Back in the day, long before I was but a glimmer in my parents’ eyes, single-cylinder motorcycles ruled the roost when it came to road racing. If you wanted to go fast or be top dog, then you hopped on a Single. Any number of manufacturers were building them because popping out one cylinder was much easier than pumping out multi-cylindered machines, but the early history of road racing belonged to British Singles.

There was a lot of hoopla last weekend over the accomplishment of Cal Crutchlow being the first Brit to win a premier-class Grand Prix race since Barry Sheene in 1981. Congratulations, Cal, don’t get cocky. Which is exactly what he did following the race referring to his competitors as “wimps” – an accusation basted with the decorum of his enrollment in “the Donald Trump School of Tact and Grace,” according to Bruce Allen’s post-race autopsy. So let’s put this in perspective; Cal won a race – a rain race due to lucky tire selection – not a championship based on skill and season-long consistency.

Kawasaki Motor Corp. USA just moved from its forever headquarters in Irvine, California, to a new HQ five miles away in Foothill Ranch. There’s probably a very good reason you’d pack up your huge warehouse/office and everything and everybody in it, but nobody at a level that deals with the likes of me seems to know why. Anyway, the same things happen when anybody moves: You dig up a lot of old stuff you forgot you had. How about a quick spin through the stuff that didn’t get thrown out?

If you’re a motorcyclist, you’ve heard of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. With Sturgis being one of the largest motorcycle gatherings in the world, people think they know what there is to do when attending the event. However, when questioned, they mostly mention shenanigans that take place on Main Street – activities that are so numerous that they’ve long since spilled onto and taken over nearby Lazelle Street. Or perhaps newbies express their desire to attend the events at the famous campground, concert venue, and all around party central, the Buffalo Chip. While these two locations are essential to the Sturgis experience, so much more is available to riders who attend the rally.

“You guys never say anything bad about the bikes you test.”

It’s been a couple years since we posted our Top 10 Honda Sportbikes list. There always exists subjectivity in such a list, but since the Honda topic was generally well-received, revisiting the idea, this time showcasing Yamaha sportbikes, seemed apropos. Like the Honda list, we’re keeping this one limited to street-legal models available stateside (except one, sue us).

As an industrial designer, one might wonder what took Hugo Eccles so long to blend his profession with his love for motorcycles. Then again, in his 20-year career servicing clients like Ford Motor Company, American Express, TAG Heuer, LG, Olympus, Nike and many more, it’s understandable that maybe he was a wee bit busy with his day job to worry about his hobby.

This is merely my subjective list of 10 good things, but there are really no bad things about riding those few hundred miles from MO’s SoCal headquarters to the Monterey peninsula; blasting over a few mountain ranges, making time up the spine, toasting the coast. Mother Nature pulled out all the stops in the scenery department, the weather’s perfect, we wangled six great bikes (more on them next week). The fact that it’s a World Superbike and MotoAmerica race weekend is really just a bonus.

World Superbike and MotoAmerica are both underway this weekend at one of America’s most famous race courses, Laguna Seca. From KTM RC Cup, Superstock, Supersport, and Superpole to Superbike, the combined racing event is so packed with action there should be nothing further compelling you to attend. But, if you’re in need of extra enticement, or maybe a reminder of what you use to love about going, let us spell it out for ya.

What is it about motorcycles that makes riders immediately want to modify their bikes? Sometimes, they don’t even make it out of the dealership before some of the OE parts have been replaced with “performance enhancing” upgrades. Back in the days when tires seemed to made out of stone, swapping out the stock rubber for something stickier truly was a way to earn street cred (assuming you scrubbed off the chicken strips) and improve the bike’s performance. Of course, this was during the Pleistocene epoch, when aluminum was considered an exotic material, and swapping out steel parts was another easy path to a sportier motorcycle.

