HEADLINE WRITERS CAN BE A CRUEL LOT. For the most part they toil away thanklessly on the weighty matters of local, national and world news, distilling a story’s content to a few easily digested words. There’s not a lot of room for creativity, or fun, in city council meetings or budget overruns or a war’s death toll.
THE POET T.S. ELIOT CLAIMED HE HAD measured out his life with coffee spoons, which I suppose is fine, in an introverted, shut-in kind of way, but only last week I discovered a slightly more colorful medium for marking the passage of time: Harley-Davidsons.
THE RADIAL ENGINE IS SO-CALLED BEcause its cylinders are disposed radially around a central crankshaft. This architecture was ideal for aircraft power because: 1) It requires the least possible mass of crankshaft and crankcase per displacement; and 2) in the words of a naval officer of the 1920s, its several cylinders “disposed like the petals of a flower” have equal access to cooling air.
Reading Peter Egan’s "Flying on the Ground" (Leanings, February), I flashed back to the spring of ’67, when I began my all-expenses-paid trip to sunny Southeast Asia as a 20-year-old helicopter pilot for the U. S. Army. I can agree with Winston Churchill that you become very aware and exhilarated when bullet holes suddenly appear in your windscreen.
Eight hours. That's all the time that's standing between you and a nearly 40 percent increase in peak horsepower and an almost 30 percent increase in max torque on your Harley-Davidson V-Rod. Vance & Hines' new supercharger kit ($5995) fits neatly under the stock faux gas-tank cover, its Sprintex blower running 7-11 pounds of boost. No additional engine modifications are required. Vance & Hines Motorsports, 1211 Northfield Dr., Brownsburg, IN 46112; 317/852-9057; www.vhmotorsports.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
Pro Moto Billet Endo
$135
Need a spark arrestor for your 250 or 450cc four-stroke dirtbike? Don’t want to spend a bundle on a complete aftermarket exhaust system? Then get your hands on a Pro Moto Billet Endo ($135). Designed to install quickly and easily on most original-equipment mufflers, the aluminum end cap features a removable, replaceable, USFS-approved, screen-type spark arrestor. Meet sound-level requirements with the optional 96-decibel Silent Insert ($47). Pro Moto Billet/Fastway Performance, 11461 Lone Star Rd., Nampa, ID 83651; 866/466-4762; www.promotobillet.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
Poker Chip Set
$100
Got green? Might we interest you in a friendly game of Texas Hold 'Em? Kawasaki’s Poker Chip Set ($100) includes: 500 11.5-gram, clay-filled chips in four colors with Kawasaki logos on both sides; two decks of casino-grade, plastic-coated cards; one professional dealer button; and two blind buttons-all neatly packed in a locking aluminum carrying case. Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., 9950 Jeronimo Rd., Irvine, CA 92618; 949/770-0400; www.kawasaki.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
Throttler
$180
Cruise in style and control with the 50's Boy Throttler ($180) Designed to fit virtually any motorcycle, the CNC-machined, aluminum/stainless-steel "throttle management system" uses the company's patented roller-ball detent design for on-the-fly adjustments. Just push the thumb-operated lever up to vary engine speed in stepped increments. 50's Boy, Inc., 709 E. Cochran St. #C, Simi Valley, CA 93065; 866/542-1955; www.50sboy.net
Vance & Hines Motorsports
Arata Dry Carbon-Fiber Muffler
$525
High exhaust temperatures and carbon-fiber are typically a poor mix, which is why some carbon mufflers are backed by aluminum to prevent burn-though. Japanese pipe-bender Arata has a high-tech alternative: "dry" carbon-fiber. Impervious to even the extreme heat generated by big Twins, the exceptionally durable, incredibly lightweight material perfectly complements the company's expertly TIG-welded titanium header systems.Muffler-only prices start at $525. Center of Gravity, 19744 Beach Blvd. #415, Huntington Beach, CA 92648; 714/374-9491; www.aratausa.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
ParkingPuck
$8
Stop your motorcycle from sinking into hot asphalt or soft ground with the ParkingPuck ($8)-the first and only sidestand prop made from a regulation National Hockey League puck! Easy to use, the slotted universal design weighs less than 6 ounces and stores easily in a jacket pocket, under your motorcycle seat or behind a sidecover. ParkingPuck, 760 Lake Range Dr., Kincardine, Ontario, Canada, N2Z 2X3; 519/386-1128; www.parkingpuck.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
