‘Long evening rides and deviations on the ride home from work…’

The sensations of summer; insects splattering themselves onto the visor of an Arai, the smell of haymaking wafting across the hedgerows, the coolness of a freshly filled fuel tank between your legs, the feel of handlebar grips through lightweight gloves, hot, grippy tarmac, the surprising and satisfying grind of a hero blob on tarmac. It feels like it’s been ages coming…

Long evening rides and gratuitous deviations on the ride home from work, the aroma of methanol and fried onions at a speedway meeting, the sun on your neck when you’re working on a bike in the yard, the distant drone of an inline four on an Akrapovic, the taste of that glorious post-ride beer. Outside. In the beer garden.

The clang, and then the whine of a winch as the ferry docks and the deck door opens onto foreign soil and an adventure really begins. Or an ice cream at Hunstanton/poole/rhyll (delete where not applicable). Blobbed up rubber on sticky tyres, a perfectly executed corner, then the frustration of a missed apex. Roundabouts ridden with gusto. The shocking sensation of Hickman, Harrison, Dunlop or any other TT hero passing, inches from your face, on a superfast section of the Isle of Man course. Or, if you didn’t make it to The Island, earphones in, at your desk, listening to live race coverage, ‘and now over to Roy Moore at Ramsey Hairpin,’ on Manx TT Radio.

So far my summer is living up nicely to these expectations. I can think of little better than waking up in the campsite next to The Tan Hill Inn, north Yorkshire. After a great ride the previous day and the glorious evening that followed (and let’s gloss over the issue of the missing keys) the prospect of another day’s entertainment in Yorkshire sprawled before me. Story page 30. Further tastes of summer are provided by Triumph’s revelatory Speed Twin on B-road and dyno. The data doesn’t lie, page 40. By now you would think that every amazing TT picture has been taken, yet Dave Collister continues to drop jaws, p53. Sportsbikes on roundabouts… remember that. 600s make a comeback on page 62, while Gary Inman and Geoff Cain tackle 1000 non-stop British miles on Kawasaki’s H2 SX SE+, p78.

Enjoy the issue.