Cycle World

Are You A Grom Rider? Who is Honda targeting with its new entry-level citybike?

Kevin Cameron — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:17 +0000

What is this new Honda motorcycle with the Middle Earth name, Grom? It looks like a sportbike, but it’s small, powered by a little 125cc engine, making what, 10 horsepower? That means it’s not going to humiliate you by wheelying when all you were doing was checking for clearance in the throttle cable. Lots of people would like to have a little fun along the way. What if they don’t want a motorbike to be their Batman suit that comes with a packaged identity? I’m a Harley guy. I’m a sportbike guy. I’m an off-road guy. No! I’m not a programmed guy—or girl—in one of your smug marketing categories, a book to be told by its cover. That guy on the little bike over there, in the T-shirt, jeans, jacket and sneakers? He could be Mark Zuckerberg for all we know. Fun is surprise. Contrast. Choice. Back when the economics came apart in 2008, I thought about the opportunity that gave the factories to re-start the fun and reach more people with fresh designs—smaller, easier-to-afford, useful bikes. In the 1960s, it began with “you meet the nicest people” on 50 and 75cc step-throughs, pleasantly shocking an older generation that feared anything with a motor and two wheels might give you tattoos or lead you onto the dark side. Bigger stuff followed—125s, 150s, 250s. There was no stereotype, so the rider told the “groovy little motorbike” where to go, not the other way around. It’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys that two-wheel bike We’ll ride on outta the town to anyplace I know you’ll like. In the 1970s, I rode thousands of miles on little 90 and 100cc runabouts because it was fun. I wasn’t going to find three big guys with bolt-cutters rolling my pride and joy into a van; it was beneath their notice. I could get wherever I was going by just putting in a dollar’s worth of gas and working the controls. No tattoos appeared. I could be myself. Do you suppose Honda knows all this stuff?

» Check out our First Look of the 2014 Honda Grom 125

Husqvarna Headed To Austria New KTM ownership forces departure from Italy.

Bruno dePrato — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:00:37 +0000

Italy’s motorcycle industry is going through times of change, some more painful than others. First, Ducati CEO Gabriele Del Torchio left Borgo Panigale to rescue Alitalia airlines, with Claudio Domenicali named as his able successor. It was a surprise that it happened so quickly and with almost no warning, but was hardly painful, as Domenicali is respected for his work at Ducati. Now, KTM-owned Husqvarna is packing its bags and moving to Austria, a painful change, indeed, for the country's motorcycle industry. Former Husqvarna PR man Martino Bianchi confirmed that the factory near Varese will be shut down this month and production transferred to one of the KTM factories in Austria. This is a below-the-waistline blow to the economy of the region. Local politicians have not stepped in to prevent the move that KTM’s parent company, Pierer Industrie AG, promised would never happen. Despite its storied past, Husqvarna never lived a particularly productive life after moving from Sweden to Italy following its acquisition in 1987 by the Castiglioni brothers-owned Cagiva Group. Things really went down the drain after BMW acquired Husqvarna six years ago. In fact, during the past three years, Husqvarna accumulated losses of 200 million euros.

Small Engine, Big Performance? Prototype electromechanical valve drive from LaunchPoint Technologies aims for that goal.

Kevin Cameron — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:00:05 +0000

Variable valve timing seeks to combine the low-rpm torque of a Harley-Davidson Big Twin with the high-rev power of a sportbike engine. This is especially useful in helping downsized engines to do the job of bigger engines with fixed valve timing. The ideal system would be one that could vary opening and closing timings independently, and even vary valve lift, too. Coming close is an electromechanically driven system from an outfit called LaunchPoint Technologies. Because solenoids must move a heavy iron magnetic core, LaunchPoint chose to drive its design with lighter-weight voice coils just like those used to rapidly drive loudspeaker cones in sound systems. Like some other electromagnetic valve-drive setups, LaunchPoint’s system employs the “throw-and-catch” mode. When the valve is to be opened, the voice-coil driver throws it upward and an unspecified arrangement catches and holds the valve at full lift (8mm or .315 of an inch, for example) until a valve-closing signal is sent. Then, the voice coil “unsticks” the valve from its full-lift position and throws it toward the seat. The points of opening and closing can be varied at will while the system is operating. Because seating velocities over about three feet per second cause valve bouncing and rapid seat/valve wear, a catch-and-hold system similar to the one that held the valve open now decelerates it to its seat with a moderate claimed seating velocity of four to 12 inches per second. A 500cc Rotax single-cylinder engine is being used to test this system, and you can see additional short videos of it in operation (with valve motion visible) on the LaunchPoint website.

Max Biaggi Launches Pirelli Angel GT On Aircraft Carrier Retired world champion performs braking test on Italian warship.

Matthew Miles — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:00:33 +0000

Is there a better place to evaluate the wet-weather stopping capabilities of a new sport-touring tire than the flight deck of an aircraft carrier? Apparently not, which is why Pirelli called on six-time world champion Max Biaggi to conduct a braking test with its new Angel GT on the Italian aircraft carrier Cavour. According to Pirelli, Biaggi accelerated to 62 mph before throwing out the anchors at a pre-established spot on the deck of the carrier, which was moored at a new base in Taranto facing the Ionian Sea. Pirelli says the Angel GT “substantially increases mileage, grip and handling in the wet” compared with its predecessor, the Angel ST. Available in four front and 10 rear sizes, the dual-compound radial tire was developed for naked, supersport and touring motorcycles. The Angel GT is original fitment on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S Touring. Cycle World Contributing Editor John L. Stein attended the press launch, which was held in part on the Cavour. Look for Stein’s on-road impressions of the new tire on www.cycleworld.com. [gallery]

No More Stoppies! MV Agusta introduces ABS with anti-rear-wheel lift.

Matthew Miles — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:25:18 +0000

Beginning in 2016, anti-lock brakes will be required on all motorcycles manufactured for sale in Europe. Right now, MV Agusta is offering ABS on its flagship 1000cc F4 sportbike that incorporates Rear-Wheel Lift Mitigation (RLM). Other premium sportbikes, such as the BMW S1000RR, Ducati 1199 Panigale R and Kawasaki ZX-10R ABS, are similarly equipped with an anti-rear-wheel lift feature. Bosch supplies the F4’s compact, lightweight 9MPlus control unit, which has pressure sensors that interface with two phonic wheels, one per wheel. According to MV Agusta, sophisticated algorithms reduce braking distances on low-traction surfaces while keeping the rear tire from lifting off the pavement—a common problem when riders are braking extremely hard on sportbikes fitted with powerful front brakes. Standard on ABS versions of the F4, F4 R and top-of-the-line F4 RR, the new system has two operating modes, which can be selected using controls on the handlebars: 1) Normal for full-time application on the street; and 2) Race, which reduces intervention for track use. Don’t worry, stunters, the rider can also disengage the system.

Motorheads Unite! Seize The Sites! Do you know someone who should be included on a “notable alumni” list?

