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October 2025

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‘Enjoy the ride – not the speed’

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‘People think you just go in faster… they’re almost always wrong’

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We all love an RG500…

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Inside Supermoto

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September 2025

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No sleep till Redruth

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A case of mistaken identity

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August 2025

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Streetfighting years

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‘He was a man of truth’

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What the TT does to your engine

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July 2025

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Cheap for a reason?

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SuperEnduro rocks Newcastle

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‘The buzz of the TT is a million times more than riding a short circuit’

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WHEN A BIRTHDAY PRESENT TURNS INTO THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME…

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New bikes

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’81 Triumph TR7T

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Easy as that

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‘Y’know what? I want one’

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SAM SUNDERLAND

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Trackday Clobber

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SIX MONTHS FROM HOME

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BRADLEY RAY

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THE VINTAGE MOTORCYCLE CLUB

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DAN LINFOOT & HIS DAD

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THE KTM DESIGN TEAM

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A RIDE WITH MICK GRANT

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A RIDE WITH RANDY MAMOLA

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Glorious ride: A land lost in time…

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GOING THE EXTRA MILES

Features

A Ride With

Travel Stories

Know How

Offers and Competitions

Latest Competitions

Latest Offers

Magazine Issues

Bike Magazine

Latest Issues

Members articles

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Subscribe to Bike Magazine

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Bike magazine is your definitive guide to the world of motorcycling. Every issue you'll find incredible motorcycling travel stories from our team and readers with amazing adventures and epic photography. Plus, there's expert opinion on all the new motorcycles available in the UK, giving you all the details you need to choose your next bike.

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For years supersports bikes formed the backbone of Biking Britain. Now, after years in the wilderness, a new generation of supersports has arrived including Ducati’s Panigale V2 S and Yamaha’s R9. Freed from capacity limits and loaded with fresh road focus, the big question is whether either can thrill with the same single-minded purity as Honda’s screaming CBR600RR. The answer is revealed in this month’s group test.

As well as spending time with today’s machinery, this issue we revisit the past by gatecrashing the Suzuki RG500’s 40th birthday party, then explore the future by explaining the tech that’ll power tomorrow’s engines. We’ve asked experts to divulge zero-cost techniques that instantly make you faster, head behind the scenes at Britain’s newest bike manufacturer, ask Mat Oxley to rank racing’s angriest riders and join Nick Sanders on a 20,000-mile lap of Europe. All this and plenty more besides…

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#### Hang on, just twenty-one horsepower? **Ed Armitage** heads to the local bike meet to see if our bargain-priced new Honda GB350S test bike really can deliver

It’s been one of those nowt-nor-summat kind of days. Warm, muggy, overcast and dreary, with the odd splash of rain. But the forecast on optimistic :a[weather.com]{href='https://weather.com' } promises a dry evening with the possible appearance of actual sunshine, so my younger brother Lyle and I decide to get out the house and venture to one of the many bike nights that are dotted across Leicestershire. As it’s a Tuesday we’re heading to The Carrington Arms in Ashby Folville, as there’s usually a right mixed bag of bikes, they stick a tent out the front doing decent food, and – most importantly – it’s a decent ride there.

The biggest incentive is waiting outside, though: our new Honda GB350S test bike. Looks-wise it’s right up my street, and I’ve seen the superb sales figures, but after a few months on a faster and more powerful twin-cylinder CB500 Hornet, I’m intrigued to find out what the two-valve 21bhp single really delivers. The power-to-weight of Lyle’s Yamaha R125 isn’t that dissimilar…

We endure the boring A46 dual carriageway to make use of the pleasingly cheap fuel stop at Six Hills, and the Honda seems fairly happy bobbing along at 75mph. Then we head onto some beloved twisty country lanes and sweeping corners, and the GB350S comes into its own. The engine makes its power low down and in the middle of the revs, and the five gear ratios are widely spaced – dawdling through villages in third gear it sounds like it’s firing every other house, but is also smooth. Swinging down lanes, the single feels nice switching lazily between third and fourth gear. Lyle’s 125 might be about as fast in a drag race, but it has nothing like the Honda’s roll-on flexibility (or its pleasingly deep old-school exhaust noise). Rolling gracefully through turns with a low centre of gravity and upright riding position, the GB350S gives a great sense of confidence and control. Handling is easy, but with a feel of weightiness; it’s what my dad would call ‘steadfast’ on slightly too narrow country lanes.

