From the AMA- Enjoy the culture, lifestyle and craftsmanship of the custom world at the inaugural Custom & Cruiser Culture Saturday at the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum on August 19. Bring your bike and check out what others have created. The event includes demonstrations from pinstripers, painters and others. Read more…
Photo: Steve Cox, MXi Speed is reporting that Jeremy McGrath will quit Supercross after his Invitational Race in October- Seven-time AMA Supercross Champion Jeremy McGrath announced that his Jeremy McGrath Invitational Supercross at Home Depot Center in Carson, California, on October 6-7, will be his last supercross race ever, in Read more…
Well, actually they call them personal watercraft, but the concept really came from motorcycles. If you remember back in the 80’s, we only had Kawasaki Jet Skis. Now we have a lot of companies in the market. The big player up here in Canada is Sea Doo and they are Read more…
Well, I’m up in Canada on vacation (on slooow dial-up) and turned on Leno to watch Pastrana. If you haven’t seen the actual video of the double back flip, it really is impressive. He also had some good stories- like when his mom broke her neck trying to do a flip on Read more…
Photo: Brian J Nelson Speed has a wrap up article on Mid-Ohio and Spies decisive victory with comments and photos from the weekend. Lots of good stuff. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies was dominant in two victories at the eighth stop of the 2006 AMA Superbike Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Read more…
Cycle World has a good article up on a custom bike build off that was sponsored and broadcast by Discovery. They built a couple of really cool bikes and then had a sort of “triathalon” to pick a winner. Both of them looked like a lot of fun to ride. Check Read more…
(AP Photo/Doug Dreyer) I love racing and the races can draw big crowds, but a lot of people just like to ride and if you’re one of those, then Sturgis might just be the place to be. With an estimated 500,000 bikes and lots of open road in South Dakota. Read more…
Photo: Brian J. Nelson from Speed Ben Spies won at Mid-Ohio to soldify his points lead in the series and take him within 1 win of breaking Mladin’s record. Speed has the full story- Sunday’s AMA Superbike contest at Mid-Ohio was one of the most hotly contested of the 2006 Read more…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — AP Photo/MARK J. TERRILL Every couple of years there’s a moment that defines the can-you-top-this attitude of the X Games, something so stunning that even the world’s best action sports athletes can’t believe it. Travis Pastrana had one of those moments. Pastrana pulled off the unimaginable Read more…
Motorcycledaily has had a chance to sample the new Harleys with the Twin Cam 96 engines, and they like them. When you couple the new motor with the 6 speed transmission, it adds up to more than you would have expected- Harley-Davidson’s smartest move, at least in my opinion, was Read more…
SuperbikePlanet has an update on the AMA Superbike race this weekend. As of now Suzuki’s Spies and Mladin are 1&2 in qualifying and the track record was broken easily with the new asphalt. Suzuki’s Ben Spies grabbed provisional pole at Mid-Ohio on Friday, but the 22-year old didn’t hop to Read more…
Speed is reporting that it is likely that Ducati will not have a team for next years AMA Superbike series. They cite mechanical restrictions and sponsorship as reasons for the decision. Read the whole article here- Paolo Ciabatti, director of the Xerox Ducati Corse racing program in World Superbike and Read more…
Kevin Cameron at Cycle World has updated their blog with a good engine tech article on the problems of windage and crankcase pressure in high rpm engines. If you’re a gearhead you’ll like it. If not, the pictures are cool and you can scroll down and read some of the Read more…
Monday on American Chopper (Discovery) you can watch as Bill Murray’s new bike comes together with classic Caddyshack themes. Should be a really fun episode with Murry in it. NEW YORK (AP) — Try to imagine the motorcycle that Bill Murray’s classic “Caddyshack” character Carl Spackler would ride. Would it Read more…
From BMW- Woodcliff Lake, NJ – August 2, 2006… Once again, BMW motorcycles have earned high-fives from editors of Motorcyclist Magazine. In the publication’s September issue, the BMW R 1200 GS is named Best Adventure Bike for 2006, while the R 1200 RT captured top honors in the Touring category Read more…
