What mattered this week: 29 June to 5 July
Catch up with the most important moto news, reviews, and views of this week.
We’re always busy at Visordown - publishing in excess of 60 articles in any given week. That’s a lot to take in. You may have missed some of it.
So, we’ve decided to put together this quick round-up of the week’s best and most interesting stories. Here’s the latest bike and gear reviews, news about coming bikes, some things for you to discuss with friends at the pub, and one more to just ponder. Click on the links to read the full articles.
Latest reviews
India’s Ultraviolette Automotive has expanded to the European market recently with its first offering being… checks notes… an electric motorcycle. Charly de Kinderen was at the bike’s launch in the Netherlands and filed this report on the good and bad of the Ultraviolette F77 Mach 2.
Meanwhile, when it comes to gear, we’ve been very busy putting stuff on our heads and legs, thoroughly testing it, and letting you know whether it's worthy of your head and legs…
First up this week was the Caberg GP01 helmet - a reasonably affordable but high-quality lid aimed at sport and trackday riders. It was Toad’s first experience with the Caberg brand and he came away impressed. Compared to more expensive helmets you get a lot for not a lot.
On the more stylish side of things, Toad also checked out the Ruroc Eox helmet. It’s the Gloucester-based company’s flagship model. Ruroc is one of the top go-to brands for cool-guy helmets, but that can sometimes mean they come off as feeling more style over substance. Is that the case with the Eox? Read the article to find out.
Also winning lots of cool-guy points is the Shark Aeron GP helmet. But this £1,000 brain bucket is about much more than great aesthetics. The French company’s flagship helmet scores high praise from Toad for a number of reasons, from comfort to ventilation. Spoiler alert: one feature is the best he’s ever encountered.
Finishing up the week, and appropriately published on 4 July, I threw on my favourite pair of riding trousers, the Aerostich AD-1 Pants. If you’ve not heard of Aerostich before, the company holds cult-like status among certain American riders. Its products have a reputation for being extremely durable. Which, as you can probably guess, means they’re not cheap. Check out my article to find out whether they’re worth the expenditure.
New bikes
Suzuki pulled the cover off its new GSX-8T and GSX-8TT neo retro models this week. When rumours of these models had initially surfaced a month or so ago, some had expressed hope that the T would stand for “touring” and Suzuki would be producing a mid-weight sport tourer. Not so much. Built around the same 776cc parallel twin engine as the V-Strom 800, GSX-8S and GSX-8R, these bikes are still likely to win hearts and minds.
Possibly less thrilling - depending on how you get your kicks - Honda has unveiled its second all-electric scooter, the CUV-e. The scooter has two removable power packs, each good for a range of about 35 km. Ride to work, bring your batteries into the office to charge on the company dime, then ride home feeling smug.
Speaking of rumours and retro bikes, this week also saw talk of a Kawasaki Z1100RS. The rumour is built around letter codes found in US documents. Considering that the aforementioned Suzuki sport-tourer rumours had been born of the same sort of documents, we’re taking this one with a grain of salt.
Perhaps more reliable is the speculation that the Honda CB1000R could soon be equipped with the manufacturer’s E-Clutch system. Honda’s been leading the charge for automatic transmissions for a long while now, but this system is a different take on the theme.
Lastly, if you like your bikes expensive and pretty, it’s hard to think of a motorcycle more expensive and pretty than the new RMB01 from Brough Superior. Featuring a turbo-charged V-twin, this gorgeous machine promises 130 hp and has a starting price just shy of £100,000. That’s about £769 per pony.
Up for discussion
Dean Barnes was killed last year amid an alleged motorbike theft gone horribly wrong. The owner of the stolen bike is now in court, facing charges of causing death by dangerous driving - despite the fact he was not driving the car that hit Barnes. The implications this has when it comes to protecting one’s property has Toad hot under the collar.
Less tragic, but still likely to get many motorcyclists’ blood boiling is the fact that E20 fuel is set to arrive sooner than originally planned. Some motorcyclists - especially owners of classics - are deeply concerned about what the blended fuel might do to their engines.
Last autumn, a Harley-Davidson dealership in Reading closed down abruptly. This week, we learned that the building it once occupied still hasn’t found new tenants. The shocking annual cost of the property now makes Harley’s departure seem pretty shrewd and makes us wonder: who would ever want to run a motorcycle dealership?
Speaking of Harleys, we’ve updated our list of the Top 10 best Harley-Davidson motorcycles of all time. Do you agree with our choices?
One more for the road
In the US state of Indiana, a motorcycle smashed through the display window of a museum and damaged an ultra-rare vintage car. The real mystery of the incident, however, is who did it. Witnesses say the bike had no rider. What happened to him or her? Nobody knows.
For more motorcycle news, stick with Visordown.com
Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
