Moto News 2025: Scrambler 400XC, New Triumph & BMW Color, & More!

Welcome back, everybody, to another news post of our weekly Moto News Update, where this time, we’ll round up some new 2026 paint schemes from Triumph, new paint for Buell, and new paint on a Yamaha race bike.

Then BMW have also released some new color options for their lineup too. And we’ve also got the full details of Honda’s new CUV-E. There’s some news around some stricter measures coming into play for MOTs here in the UK. Then we’ve got new lids from Arai and Shoei.

Harley get hit with a huge fine in Japan. We’ve got the latest on Enfield’s sales figures. And we’ll round off this week with a look at a very special bike from Brough and watchmakers Richard Mille.

Triumph Scrambler 400 XC

Triumph

Speed 400

White/Black + Gold Stripe

Modern classic vibe

Triumph

Scrambler 400 X

Baja Orange + Silver Stripe

Off-road retro style

Wait a minute, though. This is the first time I’ve had to do this since starting this, uh, news roundup a few months back. But just as I started to edit, I got a press release that I had to include.

And so, yeah, we’ve had to cut this little bit in. It’s Triumph with their Scrambler 400 XC, which they launched in India a few weeks back. And we covered it back then, thinking though that it was for India only.

Turns out, they say it’s been so popular that they’re gonna launch it elsewhere too. And so we’re gonna get it in the UK as of September, I believe, and it’ll come in at just around six and a half grand. It isn’t substantially different to the regular Scrambler 400 X.

There’s no more suspension travel or anything like that, but it does get a bit more of an off-road ready image ’cause it’s got the spoked wheels, a little bit of a high front mudguard or flyscreen, and also some maybe slightly more vivid paint jobs.

There’s a yellow, for example. So yeah, on the one hand, it’s an extra 500 quid versus the X and it doesn’t really offer you anything substantially different in terms of the riding experience. Plus, it is about six or seven kilos heavier. But as for the looks, well, it’s gotta be said, it’s a very handsome little bike.

And so certainly one to have a look at if you like your kind of off-road aesthetics, mainly, let’s say, in a retro package, and maybe you just wanna dabble in a little bit of off-road riding, but mainly ride on the road. Definitely one we’ll be looking to get a hold of for review when they come out in September. And so yeah, think they’ve done a fairly nice job on this one.

New Triumph Color Schemes 2026

But first up, let’s take a look at some of those new paint jobs that Triumph have got on offer for this year, which they announced earlier this week in one big old batch.

There is a lot of carryover as well, but we’ll focus specifically on the fresh offerings here, and we’ll start with the Street Triple, which now comes in granite with some turquoise accents for the RS version, which I do rather like.

And then the slightly lower spec R model is now available in a sapphire black with some gray and red on the graphics. Then with the Modern Classics, well, the Speed 400 now comes in a new white and black paint job, which does get a little gold stripe down the tank, which I think helps to give it a bit of a lift.

And then the Scrambler 400 X is available in their very punchy signature Baja orange, this time with a diagonal silver stripe. The Scrambler 1200 X was new for last year with a slightly lower price point and lower seat height, as well as the XC model that it replaces.

And for this year, it’s now available in a matte khaki green. And I think with the big oversized Triumph logo as well, this was always gonna look really good on a Scrambler style bike.

In the Adventure lineup, you’ve got both the Tiger 900s getting a couple of new finishes each with the more road biased GT version now coming in sapphire black or Snowdonia white with black and then a hint of Triumph’s performance yellow on the leading edge of the radiator shrouds there.

Now, the Rally Pro, which is more so specced up for off-road riding, gets a Snowdonia white as well but without the sort of, um, fluo stripes. But if you do want a bit more punch, there is a black and performance yellow, and it does give it a bit more of that rally vibe.

Last up with these ones, we’ve got the Rockets. The GT, which is the more comfort biased of the two, well, that gets a new black and granite with a little bit of red pinstriping, whereas the R spec Roadster comes with the Baja orange that we saw earlier on the Scrambler 400 X and then black on the bottom half of the tank.

Which I think does suit its more sporty character, and I can see this one being quite popular. So that’s the rundown, and as always, I’d love to know in the comments which would be your pick.

Buell Hammerhead 1190 Freedom Edition

Meanwhile, over at Buell, they’ve just announced the 2025 version of their Hammerhead 1190 in its Freedom Edition.

Now, I believe they first launched the Freedom Edition a couple of years back to celebrate 40 years of Buell Motorcycles.

And although this 2025 version is very much along the same lines of, you know, stars and stripes, well, you can see if you put ’em side by side, it has evolved a little bit and I think it’s slightly better done.

So yeah, very nice to admire indeed, and I suppose it’s probably a bit of a hoot to ride as well. It’s got 185 horsepower from that 1190 V-twin. And perhaps we’ll actually get to try one at some point as they have recently also announced that they’ve got an importer now in the UK.

Yamaha Suzuka 8 Hours Livery

Also running a special livery for August’s Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race, we’ve got the Yamaha racing team with a tribute to the original R7 to celebrate Yamaha’s 70th anniversary this year.

