Motorcycle Blog on 2040Motos

Riding on the Edge: A Motorcycle Outlaw’s Tale

Few people are able to retrospectively recount the life of an outlaw biker with such accuracy and candor as John Hall, mostly because few people so deeply entrenched within such a culture ever make it out alive. If rival gangs, bar brawls or bike accidents don’t kill them, years of hard drinking and hard living usually do. Hall is an exception to these rules as he successfully transcended this great divide.

Closed Angeles Crest Highway Portion Now Open [video]

In March 2005, approximately a 10-mile stretch on the Angeles Crest Highway was closed due to a major rockslide. In 2006, another storm caused even more damage and delayed the rebuilding efforts that were in progress but now the stretch of road is complete and open for your riding destination and pleasure. Check out the video after the jump.

Does a Vespa GTS make you want to Dance? [videos]

Vespa has posted up 2 new videos promoting their 2009 Vespa LX 50 4T 4V, 2009 Vespa LX 150 and 2009 Vespa GTS 125 Super. I don’t know about you but I feel like listening to my iPod when watching these videos.  The dancing silhouettes have been done before, Vespa…  Also, the dancing people work better for an advertisement of a music player then for a scooter, but I guess you are trying to show people how much fun Vespa scooters are. And they do look like fun, especially whizzing around some European town.  But are they fun enough to dance too?

NOS Enery Drink makes Public Service Announcement [video]

Looks like the makers of NOS Energy Drink got wind of the Gixxer.com user who dumped two bottles of the stuff into his motorcycle. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have been living under a rock the last 2 days (or maybe you just don’t use the Internet as much as some of us). Head over to this post to catch up as to what’s been happening over on the Gixxer.com forums: Bike won’t Start after Using NOS Fuel Additive [Pics and Video] The video posted below seems to be a public service announcement telling the public where NOS is really supposed to go.

BMW S1000RR Superbike [video]

Motorcycle.com will be officially shown the totally new BMW S1000RR on Sunday, May 31st during the Superbike World Championship race at the Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. In the meantime, we have a video to get you up close and personal with the new sportbike, thanks to Shahram Shiva, enjoy! Click through to watch the video.

Solar Powered Motorcycle [video]

Richard Grzych is from Apache Junction, Arizona. After two years working on the project, Grzych has managed to successfully create a motorcycle that gets all the energy it needs from the sun, not a hybrid and no plug to be found. The bike is covered with solar panels and can generate and store enough power to move the bike for 50 miles and has a top speed of 90 mph but his goal is to give the bike a 300 mile range.

Community Tip: How-to Completely Remove the Air Induction System on a Yamaha

Alright, maybe this isn’t for everyone, but I thought it was obscure enough to warrant some interest to any motorcyclist. TEZZMIN, a senior member over at the R6MessageNet forums, has posted a nice How-To on removing an ’03-’04 Yamaha R6 ‘s Air Induction System. What does the AIS do?

Paddock Girls of MotoGP – PART 3! [Even More Video!]

Thursdays can be tough.  So close to the weekend, yet so far away.  I hope these MotoGP Paddock Girl posts help you out and I hope to help you out next Thursday as well!  Enjoy PART 3 of our Paddock Girls of MotoGP and don’t forget to check out Part 1 and Part 2! See the full post for your MotoGP Paddock Girls of the week! MotoGP Jerez Paddock Girls MotoGP Paddock Girls in Valencia MotoGP Paddock Girls – (Mugello GP) Catalunya Paddock Girls MotoGP Paddock Girls – (Catalunya GP) Malaysian Paddock Girls Paddock Girls of MotoGP – PART 1 [Video!] Paddock Girls of MotoGP – PART 2 [More Video!] Need more babes?

Bike won’t Start after Using NOS Fuel Additive [Pics and Video]

UPDATE: Poor sti2gsxr has made it on to the Comedy Central website. I’m shaking my head right now but I’m also thinking “Kudos, NOS, for making your energy drink so convincing that someone thought you actually use it as a fuel additive”. Poor poor sti2gsxr over on the Gixxer.com boards posted: My bike was running like crap on my way home from work so I stopped at a gas station to get some NOS.

