August 2006

Motorcycle Daily has an article up with some ideas on what the new GSXR1000 will be like and they are predicting continued dominance as Suzuki integrates new technology. Still guesswork at this point, but with the new model announcements coming in the next few weeks, it is fun to prognosticate. Read more…

  The Motorcycle Hall of Fame has a great look at one of the first motorcycles to make it big in the USA- Indian. It was the heyday of early motorcycle transportation, and George Hendee and Oscar Hedstrom were building a name for their Indian machines. With basic chassis designs Read more…

Speed TV will cover the Land Speed Record attempts at Bonneville next week. The are bringing in helicopters and the big gun announcers like Dave Despain for the event. If you like things that go fast, this will be a must see program. From Cycle News– Chris Carr and the Read more…

 Photo: Brian J. Nelson AMA Superbike will be in Atlanta and celebrating their 35th year there. Road Atlanta is a great track both to race on and to watch at. Speed has the rundown on the high stakes at RA and some good rider info. Spies, who leads the series Read more…

Literally- The AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame has a fantastic section on the classic bikes of the past, and this one has a great story. This may be one of the most awe-inspiring motorcycles ever built. In fact, even now, 26 years later, it is legendary as the bike that caused Read more…

tpUMSarCSQwWell, this is not bike related, but it sure is entertaining. Autoblog and Winding Road posted it up. A Rocket powered Lincoln attempting to jump the St Lawrence river in New York back in 1976. I bet Travis Pastrana could jump the St Lawrence river…  

Photo-ROBERT WILSON  Well, we had a problem with the video camera eating the tapes, so until we can get that taken care of, we will have to make do with this link to the Knoxville, TN television station’s coverage. With 213 bikes doing a simultaneous burn-out, there was lots of Read more…

WebBikeWorld has a first ride and impressions of their new GT1000, and it sounds like it is a keeper. If you like the retro look but want a 1000cc twin with all the modern technology, this may be the bike for you. I love big twins in a standard configuration, Read more…

The AMA has all the details on 45 yr old Jeff Ward’s victories in Denver. The wins put him in front for the championship with 3 rounds left to go. The man is a legend in Motocross and it looks like he will be adding to his trophy case. Whether Read more…

Well, the old record was smashed today when 213 bikes did a simultaneous burn-out at Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson. That is a lot of smoke! We will have video shortly, but the record was witnessed by Guinness and is official. They even had a “burn-out school” to show people how Read more…

As in motorcycle tire burn-out, not the drug related kind:) Currently, the world record for the number of bikes doing a burn-out at the same time is 109 in France. Tomorrow at Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson in Tennessee, they will look to smash the old record by having at least Read more…

If you haven’t seen this video from Letterman’s show, it is definately worth a look. Pretty amazing. I can’t even keep from knocking stuff over in my garage and nothing is moving in there. If you can’t play the video here, the direct link is http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7395855399420407625&q=motorcycle -7395855399420407625&q

With all the custom choppers and Harley clones being built, the US EPA cracked down and basically said people could only build one non-complying bike each. This actually shut down some of the small custom shops that didn’t have the resources to do a full EPA certification test. Now it Read more…

Ducati is readying their new GP7 MotoGP bike for next season, and everyone got a look at it after the Czech race. Speed has the whole deal, but it should be an interesting season with all the new 800cc bikes. A quick look at the new Ducati Desmosedici GP7 and Read more…

This is a great video that shows just how hard it is for cars to see bikes. While the emphasis is on the driver of the car looking for bikes, it is equally important for riders to realize that they are for all intents invisible to most drivers. My experience Read more…

Motrocycle Hall of Fame has an article about their History of Motocross exhibit at the Museum. There are lots of good photos like this one of Honda’s 1984 RC500. Jeff Ward’s KX250 factory bike is also here with some good info on the race bike of that era. The 8,000 square-foot exhibit Read more…

When the Z1000 first came out several years ago, I fell in love with it’s streetfighter styling and monster motor. But the bike never really caught on here in the US because of 2 main problems- weight and handling. Well, it looks like Kawasaki has been working on the bike Read more…

  A friend who is into aviation and flying sent me this cartoon. But really, this is not far from a lot of ultralight aircraft in concept. I was looking through Popular Mechanics magazine last night, and came across this article which captured my attention. Really, these things are the Read more…

Ducati announced today that 2006 would be the last year that they will race in the AMA Superbike series. This was hinted at in the past, and finalized today. I think that the AMA needs to seriously think about the reasons Ducati is stepping away. This is not good for Read more…

