mad bastard - search results

So we've had the Dakar for a while now, ridden it through some serious off-road stuff , used it as a daily commute and taken it on the annual CMG tour to British Columbia. We've racked up 7,000 km and gotten to know the beast quite well.

Thankfully Triumph have come a long way since the original triple motors that graced such models as the Thunderbird (still around) and the rather bland Thunderbird Sport (dead and good riddance).

I always try and keep an open mind before I test a bike. However, sometimes, even before swinging a leg over the beast, I might feel that it's just not going to work for me. Initially, that's what I thought when I arranged to grab the 'new' Kawasaki ZR7S.

Okay, I have to confess, I like the standard/ naked bike. I always have. When I first noticed motorcycles at the late age of 17 my heart always beat faster at the sight of a naked bike over the then revolutionary plastic coated stuff.

There's an old Yorkshire saying that goes "Aye, tis um pah thy gern te' than thy ... gar bar Rob Harris". Roughly translated it says "If you try hard enough, you'll finally get what you want ... unless you're Rob Harris."

So the folks at CMG asked if I would be interested in testing some Dual Sport/ Off-Road bikes. Hell yeah, that would be great. I've ridden off road for many years and was anxious to try out the latest machinery. So in typical CMG fashion, my first assignment is a Yamaha's V-Star 650 Custom. Hey what the…

Whoa, have they gone mad with power cruisers? Within the space of the last two weeks, Yamaha have announced their Warrior, Kawasaki their Mean Streak and just in the last few days, Harley have announced their new liquid cooled V-Rod (although we had to find all the info ourselves as Harley Canada seem to deem us to be unworthy of the info).

Stumbling out of the Four Seasons hotel in Austin early Saturday morning welcomed us with a rather chilly and rain clouded day. The hangover was not as bad as I deserved, and the line up of R and RT motorcycles testified of the riding pleasure to come.

Ah, race day. I wanted to leave nothing to chance today so got up early and made sure that I had my mind around everything.

Suddenly, I’m there. Dressed in fancy new leathers, boots and gloves, perched atop a new BMW R1100S, I'm about to enter the infamous Mosport race track. "I don’t belong here," I think to myself as the race official turns to open the track access gate. I can't afford this bike. Even the gear is a stretch. Bloody hell, I can’t even race.