Review Summary If you want the ultimate incarnation of BMW’s boxer engine with no expenses spared, then this is it....
JoinedMarch 31, 2021
Articles90
“ Andrew was born and raised in Australia on a diet of CARtoons comics, farm bikes and far too many Mad Max movies. In 2009 he rolled his sleeves up and spent the next 10 years turning an anonymous Squarespace website into the popular Pipeburn.com custom bike blog. He now owns and operates Machines That Dream, a Sydney-based Auto and Moto Media company. Look out for his new coffee table book, “The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride - A Decade of Dapper” available on Amazon now.”
Review Summary The Moto Guzzi N100 Mandello S is an all-new, top-shelf sports tourer for the Moto Guzzi brand that...
Review Summary As the second-best scooter in Yamaha’s range, the XMAX 300 isn’t crazy flashy or completely packed full of tech gadgets, but it’s also a very capable bike with enough power to make it fun outside the city and on the freeway too Like its TMAX older sibling, the...
Review Summary The R18 Roctane takes the base model R18’s classic looks and incredible engine and adds an unhealthy dose...
Review Summary The Tracer 7 Is a very capable, very well designed all-rounder, or “Sport Tourer” that’s based on Yamaha’s...
It was touch and go there for a while, but it seems like we’re out the other side and able to look back at the whole damn mess with 20/20 hindsight. The one thing I didn’t expect to get out of the nightmare was an appreciation of just how much...
While it sometimes has its ups and downs, the American motorcycle market shines like a golden beacon to the world’s...
I recently saw a Japanese car customiser that had taken a Ferrari F40 and “stanced” it like you would with...
Review Summary Don’t be fooled – the Aprilia Tuono 660 Factory and its parallel twin power plant may look like a bike that is aimed at younger, less experienced riders but get it into the top half of its rev range and it’s more like a 600cc Japanese sportbike that...
Review Summary The R 18 is a superlative cruiser, but the engine is the star of the show here. It’s...
When I tell my Sydney mates that travelling around Europe shooting custom motorcycles for a major bike manufacturer is hot,...
Now in its 12th year, France’s Wheels & Waves festival is arguably the world’s premier classic and custom bike event. For those whose attention may have been elsewhere for the last decade-and-a-bit, allow me to explain. Held in the always beautiful Biarritz in the South of France, the summer event...
Review Summary If you’re tempted by the S 1000 RR but the typical sportbike seating position makes you worry you’ll...
Review Summary The R 1250 R takes the already amazing water-cooled, variable valve GS boxer engine and puts it to...
Review Summary Clearly a bike at the very top of its category, the 2023 BMW S 1000 RR – as with its older siblings – is a safe bet for anyone with the desire to go faster than most road rules or skill sets will allow. It’d also be an...
Ever heard of a “cool down lap?” It’s the circuit you do of a racetrack on your bike between trying...
In 2016 I took my young Aussie family to Disneyland in California. After we’d spent way too much money on...
We take it for granted that 99% of our motorcycles’ headlights are always on, but how did we get here and what’s the history of the motorcycle headlight before we “lost the switch”? Also, what is the difference between hardwired-on headlights and daytime running lights? And what about cars like...
Review Summary Royal Enfield’s latest motorcycle is arguably also their best-ever and clearly shows their global market ambitions; it’s also...
Review Summary As BMW’s top-shelf, boxer engine-powered sports tourer, the R 1250 RS impresses with a mix of great looks,...
It’s 2011 and I’m on track at Sydney’s Eastern Creek Raceway on my new Suzuki GSX-R. Not a spring chicken any more and painfully aware (pun fully intended) that I needed to experience a properly fast bike before my old man body threw in the towel for good, I’d dropped...
Progress is a funny thing. Sometimes the best ideas fall in a heap and the things you were so sure...
Anyone with even the smallest skerrick of passion for motorcycles will understand the attraction of vintage bikes. Be it their...
Review Summary As an unofficial replacement for the brand’s legendary FJR1300, the new-for-2023 Tracer 9 GT is a supremely capable bike that somehow manages to take the brilliantly hooligan CP3 triple engine found in their fabbo XSR-900 retro sportsbike and integrates it into a multi-purpose sports tourer without the whole...
Review Summary BMW’s Motorrad’s first electric bike offering has stunning looks, plenty of options and all the bells and whistles....
Image by Machines That Dream Back in the Noughties, when cafe racers were all the rage and the global custom...
Review Summary The 2023 Yamaha YZF-R15M has a raft of racing goodies including a variable cam profile, quick shifter, slipper clutch, traction control, USD forks and two channel ABS. Made in India and designed for the local and South East Asian markets, its tiny 155cc engine punches well above its...
Review Summary The TMAX Tech MAX is Yamaha’s top shelf maxi-scooter with all the mod cons including primo suspension, a...
When I put my hand up to write a piece about EICMA 2022, I foolishly assumed that as with pretty...
Review Summary The 2022 Royal Enfield Scram 411 is a keenly-priced and very capable bike that’s light and heaps of fun to ride. There’s lots of great colour options, too. It comes with the “Tripper Pod”, which basically means you have Google Maps giving you turn-by-turn directions right there on...
Review Summary The 2022 Yamaha MT-10 SP offers ample power and tons of rider aides in a comfortable and eye-catching...
Next time you see some dinky little beginner’s bike, pit bike, pocket bike or el-cheapo Chinese knock-off that makes you...
What’s that old adage about making something more attractive by telling someone they can’t have it? Well, if ever there was a perfect example of that thinking, it’s two-strokes. Deemed redundant by an army of naysayers—including the motorcycle racing fraternity themselves—they were meant to go the way of the dinosaurs....
Last month’s little ditty on on-road two-stokes was just the start. And while we love us some asphalt action, there’s...
Easy Rider. Motorcycle Diaries. World’s Fastest Indian. These same old, same old movies always seem to be included in top...
The picture I’ve placed above is an interesting one. For those not in the know, it’s an image from the “MotoGP Lean Angle Experience.” Long story short, it allows regular punters like you and I to experience what it’s like to lean at a purported 64°, just like our collective...
If you’re a child of the ’70s and ’80s like me, your first experience of motorcycle ice racing will probably...
What’s that old adage about making something more attractive by telling someone they can’t have it? Well, if ever there...
It’s just after WWI in sunny England, and you’re absolutely gagging to go motorcycle racing. In modern times, this sort of exciting activity is pretty well catered to in most western countries, but back then, things weren’t so developed when it came to going fast on a motorcycle. Sure, you...
It’s all too easy to spend your days surfing the web looking at amazing and priceless old motorcycles with a...