We trundle up to the pub a little later than intended and it’s beginning to wind down, but there’s still a dictionary of bikes to drool over. By pure luck I manage to wheel our bike wheel-to-wheel with an original CB750, the bike largely responsible for how the GB350S looks, and I’m surprised to find the new single is as big as the old four. The 750 is much shinier, but it also looks like it’s been stamped out of tin; the new bike looks like it’s cast from aluminium in comparison.

The 350 also gets ‘bloked’ quite a bit, other people stopping to ask about it. Telling them it’s £3999 with a six-year warranty get lots of nods of approval.

The ride home is great. With a nice long stretch of road and the wind behind me, the Honda could probably squeeze out 90mph if I climbed inside the tank. But that’d be missing the point. I’m entirely content bumbling around comfortably at 50-60mph and enjoying the feel and the ride, rather than the speed. The CB500 I did my A2 licence on and have been using so far this summer offers twice the power and has a chirpy nature that encourages more ‘spirited’ riding, and its chassis has upside-down forks and better brakes. But of all the bikes I’ve ridden so far (mainly 125s, admittedly, but probably nearing a dozen) the GB350S is by far the most enjoyable. It’s not fast or flash. But the way it rides is perfectly in tune with its great looks.

The sun eventually bursts through the cloud as we head past the old airfield on the way into Melton Mowbray, and we can’t resist stopping to take some pictures (Lyle loves a bit of Instagram). With its modern tech and features neatly hidden away within the classic image, the Honda looks mega. If you had a black and white photo of some quaint Somerset village, you could just drop the GB in. It wouldn’t stand out but would subtly make the picture. It doesn’t make a show, and that’s what I love about it.

We get home bright and cheery, lightly dusted with flies, and very impressed with the GB. I thought 21 horses may be disappointing, but it’s a fine package. Actually, for a quid under four grand it’s a hell of a lot of bike. If you’ve just passed your A2 test, don’t be swayed by fancier-sounding spec lists.

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#### Want to ride quicker for free? Five motorcycling masterminds reveal the go-faster tips, tricks and techniques that don’t cost a penny

Words **Martin Fitz-Gibbons** Pics **Bauer**

**»** **Expert road tester Michael Neeves reveals the one body position tweak that makes all the difference**

**‘T**he thing that limits most people’s confidence through corners is body position. Narrowing it down further, it’s what you’re doing with your arms. You really see it when people say they’re more confident round lefts than rights, or the other way round – their body position tends to be different. In their weaker corner they’ll be quite straight-armed; in their good corner they’ll have their inside arm bent more. When you have your arms locked straight it doesn’t give you confidence, and then it’s a downward spiral.

‘When I’m instructing on track, I say that if you forget everything else today, remember to bend your inside arm into the corner. To get there you’ve got to lean forwards, and that puts more weight over the front wheel, gives you more feel, and gets you better connected with the bike. Bending your inside arm also pulls your upper body into the turn, which helps keep the bike more upright.

‘It’s only the inside arm – you can still keep your outside arm fairly straight. Things always feel more extreme than they look, so you may need to bend it much more than you first think.

When people look at pictures of themselves, they always say: “I’m sure I was lower on the tank than that.” But they’re still sitting quite upright.

‘Imagine there’s a cone on the apex in the middle of the corner, and you’re trying to tap it with your elbow. On the road it’s a lot more subtle, but even just having a slight bend in your arm and not keeping it locked straight will help loads.

‘I remember being on a CBR at Donington Park years ago with my toe and peg on the floor, and it felt so dangerous because I was hanging off with my bum, but not the top half of my body. Then years later when I was instructing at the Ron Haslam Race School, I was following people doing the same thing – but with the right body position you’re not even breaking a sweat. The difference isn’t ability, it’s just knowing what to do.’

Neevesy has been a professional road tester for more than 20 years, instructed at the Ron Haslam Race School, and has ridden pretty much everything ever.

**»** **Professor Alex Stedmon describes how to make better decisions from behind the handlebars**

‘If you ask people “are you a better-than-average rider?”, most will say yes. But not everyone can be better than average. I know I have good days and bad days, and some riders say the same thing. But other riders don’t at all – and they’re the ones this can really help.

‘If you feel yourself being caught out during a ride – perhaps by a tight overtake, or if the person you’re following brakes unexpectedly – take a moment to have a bit of a sanity check. Am I getting tired? Is the weather changing? Do I need a pee or a coffee? It’s also helpful to reflect on how your riding may look to someone else. An overtake can look dangerous, or it can look really well executed. Which would you prefer?

‘This taps into the “theory of planned behaviour”, which says our intentions are influenced by three things: our own attitude; other people’s opinions; and our ability to overcome negative barriers like being angry or stressed. Reflecting on our riding makes the mental space to step back from all that.

