There are more reasons to fit an aftermarket exhaust to your motorcycle today than ever: to hear your engine, cut weight, improve the design, and, in most cases, add better performance. Euro 5 and all of its buddies, Euro 5+ and now Euro 6, are slowly making their way deeper into our ECUs, making it increasingly difficult to have a bike that sounds good, looks good and fuels correctly. In fact, from my experience riding almost every new test bike that comes through ZA Bikers, it feels like some bikes are fuelling worse from the factory than ever before. That’s obviously my personal opinion, but it’s also why my view on flashing an ECU or fitting a slip-on exhaust is generally positive, provided you’re using a premium brand.

One of those exhaust manufacturers is Yoshimura, and if you haven’t already heard, Yoshimura exhausts are back in South Africa thanks to Sparx Distributing. We’ve already dipped a toe into Yoshimura’s history, what the brand stands for in the world of performance and racing, and the ethos and legacy behind it. But for me, that really started to sink in when I got my hands on the physical product. Ironically, it wasn’t until Steve Theron from Sparx Distributing sent me a Yoshimura RS-4 system for my Husqvarna Norden 901 that I truly appreciated what makes the brand so special.

We know the reputation, and that should be enough to justify spending your hard-earned money on a premium exhaust, but Yoshimura goes as far as packaging the product almost as well as it manufactures it. Unboxing the RS-4 made me realise that the passion really is in the DNA, from the well-packed box to the labelled bags of parts, including the tools for fitment and even some stickers to brand the back of your bakkie or laptop, for those special fans. I’m a die-hard nerd for these kinds of things; especially with my mechanical workshop upbringing, it’s just something I appreciate seeing.

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Built for the Bike

Back to the RS-4, this is one of Yoshimura’s off-road-focused designs, and you’ll see it on Motocross, Enduro, Cross Country, Dual-Sport and selected Adventure bikes. It’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all kind of product, something you see all too often in the industry these days. Yoshimura focuses on designing each exhaust around the individual motorcycle, not simply changing the obvious link pipe and exhaust hanger, but also the length, shape and exhaust cone design. To me, that’s impressive. It shows how much effort a manufacturer is willing to put into essentially re-engineering an exhaust not only for a specific discipline, but for a specific model. That takes serious R&D, but for us riders, it showcases a commitment to producing something far superior to your run-of-the-mill aftermarket pipe.

The adventure-style RS-4 also has a distinctive off-road look, with its high-rise, MX-style design. I hate it when manufacturers suggest a certain accessory partner’s exhaust as an OEM fitment extra, only for it to look like some generic road or race-bike design bolted onto an adventure bike. I won’t name brands, but there is one that’s very good at making adventure bikes look like grocery-shopping SUVs with its exhaust design. Ok… Rant over!

KTM’s legendary LC8c parallel twin has been a winner since it came out in the original 790 Duke, and since then, no matter what package it’s found itself in. We’ve seen that same engine grow from 790 to 890 and now 990 cc, while moving from the Duke into the Adventure, SMT, Norden and now the RC R. It’s known for many things, but most importantly, its characterful midrange grunt and top-end hit make it a fun package enjoyed by all.

Of course, emissions regulations have played their part in the evolution of modern engines, with manufacturers having to find ways of maintaining performance while meeting increasingly strict regulations. Luckily for KTM and Husqvarna, their bikes haven’t been quietened down quite as much as some others, but the factory exhausts have still become bulkier and, in my opinion, uglier.

Living With the RS-4

So, out of the box came the RS-4, and I was keen to get it onto the Norden 901 as quickly as possible. On the home scale, the Yoshimura weighs around 700 grams less than the OEM muffler at 3.4 kg. That’s not a huge savings, but saving weight was never my reason for looking at the RS-4 in the first place. I was looking for a premium slip-on that looked at home on the bike, sounded good and actually added something to the overall package, almost becoming a feature of the motorcycle itself. The RS-4 does exactly that, with its carbon end cap and upper carbon exhaust shield, Yoshimura laser-cut mid-pipe cover, Yoshi-labelled exhaust spring rubbers, and beautifully brushed finish.

Fitment took me roughly 20 minutes, and it didn’t take much fiddling to get everything together. With all the required hardware and tools included in the box, it was refreshingly simple.

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So, how does it sound? The typical small-block V8 character that comes from the LC8c has been enhanced, with a deeper low-down rumble, slightly more midrange pull and a lovely, subtle pop on overrun. It also sounds amazing when shifting right through the rev range with the quickshifter, giving it almost an Australian V8 Cup Car feel with that crisp sequential-shifter bark. Again, it’s not loud, but subtly enhanced, and if I had to put a rough, non-mathematically-correct percentage on how much more noise it makes, my best guess would be around 10% more. So, do with that as you will, but for me, it’s a good balance before the bark becomes bigger than the bite.

Does it make more power? Yoshimura claims the RS-4 slip-on provides a 5.5% increase in maximum horsepower and a 4.7% increase in maximum torque over the standard pipe. I haven’t dyno-tested my Norden, so I can’t independently verify those figures, but it definitely feels like there’s a little more in the bag. Obviously, if I were willing to go down the decat route with a new map and air-filter upgrade, we could be looking at more substantial gains. But if you’re looking to keep your warranty, retain some “OEM-plusness” and add to the overall look and sound of your Norden or KTM 790/890 Adventure, I think the Yoshimura RS-4 is hard to beat.

The Yoshimura RS-4 isn’t a cheap exhaust, and how can it be with all the R&D that’s gone into it? What it is, though, is a premium exhaust at around R20,680, and one that I feel looks the best on the Norden 901. Premium bikes deserve premium pipes.

For more information, visit your local motorcycle accessories store or contact the importer, Sparx Distributing, on +27 72 912 4658 to find your nearest stockist. Alternatively, contact Steve directly via email at [email protected].

We’re at that point of the season where, if the races aren’t exactly full of action, overtaking or close finishes, the significance of the results provides the excitement.

We came to Japan with Jorge Martin holding a 12-point lead over Marc Marquez; we left Japan with that whittled down to a two-point lead, while Bezzecchi has fallen 49 points behind. Pedro Acosta had high hopes of a good result at Motegi to keep his championship hopes alive, continuing the momentum from his first Grand Prix win last time out in Austria, at a track that has been kind to him in the past. But being skittled out of the Sprint race by Alex Marquez wasn’t in the script, and neither was seventh place in the Grand Prix, leaving him still with a mathematical chance of taking the title but, on the form of Martin and Marquez, not very likely.

Bezzecchi is also still in the hunt, but his early-season form has deserted him and he’s been far too erratic; up one weekend, down the next. So, in reality, the title fight is between Martin and Marquez, although there’s no way I’m going to make that a solid prediction; a bad weekend for either of them and it’s back to all square at the top of the table, with Bezzecchi right back in the mix.

Despite the hype around Pedro Acosta having uncorked his personal genie and the potential for him to fight for the win in Japan being touted, in reality, it was always going to be about the Aprilias and the Ducatis. Well, one of the latter, at least. Somehow, Bagnaia won both races here last year in the middle of a barren spell, and Marquez took a brace of second places to clinch the title, so they were always going to be fast and the Aprilias seem to be fast everywhere. There was no repeat magic for Bagnaia this year as his barren spell continues, but Marquez made the most of it for his fifth double victory weekend of the year.

Martin, for his part, limited the damage with his own brace of second places, but he’s going to have to get the better of Marquez consistently, sooner rather than later, if he is to lift the trophy at year’s end. During the Grand Prix, even though Martin led for the first laps, Marquez’ move into the lead seemed all but inevitable, as was Martin’s seeming inability to do anything about catching the Ducati once it was past.

If Acosta failed to shine in Japan, then at least KTM had something to smile about with the performance of Enea Bastianini, who took a third place in the Sprint race and a very close fourth in the GP. If we thought that Bezzecchi was a bit up and down, then how do we describe Bastianini? One week absolutely nowhere, the next fighting for podiums. What undoubtedly helped him in the GP was the fact that everyone was running the hard rear Michelin. Normally, the KTM over-stresses its rear tyre to the point where there is nothing left even halfway through a race but, in Japan, Bastianini had so much tyre left in the latter stages of the race that he was able to claw back two seconds on Bezzecchi and cross the line a mere tenth of a second behind.

Incredibly, the action on track was overshadowed after the race by the revelation that Marc Marquez had sent a body double to take part in a pre-race go-kart race for the riders. Such stunts are becoming more common in both Formula 1 and MotoGP, as Liberty Media attempts to bring ever more entertainment to the crowds on race day. F1 has had ‘races’ in Lego single-seat cars, while MotoGP has had a TukTuk race in Thailand at the start of the season. Both proved popular with both drivers/riders and fans, but a question has to be raised about the timing of such stunts.

At the beginning of the season, when the pressure is less, it should be OK. However, at this stage of the season, when there are riders who are fighting for the championship, and it’s too close to call, perhaps these aren’t the right times to be compelling the riders to break off from their preparation, be that physical or mental.

Race weekends are already demanding enough, and that’s before you factor in recovery from injury; Marc Marquez is apparently using a right arm that has only 50% of its normal strength, so, for him, the weekend is all about conserving energy and properly warming up his battered body to cope with the intense strain it is put under. Race weekends are already strenuous enough, with only one practice session having nothing hanging on it in terms of qualifying position. After first practice, the pressure is on, and it is unrelenting, more so if you are fighting for the championship. Next year it could be even worse, as the powers-that-be contemplate separate qualifying sessions for both Sprint and Grand Prix races.

Mentally, a rider also has to prepare and, if that means sitting in a dark, quiet room, on his own, collecting his thoughts, rather than horsing around for the fans, then so be it.

Marquez isn’t getting any younger, and let’s not forget that next year he has a very hungry and talented teammate who will be going all out to prove he is worth the attention and the seat on the factory Ducati. This year might be Marquez’ last chance to secure that eighth world title to put him truly in the pantheon of greats. I’m sure that beating old nemesis Valentino Rossi’s tally of seven premier-class titles will also be a strong incentive. To do that, he needs all his experience, guile, energy and health.

The next race is Mandalika, in Indonesia, where Marc Marquez hasn’t even finished a Sunday race since 2022, let alone won. However, if we expect him to buckle again at this venue, then we are not reading the man right; it will be typical of him to go and win both races and take over the title lead. However, if he doesn’t buckle, we can still expect Martin to be pushing all the way, and we can never rule out the other three Aprilias or the KTMs. That’s been the beauty of this season; it’s been so open and unpredictable, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t be the same until the final flag in Valencia. We can only hope!

Motorcycling seems to be undergoing a seismic shift. Large-displacement bikes remain hugely popular and will always be flagship models for many manufacturers, whether sports, adventure, touring or naked bikes.

But more and more sub-500cc models are arriving. They are relatively affordable to buy and run, yet offer levels of performance, riding dynamics and desirability that belie their modest engine capacities.

It’s hard to say who has been leading this charge. KTM has, for many years, offered street bikes in 125, 200 and 390cc capacities. BMW introduced its 310cc-engined bikes in 2015, while the Japanese brands have long played in this space, although the 450cc class has largely been home to off-road and enduro bikes.

But the arrival of Chinese, Indian and other Asian brands has accelerated the trend towards bikes of around 450cc, a popular engine capacity in Asian markets. CFMOTO’s 450s have to be ridden to be believed, to the point where you really wonder how much more bike you actually need. Triumph has joined the fray with its 400cc models, and BMW has now re-entered the class with the new F 450 R, following closely behind the F 450 GS.

It’s not BMW’s first 450 model, of course; that accolade belongs to the 2008–2011 G 450 X Enduro. But where that bike was powered by a twin-camshaft, single-cylinder engine, the new models use a parallel-twin engine, with no parts shared between the two generations.

So, what do we have here?

In the words of Markus Flasch, CEO of BMW Motorrad: “The BMW F 450 R has everything that defines a true BMW naked bike: performance, precision, and pure riding pleasure. It is light, agile, and full of character. We have developed a motorcycle that inspires confidence from the outset while also generating a lot of excitement. With the F 450 R, we are bringing our decades-long naked bike tradition into a compact and especially accessible format.”

Of course, he is going to say that, but the reality doesn’t lie far behind the press release. The fuel-injected, DOHC parallel-twin engine produces 48 horsepower and 43 Nm of torque. Its 135-degree crankpin offset should give it more of a V-twin feel and sound, helped by the stainless-steel silencer mounted low beneath the engine. A parallel twin it might be, but it should not be excessively rev-hungry, as 80% of its maximum torque is available from just 3,000 rpm.

The engine drives through a six-speed gearbox, while one of the available options is BMW’s Easy Ride Clutch (ERC). The system engages and disengages the clutch automatically according to engine speed, but the clutch lever remains available when the rider wants to use it.

The electronics package is impressive, although that should no longer surprise us as technology continues to filter down to smaller-capacity motorcycles. The standard Rain, Road and Dynamic riding modes allow riders to tailor the F 450 R to their preferences, while ABS Pro, Dynamic Brake Control (DBC), Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) and engine drag torque control (MSR) are also standard.

The chassis uses a tubular steel space frame, with KYB suspension and cast-aluminium wheels. Braking is handled by a 310 mm front disc with a Brembo four-piston monobloc caliper and a 240 mm rear disc with a ByBre single-piston caliper, backed by cornering-sensitive ABS Pro. All lighting is LED, and the bike has a 6.5-inch full-colour TFT display.

There are four variants, although we’re not yet sure which will come to South Africa: F 450 R Base, F 450 R Exclusive, F 450 R M Sport and F 450 R M Sport with Innovation Package. Local pricing has yet to be revealed, but we hope the entry point will be around the R130,000 mark. The price needs to be in that ballpark if the F 450 R is to steal sales from the established front-runners in this category.

Contact your local BMW Motorrad dealer to find out more.

We were recently invited to the launch of the all-new Suzuki Access 125. The Access may be new to South Africa, but interestingly, this little scooter has been around since 2007 and is the beating heart of mobility in India. Now you may ask, why is that important? In my opinion, it’s worth knowing this as it speaks directly to the reliability of the scooter—if a country where these small-capacity two-wheelers are so popular has trusted this model for the past three generations, who are we to doubt its performance, reliability and comfort?

Upon first glance at this little commuter, I was instantly drawn to its classic styling. It’s this design that sets it apart from the other scooters in Suzuki’s lineup. Compared to the Avenis and Burgman, which South Africans have grown to love over the years, the Access brings us a scooter that pulls at the heartstrings of classic scooter lovers. The two-tone colour scheme, especially the higher spec version with the lighter floorboards making up that second tone, and the chrome finishes emphasise its classic feel.

Taking a step back, Suzuki SA offers two versions: a base model with drum brakes front and rear, an analogue display, black mirrors and only 3 colour variations, coming in at R28,900. The higher-spec version packs all the bells and whistles: a TFT display, Ride Connect, a disc brake in the front and drum brakes at the rear, stylish chrome finish mirrors and, of course, 5 colour options for a mere R5,550 more.

To me, it’s a no-brainer—why choose the lower-spec model when you can revel in the beauty of the retro-styled version? For commercial buyers, however, the lower-spec Access makes perfect sense: simple, affordable and, above all, practical. I, on the other hand, am a die-hard for anything classic, be it my 1962 VW Beetle, my Modern Classic motorcycle or my Gen 3 Jimny; I am obsessed. So, upon seeing the “Ice Green”, as Suzuki has named it, I was captivated by this “pistachio green” version parked amongst the other colour variants; and with a bit of luck, I found myself spending the day on exactly that one.

Although the weather wasn’t quite on our side, sprinkling a bit of gloom across the tarmac, it didn’t stop us from riding these dapper scoots. We made our way through neighbourhoods, twisty roads, a few climbing hills and cityscapes on our way to the Museum of Illusions in JHB, where we would partake in a mind-bending scavenger hunt.

The ride there was an absolute “jol”. It’s true, scooters can add fun to even the gloomiest of days. From my own experience riding the Access, I found that the bike performed excellently in the wet conditions—I remember thinking, “These brakes are brilliant in the rain”. Apart from wet tar, you can add uneven roads and the occasional pothole, and it’s fair to say that the Access handled each obstacle with minimal effort.

Suzuki claims fuel consumption of roughly 1.9 L/100 km, which translates to approximately 52 km/L. Paired with a 5.3-litre tank, that should fuel plenty of coffee runs… I am curious to put it to the test and see whether those numbers translate to everyday riding, rather than pootling along like Miss Nancy. I guess we’ll find out once we get our hands on it for a thorough review. A little detail that only someone who has had to refuel a scooter will appreciate is the integrated fuel cap feature. You no longer have to lift the seat to refuel; you can simply pop open the cap in the back for easy access, similar to that of classic muscle cars from the 60s.

You could spend every day on one of these without fatigue. Hopping on and zipping on your way is effortless, making a quick pop out to the shop a fun outride rather than a dreadful trip. Being a motorcyclist, and being around many others, it’s evident that even though we love the thrill of fast bikes, it’s a scooter that ignites something within—perhaps its nimble, playful and uncomplicated character awakens the “child” within us all. Whatever it is, every person I know gets excited when they are given a scooter for a day, and the Access 125 is no exception.

