#EvansBrasfield

Spidi 4Season H2Out Suit Review

This past weekend at the MotoGP race at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, I had the opportunity to tour the Michelin paddock area to learn some fascinating information about what happens to the Michelin MotoGP Tires on every race weekend.

I bought my first electric vest in the winter of 1989, and I’ve been using them during cold weather ever since. When Tom Roderick and I began planning our SaddleSore 1000 ride, I knew that an electric vest would be essential piece of my ability to keep warm in the cold temperatures that were forecast during our riding through the night. Thinking that this would be the ideal time to test Aerostich’s newest electric vest, I ordered a Kanetsu Airvantage Electric Vest to see if its internal air bladder was a worthwhile innovation.

Lately, I’ve been dissatisfied with my riding. I didn’t necessarily feel like I was doing anything wrong, but my mojo was definitely flagging. I felt like I was stagnating and needed to freshen up my technique. Perhaps some school was in order.

“The mountain is the mountain, and we are the people who go there.”

First introduced by Indian in 2015, the Roadmaster built on the Chieftain platform, adding additional touring and luxury features. Now, the company is releasing a Roadmaster variant, the 2017 Indian Roadmaster Classic. If the Roadmaster was a Chieftain with a trunk, the Classic is a Roadmaster for fans of leather.

Since its initial release, the Yamaha FZ-09 has garnered praise for having tremendous bang-for-the-buck. In fact, MO readers named it Reader’s Choice Best Value Bike Of 2015. However, there were still some heretics that felt the grunty Triple didn’t quite live up to its potential. The common refrain was, “Why on earth should an owner need to flash the EFI and upgrade the suspension to get a bike that performs like it should out of the box?”

The fact that most of MO’s editors are quite fond of Yamaha’s FZ-09 is fairly common knowledge. Our readers liked the FZ-09 enough to vote it Reader’s Choice Best Value Bike Of 2015. So, why is it that, up until now, the primary emotion I felt after riding the FZ-09 was disappointment? Frankly, I felt it never lived up to its potential. Two of its strongest attributes – the versatile engine and the responsive chassis – were hamstrung by a slight deficiency in Yamaha’s typically good R&D finish. Well, that was then.

What has dropped 10 pounds, gained larger wheels, honed down its seat height, and wields a kick ass new engine? If you said the Harley-Davidson Road King Special, you’d be right. So, what makes this Road King special?

Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness. – Sacha Guitry

Ask most motorcyclists about what role Bosch plays in our sport, and they’ll tell you that Bosch produces ABS technology and has been part of the recent trend towards expanding the technology into safety features like cornering ABS. All of this is true, but Bosch has its hands in so many areas of motorcycle technology that it would be hard to find one that the company is not currently developing. Last year, Bosch invited Kevin Duke and Tom Roderick to learn about how Bosch sees the future of technology-based motorcycle safety strategies and to sample cornering ABS in a controlled environment. Now, more than six months later we had an opportunity to sit down with Geoff Liersch, Head of the Bosch Two-Wheeler and Powersports business unit, to discuss what to expect from Bosch in the next few years.

With my three year anniversary as a card-carrying MOron rapidly approaching, I’ve been thinking over my time working at Motorcycle.com. As the staff photographer, I get to spend a little more time out of the office than my coworkers because I’m usually charged with shooting the bike tests – not just those that I’m writing. This translates into more saddle time for me – not a bad deal for someone who has chosen to devote the bulk of his adult life (if you can call it that) to motorcycling.

Here we go again. The wild ride that is Erik Buell Racing has announced that it is headed for another precipice. Will this be the one that finally, completely wipes the letters E, B, and R from the motorcycling landscape? Who knows, but we’re running out of fingers and toes to count the number of near-death experiences our favorite beleaguered motorcycle company has endured. What little we do know is contained in the press release below.

Since the Milwaukee-Eight engine was announced last year, much has been made of Harley-Davidson’s newest powerplant. The Motor Company increased power output while maintaining fuel efficiency in the all-new engine. Well, the updates didn’t stop with the engine itself. Over the two years prior to the engine’s release, the Pilgrim Road Powertrain Operations Plant had quietly been upgraded to handle the stringent manufacturing requirements of the new engine. (In fact, this update was the reason we weren’t let into the facility when we showed up on a road trip last year, as described in this article.)

In an effort to make sense out of the end of Victory Motorcycles, Motus founders Brian Case and Lee Conn posted a blog entry that looks not only at Polaris’ decision but all the way back to 2007 to the end of Pontiac. While this is a valid comparison regarding tough business decisions, the posting gains power when it describes the ways in which Victory didn’t adapt to the changing market and points to how those changes may tend to favor the type of bike Motus is building. As proponents of motorcycling at large, we hope that Motus has the opportunity to capitalize on this space that will be opening at some dealerships. The more successful manufacturers there are, especially ones manufacturing motorcycles in the USA, the better it is for motorcycling as a whole.