Twisted Spike Bolt Kit
$225
Looking for a way to sharpen the appearance of your 1999-2007 Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa? Here's an idea: Replace the standard fairing fasteners with PPM Custom's Twisted Spike Bolt Kit. The $225 kit includes 27 sharply pointed pieces manufactured from 300-series stainless-steel and polished to a mirror finish. PPM Custom, 2222-F Patterson St., Greensboro, NC 27407; 866/511-2453; www.ppmcustom.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
EVS Ballistic Jersey
$170
Are you an aspiring freestyler or stunter, or do you just crash a lot? Either way, your body could benefit from an EVS Ballistic Jersey ($170). Top-of-the-line, the BJ22 Ultra is basically a zip-up mesh jersey covered with strategically placed, impact-absorbing armor. Molded plastic backed by closed-cell foam covers the shoulders, elbows, back and chest, while an adjustable, articulating kidney belt safeguards your internal organs and lower spine. Togged up in the BJ22 (sizes S-2XL), you feel practically invincible. Movement, however, is somewhat restricted, a turn-off for anyone used to wearing only a jersey, and not everyone digs the bulging-shoulders, bodybuilder look. Of course, none of that matters much if you're holed up in the hospital with your limbs in plaster. EVS Sports, 2146 E. Gladwick St., Rancho Dominguez, CA 90220; 800/229-4387; www.evs-sports.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
Lock Chock
$75
Keep your dirt- or streetbike secure while it's tied down in the bed of your pickup or van with a Moose Racing Lock Chock. Available in three sizes to accommodate most front wheel dimensions, the black-powdercoated chock attaches to a supplied bolt-down T-base. A beefy pin (padlock not included) runs through the wheel, keeping it-and the rest of the bike-in one place. Prices range from $75 to $90, depending on application. Moose Racing, P.O. Box 5222, Janesville, WI 53547; 608/758-1111; www.mooseracing.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
S-MX 2 Air Carbon gloves
$60
Looking for comfortable sport-riding gloves? Motocross-inspired, the S-MX 2 Air Carbons ($60) boast synthetic-leather palms, hill-grain leather reinforcement and open-back construction for maximum flexibility. Other features include carbon-fiber knuckle protection, velcro wrist closures, plus ventilated top panels and finger sidewalls for maximum cooling. They're available in black, gray, red, orange or blue in sizes S-3XL Alpinestars U.S.A., Inc., 2780 W. 237th St., Torrance, CA 90505; 310/891-0222; www.alpinestars.com
Vance & Hines Motorsports
AGV Laguna Road Race Boots
$300
Comfort, flexibility and protection were the goals for AGV's Laguna Road Race boots ($300; sizes 8-13). Designed in Italy and handcrafted from premium top-grain cowhide, the all-new ventilated design retains the tried-and-true speed-lace system and features titanium-and-composite-plastic plates backed by shock-absorbing orthopedic foam to put the brakes on ankle-tweaking torsional twisting. Select from four color options: black/black, blue/black, red/black or yellow/black. AGV Sports Group, Inc., P.O. Box 378, Buckeystown, MD 21717; 800/777-7006; www.agvsport.com
HANG ON, MR. MAX, help is on the way. Twenty-two years after its introduction, the original bad-ass muscle machine looks like it's about to get some long-overdue luvin'. Clues have been piling up, albeit in subtle ways. After years of frustrating non-action on Yamaha's part, hope for a new-and-improved V-Max was given a shot in the arm at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show, where a medieval-looking concept Max was rolled out, but with little fanfare and next to nothing in the way of technical details.
Normally we wouldn’t report about a book chronicling the life on the road of a touring musician. But when that musician happens to be Rush drummer Neil Peart, and his travels on concert tour are undertaken primarily by motorcycle on scenic byways, well, here you go: “Roadshow: Landscape with Drums-A Concert Tour by Motorcycle” is a fun read, largely due to Peart’s easy-going, personable style.
LIKE THIS CUSTOMIZED Honda 919 streetfighter? It could be yours for just $5. Yes, it’s true. This is the latest in a six-year run of Cycle World raffle bikes that so far has raised almost $300,000 for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s "Ride for Kids” program.