Talking about childlike fun, we found ourselves running around and tapping into the science behind illusion. The Museum of Illusions is a place where the line between reality and perception begins to blur. We enjoyed completing the scavenger hunt, which involved solving puzzles, moving through spinning tunnels, “falling” off balconies, seeing moving faces and looking down an infinite tunnel of mirrors. The irony, after stepping back outside, was realising that the Access 125 is no illusion. It is a practical, comfortable and fuel-efficient scooter wrapped in a stylish, dapper skin.

We’ll reserve our final verdict until a full review, but after our first outing, the Access 125 has certainly made a charming first impression.

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Suzuki Access 125

For more information on the bike featured in this article, click on the link below…

2026

Suzuki Access 125

Pricing From R34,450 (RRP)

Brand: Suzuki

I was chatting to my mate Johan Kriek, a tour operator with umpteen years of experience, and bemoaning the fact that, whilst there are plenty of organised tours for adventure riders who enjoy getting their wheels dirty, nobody seems to cater for roadies who appreciate the journey rather than seeing how quickly they can get to their destination.

I’m talking about a tour with no egos and no pressure to ride like your hair is on fire. Just good roads, good company and the simple pleasure of traversing our beautiful corner of Africa and taking in the sights from the saddle. A tour for distinguished motorcyclists, if you will.

Well, the next thing, this lands in my inbox…

“Distinguished Motorcycle Tours offers premium, slow-paced journeys created specifically for the discerning, mature rider. Each itinerary is carefully designed to showcase the natural beauty of Southern Africa, with accommodation selected to reflect the character of each destination.

“Daily distances are planned with comfort in mind, prioritising the pleasure of the journey over speed. Whether you ride a classic cruiser, modern tourer or adventure bike, all reliable motorcycles are welcome. Gravel roads are avoided wherever possible, allowing riders to enjoy a relaxed and memorable touring experience.”

Six-Day Eswatini/Swaziland Motorcycle Tour and Safari

Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a compact and culturally rich destination that lends itself perfectly to a motorcycle tour from South Africa. Think excellent roads, big-game reserves, ancient mountains and vibrant local traditions.

Please note: The tour requires a minimum of six motorcycles and accommodates a maximum of 10.

Day One (350 km)

The tour departs from Gauteng and travels through Carolina before reaching the Oshoek Border Post.

After completing the border formalities, riders enter Eswatini and stop at Ngwenya Glass for lunch. From there, the route passes through the capital, Mbabane, before continuing to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.

Special permission has been arranged for the motorcycles to enter the sanctuary and travel directly to the overnight accommodation.

Mlilwane is Eswatini’s pioneering conservation area and an example of what can be achieved when passion, vision and action come together. Established on what was once a successful multipurpose farm, the sanctuary was dismissed by some as an “impossible dream” before being proclaimed in 1961. Today, it is one of the Kingdom’s most popular ecotourism destinations.

The name Mlilwane means “Little Fire” in siSwati and was inspired by the lightning strikes that frequently caused fires on Mlilwane Hill. It later came to represent the small spark that ignited Eswatini’s conservation movement.

The evening ends around a campfire said to have been burning continuously for more than 50 years—the perfect setting in which to share a cold one after the first day’s ride.

Day Two (238 km)

The route leaves the sanctuary along its newly paved access road before joining the MR3 highway. Near Manzini, riders turn south and travel through the rolling hills of Nkwene towards Nhlangano, where the group will refuel and stop for lunch.

From Nhlangano, a highly scenic section of road winds through Hlatikulu, offering dramatic mountain views before descending onto the flat plains alongside the Lebombo Mountains—the natural border between Eswatini and Mozambique.

The day ends at KaMsholo Nature Reserve, where the group will spend the night.

Day Three (90 km)

After two days in the saddle, Day Three offers a slower start, with the group departing KaMsholo at approximately 10h00. A relaxed 90 km ride through Eswatini’s beautiful Lowveld leads to Hlane Royal National Park.

Hlane Royal National Park was proclaimed in 1967, six years after the establishment of Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, under the instruction of King Sobhuza II. The name “Hlane” means “wilderness” in siSwati.

Covering approximately 22,000 hectares, Hlane is known for its ancient hardwood habitats, diverse vegetation, abundant birdlife and impressive populations of big game. The park was once a royal hunting ground and is now home to species including rhino, lion, elephant, vultures and marabou storks.

Riders can end the day with an optional 2.5-hour sunset game drive, stopping at a scenic location to watch the sun disappear over the African wilderness. The game drive is not included in the tour price.

Day Four (130 km)

The day begins with an early-morning activity before the tour continues through northern Eswatini, passing the region’s extensive sugar-cane estates on the way to the sugar-cane museum.

After visiting the museum, the group rides to the Mananga Border Post and crosses back into South Africa.

The highlight of the day is lunch at the one and only Carlos, a Lowveld favourite known for its Portuguese prawns and chicken.

After lunch, it is a short ride to Boulders Safari Lodge, where riders can cool off in the rock pool and watch the sun set over the untamed Lowveld wilderness.

Day Five (210 km)

Day Five takes riders onto the Mpumalanga Panorama Route, widely regarded as one of South Africa’s finest motorcycling roads.

The route climbs more than 1,000 metres from the subtropical Lowveld onto the high-altitude escarpment, passing through the popular riding towns of Sabie and Graskop.

Lunch is planned at Harrie’s Pancakes in Graskop before the tour continues past the Sudwala Caves and on to the picturesque village of Kaapsehoop, where the group will spend its final night.

Day Six — Scenic Route (305 km) or Direct N4 Route (232 km)

The scenic return route crosses the Great Escarpment, following winding river valleys and passing expansive wetlands before opening into the African bushveld.

From Belfast, a subalpine highland town often wrapped in mist, the route passes the Steenkampsberg Grasslands and Wetlands. This protected highland ecosystem offers riders the chance to spot all three of South Africa’s crane species—the blue, grey crowned and wattled cranes.

From there, the tour continues through Stofberg and Groblersdal. As the air becomes warmer, the landscape gradually changes to hardy acacia trees, wild aloes and vast, sun-drenched vistas.

The journey concludes in “Bronkies”—Bronkhorstspruit—where riders say their goodbyes and, hopefully, begin planning the next adventure.

Tour Details

Total distance: Less than 1,500 km

Tour price: R8 350 per rider in single-occupancy accommodation / R4 995 per pillion in shared accommodation

Included:

• Professional tour leader
• Single-occupancy accommodation with en-suite facilities
• All breakfasts
• A carefully planned six-day route

Excluded:

• Border fees
• Park entrance fees (a valid SANParks Wild Card is accepted where applicable)
• Museum entrance fees
• Optional activities
• Lunches
• Dinners
• Drinks
• Gratuities

Please note: No backup vehicle will accompany the tour, so riders will need to carry their own luggage.

Motorcycles

Classic motorcycles, cruisers, tourers and adventure bikes are all welcome, provided they are reliable and roadworthy.

The tour will take place predominantly on tar roads and will be conducted at a relaxed pace.

Your Tour Leader

With more than 40 years of experience in the saddle and an established track record as a tour operator, Johan Kriek understands what goes into creating a memorable motorcycle journey.

Distinguished Motorcycle Tours is his latest venture, created for riders who appreciate a slower, more considered style of travel. Johan invites riders to step away from the demands of everyday life, reconnect with their passion for the open road and rediscover the simple pleasure of the journey.

Contact: [email protected] / 083 305 8083

Tour itinerary, pricing and information were supplied by Distinguished Motorcycle Tours. Please confirm dates, availability, costs and final arrangements directly with the organiser.

If you grew up on skateboards like me, you already know the basic idea. That rough stuff stuck to the deck that kept your feet attached while you attempted a kickflip? We called it grip tape, and “Gripper” is essentially the motorcycle version, designed to keep you connected to the bike while protecting the paintwork underneath. And, as I’ve recently discovered, that second part might be the biggest reason to fit it.

I ride off-road in textile gear, and while it’s brilliant for the ventilation, it can be brutal on motorcycle plastics and paint. The constant rubbing of your jacket and riding pants against the tank and plastics can leave a beautiful new adventure bike looking second-hand after just a few rides. I see it all the time, even on demo bikes that have less than 1,000 km on the odometre; it’s sad to see.

If you’ve spent your hard-earned loot on a motorcycle, you’ve probably been there too. You spend hundreds of thousands of rands on a motorcycle, take it somewhere properly adventurous, and then come home wondering where all those scratches came from.

That’s where Empire Graphics Co come in

I’ve got to know Mark and his team at “Empire” through some of our ZA Bikers and ZA Lifestyle projects, and I’ve watched them do some seriously impressive work with graphics and wraps. More recently, they’ve been doing a lot with Gripper, and eventually Mark’s enthusiasm rubbed off on me.

Before our Suzuki Weekend Away trip, which would involve our two Suzuki DL250s heading off for a decent dose of gravel, we decided to pop into Empire Graphics Co. Both bikes have a deep wine-red paint finish, and we thought it would be cool to incorporate some of Suzuki’s angular styling into a custom Gripper design.

A quick stencil was made, the pattern was printed, and we popped back into “Empire”, a day or so later, to get the bikes ready.

20 Minutes later, both bikes were done

We fitted the Gripper to the sides of the tank where your knees naturally make contact, along with the centre section where you’d normally fit a tank pad. It looked good, gave us some extra grip and, more importantly, put a protective layer between our riding gear and the Suzuki’s paint.

“All well”, you say, “but how much is this going to set me back?” If you’re just doing the tank, and as we did, you won’t see more than R600 on the invoice.

Our little DL250s don’t need much. They’re affordable adventure bikes that are ready to go with some luggage and a full tank of fuel. But for around R600, adding protection to the areas that are going to take the most abuse seems like a no-brainer.

You’re not Limited to the Tank

Obviously, I chose to just do the tank, but Gripper can be used on side panels, luggage contact areas and other parts of the bike that are vulnerable to scratches. In fact, many of Empire’s clients incorporate it into their full dirt bike graphics kits. If you’re riding through tight bush, it can even provide another layer of protection against branches and general trail abuse.

Going back to skateboard grip tape, we never really had crazy designs or colours on the grip tape back then; it was always on the deck itself, a solid colour or cut into the tape. At Empire Graphic Co, they can print your own design onto the material, so you’re not stuck with a generic black patch on an otherwise beautifully personalised motorcycle. Want something different for your next adventure? Change it. Want to commemorate a big trip? Design something around it. You could even have a set made as a gift for a mate.

I’ve already got Gripper on my own Husqvarna Norden 901, and after seeing how effective and affordable it is, I’m considering adding more.

Because let’s be Honest: Adventure Bikes are Expensive Enough

You don’t need to spend another R10,000 on an elaborate protection system, especially if you aren’t planning on doing extreme off-roading. You don’t need to overthink it. If protecting your bike starts at R600 and can help protect the paintwork on a R200,000, R300,000 or R400,000 motorcycle from the daily abuse of adventure riding, while also giving you better contact with the bike, that’s money well spent.

It’s not going to stop your bike getting dirty. It’s not going to prevent every scratch. But it might just stop your beautiful adventure bike from looking like it has already done ten years of hard riding after one weekend.

Sometimes the best upgrades aren’t the ones that make your bike faster. They’re the ones that help keep it looking like your bike. So, if you’re keen on keeping your machine in tip-top shape and/or personalising it for an affordable price, visit www.empire.graphics

KTM has long been known for its off-road, Enduro and MX machines; only relatively recently has the road-bike division grown in importance, while the Adventure segment has also been a very happy hunting ground for the Austrian brand.

There is another segment that is perhaps not as well known to the man in the street, but to those who care deeply about these things, is the most important of all: rally-level endurance riding. Think Dakar Rally, the World Rally-Raid Championship: vast distances, pushing man and machine to the absolute limit, where speed has to go hand-in-hand with reliability and, yes, endurance.

The legend was the KTM 640 Adventure, and this has never been directly replaced. The later 690 was never sold as a full-blooded Rally model, ready to tackle Rally Raid events off the showroom floor, which led a lot of customers to modify and equip their 690s to fulfil that rôle.

Now, KTM has announced the new-for-2027 690 Rally, bringing rally-inspired purpose back to the LC4 platform. As KTM itself puts it, “an invitation to go further and ride longer”, built to tackle demanding terrain and extended adventures.

Built on the proven KTM 690 ENDURO R platform, the KTM 690 RALLY evolves its dual-sport foundation with a clear focus on extended range, stability, and long-distance usability. A purpose-built rally tower with integrated windshield creates a true rally cockpit, while dual front-mounted fuel tanks increase capacity to approximately 20 litres.

Designed to perform across everything from technical off-road terrain to high-speed liaison sections, the KTM 690 RALLY bridges the gap between lightweight enduro agility and rally-level endurance.

The new 2027 KTM 690 RALLY will roll off the Austrian production line in September and will be available at authorised KTM dealers in October 2026. For more information, visit KTM.

Nostalgia and exclusivity sell, and perhaps no motorcycle manufacturer knows this better than Ducati. Its catalogues over the past twenty years have been liberally scattered with Limited Editions, Final Editions, Tribute models, race replicas, homologation specials and so on, all of which carry different shades of eye-watering price tags and are very good business for the good people in Borgo Panigale, Bologna.

With an enviable racing pedigree upon which to draw, this practice has been easy for Ducati, but the swift passage of time has also brought other opportunities to the factory. For example, back in 2019, Ducati celebrated the 25th anniversary of the immortal, iconic Ducati 916, the model that brought new design shapes to the bedroom walls of a million red-blooded teenagers (and not a few grown men, too!), set a template for every Ducati sports bike to follow, and was the beginning of domination of the race tracks of the world that continues to this day.

Coincidentally, the anniversary came just a year after the launch of the latest Panigale superbike, the V4, and so the clever marketing people at Ducati saw an opportunity and seized it with both hands. The result was the not exactly snappily named Panigale V4 25th Anniversario 916, limited to 500 units worldwide and another sure-fire marketing hit for the company.

The more you think about it, the more you realise what a genius piece of thinking this was on Ducati’s part; take the most up-to-date superbike on the planet, the Panigale V4 S, and sprinkle liberally with magic dust from the parts shelves and give it a livery and purpose that evoke one of the most iconic motorcycles of all time. Throw in the fact that it also celebrates Ducati’s most celebrated and successful (at the time) rider/bike pairing in World Superbikes – Carl Fogarty and the 916/996 – and Ducati literally could do no wrong.

What we have here is, let’s face it, a Panigale V4 S with a bit of bling plastered onto it: racing content from the homologation special V4 R, including the front frame, dry clutch and track-specific electronics, including Quick Shift Evo 2 and predictive traction control Evo 2. Forged Marchesini magnesium wheels, titanium Akrapovic exhaust and a whole slew of carbon fibre and billet aluminium components complete the picture.

It is, therefore, an insanely finely tuned and well-dialled-in piece of motorcycle engineering, capable, if the lucky owner was foolish enough to risk such an investment (for, let’s face it, that is exactly what the vast majority of them were bought for) on track, of delivering incredibly fast lap times, should you possess the skill and the bank balance.

But the likelihood of this bike having ever seen a race track, let alone be piloted around one at speed, is remote, which is excellent news for the prospective customer. Ride it on the road, however, and something interesting comes to light.

Now, depending on your point of view, a superbike should be sufficiently extreme to make you think twice about riding it. The Panigale V4 has, in its seven-year life, been constantly tweaked and refined, with experience from the race track inevitably trickling down to the road bikes and, while it could never have been said to have become “soft”, you are reminded just how far the Panigale V4 has come when you ride this, one of the early-generation bikes.

You can feel the relative lack of refinement; it’s a little unruly, intimidating, and it lets you know that it needs to be handled with a firm and unwavering hand – show it any fear, and it will turn round and bite you. It’s not there to make life easy for you, so don’t expect it to. Call us old-fashioned, but a superbike should intimidate; you should look at it, ride it, and wonder if you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.

As with the engineering, the styling of the Panigale V4 has evolved over the years and not necessarily in the right direction. These early models had a distinctive look, especially around the front of the fairing; it looks mean and slightly angry, as any tough animal does.

And that’s where Italian machinery is at its best: feral, but with a beauty all of its own so that, when you’ve finished scaring yourself for the day, you can sit back and just look at it and realise you made the right decision to buy it.

The numbered 423/500 Ducati Panigale V4 25th Anniversario 916 is available at Bikeshop Rivonia for R599,990. It has less than 4,000 km on the odo and is loaded with Rizoma components, Ducati factory accessories and SC-Project extras worth well over R100,000. Don’t expect it to hang around for long!

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Browse Bikeshop Rivonia’s latest stock in the ZA Bikers Bikes For Sale section, or visit their showroom—you never know which two-wheeled gem might be waiting for you.