Now, the Yamaha teams in MotoGP ran something similar a couple of weeks back at the Dutch round, but I’ve gotta say, this Suzuka bike specifically looks especially good to me.

They’ve also made something available, we covered this a couple of weeks back, on their new dirt bike lineup as well. And so hopefully we see this on a couple of road models. I think like a R9, for example, would look brilliant in a very similar finish.

New BMW color Options

So yeah, paint jobs definitely the theme of the episode this week, and BMW have also been at it with their production bikes with, like Triumph, a whole bunch of them announced in one go. And so we’ll take a look through these one by one as well.

First up, the M1000 XR, which is the super sporty premium spec version of their S1000 XR tall sports tourer. Well, this one now comes in Aurelius Green, which is a bit of a surprise to me, but I do think it does look rather good.

You see, up until now, pretty much all the M bikes have been generally available in those M sport colors over, like, a black or carbon base, or a white base coat.

Maybe aside from the M1000 RR, which I think they did in a Sao Paulo Yellow for a bit. But I will say this green does look quite classy, and so maybe it’s, um, a nice evolution.

Then their entry level adventure, the F800 GS, well, that gets a new gravity blue paint job as well as a couple of new windscreen options. And the F900 GS Adventure gets this new sage green version, which I think looks spot on.

I’ve always thought that was quite a good looking bike actually, the 900 GS Adventure, but even more so now. And then, yeah, they’ve made some small changes to the finish on the regular F900 GS.

But we’re talking, I think they’ve taken a bit of tape off the front mud guard of both the yellow and the, um, trophy colors. So essentially, they’re exactly the same.

The 1300 GS though, well, this does get a big significant change because you can now get it in this very punchy red called racing red non-metallic, so almost like a Ducati red.

And so definitely good news if you wanted a GS with a bit more pizzazz. Also, the fancy option 719 finish, which was previously this green and gold, well that’s now a really quite nice blue.

And it also does keep hold of the gold rims, so again, another nice change and something fairly colorful. Now then we’ve got the retros.

So the R12 nine T is now available in Imperial Blue metallic, although they didn’t really include any particularly good pictures of this in the press release, and I can’t see it on the configurator yet either, so I can’t really give you much commentary.

But the R12 cruiser, well that’s now available in gravity blue metallic and also the option 719 swaps from silver with the little yellow and black accents to a meteoric dust two metallic, so I think like a dark gray.

Rounding us off on the BMWs, we’ve got their C04 electric scooter, one of the most viewed, I think, reviews on the entire channel surprisingly. It’s got over half a million views. Quite weird that one.

But that now comes in white as standard and then you can also pay a bit more for a blue. So yeah, some nice stuff from BMW, but I think probably the most welcome would be that red GS.

Also, the fancy option 719 finish, which was previously this green and gold, well that’s now a really quite nice blue.

And it also does keep hold of the gold rims, so again, another nice change and something fairly colorful. Now then we’ve got the retros.

But that now comes in white as standard and then you can also pay a bit more for a blue. So yeah, some nice stuff from BMW, but I think probably the most welcome would be that red GS.

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Honda CUV-E Details

Anyway, speaking of electric scooters, Honda have just announced the full details of their second electric two Wheeler called the CUV e. Now CUV is a name they’ve actually used before in the ’90s for this bike called the CUV e.

And the theme apparently is that it stands for Clean Urban Vehicle. So of course completely appropriate here for a bike that it has to be said is aimed entirely at town riding. You can tell that from the specs.

It’s got a six kilowatt motor, so that’s about eight horsepower. You’ll get about 50 miles per hour top speed out of it, and also about 40 miles of range. Although I will say that it’s got two batteries and they’re both removable, and so that should make it nice and easy to charge them in the office, or if you live in a flat you can carry them upstairs.

And also I suppose to some extent it makes it a bit less desirable or a bit less easy as well to steal. So security might be better if you take the batteries out too. Charging they say takes six hours from naught to 100%, so fine if you’re charging it overnight.

And they also say it takes less than three hours if you’re going from 25% to 75%. So again, if you’re in the office, it’ll probably get you home. Interestingly though for this one, they’re running the launch event in Oxford in the UK.

I don’t know if it’s UK only or international, but I haven’t been doing that many well, I’m not really doing any international launch trips at the moment and so this is one I can actually go to which is great so I will be reporting back on it as to whether it’s any good, specifically with, you know, town riding in mind.

And I can only say at the moment I’m, well, I’m looking forward to it but I do wish one thing and that’s that they made it a little bit more funky looking.

I think that’s something that BMW got right with the C04 and C02 whereas this, well, it’s tastefully done but also for the paint jobs you’ve got just white, gray and black.

It’s not like Honda can’t do it either. That CUV e? that it’s named after from 1994. Well, look at that. Brilliant, in my opinion, and I’d much prefer to ride a bike that looked like that.

What is new on Yamaha’s Suzuka 8 Hours bike?

Yamaha’s new special livery For 8 Hours of SuzukiYamaha unveils a special livery for the 8 Hours endurance race, celebrating 70 years of Yamaha by harking back to the original R7 for Yamaha’s 70th anniversary.