Speed is reporting that Motorcyclist has selected Dunlop’s Qualifier “Q” Sportbike tires as their product of the year. This is a really big deal since that award usually goes to a bike of some sort. I talked with my friend at Dunlop who does most of their testing after he Read more…
Cycle World has an article about the new Indian exhibit in Pomona, California. When I say “new” Indian, I am speaking of a new exhibit of old original Indians, not an exhibit of the new revived Indian nameplate. Burt Munro’s “World’s Fastest Indian” is on display also. Some amazing bike Read more…
Honda printed the wrong toll free number in the owners manuals for some of their cars and motorcycles. Pretty funny. From the AP. Honda Motor Co. said it incorrectly published an 800 prefix, rather than an 888, on a toll-free vehicle safety telephone number in 1.2 million manuals for 2006 Read more…
If you are into vintage or retro style bikes, you will probably like Ducati’s new SportClassic. With standard seating position and the big V-twin, it should be a great commuter and day trip bike. From Ducati– The shapes of the GT1000 are modern interpretations of the classic lines of the Read more…
Well, this picture comes all the way from Mexico. Perhaps not a more unique and highly customized bike exists anywhere. I’m actually not sure what it is. I never took the time to look closely at the engine, etc to determine what it started out as. If anyone knows, email Read more…
If you are into the vintage motorcycle scene, 2 of the auctions you really want to go to are the ones at Daytona and Mid-Ohio. The AMA site has the results of this weekend’s auction on their site with the most interesting sale probably being this 1962 MV Agusta GP Read more…
Sport Rider has a couple of good articles on honing your riding skills. One is on braking and the other on downshifting smoothly. Good info even for street riding. Downshifting smoothly on a sportbike, especially while braking hard from high speed, requires a definite measure of skill and dexterity. In Read more…
Ricky Carmichael made an uncharacteristic mistake and Stewart jumped on it to take the win- but Carmichael still has a huge lead in the overall points. The AMA site has all the details. Kawasaki’s James Stewart took advantage of a late-race crash by Ricky Carmichael in the second moto today to Read more…
The AMA site has an article up on the vintage races at Mid-Ohio. This might be the perfect outlet for those of us past our prime (way past) who still have the need for speed. The scary part is that the bikes I used to race a “few” years ago Read more…
“The F.C.C. TSR Honda pairing of Shinichi Ito and Takeshi Tsujimura raced their XX-F Class CBR1000RR to victory at the Suzuka 8 Hours today. The Japanese pairing led the race almost all the way from start to finish completing 210 laps of the 5.821km circuit to take the win by one Read more…
The AMA site has a great article up about a group of guys from Wisconsin who decided to buy an old bike and parts at the swap meet and build it into a race bike for the vintage races. They wanted a Kawasaki GPz 550 but the best they could Read more…
The final grid is set for the 8 hour race at Suzuka with Honda on the pole. SuperbikePlanet has the details- Here is your final grid (top ten) for Sunday’s Suzuka 8-Hour endurance classic, with Takeshi Tsujimura & Shinichi Itoh, riding for the FCC TSR ZIP-FM Racing Team, in pole Read more…
VMD at Mid-Ohio is underway. MV Agusta is the featured marque this year. Here is a snip from the AMA. What are you doing this weekend? If you go to AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, you can do all this: See perfectly preserved vintage bikes in three bike shows. Revisit the Read more…
blue angel ride.wmvAbout a year ago, I think, there was an article in one of the Motorcycle magazines about the Blue Angels and the fact that they all rode Sportbikes- against the rules at the time. If anyone knows the magazine and issue, let me know. But for now, here Read more…
As long as we are on the topic of flying, check out the video that Sport Rider did while testing the top speed of the Kawasaki ZX-14. It sounds like a jet and is faster than most small airplanes.
Not exactly motorcycle related, but a friend is at Oshkosh for the huge airshow and fly-in (kind of like Daytona for the flying crowd) and he had a chance to sit and listen to Chuck Yeager tell stories about flying during WWII. He took this picture with his cellphone I think. Read more…
Each year Mid-Ohio hosts the AMA Vintage days which includes shows, races and lots of great vintage bikes- everywhere! We have a man there covering the action, and when he gets back, we will sift through the pictures and get an article up with the coverage.