In his review of the 2016 KTM 690 Duke, Evans Brasfield gave the bike a score of 89.75%. That’s a strong score, to be sure, but I didn’t pay much attention to it since, frankly, I wanted to find out for myself. Well, I’ve finally had the chance to do so, as we’ve recently put the KTM up against the new Suzuki SV650, the Yamaha FZ-07, and a first-gen SV650 from 1999. That test will go up tomorrow, but in the meantime let me say that I concur with Evans’ rating. It’s a fun bike, but without giving too much away here in the opening paragraph, here are 10 features to like about the 2016 KTM 690 Duke.

Looking back 30 years at things auto- and moto-motive is like stumbling into those caves in France with the caveman art. I remember my dad’s Volare wagon with the slant-Six and the newfangled emission controls on the carburetor that ensured it ran like crap when it ran at all… Actually Japanese motorcycles were way ahead of cars at the time, but the miracle of modern electronics and the computer chip has rendered everything of that era antique. And the rate of progression of the last decade or so, if it keeps up, makes it impossible for my Cro-Magnon brain to even imagine what lies ahead. I tried anyway.

Parting with a loved one is never easy, but when it comes time to put out to pasture your two-wheel friend, there’s no reason you shouldn’t get the best price for it. If you’re like us, you’ll want a good home for the bike that’s been a part of numerous fond memories. Unless, of course, you crashed it. At that point it’s too late. Sell it to anyone with a pulse, swallow the the loss, and move on to greener pastures.

Your friendly Motorcycle.com staff has been there. Really. We all remember that moment when we decided we wanted to become motorcyclists. We will also never forget the day we threw a leg over our first street motorcycle. No moment in life – with the possible exception of parenthood – has so many hopes and fears associated with it.

In case you haven’t read my First Ride Review of the 2017 Suzuki SV650, let me sum it up for you: It’s an awesome motorcycle. Of course, if you’ve been reading MO for any length of time you’ll likely know I’m a big fan of the SV, having previously owned and raced one myself. With that, you can likely conclude that I’ve thrown journalistic objectivity out the window when it comes to the new SV. However, if Suzuki had missed the mark, I’d be sure to criticize instead of praise.

Why you’d rather watch a bunch of MOrons attempt to explain a thing with their mouths when you could read our eloquent prose instead still escapes me. I’m with Flaubert: “Human language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out a tune for a dancing bear, when we hoped with our music to move the stars.” Well, I guess there is that whole advantage of seeing and hearing the vehicle in motion…

In terms of value, these are some of the best motorcycles money can buy. Each one possesses the power and performance to put a smile on the mug of any motorcyclist for a price or monthly payment that doesn’t break the bank. The list encompasses a variety of models including sportbikes (of course), adventurers, and cruisers, so there’s something here for almost anyone.

Changing a motorcycle chain is a relatively easy job for even the most inexperienced mechanic. Back in the old days, you needed little more than a hacksaw, a pair of vise grips and a correctly sized chain. Many beginning mechanics installed their first replacement chain in this manner. However, times have changed, and riveting master links, rather than clip connectors, are the standard. So, while the process is still fairly simple, you will need a specialized tool (or a friend that has one).

With the International Female Ride Day happening on Saturday, May 7th, followed by Mother’s Day on May 8th it’s a back-to-back weekend of motorcycling estrogen. Bless your lovely madre with a twofer weekend by shouldering all her responsibilities on Saturday, freeing her to partake in International Female Ride Day activities. Follow that up the next day with a lovely gift from the selection we’ve comprised here.

You could live in Southern California for a long time without ever going to San Pedro, which dangles off the mainland like an appendix between the Port of Los Angeles and the chi-chi Palos Verde peninsula. That geography is both good and bad: Bad for big business since it’s not such an easy place to get to quickly. Which makes it good for small business, and allows Century Motorcycles to bill itself as “the oldest motorcycle shop in America.” The claim is somewhat open for debate but seems reasonable if you include qualifiers like “independent” or “in same location.” Most of the real estate in L.A. gets more expensive the closer you get to the coast, but San Pedro almost feels like John Steinbecks’s Monterey mixed in with Marlon Brando circa On the Waterfront – a small town barely attached to a big one with a blue-collar feel where everybody knows everybody and their extended family. It feels like a chunk of east coast transplanted west.

