Motorcycle Sport & Leisure May 2020

SOUTH AFRICA

This his is how to ride all year round in style T

TRIUMPH TIGER 900

BMW S1000XR

Sportsbike slayer on the loose

26 PAGES of TRAVEL FROM WALES TO USA

þ More power þ Smarter electronics þ Less weight

INDIAN FTR1200S VS DUCATI MONSTER 1200S Can the plucky new US challenger take on the Italian king of the hill?

May 2020 Issue 716

Contents

PAY LESS

Get the original & best bike magazine every month

P28

18 NEWS & OPINION: 7

News

46

Kit guide

16

Maynard Hershon

58

The High Sider

26

Latest products

What’s been going on in motorcycling this month.

28

34

Our American friend is closer to solving the running issues of his bike.

All you need to know about retro leather jackets.

Putting the Sport in Sport & Leisure

TOURING & ADVENTURE 60

Touring news

Save £££ and get the magazine before it’s in the shops.

62

Day ride

Your letters

66

Mid ride

These products got us excited this month.

Subscription offer

MSL readers talk all things biking, with a chance to win a prize, too.

86

Riding across Africa on an electric bike.

Heading for Snowdon in Wales, part 2..

From Nordkapp back to Blighty – on a Tuono.

48 70

Long ride

76

Richard Millington

78

The VINCE

82

History Boy

86

Riding the Garden Route

93

One of the most iconic rides there is – Route 66.

All we really need is a bit of kindness.

Navigation challenge on motorcycles like you’ve never seen before.

This time our young ride location scout takes us Stateside.

Part one of our epic trip to South Africa’s famous roads (and dirt).

Events

The best biking events this month.

May 2020 EDITOR: Mikko Nieminen mnieminen@mortons.co.uk DESIGNERS: Charlotte Turnbull, Fran Lovely PRODUCTION EDITOR: Mike Cowton PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Dan Savage PUBLISHER: Tim Hartley

TEST FLEET 102 Honda Africa Twin Bertie opens the season with the big adventurer from the big H.

106 Yamaha Niken

Mossy discovers the service cost of the Niken.

108 Moto Guzzi V85TT

Nathan has new wheels. Is this the beginning of something beautiful?

10

ROAD TESTS 10

Is this the bike to fill the void left by sportsbikes?

18

Triumph Tiger 900

30

Kawasaki Z H2

38

48

78

BMW S1000XR

SUBSCRIPTION: Full subscription rates (but see page 28 for offer): (12 months 12 issues, inc post and packing) – UK £52.80. Export rates are also available – see page 28 for more details.

UK subscriptions are zero-rated for the purposes of Value Added Tax. SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS: Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR CUSTOMER SERVICES NUMBER: 01507 529529 TELEPHONE LINES ARE OPEN: MONDAY-FRIDAY 8.30AM-5PM

The middleweight adventurer is bigger and better than before.

What is a supercharged naked bike like? We find out.

Moto Morini Milano

Alan Cathcart swings a leg over something quite special.

Naked ambition

We test Indian FTR1200S & Ducati Monster 1200S head to head.

96

GROUP KEY ACCOUNTS MANAGER: Steff Woodhouse: swoodhouse@mortons.co.uk 01507 529452 / 07786 334330 GROUP ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sue Keily ADVERTISING SALES: Charlotte Mountain: cmountain@mortons.co.uk 01507 529538 SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER: Paul Deacon: pdeacon@mortons.co.uk CIRCULATION MANAGER: Steve O’Hara: sohara@mortons.co.uk MARKETING MANAGER: Charlotte Park: cpark@mortons.co.uk COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Nigel Hole EDITORIAL ADDRESS: MSL Magazine, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6JR WEBSITE: www.mslmagazine.co.uk GENERAL QUERIES AND BACK ISSUES: 01507 529529 24 hr answerphone help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk ARCHIVE ENQUIRIES: Jane Skayman jskayman@mortons.co.uk 01507 529423

KNOWLEDGE 94

Knowledge

96

Best of the decade

Helmet safety regs are changing.

Here’s what’s new.

Roland Brown takes a look at the highs and lows of the decade that was.

110 Buyer's guide

DISTRIBUTION: Marketforce UK Ltd, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HU. 0203 787 9001.

PRINTED: William Gibbons & Sons, Wolverhampton The publisher accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. If you are sending material to us for publication, you are strongly advised to make copies and to include a stamped addressed envelope. Original material must be submitted and will be accepted solely on the basis that the author accepts the assessment of the publisher as to its commercial value. © Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISSN: 1478-8390 MOTORCYCLE SPORT & LEISURE (USPS:001-522) is published monthly by Mortons Media Group Ltd, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincolnshire LN9 6LZ UK. USA subscriptions are $66 per year from Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. Periodical Postage is paid at Bancroft WI and additional entries.