Steven L. Thompson — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:00:17 +0000

Axiom 51 says, “If you leave it to the weenies, the weenies will win.” The only way to defeat weenie-ism is to take back the territory the weenies think they own. Take high school and college “notable alumni” lists on Wikipedia, for example. So far, to judge by my highly unscientific and casual check, 100 percent of the so-called notable alumni for my high school and university fail to mention alumni/ae who have excelled at motorsports and, indeed, in any motorized pursuits. My high school—Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, California—ignored the fact that my class (1966) included Carl Cranke, AMA Hall of Fame member and seven times ISDT gold (and two silver) medal winner in 10 years of competition. The only solution? Fill in the gap by going online and putting Carl on the list using the system Wikipedia created to do just that. Carl didn’t ask me to do it (I think that last time we spoke was years ago when I mentioned him in another CW blog, in fact), but I happened to know him and of his significant accomplishments. Why care about this? Because more and more, people seem to believe that if it ain’t on the Internet, it ain’t, period. So, we who care about the accomplishments of racers, tuners, fabricators, dreamers, writers, artists and the many others whose work and lives are in the motorhead world owe it to posterity to ensure that when we can, we set the record straight online. Just to take one example, I figure that anybody who has received such an honor as being included in the AMA Hall of Fame should be listed in his/her school’s notable alumni/ae Wikipedia or school sites. Then, there are those whose works have changed our lives on the road, on the track or just in our hearts and minds. In part, the academic arrogance of what constitutes “notable” is behind the lists as now conceived: People who spent their careers on Dean’s Lists naturally tend to think that only the same sort of alumni/ae deserve to be called “notable.” But we know from life that such is hardly the case. When we are students, we are, of course, in an academic environment, but we are also in a social environment, in which a great deal of what we learn is not in books or in classrooms. I vividly recall racing Carl on the streets around our school—his Honda CB72 vs. my Yamaha YDS-2. Our rivalry carried on into the only class in 1965 we shared: first-period P.E., where Carl would taunt me with every win we read about in Cycle World or Cycle News by Mike Hailwood on his factory Honda, or I would torture Carl with every win by Phil Read on his RD56 Yamaha. Same at my next step in formal education, at U.C. Berkeley, where I met then-graduate student Phil Makanna not in art classes but on the racetrack at Vacaville, where he was busily winning yet another championship on his 750 Norton. Each of us has similar memories and tales, and some of us are the ones whose lives and works should be included in the “notable alumni” lists. Does the list at Princeton University, for example, include Clarence P. “Cook” Neilson? Nope. Not yet. But it obviously should, as every fan of his editorship at Cycle and everyone who knows what he and Phil Schilling did with “Old Blue” in Superbike racing will attest. Very few of us care about all this enough to do more than snort when we might run across a notable-alumni list without the geniuses and sportsmen and women we know should be on the lists. But we should. If we don’t, the record will be incomplete, and the weenies will win. Again.

Racing Versus Fantasy “Why don’t we just put on a show?”

Kevin Cameron — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 16:28:14 +0000

Is racing a technique to be studied and learned—a high-speed intelligence test? Or it is just a testosterone dare among risk-seeking deviates?

Most of the dramatic movies I’ve seen that had a racing theme have taken the latter view. Racers are presented as helpless speed addicts who heedlessly go faster and faster until they are either killed or badly injured. In the “badly injured” variety, the fallen madman is gently guided back to health and a sane desk job by the devoted wife or girlfriend. In the fatal versions, we are left with the usual profound social message that speed kills.

In the 1955 classic, “The Racers,” Kirk Douglas portrays just such a misguided, trivial sportsman. In a tense scene, he and a rival are neck-and-neck on a long straight. They look daggers at each other. Rivalry! Manly secretions! Can foolish actions be far behind? Then, the camera shows us one driver’s foot. He presses down on the accelerator! His car surges ahead! Pure excitement!

The dark look on the rival’s face, made demonic by goggles, says, “Oh, no you don’t!” The camera shows us his foot, as he presses down even more. Egad! First one car, then the other leads in see-saw fashion. So exciting.

And completely fake.

Sensible persons know that all competent racers have the throttle fully open as soon as traction permits, but in these movies, going fast is presented as a dangerous sickness—an approach conflict like that of the hungry lab rat who wants the food pellet but knows he may get a powerful shock as he approaches it. The crazier you are, the faster you go.

This phony Hollywood view of racing determines what spectators want: a constant back-and-forth of the lead, preferably among a crowd of machines.

Racing isn’t like that. As recently noted by Repsol Honda MotoGP Team Principal Livio Suppo, the strongest team can afford to hire the top riders and attracts the biggest sponsors. As a result, strong teams tend to become ever stronger, and the gap between the strong and the weak becomes larger (NASCAR is an apparent exception, but racing on ovals with near-identical cars is a specialized form).

Now, remember the old story of the northern California promoter who in the 1960s decided to create an “Ascot North” (Ascot Park near Los Angeles had an extremely competitive and popular half-mile dirt-track series at the time). The riders arrived to find the usual argument: Riders wanted more hay bales covering guardrails or concrete walls, and the promoter wanted to keep the five bucks that 10 more bales would have cost. The riders were ready to leave in disgust when one of them had an idea.

“Why don’t we just put on a show? We’ll ride around, play grab-ass and trade the lead back and forth. Then, at the end, we’ll share the prize money. No risk, no problem. And the promoter gets to keep the gate.”

That’s just what they did. And the spectators loved it, completely taken in. People said it was the best racing they’d ever seen.

Will the day come when racebikes will be given a “push-to-pass” power boost as in Formula 1—an extra five horsepower that can be clicked in at will? Might this be linked by radio to a keyboard in the race-direction office? Then, as rival makes and riders begin the straightaway side-by-side, they may accelerate, trading the lead in phony Ascot North fashion, as a pair of official fingers in the tower dance on the keys. Spectators will love it.

Who knows, one day, motorcycle racing here in the U.S. might become as big as pro wrestling.

Triumph Of Imagination Is this hovercraft the future of motorcycling?

Kevin Cameron — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:00:42 +0000

Never underestimate the power of fantasy! Before Englishman Christopher Cockerell could build that first hovercraft in his Norfolk shed, he had to imagine it. And once the Ministry of Defense took it off their “secret” list in 1959, it wasn’t long before giant hovercraft were carrying 400 passengers and 50 cars at a time back and forth across the English Channel. Cockerell was knighted for his creation. The basis of the invention was a flexible skirt, which maintained the smallest-possible leakage path for the air that supported the vehicle. All that was needed for support was modest air pressure, acting over the entire underside of the machine. At one time, it was predicted that “hover-cars” might take to the roads, but the difficulties of starting, stopping and turning led Cockerell to say, “Driving a hovercraft is like driving a car with four flat tires on ice.” What he meant is that the fans providing guidance to the hovercraft had very little thrust in relation to the vehicle’s weight, so the operator must think far, far ahead! Other obstacles to tarmac use were the camber of roads (which makes the machine slide off to the side) and the rapid deterioration of the skirts from pavement abrasion. The “Triumph of Imagination” in these Photoshopped images is more inspired by England’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier V/STOL aircraft. While a helicopter lifts itself by pushing a large mass of air downward at a moderate speed, Harrier’s much smaller downward-directed jets accelerate a lesser mass of air to a much higher velocity, and in doing so, it uses a great deal of fuel (combat radius of 200 to 300 miles). That would be the case for this hover-cycle. Once aloft, Harrier rotates its lift jets gradually aft, accelerating to speeds at which its wings take over the support task and the jets become purely propulsive. It then maneuvers as an airplane. Many times on long trips to and from races in a van, I have imagined easing back on the yoke, seeing the earth fall away below and flying. Artist: Toby Wheeler [gallery]