‘There’s a psychological construct called the “locus of control”. “Internalisers” look at their own actions: “I could have been in a better position” or “I should have held back”. “Externalisers” pick out what other people do wrong, like blame other road users. I did a study with the University of Nottingham where we put riders in simulators, and we found riders who’d had further training tended to be internalisers.

‘All of this is about getting you to be more slick – overtake better, be more mentally prepared, and enjoy a more flowing ride. If you work to make things smoother, be less caught out and feel calmer and more in control, you’ll make better progress as a result.’

A professor of psychology specialising in rider behaviour, and the driving force behind Project PRIME, a safety scheme in Scotland that improved riders’ road positioning.

**»** **…Faster out. Rapid Training boss and TT racer Dave Hewson reveals how less entry haste unlocks more overall speed**

‘When riders try to go fast they usually rush into corners, thinking they’ll carry more momentum. But what actually happens is you’re on the side of the tyre for too long, or you end up wide of the ideal line. Both of these prevent you opening the throttle, and if you want to go faster the easiest place is in a straight line.

‘I’d call it a controlled corner entry. When you don’t rush into a turn you’ll have more capacity to get the bike on the right line, pointing the way you want, which means you can get on the throttle earlier and drive off the corner. You’ll go faster overall by going into the corner a bit slower to begin with. Over the years it’s been called “slow in, fast out”, but it’s still true both on the road and the track. If anything it’s even more relevant today because bikes are so much faster. The more power you have, the more of it you want to use – and to do that you need the bike pointing in a straight line.

‘Track riders generally try to brake later, thinking that’ll make them faster. But the chances are it’ll just mess up your corner entry. Instead, use the brakes harder and earlier. A lot of riders don’t pull the lever as hard as they can. More effective braking gives you more time to process things in your head, and more capability to begin turning.

‘On the road, the biggest issue we find is an old-school way of riding where people try to be very smooth. They close the throttle and coast towards the corner, as if using the brakes is a sin. But use them properly and you’ll be much more controlled on your corner entry, able to get the bike turned, and open the throttle much earlier.

‘Even if you don’t want to increase your top speed – even if you only want to do 60mph – you’ll still get to that 60mph quicker and hold it for longer if you use your brakes properly on the way in to a corner. You’ll end up going faster overall, without actually going faster. By going slower, in fact…’

The boss of Rapid Training, which offers the UK’s most complete advanced bike tuition, with courses covering both road and track riding catering for all experience levels.

**» Dakar Rally finisher and Off Road Skills instructor Llewellyn Sullivan-Pavey explains why the eyes have it**

‘Whether you’re a beginner, an intermediate or an elite level professional rider, the most important thing is where you look. It’s really well documented, with studies showing sports teams can dramatically improve their performance when they train something called the “quiet eye”. Basically it’s how long your eyes rest on the thing you need to be looking at.

‘In adventure riding, this means you need to be intentional with where you look. The more information you can take in early, the more time it gives your brain to process. Sometimes you can see a hill coming a minute out, whereas if you wait until you’re at the bottom of the hill to look up it, it’s game over. Beginner adventure riders – and all the way up to quite good riders, actually – tend to look too closely at their front wheel. Riding off-road can be information overload at first, which causes us to hunch up and close in. If you can make yourself go “hang on a sec, let’s look up”, it really helps.

‘But I’m not talking just about looking further ahead. If you only look blindly at the horizon you may miss a rut, a rock or a root, which will cause problems. So if there’s something that needs attention then I’ll look, process and deal with it, then go back to seeing what’s in the distance. I may see a pothole when it’s 50 metres away and then I’ll only need half a second to process that I need to change my line and go around it, or lift the front to hop over it. The less experienced you are, the longer it’ll take to process, so you end up following the object in for longer. The key is not to get stuck on it – don’t follow the obstacle all the way until your front wheel hits it…

‘You’re always playing a game, adjusting your gaze between taking in things that are miles away, while also paying attention to the close-up detail. It’s not just changing where you’re looking, it’s being conscious of where you’re looking. It makes such a phenomenal difference.’

Founder of online adventure empire _Brake Magazine,_ where he makes some of the best mucky motorcycle videos. Go to YouTube and search for @BrakeMagazine.