The worst kept secret in the MotoGP paddock is that current champ Jorge Lorenzo is jumping ship to Ducati for 2017. Several media outlets have already announced the move as a done deal, though as I write this neither Bologna nor Lorenzo have said anything – yet. There’s a lot of risk involved should George make the move, not least of which is utter failure should the move not bear fruit, but I think the switch is a good idea. Here are 10 reasons why.

Motorcycle racing is an inherently foolish activity. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Dressing in a leather suit, going out to a remote track to bake in the middle of the summer (or shiver in the winter), riding a fundamentally unstable machine around in circles as fast as it and the your capability will allow – while simultaneously pouring buckets of money into other people’s pockets – is ridiculous. And dangerous.

Over the course of his 20-year Grand Prix career, Valentino Rossi has slipped his cranium into countless helmets, each with its own design. Most regular-season helmets incorporate the Sun & Moon motif first seen in his freshman GP year. Other helmets are one-off designs created for special events such as his hometown race at Misano, winter testing, Marco Simoncelli tributes, etc. Regardless the occasion, the Aldo Drudi-designed helmets are usually delicious looking lids recognizable by their attractiveness and flamboyancy. Here are my 10 favorites.

I think I have blocked some of my more embarrassing crashes out; the older you get, the more you’ll appreciate selective memory. And I apologize to both of my long-time readers who’ve read about all these get-offs at least once before. I’ve always rationalized my crashes by saying at least I’ll get a good story out of each one, and I always hope that by sharing I might help others not do the same stupid thing. Also, crashes off of paved surfaces don’t really count unless they’re truly spectacular; the WWW doesn’t have enough room for all my off-road mishaps. I only regret that most of my greatest hits happened before everybody carried a camera to document them for posterity; the photos that do exist are mostly on slides mouldering away in various photographers’ archives.

While it may not have won our recent comparison test against the Aprilia RSV4 RR, that’s no reason to dismiss the bike. The completely revamped 2016 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R is an impressive motorcycle. Kawasaki’s engineering staff had a tough task on its hands when taking the previous generation ZX-10R – which had just finished capturing a World Superbike championship – and making it better, but it’s undeniable that Team Green has done just that. So, for this week’s Top 10, I’m going to highlight 10 of my favorite features of the new ZX-10R.

When I received the invitation to attend the Victory Octane introduction in Daytona, I was pretty stoked since I hadn’t been to Bike Week in a couple of years. Even if you’re not a big rally person, every motorcyclist owes it to themselves to experience the annual gathering of the tribe(s) – if only for anthropological purposes.

From the V-8-powered Boss Hoss to the Sears Allstate “Twingle” (split-single), motorcycle engines have enjoyed a quizzical variety of configurations. In a future Top 10 we’ll countdown the most bizarre motorcycle engines, but for this list let us examine the engines that have come to dominate motorcycle power production.

IMHO for those of you new to the internet, means In My Humble Opinion. Which means, this is just what I, John Burns, think after toiling in the motorcycle fields lo these many years, and hearing the same hoary old truths bandied about as gospel for most of them. Feel free to disagree, modify and critique as needed to suit your own belief system and stimulate rational discussion.

The long winter break from racing is almost over, as the 2016 World Superbike season will kick off in just over a week in Australia at the beautiful Phillip Island circuit. Jonathan Rea took the 2015 championship – his first world title – in convincing fashion, and with a new Kawasaki ZX-10R at his disposal, he looks to be a favorite to defend his title.

Now you’re in a pickle! You thought that with just a little more effort the bolt would turn. It did – only the head twisted off in the process. Perhaps, instead, the corners of the bolt are rounded beyond recognition. Or maybe you just stripped the phillips out of the phillips head screw. Regardless, the fastener is damaged beyond repair. What do you do now?

Last month we brought you the Top 10 Most Anticipated Bikes of 2016. For February, let’s take a look at the most affordable new bikes of 2016, because, well, a lot of the bikes in that other list are pricey: XDiavel, Brutale 800, Super Duke GT … you get the picture. There already exist a lot of motorcycles in the sub-$10k price category, and here’s 10 more new models joining that list. From retro to modernistic, cruiser to sportbike, on-road to off, there’s a little something for everyone in this list.

