#WeekendAwesome

Engines ring
Are you listening
On the lake
Snow is glistening
A beautiful sight
We’re happy tonight
Drifting in a winter wonderland.

They say you need good balance to ride a motorcycle. I’m not sure who “they” are, but I’m pretty sure “they” didn’t have Han Suining in mind. Han, a mechanic, demonstrated his balancing skills on the Chinese television show “Challenge the Impossible,” with this incredible feat.

This video comes to us from Malta, where a Honda rider minding his his own business suddenly notices a flash of bright neon yellow flitting towards him. Realizing it was a parakeet, he pulls over and the bird gently lands in his outstretched gloved hand.

The 2016 Bonneville Speed Motorcycle Speed Trials wrapped up this week with several riders again testing the limits of velocity. On Aug. 31, Valerie Thompson and the 7 Racing streamliner claimed a new record for the fastest ever time for a female rider with an average two-way speed of 294.782 mph. This video shows her fastest of the two runs, reaching a peak speed of 313 mph:

For this week’s video, we bring you Andy Villaruel, a 25-year-old from the Philippines, who builds miniature motorcycle models in incredible detail – despite being born without hands.

For this week’s video, we congratulate newlyweds Bruce and Andrea Tuia on their nuptials. The two lovebirds are part of the West Coast Connection stunt riding team, so naturally, motorcycles played a big role in their wedding celebrations.

This week’s video comes to us from Thailand where motorists spotted this cat riding pillion on a motorcycle:

This week’s video is for the arts and crafts MOrons out there (as well as the smokers out there). This video shows a step-by-step process for turning two cheap cigarette lighters into a tiny model motorcycle.

Almost exactly two years ago, we posted a Weekend Awesome video of Cody Elkins jumping a bike over an airplane. As great as that stunt was, there’s always room for improvement. Like, say, adding a tight rope walker. Or rather, a highliner, to be specific.

This week’s video comes to us from an FIM World Motocross Championship round in Teutschenthal, Germany, in May. Championship leader Tim Gasjer performed an absolutely filthy scrub, turning his bike horizontal and scraping his knee on the dirt just before he takes off.

The 2016 Isle of Man TT is done and dusted, and what a fortnight it was! It was a meeting filled with incredible highs and lows, brilliant warm weather throughout, record-setting performances across every class, and, sadly, the death of four competitors. The emotional intensity, fervor, and outright love for the TT and the brave riders who take on the Mountain Course is hard to describe, and quite complex.

Ah, the internet. The wondrous realm where household pets become celebrities, the color of a dress inspires intense debate and people do stupid stuff just because they can. Stuff like destroying a motorcycle engine using a hydraulic press. Why? Why not?

Remember the MotoBot, the autonomous motorcycle-riding robot? Yamaha continues to work on MotoBot, to the point where the robot can now ride an YZF-R1M on a race track. That certainly impressed MotoGP star Valentino Rossi who recently checked in with Yamaha’s engineers to see MotoBot in action.

This week’s video is a lesson in the dangers of road debris, and the importance of wearing safety gear. A rider traveling down the Costa Mesa Freeway was in for a shock when a rear tire on car ahead of him kicked up a piece of wood, sending it flying right towards him. The rider had little time to react as the two-by-four spins in the air towards him, striking his bike’s windscreen and knocking it clean off.

This week’s video comes to us from Thailand where a man was spotted riding his scooter down the street, apparently asleep. With his head tilted to one side, his sandaled feet dragging along the ground and right hand holding the throttle slightly open, the unconscious rider wove his way down the street, sometimes wandering into the oncoming traffic lanes.