There are riders who burst onto the MotoGP scene about whom the general consensus is not if, but when, they will win their first race. Pedro Acosta was one such rider and, if it took him longer than expected to win a Grand Prix, it was always inevitable. That it should finally happen at both KTM and Red Bull’s home race was poetic justice. That it should happen at the moment Acosta finally loses patience with KTM and is about to jump ship to Ducati for 2027 will be a source of regret for KTM management and not a little worry.

For Acosta has been the only rider to consistently fight at the sharp end of races on the KTM RC16 for the past three years. Has this been at the expense of his teammate? We’ll likely never know, but Acosta has clearly been afforded “favoured” status in the team. Whether this means he has been given the latest and most developed parts or whether he has simply been the rider to best gel with the difficult RC16, we’ll also likely never know.

What we can say with certainty is that Austria was the first win of many to come. That it hasn’t happened sooner is a sad reflection on the fact that KTM has never managed to put a motorcycle underneath him that matches his speed. Acosta has prodigious talent, a precocious self-belief and, from next year, what might be the best bike on the grid. He’ll also have the best rider in the world right now as his teammate, but as Acosta also has a healthy disregard for the reputations of his fellow riders, that shouldn’t be a problem for him; Marc is just another rider to beat. Having that first win under his belt – and who’s to say there won’t be another before 2026 is out – will give him a huge confidence boost; he’s finally proved he can do what he’s always said he can do, so it’s two fingers up to the doubters.

There are still flaws in his make-up; his error on Saturday in the Sprint race was that of a rookie in his first season, finding himself in over his head, leading a race for the first time, not a veteran of two world championships (Moto3 and Moto2), three years in MotoGP and umpteen podiums. He claims he was checking his dashboard to see how many laps were left and his fuel situation, but it was an odd place to be doing that, approaching the braking zone for a corner.

It did add an extra layer of excitement to Sunday’s Grand Prix; leading as he did from before halfway, would he throw it away yet again? Of course, he didn’t, and there was precious little the chasing Aprilias of Martin and Bezzecchi could do about it. They weren’t far behind at the flag, but they were behind, and that’s all that matters.

Look, the KTMs were fast all weekend; not only Acosta’s speed but also Brad Binder’s excellent showing throughout practice, qualifying and both races was evidence of that; realistically, that should have brought them merely to the level of Ducati and Aprilia, not given Acosta the advantage he eventually had. Ducati (Marquez) took the double here last year, but the general consensus is that Spielberg is not suited to the Ducati; although, in fact, the GP26 and its predecessors don’t tend to like the stiffer-carcass tyres Michelin brings for whatever reason, while the Aprilias love them.

Talking of Aprilia, how was Ai Ogura’s weekend, coming back from injury to take a brace of 4th places? As KTM has been careless to lose Acosta, so Aprilia might rue the day it allowed Ogura to slip through its fingers. Yes, the Aprilia RS-GP is the best bike on the grid, but Ogura’s teammate, Raul Fernandez, could only manage 19th and 12th, respectively, which puts Ogura’s performance into context.

The big question now is, do we consider Acosta a championship contender? He’s 72-points behind title leader Jorge Martin, with a possible 259 points still to be won. Acosta will have to find a whole heap of performance and reliability and hope that his rivals run out of both, but stranger things have happened.

Marc Marquez was in no doubt as to the possibility of Acosta catching up; “I was 102 points behind seven races ago…so he’s in the championship.” Acosta, for his part, harangued the KTM engineers and mechanics before the summer break to give him what he needs, and it seems as if KTM has got on top of the engine reliability problems, after being allowed by the other teams to open their engines to replace the suspect parts that were causing problems. It has all worked; since the summer break, Acosta has scored a fifth, a second, a third and a win in the Grands Prix.

For the first time in his MotoGP career, he heads to the next round in Japan, a race winner, and the timing is excellent; Motegi is another hard braking circuit, and where does Acosta hold an advantage over his rivals? In hard braking areas, which is why he was so effective in Austria. At Motegi in 2024, he was on pole and only a crash put paid to hopes of a maiden win, while in 2025, he was third in the Sprint. Now that his bike has the reliable speed, he can keep up with the Ducatis and Aprilias to best make use of his trump card.

After Japan, everyone travels to Indonesia, which is another track to which Michelin will bring its harder carcass rear tyre. Don’t forget, the KTM and Aprilia love that tyre, while the Ducatis don’t. So, if Acosta can capitalise on both those races at the expense of his rivals, then his title challenge is well and truly on. Mind you, both Martin and Bezzecchi will benefit as well, so expect the fight at the front to be intense.

Throw in a properly pissed-off Marc Marquez, after his Austria “struggles” (I’m sure many other riders on the grid would love to have struggles like that if it means second and fifth place finishes…!) and you just know he isn’t going to lie down and play the percentage game too hard; he wants to win and his “win at no cost” approach is surely never too far from the surface, despite his calmer, more measured approach to racing over the past two years.

With the points situation being so close, the run-in to the season finale is going to be a case of: he who blinks first, comes last! And it all starts in Japan in two weeks’ time.

Cape Town, beautiful scenery, a rather spectacular house and… electric motorcycles. Things got very interesting.

We were recently invited to Pengilly House in Cape Town to see what ARC Ride has been working on, and while the setting may have been suitably glamorous, what the Kenyan e-mobility company was showing us was firmly rooted in the real world. ARC Ride isn’t simply bringing another electric motorcycle to South Africa and hoping somebody will plug it in. There is a much bigger idea behind ARC Ride and, in particular, the Panther model, one that revolves around saving riders money and time while building an electric mobility ecosystem that actually makes sense for African cities.

We’ve also been fortunate enough to be among the first few to get our hands on a Panther for testing, so this isn’t simply a case of looking at one under the lights and repeating what the press release tells us. We’ve already spent some time riding it, and our first impressions have been surprisingly positive. The build quality feels good, the motorcycle is comfortable and, perhaps most importantly, it feels like a motorcycle.

The Panther is clearly a motorcycle, and it rides like one too. With the batteries positioned low in the frame, the weight sits nicely down low, giving it a stable, planted feel, while the comfortable ergonomics, forward-set footpegs and wide handlebars make it immediately familiar. Then you twist the throttle, and the Panther surprises you. In modes 2 and 3, acceleration is more than brisk enough to keep up with urban traffic, with 85 km/h achievable in mode 3 and arriving a lot quicker than you might expect.

For a machine designed primarily for commuting and commercial use, the Panther fits that role remarkably well. It is easy to ride, responsive and feels perfectly at home around town, while the lack of a petrol engine becomes less of a compromise and more of a benefit. All in all, riding the Panther did not disappoint; if anything, it twisted my arm a little towards this new form of transport. We’ll get into the finer details in our full Panther review coming soon.

There are some thoughtful details, too. The indicators have protective surrounds, something that might sound insignificant until you consider that these bikes are intended to spend their lives working in busy urban environments. There’s Bluetooth connectivity, a centre stand, tubeless wheels, storage where a traditional fuel tank would be and an infotainment system, while the overall package feels designed around the realities of everyday use rather than simply trying to win a specification-sheet battle.

ARC Ride calls the Panther its fifth-generation motorcycle, and that experience is apparent in the thinking behind it. The company has been operating in Nairobi, where more than 5,000 of its electric motorcycles are already in use, and it has developed the Panther specifically for African urban conditions. The Panther uses a 5 kW continuous-output motor, with up to 10 kW available at peak, and can carry a claimed payload of 292 kg. It has three riding modes, an average operational range of around 110 km, hydraulic disc brakes, combined braking and full LED lighting. Oh, and it even has a revere mode: press “R” on the right-hand side switchgear and twist the throttle. Sounds gimmicky, but you try backing up on a motorcycle fully loaded or with a passenger on board; not so easy, so well done, ARC.

However, the motorcycle itself is only half the story; the game changer is the battery-swapping system. Instead of asking a rider to buy an expensive battery, worry about its eventual degradation and then find somewhere to charge it, ARC Ride retains ownership of the batteries through its Battery-as-a-Service model. When you’re running low, you simply find an ARC Hub or swapping station, exchange your depleted battery for a charged one and carry on riding. It is literally as easy as it sounds.

We’ve already had a look at the ARC Ride App, and it makes the process surprisingly straightforward. It shows riders where the battery-swapping locations are and provides the information needed to manage the motorcycle. For commercial operators, that extends into telemetry, vehicle tracking and fleet analytics, while for an ordinary commuter the appeal is much simpler: knowing where you can swap a battery removes much of the inconvenience traditionally associated with electric motorcycles. What I found particularly impressive is that you can check the App and see the charge level of every battery at your chosen swap station before you even arrive. No guesswork, no wasted trip.

A full battery swap costs around R50, while partially depleted batteries are charged according to the energy used. ARC Ride says that, based on comparable operations in other African markets, the combination of lower energy and maintenance costs could reduce a delivery rider’s weekly operating expenses by up to 20%.

This is where the Panther starts to make a lot of sense

For somebody riding a motorcycle for fun, electric propulsion offers a whole new riding experience. For somebody riding one all day to make a living, however, the equation changes completely. Fuel, servicing and downtime all eat into earnings. ARC Ride has therefore approached the Panther less like a lifestyle product and more like a business tool.

“There is a human on that bike doing a tough job every day,” said Mikael Cloete, Managing Director of ARC Ride SA. “We engineered the Panther specifically for durability, safety, and operational efficiency, ensuring the unit economics allow riders to increase their net weekly earnings.”

So, I’m guessing you want to know what the Panther costs? The motorcycle starts at R22,500 including VAT, with rental and lease options available through ARC Ride’s fleet partners in Gauteng and the Western Cape. The company has also completed its South African registration, homologation and compliance requirements, with support from the Western Cape Government, and its network is already operational in selected areas of Cape Town and Gauteng.

There is another important part to ARC Ride’s South African ambition. The Panther is intended to be assembled locally, with the company hoping that the expansion of its operation will help create jobs and develop local e-mobility infrastructure rather than simply turning South Africa into another destination for imported motorcycles.

ARC Ride’s Founder and Global CEO, Joseph Hurst-Croft, described the broader ambition at the launch: “Our focus is on building practical, local e-mobility infrastructure.” With operations already expanding beyond Kenya into Uganda and Ghana, and following a $33.3 million ‘Series A’ funding round backed by investors including the IFC, British International Investment, Novastar Ventures and Norrsken22, ARC Ride clearly sees Africa as more than just a testing ground for electric mobility.

For now, though, we’re more interested in what happens when the Panther leaves the launch venue and becomes part of everyday life. We’ve already been impressed by the quality of the motorcycle, how naturally it rides and how easy the technology is to use. The battery-swapping concept is beginning to feel less like a novelty and more like a genuinely convenient alternative to filling up with petrol, particularly when the infrastructure is there to support it.

And that’s something we’ll explore properly in our upcoming Panther test, where we’ll spend considerably more time living with the motorcycle and finding out whether ARC Ride’s vision works as well on the road as it does on paper.

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For now, though, Cape Town has given us our first taste. Electric motorcycles might not be replacing petrol bikes overnight, but ARC Ride has certainly given us something worth talking about.

ARC Ride Panther

For more information on the bike featured in this article, click on the link below…

2026

ARC RIDE PANTHER

Pricing From R22,500 (RRP)

Brand: ARC Ride

Since becoming a radio show host, I’ve been fascinated by the stories of the rock stars and artists whose music I’ve been fortunate enough to play on the radio over the last 10 years or so. What has also intrigued me is how my show, The Ride, has evolved around these stories.

I’ve always enjoyed taking people on a journey of discovery through rock music, not just playing the old rock classics, but also the deep cuts and forgotten hits hidden in plain sight on albums we listened to long ago and bought with our hard-earned money growing up. I discovered that listeners loved the idea of going on a musical ride with me, and that it resonated with the biker community worldwide. So they started following my show.

In my show, the stories I present support the songs I feature. Together, the stories and songs create an intriguing mind map that draws listeners into the journey. Over time, I became fascinated by artists whose love and passion for motorbikes influenced their lives and their music.

In collaboration with ZA Bikers, I will present a series of stories about artists whose love affair with metal and machine became an anchor point in lives filled with creativity, mystery, and intrigue. First up, I’ll share Bob Dylan’s story, or myth, of the motorcycle accident that changed the direction of his life and music, reshaped his relationship with the musicians who would become The Band, and may have saved him from the burnout threatening to extinguish arguably one of the greatest lights in rock music history.

Let me start the story with a caveat. The circumstances of the motorcycle accident that changed Bob Dylan’s life were never officially documented: no police report was filed, and Dylan was apparently not hospitalised. For this story, we therefore rely largely on Dylan’s own accounts and later retellings, which do not always agree. How much is fact and how much is myth? I’ll leave you to decide. It’s a fascinating story, nonetheless.

The Pressure Valve

Have you ever experienced the silence that only comes when an engine stops running? I’m not talking about the silence of night, the silence in a room, or even the silence when someone holds their breath. It’s a silence that fills the space and makes your ears ring. On 29 July 1966, Bob Dylan would meet that silence on a lonely road near Woodstock, New York. It was a silence that may have saved his life.

By the summer of 1966, Bob Dylan was 25 years old. He was tired. He had recently released his seventh studio album, the double album Blonde on Blonde, which was climbing the charts. Bob Dylan felt he had to answer to everyone, and the pressure was taking its toll. After his controversial electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival the previous year, sections of his audience had turned against him, booing the electric portions of his concerts. Some felt that he had betrayed the acoustic sound of the Greenwich Village folk revival. In contrast, others appointed him “the voice of a generation” and expected him to continue speaking for the political and social causes of the time.

Accounts from the period describe Dylan using amphetamines to keep pace with the stresses and strains of the time. He had already completed an exhausting world tour between February and May 1966, and his manager had reportedly arranged more than 60 additional US concerts for later that year. But he was tired. Tired of being cast as the reluctant “voice of a generation”. Tired of the music industry. Tired of the media and tired of the fans. Tired of the very machine that had built him into a superstar and now seemed intent on consuming him. To add to his woes, he had just finished a book of stream-of-consciousness prose poetry called Tarantula. The publishers, the fans and the literary snobs were demanding an explanation of what he had written and why he had written it. He wasn’t interested in their remonstrations.

Snapshot of the Crash

With his head spinning and desperate for solitude and an escape from the stress, Bob Dylan climbed onto his motorcycle on the morning of Friday, 29 July 1966. According to one account, he collected the 500-cc Triumph Tiger 100 from his manager Albert Grossman’s home in Bearsville, New York, before taking to the open road. Dylan was no novice; reports suggest that he had owned a Harley-Davidson as a teenager. On the bike, no one could threaten him, stress him, or question him. A motorcycle has no audience: just the silence, the open road, and clear thoughts.

In that version of events, Dylan rode through the Catskill Mountains, along Striebel Road towards the Glasco Turnpike, and the world became something he could handle. We can imagine the tang of hot oil and exhaust fumes, the deep thump of the twin-cylinder engine vibrating up through the foot pegs and into his bones, and the wind finding every gap in his leather jacket. The Tiger was a way to escape; it was where you got to do all the talking, or none at all.

In one retelling, Dylan left Albert Grossman’s house on that Friday morning, with his wife Sara following in a station wagon, and rode along Striebel Road towards the Glasco Turnpike. The sun sat low ahead of him. Perhaps, despite the years of sleeplessness, stress, frustration, and sheer exhaustion, it felt like just another day. Then he squinted into the morning sun. Dylan later said that he was blinded for a second, panicked, and hit the rear brake. The wheel locked and the back end slid out. In a flash, he was off the bike. We can imagine the Tiger sliding away from him across the road, the sound of its engine fading as he fell.

And this is where the story goes quiet, not only in terms of the tranquil morning, shattered by the sound of the accident and then forced back into a deafening silence, but also in terms of what really happened next. No report of the accident was filed with the police, leaving no official record of the crash. One account says that Bob’s wife, Sara, was following him and took him back to Albert Grossman’s house. Reports of his injuries varied, although Dylan later indicated that he had suffered a concussion and fractured a vertebra. A brief newspaper report published four days later said only that he was under a doctor’s care. Later accounts say that he recuperated at the home of Dr Ed Thaler rather than in hospital. Even so, the true extent of his injuries was never firmly established. Silence.

But in the minds of the fans, the record company, the media and the hangers-on, all with their own agendas, the greater injury was to “the movement” they believed he led. His remaining concert dates were cancelled. Work on the tour documentary that would become Eat the Document was delayed, while the planned publication of Tarantula was postponed. The so-called voice of a generation suddenly went quiet. Bob Dylan withdrew almost completely from public view.

The Great Retreat

Bob Dylan used this time in the woods to remake himself. It would be 17 months before he released his eighth studio album, John Wesley Harding, and just over three years before he returned to give his first full-length concert at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. In between, he retreated into family life with Sara and their young children. He also resumed working with four members of the Hawks, the musicians who had backed him during his 1965–66 electric tours and would soon become known as The Band: Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson. Levon Helm, who had left the Hawks in 1965, rejoined his former bandmates towards the end of 1967, when Dylan’s basement sessions were largely complete. The recordings began informally in the “Red Room” of Dylan’s home before moving to the basement of a pink-painted house in West Saugerties known as “Big Pink”.

