The 2018 edition of the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas will not be remembered as one of the best tilts of all time. Truthfully, it might not make the Top 100. But for defending world champion Marc Marquez, today’s walk in the park restored some order in the championship and washed away the ashes of Argentina. The series, picking up speed, now heads for Europe with the top five riders separated by eight points. Tight as tree bark.

Now that we’ve had 10 days to assess the Argentinian misadventure, a consensus seems to have formed around the BS being widely peddled by a petulant Valentino Rossi that Repsol Honda head case Marc Marquez should be put in front of an Italian firing squad and summarily executed. Marquez, it is true, may need to reconsider his approach to racing. This weekend could offer the opportunity he needs for a solitary retreat off by himself for a while, to ruminate on the sport and his place in it, and take the checkered flag when he’s done.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: April 17 – May 15

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: April 10 – May 8

Today’s Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina had something for every taste and budget, even after the laughable theft of the pole on Saturday. Wait-a-minute weather? Check. Chaotic, delayed start? Check. Seat-of-the-pants rulemaking? Check. Quadruple MotoGP world champion having a mental Mardi Gras? Check. Riveting finish that shakes up the world standings? Check. Satellite teams kicking posteriors? Check.

Right now would be a pretty good time to forget most everything you thought you learned two weeks ago in the Arabian Peninsula. This week the sadists at Dorna take us from the desert to the jungle. From them sizzling wide open man-made Qatari spaces to a grueling, tighter Argentinian layout hacked out of triple canopy, deep in the humid heart of nowhere. Marquez and the factory Yamahas like this place.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: April 3 – May 1

Before we got married, I took my wife to the stock car races at El Cajon Speedway, east of San Diego. It was kind of a test. I wanted to be sure she could handle my Southern, inbred hick-ness before signing on. This was back in the 1980s when there were still a lot of Chevelle-bodied cars running on America’s dirt ovals. In fact, it seemed like just about all the cars were Chevy Chevelles that night.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Mar 27 – April 24

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Mar 20 – April 17

The season opener at Losail went mostly according to expectations, which is to say it was crowded up front. At one point I counted nine bikes in the lead group, a sight normally seen in Moto3. French sophomore Johann Zarco led from pole most of the day, fueling a lot of premature trash talk. Once his tires went up, though, it came down to Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez for early bragging rights. Round One goes to the Italian on points. No TKO.

Nothing like the start of a new racing season to turn the iron in a man’s blood into the lead in his pencil. All the speculation, all the testing, all the contingencies will become moot once the lights go out in far-away Qatar. The Alien class – Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales – is sharpening their fairings in anticipation. Another handful of riders dream of getting their tickets punched in 2018.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Mar 13 – April 10

ED: Bruce Allen’s 2018 MotoGP season preview continues with a look at what we can expect from each team and their riders. If you missed it, here’s Part 1.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Mar 6 – April 3

ED: With the pre-season testing now complete, Bruce Allen previews the 2018 MotoGP season. In this first part, Bruce presents his observations on the tests. Check back here next week for Bruce’s team-by-team analysis.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Feb 20 – Mar 20

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Feb 13 – Mar 13

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Jan 30 – Feb 27

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Jan 23 – Feb 27

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Jan 16 – Feb 27

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Jan 9 – Feb 27

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Jan 2 – Feb 27

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Dec 26 – Feb 20

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Dec 19 – Feb 20

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Dec 12 – Feb 20

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Dec 5 – Jan 30

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Nov 28 – Dec 26

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Nov 21 – Dec 19

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Nov 14 – Dec 12

All season long, we at MO have been chanting the mantra, “Let Valencia Decide.” With the title unsettled heading into the weekend, the opportunity for a riveting finale existed (if only mathematically), Marc Marquez holding a 21 point lead over Ducati pilot Andrea Dovizioso as the riders lined up on the grid. The math caught up with Dovi on Lap 25 when, desperate to get past insubordinate teammate Jorge Lorenzo, he ran hot into Turn 8, ultimately laying his GP17 down gently in the gravel. And so the 2017 title was awarded at Valencia, having been decided some weeks earlier.

