On Throttle New Zealand

Photos by Greg Smith @ ikapture While Europe has had the pleasure for what feels like months, the wait is finally over and Yamaha’s naked MT litre bike hero - the MT-10 has made its way to godzone. I jumped on a plane to the Sunshine Coast with Yamaha New Zealand to not only try out the MT-10, but also sample it’s smaller capacity stablemates on the roads surrounding the proposed Sunshine Coast Tourist Trophy course. Yamaha Australia’s national communications manager , Sean Goldhawk, said the now complete MT range is “a step up strategy, we want to get them young and keep them for life.” It’s definitely a move in the right direction as the naked segment is easily the most accessible for new riders. Thanks to the easy to get on with ergonomics a full range of naked bikes definitely makes sense considering we all get the urge to upgrade to bigger and better bikes after a time. The MT-10 is the pinnacle of the Yamaha’s MT range and is de...

Pulled aside into an empty meeting room by Driven’s editor, Liz Dobson, I thought I was in deep trouble. You never know what to expect when the boss asks to speak with you privately, and if TV is anything to go by, it is rarely good. Thankfully for me, this wasn’t a TV show, and the reason for the little private chat was pretty exciting. An invitation to represent Driven at the international launch of the Maserati Levante in Italy. After checking with the boss at home that she would be okay for me to ditch her for a week to fly to the other side of the world I started the usual paperwork for all international travel. Then it hit me. Italy, famous for pasta, pizza, and cheese, isn’t exactly the destination you head to when you are both gluten and dairy intolerant.    Airline travel is usually hit and miss when it comes to catering for my challenging dietary requirements, especially when you’re not the one doing the bookings as is the case for all the trips we do a...