It was in this famous building, “Big Pink”, during 1967 that they recorded some of Bob Dylan’s most enduring music. Across the Red Room and Big Pink sessions, they captured more than 100 performances: old ballads, country, blues and gospel songs, humorous fragments, unfinished sketches and a remarkable collection of new compositions. The atmosphere was informal, but the sessions were not entirely free from commercial purpose. Many of Dylan’s new songs were recorded as demos for his publishing company so that other artists could record them; they were not intended to become a new Dylan album. Eight years later, in 1975, Columbia released The Basement Tapes, a double album credited to Bob Dylan and The Band and generally counted as Dylan’s 16th studio album. It combined 16 recordings featuring Dylan with eight tracks by The Band. By then, demand had grown through cover versions, calls from fans and the circulation of bootleg recordings. The original tapes remain a record of a simpler, quieter period in Dylan’s life and, perhaps, of healing. The album proved a commercial success, reaching number seven on the US Billboard album chart and number eight on the UK Albums Chart.

Bob Dylan’s legend continued to grow. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016. His near-continuous touring schedule since 1988 became popularly known as the “Never Ending Tour”. At 85, he continues to perform extensively and has released 40 studio albums, most recently Shadow Kingdom in 2023. Had the accident on his Triumph Tiger 100 not forced him to stop and rest, it is fair to wonder how long he could have continued at the pace he was living.

The Meaning of the Ride

The lesson in this, for anyone who has pushed a bike, or life itself, past the point where the front wheel starts talking, is that sometimes the machine that carries you also has to be the one that puts you down. Not because it’s mean, but because you leant too hard into a moment that couldn’t hold you, and something had to give before you did. Bob Dylan’s crash has been studied by biographers for sixty years, all looking for the “story”, as if the details are more important than the result.

For me, it’s a simple, oil-and-gravel moment that took away a man’s forward motion just when he needed to lose it. The Tiger did not fail him. If anything, it did exactly what a good machine does when a rider has stopped listening to it. It told him, in the only way it could, that the ride was over, for now. He withdrew into the woods and returned as a different kind of artist. Sometimes you have to lose your balance to find your centre. Sometimes the crash is the kindness.

THE BASEMENT YEARS

From Dylan’s reported 1966 motorcycle accident to Big Pink and the release of The Basement Tapes in 1975, this 30-song playlist follows the influences, recordings and unexpected interpretations that shaped the journey.

Curated by Dave Dantu for ZA Bikers.

This isn’t a playlist. It’s a ride!

LISTEN TO THE RIDE

Want to hear Dave behind the microphone? Listen to the 13 September edition of The Ride on Mixcloud.

The Ride broadcasts every Sunday from 07:00–10:00 South African time on Rock Radio UK. Listen live on the website or through the station’s dedicated mobile apps: Apple | Android

Current global times: 🇬🇧 London 06:00–09:00 | 🇿🇦 Joburg 07:00–10:00 | 🇩🇪 Berlin 07:00–10:00 | 🇦🇪 Dubai 09:00–12:00 | 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 13:00–16:00 | 🇦🇺 Perth 13:00–16:00 | 🇦🇺 Sydney 15:00–18:00 | 🇳🇿 Auckland 17:00–20:00 | 🇺🇸 New York 01:00–04:00 | 🇺🇸 Los Angeles 22:00–01:00 (Saturday).

That was the weekend of a champion; never quite the favourite coming into the race, some scary-fast corners that suit his opposition, alongside a sector or two that suit his bike, qualifying well, piling pressure on, resisting pressure and taking maximum points when his rivals falter.

Marc Marquez is relentless. While he is still in a race, his rivals can never relax, can never take a result for granted because, if the bike is right, then he will be right there where you don’t need him to be, ready to wait for the odds to turn back in his favour, and pick up the pieces of the slightest mistake by his rivals. He did it at the beginning of the season; after the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, he was 102 points adrift of runaway leader Bezzecchi. But he was patient in those first seven rounds and didn’t panic; he kept his head and was rewarded aplenty as Bezzecchi crumbled in front of his eyes, for various reasons.

Seven races since Mugello, a maximum of 259 points available; Marquez has taken 203, Martin 118 and Bezzecchi merely 68. Five times in seven rounds, Bezzecchi has failed to score on Sunday; five times in seven rounds, Marquez has won. That’s not how Bez will win the title this year. The same can be said for Aprilia vs. Ducati; the RS-GP is a better bike than the GP26, but the latter has Marc Marquez on board, and that’s the secret weapon.

Misano was Aprilia’s race; Bezzecchi’s record pole lap told us as much. Jorge Martin might have started fifth on the grid, but the expected advantage the Aprilias had over the opposition made that almost academic, and so it transpired in the Grand Prix, after Bezzecchi had inexplicably thrown his RS-GP down the road on the first lap; Martin stalked Marc Marquez, calmly took the lead and started to pull away.

Then arm-pump reared its ugly head for Martin, and he eventually faded to a distant fifth place at the flag. Meanwhile, Marc Marquez resisted pressure from his brother to take yet another double on a race weekend. He now shares the lead of the championship table with Martin but leads the title challenge courtesy of his five GP victories. Bezzecchi is by no means out of it, 33 points further back, but his fifth no-score of the season in a GP is what he can’t afford if his title challenge is to remain on track. As Joan Mir in 2020 and Jorge Martin in 2024 showed, consistency is what wins titles, not necessarily outright victories.

Marquez was never the favourite because this is a clockwise circuit, which would put extra stress on his damaged right arm, which, by all accounts, is at 50% of its healthy potential. Not that you would have noticed it, however; second on the grid and two wins doesn’t really sound like a man riding compromised, does it? Mind you, Bezzecchi is also riding with a damaged knee, which hardly prevented him from taking pole position and finishing second in the Sprint race. If ever we needed confirmation that these guys are not quite human, then there you have it.

Before the race, Marquez posted a picture of his right arm, which was pretty wince-inducing, showing the effects of seven major surgeries to the upper arm. This had two important effects: first, he claimed that it “set him free” in terms of media and fan speculation, and a rider at peace with the world is a dangerous rider for his rivals. Secondly, and most importantly, it can only be demoralising for his rivals; he is beating them in this condition, for goodness’ sake! In 2025, he was fully fit when he trounced them all; in 2026 he’s 75% of the man he was, and he’s still beating them!

Bezzecchi’s crash in the GP was an inexplicable error and one that, as we have mentioned, he is making far too often – before the summer break, there were four consecutive no-score Sundays. In the Sprint, he lost out to Marc at the start and was determined to not make the same mistake in the GP. He didn’t, but then simply pushed too hard on new tyres with a full fuel tank; he got his line slightly wrong and paid the price, and it was an expensive one. Bezzecchi had a chance to not only narrow the gap to the top, but also to induce some demoralisation of his own on his teammate and Marquez.

Jorge Martin, for his part, has been erratic and now he has an arm-pump issue that may need surgery at completely the wrong time in the season, with five races in six weeks coming up. Throw Ai Ogura’s absence into the mix, and it’s easy to imagine Aprilia snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

But all is not lost. Seven rounds to go (eight if Qatar does happen) and some of those tracks definitely favour Aprilia, including this coming weekend’s race in Austria. The Aprilia likes the stiffer-carcass rear tyre Michelin brings to that race, and that gives them an advantage. But Marquez simply has to play the percentage game when the conditions don’t particularly suit him or his machine, and make sure he’s in the right place to benefit when those around him make a mess. Of course, it could be that Marquez makes a hash of things and allows the Aprilia riders – level on points and 33 points behind respectively – to leap ahead, or close right up again. The Aprilia riders have the best bike, Ducati has the best rider; let battle commence!

Before we close for this week, we couldn’t possibly forget to congratulate Darryn Binder on his sensational championship title in America. With ten victories and thirteen podiums to his name this year, he clinched the 2026 AMA Supersport Championship with one round remaining. What a fantastic achievement, and ZABikers sends our congratulations to Darryn and the whole Binder family.

In case you didn’t know, MotoGP is going to look significantly different in 2027; not only are there completely new bikes, new engines and new tyres, but things are changing enormously on the rider front.

Of course, none of this is startling news, although maybe the length of time it has taken for all the pieces to fall into place is, given that we were talking about it before the season even began.

However, one piece of news cannot be passed over, even if it, again, comes as no surprise; it has finally been confirmed that Brad Binder’s time in MotoGP is over and he will make the jump to World Superbikes, joining ex-KTM teammate Miguel Oliveira at the official BMW squad.

If the 2026 WorldSBK season has been dominated by Nicolo Bulega – who is heading to MotoGP to join the VR46 Ducati team – let’s not forget that BMW won the previous two titles courtesy of Toprak Razgatlioglu, so Binder is jumping onto proven machinery. Of course, it will take him some time to adapt to the new bike and some unfamiliar circuits, but he’s not a MotoGP winner for nothing; he’ll take the transition in his stride.

Both MotoGP and WorldSBK grids will have a different look in 2027. Along with Binder, Jack Miller joins Pata Yamaha, and Franco Morbidelli is also in the running for Bulega’s Aruba.it Ducati seat.

In MotoGP, well, there’s a lot going on. Joan Mir and Dani Holgado join Gresini Ducati; Acosta joins Marc Marquez at the factory Ducati team, while Bagnaia goes to the factory Aprilia team. Jorge Martin heads to Yamaha, joining Ai Ogura, with Quartararo off to Honda, replacing Luca Marini, who’s heading to Tech3 KTM, while Moto2 star Izan Guevara joins Toprak at Pramac Yamaha. Bastianini joins Raul Fernandez at Trackhouse Aprilia, Alex Marquez heads to the KTM factory team, alongside DiGiannantonio. Senna Agius and Manuel Gonzales are fighting it out for the second Tech3 seat, and David Alonso is joining Honda.

Got all that? Good.

I’ve written about Brad Binder recently, about how his time in MotoGP is one of the big “what ifs” of recent MotoGP history. Assessing any rider’s time in the premier class is always difficult, as there are so many factors to consider, not least of which are both bike and personal development. It’s no secret that KTM has struggled to produce the machinery to allow Binder’s talent to shine, although Pedro Acosta has been able to perform miracles on the same machinery. But here’s the question: is it the same machinery? Has Brad been sacrificed at the altar of the Next-Big-Thing in MotoGP racing, or is that merely a conspiracy theory that fits the narrative of Binder fans?

In the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter, does it? Brad leaves MotoGP with two wins under his belt, one of which was possibly the most ballsy gamble ever taken in a race; slick tyres on a soaking wet track is one thing, but slick tyres and no brakes on a wet track, with three laps left to run and a chasing pack of wet-tyred rivals forcing you to push harder than you want to, is quite another. It could have gone either way; branded an idiot for not coming in with the rest of the leading pack of which he was a part, or hailed as a hero for taking the gamble. Fortunately for him and us, it was the latter. There have been hundreds of Grand Prix riders and only a small percentage have won races; to be numbered among them not once, but twice, is a significant achievement.

There’s a large part of me that gets the feeling that Binder, Miller and Morbidelli (and possibly Rins) will really shake up the order in WorldSBK. Recent years have seen rather one-sided championships, thanks to the likes of Johnny Rea, Alvaro Bautista, Razgatlioglu and Bulega. With all this fresh, Grand Prix-winning blood coming in, we could be set for a humdinger season in 2027. Of course, a lot of it will be down to the machinery each manufacturer can offer, but it has always been thus. After a season in which one rider has won 26 out of 27 races so far, a bit of unpredictability is exactly what WorldSBK needs and who better to provide it than Binder, Miller and Morbidelli?

For now, we get to enjoy Brad Binder in MotoGP for the remainder of the season. Let’s hope that he can go out on a high with at least a podium or three, if not an outright win. I’m tempted to say, “thanks, Brad, for the memories”, but I don’t think we’ve had the best of him just yet. So, it’s “thanks, Brad, for the MotoGP memories; wishing you luck for 2027 and beyond.”

We were invited to attend the Grand Opening of Ducati Johannesburg on 22nd August. A Ducati presence in Johannesburg has been a long time coming, but it was well worth the wait. It is located at 145 Catherine Street in Sandton. “Wait a minute,” I hear some of you saying, “isn’t that where RACE! is?” You got it, soldier. Ducati Johannesburg is joined at the hip to the world-class luxury supercar and bike sales, tuning and modification entity, the brainchild of Marco Casciani.

It is fair to say that performance machinery is part and parcel of what defines Marco, especially if that machinery has an Italian heritage, so to open a world-class Ducati dealership should actually come as no surprise. Chatting to Gerardo Morico from the Ducati Factory, who has seen his fair share of bespoke Ducati dealerships, he was full of praise for what Marco and his team have created. A top-tier Ducati dealership comparable to the best in the world.

It was a day of celebration centred around the Bologna Bullets. Ducatis of all descriptions and vintages were displayed all over the show, with the undisputed stars of the display being the unveiling, or should that be ‘uncrating’, of the MM 93 Marc Márquez World Champion Replica, a 1103 cc Panigale V-4 emblazoned with all the MotoGP livery and featuring Marc’s signature on the tank. Two of the 293 Replicas built are at Ducati Johannesburg, to be had for a mere R1,6M. Rumour has it they are both spoken for. Oh well, then I can hang onto my kidney for a while longer!

The previous achingly beautiful MM 93 tribute bike was also on display, the Panigale V2, similar to the bike gifted to Marc by Ducati, and on which he does a lot of training. That would be my choice, given that I don’t even remotely possess the skill to extract the potential from the V4. I could possibly do more justice to the phenomenal, yet tad tamer V2. Both bikes are at the pinnacle of Ducati Sports bike design. A perfect marriage of form and function.

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Tertius Cronje, head of Ducati SA, opened the day, recognising those who had contributed to making the event happen, and then handed over to Marco, accompanied by his daughter. He gave a testimony to the journey that had brought him to where he, and by extension, RACE! are today. He came across as sincere and totally committed to making Ducati Johannesburg as successful as RACE! has become over time. I get the feeling that if he can’t do it, then no-one can. His daughter then took the mike and told her dad how proud she was of him, which finished the speeches on a really sweet and poignant note.

The many folk attending the opening sat around eating and toasting the success of this spectacular new Ducati venture. The atmosphere was amazing. So much so that it was almost a bit of a sensory overload. I rode back to Pretoria incredibly excited that even in these trying times there are people that will commit 100% to making a success of what they tackle. I went back to the dealership later in the week to get a ‘customer’s feel’ as opposed to having my senses jangled and came away with the same sense of awe.

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Marco, what you have done in your new dealership is nothing short of absolute world-class. Walking around the showroom without it being inundated with people, I was blown away by the number of sold signs adorning bikes of all descriptions. Clearly the Jo’burg biking fraternity are already voting with their wallets. Good job guys, good job! Take a ride to 145 Catherine Street and be prepared to be blown away. You owe yourself that much.

Are we to assume that, when a track runs at predominantly left-hand-turn anti-clockwise circuits, we can expect Marc Marquez to reign supreme? If that is the case (he’s won at over 60% of the races held at such circuits), then he’s going to have to make hay at the two remaining anti-clockwise circuits left on the calendar – Philip Island and Valencia – because some tracks are coming up that are expected to favour Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia.

The season thus far has been one of two halves; in the first seven races, Bezzecchi and Aprilia were the dominant force, but in the next six races, Marc Marquez has been all but unstoppable. In the last six race weekends, Marquez has taken 166 points, courtesy of four GP victories, three Sprint victories and a Sprint third place. The nearest challenger to that is Ai Ogura on 111 points. Championship leader, Jorge Martin, has scored 100, while early title favourite, Marco Bezzecchi, has scored only 53 points.

Before Hungary – round eight – Marquez’ Grand Prix record was two missed races, two retirements and a 4th, 5th and 7th place, alongside two Sprint wins and a Sprint second place. Since Hungary, he’s won four out of the six races and three Sprints, but when he hasn’t won in the GPs, he’s scored only a brace of seventh places.

By contrast, Marco Bezzecchi’s season might have looked as though it’s been derailed, but he’s only five points behind Marquez and 24 behind his teammate, Martin, at the top of the table. A brace of second places and a fourth supplemented his early four victories out of seven races. Since Hungary, he’s had two retirements, two missed races and two braces of third places (Sprint and GP) in England and at Aragon. So, it’s all balancing out between himself and Marquez.

Then there’s Martin leading the championship with only one victory, but four second places and a third in GPs, and three Sprint wins. It’s happened before; the two main protagonists fighting it out, leaving the door open for a sneaky rear-guard action by a rival.

In Aragon, despite a record-setting pole position, Marco Bezzecchi had nothing for Marquez; the first corner in both races demonstrated that Marquez put absolutely everything into getting past before Bez and had a chance to get ahead and build a lead. It worked in the Sprint race, but in the Grand Prix, Marquez’ rear ride-height device failed to disengage (or he failed to disengage it!), leaving him defenceless coming out of the second corner. It didn’t seem to matter as Martin, briefly in second, went backwards to finish fifth and Bezzecchi lost out on the drag race down the main straight after leading for five laps. It was thrilling stuff as the two bikes were sucked towards each other at 340 km/h, but there was just something inevitable about Marquez’ progress; you always felt he was just biding his time.