So, 2017 has all come down to this – a technical showdown between Repsol Honda studmuffin Marc Marquez, gripping a 21-point lead, and a determined Andrea Dovizioso, virtually hopeless onboard the Ducati GP17, for all the marbles on Sunday. Even if Dovi wins, Marquez has to finish worse than 11th in order to choke this one away. To clarify, it is a showdown in only the most technical, theoretical sense. It will take a Dovizioso win and direct intervention by the racing gods to keep Marc Marquez from MotoGP title #4 on Sunday.

AIMExpo offered us some tasty hors d’oeuvres and last month’s Tokyo Show further whetted our appetites with new motorcycles from the Japanese manufacturers, but the main course is now upon us. That’s right, it’s time for the 2017 EICMA Show the largest motorcycle show on earth, where manufacturers from around the world gather in Milan, Italy, to reveal their most exciting new models.

There is a beacon that shines brightly each October – a mysterious cosmic force beckoning female riders from all over the globe to congregate in the heart of the High Desert. What started as a casual camp trip with a small group of friends has exploded into a large-scale annual event in Joshua Tree, CA. Five years after its inception, the popularity and attendance of Babes Ride Out has skyrocketed like a one-way mission to Mars.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Oct 31 – Nov 28

Factory Ducati #1 rider Andrea Dovizioso could hope for but one thing as the starting lights went out at the wet Sepang circuit – win the race and keep the title chase alive heading back to Spain for the finale. Trailing defending champ Marc Marquez by 33 points entering the day, he needed to cut the deficit to less than 25 to avoid having to endure another nauseating Marquez title celebration. By winning the race, and with Marquez off the podium, the 2017 title will be decided in two weeks at Valencia, and is more likely to end with a whimper than a bang.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Oct 24 – Nov 21

For the fourth time in five premier class seasons, Honda’s remarkable Marc Marquez stands on the cusp of a championship. His win in Australia last week left him with a short to-do list this week in Malaysia: 1) Try to finish no worse than second. 2) Try to finish ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. 3) If both #1 and #2 fail, lose to Dovizioso by seven points or less. Otherwise, he will have to return to Valencia in two weeks for some kind of decider. Probably the best thing for #93 would be to euthanize this title chase Sunday under the cover of darkness, many time zones removed from home, setting up a triumphal fait accompli return to Spain. We couldn’t disagree more.

Honda triple MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez survived a crowded, snappish, paint-trading lead group today for the win that now makes the 2017 championship his to lose. With Yamahas everywhere, and guys like Johann Zarco and Andrea Iannone bouncing around like pinballs, it was just another picture-perfect Phillip Island grand prix. The confounding Valentino Rossi somehow finished second today, teammate Maverick Viñales third. But having both factory Yamahas on the podium felt like a small achievement on the same day the team’s faint hopes for a championship came to an end.

Those readers who can recall all the way back to last year will remember it as the year of nine winners. Some will recall it as a year Marc Marquez titled and eight other guys won races. 2017 will be remembered as the year Andrea Dovizioso got his Alien card punched and went looking for Marquez at crunch time, anxious to take on the Spanish wonderkid.

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Oct 17 – Nov 14

For the second time this season, Factory Ducati #1 Andrea Dovizioso and Repsol Honda prodigy Marc Marquez gave us a late-race knives-in-a-phonebooth duel, a ten-point spread in the standings at the top of the heap at stake. And for the second time this season, Dovizioso prevailed in what was almost a carbon copy of the first win, a last lap exchange of fortunes in Austria. Now it’s Two for the Road, as the two “blessed” riders in this year’s championship, separated by 11 points, seem destined to square off in Valencia.

Once again MotoGP embarks on its annual Darwinian excursion through some of the world’s most exotic time zones for what is laughingly called The Pacific Swing. As if it were a square dance and not a grueling test of mettle and metal. One week at Honda’s glowing home crib, one on the windswept tundra of the south Australian coast, and one in the autoclave of Sepang. Can Honda’s Marc Marquez seize his fourth MotoGP title on this chaotic cruise, or will he leave things dangling for the Valencia finale?

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Oct 10 – Nov 9

Upcoming Motorcycle Events: Oct 3 – Oct 31

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening within the next 30 days.