Pricing Announced: BMW’s New 2013 Water-Cooled R1200GS

Andrew Bornhop — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:00:07 +0000

This just in: BMW has announced that new liquid-cooled 2013 R1200GS, the bike making a huge splash on our upcoming April, 2013, cover, will have an MSRP of $15,800. That, however, is for a base model that won’t likely be stocked by BMW’s 140 dealers. When bikes start arriving in mid-March, the vast majority of the K50 (BMW’s internal code for the new wasserboxer) R1200GSs will be in these three trim levels: Standard, Premium and Premium Plus. The Standard, equipped with heated grips, cruise control and saddlebag mounts, costs $16,600. The Premium, which includes the Touring Package (Dynamic ESA, On Board Computer Pro, GPS Preparation, chrome exhaust, heated grips, hand protection, saddlebag mounts) and the Active Package (Enduro ASC and Riding Modes), goes for $17,990. At the top of the Boxer heap is the Premium Plus, priced at $18,870. This GS is fitted with the Comfort Package (heated grips, tire-pressure monitor, hand protection and saddlebag mounts), the Dynamic Package (Enduro ASC and Riding modes, Dynamic ESA, LED headlight, On Board Computer Pro, GPS preparation) and cruise control. As always, numerous options and packages are sold individually. Bikes will be available in Thunder Gray Metallic, Fire Blue, Racing Red or Alpine White colors. For the record, the air-/oil-cooled R1200GS ($16,150) and R1200GS Adventure ($18,350) will be sold this year, as 2013 models.

California Highway Patrol Releases Endorsed Lane Splitting Guidelines CHP goes on record about lane filtering by motorcyclists.

Don Canet — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 00:59:57 +0000

I’ve lived in California my entire life and have spent the past three decades riding streetbikes. I’m fortunate to enjoy one of the greatest liberties a motorcyclist will ever experience: The freedom of movement when traffic has slowed to a crawl or is stopped. I am a lane-splitter. California is currently the only state in the nation that allows lane splitting, and it has done this by not specifically prohibiting it in the vehicle code. Done responsibly, lane splitting is a safe and effective way to relieve traffic congestion and get where you’re going faster. I also must confess that I’ve never had a clear and concise understanding of how lane splitting is defined by the authorities, mostly because it was never officially defined. Ask 10 different traffic officers and you’ve been likely to get as many varying answers. But, in an effort to raise driver awareness and clear the air for motorcyclists, Lane Splitting General Guidelines have been posted on the California Highway Patrol website. Several good tips and rules of thumb are offered, but it remains gray as to hard and fast legal limits pertaining to lane splitting. Just as I’ve assumed in the past, it really comes down to an officer’s perception of whether your maneuvering through traffic appears reckless. It’s a positive step by the state to take this action to raise awareness and define some of the rules of engagement. Should lane splitting be legal in all states? If you live outside of California, would you lane split if it were legal in your state?

Off-Road Riders Spend Money! Study claims “Wilderness” designations have negative impact on local economies.

Dave Halsey — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:59:13 +0000

Of all federal land-use designations, “Wilderness” is the most restrictive. It prohibits roads, road construction, motorized travel, mechanized equipment, logging, mining, telecommunication towers, transmission lines and energy pipelines. Environmentalists often claim that “Wilderness” attracts tourism and boosts local economies. According to a recent study by Utah State University, very often the opposite is true. “The argument often stated by the environmental community that Wilderness is good for local economies is simply not supported by the data,” states the summary of “The Economic Costs of Wilderness.” Released in 2011, the study was written by Brian Steed, Ryan Yonk and Randy Simmons of the John M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State. Conclusions from the study—and useful talking points for OHV advocates to bring to meetings that involve the Wilderness designation—are important to note: • When comparing Wilderness and non-Wilderness counties, Wilderness counties are at an economic disadvantage to their non-Wilderness counterparts. Accordingly, if the test for whether or not to designate Wilderness is economic, Wilderness fails. • Economics did not underlie the Wilderness Act or any of the Wilderness areas established since the Act was passed (1964). Wilderness is established for emotional, ecological and cultural purposes. Results show that those purposes are accomplished at a cost to local economies. • Controlling for other factors influencing county economic conditions, the Wilderness designation is significantly associated with lower per capita income, lower total payroll and lower total tax receipts in counties. • Despite these differing views, Congress has continued creating Wilderness areas. There are 759 Wilderness Areas currently in the U.S., totaling 109,663,992 acres. Only six states contain no Wilderness: Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland and Rhode Island. • Wilderness is managed by four federal agencies: the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management. To read the entire study, go to http://www.environmentaltrends.org/single/article/the-economic-costs-of-wilderness.html. Dave Halsey contributes to the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC) newsletter, is a member of its board of directors and leader of the “clubs and associations” team.

Jupiter’s MotoShare Why buy the cow when you can milk the whole herd for a small fee?

John Burns — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 17:23:17 +0000

How’s that old saying go? If it flies, floats or, ahhh, something else I forget, you’re better off renting. Chris Miles, founder of Jupiter’s MotoShare in Brooklyn, New York, thinks the same might apply to motorcycles. And if you live in a big city with good public transportation where you don’t need your own wheels every day, he may be right. For a yearly fee, you can join Jupiter, then take a nice BMW, Triumph or Ducati for a spin whenever the spirit moves you (within limits), while Jupiter takes care of all the fussy details like maintenance and insurance, not to mention storage, which can be a big deal in places like NYC. Jupiter can even provide riding gear. Minimum buy-in is $1381 per year ($200 to join and $98 a month [not sure where the other $5 goes]), which buys you 10 points, or 10 day rentals (holidays cost you two points per day; 1000cc and 1200cc bikes will cost you 1.5 points per day on weekends; and don’t forget there’s a two-day minimum each ride). Realistically then, you’re looking at five two-day rides a year with the least expensive plan, which works out to $138 a day, which is cheapish compared to what most rental outlets get for a Harley. Sounds like a deal if you’re just getting started in motorcycles, dilettante-style, and not sure what you want. Maybe not so good for those of us who require our motorcycle on site, to look at and polish when we’re not riding. The business model is sort of like ZipCar’s, but since motorcycles are in slightly less demand than economy cars, things are starting off slow. So far Jupiter’s only location is in Brooklyn, but with plans to spread into other locations to meet demand. Contact information: Jupitersmc.com; (718) 788-2585.