Surprisingly, the main challenge to Marquez came from Pedro Acosta, who drafted past Bezzecchi on the heels of Marquez. If Acosta was never able to mount a serious challenge for the lead, he at least kept Marquez honest by never being more than a few tenths behind for half the race. It was almost inevitable, however, that Marc suddenly pulled the pin and set four blistering laps in a row to completely demoralise Acosta and seal the victory. Bezzecchi did well to take his second podium of the weekend, but he must be wondering what he has to do to beat Marquez. Thanks to his early-season success – while Marc was still finding his post-2025-injury feet – Bez is only five points behind Marquez after Aragon and still only 24 behind his teammate, but with the Ducati rider on a roll and Martin so far untroubled by injury, it’s always too early to start losing to either of them.

But was this weekend really a problem for Bezzecchi and Aprilia? Let’s not forget that Bez is still recovering from injury, so to post a new lap record, pole position and post a brace of damage-limiting third places wasn’t exactly a bad weekend’s work. His 2026 record is similar to Marquez’ if you take into account races missed, retirements and race wins – two, two and four each respectively – and moreover, in the races where he hasn’t won, Bez has scored a lot better than Marquez, which explains the mere five-point difference between the two in the table.

No, the pendulum may have swung Marquez’ way in the past six races, but Bez did enough in the first eight races to keep himself in the running. Marquez may have two more anti-clockwise tracks where he is expected to win, but so do Bezzecchi and Aprilia have tracks coming up where they can expect to be on top, which are also tracks where Ducati and Marquez might be expected to struggle a bit, so even a podium might not be on the cards; Misano with its fast right handers which Marquez does not like with his injured right shoulder, and The Red Bull Ring in Austria, where the Aprilia likes the stiffer carcass tyres that Michelin brings, better than the Ducati does.

Of course, Marquez has extensive experience of this sort of slugging-it-out situation in a championship’s second half, and he’s learned to play the percentage game when the odds don’t favour him or his bike, but he’s not getting enough points when he’s not winning to make the title a certainty, while Bez and Martin are. Let’s not forget also that Bezzecchi has the hunger for a first title and Martin would love to demonstrate that his title in 2024 was no flash in the pan.

The run to the championship flag is going to get very interesting.

As usual, Francesco Bagnaia had a dreadful weekend – his sixth Grand Prix DNF this season and his 12th GP DNF out of the last 19 rounds. For him, the end of the season cannot come soon enough, although he must be concerned about taking his troubles with him to Aprilia. His morale must be desperately low; if he has the same problems on a completely new bike, it will be difficult to overcome the mental state that he will sink into. Of course, it could very well be that a new team and bike will rejuvenate him, and the new RS-GP will have none of the problems of his Ducati GP26, enabling him to fight with confidence at the front once again.

There is an interesting comparison between Bagnaia and Marquez on the Ducati and Binder and Acosta on the KTM. Both Bagnaia and Binder have teammates who are performing on bikes that they themselves are incapable of doing anything with (although at least Binder is finishing races!)

This, in turn, raises a couple more interesting questions: can we automatically assume Acosta will be effective on the Ducati in 2027, and would Binder have been able to tame the Ducati had he jumped ship from KTM earlier in his MotoGP career? One scenario we will see play out, but the other is one of the fascinating what-ifs of racing.

If all the attention was on the leaders, there were, as usual, some very interesting battles going on further down the field that we, again as usual, saw little of on TV. The most interesting of which was Bastianini vs Moreira, who is quickly proving to be a bit of a find, given what he is doing on a Honda that no one else seems to be able to emulate. It was also good to see Johann Zarco back as well, and he did not disgrace himself, qualifying ninth and finishing ninth in the Sprint and 15th in the GP, mainly thanks to having a double long-lap penalty to serve.

On the rider front, Fermin Aldeguer has been confirmed as heading to VR46 for 2027, while Moto2 star Izan Guevara will fill Jack Miller’s place at Pramac Yamaha and Enea Bastianini is off to Trackhouse Aprilia. MotoGP is set to potentially lose a lot of riders to World Superbikes in 2027; Miller, Binder, Rins and Morbidelli are all in with a shout of race seats in the second-most important bike racing series in the world, and that can only be a good thing. It’s not that World Supers needs rejuvenating, but fresh race-winning blood is always a good way of shaking up the status quo.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha appears to be deteriorating daily. The team has apparently told the rider that he won’t be allowed to test next year’s Pirelli tyres at a post-Austria test. Quartararo has, therefore, told Yamaha that he won’t be testing any new parts for the 2027 bike; he won’t be “acting as a test rider, as I did this weekend in Aragon” and putting himself at risk for someone else’s benefit, he said.

You can see both sides of the argument; why would Yamaha want to give an advantage to a rider who will be riding for a rival team next year? But Quartararo feels that, because of all the work he has done on a bike that he will never ride, he should be allowed a test on the Pirellis.

There is another thing to consider. In Brno, at the 2027 bike test after the race, KTM allowed Pedro Acosta to ride its new bike, even though he is defecting to Ducati. The reasoning was simple; Acosta is the fastest rider KTM has, so why wouldn’t they want his input on the new bike? It’s the same for Yamaha; Quartararo is the team’s best rider, so why wouldn’t they want his input?

It all rather smacks of tit-for-tat bickering, doesn’t it?

When the invitation landed in my inbox to join TVS Motor Company in India for the 2026 TVS Africa Partner Summit, it was one of those opportunities that required very little thought.

India is the largest motorcycle market in the world, with over 220 million registered two-wheelers, so getting the chance to experience it from inside one of its largest manufacturers was exciting enough. But for me, there was another layer to this trip.

My relationship with TVS goes back much further than ZA Bikers. In fact, if you trace the story back far enough, TVS played an unlikely but significant role in ZA Bikers existing at all.

So, more than 15 years after those early encounters with the brand, I found myself packing my bags for Bengaluru, finally heading back to the country where, in many ways, part of my own story began.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

My relationship with TVS actually predates ZA Bikers. In a previous life, for a short period around 2010, I was a minnow importer of TVS motorcycles into South Africa.

This is how I met my colleague and good friend Dave Cilliers, who contacted me at the time about a trip his son was doing through Africa, tracing the footsteps of his late grandfather’s wartime history.

Off the back of that trip, the itch for our own African adventure needed scratching. And, as with all adventures, the excitement began with the planning. We mapped out a route that would take us from Pretoria, via Botswana, to the Chobe River, then cross into Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls, and eventually make our way back home.

The trip covered approximately 2,500 km over seven days, with all the camping equipment we needed for our African adventure strapped aboard our trusty steeds.

What impressed me then still sticks with me today. We rode a bunch of Apache RTR 180s through extremely hot and harsh African conditions, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees, and not a single bike suffered a mechanical issue along the way. Not only that, when we got home and checked the oil, it was still golden—an early testament to the build quality of TVS motorcycles. Read the full story HERE.

Shortly afterwards, we visited the TVS factory in Hosur, India. We were blown away by the sheer scale of the operation and, significantly, were given an insight into TVS’s future growth plans for Africa.

In the years that followed, Dave’s and my friendship and shared passion for motorcycles eventually blossomed into the birth of ZA Bikers.

Sixteen years later, I found myself returning to India as the editor of ZA Bikers, once again at the invitation of a company that had unknowingly helped set the wheels of this whole journey in motion.

ARRIVING IN INDIA

Arriving in Bengaluru, our bus journey to the hotel was insane! I hadn’t anticipated that it would take us three hours to travel 50 km. A total sensory overload of heat, colour, people, noise, movement, traffic and smells.

The traffic initially appears chaotic: cars, buses, tuk-tuks, scooters and motorcycles seemingly occupying every available centimetre. Lane markings appear more like suggestions, with vehicles squeezing through gaps you’d never attempt at home, horns constantly hooting and transportation flowing in every which way.

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How on earth does this work?

From South African eyes, it looks chaotic. But spend some time in India and you quickly realise that the hooters are used as communication rather than aggression. The people are surprisingly calm within the chaos, almost in a meditative state, moving with what is happening around them rather than reacting aggressively to it.

Everything just seems to work. There’s a rhythm to it:

I’m here > I’m alongside you > I’m coming through.

This is such a contrast to South Africa, where a hooter often communicates frustration, or taxis announcing their presence to bystanders.

What’s apparent is that motorcycles aren’t simply part of the traffic here. In a country of almost 1.5 billion people, they’re part of what keeps this enormous population moving. People commuting; families travelling together; people carrying goods; delivery riders; scooters used for everyday errands; motorcycles functioning as working vehicles.

For many, two wheels aren’t about recreation or lifestyle; they’re a necessity: affordable personal transport, a working tool and, in many cases, a means of earning a living. I would describe it as the ‘heartbeat of India’.

WHO IS TVS?

For many South African motorcyclists, TVS may still be a relatively unfamiliar name. On a global scale, however, it’s anything but.

Part of the wider TVS Group, whose industrial roots stretch back more than a century, TVS Motor Company has grown into one of the world’s major two-wheeler manufacturers. Today, the company says there are more than 50 million TVS vehicles on the road, with a presence spanning over 80 countries and a product portfolio ranging from everyday commuters and scooters to electric vehicles, three-wheelers and the performance-focused Apache range.

Those numbers certainly put the scale of the company into perspective, but there are probably two names that will make its engineering credentials more immediately relatable to South African riders: BMW and Norton.

TVS’s relationship with BMW Motorrad dates back to 2013, when the two companies entered into a strategic partnership to develop and manufacture smaller-capacity motorcycles. The resulting BMW G 310 platform will be familiar to many local riders, with models such as the G 310 R and G 310 GS both manufactured by TVS at its Hosur facility in India. The partnership also gave rise to TVS’s own Apache RR 310.

Then there’s Norton.

TVS acquired the legendary British motorcycle manufacturer in 2020 and has since invested heavily in rebuilding the brand. It’s a fascinating contrast: an Indian manufacturer synonymous with providing affordable mobility to millions of people now also owns one of Britain’s most historic motorcycle brands. We’ve already had a taste of what that next chapter looks like, with our very own Dave Cilliers spending time aboard the new-generation Nortons at the Manx R and Atlas international press launches.

For me, this was perhaps the easiest way to comprehend just how much had changed since my first involvement with TVS back in 2010. The Apache RTR 180s we’d ridden through southern Africa all those years ago had given me an early appreciation for the company’s ability to build a tough little motorcycle. Sixteen years later, I was looking at a global manufacturer operating on an entirely different scale.

And Africa, as we were about to discover, is already a significant part of that story.

2026 TVS AFRICA PARTNER SUMMIT

But we hadn’t travelled halfway across the world simply to understand the scale of TVS; we were there to understand its ambitions for Africa.

The 2026 TVS Africa Partner Summit brought together distributors and partners from across the continent for what was essentially an intensive working conference, with much of the day’s programme understandably aimed at the people actually responsible for growing TVS in their respective markets.

Speakers from across the TVS organisation covered everything from sales performance and future targets to products, motorsport, marketing and even dealer signage. Not all of it made particularly riveting material for a motorcycle journalist. Still, collectively it revealed something far more relevant: TVS is serious about Africa and its growth potential, aptly reflected in the summit slogan, “Riding Forward, Winning Together.”

A few statistics certainly stood out. According to TVS, it is currently the #1 motorcycle-selling brand in Africa, has a presence in more than 50 countries across the continent, and sells approximately 1 million motorcycles annually.

Kenya provides an interesting example of just how established TVS already is on the continent. Its distributor, Car & General (C&G), has enjoyed a 25-year partnership with TVS across Kenya and Tanzania. Interestingly, I remember hearing about C&G during my first involvement with TVS back in 2010, when they were apparently already selling thousands of motorcycles every month back then already.

That relationship has now entered another chapter, with TVS establishing its own regional office in Nairobi, working alongside C&G and its dealer network. The Kenya branch also serves as a strategic hub for TVS’s wider African operations, another indication of just how seriously the company is approaching the continent.

Once again, it highlighted the commitment TVS is making to Africa. South Africa was also formally recognised as one of the newcomers to the TVS family during the summit, which, given my own history with the brand, was a proud moment.

INSIDE TVS

Returning to the Hosur manufacturing facility after more than 15 years was another opportunity to see just how much had changed. As expected, the scale of the operation was impressive, but this time it wasn’t necessarily the machinery that left the biggest impression on me. It was the people.

What stood out was how deeply TVS appears to invest in its people, with a strong emphasis on learning, collaboration, well-being and personal development. Employees, and even their families, are viewed as stakeholders in the business, reinforcing the strong sense of family that seems to run through the organisation.

This became apparent walking through the manufacturing plant. Around 1,400 people work across two eight-hour shifts, producing approximately 6,000 motorcycles a day, with a finished motorcycle rolling off the production line every 25 seconds. What really surprised me was the lack of robotic automation in the production line. These motorcycles are being physically built by people, and there was a genuine sense of pride in what they were doing.

AFRICA: WHERE MOTORCYCLES MEAN SOMETHING DIFFERENT

In South Africa, we tend to view motorcycles primarily through the lens of recreation, lifestyle and passion. However, across many African markets, motorcycles fulfil a fundamentally different role, driven largely by necessity: mobility, commerce and livelihood.

Kenya’s boda boda economy is a perfect example of this. These commercial motorcycle taxis provide affordable passenger and goods transport across the country, while also creating a means of earning a living for a huge number of riders. This helps explain why TVS is already selling around one million motorcycles annually in Africa and why the continent matters so much to them.

During our factory visit, an HLX-based load-carrying prototype developed specifically for Africa generated plenty of excitement among TVS’s African partners. Built around the rugged HLX platform and with a claimed one-ton payload capacity, it’s a fascinating example of TVS developing products around the practical needs of the continent. From a South African perspective, something like this could make a lot of sense in our agricultural sector. I reckon it would attract plenty of attention at NAMPO.

There was one motorcycle we saw in India that particularly caught my eye: the new Apache RTX adventure bike. Powered by a 299.1 cc single-cylinder engine, with 180 mm of suspension travel and ergonomics designed around long-distance travel, it looked ideally suited to adventure. Looking at it, I couldn’t help thinking how perfect something like this would have been for the African trip Dave and I undertook all those years ago.

Perhaps, when these bikes eventually make their way to South Africa, there’s an opportunity for us to revisit that journey and, with it, reconnect to a simpler approach to adventure riding. One that’s less about size, power and technology, and more about loading up a small-capacity motorcycle and simply heading off in search of adventure.

BRINGING IT HOME: THE SOUTH AFRICAN OPPORTUNITY

TVS has a new opportunity in South Africa with Bidvest, but perhaps the bigger opportunity isn’t simply selling more motorcycles to existing motorcyclists. It’s helping South Africans recognise the potential of two wheels as a means of creating livelihoods.

We’ve already started to see this shift since the Covid pandemic, with an explosion in the local delivery motorcycle sector. Uber Eats, Mr D, Checkers Sixty60 and countless smaller delivery operations have made working motorcycles an everyday sight on our roads.

Perhaps an even bigger shift in thinking is needed. According to Statistics South Africa, the unemployment rate among young South Africans aged 15 to 34 currently stands at a staggering 47.4%. Could affordable two-wheeled mobility provide one relatively accessible route into earning a living, where a motorcycle becomes the means of earning, rather than simply the means of getting to work?

We certainly hope so. Because if there was one thing this trip reinforced for me, it’s that the true potential of a motorcycle isn’t always measured by where it can take you, but by what it can enable you to do.

Necessity. Mobility. Livelihood.

For more information on TVS in South Africa, visit: www.tvsmotor.com

There is a trend that has been spreading through motorsport for many years now, and it goes along these lines: bigger/more means better. More countries, more races, bigger attendance figures, more entertainment, more points on offer, more exposure, more media duties, more razzmatazz, more money! It’s a long time since there were any entries in the “less of” column.

The announcement that the Australian Grand Prix would be moving from Phillip Island to a “street” circuit in Adelaide produced a predictable amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth, and rightly so. One of the great racing circuits in an age of ever-more anodyne circuit designs was being sacrificed at the altar of “more”.

Adelaide, it was claimed, would allow more people to attend, meaning more money for Dorna and Liberty, co-owners of MotoGP, while Adelaide itself would benefit financially, thanks to increased tourism. Never mind the fact that MotoGP hasn’t raced at a street circuit for many decades, nor the fact that most of the riders would prefer to race at Phillip Island. Never mind the fact that street circuits and MotoGP are not exactly a match made in heaven, thanks to the safety concerns.

And there’s a thing. Dorna/Liberty are always keen to stress that safety is uppermost in their minds (and, to be fair, it almost always is), but here they are promoting something that is inherently inappropriate for 300 horsepower, 350 km/h racing motorcycles.

Then more details started emerging; the circuit was not strictly a “street” circuit but one that would be built in a park in Adelaide. So, hang on, let’s get this right: leaving Philip Island, with its parkland-based circuit, to go and race at a track set in a park, because it will make more money? Sounds about right!

