable, relaxing, low-speed, two-up touring bike. I wanted something with a feet-forward riding position, that could carry two in relative comfort while being...
Dedicated Follower of Fashion?
BMW R1250GS Review Henry Ford is said to have opined that, should he have asked people what they wanted from a future transport solution they would have simply requested a faster horse. Apple famously made its fortune delivering products that nobody knew...
A Different Type of Riding (Part 3: 2018 Harley Davidson Sport Glide)
Those of you who have been following this mini-series will have discovered that while mid-capacity scooters tick a lot of practical boxes, they don’t provide a visceral low-speed experience to augment a sight-seeing tour through Scandinavia. Given that a...
A Different Type of Riding (Part 2: The Honda Forza 300)
Feet-forward riding position? Low-speed comfort, lockable luggage and epic fuel range? Surely there can be but one solution - a mid-capacity scooter! Scooters are much-maligned here in the UK, our past obsession with sports bikes often pointed to as the...
Yamaha Tracer 900GT
Do expectations always deliver? And just what is the true potential of the new Yamaha Tracer 900GT? Keith Yallop reports on his bike purchase of May 2018. After over 9,000 miles he asks, “Is this the ultimate jack-of-all-trades?” I have been biking for...
A Different Type of Riding (Part 1)
It may come as no surprise to many of you that not everyone wants to ride everywhere as fast as possible. It certainly puzzled me for quite some time.My entire riding career has been spent in the pursuit of optimising, improving and developing both my...
The Royal Enfield Himalayan
Remember when the Dacia Sandero launched in the UK? It made a big splash in the automotive press and even beyond; an actual, proper car for just £6,000. With the competition priced close to three times that amount it was no surprise that a lot of people...
Riders Ride (November 2018)
Continuing our Rider’s Rides! Each month we feature a TVAM member and their bike, talk about why they chose that model, what they use it for, as well as what they like and dislike about it. Want to see your bike featured? Get in touch at pressofficer@slipstream.org...
Yamaha Niken Review
The New Evolution Three wheels has always been an acquired taste, but I have never come across such a biased audience as when I said I had ridden the new Yamaha Niken, pronounced Nike-N. ‘What a load of rubbish’ – ‘who wants a trike’ – ‘it’s just like that...
Rider’s Rides (October 2018)
Continuing our Rider’s Rides! Each month we feature a TVAM member and their bike, talk about why they chose that model, what they use it for, as well as what they like and dislike about it. Want to see your bike featured? Get in touch at pressofficer@slipstream.org...
Riders Ride (September 2018)
Each month we’re going to feature a TVAM member and their bike, talk about why they chose that model, what they use it for, as well as what they like and dislike about it. Get in touch at pressofficer@slipstream.org This month we have Cliff Lester and his box-fresh...
Rider’s Ride (August 2018)
Continuing with our Rider’s Rides feature after a break. Here we feature a TVAM member and their bike, talk about why they chose that model, what they use it for, as well as what they like and dislike about it. Want to see your bike featured? Get in touch at...
Riders Ride (April 17)
This month we have Oliver King, one of our RideUp candidates, and his shiny red Yamaha. So Oliver, what make and model of bike are we looking at here? A Yamaha MT07. And how long have you had this bike? Since September 2016, so about 5000 miles. Was this...
Riders Ride (March 2017)
Welcome to Rider’s Rides! Each month we’ll feature a TVAM member and their bike, talk about why they chose that model, what they use it for, as well as what they like and dislike about it. Want to see your bike featured? Get in touch at pressofficer@slipstream.org...
Riders Ride (February 2017)
Introducing a new feature here in Slipstream: Rider’s Rides! Each month we’re going to feature a TVAM member and their bike, talk about why they chose that model, what they use it for, as well as what they like and dislike about it. Want to see your bike...
Zero DSR Review
It seems that the world is changing faster than we think. With technology in electric vehicles constantly getting better, owning an electric vehicle is becoming more viable by the day. On my daily commute, I see more and more fully electric cars. I first...
Yamaha MT10 Review
In 2009, Yamaha broke from accepted form by equipping their range-topping litre bike with a cross-plane crank, delivering the sound and power delivery of a V4 in an inline four package. For bikers bored with more than a decade of howling exhaust notes it was a breath...
Yamaha Tracer 700
In many ways, the development and subsequent announcement of this motorcycle was an inevitability. More and more manufacturers are embracing platform sharing as a way to reduce both the costs and risks of bringing an extended range of models to market. After the...
Honda NC750X DCT Review
I rode this bike’s predecessor, the NC700X, back when it first launched in the UK in 2012. There have been several minor changes since then, not least the engine growing 50cc and 7 horsepower. But this year Honda, dramatically restyled the whole 750 lineup, eschewing...