The problem with anything that does something practical is that it will eventually need to be improved, right? To prove my point, let’s flick back the years and revisit Hitler and his ‘toys’ for example. As he carved through Europe, dispelling all in his path, he did so with and because of vastly superior machinery – for a while anyway. The Battle of Britain was a prime example when his ME-109s were the fighter planes to have, until the British unleashed their Spitfire and totally pissed off the Luftwaffe, and his twitching ‘tash became, well, less twitchy. Hurrah, hurrah, and all that. But my point here, if there is one, is that machine development has to come from the people who are involved around them and use them, and this is most certainly the case with the new Yamaha 2014 XT1200ZE Super Ténéré, which is not necessarily for military use but would eagerly accept the appointment I’m sure.

words by Clinton Pienaar 

Ducati’s hugely popular muscle bike, the Diavel, receives a few updates, with the main one being the inclusion of the firm’s new 1198cc Testastretta 11° DS engine and an exhaust system, which boosts torque and smoothens the delivery.

I’ve recently been obsessed with Japanese culture thanks to ‘YouView’ and my unlimited bandwidth. Japan is definitely a country of “Masters” that are driven to create perfection, be it swords, fighting styles, cars, techno gadgets, neon signage and, of course, motorcycles. So with the recent release of the 2014 Yamaha T-Max 530 it made me wonder if this machine is just a massive and slightly vulgar scooter, or yet another masterpiece from the land of the rising sun.