The parklands around Adelaide were laid out in the 1830s, creating a green belt around what was then the city. What has got residents so worked up is the fact that creating the circuit would mean the felling of at least 400 trees, quite a step up from the originally promised 45. To make matters worse, alterations to the northern parklands golf course, to bring it up to international standards and, hopefully, attract the LIV golf tournament, mean the felling of a further 600 trees.

Now, I’m no tree hugger, but it does seem to me that land that was set aside for the benefit of all residents should not be sacrificed at the altar of capitalism. It’s not as if Australia doesn’t have quite a bit of unused land dotted around the continent…

To date, tens of thousands of Adelaide residents have signed a petition against the development, and this is enough to trigger a formal parliamentary inquiry which, it is hoped, will force the organisers to change their plans. The golf course project is also the subject of a federal court case.

What might trip the organisers up is the fact that the project falls foul of the F.I.M.’s (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, motorcycle sport’s governing body) own code of environmental practice.

A letter sent by those opposed to the circuit reads as follows:

“We wish to alert you specifically to the fact that the construction of the proposed Adelaide MotoGP infrastructure, and the event itself, is in breach of the FIM Environmental Code 2026 and the FIM Sustainability Policy.

“The proposed MotoGP street race will be conducted in Adelaide’s nationally heritage-listed Park Lands – one of the world’s finest surviving nineteenth-century “city in a park” landscapes. “Approximately 40% of the circuit will be situated within the Park Lands itself, where large amounts of new hard surfacing will permanently replace existing green space and protected habitat.

“The racetrack will cut through a stand of 100- or more years-old Eucalyptus trees and a 150-year-old olive grove. It will encroach on a protected Key Biodiversity Area, which includes a nationally endangered woodland and grassland, a conservation area for the rare Chequered Copper butterfly (Lucia limbaria), a complex wetland ecosystem and a 130-year-old closed woodland.”

There will be those who will argue that losing a bit of parkland and a few trees pales into insignificance in the face of the economic benefits to the city. What this ignores is the fact that, surely, the parkland isn’t the only space available in and around Adelaide for such purposes. Are there no run-down industrial areas that could be regenerated and utilised? Or, maybe, keep the race at Philip Island?

I’m certainly not saying that MotoGP must never progress and develop, adapt and reinvent, but do the powers-that-be have to be so blatant about the fact that this is a business now and not a sport? Is there no room at all for a bit of sentimentality and nostalgia?

Sadly, it would appear not.

There’s no denying that the KTM 1390 cc V-Twin engine is one of the most potent power units ever fitted to a motorcycle. That it works so effectively in both the hooligan 1390 Super Duke R and the hugely impressive 1390 Super Adventure R is a testament to the engine’s innate flexibility.

But while the numbers tell part of the story, they don’t really explain what makes these two motorcycles so special. We’ve had the opportunity to ride both, and neither experience left us wondering whether KTM had built just another big, powerful motorcycle.

We first experienced the 1390 Super Duke R in Spain, where KTM celebrated 30 years of the Duke. Given the opportunity to stretch its legs on a proper circuit, the Super Duke demonstrated exactly why KTM’s naked flagship has earned such a reputation. It is brutally quick, but there’s considerably more to it than simply a huge engine and a ridiculous amount of power. The chassis, electronics and suspension give it the composure to be ridden hard, while that unmistakable KTM attitude remains firmly intact. It’s the kind of motorcycle that can turn an ordinary ride into an event.

Then there’s the 1390 Super Adventure R, which takes that same formidable V-Twin and points it in a very different direction. We recently rode the big adventure bike into the Drakensberg during KTM South Africa’s 2026 Adventure Rally, and it was a pretty effective demonstration of just how capable a large-capacity adventure motorcycle can be when the road disappears.

This is a big motorcycle, yet it tackled rocky climbs, technical sections, ruts and flowing mountain trails with a confidence that would have you questioning whether you really needed a smaller machine. The combination of KTM’s chassis, WP suspension, electronics and that seemingly endless supply of V-Twin torque makes the 1390 Super Adventure R anything but a road-biased adventure tourer.

And perhaps that’s what makes these two motorcycles so appealing. They are very different machines, but they share the same philosophy. The Super Duke R is built to make the road more exciting, while the Super Adventure R is designed to take you further when the road eventually runs out.

We’ve ridden both in some pretty exotic settings, which certainly helps to romanticise the experience, but those environments also highlighted something important: these aren’t your run-of-the-mill, vanilla motorcycles. They are focused, capable machines designed to do more, go further and offer an experience that few motorcycles in their respective classes can match.

If you’ve not ridden either bike, then you really haven’t experienced anything quite like them. And, to make that experience accessible to more people, KTM South Africa currently has two very attractive offers available until 31 October.

In the adventure corner, you can now get the 1390 Super Adventure R for just R5,639 per month, while the 1390 Super Duke R can be yours for only R5,350 per month. Both offers are based on a 10% deposit and a 40% balloon payment at the end.

To make the deal even better, both the Super Adventure R and Super Duke R come with a 4-Year Premium Manufacturer’s Warranty, giving you added peace of mind so you can focus on the adventure ahead.

When you consider the sort of mundane cars that amount of money will buy you, it does beg the question: why would you not want to be experiencing life on a KTM?

For more information, and to take advantage of these offers, contact your nearest authorised KTM dealer.

One often has to wonder about the governing bodies of sport; are they actually in touch with reality, or is the common vision of a bunch of doddery old farts, sitting in a boardroom around a large table, the remains of a good lunch in front of them as the port is passed around through the smoke of fine cigars, accurate?

Of course, that’s not how it is, but sometimes, given the ideas that come out of such boardrooms, you do have to wonder.

The latest idea for MotoGP was to limit each rider to one bike per race weekend. On the surface, and taking into account the need to reduce costs to keep the sport sustainable, this is a sensible idea. But the fact that it disappears into farce upon the very slightest scrutiny means that it should never have emerged in the first place. And yet it did, and it was delivered in all seriousness.

What makes it all the more unfathomable is that some of the teams also thought it was a good idea; Ducati and Aprilia in particular, while Honda and Yamaha were on the fence. Thank goodness, therefore, for KTM, who shot the idea down in flames and prevented unanimity, which is required for any such change to take place.

Think about it. One bike per rider per weekend, in a sport where crashing is not only expected, it is almost compulsory. What happens then? In normal circumstances, a crash results in the loss of a session: a) because the bike can’t be got back to the pits while the session is still in progress and b) even if it could be got back to the pits, there would likely be no time to repair and get the rider out again.

So that’s a loss of a session. If it’s practice, then it’s a calamity but not disastrous. If it’s qualifying, then it’s definitely a disaster, because your rider is starting from the back of the grid. If it’s in the warm-up, it’s a double disaster, as your rider is likely not taking part in the race. And let’s not forget that mechanical reliability can’t be taken for granted, either; a fault anywhere could mean the loss of a session.

Now let’s talk about flag-to-flag races. That rule was one of the best rules ever implemented in motorsport; if a race starts in the wet but the track starts to dry, or vice versa, then riders can come in and swap to a bike with the correct tyres for the conditions fitted, which adds massively to the unpredictability and excitement (Brad Binder, Austria, 2021, anyone?) which is infinitely preferable to stopping the race and waiting for a couple of hours for the rain to stop, if it does at all.

Lastly, and perhaps most pertinent to the reasoning behind the rule in the first place – the saving of money – as KTM so rightly pointed out, the teams would have to bring a full second bike in component form in any case, to cover for any accident eventuality, so where’s the saving?

To compound the impression of muddled thinking, it was allegedly proposed that a compromise allowing a spare (second) bike from qualifying onwards could be introduced, which makes a farce of the whole idea to anyone with an IQ of 1!

Then the conspiracy theories started emerging. Currently, Ducati and Aprilia enjoy a huge advantage over Honda, Yamaha and KTM, and private testing of the 2027 850 cc bikes suggests that the two Italian manufacturers could hold onto that advantage in 2027. With the rules reset from next year onwards, everyone starts on the same concessions rating, meaning that a single-bike rule could restrict the opportunities for Honda, Yamaha and KTM to close the performance gap, as riders wouldn’t be able to test new parts or bike set-ups back-to-back during the practice sessions.

You want more? Well, El Periodico, a daily newspaper in Barcelona, reported that some MSMA (Motor Sport Manufacturers Association) executives suggested that a 4-1 vote in favour of the one bike rule should still qualify as a unanimous vote! Thankfully, Carmelo Ezpeleta, MotoGP CEO, shut that nonsense down straight away, pointing out that unanimity meant just that.

You really couldn’t make this sh*t up!

We say it every year but, boy, did that seem like a long summer break! It’s inevitable, I guess, when the season so far has been so good, the racing excellent and the podium so varied, that we can’t wait for the action to resume. This year, the rise of Aprilia is complete, and the battle with Ducati well and truly joined, the pendulum swinging between the two relatively evenly.

It’s been a real up-and-down season for all the top points scorers; Bezzecchi’s fine run of three wins on the trot before falling precipitously from grace through accidents and incidents; Martin living in his team-mates shadow before bursting forth and seizing the initiative; Marc Marquez’ continuing injury issues keeping him on the sidelines briefly before getting into his stride, winning three out of the four races before the summer break.

And over it all, there has been Aprilia’s success rate; front-row lock-outs; podium lock-outs; each of the four riders winning a race – both Sprint and Grand Prix victories; the top three positions in the championship. This is a manufacturer that has really come of age.

Silverstone was always going to favour the Aprilias, but I’m not sure anyone predicted how much of an advantage they would have over the Ducatis. At stop-and-go tracks, the Ducati GP26 is in its element, but when the going is fast and sweeping, the Aprilia is untouchable. The Ducatis suffered dreadfully in the Sprint race with the soft rear tyres dropping off a cliff even before half distance; Marc Marquez was lucky to salvage a single point, and he is back to 41 points adrift of Martin at the top of the table, while Bezzecchi is 31 points behind his teammate.

Bezzecchi’s pair of third places at Silverstone were incredible; here, after all, was a rider who could barely walk on Sunday morning, still suffering from a damaged knee; he looked dreadful, and to not only take third in the Grand Prix but also fend off concerted attacks from Alex Marquez has to be one of the grittiest rides in recent memory. Silverstone puts massive strains on a fully fit body, so what Bez was going through can barely be imagined, but he desperately needed this boost after a run of dreadful luck and misfortune that saw him earn a mere handful of points while the likes of Marc Marquez earned over a hundred points and Martin took over at the top of the table.

And let’s not ignore Raul Fernandez’s performance. After crashing out of the Sprint, much to his own disgust, his performance in the Grand Prix was devastating; one second ahead at the end of the first lap, three seconds ahead at the end of lap six; it would go up to 4.4 seconds at one point, and no one had any type of answer for that pace. Talk about good timing; his first victory since Philip Island last year and mere days after penning a new two-year deal with Trackhouse.

The next race in Aragon will likely favour the Ducatis and, being an anti-clockwise track, Marc Marquez in particular, but the notable thing about this season is that Aprilia has managed to salvage good points from races at tracks the RS-GP doesn’t particularly like, whereas the Ducatis largely fail to do the same at tracks the GP26 doesn’t like. Also, Marc is fighting a lone battle against the massed Aprilias, as Bagnaia on the other factory Ducati continues to have a torrid time of it and can’t really contribute anything to Ducati’s title-fighting fund.

The only thing that is certain at the moment is that the championship is wide open with ten races still to be run. Forget points differences; Both Martin and Marc Marquez have shown that even a huge deficit can be overturned, while injury is sadly an all-too-familiar presence up and down pit lane; one day on top of the world, the next in the depths of pain and despair.

There wasn’t a huge amount of news during the summer break, and what news there was, centred around the rider market for 2027. Fabio Quartararo is finally confirmed as heading to the factory Honda team, to be joined potentially by Moto2 star Davide Alonso, although that seat could go to current LCR Honda rider Diogo Moreira, Alonso then taking the LCR seat. Raul Fernandez has signed a two-year deal with Trackhouse Aprilia, but it looks as if Maverick Viñales’ time in MotoGP might be up.

Sadly, for South African fans, Brad Binder’s time in MotoGP is also up, and it looks like he’ll be heading to World Superbikes, perhaps with BMW. His time in MotoGP will remain one of the great “what ifs” of racing. When he went to KTM, both rider and team were on the up, and he quickly had the comfort and reassurance of a long-term contract. But all too soon, that long contract increasingly had all the appearances of a millstone, as the KTM failed to develop and even went backwards, effectively wasting Binder’s time and talent.

Would his career and success trajectories have been different if he had been riding another bike? Well, when he signed for KTM for 2020, the hot tickets were Honda and Yamaha, with Suzuki and Ducati a close third and Aprilia yet to come fully on song. KTM was also a hot, if unproven, ticket and Brad confirmed this potential with a victory in Brno in only the third round of that first season. There was another victory in 2021 – that mad dry/wet race in Austria – but, since then, there have only been nine more podiums. In that same period, Honda and Yamaha have faded drastically, while Ducati and, recently, Aprilia have taken over at the top, and KTM has remained mired in the midfield. So, even if Binder had signed for Honda or Yamaha back in 2020, he would still be in the same position today, although he might have had more success before the slump.

Binder then had the destabilising effect of the “next big thing” in the form of Pedro Acosta coming into the team. Where once Brad himself had been the “NBT”, he was now being overshadowed by the young upstart, and that can’t be a happy space for a rider, who has to have towering self-belief if he is to perform at the top of his game.

Only those behind closed doors at KTM know exactly what has been going on; was Brad being sacrificed in favour of Acosta, being given experimental parts to develop while Acosta reaped the benefit of the hard work? In the event of a lack of enough new parts to go around, was Acosta being favoured over Binder? Was Acosta simply the right rider on the RC16 at the right time, even if he himself wasn’t able to drag the bike to the top step of the podium?

Would a different bike have allowed Brad to stretch his wings and soar? Well, that’s the “what if”, isn’t it? One thing is for certain: Brad Binder can leave the MotoGP paddock with his head justifiably held high, and it will be fascinating to see what he can do in Superbikes, where it is looking like he will be joined by Jack Miller. That’s at least two entertaining characters leaving the MotoGP paddock, so let’s hope the incoming riders bring their fair share of colour.

Aragon is the next destination but, having been teased with a return to action after a four-week break, we now have three weeks to wait for the next race! The likes of Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez will be happy – more time to recover – but that’s not much good for the rest of us!

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tells the story of Charlie Bucket, a poor boy who gets to tour a Chocolate factory after finding a magic Golden Ticket in a chocolate bar. He travels in a magical world where he gets to meet some fascinating people like Willy Wonka, the owner of the Chocolate factory, as well as tiny inhabitants, the Oompa-Loompas. This is a classic tale, yet I was more enthralled hearing the story of the magical travels of Dani and his Golden Ticket in the form of a Ducati Desert-X. It happened like this.

My mate George, at World of Motorcycles in Centurion, phoned me and asked if I wanted to meet a Spanish traveller who had just ridden down through Africa on his Ducati Desert-X. “Damn straight yes”, was my instant retort. Nothing appeals to me more than the idea of getting on a bike and riding off into the wide blue yonder. Not allowing the “buts” to hold sway, but rather the “why the hell not?”, and so it was with Dani Martinez Diaz.

The Travel Bug Bites

Dani got his first bike, a 49 cc Mobylette, when he was 12, and this is where the passion for motorcycles was birthed. Over time, a Honda CBR600 seriously raised the bar, which he raised even higher when he upgraded to a Yamaha R1 in 2004. Dani’s motorcycle journey started to foster an urge to travel. Putting work on hold, he spent 3 months touring Italy on his R1. He had quite a unique, and I must say rather ingenious approach to carrying his luggage. He bought a huge plastic storage bottle and lashed it on the passenger seat. All his goods were stowed inside, out of the weather. To access his kit, he simply unscrewed the large lid. GIVI take note! Full leathers, knee down and wild camping were all in a day’s work. He was forced to abandon his travels as the European winter encroached. Suffice to say the travel bug had now properly bitten!

Dani is an electrician by trade, so this works well for his travel plans. He embarks on a project for clients, makes some loot, then once finished, he gets back on the road again. His 3 months around Italy is a hint of how he chooses to travel. It is not, as many of us do, a whistle-stop trip through an area and then home again. He loves to really get to grips with the region and people who inhabit it. In this way he gets to experience so much more than just the travel element. He truly seems to suck the marrow from the experience.

He then took himself off to Thailand, where he rented a 150 cc scooter and rode the renowned Mae Hong Son Loop, a 600-kilometre motorcycle road trip with 1,864 curves, starting in Chang Mai. Nothing could satiate his craving for two-wheeled adventures. The more he did, the more he wanted to do. The next step was obviously Africa, but now he faced bike issues. Up until this point every adventure had been on tar, but Africa would have more than a fair share “off piste” as the Europeans call it. So, what bike would be best suited? There were two schools of thought. Get an “old” analogue bike in good nick. Simplicity and ease of maintenance were obvious advantages. The Yamaha 660 Tenere was top of that list. Then some advocated new middleweight bikes with known reliability, like the Yamaha T7, Aprilia Toureg or Honda CB500 X. The 660 Yamaha Tenere’s he found were all well worn and expensive. A friend then suggested that Dani take his Ducati Desert X for a spin…and it was game over!