**» Racing royalty James Whitham explains how track riders can find time lying at the side of the circuit**

‘If I could give someone who’s new to track riding one piece of advice, it’s to use reference points. Find a braking marker, a turn-in marker and an apex point for each corner. It doesn’t matter if the apex point you’ve picked is five metres away from the actual apex – it’s still better than just staring at a corner, making it up and rattling in on a wing and a prayer. Sticking to reference points will get you some consistency, and you can build on that.

‘If there are distance boards on the approach to a corner then fantastic, but if not you have to look for something distinctive. It could be a change in surface, a kerb, a pole holding a loudspeaker, a marshal’s post, or even a skid mark. Some tracks are harder than others – at Silverstone there’s not much furniture and it’s all really far away from the track.

‘As you get more experienced these reference points become fluid. If you get a slide coming out of a corner, you may push your braking point on a metre because you know you won’t be going quite as quick. If you get a slipstream or catch a tailwind, you’re gonna have to brake a bit early.

‘But pick your markers wisely. Early in my career I was racing a Suzuki GSX-R750 Slabside at Kirkistown. It’s a long old airfield circuit where the back straight is an old runway, and I couldn’t find a decent braking marker. Then I spotted an ice cream van on the outside of the track which was in the perfect position. Later on I messed up my braking several times, before I realised it had moved during the day…’

Two-time BSB champion, WSB and World Supersport race winner. He now heads up a packed calendar of Track Training Days led by big name coaches – book at :a[jameswhitham.com]{href='https://jameswhitham.com' }

#### …and a big birthday celebration. _Bike_ nabs an invite to the 40th anniversary party of the ultimate race rep at Cadwell Park’s Summer Bash

Words **Jon Urry** Photography **Chippy Wood**

‘Externally this is pretty stock but the engine has had a bit of work – partly for reliability but also to make it a touch faster. We are coming up to our 30th anniversary together and we’ve done more than 26,000 miles, which have been thoroughly enjoyable but not without a few repair bills…

‘The RG was about ten years old when I bought it, and while it had suffered the usual 1980s fashion issues such as cut-down mudguards, which I sorted, it was standard aside from the belly pan – and that’s how I’ve left it. The original bodywork is tatty but if I got it repainted I worry I’d get too precious and not ride it, which would be a shame.

‘I’ve always loved two-strokes but when the RG came out I had kids and couldn’t afford one. But prices plummeted in the mid-1990s and I think I paid £2150 for it – but the engine was a little sick and needed a re-bore. I took it to Stan Stephens and while it was there it gained a bit of love in the way of a stage-three tune (porting, retimed disc valves and skimmed heads) and the disc valve covers’ lining replaced. There is a Bakelite-type lining that peels off and drops into the cylinders, which is bad news.

‘The stage-three tune makes it more tractable low down and it’s a delight to ride. I used to do trackdays but ground clearance was an issue and I was touching the expansion pipe down. I didn’t want to crash it, so I just ride it on the road now. It has been reliable – aside from a cylinder detonating (I was playing with a Ducati…). My only major worry is that I’m still on the original gearbox, which is very fragile.’

‘I’ve owned this RG since 1986, so it was less than a year old when I bought it – yet oddly it had been through three owners already. And crashed…

‘It was totally original when I bought it and it was my only bike for many years. I rode it to and from work, loaded it up with luggage and a tent, and took my brother on the back to Le Mans… everything. Its showing more than 54,000 miles.

‘I didn’t actually set out to buy the RG; I was after a Honda CB900F Bol d’Or, but when I saw the RG I just thought “nope, that’s the one for me”. It cost me £3000, which was quite a chunk of cash back then.

‘After about ten years or so it overheated when the top hose went, so I started changing bits on it, and then the gearbox let go so I needed a new engine. That motor was tuned, at which point I realised the tyres were no good so I changed the wheels and brakes. Then the original bodywork cracked, so I got a carbon fairing. Then I found the carbon tail piece and a few years ago I found the carbon tank. It has been a gradual evolution over 20 years.

‘The wheels are from an early GSX-R600 in revalved original forks with WP springs and six-piston brakes gripping magnesium-centred discs off a BSB bike. The fairing is made by Japanese company Magical Racing, the tank by a British company and the seat unit by an Irish man called something Dunlop, who only ever made two. I have no idea if he is anything to do with the Dunlop racing family. The thing with RG special parts is they tend to be made in small batches so you either need to wait for them (often for years) or buy them as soon as you hear they are for sale.’

‘I bought my RG in 1990. I’d been hankering after a race rep for the road as I did a bit of racing in the early 1980s on an RD400. When Yamaha announced the RD500 I thought I’d buy one, but the reality was that it wasn’t anything like the race bike – it was far too heavy and slow – whereas the RG500 was far closer to the racer.

