#JohnBurns

Slightly overlooked in this year’s Intermot insanity was Moto Guzzi’s announcement that its V85 TT is officially on the way. We first remember seeing this one at the EICMA show last November, but now it’s production-ready and quite the looker.

There, I was rocketing across the German countryside on the way from Cologne to Heidelberg with number-one son at my side. With no traffic ahead, my mechanical steed lowered its head and plunged ahead, bit firmly in teeth, rolling along the silky smooth bahn… 240 kph said the digital speedo, 260, 288, 303… yo that’s 188 mph! The telephone poles looked like a picket fence as the countryside flew past. We’d just spent a couple days at the big Intermot motorcycle show, and now were rewarding ourselves with a couple days of European vacation. How could it get any better than this, I asked myself as we sped crazily along? Pinch me.

What starts out on four legs in the morning, walks on two in midday and three in the evening? Wait, that’s the riddle of the Sphinx and has nothing to do with this. Or does it? Lots of us (at one time anyway) started off on cheap little scooters, graduated to bigger, faster motorcycles – and may return again to the scooter in our, ahhh, golden years. Not that there’s anything wrong with riding a scooter at any life stage in between. Today we are tasked with listing the advantages of each, motorcycle and scooter.

It was rough duty suffering the slings and arrows of trans-Atlantic air travel to bring back news of Indian’s exciting new FTR1200, but somebody had to do it. Aer Lingus, formerly the state airline of Ireland and consistently posting superior passenger BAC levels for decades, has gone the way of the world: Nary an empty seat on the Airbus A330, and barely a drop to drink all the way to Dublin. I pressed onward in spite of it all. We published all the press kit info here October 1, the day of the big coming-out party. Here we take a slightly deeper dive, with Indian’s Ben Lindaman, International Product Director, on the opening day of the Intermot show in Cologne (though a bunch of the photos are from the coming-out party the night before).

This was a pretty easy pick. The newly domesticated version of the mighty supercharged Kawasaki makes enough power in stock form – 171 on our dyno – to provide even the sickest speedfreak a full dose, but it does so in a sneaky, gentlemanly way: That air-cooled supercharger means the 998 cc Four only needs 10,000 rpm to produce all that power, and it’s making 89 lb-ft. of torque at only 8600 rpm. Suddenly the world is flying into your faceshield at an alarming rate, with no vibratory or auditory warning. Holy Kawasaki! That’s what we call efficiency, of which another byproduct is the SE’s ability to squeeze 40+ mpg from a gallon of gas, which gives it 200-mile range.

The Triumph Speed Twin has only been around for a couple of years, but it’s already getting an update, including a substantial 18% increase in power.

Four years ago, said Claudio Domenicali the CEO, Ducati launched its first Scrambler at Intermot here in Koln, which was really like starting a new brand for Ducati. A brand to make Ducati more accessible, and a really successful one so they say, with more than 55,000 units sold since 2015.

The Lightweight category of motorcycling is growing like a wildfire, with tons of cool bikes that offer style and performance that’s readily accessible for a new or inexperienced rider. But to us, the motorcycle topping the list of all those competent performers is the Kawasaki Ninja 400. Some May claim that the “small-displacement” moniker no longer applies, but to get hung up on 100cc is a waste of time for what’s otherwise an excellent motorcycle. The increase in size from the previous Ninja 300 brings with it a modest bump in power suitable for newbies, but also entertaining for experienced riders. Combine that with styling inspired by its bigger Ninja siblings, and new riders no longer have to feel self conscious about their beginner bike looking dated and ugly. This, in turn, helps keep riders from graduating to bigger, sexier machinery they may not be ready for.

Indian Motorcycle finally unveiled not one but two highly interesting motorcycles today, inspired by their highly successful FTR750 flat tracker: FTR1200 and FTR1200 S. Adding the “S” on the order sheet, when bikes become available in the spring, will get you, in addition to the 1203cc V-Twin-powered basic street tracker: fully adjustable front and rear suspension, a 4.3-inch Ride Command Bluetooth-equipped LCD touch screen, lean-angle sensitive stability control, ABS, traction control, wheelie mitigation control – and three ride modes.

It occurred to Shoei that there was a bit of a gaping hole in its line-up where a helmet for urban hip riders of Ducati Scramblers, Sportsters and things might fit, and so here it is, the new J-O. It’s available in five solids and six graphics (Sequel TC-5 in lead image). My newest open-face is a Bell Tracker from the ’90s (looks like they now assign that name to a bicycle helmet), which I still pull off the shelf now and then for short hops around town. But really, now that the modular helmet is here, to offer both open-face freedom/convenience and full-face function in one, for me there seemed to be very little need for an open-face. Then Shoei unveiled its new lid there at Deus ex Machina in LA, and suddenly I am into open-face again! Because style! Where do I get the tattoos?

The price you pay for the extra performance and light weight of aftermarket-exhaust liberty is internal vigilance. You’ll need to repack your muffler with new, ahh, packing material now and then. Unlike your typical stock exhaust, which is built to last a lifetime with muffler baffles made of steel and other solid metals, most performance pipes are packed with fiberglass-like packing stuff that uses itself up over time, reducing performance as it gradually blows out the tailpipe, and producing more noise. I remember this full-race Akrapovic system being surprisingly quiet when we put it on here, how long has it been? About five years ago. Lately it seems like it’s gotten considerably louder, but that could be because all the new bikes I bring home seem to be getting progressively quieter? Anyway, repacking this thing is a good way to see how it’s done.

UPDATE: the leaked video has been taken down, but the news is now official, as BMW has announced the Shift Cam system for the 2019 R1250GS and R1250RT. We expect they’ll be joined by the R1250GS Adventrue, R1250R and R1250RS at Intermot.

It’s not that I didn’t want to go on the big Adventure Bike Shootout a couple weeks ago; it’s just that I didn’t want to die a hot, thirsty death in the middle of nowhere. My perfectly legit excuse, though, was that as a team player, I want what’s best for MO, and having anybody less than a guy who really knows how to ride 600-pound motorcycles over terrain Marines would refuse to assault would be a disservice to both the manufacturers and MO’s faithful readers. Am I right? Of course I’m right. I know people who can ride a Triumph 1200 Explorer up and down vertical single-track trails; I’m not one of them.

I should probably have broken this down into “Riders Over 50 with a History of Failed Relationships and Bad Decisions Without a Pot to Piss In,” and “Riders Over 50 With Healthy Portfolios and Dazzling Smiles”… but I didn’t. Because motorcycles are still relatively inexpensive, and because all us old guys seem to be drawn to the same ones whatever they cost. Besides, even wealthy motorcycle people mostly seem to be inherently cheap; otherwise they’d be car people, no? Consider this my personal cross-section of the bikes people like me covet most, and/or actually would (theoretically in my case) own.

Okay so maybe I have grown a little bit jaded, ogling then hopping on all these exciting new models year after year, only to stumble across so many of them parked in the gutter a few years later with bald tires and faded paint. Like a grizzled combat veteran, you learn not to make new friends, to control your expectations. Lots of us were knocked for a loop by the Kawasaki Z900RS last year, and I was swept up in the rabble. Later, I felt the bike was a little too derivative of Kawasaki’s earlier work, too obviously grasping at middle-aged heartstrings. Ten minutes later the cool kids were slobbering all over the Vitpilen. I didn’t quite feel it, personally, and riding the bike a while ago didn’t convert me. Next.