Most Popular Articles Of 2017 On Motorcycle.com
Based on the clicks of MO readers
Here at Motorcycle.com, we try to cover the breadth of motorcycling. Every day, we strive to find and deliver the very best that the world of motorcycles has to offer. In the spirit of that endeavor, we look forward to the end of the year as an opportunity to gaze back over the past 12 months to see where we were successful. We’ve found the best way to gauge how well we have achieved our goal is to look at what articles our readers have been clicking on as they visited our site or queried search engines.
What follows are the results of a deep dive into MO’s analytics concerning the stories published in 2017. In order for this to be a fair representation, we took the number of hits generated by each article and divided it by the number of months that it was online. We have to admit that there were a few surprises. For example, the news about the complete overhaul of the Harley-Davidson Softail line didn’t crack the top 10 – or 20 – though perhaps that is because everyone else was writing about it, too.
Read on and be enlightened.
10. 10 Great Motorcycle Rides In North America
Everybody wants to know how their favorite roads compare to others across the country. Or maybe enough of you were planning your future rides. Regardless, enough of you clicked on this article for it to rank 10th for 2017. Take a look, you might find your new love.
9. Top 10 Personal Favorite Harley-Davidsons
FNG Brent Jaswinski has got to be pretty stoked to see one of his articles crack the top 10 most-read articles of the year. After all, he’s only been an official MOron for a couple months. Still, his list of personal favorite Harleys obviously resonated with MO readers. Congratulations, Brent, now get back to work washing those motorcycles!
8. 2017 Superbike Spec Chart Shootout
While we knew that our 2017 Superbike Shootout would be one of the most read articles of the year, we were surprised that an article which had no actual riding would rank so high. Perhaps it’s that March is still pretty chilly in great swaths of the U.S., and people need to cosy up to a good spec sheet (moto-porn?) to do a little fantasy riding.
7. First Look: 2018 Honda Gold Wing And Gold Wing Tour
The wholesale update to the venerable Honda Gold Wing was long overdue. After all, the most recent of what Honda calls its Gold Wing milestone models was released in 2001. Since then, the Wing had only gotten mild freshening. Well, that’s all changing for 2018, and you readers, with your curiosity about what the reimagining of the Wing holds, have put it in among the most read articles of the year.
6. 2017 KTM 390 Duke Review
We expect bikes like the Gold Wing and other flagship motorcycles to attract attention, but to have a small-displacement motorcycle in the mix shows what a great job KTM is doing with the 390 Duke. You readers have voted with your clicks the same way we voted on the Best Lightweight/Entry-Level Motorcycle Of 2017.
5. 2017 Superbike Street Shootout
We expected the 2017 Superbike Shootout to be on our year-end most read list, and here it is. Of note in this selection is that it only covers the street portion of the shootout. If we’d added in the 2017 Superbike Track Shootout, the article would place even higher in the rankings. Still, when we think about it, the vast majority of superbike owners spend most of their riding time on the street. So, naturally, they’d want to know how they rated in that environment.
4. Polaris Is Closing Victory Motorcycles
Unfortunately, the story for Victory Motorcycles wasn’t rosy in 2017. Polaris had been investing heavily into its Victory lineup, making us excited about its future products. But after adding Indian Motorcycle to its portfolio, Polaris ultimately decided there wasn’t room for both companies in the marketplace and refocused its efforts on the brand that enjoys a rich history and resonance with consumers, Indian. Sadly, Victory’s 18-year run is over.
3. 10 Best Beginner Motorcycles
While the bulk of Motorcycle.com’s readers are experienced riders, we MOrons want to grow the sport that we have based so much of our lives around. That’s why we try to put out articles to give important information to both aspirational riders and novices. Yeah, some of the content may not be of interest to grizzled veterans, but we were all newbies once. Help them out and grow the sport.
2. The Most Expensive Production Motorcycles In The World
We can’t help it. Humans are naturally curious about how the 1% lives. So, here’s your chance to see the cost of exclusivity. With prices ranging from around $26,000 to almost $170,000, there’s something here for every level of wretched excess. Fun reading for those with caviar tastes but tuna fish budgets.
1. The 10 Most Reliable Motorcycle Companies
While the second-place article published in 2017 may have dealt with the rarified prices that only the few can afford, the most popular article posted on Motorcycle.com shows that many of us have more practical concerns when looking for our dream machine. Go take a look at where your favorite marque ranks on the list originally compiled by Consumer Reports. Some of the results may surprise you.
Like most of the best happenings in his life, Evans stumbled into his motojournalism career. While on his way to a planned life in academia, he applied for a job at a motorcycle magazine, thinking he’d get the opportunity to write some freelance articles. Instead, he was offered a full-time job in which he discovered he could actually get paid to ride other people’s motorcycles – and he’s never looked back. Over the 25 years he’s been in the motorcycle industry, Evans has written two books, 101 Sportbike Performance Projects and How to Modify Your Metric Cruiser, and has ridden just about every production motorcycle manufactured. Evans has a deep love of motorcycles and believes they are a force for good in the world.
More by Evans Brasfield
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I'm shocked one of my columns isn't in this list. Shocked!
I'm a lot more inclined to believe "unreliability" is a factor more of the rider/driver than the bike/car itself. And, as mentioned, vehicles from the last 15yrs or so, have nearly all their malfunctions attributed to electronic "systems" than to mechanical issues. All the geegaws that the public thinks they hafta have make the design/mfg more complex, leading to more opportunities for a "check engine" lite or somesuch. Elegance is simplicity.....and lastly, as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe so elegantly put it, "Less is more...."