Honda’s Marc Marquez recovered from an error early in the race to win the dramatic third of four Spanish rounds, #14 in Aragon. Following his blown engine in Britain and his win in the rain at Misano, the young Catalan wonder now has momentum heading into the three-races-in-three-weeks hell of the Pacific flyaway. The podium celebration, also featuring teammate Dani Pedrosa and exiled Ducati pilot Jorge Lorenzo, took us back to the old days of 2013. The prospect of settling the championship in Valencia, however, dimmed somewhat.

This past Saturday marked the tenth installment of one of Southern California’s favorite vintage motorcycle events, the Venice Vintage Motorcycle Rally. Established in 2007, the Venice Vintage Motorcycle Club (VVMC) is comprised of a band of motorcyclists faithful to and united by the love of riding and maintaining old machines. They’re dedicated to the preservation and celebration of motorcycle culture and everything that goes with it.

As predictable as the leaves turning in the Fall, the U.S. motorcycle show season begins this week with the AIMExpo. This is where the industry – and the lucky civilians who live close enough to Columbus, Ohio, to attend the public days this weekend – gives the U.S. market its first glimpse of what it has in store for the 2018 model year. While we’ve already had some announcements from BMW, with its K1600B introduction; Yamaha, introducing the Star Venture and unveiling the Eluder; and Harley-Davidson, updating its entire Dyna assimilating Softail line, that doesn’t mean the OEMs don’t have other surprises up their sleeves.

Sunday’s Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón de MotoGP is unlikely to have a momentous impact on the 2017 championship standings. Honda’s Marc Marquez and Ducati pilot Andrea Dovizioso, playing cat and mouse at 200 mph and tied at present, will head for the Pacific flyaway rounds separated by, at most, 25 points. The man in jeopardy of losing touch is factory Yamaha prodigy Maverick Viñales. A crash this week could put him some 40 points behind the leader – whoever it is – with four rounds to go, not a good place to be, even on a YZR-M1.

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening within the next 30 days.

I’m not sure if every generation that hits my 20-something age range sees a sudden spike in its demographic getting tattoos of daggers, huffing light-blue American Spirits, and stocking up on vests of various materials, but these things all lead that group pursuing the next coolest thing they can do beyond not giving a heck what you think, mom. That next thing can be any number of things from knitting to custom motorcycles.

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening within the next 30 days.

Magnificent Marc Marquez put on a last lap for his career highlight reel in beating a plucky Danilo Petrucci and conservative Andrea Dovizioso to the flag in a wet Tribul Mastercard GP San Marino e Riviera di Rimini. In doing so, he rained on Ducati’s parade, tied series leader Dovizioso for the championship lead heading to Aragon, and reminded those of us who watch racing how exceptionally gifted he truly is.

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening within the next 30 days.

MotoGP turns its sights on stunning San Marino once again, returning this weekend for Round 13 minus Valentino Rossi, who, as everyone knows by now, badly broke his leg in a training accident last week. Ducati pilot Andrea Dovizioso, perhaps the Italian erede apparente, leads the now diminished 2017 chase pursued by three Spaniards. He and the two youngsters, Marc Marquez and Maverick Viñales, can only feel relieved that the yellow 800-pound gorilla has left the room. Dani Pedrosa, the fourth challenger, his prospects now marginally improved, hangs in contention by a thread.

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening within the next 30 days.

On an idyllic Sunday afternoon in the British countryside, Ducati veteran Andrea Dovizioso, in the midst of a dream season, won the British Grand Prix, pimping the factory Yamaha team at the flag. Disaster struck the Repsol Honda team on Lap 14 when Marc Marquez, fast and fighting for the lead, saw his engine, and series lead, go up in smoke. The championship heads to Misano in two weeks tighter than tree bark.

MotoGP Madness descends upon the British Midlands this weekend as Round 12, the two-thirds mark of the 2017 season, arrives. Repsol Honda prodigy Marc Marquez maintains his lead in the series at 16 points, but only 35 points separate the top five riders. A single mishap for #93 and it’s anybody’s season. But Marquez was down by 37 points after Mugello, and has gained 53 points on the field in the last five rounds. His pursuers need to evacuate or get off the pot if they want to Let Valencia Decide.

Here’s our weekly guide to the upcoming motorcycle events and rides that are happening within the next thirty days.