Crank(Shaft) Calls To lighten or not to lighten? That is the question…

John Burns — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:00:13 +0000

Once upon a time, we had a perfectly good 2000 Yamaha R1. Wait, once upon a time, we had a perfectly good R1 with a bent frame, so we sent the bike off to Evan Steel Performance in Arizona for a little “freshen up.” Before we knew it, the thing had been stripped to its elemental components. The original idea was to build a gnarly old carbureted R1 that would run with modern literbikes, to the tune of 160 horses or so on pump gas (even if it might not meet the strict government regulations that new bikes must). To do that would require more than a gentle port, polish and pipe. The heart of any engine is its crankshaft, and ESP farmed the R1’s out to APE (aperaceparts.com) for a thorough going-over. APE’s Jay Eshbach points out that, unlike in most automobiles, a sportbike’s crankshaft also serves as its flywheel. Flywheels store rotational energy, and their inertia helps keep an engine from stalling at low speeds—and for that reason, most bike cranks are heavier than they need to be. Once the bike is rolling, that extra weight is just baggage that consumes power when accelerating and brake pads when it’s time to stop. Once the crank is lightened, the engine can spin up faster—and a faster-spinning crank equals a faster-moving motorcycle. Furthermore, with the special contours that APE machines into the counterweights (commonly called “knife-edging”), the crank, it’s claimed, spins with less drag through the oil mist draining back from the top of the engine. Also, a transverse motorcycle crank acts like a gyroscope (as do the bike’s wheels and all its spinning gears), which makes the bike resistant to leaning. People pay big money for wheels that are a few pounds lighter; APE removed three pounds from our R1 crank for just $225, which should greatly increase its “flickability.” And dynamic balancing is included, using a computerized machine that measures imbalance thru an X plane running lengthwise through the crank. Should have the old beast running nice and smooth. Naturally, I asked Kevin Cameron for some crank-lightening enlightenment (after the fact) and got this: “Light cranks may help in drag racing, and they seem like a good idea, but a lot of good people have had opposite experiences. Muzzy had three weights of crank for the 1982 Z1-based Superbike, and he said it top-ended best with the heaviest of the three. “The lighter the crank, the greater the speed change each time a cylinder fires. Back a few years when Buell was trying to get one of their 1340 air-cooled V-twins to qualify and race in the 600 class, one thing they did was to lighten the crank by 10 pounds. It then began to beat up and wreck primary chains that had previously been reliable. “In dirt track and in roadracing, too light a crank allows the engine to tach out immediately once traction is lost. Kenny Roberts said the small crankcases on the 1981 0W54 Yamaha prevented them from increasing crank mass, so it was hard to keep that one hooked up. This is especially important in dirt track, and I’m sure you've seen the add-on accessory external flywheels for some MXers—same idea, to keep the tire hooked-up by making the engine a bit less ‘lively.’ “Finally, Jerry Branch tells the story of some big Twin guys who sawed two cylinders off a small-block Chevy and added the necessary covers, etc., to make a motorcycle engine out of it. I think it was 1500cc or so. They had done the same with the crank—just sawed it off, which left the engine with no flywheel. Jerry said it made about 35 horsepower. “Another point: The greater the crankshaft's ‘rpm flutter’ as a result of cylinder firing impulses, the easier it is to toss the valves when the crank is at its momentary peak revs.” There you have it, two sides to every coin. Anyway, what’s done is done, and we’ll probably spend more time standing around talking about going fast on our streetfighter R1 than actually going fast on it. And “lightened, knife-edged crank” sure sounds cooler than “stock.” We’ll see how it works out soon enough. Knock on wood!

Not Posing … this just in from CW reader Tom Kendall.

Tom Kendall — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:59:01 +0000

This letter is a little late in coming, like eight years late, but since lately there has been a discussion of adventure riders “posing,” I'd like to introduce a fellow we met on the homeward bound leg of our great Alaska adventure in 2004. We had ridden from Michigan on our BMWs, me on my new R1200GS with heated grips no less and all decked out in Aerostich gear. We were feeling, well I guess you could say macho. Then we met Mike Lynch. Mike had ridden his Vespa scooter from Clearwater, Florida, headed for Prudhoe Bay. He almost made it when his tires blew out on the Haul road 200 mile short of his destination. Nothing like a night on the tundra! Undaunted, he camped in the alley behind the hardware store in Fairbanks until tires were airlifted from California. We met up with him at the dock in Haines as we were boarding the ferry to Bellingham, Washington. Oh, I almost forgot: This was his first motorcycle adventure. Guess the moral is: Just get on it and go!

“REvival 41” Trey Canard’s long road back to racing wasn’t easy.

Blake Conner — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:00:19 +0000

If there is one thing that has defined Supercross and motocross over the past couple of seasons, it’s injuries. Top contenders such as Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey, James Stewart, Chad Reed and Trey Canard, have all had major injuries that have taken them out of action for weeks, months and sometimes even the better part of a year. Getting hurt has always been a part of the sport, but the speed now needed to win seems to have pushed these athletes to an entirely new level on the track. Damaged bodies are the result. Team Honda Muscle Milk's Canard has had a professional career highlighted by many ups, like winning the 2008 Supercross Lites East championship in his rookie year. In 2010, he won the Motocross Lites national championship and was a member of the victorious Motocross des Nations team. But the flipside has been more than his fair share of significant injuries. The last, though, was a big one. At round 3 of the 2012 Supercross series, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Canard, in mid-air, was landed on by Ryan Morais, causing both riders to be thrown to the ground in a sickening heap. Morais was tripling the jump, whereas Canard had opted not to because he had a Tuff Block cover get snagged on his bike prior to the takeoff. The result? A broken back for Canard. This was only Canard’s second race back after missing Round 1 of the series due to a broken collarbone. And in the months prior to that, he had broken his femur not once, but twice. His goal all along was to get back in racing shape for Anaheim 1, the 2013 Supercross opener. When the gate dropped at Angel Stadium, it was clear that Canard is back in business. After hounding surprise leader Davi Milsaps for much of the race, Canard took the lead late in the main event, only to relinquish it back to Milsaps in the end, proving he’s healthy and ready to get back to his winning ways. His second-place finish in his return to racing truly was inspiring. Check out Canard’s “REvival 41” movie for the full story on his return to racing.

Staff Favorites: Sidi Canyon Boots What do Cycle World staffers wear to work?

Jim Johnson — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:59:16 +0000

Boots aren’t exactly a glamorous subject, but they’re essential riding gear, so vitally important to rider safety. And here at Cycle World, there’s one boot that has proven to be quite popular with the staff: the Sidi Canyon. Remember, our staffers can basically wear any boot they want, but several have chosen to wear these great all-around Sidis on a daily basis. I’ve been a big fan of this boot for years. In fact, I’ve completely worn out a pair, bought another, then completely wore those out. I’ve received another pair from Sidi, the first I haven’t bought myself. When I say I wore them out, please understand that I ride every day and that I don’t even own a car, so they get used for work and play. These puppies are basically my sneakers, and each pair has lasted for years of heavy daily use. The top-grain leather boots are designed for adventure touring, but they’re great for a wide variety of riding, basically anything short of full-on motocross or track use. They offer a good balance of armor protection and comfort, plus padded shin protection, ratcheting ankle cuffs and sturdy heel and toe cups. Like all Sidi boots, they have a composite insert sole. This thin insert looks just like any other you might find in, say, a running shoe, but it provides one of the most important safety features required of a boot: lateral stability to keep your foot from being crushed, for example, between the ground and your bike. This attention to detail and safety makes the $350 Sidi Canyon worth every penny. The boots are lined with Gore-Tex. Even in heavy downpours, they keep your feet completely dry. They wick really well. If you wear light wool socks, your feet will remain happy and dry, even when stomping around in the summer heat. Other features include a leather toe shift pad, a full-length gaiter to keep the gravel out, and thin reflective strips front and back. If you’re looking for a boot that does it all, with decent safety protection and everyday comfort around the house or office, the Sidi Canyon should be at the top of your list. Available in Men’s sizes 7.5 to 13 for $350.00 www.motonation.com

So-Cal 2-Strokers’ 15th Annual Two-Stroke Extravaganza Smoke ’em if you got ’em!