Every chance we get, we profess our love for KTM’s 1290 Super Duke R, MO’s 2014 Motorcycle of the Year. Aggressive styling matched with a monstrous engine, sophisticated electronics, sportbike-like handling, and reasonable comfort all combined to win our hearts that year. For 2016, KTM is adding to its impressive lineup with the SDR’s cousin, the 1290 Super Duke GT. Aimed for those wanting a Super Duke R but with all-day comfort and some storage space in the form of saddlebags, the SD-GT inspires big hopes in us. In fact, E-i-C Kevin Duke will be putting it through its paces at the bike’s launch in Spain during the beginning of March.

Winter in locales with real seasons is a tough time for motorcyclists. The weather doesn’t just force them to stop riding – which is a big enough loss. Riders also lose the time they spend with their motorcycle. While absence may make the heart grow fonder, forced moto-abstinence can lead to Parked Motorcycle Syndrome, causing all sorts of unpleasant behavior in the affected rider. Take our word on this.

It’s a good thing we MOrons get to ride all these swell new motorcycles for a living, because you can rest assured most of us are not bringing in the kind of cake it takes to purchase the latest electronically enhanced crop of wonderbikes. We feel your pain.

Each year around this time the MO staff gathers to contemplate the new breed of tasty two-wheelers coming our way. This is also when each editor begins positioning himself for a particular press launch. Last year, Preemptive Editor, Troy Siahaan made it abundantly clear that only an act of God would keep him from the R1 launch. This year he’s communicated the same thing about the new Suzuki SV650, a bike that, democratically, didn’t even make this list (Ouch. -TS).

We’re approaching the end of the year which means it’s time to look back at some of the top news stories in motorcycledom from 2015. The last 12 months saw a lot of ups and downs, and here’s to hoping there will be more of the former in 2016.

As I look forward to this holiday season I’m reminded that I have plenty to be thankful for, not least of which is the return of the Suzuki SV650 next Spring as a 2017 model. Short of telling you my life story, let’s just say the SV has a special place in my heart as it does for many other riders out there. So, as I rejoice about this good news from Suzuki, allow me to explain 10 reasons why the SV650 is such a great motorcycle.

Although we use it every time we ride, most riders rarely think about their bike’s clutch. Even though we may do the right thing by adjusting and lubricating the cable occasionally, or perhaps flushing the hydraulic fluid according to the factory maintenance schedule, do we ever consciously think about the daily abuses our clutch undergoes each time we pull away from a stop? Never. That is, until something starts to go wrong.

They say you don’t stop riding because you get old; you get old because you stop riding. Now that I’ve just had my first colonoscopy (a little late), I think there’s a lot of truth to that. At a few times along my trajectory, there were circumstances that conspired to get me to almost stop riding. Luckily, things or people always intervened to keep me from ever quite pulling the plug. Thank you, Jesus.

The AMA Pro Flat Track final was already scheduled for November 20 in Las Vegas, so veteran race promoter Steve McLaughlin had the brilliant idea – as he is wont to do – of promoting the first Superprestigio of the Americas the night after it. The SP’s been a big hit in Spain, so why not? None of your big MotoGP stars could be persuaded, but they did lure Tony Elias and Ant West to the boat, both of whom found themselves hard-pressed up against some surprising home-grown talent. The roadracers actually had their own “All-Stars” races, and the top three were then thrown in against the Flat Track professionals for the Superprestigio Main. Then there was the Hooligan race, sponsored and populated by Roland Sands and associates riding barely modified streetbikes. It was almost more thrilling than the Professionals. Okay not thrilling, more interesting maybe…

We’re entering the period of moto-hibernation, when, with a wag of her finger, Mother Nature says to many motorcyclists to put away their toys until Spring. And just when we most need a distraction to keep cabin fever at bay MotoGP, WSBK and pretty much all forms of motorcycle racing competed in their season finales. Seems that if someone were to begin some kind of winter racing series it’d be successful simply from a lack of competition.