The heart totally overruled the head! “Damn”, Dani thought, “this is my dream bike!” The self-talk that followed went along the lines of “buy what you WANT”, “But it’s so expensive”, “But you only live once, and maybe you won’t have the money in the future”. A visit to Ducati Barcelona and it wasn’t even a fair fight. Dani came, he saw, he bought! There was minimal preparation. Dani planned to really explore the countries along the way so he would feel his way as he went. He set about finishing all his outstanding work and closed his business for the time being.

Across Africa

The 6th of January 2024 was D-Day. Dani left home, headed for Morocco. He made his way down the west coast of North Africa. Difficulty with visa issues saw him skirt Liberia and enter Sierra Leone. This is where he experienced riding a big adventure bike off-road for the first time. He travelled to such remote parts of the country that the locals ran away at the sight of this weird apparition. A white man on a big growling white bike. He wild camped his way through Guinea-Conakry and Ivory Coast, learning that the best greeting was a huge smile. The off-road experience was next level. English was the universal language in all but the small villages that he passed through. He started picking up local phrases, writing them down and using them to connect with the locals.

With his funds running low, he left the Desert-X at a guest house in Morocco and went home to Spain for 4 months to replenish his resources, then it was back to Africa. More exploring West African countries, then back home again for 5 months, this time leaving the bike at a store in Ivory Coast belonging to a Lebanese biker that he met on his travels. In fact, the universal biker brotherhood features in a lot of Dani’s stories. He found local bikers trustworthy and keen to assist a fellow biker on his travels.

Continuing his travels, Dani explored Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria. He was apprehensive about visiting Nigeria, having heard a lot of negatives in the surrounding countries. Once again, it was bikers to the rescue. Nigerian bikers took him as a VIP guest to a local bike rally, with over 2000 bikers and festival goers in attendance. From negative rumours, he ended up having an absolute blast, making new friends and being blessed by the local biking community. Around this time, he discovered that the exhaust on the rear cylinder of the Ducati had ruptured and was leaking. Feeling helpless, he put out a message on YouTube asking if anyone could help. Ducati themselves responded in spectacular fashion. Within 48 hours, he received the bits to repair the Desert-X direct from the factory in Italy at no charge. How is that for backing your brand?

After Cameroon, more visa issues messed Dani’s plans. The Congo visa was extortionately expensive, so he bypassed Congo to Cabinda in Angola. Again, he was welcomed by Angolan bikers that he encountered. His visa expired, but he was able to exit Angola to Namibia, then return to complete his tour of the country. Dani met a Belgian travelling on a Honda Transalp 650 in Windhoek. They travelled together down the Caprivi, then into Zambia where they explored the Liuwa Plain National Park in a rented Land Rover. Back on the bikes, they wild camped everywhere, even unknowingly entering Kafue National Park from the north. They soon learned to be quiet around elephants. Switching off the bikes so as not to alarm them.

Riding roads littered with dried elephant track potholes was difficult. A local lodge wanted to charge them 50 Euros to camp at the lodge, so once again they camped wild, literally in lion country. The next night they camped with local fishermen. The park officials got wind of them being in the park with bikes, which is strictly forbidden. Confronting them, the officials confiscated the bikes’ keys. Dani and his buddy showed the officials pictures of the gate where they had entered, let in by the park officials. Reluctantly, they were given their keys back, after which they were taken to a dirt airstrip, given 10L of fuel, and escorted from the park. Once again, this proves that when in doubt, it is better to beg for forgiveness if caught than ask permission and miss out on the adventure of a lifetime.

They then rode to Livingstone, attended another local bike rally weekend, visited Victoria Falls, and got on their way to Botswana. They had lots of contacts made at the rally of Botswana bikers willing to put them up. The first contact was in Maun, on the lower edge of the Okavango Delta. Dani and his Belgian buddy decided to wild camp on the way there. They pulled off the main Kasane Nata road and made their way to the Hunters Road, the cotton soil goat track that runs parallel to the Zimbabwe border, almost all the way from Pandamatenga to Kasane. Almost unrideable in the wet season to anything other than a dirt bike, they set up camp. Significant elephant activity saw them nervously putting up their tents between a lager of bikes.

Dani recalls that it was his most stressful night on all of his travels. The elephant activity all around them was so hectic that Dani found it impossible to sleep and sat up all night feeding the fire in the hope of keeping the ellies at bay. So, it was two tired travellers that rode to Maun the next day, where they spent the night with a new buddy. They cruised to Gaberone and spent some time with another acquaintance from the rally, before riding south across the border into South Africa. And so it was that I met Dani. His motorcycle is resting at World of Motorcycles while he again returns to Spain to top up his travel coffers. He is due back in mid-September. God willing, I will take a ride with him to the lowveld to show him a bit more of our incredible tip of Africa before he continues on his way to Cape Town and who knows where from there.

A Dream Bike

The obvious question to ask Dani was “knowing what you know now, would you choose the Desert-X again?” He laughed and said “Dave, I’m not the biggest guy, and have a dodgy back, so when I fell off, and I probably fell over a hundred times, I had to unpack my bike before being able to pick it up, so something lighter may have been better”, then, gazing wistfully at his well-worn Ducati with over 50,000k’s of African travel under the belt, he added, “but no, I would choose the Desert-X for sure, it is my dream bike”. This almost elicited a lump in my throat when I saw the depth of feeling that the Spaniard has for his battle-scarred Ducati. To the best of his knowledge, it is the first Desert-X to have travelled the length of Africa. I don’t know where else Dani’s lust for adventure travel will take him, but I can say one thing with absolute certainty: his Desert-X is raring to go!

Success in hard enduro is rarely built over a single weekend. It reflects the combined efforts of talented riders, dedicated teams, partnerships, technical support and the preparation that takes place long before the start flag drops.

For Beta South Africa, the 2026 IMPI Hard Enduro represented another important milestone in a journey that has seen the brand continue to strengthen its position within South African off-road motorcycling.

Regarded as the biggest multi-day hard enduro event in the world, the IMPI once again brought together well over 1,200 riders for three days of punishment across the unforgiving terrain of South Africa’s Northern Drakensberg.

Between 2 and 4 July, the mountains surrounding Hlalanathi and Maswazini became a proving ground where rocky climbs, loose descents and endless kilometres of technical trails separated those who merely entered from those who conquered.

A Complete Podium Sweep 

Beta riders claimed first, second and third overall in the gold class. Leading the charge was James Moore, who delivered a commanding ride to win both days of competition and earn the coveted title of King of the IMPI. After taking victory in Friday’s demanding five-hour opener, he repeated the performance on Saturday to secure the overall win with a combined time of 9h23m, finishing an incredible 13 minutes ahead of the chasing pack.

Behind him, the fight for the remaining podium positions was fierce as riders searched for every possible advantage across the mountainsides. Thomas Scales secured second overall in 9h36m, while Travis Teasdale completed a dominant all-Beta South Africa podium with a time of 9h40m.

A clean sweep of the podium marked another significant result for Beta South Africa and continued what has been a successful 2026 season for the brand.

In total, 60 Beta motorcycles took to the start line across all classes; 100% of Beta riders finished the gold and silver classes, with 85% of riders crossing the finish line in the bronze and iron classes, both of these classes rated the toughest in recent years.

Beyond the Results Sheet 

Results tell only part of the story.

Behind every rider standing on the podium is a network of dealers, support crews, families, sponsors and partnerships who are all integral to building the brand across the country. The current dealer network, for example, carries more than 140 collective years of industry experience. According to Beta South Africa, the focus has always been on a love of motorcycles and riding. That philosophy extends beyond the showroom, with riders backed by technical support and parts from people who genuinely care about getting the right bike setup for each individual.

Beyond racing, Beta prides itself on rideability—a word they use deliberately to describe bikes that reward riders of every level, not just the fast ones. It’s what puts a smile on the face of a veteran enduro rider and a first-time trail rider on the same afternoon.

As Beta South Africa puts it: “Performance builds credibility. Consistency builds confidence. Together, they build a brand.”

Built Through Partnership 

Success at this level is never achieved in isolation.

Liqui Moly has been the global lubricant and factory team partner of Betamotor since 2014. Internationally, the company provides not only lubricants but also technical support for factory racing teams in EnduroGP, TrialGP and MXGP.

Locally, the relationship has become an important part of Beta South Africa’s racing programme. Liqui Moly sponsors the entire Beta South Africa Hard Enduro team. Both brands are committed to performance, reliability and supporting riders where and when it matters. Strong technical partnerships have become essential in modern motorsports. The result is a technical support structure that extends well beyond race day, helping riders prepare, compete and perform throughout the racing season.

Looking Ahead 

The IMPI Hard Enduro may be one of the toughest events on the South African calendar, but the results serve as a benchmark for a brand that continues to grow through investment in its riders, dealer network, parts support and partnerships, while continuing to value the dealers and riders who choose the brand.

The 2026 IMPI will undoubtedly be remembered for the punishment delivered by the mountains of the Northern Drakensberg.

For Beta South Africa, however, it will also be remembered as another significant chapter in South Africa’s Hard Enduro history.

For more information, visit: www.liqui-moly.co.za
Beta Motorcycles South Africa: www.betamoto.co.za

I might be a bit biased in saying this, but here goes anyway: very few things unite people quite like motorcycles. Sure, they come in all shapes and sizes. Some riders swear by adventure bikes, while others live for sports bikes, cruisers or naked machines. Some have decades of experience behind the bars, while others are only now looking at buying their very first motorcycle. Yet on Saturday at Bikeshop Rivonia, none of that really mattered.

The Honda Wing Road Tour arrived in Johannesburg with an impressive fleet of Honda’s latest motorcycles, but it quickly became apparent that this event was about far more than simply showcasing new models.

It was about the lifestyle

If you’ve never ridden a motorcycle, it’s difficult to explain why a cold Saturday morning at a bike shop can feel like the highlight of the week. Riders understand it, though. It’s the pulse of an engine beneath you, the freedom of the open road and the friendships that are forged wherever motorcycles gather. This was the atmosphere at Bikeshop Rivonia throughout the week, and especially on Saturday.

Families wandered through the showroom, friends caught up over coffee and boerie rolls, riders compared notes after demo rides, and newcomers spent time asking questions about Honda’s latest technology. Upstairs, Bike Kings welcomed riders looking for fresh gear, while downstairs the showroom buzzed with conversations about upcoming adventures, weekend rides and dream motorcycles. Dreaming about “that bike” is always a problem I have when I walk through the doors at Bikeshop Rivonia, just like that Ducati 848 we tested.

Honda certainly didn’t disappoint

With everything from the CRF 300 Rally and NX 500 through to the Transalp, the Africa Twin range, Hornets and the striking new CB 1000 GT on display, there was genuinely something to tempt every type of rider. Add Honda’s latest E-Clutch technology demonstrations into the mix, and visitors were given a glimpse of where the future of motorcycling is heading, while still keeping the engagement and enjoyment that riders love.

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What stood out most, however, wasn’t a single motorcycle. It was just how difficult it has become to choose a favourite. Honda’s 2026 line-up has matured into one of the most complete ranges since its heyday in the early 2000s. Whether you’re looking for a commuter, an adventure machine, a sports tourer, a naked bike or something capable of tackling almost any road, Honda now has a compelling option. And, if you’ll forgive me for saying it, this is arguably the most exciting Honda line-up we’ve seen in years.

The biggest attraction was the people

Riders arrived in groups, with partners, children and lifelong friends. Some came to test ride a motorcycle, while others simply came to browse one of South Africa’s best-stocked dealerships. Many stayed longer than they planned because that’s what motorcycle people do. Guilty as charged here! They chat, they admire each other’s bikes, they swap stories, and they leave already planning the next ride.

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Events like the Honda Wing Road Tour remind us why this community continues to grow. Yes, it’s about the motorcycles. But more importantly, it’s about the freedom they represent and the people they bring together. Judging by the turnout at Bikeshop Rivonia, that passion for two wheels is alive and well. In a world that’s becoming more and more vanilla, it’s good to see so many riders still choosing the flavour with a little more spice.

For more information on the Honda Wing Road Tour, click HERE. For an incredible selection of new and preloved motorcycles, visit Bikeshop Rivonia HERE, or browse their dream rides on our Bikes For Sale page HERE.

It has been said by those in the know that the world is made up of fools, madmen and those who willingly line up for the IMPI Hard Enduro. Having witnessed what these riders put themselves through, it is difficult to argue otherwise.

Regarded as the biggest multi-day hard enduro event in the world, the IMPI once again brought together well over 1,200 riders for three days of punishment across the unforgiving terrain of South Africa’s Northern Drakensberg.

Between 2 and 4 July, the mountains surrounding Hlalanathi and Maswazini became a proving ground where rocky climbs, loose descents and endless kilometres of technical trails separated those who merely entered from those who conquered.

The scale of the event is impressive enough on paper, but numbers alone struggle to capture what makes the IMPI such a spectacle. The mountains become filled with the sound of motorcycles fighting for traction, while riders battle terrain that appears determined to send them back in the direction from which they came.

The IMPI attracts everyone from the country’s leading extreme enduro riders to club competitors and weekend warriors, with competitors ranging from riders under the age of 10 to veterans approaching 80, all prepared to discover just how much punishment they, and their motorcycles, can absorb over the course of the event.

That is also what makes supporting an event of this size and difficulty rather more complicated than placing a few banners around the paddock.

As the official lubricants partner of the 2026 IMPI Hard Enduro, LIQUI MOLY South Africa became an integral part of the event and the rider experience, with its involvement stretching from the paddock to the refuel points out on the route.

The company’s presence could be felt long before riders crossed the finish line and continued long after they returned from the mountains covered in dust, mud and evidence of whichever section of the course had most recently tried to defeat them.

Supporting Riders on the Mountain

Hard enduro places extraordinary demands on motorcycles.

Engines spend hours operating at low speeds and high temperatures, while clutches, chains and drivetrains are placed under constant strain. Add rocks, river crossings, dust and the occasional unplanned meeting with the scenery, and reliability becomes every bit as important as outright performance.

As the event’s official refuel partner, LIQUI MOLY supplied pre-mixed fuel using its renowned 2T Race oil for two-stroke competitors, ensuring consistency and reliability when every second, and every mechanical component, mattered.

Technical teams were stationed at the refuel points, ready to assist riders with chain lubrication, emergency mechanical support and those small but crucial fixes that can be the difference between reaching the finish line or retiring deep in the mountains.

It is easy to focus on the riders at the sharp end of the results, but the same support is just as important to the competitor chasing a first IMPI finish or attempting to drag both themselves and their motorcycle through the final few kilometres.

At that point, a lubricated chain, a minor repair or simply having someone available who knows what they are looking at can feel every bit as valuable as a trophy.

The refuel points therefore became more than places to collect fuel. They offered competitors a brief opportunity to reset, assess their motorcycles and gather themselves before heading back into the mountains.

That support formed part of the machinery behind the event, operating quietly while the riders attracted most of the attention.

Helping Riders and Machines Recover

Even after hours spent battling rocks, dust and exhaustion, LIQUI MOLY’s involvement continued.

Bike-wash facilities, along with dedicated helmet and visor-cleaning stations, welcomed exhausted competitors back into the paddock, helping riders and machines recover before the next challenge.

Anyone who has ridden in dusty conditions will understand just how quickly visibility can deteriorate, particularly once sweat, mud and debris are added to the equation. A clean helmet and visor might appear to be a small detail, but after several hours in the mountains, small details begin to matter rather a lot.

The same applies to the motorcycles.

Hard enduro is not kind to machinery, and cleaning a bike after a difficult day allows riders and technical crews to inspect it properly, identify damage and prepare it for whatever the following morning has in store.

With a multi-day event, finishing one day is only part of the challenge. The rider and motorcycle must be ready to do it all again.

More Than Branding

It is often the unseen moments that define a great event.

The helping hand at a refuel stop. A freshly cleaned visor before heading back into the mountains. The confidence that comes from knowing expert support is waiting when it is needed most.

Those moments do not win races, but they make them possible.

For LIQUI MOLY South Africa, success at the IMPI was therefore not measured by trophies alone. It was measured in the hundreds of riders who were able to continue, the motorcycles that made it back to the paddock and the support provided throughout one of the most demanding events on the South African motorcycling calendar.

The 2026 IMPI also took place during one of the biggest weekends in South African motorcycling this year.

While more than 1,200 hard enduro riders were battling the Northern Drakensberg, the world’s motocross elite were competing in the long-awaited return of MXGP to South Africa just a few hundred kilometres away.

Supporting both the return of MXGP and the country’s biggest hard enduro event on the same weekend was no small undertaking—it was a statement.

From international championship racing to grassroots hard enduro, LIQUI MOLY’s involvement demonstrated a commitment to South African motorcycling that stretches far beyond a single event or discipline.