Don McGregor — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:00:11 +0000

Ever wanna fire up the way-back machine and return to a simpler time? Back when you would lie on the grass and look up at the clouds, trying to make out objects from the formations? Back when you would sit around and think “What should I do today”? Sadly, time and technology march on, and most of us don’t get to enjoy that freedom much anymore. But, once a year, the stars (and a bunch of volunteers) align, and some of us get to relive our misspent youth while enjoying one of the most amazing motorcycle shows imaginable: the annual So-Cal 2-Strokers’ Two-Stroke Extravaganza. To appreciate the show as it exists today, some acknowledgment of the past is in order. Fifteen years ago, Doug Johnson, proprietor of two-stroke specialist company MotoCarrera, decided to a have a small gathering to celebrate all things two-stroke. Four people showed up. Undeterred, Johnson continued to promote the vintage-two-stroke life, and saw each year’s show grow incrementally. But six years ago, Johnson’s already fragile health (he was a quadriplegic) took a sudden turn for the worse due to a freak accident and resulting head injury that left him in a coma for 38 days. With Johnson out and little more than a month until the next show, the awesome power and generosity of the So-Cal 2-Stroke community galvanized. A core group that shared the event founder’s enthusiasm was not about to let the annual two-stroke party die. Instead, the group worked together, and after climbing an incredibly steep learning curve, pulled off the gathering in honor of its founder. Six years later, Johnson’s annual dream of an annual two-stroke party is still alive and well. He’s also recovered from his accident enough to continue the MotoCarrera business. This year, the event was moved from Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, California, to the grounds surrounding Roger Arreola’s Wicked Motorsports in Garden Grove. Any concerns that the location change would hurt attendance were erased as the day got under way and all the great bikes began arriving. Gleaming (and not so gleaming) two-strokes of every era were set up in organized rows that would leave the most parched smoker enthusiasts drooling. And just when you thought you’d seen it all, a bike that was even more amazing would roll in. It was audio/visual overload. But it wasn’t nearly as stimulating as the traditional high-noon “smoke-out” that saw more than 200 two-strokes start up simultaneously. The amazing sound and fury of all these angry bees also signifies the beginning of the awards ceremony. Every year, attendees flock to the machines entered in the Best Custom class. The trend over the last few shows has been for builders to get more and more creative and less inhibited in their pursuit of “custom.” Taking first-in-class this time was an incredible Yamaha that started life as a garden variety 1978 RD400. Owner Michael Martinez built the bike as a nod to the Seventies TZs that won at Daytona. As such, it was painted in the famous factory colors of red and white and had every period-correct modification possible. While the build itself took over a year, Martinez remained mum on just how long the parts-gathering took. He would admit, however, to making a trip to Argentina just to pick up the super-rare RD400 wire-spoke-wheel rear hub. And with a hub that is basically made of unobtainium in the U.S., it was NOT going in the plane’s cargo hold. Oh, no, it was brought back as carry-on baggage and put under the seat in front of him! With a small but enthusiastic group of Suzuki fans on hand, tension was high as the Best Suzuki award was announced. The age-old debate between stock vs. resto-mod was brought to light once again, but, when the dust cleared, stock took top honors. Ron Baggaley’s beautiful 1975 T500 Suzuki had just 23,000 miles on the clock and was unnaturally clean for its age. We’ve all seen bikes that look over-restored to the point of being better than when they rolled off the showroom floor. Baggaley’s T500, however, just looked right, as if he’d ridden it home from Southland Cycle Center in 1975, parked it, and then brought it out the show nearly three decades later. And the resto-mod runner-up? A very well-sorted 1976 GT500 café racer built by Kevin Tomlinson was a worthy competitor. Due to the sheer volume and quality of entries, everyone stepped a little closer and lots of fingers got crossed when the Best Yamaha award was announced. The finest example on this day was Nick Gargano’s amazing custom Yamaha RZ350. The Simi Valley resident started with a rough 1985 model and after a year of non-stop, late-night thrashing, his rolling World War II-themed masterpiece was complete. Gargano melded together a Yamaha YZF-R6 front end, the RZ chassis and a single-sided swingarm from a Honda NSR250, and then topped it off with an amazing set of custom Lomas chambers. It was a great day of firing up the way-back machine and staring at the clouds of blue smoke. CLASS WINNERS Best Yamaha: Nick Gargano, 1985 Yamaha RZ350 Best Suzuki: Ron Baggaley, 1975 Suzuki T500 Titan Best Kawasaki: Mark D'Ambrosio, 1976 Kawasaki KH100 Best Honda: Steve Cocking, 1988 Honda NSR 250 Best Restoration: Victor Rothgard, 1967 Kawasaki C2TR 120 Best Custom: Mike Martinez, 1978 Yamaha RD400E Best Off Road/Enduro: Pete Phillips, 1968 Bultaco Sherpa T 250 Best Scooter/Moped: Kendall Crabtree, 1996 Honda Nova Dash 125 Best Rat Bike: Farel and Trevor Byrd, 1976 Yamaha RD400C Best Triple: Kris Lagaris, 1973 Kawasaki H1-500 Best Daily Rider: Leonard Smith, 1985 Yamaha RZ350 Best Exotic: Teodoro Gallelli, 1959 Cecatto Turismo Oldest Bike: Rich Stratjour, 1939 Scott Clubman Special Peoples Choice: Lloyd Butfoy, 1963 Fuji Rabbit [gallery]

2013 Kawasaki Ninja 300 Dyno Test Dyno Shootout: Honda CBR250R vs. Ninja 250 vs. Ninja 300.

Don Canet — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 17:00:43 +0000

My first order of business upon receiving a 2013 Ninja 300 testbike involved rolling the bike onto Cycle World’s Dynojet dynamometer to measure the ponies corralled in Kawasaki’s Shetland-size sportbike. To better show the performance gains of the new liquid-cooled, 296cc parallel-Twin, we’ve laid dyno graphs of a 2011 Kawasaki Ninja 250R and 2011 Honda CBR250R—both of which had been previously tested on our dyno—over that of the Ninja 300. A substantial bump in power output has allowed Kawasaki to fit the 300 with significantly taller overall gearing than what is used on either of the 250s, resulting in a much more relaxed riding experience. While it’s plain to see the sizable boost in peak horsepower the Ninja 300 offers relative to its 250-class competition, don’t underestimate the significant 4-to-6 foot-pound torque advantage the Ninja 300 maintains throughout its entire rev range. On the road, the Ninja 300 has sufficient low-end torque to keep pace with city traffic without exceeding 6000 rpm at each upshift. The ultra-smooth-revving 300 feels far less busy at freeway speeds, as well, and it now has enough performance headroom to accelerate from 75 mph in top gear without toeing the shifter. Bottom line: The newly added flash-to-pass switch located on the left handlebar is no gimmick. Move over, VW Golf TDI and Prius prudes, we’re teed-up and playin' through at 70 mpg! [bonnier-video='a:3:{s:4:"code";s:32:"ZmbzBwYTr6fxtQqx7kImqG-g-BXAL9uD";s:6:"player";s:32:"3da5601eed794a4e8b5f4d58c0ddd8c4";s:7:"options";a:4:{s:5:"width";i:590;s:6:"height";i:331;s:8:"autoplay";b:0;s:4:"loop";b:0;}}']