Honda’s CX500 Turbo “Pressure Cooker” was the biggest news this month a quarter-century ago. “It’s big, heavy, expensive and complex, but the flair and exuberance overcome almost everything,” read the table-of-contents blurb. The limited-edition Honda cost $4898 and was the most electro-gizmo-tronickly advanced bike of its time, but power delivery showed a sudden spike at 5000 rpm, when boost pressure reached a whopping 19.3 psi.
JUST AS I WAS ENVISIONing myself zipping to and fro in hushed silence on a hybrid two-wheeler, doing my part to put the brakes on global warming, my environmentally friendly daydream came to a screeching halt. Cool concept drawings aside, eCycle, the Pennsylvania-based producer of the SolidSlot brushless motor/generator designed to work in conjunction with all manner of small-displacement gas and diesel engines, says it has no plans to produce complete, running versions of the models pictured here.
Italian bike-maker Moto Morini recently rolled out its latest project, an evolution of the Corsaro 1200—the Corsaro Veloce. The look is aggressive and sharp, with the added benefits being reduced overall weight and improved chassis response.
UP: To hip-hop artist Ludacris and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, for helping families in need. Harley and the rapper joined forces to support The Ludacris Foundation’s annual holiday party, held last December, in Atlanta, Georgia. More than 100 children attended the party, part of the Luda Cares initiative, supporting children and families in need during the holiday season by providing food, toys and clothing.
MENTION "MOTO Guzzi Sport" to riders of a certain age and a clear image comes to their minds—that of a classic, elegantly styled, V-Twin sportbike painted bright metallic green with a flaming-red frame, big drum brakes and wire-spoke wheels.
EVERYBODY KNOWS JESSE JAMES' CELEBRITY pit bull Cisco, but few know he also owns a two-legged chihuahua that hops around like a small dancing bear. And he also has the inside scoop on the Kid Rock/Pamela Anderson breakup, though we are not at liberty to divulge.
The question I get asked the most about Radial Hell? “What’s it sound like?" When people first see it, they just stand there knowing it’s a motorcycle but not really sure why. Or how. But they all have to hear the sound. I’ve always thought the radial engine was a thing of beauty.
Decadence. Who doesn’t want some? Nominally it’s a bad thing, but so is nymphomania. The dictionary says it's "a state of deterioration or corruption." I reckon it’s the party going full-blast, even though it’s 4 a.m. and everyone’s wasted.
The King and the Kid team up to create a MotoGP board-track racer
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Mark Cernicky
TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE, AND NO MOTOR. THE 990CC MONsters of MotoGP are now gone, replaced by even higher-tech 800s. At least one of the Big Bangers, though, continues to make noise-and news. Credit for that goes to Kenny Roberts, three-time Grand Prix world champion, main man at Team KR, and to Roland Sands, once an AMA 250 GP champion, now at the very top of the custom-building game as president of moto-design house RSD. This back-to-the-future board-tracker is the product of their combined efforts.
UTAH’S BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS WEREN’T CREATED FOR Vincent motorcycles, but no other brand is so closely tied to that prehistoric lakebed. Thank Rollie Free for that. In 1948, at risk of major epidermal trauma, Free stepped into his Speedo (and not much else) for a world-record run on his Vincent Black Lightning-150.313 mph in his beach togs!
USE HAMMERS, AN ENGLISH WHEEL, SHRINKERS, SHOT-bags, rollers, a psychic stretcher if you have to-what-ever it takes to bend your mind around this Roger Goldammer speedster. Twice named AMD World Champion of Custom Bike Building, Roger toils away in rural British Columbia.
NO MASS-PRODUCED MUSCLE-CRUISER RIVALS THE BRUTE force of Suzuki's Boulevard M109. But while a showroom-stock “'Busa-cruza” is capable of rolling over its competition like a Pro Bowl lineman crashing a high-school scrimmage, you can’t help but wonder what a healthy diet could do for Suzuki's 720-pound behemoth.
MORE THAN A DECADE AGO, CHICA WAS ROLLING ROCKA-billy-style through the streets of Kyoto, Japan. He was running a bike shop, but it was mostly doing repair work. He liked building complete customs even then, but he couldn’t find anybody who liked his retro style over there.
American engine meets French frame. In rural Wisconsin, yet.
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PETER EGAN
THERE'S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT A HARLEY SPORTSTER motor that triggers the imaginations of chassis designers. You've got that elemental mechanical architecture, as beautiful in its own way as a Vincent or Ducati V-Twin, crying out to be made the centerpiece of a light and lithe sportbike.
WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T call the vehicle you see here a “trike.” Actually, there are a couple of other things that you probably shouldn't blurt out, like “motorcycle," “quad" or “car." What the hell is it, then? And what is it doing in Cycle World?
BACK IN '69, THE Sportster was a monster, a mega-motored superbike that was the quickest machine Cycle magazine had ever tested. Its very nature gave the bike an edgy, tough stance and made it a serious machine for serious riders. But sometime between then and now, the Sportster got soft, the edge was lost and it became a "nice" bike, sort of a Harley for beginners.
Torture-testing the Christini AWD at the "Last Man Standing" extreme enduro
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RYAN DUDEK
OUT OF 128 STARTERS, only two riders completed the second-annual Red Bull "Last Man Standing" off-road race, a 1.5 percent finishing rate, thus making it the world's toughest enduro. Do not take my word for it. None other than David Knight said it was the hardest race he has ever done, never mind that he won the event for the second year in a row.
Losing rear-wheel traction may soon become a thing of the past. How so? All-wheel-drive motorcycles seamlessly transfer power to the front wheel that would otherwise be wasted by rear wheelspin. While the Christini All-Wheel-Drive system mechanically transfers power to the front, the system used by Öhlins (familiar for its higher-end suspension products) features a hydraulic drive to accomplish this.
APRILIA SXV SM NAMED WORLD CHAMPION... Ducati Hypermoto earns design awards...KTM 950 SM expands the standard for standards... BMW HP2 SM on the way...and Buell just unveiled its new XB12 SuperTT. If it’s true that it takes two to tango, then V-Twin supermotos have crowded the dance floor of late.
IF IT HASN’T HIT YOUR TOWN JUST YET, don’t worry; it soon will. With ever-in-creasing frequency in communities all around the country, cops are on the prowl for bikes with loud pipes, Harley-Davidsons in particular, issuing either fix-it tickets or citations carrying sizable fines.
LOOKING FOR AN EASY WAY TO RECORD your favorite backroad rides or trackday exploits? Are you tired of trying to find a place to mount that behemoth video camera on your bike? Do you want to try radical new angles, just like the television feed from Nicky Hayden’s MotoGP racer?
TWO YEARS AGO, SUZUKI TOOK A chance on the emerging supermoto niche to become the first Japanese major to offer North Americans a turnkey, street-legal supermoto bike. The wager paid off with strong sales. The nimble, lightweight, affordably priced DR-Z400SM got under our skin, too, and we added it to our long-term fleet to see if the appeal would remain strong over time.
IT'S A FACT: MOTORCYCLES VIBRATE. Because the buzz is less prevalent in modern machines than in the bikes of yesteryear, current-day riders seem less tolerant of even the tiniest pulsations emanating from common points of contact-handgrips, seat or footpegs-particularly if the vibes occur at cruising speeds.
THESE RED WING MODEL 970s FIT THE classic definition of motorcycle boots. Technology is not touted; there are no fitor protection-enhancing "mechanisms." They just are made of leather and rubber and have metal buckles to hold them on your feet, sized 6-14.
AS CONSPIRACY THEORIES GO, IT’S A ZINGER, BY RACING STANdards on par with the JFK magic bullet and a Saddam Hussein-led Iraq being a storehouse for weapons of mass destruction. For the better part of a decade, Kenny Roberts, team owner, was one of the most powerful men in motorcycle racing.
Q Can you please enlighten me as to how a V-Twin streetbike such as the Ducati 999, which must pass emissions and noise standards as well as having a streetable power delivery, can put out 65 horsepower per 500cc cylinder, yet a single-cylinder racebike in unrestricted form such as the Honda CRF450R only delivers 55 hp?
What you need is a third hand. Either that or the dexterity of a magician when you’re working alone in a dark, confined area of a motorcycle while attempting to position a part, manipulate a tool and hold a flashlight all at the same time. For those of us who haven’t mastered such feats of legerdemain, Mechanix Wear (www.mechanix.com; 800/222-4296)-well-known for its extensive line of mechanic’s gloves-has conjured a more practical solution with its $27 Glove Light (part # GL5-05).
NHTSA Recall No. 07V003000 Kawasaki Ninja 250R Model years: 2004-07 Number of units involved: 29,599 Problem: On certain motorcycles, the fuel tank may have been punctured or weakened by a fairing-mounting screw or a manufacturing operation.