Bumblebee Transportation [Video]

If you happen to live in Little Rock, Arkansas and are out drinking then you should know about this creative service provided by Bumblebee Transportation. We should all know by now that drinking and driving (or riding) don’t mix, having a designated driver not always works out so calling up a taxi is a good alternative, but what about the hassle of arranging to collect your car the next day? This is where Bumblebee Transportation comes in… This is how it works: 1.

It’s almost here – Isle of Man TT! [video]

We’ve been watching our calendars, soon we’ll be watching our clocks. It’s finally, almost – nearly here! A high-speed motorcycle race across hillside terrain and through city streets.

MotoGP Live Timing iPhone Application Officially Released

Love MotoGP?  Love your iPhone (or iPod Touch)?  Well now you can have the best of both worlds with MotoGP’s Live Timing iPhone application. What can MotoGP Live Timing do for you? Live timing: Race and rider data updated lap by lap – Rotate your iPhone/iPod and get full live timing view!

What’s next for Polaris?

Polaris Industries, the parent company of Victory Motorcycles, announced this week it will form a new on-road vehicle division. The official announcement says the new division “maximizes cohesive and strategic growth for Victory Motorcycles and other on-road products and brands”. Which begs the question: what other on-road products and brands?

Motorcycle Safety Month – Motorcycle Group Riding Signals

It is still Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month so I am still bent on making you aware of safety and motorcycles. Hand signals play a large part in motorcycle riding if you are riding in a group (unless you have those handy helmet radios).  As the “leader of the pack”, they are a great way of letting everyone behind you know what is going on and what to watch out for. The signals are somewhat universal but I’ve thrown in some illustrated guides in this post to help you out.  When riding in a group, your members can decide on which ones work best for you.

Official 2010 Honda Fury Pricing

We know you guys have been wondering and asking and pondering the pricing of the 2010 Honda Fury Chopper so I thought I’d make a post to flat out state how much you’ll have to dish out for the Fury. There are three different price points that Honda has announced and they are between $12,999 and $13,999. See the full post for details!

Milwaukee’s The Iron Horse Hotel

Historically speaking, the kinds of places that have openly accepted or invited motorcycle enthusiasts and their bikes were lacking in a number of areas. While they may have been convenient and offered motorcycle-friendly amenities, they did so with little comfort or luxury. On the other hand, accommodations on the higher end of the spectrum were pretentious and inconvenient for storing bikes and gear.

Win a Big Dog K-9 Chopper

SKIL Power Tools is giving you a chance to win a custom Big Dog K-9 chopper if you submit a story about how you managed to overcome a challenging construction project with your Worm Drive SKILSAW. You can enter the contest at the SKIL contest site, entries will be judged on difficulty, creativity and overall success of the project that you tackled. There is one grand-prize winner who will win the SKILSAW-themed Big Dog chopper plus an all-expenses paid trip to Charlotte, N.C.

Motorcycle Lamps

Maurizio Lamponi Leopardi lives and works in Milan, Italy. He creates these one of a kind lamps out of original parts and are completely restored, like the Lambretta pictured above. Depending on how hard it was for Leopardi to find the parts and how long it took him to restore, pricing can range between 1300 and 1500 Euros.

Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat – Motorcycle Edition [4 Videos]

Some of you may start noticing a new trend going around these days on YouTube. That thing is “Keyboard Cat”. A cat in a blue T-shirt that plays exit music for people in fail videos.

Pikes Peak 87th Annual International Hill Climb [pics and video]

Named after a man by the name of Zebulon Pike, an explorer who led an expedition to the area in 1806, Pikes Peak is home to the second oldest motorsports race in America second only to the Indianapolis 500. First completed in 1916, this year marks the 87th running of the “Race to the Clouds.” If the math doesn’t add up, this is because there were several years that the event did not run over the course of its 93 year history. The 12.4 mile trek up the mountain consists of 156 treacherous turns to an elevation of 14,110 feet.

