I wear a Helite inflatable vest, which is similar but not integrated into a beautiful jacket. Read the rest
Motorcycle racer and journalist try out jacket integrated airbags
This cowboy's motorcycle has a sidecar for his horse
I have never seen anything like this before: A motorcycle-riding cowboy in Idaho has figured out a way to bring his horse along with him... in a sidecar!
View this post on InstagramThe new "Rodeo Rig" go check out the video the link is in my account in my bio.đź¤
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The man who shot the video and captured the photos above, Casey Perkins aka the_van_man__, has his own unusual "Rodeo Rig," an "airy" Plymouth minivan:
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View this post on InstagramRead the rest
Not the heavy duty work pants I was looking for
I was looking for a pair of Duluth Trading Company fire hose pants. They are awesome. They are made of the same heavy canvas a fire hose outer insulation is. They are soft, but massively over stitched and have a popular with the nuggets 'crotch gusset.'
None of these things should have led to Zmart Men's Sexy Collared Bow Tie Bodysuit/Thong/Butler Teddy Costume Underwear showing up in my recommendations.
The Duluth Trading Company has a number of styles of pant. I wear the regular firehose pant over my Bohn spandex armor when motorcycling around my home county or into the awful dodge'em game that is San Francisco. I ordered a pair of the Ultimate, because more is better when covering motorcycle armor.
The Zmart option looks like it offers minimal abrasion resistance, and will not cover the leg armor to my satisfaction.
Zmart Men's Sexy Collared Bow Tie Bodysuit Thong Butler Teddy Costume Underwear via Amazon Read the rest
One lucky motorcylist
Motorcyclist Malik Elizee is spared as his motorcycle is sent flying in an automotive chain reaction.
Elizee's motorcycle goes sliding away at a near 90degree angle to the direction it, and Elizee were travelling. Elizee lands on his feet and runs with the momentum.
Fear. Read the rest
Jet ski motorcycle
A friend was just telling me that jet skis are like motorcycles for water. Now here's a jet-ski... motorcycle. Some guy in the Netherlands put the shell of a Sea-Doo jet ski over a motorcycle and tooled around.
He reports:
I was driving my newly built jetski after a friend finished it this Easter. We build it because I woke up one day thinking about such a thing and I decided it had to happen. Now it's done and I haven't decided what to do with it.
Clear reflective spray for cyclists who ride at night
I constantly worry some distracted motorist will run me down and say "I never even saw him." I wear a hi-viz vest with a bunch of reflective material on it, a white helmet and there are lots of reflective elements on my bike, but it is never enough. Now, I can make just about everything reflective.
Albedo 100 is a clear, temporary, spray paint. Just spray it on your pants, jacket, bike, backpack, bags, passenger, whatever. The spray goes on pretty invisibly to textiles, and leaves a bit of a film on leather. It reflects light shone directly on it back in the direction it came from and is very effective for showing someone sitting behind a pair of headlights where you are. The stuff wears off after about a week.
I have sprayed it all over my backpack and some cordura/kevlar riding pants. I have really not bothered to look at how toxic it is, perhaps I will start to glow and no longer need the spray.
I still prefer to not ride at night.
Albedo 100 Reflective Spray Invisible Bright 4.6oz via Amazon Read the rest
TSA will let you travel with a motorcycle airbag
If you were wondering if you can take a Helite vest on a airplane in the USA, you can. Ignore internet forums.
I ride with a Helite Turtle inflatable vest. I do not have the miles on it to give a proper review, but I like it enough to have wanted to drag it to Los Angeles with me yesterday, from San Francisco. I am planning to ride my 1976 BMW R90S home from my my parents where I left it last month, thinking a fall ride would be a little cooler than the heatwave temps I endured on the way down. Before leaving, I decided to check online and see if there were any issues.
Internet motorcyclist forum searches all said I was doomed. I did not lose sleep, however. The US Sailing Association website said no problem. Sailors are far more trustworthy than motorcyclists, so I decided to think of my airbag as a Personal Flotation Device when I got to the airport. I also called Virgin America, my airline of choice, and asked if they had any issues. Bring it on board for the party, they said.
The bag checker with a badge at the airport looked at me, looked at the hi-viz yellow vest and asked "PFD?" I said "Yes." TSA person said "Put it thru!" I put the vest, spare cartridge and the materials safety sheets I'd printed out, plus a copy of this TSA guideline on CO2 inflating vests on the belt and watched as it was minimally irradiated for our safety. Read the rest
Why ride a motorcycle
This ad from Taiwan is just fantastic. Read the rest
Gasolina motorcycle boots
I am mighty pleased with Gasolina's beautifully made leather motorcycle boots. I've had mine for 3 years.
A lot of beautiful leatherwork comes from Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. I was looking for a new pair of motorcycle boots, most of my gear is quite old, and Gasolina caught my eye. Their beautiful styles are built to be rugged and withstand the terrors of a fall.
