#JohnBurns

“If you want a friend in this world, get a dog.”
—Harry S. Truman

Harley-Davidson is launching a new modular platform including a liquid-cooled DOHC engine that will be produced in four displacements ranging from 500cc to 1250cc. This platform will result in three product lines, an adventure touring family, a streetfighter/standard family and a more traditional H-D custom lineup.

As long as there’ve been motorcycles, there’ve been lusty moto-savages setting out not just across the country but around the world, beginning at a time when paved roads were almost as rare as free Wifi hotspots, when cruise control consisted of knowing your shipping timetables, when Gore Tex was what charging cape buffalo did to your buddy from Dallas. When heated grips meant your exhaust was too close to your leather saddlebags, when… you get the picture. Here are ten such lusty brave adventurers (11 actually, and one mom), in no particular order and completely subjective, with apologies to guys like Helge Pedersen and Andy Goldfine (who are already household names), and even Louis and Temple Abernathy (lead image) because they preferred to travel by horse.

About the time you’re sophisticated enough as a rider to bungee on a milk crate and hit the road for a day or three, it’s time to start thinking about what to bring along – that fine line between overpacking and wishing you’d brought your dang ____________. Here’s a quick list of the things we hate to be stuck without when the fickle finger of fate pokes us in the eyeball.

Behold and covet my brand new jacket, the aptly named Yaguara, as that’s the kind of jungle cat I feel like when I’m wearing it. Grrrrr… The reason it’s $650 is because it’s designed to work with the Alpinestars Tech-Air inflatable airbag vest, that’s right, the same one they use in their high-end roadracing suits. Well, not exactly the same one, as there are slightly different Street and Race vest systems. More info here, but basically there’s an optional vest that zips in, plugs in, and will inflate – in 25 milliseconds – via a pair of argon inflation cartridges to protect your torso and shoulders, when it determines you’re about to have a real adventure. That’s 1/40 of a second.

There I was last Wednesday night in Stevenson, Washington, on the northern bank of the mighty Columbia River via the excellent hospitality of Yamaha for the launch of the new Tracer 900 GT. I was slurping a fine glass of the local vino when I overheard Greg the Rider magazine guy talking about riding home to SoCal on the new bike, via the Cascades and other places.

Don’t be confused by the new appellation: The MT-07 is the same Yamaha FZ-07 that’s won every MO middleweight mashup we’ve thrown it in since it was new in 2014, beating up on all sorts of bikes since then, including the KTM Duke 690, all Suzuki SV650 variants, various Kawasaki 650 mutations, Hondas of diverse specification, the H-D Street Rod, et al.

Dear MOby,

It’s “Touring Month” here at MO, and how fitting, ’cause I’ve been riding the wheels off our borrowed Honda Gold Wing for a while now. (Just to let you know I’m not in Honda’s pocket, I’d be just as happy to be riding the wheels off the BMW K1600B, but BMW had to have it back.) I could also be happy to be riding the wheels off a Victory Cross Country 8-Ball, though a quick sweep through Cycle Trader informs me those things seem to be holding their value nicely and are still out of my price range.

It was rough duty but somebody had to do it: Hang out at Laguna Seca’s World Superbike/MotoAmerica race all weekend so as to be there early Monday to ride around on Pirelli’s new supersporty street tire, the Diablo Rosso Corsa II. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this, since Pirelli has been the official tire of the WSBK since 2004 and will continue to be through at least 2020.

KTM updated this little rascal for 2017, but we’re just now getting our hands on the new bike. Basically it’s got even more of the things we liked and less of the ones we didn’t – more accel and decel, and therefore the RC’s an even bigger bargain than before if minimalist corner-carving is your thing.

Kind of when it comes to love, money, work, international diplomacy – everybody has to learn the hard lessons on their own. Some other things, though, it’s good to learn from those more experienced, those who’ve slid around the block a few times on their head. Well, sister, that’s me. There’s a lot to take in and understand when learning how to ride a motorcycle. It all looks so easy and fluid from afar, but there’s a lot that’s all happening at the same time, and it can be somewhat overwhelming. Fortunately, just like anything new, starting will be the hardest part. Here’s our best advice for staying safe while you get your sea legs.

Reviews of things like motorcycle gear can be tough to do the right way, because it’s really the test of time that reveals how good something like a boot is – and fashion being what it is, by the time you figure out that, yes, this is a great boot and worth $350 – that boot’s been replaced by something snazzier. I don’t remember when I got these Sidi Canyons, but I’m pretty certain it was during the Clinton administration. Bumping around the Motonation website a couple weeks ago whilst picking its owner’s brain about Baja, imagine my surprise to see the Sidi Canyon still right there for sale. I guess it’s time to review them, then.

I’m a capital C Conservative when it comes to holding onto some rituals, chief among them being the time-honored tradition of toasting one’s co-workers with a beverage at the end of a hard day of motojournalism. That tradition, I’m sad to say, is coming under attack from the forces of evil. At the recent Austrian launch of the new Yamaha Niken, it was almost difficult for me, Rider magazine’s illustrious Editor Mark Tuttle, and the 50-something guy Popular Mechanics sent, to enjoy our cocktails, knowing that the 20-somethings Cycle World/Motorcyclist sent were at that moment out gathering even more video footage of the Niken, on top of the thousands of hours we’d already captured that day. I know what it’s like to be young and ambitious, but outworking the other guy is no way to get ahead in the modern workplace. That’s only going to bring out the Tonya Harding in people.

To be honest, I didn’t pay any more attention when Yamaha announced it would actually produce the Niken than I do to the unicorns that occasionally wander into the back yard as I’m semi-dozing on the patio after a nightcap. Fanciful creatures of the imagination. But I snapped to fully woke when the invite came in over the email transom to come to Austria and ride the thing. What, it actually exists? Sure, why not?