Le Mans: Track Facts

Read the Le Mans MotoGP race preview now! Update: Le Mans Results As Motorcycle.com continues to cover all the 2009 MotoGP racing news, The Sidecar stays focused on all of the tracks from this years GrandPrix season, get all the Le Mans track details after the jump. Track Map Lap Video Get the Flash Player to see this player.

POW! 2009 Triumph Thruxton Review

Since Picture of the Week had begun it’s unplanned hiatus several months ago, we haven’t thought much about restarting the feature. Nor have we had the time to – it’s been busy here at Motorcycle.com. However, when Pete Brissette asked us about the POW!

Motorcycle Safety Month – Motorcycle Gear

*Article updated to fix the scary YouTube video! It’s still Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and I’m still going to try and bring awareness to motorcycle safety to all of our readers! The still lovely folks at Motorcycle.com have an article up on What to Wear When You Ride – and Why.

Paddock Girls of MotoGP – PART 2 [More Video!]

As promised I am continuing my posting of MotoGP Paddock Girls!  This week we hit MotoGP girls from Qatar, Estroil, Donington Park, Misano, and Australia. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it (actually it’s not tough at all and a lot of people here wanted to do it). See the rest of the post for your MotoGP Paddock Girls of the week!

Quentin Tarantino Presents: Hell Ride

While wandering through the aisles at the local Blockbuster last weekend looking for a film that doesn’t suck, I happened upon the 2008 film Hell Ride. I rarely seize the opportunity to watch movies in the theatre these days and since I had heard dismal reviews, I guess it just slipped my mind and I never bothered seeing it. Since my options this particular evening appeared to range from Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Hotel for Dogs to Hannah Montana or High School Musical 3, I figured it might just be the best option.

Should this Ducati Video be Rated R?

I’m feeling a little uncomfortable after watching Ducati’s recently posted “Colour Therapy” video.  Are you prepared to watch a Ducati technician strip a Ducati Monster of it’s plastic to reveal it’s true nakedness?  Cover your eyes if you are under 18. Ducati posted this video on YouTube to promote their “Colour Therapy”.  “Colour Therapy” is there way of customizing the colour of your Ducati Monster motorcycle with an easily interchangeable kit that is available at Ducati dealerships.  I have personally picked out a new colour for the Ducati that I don’t own. Hit the jump to see how a Ducati technician strips a Ducati Monster to “re-dress” it with some new colours.

2009 BMW S1000RR Officially Introduced [Pics and Video]

BMW has officially introduced their literbike contender:  The 2009 BMW S1000RR. The pertinent numbers are a claimed 193 horsepower (at the crankshaft) and a 403.5-lb claimed dry weight. In a ready-to-ride form including fuel, BMW says to expect 450 lbs of weight.

Harley-Davidson’s Vanity Fair Photo Shoot

Harley-Davidson has JUST uploaded a new video to YouTube (seriously! It was at 0 views when I got there!).  The video is a behind the scenes look at Harley-Davidson’s photo shoot for an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair. Watch the behind the scenes footage from Harley-Davidson’s new print campaign in the June Issue of Vanity Fair that salutes women riders and encourages females who have not yet hit the road on two wheels to “experience life with no regrets.” The women featured are health and wellness expert and NBCs The Biggest Loser trainer Jillian Michaels; Grammy®-winning singer-songwriter Jewel; television and film actor Tricia Helfer; and Los Angeles rider/entrepreneur Deborah DiMiceli.

Air Powered Motorcycles

The 100cc bike runs on compressed air, goes 18km per hour and was designed by a team of engineering students form India, other than that there really isn’t many more details. This is not the first time I have seen this concept in action, last year Jem Stansfield also created an air powered motorcycle that also goes 18km per hour. The issue with Stansfield’s creation is that the on-board compressor uses electricity.

Community Tip: Suspension Help – Learn the Lingo

hoser down at the Kawiforums was generous enough to post a glossary and troubleshooting guide to help everyone understand the suspension lingo, jargon that is out there along with solutions to suspension causing problems. Every activity has its own language. Learning a new skill sometimes feels as if it requires scaling a linguistic learning curve that makes surmounting Mt.