‘Originally it was bog-standard, but then the internet happened. In the late 1990s there was an email group for RG500 owners and we swapped emails about things we did to our bikes. This was the days before online forums and it was a run by a Dutch guy. The emails were about fork conversions and the like, and that got me thinking about how I could improve my RG. In the early 2000s, when members of the group started physically meeting up with their bikes, I was inspired to begin work on mine.

‘The engine is Stan Stephens-tuned and it is now 550cc using bigger pistons from an RG150, I believe, with bored-out carbs, updated expansions and a Nova gearbox. I was lucky – when my original gearbox went bang I was only doing 30mph but it still holed the crank cases! The Nova gearbox is fit-and-forget; it is 100 per cent reliable.

‘The frame and swingarm are standard but the forks (with extenders) and wheels are from a GSX-R400 with six-piston Hayabusa brakes. You can stick the whole GSX-R400 front end in with minimal issues, just a few new head bearings. The top fairing is off an RGV250 as I like the sharper headlight look.

‘The 17in wheel conversion really works on an RG \[standard is 16in front, 17in rear – Ed\]. As well as making the bike handle better it allows you to fit modern rubber, which is a huge benefit. I use my RG every week and it has got more than 28,000 miles on it now.’

‘I can’t take credit for building this bike but I have updated it and made it better since I bought it in 2016. I own four RG500s – two standard ones, one Heron replica that is parked in my hall at home, and this special.

‘When the RG first came out I had just got married and had a kid, and a mate bought one and rode it over to my house. He said “have a go”, and I just remember being amazed by it – I never forgot that feeling. In 2004 my kids were older and an RG popped up locally on eBay, so I took my son to see it. I started it up and couldn’t resist. It cost me £2410 – and a massive bollocking from my wife.

‘In 2016 this special popped up for sale. I had originally seen it in 2012 at Mallory Park and it was built by Mark Dent and David Howard, who are well-known within the RG community. It was built for Team Classic Suzuki owner Steve

Wheatman, hence the sticker on the screen. He didn’t use it and eventually it got sold on and found its way to me. I paid £13,000 for it, which is a bargain when you consider the work that has gone into creating it.

‘The frame and swingarm are from an Aprilia RS250, and after Stan Stephens put the motor into the chassis, Mark and David then refreshed the engine, fitted GSX-R1000 forks and brakes, Marchesini wheels and Tyga Performance bodywork with a 1999 Kenny Roberts Jr paint scheme and Öhlins suspension. There are loads of lovely details such as the hand-built exhausts by Mark, Translogic dash, stage three engine with 108bhp… the list goes on.

‘It’s beautiful to ride and always turns heads. It won Best Suzuki RG500 at the Summer Bash, which I’m very proud of.’

‘I’ve owned this bike since 2018 but my history with RG500s goes back to the 1990s when I used to race them. My mate had an RG500 and as I had no money, he suggested we build an RG500 that I could race and he could take on trackdays. It seemed like a good plan but as we didn’t have enough cash for the really trick parts, I wasn’t that competitive – but we had lots of fun.

‘I now own a bike shop and a few years ago a lad who works for me called Charles Rhys Hardisty was racing the Classic Manx. I looked and they were all four-strokes, which I thought were dull, so I decided to enter a two-stroke. A local lad was selling his crashed RG, which we used to fix in the 1990s, so I bought it off him under the condition I would convert it to a racer. He said it would break his heart if someone restored it and it looked better than he ever had it, but he was happy for it to be thrashed around a track!

‘We built it using the parts we couldn’t afford back in the 1990s and gave it to Rhys to race in the Manx with the Taffspeed logo on it. Despite being trick, I wanted the RG to look of a period so that’s why it runs conventional R6 forks and brakes and not inverted items. And it has a whopping 31-litre tank, which is another story…

‘The TT rules say you can run a 24-litre tank, so when the scrutineer asked the capacity I said “24 litres”, to which he replied “you can run a 31-litre tank on a two-stroke”. I did confess it was “31 litres… and a bit”. It needs to be big – the RG drinks 16 litres of fuel a lap.

‘In 2023 this bike set a 112mph lap of the TT and has competed at road races such as Aberdare and Scarborough.’

‘I have a stock 1986 RG500 I’ve owned from new, a 1984 RG500 Mk9 race bike \[one of only 25 built in the final run of the racer\] and this RG500 Lucky Strike replica road bike special. I did have a few more road RGs but I had to sell them to buy the racer.