2012 Motorcycle Cannonball Finishes In it to win it.

Paul d'Orleans — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:02:29 +0000

If a well-developed mind can hold two conflicting points of view, then the Cannonball is, among other things, an opportunity for wisdom. It was an exercise in daily on-the-road mechanicking, surely not worth the investment of two months and thousands of dollars for the reward of a daily grind of pre-dawn rising, horrid coffee and crap food, and over two thousand miles of dead-straight droning roads…and I will do it again in two years, only better, because it was Epic. The Motorcycle Cannonball was open to anyone with a pre-1930 motorcycle and the financial freedom to take several weeks off to prepare for and ride 3956 miles. Which doesn’t sound like much; stout-bladdered drivers can do it in 3 days. But not on backroads, and not on an 80-year-old bike. The relentless 7 a.m. start times, the 9- or 10-hour riding sessions and the day after day after day gnaw at the edges of your will. We were daily prisoners to our exhaust note, fastened to its rise and fall with the throttle, noting every subtle change in tone, all day long. A rider who has assembled his own machine knows every sound it makes and what it means inside a hot and marginally lubricated antique, and if he’s put some years on the road with it, knows each nuance of mood and potential disaster. In my case, after significant machine work in Lonnie Isam’s shop in Sturgis, my Velocette KTT sang like a bird for several days, effortlessly cruising on one-quarter throttle, 65 mph, going over 9000-foot passes in the Rocky Mountains like Stanley Woods on Bray Hill, scraping the edges of my boots on every corner, loving my life, that road and this motorcycle equally. Life was Good. The low point came when, for the third time in 12 days, the exhaust note changed. The chiming top notes—the rocker clearance on the valves—began to clatter a bit more, even though the tappet clearance wasn’t changing. All this is out in the breeze—it’s a 1925 design with exposed rocker ends and valve springs—so the music is played close to my ears. The chains whir, the engine shock absorber chatters like a caffeinated monkey (I gotta figure out what that IS), and after the glory of the Rockies, the slow going through Yellowstone and the stunning backdrop of the Grand Tetons, the little Velo (it’s only 400cc, the smallest bike on the Cannonball) was dutifully carrying me through the bikemare of southern Idaho. I find little more disturbing than cresting a rise to see the next 40 miles laid before you in a straight line; this is your future, and it will be boring. After 200 miles of this, the chiming clatter below grew louder. I stopped to check the tappet clearance; I closed it down a bit, added more oil and pushed off again (no kickstarter on the KTT; she’s pure racer). Ten miles later, the Worst; clack clack clack whuuuk whuuuk whuuuk. I pull in the clutch and glide to a stop in the middle of absolute nowhere, not a tree or hill within eyeshot, just sagebrush and dirt and pavement on the road to hell, called Boise today. Another seized valve? No, the valve spring keeper has broken in two—bizarre. As I’m only 10 miles from Mountain Home, Idaho (our night’s stop), I call Debbie in my van, who’s an hour out due to my hot pace. Hoping to avoid a killer sunburn, I roll the bike downhill and find a miraculous oasis of trees and shade in a hollow, and pull the bike off the road under a big, historic landmark sign of Toll House. In the 1850s, the road to hell charged a fee, apparently; malevolent ghosts have extracted payment from my bike. Tearing into my motor to check for bent valves and install a replacement keeper is easy; it’s all out in the open within minutes. The inlet valve was bent, but I had a spare, so I soon bolted everything up and bumped-started the Velo, but clack clack made me stop. Not good. Examining the cam revealed it square as an Idaho house. Game over; no spare. Plus, I’ve just run about a quarter-inch of not-hard-enough cam material through my oil pump. Nice. I have a lot of ugly dead cams in my collection, but this one is the worst, shagged, hammered and totally buggered up. Always the overachiever, I’d brought along my mobile darkroom and wet plate photographic equipment, and I started taking photos with a vengeance; the pix in this and my previous Cycle World Cannonball story were all taken with a 4x5” plate camera using 1850s’ chemistry. So, the ‘Ball wasn’t a complete loss. My Velo disaster left me free to observe the other riders and their machines, and soak up juicy gossip from competing crews. And it was good…the best part being the overall winner, Brad Wilmarth on his 1913 Excelsior Twin, the guy who deserved the victory. Contrasted with the big teams with hired mechanics, giant outfitted rigs and modern replica internals, Wilmarth’s big “X” is basically an original machine with some new tinware, etc. Brad’s business is restoration, and he’s certainly blueprinted that little V-Twin engine. But to look at the delicacy of the rockers and pushrods, plus his complete lack of a gearbox, is to wonder at the sheer, awesome beauty of his achievement. His Excelsior is so “sorted” that it can run across the USA, twice (he won the first Cannonball, too), with the effortlessness of a singing bird. Brad embodies the Italian principle of Sprezzatura—making the difficult look easy. He rode every mile on the oldest bike and came in on time to every checkpoint. He is the King. The “other” winning strategy applied by second-place man Joe Gardella was a tutorial on ingenuity overcoming history. Joe’s 1914 single-speed Harley-Davidson has been completely re-engineered internally, although it appears showroom ordinary. The devil’s details are hidden inside, where inlet-valve housings were redesigned and cast fresh, valve springs and pushrods uprated with 21st-century materials and beefed-up dimensions, the carb modified and manifold cast with proper breathing…the list goes on. Gardella’s bike is what a 1914 H-D would perform like if built in 2010. He cruises on that single-speeder at 65 mph all day long, with the flexibility to bonk through town at 20 mph or burble over 9000-foot passes without stalling. The bike is so good, you’ll wonder if multi-gears are an advance on touring ability or just laziness on the part of riders and builders. His success is an implicit accusation of the motorcycle industry: This design is nominally 100 years old yet good enough to crack across 3956 miles of backroads with hardly a cough. How far have we progressed in real usability over the past century? But then, this bike is unique and lavished with thousands of hours of detail attention. Of the 72 bikes entered, 19 did every mile across the continent; the rest exemplified Tolstoy’s maxim in “Anna Karenina”: Every unhappy machine suffered in its own way. Some were crashed from burst beaded-edge tires or dug-in footboards on hot corners; some melted pistons like Julia Child’s butter sticks; some replaced whole engines with more swiftness than a factory assembly line, on grass or in a workshop. A lucky few riders had the right combination of personal tenacity and a relatively crude machine for which improvised roadside bodges were successful, so they carried on, attacking major problems nightly, squeaking and wobbling forward, ever forward. Two such teams were renowned custom builder Shinya Kimura’s 1915 Indian Twin and Chris Knoop’s Australian Invincible-JAP V-Twin, both of which tended to arrive at the end of the day, though not necessarily on time. Both riders would quickly grab a meal, then tear into their damn machines again, illumined by portable lamps in anonymous Midwestern parking lots, darkness advanced by shortening days and changing time zones, looking at night like misplaced Rembrandt studies, chiaroscuro vignettes with faces and hands aglow. Romantic to observe, less so to inhabit. A breakdown of the finishers reveals that a big if not necessarily fast engine is the recipe for success, with nine Excelsior-Henderson four-cylinders and seven Harley “J” bikes filling the ranks of “Club 3956.” That leaves Wilmarth’s 1913 X, Gardella’s 1914 H-D, Norm Nelson’s BMW R11, plus the Indians of Jeff Alperin and Josh Wilson, to fill the “Other” category. None of the Class I machines—the “British” class of BSAs, Rudges, a Triumph and my Velocette—did the distance. The best effort was Jim Craine’s 1921 sidevalve BSA Single at 3591 miles, which, if you’ve actually ridden a flathead Beeza, is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, it’s a pretty amazing achievement. Only after the exhaustion passes, the bills are paid and the bikes repaired will serious thought be given to Motorcycle Cannonball 2014. Some are eager to go, some less so, but the event’s camaraderie and sense of purpose are a potent drug for the old-bike crowd, and hard to resist, although I reckon that first, Pre-1916 Cannonball was the harder tour by a long shot. Rumors are flying about pre-1942 bikes being allowed next time, but you never know if there will be another, such is the nature of little-profit/hard-work events for old bikes. Lonnie Isam Jr., whose round-headed baby is the Cannonball, is quiet on the subject for now, but the words “2014” did pass his lips. Gluttons for punishment have their wrenches at the ready, just in case. [gallery]

