Most Read Articles Of 2019
So far in this celebration of 2019 on Motorcycle.com, we’ve turned to the staff MOrons for their choices of the best first rides and best shootouts of the year. Now, we gaze into the magic ball of Google Analytics to see what you readers selected with your finger taps, mice, and trackpads. While in the past we’ve typically had to adjust the clicks by the number of months that the articles have been live, I chose not to do that this year because the oldest article that made this list was from August. If it had been January, I would have thought that it had an unfair advantage. The other reason I decided to go with total clicks rather than an adjusted for time number was that the number four article of the year was posted only a week ago. Wrap your head around that. Now, just to really mess with you, that article has a decent amount of comments but nothing terribly eye-opening. So, if you’d asked me, I would have never guessed at the article’s popularity. The rest of the list is an interesting snapshot into the minds of you MOrons.
The most-read articles of 2019 are (in reverse order):
5. Honda’s Next Superbike Will Be Called The CBR1000RR-R
This selection is kinda shocking. We expected interest in the rumored update to the Honda CBR-1000, but an article about discovering the name through trademark filings? Perhaps the click-fever over the RR-R nomenclature was less about fun pirate sounds and more because, thanks to sleuthing from MO’s internet ninja, Dennis Chung, this mini-feature was posted in the run-up to EICMA when excitement was at a fever pitch. That might also explain why the actual release about the CBR1000RR-R received fewer clicks. Maybe it was drowned out in the flood of other EICMA announcements. Whatever the reason, the CBR1000RR-R’s name discovery was the number five story of the year according to page views.
3., 4. (and 6.) Indian Challenger Articles
We knew that readers were interested in the Indian Challenger, but to have it take up three slots in the top 10 articles of the year is awe inspiring. We’ll start with the number six slot and move to number three.
First rides of anticipated new models frequently run up fairly big numbers from the readers, and the 2020 Indian Challenger Review – First Ride ended up ranked six for the year. That’s a more than acceptable placing since it garnered 30% more page views than the next closest first ride, the 2020 BMW S1000RR. So, the Challenger was off to a good start – though not it the top 5.
Coming in at number four for the entirety of 2019 is an article that is only one week old, Bagger Battle: Harley-Davidson Road Glide Special Vs. Indian Challenger Limited. From the moment Burns returned from the Challenger intro, we set out to get a Harley-Davidson Road Glide to compare it to. When we finally got the story live, MO’s analytics lit up like a Christmas tree, which was only appropriate given the week the shootout was posted. Apparently, you readers wanted to see how the Challenger compared to the Road Glide enough to take time out of your Christmas holiday to read the shootout.
The 2020 Indian Challenger Leaked From Dealer Meeting mini-feature ended the year as our number three story. This time, it was the sneak peek at the Challenger from a dealer’s video that leaked from the Indian Dealer Meeting offering us our first glimpses of the new liquid-cooled engine 119 cu. in. engine and a few select details of the Challenger itself. In retrospect, we should have known what a big deal the Challenger was going to be from the interest in this short video article.
I’ll leave you with this thought: If these three articles’ page views were combined, the Challenger stories would be the runaway winner for 2019.
2020 Indian Challenger Leaked From Dealer Meeting
Bagger Battle: Harley-Davidson Road Glide Special Vs. Indian Challenger Limited
2. Top 6 – Best 300cc Motorcycles
Small displacement motorcycles are popular around the world, and here at MO, you readers seem to feel the same way. Thanks to recent interest from the manufacturers, who are finally producing some cool 300cc motorcycles, the Top 6 – Best 300cc Motorcycles has representatives from almost every category of street-going bikes. We’ve got a cruiser in the form of the Honda Rebel 300; a standard, Honda CB300R; a streetfighter, the KTM 390 Duke; two sportbikes, the Yamaha R3 and the Kawasaki Ninja 400 (well, sort of a 300); and even two adventure-styled bikes, the BMW G310GS and Kawasaki Versys-X 300. Small bikes are cool and exciting again, and we here at MO, being fans of all motorcycles – not just the fancy, expensive ones – couldn’t be happier. We hope the OEMs keep them coming!
1. Top 10 Dual-Sport Motorcycles
The winner of most-read MO article of the year, came as somewhat of a surprise to us. After all, our focus is primarily street bikes. Still, we do cover some dirt riding, and the Top 10 Dual-Sport Motorcycles covers both street and dirt. Or maybe this article just ranked well in SEO, as we say in the biz. Nevertheless, the manufacturers played an important role in sparking the interest in this class of motorcycle. With choices ranging from the recently updated Honda CRF450L to the electric Zero FX a wide variety of dual-sport interests can be addressed. Similarly, the displacement range from 250cc to 690cc covers the range of skills from newbie to expert to everything in between. Given this interest shown in this class of motorcycle, we’ll have to consider covering them more in the future.
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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Did any of my stories make the top 100?
I guess we really are MOrons