Welcome...

…to a world of naked bikes. BMW’S GS might be the best-selling bike in the UK but as a category, naked, unfaired bikes are the default setting for British bikers. It’s easy to see why; as a rule, they work better and deliver more sense of involvement at the speeds we’re forced to ride at on this congested isle.

I’ve had a wonderful month riding all manner of nakeds but my favourite is Yamaha’s brilliant-value MT-07; plucky, spirited and with a motor that’s overflowing with flexibility, for most of us it’s all the bike we need, if we’re honest with ourselves. I even preferred it to Kawasaki’s’ deranged, 200-horse Z H2. You can read the story on p48.