Bikes in the Fast Lane has a couple of good videos up of the Erzberg Enduro which takes place in a copper mine in Austria. Info here. The best riders in the world show up for this test of man and machine. Of the 1500 or so riders that start, Read more…
I ws poking around Ducati’s site, and they have some nice downloadable wallpaper of the new $65,000.00 street legal “MotoGP” bike. I suppose they will sell everyone they make, but us common folks will probably never see one except in the magazines. Speaking of which, Cycle World just happens to Read more…
I just got back from the big salvage auction in Atlanta, and it is amazing what wrecked bike are selling for. With demand for bikes and parts high, the wrecked bikes are bringing record prices. It isn’t unusual to see bikes that are “very wrecked” (as opposed to cosmetically totalled) Read more…
Honda announced today at Oshkosh that they will start production of the light jet they have been testing for the past few years. The press release is here. Now if they would only produce pod racers like in Star Wars, we would all be happy. Honda today announced plans to Read more…
Cycle World online has coverage of the 1st motorcycle concours held at the Ritz-Carlton resort in Half Moon Bay, California. This was billed as the motorcycle version of the Pebble Beach Concours for the auto world, and it looks like it lived up to its hype. There are lots of Read more…
Indian is back in business and is planning on introducing a new Chief in 2007. The Plant will be located in Cleveland county near Charlotte, NC. Here is some info from their press release- Kings Mountain, NC (July 20, 2006) – Indian® Motorcycle Company is pleased to announce that it Read more…
MotoGP wasn’t the only thing happening yesterday. Motocross was running too and Carmichael won again, as usual. From Speed– Lakewood, Colorado – 7/24/2006 Makita Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael added another win to an almost unbelievable collection of career AMA National victories when he went 1-1 for his 141st career AMA National win and Read more…
Bikes in the Fast Lane has an amazing video of a guy getting hit by a car at a pretty high speed and walking away from it. It is crazy. Thankfully the guy seems OK- at least for the moment. I bet he was hurting the next day.
From the AP– Guys like this are amazing. MIAMI, Okla. (AP) — Motorcycle daredevil Trigger Gumm crashed Sunday while attempting a world-record motorcycle jump at a northeast Oklahoma casino. Gumm, 38, fell far short of his attempted goal of 315 feet. Riding a 450cc Service Honda outfitted with a custom-built Read more…
Well the big weekend is over and some new content is up at various sites. Speed has a recap of the MotoGP race here. There are lots of rider and team members comments that make for some intersting reading. Enjoy.
Nicky Hayden ran away with the US MotoGP at Laguna Seca and extended his points lead to 34 in the championship series. It was extremely hot and the track was less than ideal with the pavement breaking up in places, but Hayden got the job done. Speed has the full story.
From crash.net 1. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 45min 4.867 secs 2. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 45min 8.053 secs 3. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda 45min 15.796 secs 4. Kenny Roberts Jr USA Team Roberts 45min 16.808 secs 5. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 45min 32.306 Read more…
Yesteday’s Superbike race at Laguna Seca was run in record-breaking heat and Ben Spies added another win for a total of 8 this year. The final finish order was- 1. Ben Spies (Yoshimura Suzuki) 2. Tommy Hayden (Kawasaki) 3. Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 4. Miguel Duhamel (Honda) 5. Aaron Yates (Yoshimura Read more…
One of the things I love about bikes is the acceleration. Admit it- accelerating hard on a fast bike is addicting. But I came across some info on Top Fuel dragsters at Automobile and it is pretty interesting stuff. I think the article is pretty old, but still relevant. One Read more…
The riders racing at Laguna Seca this weekend are all complaining about the newly repaved track claiming that it is ruined and will need to be done over. Cycle News has the whole story. From Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies: “It’s just a shame to see because it’s such a fun track. Read more…
From the Washington Press– Italy’s Ducati Motor Holding SpA, a storied motorcycle company, will temporarily dismiss 100 workers. The action, which was planned as a response to a seasonal sales dip, begins Sept. 1 and is expected to last four months, Ducati said in a statement Friday. “Lowering production … Read more…
Kenny Roberts Jr. lead the pace on Friday with a best time of 1:23.859 which was considerably faster than the rest of the field by MotoGP standards. All the racers complained about how bumpy the newly repaved track is- which makes it tough to tune the suspension. Nicky Hayden had Read more…
Streetbike sales were up a whopping 30.8% in January compared to the same month in 2005. Overall, streetbike sales for the first quarter were up 8.6% from 2005, with 134,557 sold. Dual-purpose bikes also showed a dramatic increase, up 27.4% from the first quarter of 2005 for sales of 7,185. Read more…