It’s not quite the massive annual alcohol-fuelled mega-shindig it used to be – but the MCN Awards is still a big, important event on the British biking calendar. And for 2024, it was Triumph that scooped up the most gongs, with an incredible six wins. The Hinckley firm picked up a pair of awards for its new 400 roadster, the single-cylinder Speed 400, which took the Best A2 Bike prize, as well as winning MCN Bike of the Year – the smallest capacity machine to ever do so. The Street Triple 765 RS won Best Performance Naked, the Best sub-1000cc Adventure bike was the Triumph Tiger 900 GT Pro, and the Trident 660 was the best bike for women, or WoMCN as it’s been slightly confusingly dubbed. That’s five awards for the British brand’s bikes, which made the sixth – Manufacturer of the Year – inevitable.
Triumph probably also deserves at least a small part of another award: the Multi Franchise Dealer of the Year was West Coast Glasgow, which covers Harley-Davidson and Triumph from its base in Hillington.
Meanwhile, the Single Franchise Dealer of the Year was Sudbury, East Anglia, based BMW outlet, Reiten Motorrad.
Richard Newland, Bauer’s motorcycling group editor, told BDN: “This year’s MCN Awards were dominated by Triumph with a deluge of class-leading bikes. But they didn’t have it all their own way. Yamaha also showed the incredible diversity of its CP3 engine by winning in three different categories with models using that platform, while Suzuki also stood out for bringing the sportbike genre into a whole new world of accessibility. Meanwhile, BMW’s R1300GS rose to the top to reclaim the coveted adventure bike crown, and Britain’s Maeving grabbed their first MCN Award, too.
“But it wasn’t just about the bikes. The fabulous James Whitham took this year’s Dave Taylor Lifetime Achievement Award, while Roy Pratt, of Imps fame, deservedly picked up the Chris Dabbs Best of Biking Award. In a year saturated with incredible bikes and stories of personal triumph, the award winners can be exceptionally proud to have grabbed a gong – or six.”
MCN Award winners
- Manufacturer of the Year: Triumph
- Overall Bike of the Year: Triumph Speed 400
- Best Sports-Tourer: Yamaha Tracer 9 GT Plus
- Best Tourer: BMW R1250 RT
- Best Naked: Yamaha MT-09
- Best Performance Naked: Triumph Street Triple 765 RS
- Best Cruiser: Indian 101 Scout
- Best Adventure 1000cc+: BMW R1300 GS
- Best Adventure sub-1000cc: Triumph Tiger 900 GT Pro
- Best Retro: Yamaha XSR 900 GP
- Best Sportsbike: Suzuki GSX-8R
- Best Superbike: Ducati Panigale V4S
- Best 125cc: KTM Duke 125
- Best A2: Triumph Speed 400
- Best Urban Petrol: Honda ADV350
- Best Electric Motorcycle: LiveWire Del Mar
- Best Urban Electric: Maeving RM1S
- Best WoMCN: Triumph Trident 660
- Innovation of the Year: Kawasaki HEV
- Chris Dabbs Best of Biking: Roy Pratt
- Lifetime Achievement: James Whitham
- Dealer of the Year, Multi Franchise: West Coast Glasgow
- Dealer of the Year, Single Franchise: Reiten Motorrad