The 2015 MotoGP season was one of the wildest ones to date. Both because of the intense on-track action, but maybe more so because of the shenanigans that happened away from it. I won’t bother explaining the drama, as you should already know what I’m talking about if you’re reading this (if you don’t, check out Bruce Allen’s season finale preview and his race recap to get caught up). Plus, the 2015 season is over, so there’s no point dwelling on the past. What we can do, however, is ramble about the future, and that’s the focus of this week’s Top 10. The antics that clouded the last couple races of 2015 will surely carry over into next season, but even without that, 2016 is bound to be an unpredictable MotoGP season. Here’s why.

All motorcycles come with suspension, and some of those components have settings that the riders themselves can adjust. That’s great if you know what you’re doing. Some bikes have a wide variety of settings for the rider to fiddle with. Again, if you know what you’re doing, the extra adjustments are a huge benefit. However, with the increase in adjustments available, the number of wrong combinations of settings also increases.

Oh, the drama! The controversy! And the opinions, opinions, opinions. At this point everyone’s reached their own personal conclusion regarding incidents at the Malaysian GP and expressed, via some social conduit, their two-cents-worth into the vast population of people who don’t give a f*&k.

Okay, fine, maybe this should be titled “Top 10 I’d like to see at My Own Private EICMA-ho”, though I did accept a little input from my MO compadres. Last time I was at the big show in Milano was in 2011, and there were so many things on display it was hard to get through them all in two days. Come to think of it, I don’t want to actually see any of these at EICMA, I want Tom Roderick or Duke or Troy to see them and post info ASAP while I man the Home Office…

Internet commenters are known to be rude, insulting, and sometimes downright nasty when they’re able to speak their mind behind the anonymity of a keyboard. We’re not immune to the nastiness of commenters, as our moto lives are plastered all over the world wide web, and with the amount of videos we’ve posted on YouTube, it’s only natural some viewers would spew their vitriol our way. So in this Top 10, I’m picking 10 of my favorite comments, insults and jabs. I’m keeping this list aimed at blows made in my direction, since, well, I don’t take any of these 10 hits personally. I find them quite funny, actually. Without further ado, here we go…

There are a lot of things in the world that need changing, but these motorcycle-related ones are the things that take precedence. Though I have not yet officially thrown my hat into the ring as a GOP presidential candidate, I think it’s safe to say I speak for all humanity.

For a company oftentimes accused of soullessness in an industry built upon an altar of passion, Honda’s been the epicenter of controversy since word of the RC213V-S and its corresponding price tag became public knowledge. Judging by the comments to the RC213V-S Review, the Video Review, and our ever-colorful Youtube commenters, it seems as though some can justify the bike’s valuation while many others cannot.

When setting out for a tour, be it extended or just a weekend jaunt, you need to plan for any hurdles you may encounter on the way. The best strategy to increase your odds of being able to continue your ride after a mishap or mechanical issue is to carry a tool kit that includes more than just the basics. While your bike probably came with a factory kit, you’d be foolish to count on it to serve as anything more than a paperweight. Read on to see what tools I think you should carry – at a bare minimum – on your next tour.

Every time I get on the phone with my brother in Ohio we talk until the time difference forces him to go to bed, one of our cellphones dies, or one of us runs out of beer. Running out of beer usually isn’t the culprit, and after enough of them my brother will oftentimes start bemoaning his responsibilities of  fatherhood, being a husband and business owner. “I just want to go back to when I was 22 and all I had to worry about was how much money I’d have left over after paying rent and bills to buy beer with,” he’ll slur, and I swear I can almost hear the tear rolling down his cheek. Needless to say, he doesn’t get to go on many adventures without an age-appropriate destination (his kid turns three in October).

We here at MO enjoy the sensations and challenges of riding motorcycles briskly along twisty and undulating roads, and our collective decades of experience have taught us many lessons in how to do it – for the most part – safely. We’ve flogged hundreds of motorcycles and returned them virtually unscathed, so we’re sharing a few tips on our favorite techniques that just might save you a little or a lot of unnecessary grief.

