EDog200, an Australian YouTube acquaintance of ours, has himself a new toy. A skilled rider and a fanatic motorcycle videographer, here’s his impression of the 2012 KTM 300 EXC.

The Ducati Diavel has stormed through the curves and canyons of the Crow’s Nest Highway between Princeton and Hope, until I’ve caught a seven Harley procession riding in staggered formation… again. As an experiment I cruise with the group for a time — nearly minutes. An opening in traffic and the Diavel launches past in a gale of carbon fiber violence. I’m unsure of the Diavel’s taxonomy, but this is clear; it is not a cruiser.

Motorcycles can be a summary of a corporation’s collective psychology, and in that case BMW’s latest super-touring fraternal twins, the K1600GT and K1600GTL, can be summed up as daring. Though, as you hunt down sport-boy on the R1, he glancing in the rear view mirror and catching a glimpse of your fully bagged ultra-opulent 1649cc, 160hp, 129lb-ft of torque, weapon of choice may sum it up as, “WTF?!?”

The KTM 690 Enduro R should need no introduction; it has been around for a while hasn’t it? But, this particular Enduro R does merit a few words, because this is MY KTM 690 Enduro R, which is something entirely different. That’s because I test bikes, over 150 of them at last count, but when it came time to sign on the dotted line I chose the KTM 690 Enduro R. And it’s ruined me.

After hefting the Honda Varaderos through the Baja, I came to a conclusion – I hate big bikes in sand. Of course, taking the back way out of Slab City is what you’d expect of a desert; sand and deep sand at that. The surprise? Perhaps, we’ve been too quick in dubbing Ducati’s Multistrada 1200 S Touring “the Princess”.

72 Hours, 3 days; waiting in anticipation it can seem an eternity, but three days to ride from Vancouver to Los Angeles? That can seem all too brief. And the deadline? The will call at the Wiltern for a sold out concert of Florence and the Machine. Conspiring against me the scheduling deities are cramming the ride with a border crossing, two business meetings, and pesky biological needs; eating, sleeping and washroom all taking time from a 2,048 kilometer direct route. So, it’s Neil and the Machine, a R1200GS Adventure, versus Florence and the Machine.

A Porsche Boxter crawls by, and it’s immediately clear where the F800R got its flat-brap soundtrack; the German idea of fast. It’s not the beguiling song, sonic drama or a whining in-line four soundtrack, the BMW F800R’s rasp of sensibility grating against its Urban attack visual design. Its hard angles rendered in slight curves, truculent looks wrapped around new-rider usability and cornering expectations coupled to linear stability. The F800R is a rolling contradiction, that works in a miraculously rideable way.

In the conclusion of the Baja: Tropic of Cancer series, Kevin and Neil reach their destination in Baja, Mexico. They also reach some conclusions about their long term Honda Varaderos.

While the Yamaha’s Fazer family has been a European mainstay since 1998, it’s still relatively new in Canada. For 2011 Yamaha has delivered the FZ8, a bike that owes much to its bigger and more brutish sibling the FZ1, and surprisingly little to the defunct FZ6. That positions the bike to be novice and intermediate rider friendly, so it needs to be both frisky (or even occasionally ferocious) and friendly all at once.

In Part 1 of our two part Multistrada 1200 S review we examined the bikes Urban and Touring modes. This instalment we unleash Sport mode and take the Multistrada 1200S onto BC’s fire roads before making our conclusions.

Purported to be a bike of “endless transformations” the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring aims to be the biking answer to all riders, but beyond the one-size fits all ethos does the new Multi live up to the hype? In Part 1 of our two part review we examine Urban and Touring modes to find out.

I’m shooting through the corners on a vicious tide of acceleration, noise and quick gratuitous gear changes. An angry right hand sees the bike smash towards the horizon as time dilates like a once cool Matrix special effect. The Ducati Streetfighter 1098 willingly responds, launching me into the next penal code with a twitch of remorseless unforgiving throttle. With the first ride there’s no doubt that Streetfighter doesn’t mean naked or softer; this is a superbike… stripped.

Suzuki has divorced the name “Bandit” for the GSX1250FA, much as it has the GSX650F, untying the bike from what has become a lineage of bland visual design and daily commuter associations. Then the Japanese brand went a step further and gave the FA a GSX-R fairing treatment and headlight, so the response at first glance from those at a recent group ride was, “I thought you were bringing the Bandit.”

In his counter point to the Arctic Challenge, Joe Lloyd argues that in our rush to embrace the bigger is better marketing message, many riders are too quick to overlook the lighter cheaper bikes that hooked us on adventure riding in the first place. Case in point, the Suzuki DR650.

In Part 2 of the Arctic Challenge the BMW F800GS, R1200GS Adventure and KTM 990 Adventure take to the dirt as we try to find the king of the adventure hill, in our survey of the three most asked about adventure bikes for 2009.

Three top-notch adventure bikes, the KTM 990 Adventure BMW R1200GS Adventure and BMW F800GS and it all comes down to the Dempster Highway – seven hundred and thirty-six kilometers of dirt, clay, mud, shale and gravel… The perfect environment for the ultimate adventure comparison.

Costa Mouzouris brings us the 2010 Ducati Hypermotard 796 Launch Report from Bologna, Italy, enjoying the European roads and a bit of a shower.

Why? Why did I forsake the litre-bike? Why did I wait so long to begrudgingly throw a leg over the 2009 GSX-R 1000? True, I thought I’d grown up making litre-bike immaturity a thing of my past, and that I’d moved on to more upright and relaxed rides. Then the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 proved me utterly and completely wrong.