E-Boz 2013 BMW HP4 Press Launch

Thomas Kinzer — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 21:11:49 +0000

Look who represented Cycle World at the 2013 BMW HP4 press launch in Spain! Eric Bostrom will turn in a First Ride report on the new German hot rod next week. In the meantime, Eric sent us a few photos of him lapping the Jerez Circuit aboard the exotic superbike. The new HP4 is a race-homologation evolution of the BMW S1000RR. More than a few of us back at the office are a little green with envy. [gallery]

Retro-Mod BMW R1200GS Body Kit Unit Garage R120 G/S custom bodywork recalls the original adventure-tourer, the 1981 R80 G/S.

Mark Hoyer — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 20:00:15 +0000

I feel a “harkening” coming on… You know, harkening back to simpler times and the invention of the adventure-bike category in the early 1980s by BMW with its R80 G/S. That feeling is, of course, coming to me because of the ultra-cool Unit Garage R120 G/S body kit for the 2004-2012 BMW R1200GS. The Italian company makes this bolt-on, no-mods-required body kit for the modern adventure machine to recall the early bike. It’s not cheap at 3920 euros or about $5000, but what price high style? You get a great bunch of cool parts in a variety of available colors, and the orange seat is a nice touch. There are lots of options, among them a few neat ones for the windscreen: Hubert (Auriol) Gaston (Rahier) or (Jean-Claude) Fenouil, named after riders from the earliest days of BMW racing the GS in the Paris-Dakar Rally. The bike configurator at www.unitgarage.com shows you all the possibilities. And while I love the aesthetic of the kit, Unit Garage claims it drops 14 pounds from the weight of the bike (see photo in the gallery of what stock parts get removed). So it’s functional, too. The kit is said to take about four hours to install and supplied painted and finished. Shipping to the U.S. probably won’t be cheap. Maybe the good plan is to buy a GS in Italy, convert it there and ride back. Yeah… Any self-respecting rally aficionado would do it that way. [gallery]

Project R1 Evan Steel Performance builds a Mighty (cheap) R1.

John Burns — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:02:23 +0000

All that’s left, as far as I know, of the last first-generation Yamaha R1 Evan Steel and Kaz Yoshima and I collaborated on in 2000 is this “custom” pencil holder. I forget the exact particulars, but the deal was that for PACE or Formula USA or some national series that year, Open-class bikes couldn’t make more than (I think) 145 horsepower on the dyno post-race. Designed to even the playing field, rules like this of course only spread rich manure on the fertile brains that make racing racing. Ontario Moto Tech sole proprietor Kaz Yoshima came up with the idea to build an R1 with a big snorkel that would pressurize the airbox and float bowls, theoretically making the bike run like a demon around Willow Springs (where the average speed is over 100 mph) but barely blubber when sitting stationary on the dyno. Simple enough in theory, nightmare in execution. The snorkel itself was a scale model of one from Kaz’s favorite V-Eight, which led through a hole in a custom FuelCel composite tank. And then it got complicated. The idea was to use smallish jets (so the engine wouldn’t run well on the dyno) but once the bike was moving, air pressure from the scoop would shove fuel through like Old Faithful on nitro. It actually worked, sometimes, but “smooth” and “predictable” were words that need not apply. Jets were constantly changing, while fine-tuning of pressure was accomplished via a brass needle and seat in a plastic hose connected to an air bleed that ran to all four carburetors. Throw in Willow’s infamous wind and that the first R1 wasn’t known for its handling at race speeds and snorkelbike was not for the squeamish. It was for Curtis Adams. Poor guy. The first snorkelbike got wadded into a ball in Turn 8 and I got my pencil holder. Crazed, fully in the grip of race lust and money and egged on by the rest of us, Curtis bought another R1 from Yamaha, but did not get it dialed in in time for the big Willow money race. Later, the bike fell into the hands of Jeremy Toye of Lee’s Cycles in San Diego, where JT and protégés Evan Steel and Phil Allison finally got the thing to work pretty well—mainly by ditching all the jet chicanery and just building a really stout R1. Naturally, when I bumped into Evan again at our 2011 Superbike shootout in Arizona (he was there as the owner of his new shop, Evan Steel Performance, and wrenching on the BMW S1000RR) and began babbling on about the good old days, I had to blurt out that I had a 2000 R1 parked in my living room. Within minutes, he’d extorted me into building it up into another 160-hp snorkelbike, minus the snorkel. “Won’t that be expensive?” “Not really,” says Evan, “just a little time for me and Phil at the shop. And a few gaskets and things...” A month later, Evan sent these photos and a wish list of Yamaha gaskets, seals, valves, collets (what are collets?), rings, clips, nuts, bolts, springs, plates and O-rings about two feet and $1500 long, along with word that the reason my R1 was so cheap is because it’s frame is tweaked and will have to be straightened at considerable expense. And that it made 131 horses on the dyno before they tore it apart. Why is enough never enough? Why can’t we leave things alone? I don’t really know, but I think a 160-hp naked R1 for the street could be good for keeping up with the Tuonos. Tune in to a future issue to see how it all works out. Maybe we will enlist Curtis Adams for the shakedown run… [gallery]

Adventures in Sturgis Land Peter Jones takes a road trip to the Black Hills for the 2012 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Peter Jones — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:00:41 +0000

Full Story: 2012 Sturgis Rally Recap

Alone on the road, leaving the verdant mountains of North Carolina, heading northwest some 1750 miles to the Mecca of motorcycling metal. This ridge is possibly the last hills I’ll see until the Black ones come into view west of Sturgis.

Wrong. Very wrong. Ride the damn bike. I mean, unless you’re towing what will be your home for a week, ride.

My course took me near Metropolis, Illinois, allowing me to visit Superman’s hometown. There’s also a statue of Lois Lane, elsewhere in town, though she’s life-sized, not Super-sized. A chat with a woman at the Chamber of Commerce revealed the weird news that Lois Lane also lives in Metropolis. No, I mean really. Actor Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in the Superman TV series of the 1950s, adopted Metropolis as her own and moved to this small city about a dozen years ago.

The first day’s ride was this hot. As you can see by the green “6,” this image was taken at speed, not at a stop where engine heat might influence the numbers.