Here at MO we like riding slow bikes fast. Both Chief Editor Duke and contributor Gabe Ets-Hokin have written columns about it (read Duke’s here and Gabe’s here), but it’s a sentiment all of us on staff share. To prove it, I’ve signed up the entire staff, sans Tom (he’s got a press intro to attend. Ppfff), to come race with me in a 24-hour race on mini bikes, organized by the United Mini Racing Association. Our chariot that will hopefully lead us to glory (embarrassment, more likely)? None other than the hugely popular Honda Grom.

You know the old saying: There are motorcyclists who have gone down, motorcyclists who are going down, and motorcyclists who are going to go down again – down to their garage only to find that their bike won’t start. Even with today’s improved batteries, if it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will. So, before you pull out your phone and call Uber or your buddy with a pickup truck (You have one of those, don’t you? Every rider should have a buddy with a pickup truck.), check these 10 common causes to assist you in troubleshooting your no-go woes. After all, wouldn’t you rather ride than spend the time explaining to your friend why picking you and your bike up is actually more fun than the date that had to be canceled in order to retrieve you.

Well, this is not The Honda Museum, which I suppose is in Japan somewhere. This one’s in Torrance, California, a short drive from American Honda’s sprawling U.S. corporate HQ in a discreet location. Unfortunately, this museum isn’t open to the public, but Honda does let people in for various corporate events, or if they’re important bigwigs. How I got in I’ll never know, but major thanks to Honda’s PR guy Tony De Franze for making it happen. It all started when he and Mike Snyder mentioned they’d found three RC45s still in their crates a couple months ago in back of a warehouse…

The technology to harvest excess atmospheric humidity here on Earth exists in a variety of small-form ideas such as the Fontus self-filling water bottle. But to battle something as large-scale as California’s drought problem we’d need industrial-strength moisture vaporators like the ones from Owen Lars’ moisture farm on Tatooine. Comparatively, Star Wars-type technology is already employed in the motorcycle industry, just not to the same level. Although we’re far behind the technology of that far away, long ago galaxy, we’re gaining ground fast. Let’s take a look.

The 2015 edition of the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race has come and gone, and while the event doesn’t hold the same prestige it once did, there was still plenty to talk about this year. The racing was as dynamic as ever, but also interesting were the bikes, teams and characters that show up to this event. Nearly every rider who has spun a lap around Suzuka sings its praises, though most of them also acknowledge how dangerous the circuit can be with its lack of runoff (just ask Casey Stoner). Still, this year’s race has offered plenty of talking points, and now that I’ve had some time to absorb everything the iconic Japanese race has to offer, here are my Top 10 storylines surrounding the 2015 Suzuka 8 Hours.

Question: What’s a motorcycle’s natural position?

Motorcycles and childlike wonder go hand in hand. So do motorcycles and stupid. A lot of things were really good in the good old days, then again a lot of things were definitely the latter. The reason we gather in packs, though, doglike, is because we’re always fun to watch and smell. Here’s to hoping the parade continues indefinitely.

With this month’s Buyer’s Guides focusing on Touring ( Touring America: Buyers Guide, And Advice, Motorcycle Touring: Do-It-Yourself Touring) concocting a touring-focused Top 10 seemed more than appropriate. Large-displacement tourers are abundant and receive lots of press, especially in our bigger-is-better country. Choosing 10 mid-displacement bikes to shoehorn into the category turns out to be more difficult than one might think. The 10 bikes here represent more of what’s available in the category rather than a rating countdown from 10 to one. So, in alphabetical order we give you 10 sub-1000cc bikes that span a wide range of sporting, as well as, touring capabilities.

By now, we trust you’ve had a chance to check out our 2015 Six-Way Superbike Track Shootout, in which we took the Aprilia RSV4 RF, BMW S1000RR, Ducati 1299 Panigale S, Honda CBR1000RR SP, Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R and Yamaha YZF-R1 – six of the fiercest stock superbikes available in dealerships now – and pitted them against each other at the world-famous Laguna Seca Raceway. There’s a lot that goes into a big test like this, both on and off the track, most of which never make it into the actual story. So for this Top 10, we bring you outtakes from our track test, revealing to you the lighter side of MO.