This is first of a series of blog posts in which I am excited to share with you some of the most entertaining motovloggers in the world.
These are a few of the Best Motorbike YouTube channels that bring me the most motorcycling related pleasure & entertainment, even when I am not on two wheels.
We all have favourites, and part of my reason for writing these moto vlogger reviews is to change my fellow riders first response from being, “Who is the Missenden Flyer” to instead being, “I checked out The Missenden Flyer and loved it!”.
Some of these You Tubers are not the biggest names in the business (in fact I am deliberately leaving out the really ‘big names’. (CycleWorld, Motorcyclist Magazine, FortNine, and MCN Motorcyclenews are all excellent sources of information so please do check them out if you’ve never heard of them!)
For me, watching Moto-blogging is a personal experience, you get to accompany someone for a ride, and hear their thoughts and musings as they take you on a journey with them.
It would be fantastic to hear your comments at the bottom of this article, so please do leave your thoughts on the Missenden Flyer, or suggest your favorite small moto vlogger that you would like me to check out!?
Regular readers of my blog will know that I believe part of the journey of being a motorcyclist, is constant learning, coupled with thrill seeking enjoyment but held together with a healthy dose of common sense – and I think each of the YouTube channels that I will review in this series of blogs post, all tick some of these boxes too!
We start with … The Missenden Flyer
I’ve been watching The Missenden Flyer (Andy / TMF) for around 3 years and would describe his channel as having a gentleman’s passion for everything to do with motorbikes, all wrapped up in a very strong ‘common sense’ approach focused around the on-road rider.
The videos that the channel is mainly known for, are straight forward ‘bike reviews’, in which Andy usually give us his positive “real world” commentary and thoughts of his ride. TMF appears to wrangle loan bikes for a few days (or a few hours) by thanking his local dealership with a simple mention on his video! The review format changes slightly depending on how long he has the bike for, with the long term loans/reviews obviously being the most detailed and informative. These usually include indicative cost of ownership, turning circle test, economy, riding at night, comfort etc etc. Overall I highly rate his reviews because of the common sense (‘every man’) approach giving the viewer the information actually needed to determine how a bike might behave in the real world, under normal riding conditions.
The Missenden Flyer is also fortunate enough to have a stunning collection of machines in his own garage, including a Ducati, two Triumphs, a Royal Enfield and his beloved BMW GS. He uses his own fleet between not having a loan bike to review and when he’s not flying around the world on tours! Having his own personal fleet allows him to publish really interesting long term reviews and ride videos on this broad range of machines, including interesting parts installations/upgrade videos (though fitting the simplest parts usually cause him an inexplicable (but hilarious) challenge).
More recently TMF has used his success to help fund some trips to fantastic destinations across the globe, (helped also by being in some kind of mutual advertising relationship with a motorbike tour firm called ‘Toro Adventures’.) Though for me, the best tour video series he has completed was The Artic Circle by BMW GS . A delight of stunning scenery and good company. Personally I think he should tour England and Ireland more! [The Wild Atlantic Way route would suit him (and his YouTube channel) perfectly, but he would have to include the Giants Causeway!]
Some his most interesting videos has been one to one interviews ; his growing subscriber count has afforded access to the infamous Allen Millyard and most recently the stunning Noraly, of “Itchy Boots” ! )
At the time of writing, Andy’s channel has experienced relatively fast growth in the last year or so; and being a Patreon of his channel has given me some insights into both the challenges and positives that rapid expansion has brought.
Some of his best material, in my opinion, are those videos where he is genuinely enjoying himself (for example he made a short lived series of videos where he took “viewers rides” out for a review, coupled with a really interesting interview in the garage afterwards!) Let’s not also forget his series called ‘Biker Scran with Geoff and Dan’ – where he meets up with his biker friends and samples the finest little biker cafes around mid England.
Worthy of note that Andy also introduced me to Lamp-Chops rides (see further below)!
On top of all the above, TheMissendenFlyer “flyer” derives from the fact he is an amateur pilot – go check his channel and you’ll find a few videos where he takes us up with him in his light aircraft! Overall, incredibly interesting – check him out and tell him SmartMotoryclingGuide.com sent you!
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