Autoblog has a post on what can only be described as something else to buy that we have no real use for- a motorized cooler. I think we will see more and more of this kind of stuff since the Chinese have the manufacturing capacity to build just about anything Read more…

Here is a good video from a 2005 road race that was actually run on real roads- at close to 200mph3po4aI72ovQ. It has some great camera shots so you get a real sense of the track and the speed. Good fun. 3po4aI72ovQ

There are several great motorcycle museums and the one in Pickerington, Ohio that is affiliated with the AMA has a great website if you are at all interested in the history of motorcycling. You can spend a lot of time exploring the Hall of Fame, so maybe a bookmark is in order. Read more…

 Cycle World has a short article about the 06 Yamaha R1-LE with all sorts of trick stuff. While it is pricey compared to a standard R1, it is not out of line for what you get. Sweet bike and likely to be a collectors item in a few years. Holy Read more…

Well, I think we all know how this turns out, but it is really fun to watch anyways. The bike holds it’s own in pure acceleration, but loses in top speed to both the car and of course the Jet. Lots of fun- makes you want to have one of Read more…

Photo: Steve Cox, MXi Suzuki’s Ricky Carmichael clinched the AMA Pro Motocross title with his win at the Binghampton, NY event. So far, he has won 10 of the 12 rounds and this is his 7 championship. “Dominant” doesn’t even begin to describe his career. I think the other riders Read more…

Matt Mladin won both of the races in the double-header at Virginia to draw closer to teammate Ben Spies in the championship points count. He is still down enough that Spies is in control, but it isn’t a runaway anymore. The AMA has a good article on the weekend and Read more…

WebBikeWorld has a great list of all the schools, training and track days. It has links for everything from learning to ride with a sidecar to Motocross schools. Good reference page and worth a bookmark.   One of the best riding schools anywhere is the Kevin Schwantz School at Road Atlanta. Read more…

Photo: Brian J. Nelson Mladin, Spies and Yates were the top three qualifiers at VIR for tomorrow’s race. The Suzuki’s seem to be untouchable and Spies seems to have recovered from his qualifying crash yesterday. It looks to be a really good race- between Mladin and Spies. Speed has the Read more…

Ever since Tesla Motors announced their new electric sportscars, I have been wondering about what it would take to build an electric powered motorcycle that is competitive with today’s bikes. I found an article written last year over at Gizmag that looks at one company in Europe that converts small 50cc Read more…

Speed has a good article on this week’s Moto GP race in the Czech Republic and also takes a look at the rest of the season. With only 6 races to go, Nicky Hayden needs stay focused to win the championship. Most of the riders seem to like the track Read more…

The York Daily Record has the details Of the President’s visit to the Harley factory later today. Whatever your politics, it is a big event to have the President drop by. Harley is always a good place to visit because they represent a good, profitable company that came back from the brink Read more…

Check out this video of Japanese Motorcycle cops either being tested or competing on a closed course. Pretty amazing what they can do in a tiny area. Almost like stunt riding without doing any wheelies or stoppies! I see our local police training in an old Wal-Mart parking lot all Read more…

One of the things I always encourage people who buy bikes from me to do, is to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course. it is offered in just about all metro areas in the US, and most states have courses they offer too. They can teach you more in these Read more…

Photo: Steve Cox, MXi Ricky Carmichael may have set a record on his Suzuki also. In the second moto at Millville this weekend, he lapped the entire field. No one is sure if that has ever happened before in AMA Pro Motocross. From Speed- Carmichael, the nine-time AMA National Motocross Read more…

With the season coming to a close, the rest of the field is looking forward to the 07 season, but Suzuki’s Ben Spies is living a dream. The 22 year old Texan needs only 1 win to match Mladin’s record set last year and then one more to put himself in Read more…

Also from Viosport is this Google Video of a Hill Climb event. I have no idea how old it is or even where it took place, but the attempts to get to the top are amazing. Worth watching for the entertainment factor for sure. I can waste a lot of Read more…

Viosport makes helmet mount cameras that allow anyone to take video of their brand of riding- roadracing, motocross or anything else. They have a decent number of videos that you can watch from their website including one called “Keeping up with Travis Pastrana”. You need Quicktime installed to watch but Read more…

Well, I’m back from a week of vacation in Canada where I was on 26K dial-up and it was pretty hard to post much. But as I was poking around I saw that Bikes in the Fast Lane has some umm, “girls” on bikes that you have to see even if Read more…

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…

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…