‘I bought the Lucky Strike bike in 2001. It was one of the first RG500/RGV250 conversions and featured in _Performance Bikes_ magazine in the early 1990s. It was built by Foxcraft Engineering, who I think are now long gone, and is a 1991 RGV250M chassis, forks and swingarm with a 570cc RG500 engine in it.

‘I’ve done quite a lot with the bike since I bought it, and while it has always been a Lucky Strike, I’ve fitted a Dymag carbon front wheel with a Dymag magnesium rear (they don’t do a 4.5in carbon rear), wave discs, a dual-core radiator, Maxton suspension, Tony Green pipes and lots more. The fairing is RGV with extra scoops to feed the RG carbs.

‘I used to ride the bike on the road but about five years ago I SORNed it and I now keep it for track use only. It’s a lovely track bike with 100bhp and the engine, which is lightly tuned, is very reliable and feels just like the RG500 racer to use. In fact, it is amazing just how similar the two engines feel – you can certainly tell that they are related. And I have to be honest, the RGV’s chassis and brakes are much better than the RG racer’s on track.

‘As lovely as the Mk9 is to ride, it does feel its age and I don’t like to put too many miles on the racer as they are so expensive to run.’

Part road, part motocross. Utterly thrilling. _Bike_ goes behind the scenes of the bizarre but brilliant British Supermoto Championship

#### **Oliver’s, but not as you know it**

Legendary track Oliver’s Mount in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. For the British Supermoto Championship the track is modified, with jumps, off-road sections and seriously tight twisting chicanes. On paper it’s a strange combination of bikes, riding styles and track conditions – but it makes for some engrossing racing.

■ Alex Mullaney, 17, slides into the main straight on his Italian-built TM 450 SMK – the 449cc, 115kg bike model that’s won multiple World Supermoto titles. Despite his age Mullaney is one of the quickest riders. ‘I won the academy championship in my second year, then I won it in 2019. Now I’m under-21 British Supermoto champion.’ Mullaney sees it as a stepping stone into the world of road racing. ‘It’s a good introduction,’ he says. ‘There are a few lads who I know like Davey Todd and Christian Iddon who started here. I’m starting to get into the road bikes as well, see where that takes me – hopefully I’ll get into BSB or something like that.’

Affordable and low maintenance – that’s a big part of Supermoto’s appeal. ‘You can buy a bike off the shelf and come racing. It’s an easy sport to get into,’ says competitor Oliver Holmes. ‘You don’t need the fancy wheels, fancy tyres, fancy bike; you can just buy a stock bike and race. You can start on a motocross bike. KTM and Husqvarna, TM and GasGas are the ones that will do a Supermoto-type bike \[from new\] – at least that way you save on having to buy wheels, getting the suspension shortened, so on. Out of the box they’re quick bikes.’

‘I’ve got 18 British championships’ says Chris Hodgson. ‘I’ve travelled the world doing it – I’ve raced in Australia, Asia, done a season in America and then the world championships in Europe. It’s given me a good life,’ says the 36yearold. ‘It is really good for bike control. Just imagine: we’re on slick tyres, then you’re coming onto tarmac with shit all over the tyres – it’s gonna move about. You just let it happen – once you’ve got that control, you’ve cracked it. Imagine going into a corner with your bike at 90° – you’ve made part of the corner already. You’re not riding round it, your bike’s made part of the corner.’

Crash bobbins, footpeg sliders and handguards are essential bits of kit. ‘The beauty of these bikes is when you fall off them, 90 per cent of the time you’re just smacking the handguards,’ says TM rider Chris Hodgson. ‘It’s not like you’ve sent a £30,000 Fireblade into the gravel trap and you’re sat on your knees crying.’

‘It’s so unique as a sport,’ says Jess Mitchell, who competes with her 350cc KTM. ‘It’s completely different to motocross and road racing – you get the road and the dirt. The paddock is so friendly, it’s a lovely atmosphere. I’ve been doing Supermoto from 11 years old. It’s a family thing – my dad does it, my uncle races and then me.’

:a[Tripz.UK]{href='https://Tripz.UK' } team rider Jay Smith leaps off the biggest jump at Oliver’s Mount. Rider Alex Mullaney admits it’s a highlight of the track. ‘I like doing that jump,’ he says. ‘Second gear, hit it full throttle, I love it. In qualifying I dented my rim \[from landing the jump\] so I had to fit a new one.’ While the top speeds in Supermoto are relatively low compared to road racing, it’s still fraught with risks. ‘I’ve broken my left wrist three times and I’ve done the right one once, from hitting the deck,’ adds Mullaney. ‘Knocked myself out a few times. I’ve had big crashes but I’ve always managed to get back up.’ Oliver Holmes is also a fan of the jumps in Supermoto. ‘You just hit it as hard as you can, and send it. You tend to land rear first and try to ride it out, keep it going. I’ve had a few where you panic mid-air. You can move the bike in the air, rev to put the back end down, and rear brake to put the back end up – that’s from motocross’.