Whether operating on the world stage alongside the biggest names in motocross or deep in the valleys of the Drakensberg supporting everyday riders chasing an unforgettable finish, LIQUI MOLY South Africa showed that its investment extends beyond products and sponsorships.

It is an investment in the people, events and community that continue to drive South African motorcycling forward.

For more information, visit:
LIQUI MOLY South Africa: www.liqui-moly.co.za
IMPI Hard Enduro: www.theimpi.co.za

Some names in motorcycling transcend the products they build. Ducati, Brembo, Öhlins… and Yoshimura.

For South African riders, the return of Yoshimura is more than simply another premium aftermarket exhaust finding its way back onto dealership shelves. Thanks to Sparks Distributing, headed by long-time motorcycle industry figure Steve Theron, one of the most revered names in motorcycle performance is officially back on local soil.

Yet before we talk about titanium exhausts, horsepower gains or that unmistakable Yoshimura growl, it’s worth understanding why this name carries so much weight in the motorcycle world.

It all begins with one man

Hideo “Pop” Yoshimura wasn’t born into racing royalty. Growing up in Fukuoka, Japan, he was called into military service during the Second World War to train as a fighter pilot. Fate, however, had other ideas. A parachute training accident ended his flying ambitions before they truly began, redirecting him towards aircraft maintenance instead. At the time, it must have seemed like a cruel twist of fate. Looking back, it may well have been one of the most important moments in motorcycle history.

Working as an aircraft mechanic gave Yoshimura an extraordinary understanding of precision engineering. When the war ended and Japan began rebuilding itself, motorcycles became an affordable way to get the nation moving again. Companies like Honda transformed former military production into civilian manufacturing, while American servicemen stationed in Japan soon discovered there was one man with an uncanny ability to make their motorcycles faster, smoother and more reliable.

In 1954, with little more than determination, worn-out tools and the support of his wife and children, Pop opened a modest workshop near Tokyo.

There were no CNC machines. No laser cutters. No computer modelling.

Performance was achieved through experience, patience and countless hours spent hand-filing camshafts, reshaping cylinder heads and refining carburettors. If a component could be improved, Pop would find a way to improve it. Before long, his reputation spread far beyond the walls of that tiny workshop.

But Pop’s genius went far beyond simply bolting on a louder exhaust or chasing a few extra horsepower. Every engine that entered his workshop was stripped to its last nut and bolt before being painstakingly rebuilt by hand. Cylinder heads were carefully ported and polished, crankshafts precision-balanced, performance camshafts hand-profiled, and high-compression big-bore kits developed to extract every ounce of performance. His beautifully crafted four-into-one exhaust systems became legendary, but so too did the carburettors, camshafts and engine internals that disappeared beneath the covers. For many enthusiasts, they were mechanical works of art as much as performance parts.

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The real turning point came in 1971 when Yoshimura Racing expanded to Los Angeles just as the four-cylinder Superbike era was beginning to explode. The partnership with Suzuki would become one of the most iconic in motorcycle racing, with Yoshimura helping define an entire generation of high-performance Superbikes and earning victories that cemented its place in motorcycling history.

While researching this feature, I found myself disappearing down a rabbit hole of stories across both Yoshimura Japan and Yoshimura USA. Between the two websites are decades’ worth of race reports, technical articles, historic photographs and interviews, while the company’s YouTube channel documents everything from manufacturing techniques to race weekends. The deeper I looked, the more I realised that trying to identify the defining chapter in Yoshimura’s history is almost impossible.

Because there isn’t one

The company wasn’t built on a single championship, a famous rider, or a revolutionary exhaust system. It was built one race, one motorcycle, one late night in the workshop and one improvement at a time. Every victory, every setback and every drop of sweat shaped the Yoshimura we know today. Perhaps no story captures that spirit better than the fire that nearly destroyed the race shop.

During engine testing, fuel leaked from a makeshift supply tank feeding a dyno engine before igniting. Without hesitation, Pop grabbed the burning fuel tank and carried it outside, suffering severe burns to his hands and arms in the process. With a major race only days away, the workshop had every reason to give up. Instead, inspired by their leader’s determination, the team rebuilt what they could and made the race anyway.

That commitment to never settling became the foundation of Yoshimura’s philosophy. When Pop returned to Japan in 1981, leadership of Yoshimura America passed to his son, Fujio. Following Hideo Yoshimura’s passing in 1995, many expected the company to become another famous name living off its past. Instead, it continued to evolve.

Ironically, it wasn’t until Steve Theron recently sent me a Yoshimura RS-4 system for my Husqvarna Norden 901 that I truly appreciated what makes the brand so special. Before the exhaust had even found its way onto the motorcycle, simply lifting it from the box and studying the beautifully stacked welds, flawless finish, and attention to detail was enough to understand why riders speak about Yoshimura with such reverence. I’ll dive much deeper into the RS-4 in an upcoming unboxing and fitment feature, but it prompted me to ask a much bigger question: what makes a Yoshimura exhaust different?

After watching a video online of Yoshimura’s headquarters in Chino, California, it quickly provided the answer. Excuse me if I get a bit technical and nerdy!

Every exhaust begins with extensive research and development around a single motorcycle model. Rather than designing one system to fit several bikes, each exhaust is engineered specifically for its intended application, with every bend, mounting bracket and internal chamber developed to complement that motorcycle’s engine characteristics and performance goals.

The materials receive the same level of attention. Premium Grade 2 titanium sourced from Japan, carefully selected stainless steel and in-house manufactured carbon fibre are chosen not because they sound impressive in a brochure, but because they meet Yoshimura’s uncompromising standards. Components with even the slightest cosmetic imperfection are discarded rather than repaired.

Modern technology has transformed the manufacturing process. Fibre lasers, CNC tube benders and robotic welding deliver extraordinary precision and consistency, while experienced TIG welders still hand-finish the titanium systems that have become synonymous with the Yoshimura name. Engineers move effortlessly between the fabrication shop and the dyno room, building prototypes, testing them, refining them and repeating the process until every detail is exactly right. Feedback from factory race teams sits alongside dyno data to fine-tune not only horsepower, but throttle response, sound quality and overall rideability.

The tools have changed dramatically since Pop spent evenings hand-filing engine components in a modest Japanese workshop.

The philosophy hasn’t

More than seventy years later, every Yoshimura exhaust still reflects the same belief that made Hideo Yoshimura famous: build the best product possible, never stop improving and let the work speak for itself.

The good news for South African riders is that Yoshimura’s return isn’t limited to just a handful of current models. Through Sparks Distributing, systems and slip-ons are available for an extensive range of motorcycles, from the latest generation of machines right through to icons of years gone by. Whether you’re riding a brand-new adventure bike or a much-loved Suzuki GSX-R1000 K5, chances are there’s still a Yoshimura system designed specifically for your motorcycle.

That, perhaps, says more about the company than anything else. In an industry constantly chasing the next big thing, Yoshimura continues to support the motorcycles that enthusiasts refuse to forget.

As for me, I’ll soon be taking a closer look at the engineering, fitment and riding experience that have made the RS-4 and Yoshimura such an iconic exhaust. But before any of that, I felt it was only right to tell the story behind the badge.

Because long before Yoshimura became one of the most respected names in motorcycling, it was simply one craftsman standing at a workbench, refusing to accept that “good enough” was ever good enough.

Yoshimura exhausts are available in an ever-increasing number of outlets. For details, call Steve Theron on 072 912 4658 or email him at [email protected]

If you head to Bikeshop Rivonia on a Saturday morning, it’s never a wasted journey. Not only do you join the many, many people who make this their Saturday morning destination, whether they’re buying or simply soaking up the atmosphere of hundreds of pristine bikes sitting waiting for their new owners, but you can also enjoy coffee, soft drinks and a boerie roll; the perfect breakfast!

However, if you decide to go to Bikeshop Rivonia on Saturday, 18th and up to Saturday, 25th July, not only will you have all the above benefits, but there will be the added incentive of viewing the very latest Honda models, as the Honda Wing Road Tour makes one of its five Gauteng stops at the showroom.

This is really something very special, and the line-up of bikes that will be both on display and available for demo rides is a once-a-year opportunity; individual dealers might have several of the models available for demo rides, but very few will have all of them. Never has it been easier to get up close and personal with the brilliant Honda range and talk to those in the know about technical details and finance options.

Available throughout the week will be the following models;

• Africa Twin CRF1100
• Africa Twin CRF1100 Adventure Sport
• Transalp XL750
• Hornet CB750
• Hornet CB1000SP
• NC750X
• NX500
• CRF300 Rally
• All-New Honda CB1000GT

Soon to join the Honda Wing Road Tour will be models featuring new Honda E-Clutch Technology, which boasts the world’s first electronic clutch for motorcycles. This technology offers customers effortless starts and stops, smoother gear shifts, and reduced fatigue, while still providing a fully manual experience.

If you can’t get to Bikeshop Rivonia, or you don’t live in Johannesburg, then fear not, as the Honda Wing Road Tour will be visiting the following cities in the coming months (Subject to change): 

• 18 JUL Honda Wing Rivonia
• 1 AUG Honda Wing Pietersburg
• 8 AUG Honda Wing Nelspruit
• 22 AUG Honda Wing Bloemfontein
• 29 AUG Honda Wing Upington
• 5-12 SEPT NAMPO Cape event
• 19 SEP Honda Wing Cape Town / Tygerberg / Worcester
• 3 OCT Honda Wing George
• 17 OCT Honda Wing East Cape
• 7 NOV Honda Wing East London
• 21 NOV Honda Wing RBS Pinetown
• 5 DEC Honda Wing Richard Bay

“The response to last year’s Road Tour was incredible, and we’re excited to bring it back for 2026”, said Riaan Fourie, Head of the Honda Motorcycle Division at Honda Motor Southern Africa. “We have already held our Randburg, Boksburg, Centurion and The Glen Road Tours, which had a great turnout from local riders, who enjoyed their opportunity to ride and experience the latest in the Honda Motorcycle lineup.”

Make sure to take along your licence and a form of ID, not to mention your riding gear (if you need to renew any of your riding gear, don’t forget that Bikeshop Rivonia is also home to a large branch of Bike Kings, who stock absolutely everything you’ll ever need). If you’re heading through on Saturday, take your appetite as well.

For more information on Honda Motorcycles, visit – www.honda.co.za 

How can we have had eleven rounds of the 2026 MotoGP championship already? We’re at the halfway point of the season. The circus has packed up its troubles in its kit bags and headed home for a month-long break, some teams and riders licking their wounds, trying to figure out what’s gone wrong with their season, while others are in a much happier frame of mind, celebrating their good – and perhaps unexpected – fortune.

If there was any doubt about the outcome of the two races in Germany, then history should have told you that it was more than likely that Marc Marquez would win both, the rest of the field engaging in a futile attempt to catch him. Previously, he has won nine MotoGP Grands Prix here, in addition to two Moto2 and one 125 cc GP races. With his Sunday victory, Marquez now matches Giacomo Agostini on ten premier class wins at the same circuit—Agostini’s coming at Imatra, in Finland, one of the circuits that modern riders would probably not even cycle around, let alone race, so dangerous was it by modern standards.

The Sachsenring is no Imatra, but it is still a track where Marquez can almost guarantee victory, stealing a handful of points from his rivals. The big secret to this track is that it runs anti-clockwise, meaning an excess of left-hand corners, which Marquez loves, while it also plays to his injuries in that it puts a lot less pressure on his right shoulder.

The Sachsenring is also a great track to watch MotoGP riders ply their trade, with long, long corners that really work the tyres, and significant changes of elevation. The fast right-hander onto the steep downhill section before the two lefts to take them back onto the pit straight is a corner that really sets the men apart from the boys.

The main point to take from Germany was not the races themselves, which were pretty dull affairs, if we’re honest, but rather the continuing implosion of the factory Aprilia team, which has been happening since Mugello, four rounds ago.

You may remember the beginning of the season, Bezzecchi taking three wins on the trot, before losing three on the trot and then winning one more in Italy, while Jorge Martin did a double at Le Mans in between.

Since then – Hungary, Czechia, Holland and Germany – the factory Aprilia team has only troubled the GP podium once, courtesy of Martin in Assen, with one Sprint podium for Bezzecchi. The Trackhouse Aprilia team in the same period has taken a GP win (Ogura), a Sprint win (Fernandez) and five additional podiums. Bezzecchi hasn’t helped his chances with a disqualification from the Czech GP, crashing out of the Assen GP and an injury in qualifying, ruling him out of the German GP weekend.

And all this time, Marc Marquez has been defying his injuries to take a double in Hungary, a GP victory in Brno and another double in Germany. What was once a 102-point deficit to Bezzecchi is now an 18-point deficit to championship leader Martin, with Bezzecchi now behind him and Ogura only four points in front!

With a four-week break in which to recover full fitness in his right shoulder, and given his relentless presence at the front of the grid and in the results, nothing is standing in Marquez’s way of an eighth title. Yes, Martin is leading the championship, and Ogura has plenty of momentum, not to mention Fernandez and DiGiannantonio in the mix, but there is just something inexorable about Marquez’s progress and his rivals’ crumbling in front of his eyes.

What is also evident is the change in his attitude on race day. If he has no chance of winning, rather than throwing himself down the road in an attempt to achieve the impossible, he’ll play the percentage game and take the points, preferring to bide his time for when the pendulum swings back in his favour, such as Germany. Injury has added yet another weapon to his armoury – patience – and his rivals should be worried; a Marc Marquez using his head as well as his talent is very dangerous.

In Germany, not once did Marquez look like he was pushing any envelope, the mild crash in FP1 notwithstanding. He did what was necessary and nothing more. In the unlikely event he was running second or third, you get the impression he would have settled for that – especially knowing that Bezzecchi was out before the racing began – rather than risking all to make up a place.

Another interesting thing about Marquez’s success (and DiGiannantonio’s and Alex Marquez’s, for that matter) is Bagnaia’s failure to achieve the same results with the same bike. His move to Aprilia surely can’t come soon enough for the two-time world champion. It’s not that long ago that he was challenging for the title (2024, against Martin) or winning back-to-back titles (2022 and 2023), which must make his form in 2025 and 2026 even harder to bear, especially when his teammate and the satellite riders are winning races and titles on the same machinery.

Meanwhile, it’s all happening at KTM! For the second time in his career, Maverick Viñales is torpedoing his chances of staying with the team, while KTM itself is admitting there is something very wrong internally with its engine.

Viñales was once looking good on the KTM, getting results that the other riders could only wish for and being seemingly a shoo-in for the factory KTM team for 2027. Then came injury and a really protracted recovery, which sidelined him – and continues to do so – followed by a series of remarkable outbursts against Tech3 and KTM. First, he claims he signed a contract with the team that was then rescinded, not that he really wanted to sign it in the first place. That provoked the comment, “I don’t want to stay here. This was not really serious from their part.”

Then he claims he has been promised one thing – a seat at the factory team – only for that to be withdrawn, with a potential seat at Tech3 replacing it. He also claims there was a clause in his KTM contract preventing him from negotiating with other teams, which he respected, only for KTM not to honour its promises to promote him to the factory team, leaving him no time to find another seat.

Meanwhile, KTM has insisted that it has done everything to help Viñales recover from injury and has seemingly forgiven him for the outbursts, which must be largely due to frustration at his own situation. However, the manufacturer is bound to look after its future and, in the face of Viñales’ continuing injury issues, had no choice but to look elsewhere to fill the factory and satellite team seats.

We may yet see Viñales on a bike next year – there is no doubt he is still a very good rider – but, boy, is he emotional! Look at the end of his Yamaha period, and now history is repeating itself at KTM. If he doesn’t feel loved, he throws his toys out of the cot, and that’s not going to endear him to many teams.

For its part, KTM has admitted that there is a problem with its engine, which has had consequences on track, not least of which was Acosta’s issue in Spain that caused him to slow suddenly and catch Alex Marquez out, leading to his huge accident.

Given that engine design and upgrades have been frozen since the beginning of 2025, the problem likely lies with manufacture or supply, as the problems didn’t exist in 2025, but KTM needs clearance from all rival manufacturers to unseal the engines to investigate and replace parts. Aprilia has consented, but it is not known what response the other teams have given.

Happily, KTM announced a renewal of the Red Bull sponsorship for 2027 and beyond, which is as good an indication as any that the manufacturer will be part of the MotoGP scene for the foreseeable future. Watching a race from the 1990s the other day, I was struck by the number of bikes on the grid – way more than the 22 we have today (although a lot of those in the ‘90s would have been privateers with little or no chance of troubling the podium) – and it brought home that we might have less bikes today but the level of skill from front to back is much more consistent. However, MotoGP can’t afford to lose any bikes from the grid if the series is to remain healthy.

For some teams – Yamaha, Honda and KTM – the complete reset that will be 2027 can’t come soon enough. Don’t forget also that it is going to be a reset in more ways than one; the bikes will change, of course, but also there will be a huge change in the rider market, making 2027 one of the biggest shake-ups of the status quo in the history of the sport. I can’t wait for that, but until then, let’s enjoy the second half of this mesmerising season, after a short pause to catch our collective breath.