10/15/23
I’m writing this while traveling home from a place I cannot divulge where I rode a motorcycle I cannot name. Soon enough, Cycle World will publish an exclusive first ride review of this new motorcycle, but until then all I can say is, “Stay tuned.” CW has a long history of exclusive first rides and exclusive first looks. Our position as the most trusted publication in the motorcycle press gives us the opportunity to not only receive invitations to ride or see new motorcycles before anyone else, but have the ability to make those tests happen no matter where and when we need to go.
Looking back at exclusives we've been a part of, it’s impressive to see the access we are afforded. Like the time CW’s Editor-at-Large Blake Conner went to Italy to ride a preproduction Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello. Not only was he one of the first (a German magazine and Italian magazine got the golden ticket as well) to lay eyes on the bike, he spent the day putting it through its paces to let the Cycle World readers know what to expect from the all-new model.
In 2016, i’s Technical Editor Kevin Cameron flew to Burgdorf, Switzerland, to visit Polaris-Swissauto to see and hear Indian’s FTR750 flat-track race engine before heading to Indian Motorcycle’s Minneapolis, Minnesota, HQ to look and the chassis as part of a series of exclusive technical previews of the FTR750 racer. Later, we also got a ride on the FTR1200 Custom, which preceded the launch of the FTR 1200.
Nearly a year before the V100 Mandello, I scored the same exclusivity with a first ride of Aprilia’s Tuareg 660. While the Tuareg I rode was not as far down the development road as the V100 Mandello Conner rode, I was able to ascertain that the third 660 in Aprilia’s quiver was going to be a stunner, and it is.
We look forward to even more exclusive tests, but right now, I need to get back to writing about this latest machine that you will learn about soon. Look for my words in just a couple of weeks.
As always, there’s more than we can fit into this email. Check out cycleworld.com for additional tests, reviews, and news.
Ride on,
Justin Dawes
Executive Editor
