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I ride a lot. I travel a lot. I talk a lot — and I'm happy to take you along for the ride.
For 20 years riders have asked the big brands for lighter motorcycles. At the KOVE stand at EICMA 2026 I found a brand that actually builds them, from a screaming 450 inline-four to a 350 Rally that weighs 315 lbs dry.
Suzuki brings the legendary K5 engine back in a sportbike, sends the SV650 into its next life as the SV-7S and bolts gold wheels to the GSX-8TT. At EICMA 2026 I sat on just about everything on the stand.
At 9:02 in the morning I had the Triumph stand at EICMA 2026 almost to myself. A Street Triple with a race engine, the first single-cylinder Bonneville, and a Tiger 1200 that restarts the oldest fight I have with myself.
Heavy bikes love to stay in the garage after work. Here are five grown-up motorcycles at 430 lb or less that you'll happily back over the garage lip, and that still put a big grin on your face on your favorite road.
I had to fight my way onto the CFMOTO stand at EICMA 2026. Waiting there: a Chinese V4 superbike with more than 210 hp and two new 550 adventure bikes with more power and less weight. One of them I am buying.
Kawasaki brought the Versys 900 with radar, the KLE650 adventure bike I have been waiting for, the supercharged Ninja H2 and a brand-new fuel-injected two-stroke that might be the most underrated bike at EICMA 2026.
I worked through the whole KTM stand at EICMA 2026, from the 187 hp Super Duke GT to the 690 Rally that stole my heart. And I walked straight past the most important bike there, a brand-new twin. Day two, I went back for it.
BENDA used to be the booth nobody visited. At EICMA 2026 I had to push my way in. One new V-twin carries three new bikes, there is an electronic clutch I nearly missed, and the biggest V4 the brand has ever built.
Three numbered SP specials with dry clutches, a new DesertX Rally, the Diavel V4 S and a whole family of Desmo dirt bikes. At EICMA 2026 the Ducati stand turned me into a kid on Christmas morning, and I sat on what I could.
Anyone who thinks electric bikes will kill the gas engine should visit Honda at EICMA 2026. Two new engine families, three Africa Twins, three Fireblades and a 500 cc four. I fought my way through the crowd and sat on what I could.
We mostly talk about Chinese bikes in price comparisons. At the Ace Cafe in Chongqing I found something else: chrome, huge V-twin tourers and people who may not even have a license, lining up for a spot behind the rider.
Yamaha has shown the Tenere 4 Concept, a lightweight single-cylinder adventure bike for the European A2 license class. I have not ridden it. Here is everything Yamaha has confirmed and how it lines up against five similar bikes.
BMW has announced the F 450 RR, a fully faired 420cc twin built for the European A2 license class. I have not ridden it. Here is what BMW claims, how the four versions differ and how the numbers line up against four similar bikes.
Ducati has announced the 2027 Panigale V4 and V4 S. I have not ridden either one yet. Here is what Ducati says has changed, when it reaches dealers and how the numbers compare with three rival superbikes.
Triumph has announced the Bonneville T40 and T40 Black, a 400cc single with the Bonneville name. I have not ridden it yet. Here is what Triumph claims, what the press release leaves out and how the numbers compare with four similar bikes.
The RS 457 brings the front-end feel I know from bigger Aprilias to a compact sportbike. On our Austrian supermoto circuit, I found plenty of precision and stability, but less room to move than my tall frame wanted.
1,005 miles of rugged backcountry, passes up to 6,542 feet, and four countries in six grueling stages. How a pack of dirt bikers conquered the Balkans together.
The Benda LFC 700 PRO pairs a screaming four-cylinder engine with a 300-section rear tire. My short Austrian track test exposed the gap between its strong acceleration and braking and the effort needed to get it around tight turns.
The Suzuki DR-Z4SM brought me straight back to my single-cylinder beginnings. A short Austrian track session showed why its smooth transmission and predictable handling matter more to me than a bigger horsepower number.
When your lower back complains after two hours and your forearms shut down, you start looking for the fault on the motorcycle. Usually it sits somewhere else. Colorado made that very clear to me over 1,060 miles.
The two questions that decide the future of a used engine cannot be answered by any mechanic. In Colorado I spent 1,060 miles on a motorcycle that answered them by itself.
Suspension tuning does not have to cost money. Set your preload properly and you change how the whole motorcycle behaves within minutes, for free and immediately. A field report from the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route on an Aprilia Tuareg 660.
There is one sentence you never want on camera during a trip. I said it anyway, in the middle of Colorado, in front of a river we did not cross. Two days later I was grateful for it.
On gravel your eyes get pulled down to the rocks in front of the wheel. That is exactly where they must not go. I made that mistake again in Colorado after twenty years of riding, and fixing it cost nothing but a thought.
One cylinder, 79 hp, and a circuit made entirely of hairpins. The Husqvarna 701 Supermoto should be intimidating and somehow is not. The real story is not the lap time. It is how quickly this thing lets you use it.
Knobby tires, a tight supermoto track in Austria, and 45 hp. The KLE 500 has no business being quick here, and that is what makes it interesting. The real question is not the lap time. It is how fast you start trusting the bike.
Freezing mornings in Yellowstone, 106 degrees in southern France, rain at 12,000 feet in Colorado. No question follows me on my travels as stubbornly as what to wear off-road. An honest reckoning.
Ninety-nine degrees in the valley, barely above freezing on the pass, and 12,900 feet in between. Here's how you pack for a trip where the weather changes its mind three times a day.