Jay Smith leads Chris Hodgson into the chicane. Smith is a veteran of the sport, having raced for 20 years. ‘I love Supermoto,’ he says. ‘I always have done since the first day I tried it. I use motocross to keep my bike fitness up but Supermoto is my one true passion. I’ve never won the British championship, I’ve always come second. So this year I’m trying to adopt a different mindset – not “win it or bin it” – I need to get good solid points’. Smith’s tactic clearly worked – since being photographed he claimed the British championship, beating Hodgson by eight points. ‘I am 42 now so it’s taking its toll on the body. It is quite a physical track – lots of stop, start, off-road. It’s quite mental because there’s so many tricky bits, you don’t want to tuck the front or lose the rear. I’ll be glad when today’s over – Monday and Tuesday I’ll be a bit sore.’

‘Supermoto is a good grounding sport for people coming through to road racing,’ says mechanic Ian Collins. ‘They learn how to set a bike up properly because you can’t set up a Supermoto bike properly. There’s too much variation in terrain – there’s tarmac, dirt, gravel. You’ll always be suffering in a certain area, so we try to set it as best we can to do most of the track without giving the rider any drama.’

‘You ride slicks’ says Oliver Holmes. ‘You’ve just got to accept it’s going to move around on the dirt. A set is £400. I’ll put on a set for the Saturday and a set for the Sunday. I’ll put a set on for qualifying, then at lunchtime turn them round, then second and third round turn them round again so they get even wear. Sunday I’ll do the same thing. I use warmers, to get them as hot as you can. If you’ve got warm tyres you know you’ve got grip’.

‘It’s a proper supermoto-specific bike. It’s absolutely brilliant,’ says Chris Hodgson, referring to his TM. ‘They’re completely hand-built. You buy them for £13,000 and you can spec them from the factory’. Like virtually all the bikes in the paddock, his bike is a single-cylinder 450cc four-stroke.

‘A couple of guys go with twostrokes but I think the four-strokes have advanced that much over the past few years that you can’t really go past them now.’

‘It’s an old one this, a 2018 KTM 450,’ says Blaine Pearson. ‘I’ve put a sixspeed gearbox in it, 320mm disc, Brembo caliper and master cylinder, full carbon exhaust, everything’s titanium… I bought this off Alex Mullaney, one of the top lads. He spends all the money then I buy it off his dad cheap! I still get nervous on the start, you could have 35 people going into a hairpin. You still get nervous but you work all week, do all the overtime just to come here for a weekend.’

Mechanic Dan Hunter checks the tyre pressure on one of team :a[Tripz.UK]{href='https://Tripz.UK' }’s bikes. Ian Collins, mechanic for Jay Smith, explains why it’s so important to use tyre warmers. ‘I run 28psi in the rear and 30/31psi in the front. All the tyre warmers are set at 85°C. 60bhp on tarmac is not a massive amount compared to British Superbikes, but once the tyre goes onto grass, gravel or dirt it loses temperature. And then you’re back on the tarmac so you’ve got to generate heat.’

The :a[Tripz.UK]{href='https://Tripz.UK' } team dog, Bubba, named after Supercross legend James ‘Bubba’ Stewart. The paddock atmosphere is as laid-back as possible – everyone knows everyone.

‘It’s a good laugh,’ says rider Blaine Pearson. ‘We have a few beers at night, have a fire, a party, then next day go race our bikes. You can battle hard and barge each other but you come back and shake hands and everything is alright.’

Looking for somewhere to go over the August Bank Holiday weekend? Why not head to Oliver’s Mount for this year’s round? A single-day ticket is £15, or for both days it’s £25. Camping options, too. More info at :a[oliversmount.ticketco.events]{href='https://oliversmount.ticketco.events' }

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It’s been a rather good year for new motorcycles – from bargain supernakeds, to reworked sportsbikes, to pocket-friendly adventurers from little-heard-of brands. But which one stands above the rest and makes us most gooey when we ride it? Our panel of fussy experts and know-it-all testers voted for their favourites, and after much bickering there was a clear winner. Our 2025 Bike of the Year is revealed in this issue.

