“I NEED A MOTORCYCLE THAT CAN HANDLE BIG-ROAD TRAFFIC.” A reader asked me the above question (in the subject line). She has already been riding two other bikes, so this wouldn’t be her first. My answer comprises the rest of this post, but I’d be more interested in your views Read more
THE OLDER I GET THE MORE I LIKE OLDER MOTORCYCLES. And I’m not only talking about the motorbikes that were prominent when I started riding back in the 1970’s. I’m talking about bikes that go back throughout the 20th century and even back into the 19th century. BUT WHY? Beats Read more
THE DEBATE GOES ON. I’ve never struggled so much to write a motorcycle article as I have with this one. A reader challenged me to enter the discussion about loud pipes earlier this year. At the time, I thought it an easy endeavor because I had my own years of Read more
AN AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE BRAND GOES AWAY. I’m surprised by today’s news that Harley is killing off Buell Motorcycles. Buell has offered innovative technology to the motorcycle world since 1993, as a small, American, sportbike manufacturer. Buell even won its first AMA Pro racing championship in September of this year. Click Read more
MOTORCYCLE RIDERS ARE A UNIQUE BUNCH. Over the decades I’ve managed to ride all over North America, including coast-to-coast, multi-week tours a number of times. As much as I love riding, I also love to shoot the breeze with motorcycle riders of all ages and experience levels, wherever we may Read more
THE RACE IS ON, THE ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE REVOLUTION IS HAPPENING. April 2009 was a milestone month for electric motorcycles, and the two biggest news items are from the same company: Zero Motorcycles in Santa Cruz, California. To begin wtih, Zero Motorcycles staged the first 24-hour endurance event for electric, off-road Read more
HAS HARLEY GONE TOO FAR? I admire, respect, ride and enjoy all kinds of motorcycles. If it’s got two wheels and a motor, I’ll probably find something to like about it. Additionally, I’m an advocate for greater brotherhood (and sisterhood) between riders of all kinds of bikes, the world over. Read more
FOUR PURPOSES OF MOTORCYCLE TIRES. So, what the heck are the four things our tires do for us? 1) They support our bike. (Alternatively, a front and rear pogo stick would create a different kind of “riding” experience). 2) Our tires transmit traction and braking forces to the road, allowing Read more
THE MOTORCYCLE CHOICES WE MAKE: As motorcycle riders, we have a lot of choices as to which bike(s) to call our own. As we use our checkbooks to vote for our favorite bikes over the passing years, we are either moving towards an idealized “best” bike, or simply trying something Read more
U.S. MOTORCYCLE SALES, 1992-2014: They do a good job over at webbikeworld.com with their annual “US Motorcycle Sales” graph and survey. The obvious picture is that overall annual motorcycle sales are slowly recovering from a big fall that started going down before the recession and then dramatically fell with the Read more
The Norge 1200 is the most recent (since 2005) PURPOSE-BUILT “sport-touring” motorcycle offering in our world, brought to us by Italian maker, Moto Guzzi. Side note: Some might argue that the Kawasaki Concours14 is the “newest,” “purpose-built” sport-tourer in the motorcycle world, since it was introduced in July 2007. But Read more
Generally speaking, supermoto (or supermotard) machines are an alternative to high-performance bikes, with a notable difference in rider position: in this case the rider is seated upright, instead of the forward-leaning posture that sport-bikes demand. That, by itself, lends any supermotard to practical service as an urban performance bike, since Read more
The North American debut of the new Harley Davidson XR1200 motorcycle was featured at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, CA, on December 5, 2008. The all-new Harley Davidson XR1200 had its world debut in Europe earlier in 2008. I took the bike out for a test Read more
WHAT’S BETTER THAN A HUGE MOTORCYCLE SHOW RIGHT ON THE OCEAN? Cycle World Magazine’s International Motorcycle Show (IMS) wrapped up its 28th expo this weekend (Dec 5-7, 08), just outside of Los Angeles, and as usual, right on the ocean, in the Long Beach Convention Center.
This year’s annual show started its United States tour in October and will be running through to February 2009, making the following 13 stops along the way: Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, San Mateo (outside of San Francisco), Novi (outside of Detroit), Washington DC, New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, and in South Carolina, all in addition to this stop in Long Beach, which is typically one of the largest of the tour.
The 55,000 attendees were crammed everywhere, exploring all things related to motorcycles, but the show’s two most prominent areas of interest were the motorbikes inside the exhibition hall and the demo rides offered outside. (more…)
Harley Davidson has resurrected its legendary XR 750 dirt-tracker from the 70’s and 80’s into the reincarnated body of an XR 1200 for 2008. And if you want this modern spirit in your garage, you will have no problem if you live in Europe. Ummmm, that’s right, this incarnation is Read more