Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

Motorcycle Sport & Leisure is a monthly 116 page full colour magazine covering all aspects of modern leisure bike riding. New bike reviews, product news and events add to the unique mix of touring features and long term road tests.

Mr Average • Riding the crest of the bell curve of life

Motorcycle Sport & Leisure

Classic Bike Trackdays events • This month’s news isn’t just about the new models launched in the expansive halls of Milan, we’re also aware that the grey and grim weather at this time of year has folk looking forward to the spring and summer, and formulating plans on exciting things to do on two wheels. So here’s info on some things that you can do in the year ahead as well.

Winter Classic

Honda Hornet 1000/SP • And still they come! The new machinery for 2025 has been flooding into MSL Towers all month: Here’s our pick of the latest fresh bikes…

CMX500 and 1100 Rebels

Kawasaki Z900

Royal Enfield

Triumph

Speed Twin 900

Trident 660

Yamaha Tracer 9 range

R9

Bring on the world • BMW’s huge new R1300 GS Adventure is ready to take on anything

Products

Striking a pose • An all-singing, fully equipped adventure bike that chines in, brand new, at a smidge over nine grand? There’s got to be a catch, surely?

Legal Eagle • MSL’s resident legal expert takes a look at motorcycling law

Holding BACK THE GEARS • 2024 is all about dumping manual gearboxes it seems. Yamaha’s joined the club with its new MT-09 Y-AMT model. Our man Alan Dowds went to Spain to check it out

Letters

Somewhat Faster • Tamar and I have been home for two weeks, after a week in London and then almost a week on the Isle of Man for the Manx Grand Prix. Here’s how it was for this Yank in deepest UK motorbike-land

Beauty is not a Sin! • MV Agusta’s planned resurgence under the ownership of Austria’s Pierer Mobility has been triggered by the debut of two distinctive new models conceived under the company’s previous owners, the Russian Sardarov family

SUZUKIS in the Somme

Call me Jack • If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And while the Honda CB500X had nothing wrong with it originally, the company went ahead and fixed it anyway…

SIDECARS • Once a common sight on Britain’s roads, sidecar outfits are few and far between these days, and often spark a great deal of interest when spotted. We wanted to find out who buys them, which bikes are suitable and what they’re like to drive. Who better to ask than the folks at Watsonian, a firm which has been building and fitting sidecars for over 100 years.

BACK IN THE DAY... • MSL columnist Maynard Hershon picks his favourite articles from the long history of this magazine

Ion torpedo • I’ve ridden some very rare bikes over the years. MV Agusta Serie Oro and Ducati ‘R’ superbikes; MotoGP and WSBK race bikes; high-end custom Harley-Davidsons; one-off turbocharged specials. But I can’t think of another machine as unusual as the one I’m currently thraping up and down my local photo corner. I’ve never seen one on the road, or parked up at Box Hill, or in a BSB bike park – not even on Douglas Prom during the TT.

Perspective • My problem whenever I hear the phrase “get some perspective” is all I can think of is Dermot Morgan in Father Ted: “This cow is small, but that cow is far away.”

The Kintyre Peninsular • We make no apologies for this, our third Scottish ride in two issues, as it is just such a fantastic area in which to ride bikes. Read on…

Memories of Morocco Part 1 • My first trip to Morocco was back in 2001 after being enchanted by a road map showing symbols of trees along the road to Zagora. These indicated an oasis and my imagination went into overdrive. If I caught a ferry...