After stopping at Klock Werks Customs in Mitchell, South Dakota, I buzzed by the famous Corn Palace, where they’d roped off the street so that motorcycles on their way to Sturgis can park there. Inside the Corn Palace is an exhibit of the Corn Palace. It’s sort of like its reason for being is its reason for being.

Unlike the Corn Palace, I couldn’t discern any reason for Wall Drug to exist. It’s a tourist trap of the highest order. It provides people who live in the town of Wall a place to work. I guess that’s reason enough for it to exist, huh?

Bad Lands are not good for farming. But they are pretty. And a nice place to hide if it’s 1880 and you just robbed the bank in Wall. It costs $10 to ride a motorcycle around the loop road through the Bad Lands National Park. You can do it all week for just that one-time payment.

In the City of Rapid City, South Dakota, the graffiti artists confine their art to an alley one block long in the middle of downtown. Rapid City is where sane people who come to Sturgis stay.

An ocean of Harley-Davidson baggers, and one Boss Hoss. This is the parking lot at Black Hills Harley-Davidson, on any day during the Sturgis rally. Next stop, into the belly of the beast: downtown Sturgis and the Buffalo Chip.

Only in Sturgis would you witness the moment that Sunset (left) met Sunshine. This life-altering moment happened at the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum Hall of Fame induction breakfast.

An original old-school chopper with a Honda inline Four power plant, spotted parked at the Buffalo Chip. A teenage dream of mine as yet unfulfilled.

The induction of new Sturgis Hall of Famer Ed Kretz Jr. In his acceptance speech, Kretz mentioned how his father – the first-ever winner of the Daytona 200 – had a friend who raced while wearing pantyhose under his leather pants. It was assumed he did it because the unlined pants chaffed so badly, but when the friend was asked how long he’d been in the habit of wearing them, the friend said, “Ever since my wife found them in the glovebox.” Kretz Jr. won a national once and has spent his life promoting the motorcycling lifestyle. He was ranked fifth in points in the Expert TT class at one point.

At the Motorcycles as Art exhibit at the Buffalo Chip, builder Michael Barragan (left) with the curator of the show, Michael Lichter (right), a leading motorcycle photographers worldwide. Each builder at the show was given the opportunity to express the aesthetics behind his creation.

Only in Sturgis: a giant Buffalo wearing the name place this image was taken, a hot-air balloon in the shape of a golden religious icon, and a truck-sized ad for shooting machine guns. For anyone wondering what Sturgis is about, here it is all in one image.

Nikolas Pew, a tattoo artist, was selected by curator Michael Lichter as an example of a body artist who uses biker culture as his artistic base cultural reference. But are his tats art about bikers, or is it the art that defines who bikers are? Or is it both? Pew prefers to apply tattoos from his own selection of graphic choices, not following the trend to create custom designs specifically for the customer.

The bikes exhibited at Lichter’s art exhibit this year at the Buffalo Chip tended toward old-school choppers, some truly old, some reinterpretations of the old-school aesthetic. This bike is the creation of Jason and Wayne at Acme Choppers. Chrome, flames, metallic, hardtail…

A detail of the graffiti art in Graffiti Alley in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota, a local attraction worth seeing any time of year. Rapid City sits in the heart of the Sioux Nation, just north of Wounded Knee where hundreds were massacred late in the 19th Century, so there is a healthy population of Native Americans in the city and a healthy amount of political art expressing modern concerns and controversies. This unnamed Sioux chief I’m standing next to is likely Sitting Bull or Red Cloud, the first who defeated General Custer, the second who closed the Bozeman Trail and retook Montana…for a time.

I just hope I don’t end up like this. Sturgis Motorcycle Museum 2012 Hall of Fame inductee Ron Stratman built this buffalo bike, on display at Black Hills Harley-Davidson. There are now five of these creations roaming the Black Hills, looking for adventure, or whatever comes their way.

What’s more American than apple pie and machine guns? To close off the week, Victory motorcycles treated the media to a festival of machine guns at the Buffalo Chip. Apparently, South Dakota is a fully automatic state. Hmmmm… eenie, meenie, minie, mo…

If hand held isn’t big enough for you. Yes, for a fee you’re welcome to pull the trigger on this thing and real bullets will fly.

One of the sculptures within the Buffalo Chip concert grounds. I’m not sure what the hose is for.

Even depravity can look beautiful in the proper lighting.

“What does it mean? What does it mean?” I had just fired a machine gun and now found myself faced with Biblical weather patterns. Does this mean something? Heading south to Rapid City from Sturgis, weird rain threatened.

Why is the sky suddenly so expressive? The morning of my departure the east showed impending rain and the brown smoke of a prairie fire. …”What does it mean?”

The group I was with at Sturgis was pondering whether or not we were at a convention for fantasy pirates when this gentleman confirmed our thoughts. I think he wanted money for me taking his picture. But I didn’t give him any. He’s a pirate, I’m a rebel, and that’s how the economy of anarchy works, bro.

And we found this other pirate. No, wait, this is booty. Anyway, Sturgis is for those who enjoy their anarchy in multicolored flavors.

Where Buddy Holly last performed, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. The owners recognize the historical importance of the site, so the ballroom includes a museum and the building is being preserved.

The man who got me into motorcycling, Damon Dardaris, and his sons Nick and Noah, standing in the rain in Iowa City, Iowa. We all were 900 miles from our respective homes in the South and Northeast, just chancing by each other on America’s highways.

The original capital building of Iowa, located on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa. It was behind this building on the morning of December 9, 1980, that I learned that John Lennon had been killed.

All in a morning’s work. A few of the Guns of Freedom shell casings from attendees shooting machine guns at the Buffalo Chip.

One of our hosts preparing the machinery that Victory motorcycles provided tickets for media entertainment. It was very, very entertaining, particularly for someone who doesn’t own a gun.

My choice of party favor: the People’s gun, the AK-47. “This is one Santa who’s going out the front door.”

America is big. The roads are wide. The distances are far. Ride.

Check back for more photos from Peter to be added as the rally continues.

Moto Guzzi Model Boxes

John Burns — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:00:04 +0000

Technical Editor Kevin Cameron’s fond look back at the amazing Moto Guzzi V8 in our June issue got long-time reader Stephen Dane digging deep in his toy box. He sent us these great images along with a nice love letter:

Dear Kevin and Editors: Thank you for your comprehensive article on the Moto Guzzi V8 Grand Prix roadracers. Back in the late 1950s, these racing bikes captured my teenage imagination with their dustbin fairings and wonderfully complex engines. Your article was a great resolution to my years of fascination with these beautiful machines. Enclosed are some copies of the boxes of dustbin Moto Guzzi models I assembled decades ago and still have in my collection. I’ve been a fan of Cycle World for the past 50 years—since your first issue. I know you’ll keep up your top-notch journalism and photos for decades more. Stephen Dane Studio City, California

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Polaris Teases New 2013 Victory Boardwalk

John Burns — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 19:07:56 +0000

The 2013 Victory Boardwalk is set to be unveiled July 30, at 5 p.m. PDT, and Victory is doing the Dance of the Seven Veils to draw attention, this time with a video starring our own sometimes correspondent Jeff Buchanan. What do you think? Do you dig modern marketing or should the product speak for itself? Can the product ever live up to the hyperbole? Mainly, should Jeff get a haircut?

Look for a Quick Ride story on the new Victory on CycleWorld.com soon.