#DennisChung

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, which makes it as good a time as any for all of us to take stock of our own riding habits, both good and bad.

Most motorcyclists are familiar with the acronym “ATGATT”, but for those who aren’t, it stands for “All The Gear, All The Time”. That means wearing the right safety equipment every time you ride, whether you’re commuting to work, or hopping over to the corner store for a carton of milk.

BMW announced a new Automated Shift Assistant (ASA) for Boxer-engined motorcycles, offering automatic shifting without the need for a manual clutch lever. It’s not clear when this technology will be available on a production model, but BMW will follow Honda’s 2024 CBR650R and CB650R in bringing an electronically-controlled clutch to market.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has updated its vehicle-to-vehicle front collision testing to learn how well small SUVs do at avoiding hitting motorcycles – and as most motorcyclists suspect, the results were not very impressive.

It took a bit longer than we expected, but American Honda has officially announced the updated 500 models revealed at EICMA are coming to America for 2024. These include the NX500 (previously known as the CB500X) adventure bike, the CBR500R sportbike, and the CB500F, which most of the world calls the CB500 Hornet.

Last week, Harley-Davidson announced its Q1 2024 results, but tucked away in the numbers was the announcement that LiveWire is moving its operations from California to Milwaukee, joining its parent company at its historic headquarters.

Today is April 24.

That’s important to note, as it was the very first thing I checked after Kawasaki announced its pending departure from World Superbike racing for the 2025 season, transferring its factory team under the brand of its partially-owned subsidiary, Bimota. The news was the kind of surprise you would expect for an April Fools gag, but as I checked several times, April 1 was several weeks ago.

In our last Question of the Day, we asked about some of the more… questionable names given to motorcycles (Hondas seemed to come up fairly often in the replies, which is both interesting and somehow not surprising.) I mentioned how it’s generally safer for a manufacturer to stick to a combination of letters and numbers.

A little while ago, I wrote about my admiration for the Gladius, but conceded that its name didn’t really connect with people the way Suzuki probably wanted it to. If you knew that a gladius was a type of sword used by ancient Roman soldiers, you could see how it might make sense for a company that also gave us the Katana. If you didn’t, then it just sounded too much like “Gladys”, and the only vehicle that name would make sense for, is a midnight train to Georgia.

Piaggio is celebrating its 140th birthday with the release of a special edition Vespa that may prove to be the one of its most exclusive models ever. Based on the Vespa GTV, the Vespa 140th of Piaggio is limited to a maximum of 140 units, and will only be available for sale for four days, and only in select markets (those of us in North America are unfortunately out of luck).

This weekend, MotoAmerica’s King of the Bagger series is getting a big boost on the international stage as a supporting class to the MotoGP round at Circuit of the Americas. Bagger racing has been around for a few years now, but this was the first time it took place at the same track and weekend as MotoGP.

Aprilia has revealed new special edition liveries for the RSV4 Factory and Tuono V4 Factory recognizing the RSV4’s first World Superbike Championship race win in 2009.

Leaked document hints at a Chief with a Thunderstroke 122 engine

A major racing news bombshell dropped on, of all days, April 1, as Liberty Media, the owner of Formula 1, announced it was acquiring Dorna Sports, and both MotoGP and World Superbike racing. Of course, it was no joke, especially not when a $3.8 billion dollar transaction is involved. While it’s too early to know how this development will change things, we’ve already seen concerns raised about how much it will cost to watch these racing series, either on television, streamed, or in person.

After releasing the limited edition LXP Orioli at EICMA, MV Agusta officially announced the regular production model today, under the name Enduro Veloce. While we’re always glad to see another adventure bike on the market, we, like many others, weren’t sure we’d ever see the Enduro Veloce actually go into production.

Indian announced a fully-revamped Scout lineup, led by an all-new 101 Scout model. The new 2025 Indian Scout range features a new frame and a new 1,250cc liquid-cooled V-Twin engine, making for the first full-scale revamp of the line since Polaris relaunched Indian.