Plus, ever wondered how much a MotoGP rider spends a year? Jack Miller reveals all over a cuppa with Mat Oxley. We also discover the wonderful world of Supermoto, take on the Land’s End Trial on a 40-year-old Suzuki DR250, and cruise along France’s fabulous Route Napoléon on Ducati’s XDiavel V4. And much, much more…

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Fancy doing something achievable yet ludicrous? The Land’s End Trial is 16 hours of mud, rocks and bacon sarnies. And it’s utterly fantastic…

No pressure. Just ride up the rocky cliff face with hundreds of people waiting for you to bin it PICS: JOHN WESTLAKE, ADAM SMALLMAN, JOHN BENTHAM, ANDREW TRENOWETH

**A**t 9.42pm on a drizzly April evening I’m waved away by the cheery start team of Britain’s longest long-distance trial. Ahead lie 16 gnarly trials sections and 243 miles of trails and lanes that wriggle from Bridgwater in Somerset to Redruth in Cornwall. It’s a 16-hour test of skill, endurance and navigation. And by 9.43pm I’m lost. I somehow miss the exit and tour Bridgwater Rugby Club car park wondering where everyone’s gone until a sniggering attendant waves me out onto the main road. This idiocy is, as I fear, a sign of things to come.

In fact, there’s been a healthy dollop of idiocy already. One of my accomplices, Rupert Paul (former _Bike_ staffer and a very clever man), sourced a natty 3D-printed road book reader from the internet that looked like a great buy. The Land’s End Trial requires some way of reading the massive list of navigation instructions and his purchase saved him £50 on the pukka rally-spec boxes the rest of us stumped up for.

But as his bike sits out in the rain while we wait for our starts, water seeps into the plastic box, leaching out the printer dye of his directions like some GCSE chemistry experiment. And when Rupe turns the roller to find some words that don’t look like a hippy tie-dye disaster, the soggy paper rips.

‘I’ve got an hour and some Sellotape,’ he says. ‘I’ll fix it.’

Or indeed not. Shortly after escaping the car park, I see Rupe by the roadside trying to decipher his litmus paper experiment. We decide the best thing is that he follows me, and we head out towards Exmoor and the coast.

My rose-tinted prediction was that this will be an ethereal wonderland, with the full moon bathing the sea and Moors with silvery light as we chuff through the scenery on our little bikes. Well, that doesn’t happen. It’s pissing down, and as we climb on to Exmoor the fog is so bad I slow to 10mph as all I can see is a bright white ball surrounding my fancy new LED headlight bulb.

We’re on titchy, squiggly lanes with slippery grass down the middle, and 10mph feels sketchy – I keep swerving left in panic as the verge disappears, only to eventually work out they’re passing places. I can’t see anything.

I stop and ask Rupe to have a go in front as I fear there’s something wrong with my eyes. But no, he fares no better, though we do eventually catch some other riders which makes matters easier – at least then we can follow their lights at 8mph. At some point we do the first trials section, but all I can remember is that bouncing up a rocky path seems a lot easier than riding down slimy roads with grass in the middle.

After the section there’s a wet, rutty trail that winds its way up a gentle hill. My Suzuki DR250 chugs along happily in second gear, the Pirelli MT43s finding grip despite the slimy conditions. I’m musing that this is a lot more technical than the rocky section we’ve just done when I spy a red tail light at a height and position consistent with a motorcycle resting in a hedge. As I get closer I see its rider clambering out from underneath.

I pull up behind so he can use my light to see what he’s doing as he hoiks his KTM upright. He’s flustered but seems fine and roars off. Then, 20m later, I watch him give the KTM a handful, the rear steps out and he’s on his arse again. This time he’s damaged his phone holder and he gives the phone to me, telling me to look after it. Sure I say, putting it in my pocket, wondering why he can’t put it in his. Before I can ask, he’s back on his bike and fishtailing off into the night. I’ve no idea who he is. I didn’t even see his event number. Odd.

Eventually Rupe and I arrive at the village of Barbrook. From largely existing in a glowing ball of foggy isolation, we suddenly arrive at a brightly lit petrol station that stays open for the event, with hundreds of bikes and riders milling about. Across the road locals are dishing out tea and cake in the packed village hall. Heaven may well look like this. I hand Mystery Man’s phone to an official who promises to do something with it. Sell it, perhaps.

Buoyed by refreshments, Rupe adjusts his chain in an optimistic attempt to lessen a gear change problem he’s having with his Moto Morini Kanguro, which has a linkage from the gearbox output shaft on the right that goes across to the left, presumably to ensure it doesn’t work well. Futile adjustments made, we head off.

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