1,060 miles of real backcountry, passes near 13,000 feet, a rental bike with 21,000 miles on the clock. What the Aprilia Tuareg 660 truly delivers, and where it falls short.
Up on the pass, near 12,800 feet, a stranger grinds fresh espresso. Welcome to the America no tourist sees, reachable only on an adventure bike.
745 miles of official route, passes near 13,000 feet, and a day with no gas station at all. What you need to know before you plan the Colorado BDR.
Four ride modes, five traction settings, rear ABS you can switch off. Here's what counts in real high-country gravel, and where the electronics hit a wall.
In Colorado the landscape starts where the Alps stop. On treelines, scale, and the distances you have to relearn before the riding makes sense.
Running 43 psi on coarse gravel sounds wrong. On a trip with no workshop within hours, it's a deliberate choice against the flat, and it has a price.
For three days I was certain this bike and I would never be friends. Then came a pass at 12,640 feet, and the whole thing turned around.
Range, standing ergonomics, load reserve. Nine criteria an adventure bike has to answer for, checked against real high-country gravel rather than a spec sheet.
I almost never let a motorcycle do its own shifting. On the 2025 KTM 1390 Super Adventure S Evo, on a cold and tight supermoto track, I did it anyway, and it turned into the biggest adrenaline hit of the day.
After more than a thousand motorcycles, almost nothing rattles me anymore. Then I rolled out on the silent, electric Stark Varg SM, and I will be honest, I did not get close to what this thing can really do.
Sharp price, a familiar 645cc V-twin, a quickshifter that actually feels right, and genuine touring comfort with no cheap aftertaste. The SV-7GX is one of 2026's most interesting bikes.
Three laps in on the V4 Rally, something clicks. The chassis snaps right, the V4 hooks up clean, and a 529 lb tourer suddenly plays supermoto on a tight Austrian loop. Forget the spec sheet, this one rewards you.
Cold spring morning, 54 F asphalt, fresh Bridgestone T33 on a 523 lb adventure bike with an automated gearbox. The big question: is the BMW R 1300 GS ASA actually quick on a tight supermoto track, or is it just clever luggage for highway miles?
There are motorcycle trips you plan with your head. And then there are the ones that start somewhere deeper. Colorado is firmly the second kind. In July 2026 we line up two Aprilia Tuareg 660s on the Backcountry Discovery Route.
It is not a launch event. It is not a magazine shoot. It is the Concorso d'Eleganza at Villa d'Este — and BMW dropped a six-cylinder K18 concept onto the same lawn as cars worth more than houses. Here is what Lake Como looked like this year.
When BMW says 'Concorde on wheels,' they actually mean it. The K 18 Vision landed on the Villa d'Este lawn last weekend wearing a 1,800 cc inline-six like a piece of industrial sculpture — and made everyone forget Lake Como was even there.
Cheap adventure bike, brutal Croatian rocks, surprising amount of trust. This bike costs roughly half of what a serious adventure machine runs. I wanted to know what is actually inside the CFMOTO 450MT, so I raced it through the entire Krka Enduro.
Opening day at our Austrian supermoto-track benchmark. Asphalt at 52 F, four adventure rivals waiting, and the Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Limited rolling out for the first timed lap of the year. The point is not the lap time. It is how fast you trust the bike when the conditions are not doing you any favors.
Day eight of our 1700 mile tour through the American West, gas stop in Stanley Idaho, the realization hits: 80 percent dirt, 34F mornings, 86F afternoons, washboard at 70 mph. The Suzuki under me is running like day one. Why are Japanese motorcycles this reliable?
For a Central European rider, Utah does not compute the first time you stand in it. Salt Lake City to Kanab on a Beta RR 2T X-Pro 200, in a small group on a mix of enduros. Slickrock, sand, water crossings, slot canyons. Here is what stuck.
Nostalgia is almost always wrong. I had the KLE filed away as a mischievous street bike from the nineties. The 2026 model showed up with knobbies, 8.3 inches of fork travel, and enough gravel grip to make farm-track detours at seven in the morning feel like the right call.
I've looked at hundreds of used bikes. The biggest red flags aren't on the machine — they are hiding in the owner's garage. Here is the 10-minute test that saves you thousands.
Adventure bike marketing is extraordinarily good at one thing: making sport tourers look like expedition machines. There are two specifications that cut through all of it instantly.
When you are afraid of your own motorcycle at 0 mph, the elbows lock, the joy dies, and every ride becomes a stress test you didn't sign up for. Here is the test that reveals whether your bike actually fits you.
The dealership margin on new bikes is 12–15%. If you walk in expecting to negotiate a significant discount off MSRP, you are going to lose that negotiation before it starts. The money is somewhere else.
In a blind left-hand corner, the thing you're afraid of is stationary. The thing that will kill you is invisible — and you're riding straight toward it.
The horsepower arms race produced the least interesting motorcycles money can buy. Measured by adrenaline-per-dollar on the roads where you actually ride, the mid-weight naked bike wins by a margin nobody puts on a spec sheet.
Most scramblers on sale today are naked bikes wearing trail boots and knobby tires. There is a single specification that exposes the fake from the genuine — and manufacturers would rather you didn't know it.
Somewhere between the group ride and the track day lap timer, a lot of riders lost the thread of why they started. Here is how to find it again.
The roll phase feels safe. It isn't. Here is the maintenance throttle technique that experienced Alpine riders use to stay planted, precise, and in control through the tightest switchbacks.
Riders spend hundreds on aftermarket seats chasing comfort they could have found for free. The real fix for motorcycle back pain takes no money and thirty seconds to understand.