Jan’s Off Road Experience
In April 2012 I finished work to set up DragonMotoTours with my husband, Geraint, and I received a voucher for the Yamaha Off-Road Experience, (Y.O.R.E), as a leaving present from Continue Reading
BREAKOUT
It’s rush hour in downtown Marseilles and I’m filtering through the seafront traffic on Harley Davidson’s new Breakout. It’s been an interesting day and one that challenges my preconceptions as to Continue Reading
ACAB (or are they?)
I caught a flash of orange ahead and gave my GT250 a little extra, shaving a few more percentage points off my margin of error as I rode west along Continue Reading
Meet and greet the police (the painless way)
When PC Graham Pierce rang me to talk about writing a regular column in the Digest, I saw the appeal immediately. As laudable as his stated mission to cut down Continue Reading
Ask a policeman
I’d like to start by saying I’m not a writer, a reporter, or a journalist. I’m not highly educated and I possess very few literary skills, (thank goodness for smell Continue Reading
Riding Out The Recession
Ed Ricketts, the real-life marine biologist immortalised as Doc in Steinbeck’s Cannery Row, evolved a theory of how everything is connected in the natural world. He observed that the sea Continue Reading
Secondary Effects
I read other motorcycle magazines somewhat regularly. I’m more interested in their letters-to-the-editor than I am in their latest shoot-out between six identical motorcycles. I don’t care about elite Continue Reading
The first sunny ride of the year
It’s been a funny old winter. I started out determined to ride right through as I have done in previous years. Anything aside from snow will see me out on Continue Reading
Funky Mopeds
There was a time, many years ago, when some of the contributors to this august journal had long hair, pimply faces and flares, when there existed a sub culture Continue Reading
The Ace Cafe, Café Racers, and Racing Aces – Book Review pt. 1
It is doubtful that there is anyone involved in the world of British motorcycling whose life is not touched directly or indirectly by the Ace Cafe. A visit here, an Continue Reading
The Ace Cafe, Café Racers, and Racing Aces – Book Review pt. 2
The world of the contemporary café racer in the United States is more properly addressed in Seate’s Café Racer: the Motorcycle (2008). For the past five or so years Seate Continue Reading
From the Editor ~ 177
As many of you will be aware, I tend to leave me editorial until the very last thing. This is partially to lend it a degree of immediacy in recognition Continue Reading
Riders’ Lives – Ed March
1.What was your first motorcycling experience? Rebuilding a Honda H100 and then teaching myself to ride it in a field. I still have it too. 2.What is your current bike? Continue Reading
Six and the City
Monday It’s March and I’ve now been wearing my heated gloves for what feels like forever (I was tempted to say, since November but that technically wouldn’t be correct ‘cos Continue Reading
Paddy’s Perspective
Commercial interests? It’s often the case that legislation emanating from Europe appears to have a commercial interest. You may remember that compulsory ABS on all bikes and scooters was something Continue Reading
The Boy Biker – sees the light
A recent excursion led me down a path, which having emerged the other side unscathed, gave me a lot to think about, biking and otherwise. Last month I was Billy Continue Reading
Nuts & Bolts
Going faster with cheap gin. Time passes by incredibly quickly, especially once one reaches a certain age. Actually, scrub that. Time is inordinately and mind numbingly regular in its passing. Continue Reading
Two Wheels To the End Of The World: Chile – The end of the Highway
The border crossing from Bolivia to Chile is simple, efficient and ever so civilised. The staff seem to be under little or no pressure and as soon as they realise Continue Reading
An upbeat farewell: in a motorcycle hearse…
Have you ever wondered what sort of people make their final journey in a motorcycle hearse? Before I first spoke to the Reverend Paul Sinclair, way back in 2006, I’d Continue Reading
Playing Blackjack
Back in the 1960s, I had an Isetta ‘bubble car’ made by BMW, which was great fun but I wrote it off on black ice, so I moved on to Continue Reading
Biker Down
“Kevin, I’ve got an idea and I’d like hear your thoughts about it” That was how I was first introduced by Jim Sanderson to what was soon to become ‘Biker Continue Reading
Paul Sample: The Interview ‘Everyone chooses their own destiny; mine’s a bike’ – OGRI
Whitchurch is one of those places that encapsulates the essence of Englishness with all its half-timbered houses, red bricks and stone-built churches. It’s a theme I want to explore with Continue Reading
Portraits of the TT 2012
It had been 10 years since my first and last visit to the Isle of Man for the TT races, back in 2002 I had just changed jobs, as I Continue Reading