Postmaster: Send address changes to MOTORCYCLE SPORT & LEISURE, c/o Motorsport Publications LLC, 7164 Cty Rd N #441, Bancroft WI 54921. 715-572-4595 chris@ classicbikebooks.com

Triumph Scrambler 900 is iconic and affordable.

117 Tried & tested

We try it, so you know whether to buy it.

122 Kevin Cameron

MSL’s resident tech genius examines horsepower and chassis power.

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Test Ride Triumph Tiger 900

TIGER TIGER,, BURNING BRIGHTER

Triumph’s new pair of top-spec Tiger 900s combine more power and smarter electronics with subtly revised three-cylinder character. We ride the Tiger 900 GT Pro and Rally Pro in Morocco to discover whether they earn their stripes WORDS: Roland Brown PHOTOGRAPHY: Kingdom Creative (Chippy Wood and Gareth Harford)

LAUNCH

T

he dashboard clock is reading 10.30am, the low sun is shining brightly but without much warmth from my right, and there’s a familiar view of desert sand and rocks reaching out towards distant High Atlas mountains. But my situation aboard Triumph’s new Tiger 900 is very different to the one I experienced at this time yesterday.

I’m sitting on a red-tanked GT Pro, following Triumph’s lead rider on a lightly populated highway towards Marrakesh. I’m occasionally finetuning the cruise control to maintain my distance, glad that I’ve got heated grips and seat to offset the chilly February wind. It’s a typical touring scenario and the road-biased flagship of the firm’s new Tiger 900 family is proving fast and stable, quiet and comfortable, thanks to its respectably generous wind protection and host of electronic features.

This time yesterday morning I was riding a Tiger 900 in similar sunshine but very different circumstances –

standing up on the pegs of a whiteframed Rally Pro model, flicking between second and third through the quick-shift enabled box, occasionally feeling the knobbly rear Pirelli slide controllably out of tight, sandy turns as I followed Dakarveteran lead rider Alex on a narrow trail. The speeds weren’t high, but the pace was brisk and it was a stern test that the top dirt-oriented model of the new Tiger family was coping with very well.

Those two very different scenarios highlight the range of ability required by a mid-capacity adventure bike, and explain why Triumph has had two distinct family lines since entering the class with the Tiger 800 and 800XC in 2011. Since then the tall triple has had two updates, but the Tiger 900 designation confirms that this is the big one – comprising a larger-capacity, 888cc engine and re-designed chassis plus a level of features and electronic sophistication that is arguably unmatched in the class.

Test Ride

R E P U S R E S S O R C wants g in h t y r has eve o h w n a m e that a ik b f o d e kin This is th Moto Morini Milano

N

WORDS: Alan Cathcart PHOTOGRAPHY: Kel Edge

ot long ago, Italy’s small, but historic Moto Morini brand was in the last chance saloon, aka the bankruptcy courts, as yet another victim of the 2008 GFC crash. But it now belongs to Asian entrepreneur Chen Huaneng, Chairman/CEO of privately owned Chinese manufacturer Zhongneng, who’s currently working on the first two Moto Morini middleweight models – a Naked roadster and a Street Scrambler, both powered by Chinese-built 650cc parallel-twin motors. Meanwhile, production continues in Moto Morini’s Trivolzio factory near Milan of its range of large-cube models powered by the unique 1187cc 87º V-twin CorsaCorta engine designed by Franco Lambertini.

In between times, in 2011 Moto Morini was purchased from the liquidator by two Milan-based investors, one of whom took over sole ownership of the company five years later. Thereafter, Moto Morini continued its steady ride along the o comeback trail with Ruggeromassimo o Jannuzzelli, 59, at the helm, thanks to whom it survived long enough for Zhongneng to acquire it, and for Jannuzzelli to come out ahead from his time in charge. Moreover, that also provided ongoing employment for Morini’s 13-strong workforce at its small, but well-equipped plant near Pavia, in the risotto rice fields 12 miles south of Milan, who produced 190 motorcycles in 2018.

Mostly, these were hand-built examples of the latest ZZ and ZT variants of the Corsaro streetfighter.

38 Motorcycle Sport & Leisure – established 1962

ROAD

www.mslmagazine.co.uk 39

Test Ride

NAKED AMBITION TIO

Indian has high hopes for its FTR1200S, so how does the US challenger fare against the Monster 1200S, Italy’s yardstick for unfaired sporting V-twins?

WORDS: Roland Brown PHOTOGRAPHY: Gary Chapman

LONG-TERM REVIEW

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