Picking a style was rough, but Gasolina's cafe racer inspired "Ton Up" model seemed perfect for me. Cafe style for a guy stuck on 70s bikes seemed a perfect choice. I also like the deep rubberized tread and Goodyear welt. I had the soles on my last set of boots replaced several times.
Measuring is a bit of work. Gasolina makes shoes the old way and they'd like lots of info in picking the right patterns, forms and "lasts" to get you a great fit.
After three years and around 12k miles of riding the left boot is showing some wear, where the shifter on my airhead rubs it. The toe protector pad is not placed in the right spot for my posture and riding geometry, but only I notice. There is no other wear evident. I certainly feel great about the $269 price tag.
When it comes to rating this for motorcycle wear I'd say they meet my risk model for street and highway riding. The sole does bend or twist when I try. The toe cup is strong but not steel. Read the rest
Hunter Thompson's Ducati 900 Supersport review
In Song of the Sausage Creature Hunter Thompson captured everything that is wonderful about cafe racers.
This review of Ducati's legendary 900 Supersport is perfect:
Read the rest...When Cycle World called me to ask if I would road-test the new Harley Road King, I got uppity and said I'd rather have a Ducati superbike. It seemed like a chic decision at the time, and my friends on the superbike circuit got very excited. "Hot damn," they said. "We will take it to the track and blow the bastards away."
"Balls," I said. "Never mind the track. The track is for punks. We are Road People. We are Cafe Racers."
The Cafe Racer is a different breed, and we have our own situations. Pure speed in sixth gear on a 5000-foot straightaway is one thing, but pure speed in third gear on a gravel-strewn downhill ess-turn is quite another.
But we like it. A thoroughbred Cafe Racer will ride all night through a fog storm in freeway traffic to put himself into what somebody told him was the ugliest and tightest decreasing-radius turn since Genghis Khan invented the corkscrew.
Cafe Racing is mainly a matter of taste. It is an atavistic mentality, a peculiar mix of low style, high speed, pure dumbness, and overweening commitment to the Cafe Life and all its dangerous pleasures... I am a Cafe Racer myself, on some days - and it is one of my finest addictions.
I am not without scars on my brain and my body, but I can live with them.
Motorcyclist provides clear evidence of undeniable supremacy
Lack of caution leads to motorcycling diaster
Youtuber Erica Hoff shares this video of a motorcyclist having a very bad day.
This guy merged onto the I-80E (Sacramento, CA) on his motorcycle as we were driving in the fast lane. As he merged, his bike would shake and wobble. He sometimes would only have one hand on the handle bars while it was shaking!! We couldn't figure out why it was shaking, but we noticed it would only do it once he hit high speeds. We paced him for 5-10 miles after watching him "almost" loose control (about 5 or 6 times), so I got my phone out, thinking "its only a matter of time before he crashes" and I wanted the video as evidence in case anyone else got hurt. Sure enough the very moment I get my phone out, happens to be the time he loses control. We pulled over immediately.....called 911, and help the man (and his bike) off to the side of the road as quickly as possible. He did walk over to the right shoulder by himself. His face was really mashed up (his nose looked broken) and arms covered in blood. Crazy road rash!!! I still wonder how he's doing :(
Oh, and the sirens you hear in the background aren't because he's being chased by the cops....my kids were watching peppa pig.....it was just a coincidence ;)
Road rage causes a spectacular, horrifying accident
Holy cow! How did the motorcycle stay up?! Read the rest
Ridiculous high speed save by Isle of Man TT racer
Watch as James 'Dynamite' Hillier somehow manages to keep a nearly out of control Kawasaki superbike upright, on the road and in the race! Blazing around the Isle of Man's 'Ballagarey Corner’, also known as Balla-Scary, Hillier wills the machine back into line.
Headshake like that would throw me right off my rubber cow. Read the rest
Why motorcyclists crash
The Motorcycle Safety Foundation recently funded a Virginia Tech study on why motorcyclists crash. Hundreds of cameras were placed on bikes, recording a wide variety of riders every move.
We drop our bikes more than we'd like to admit.
The folks at Revzilla read the 20 page report and summed it up nicely.
Via Revzilla:
Read the restWe complain all the time about other people on the road trying to kill us, especially cars pulling into our paths. The VTTI study partially backs that up. Of the 99 crashes and near-crashes involving another vehicle, the three categories of other vehicles crossing the rider’s path add up to 19.
Here’s the surprise, however. What’s the most common scenario? Riders hitting (or nearly hitting) another vehicle from behind. There were 35 of those incidents. Are we really almost twice as likely to plow into a stopped car in front of us as to have someone pull into our path? Or should we write this off as the result of a small sample size?
Maybe there are clues in the risk section. Researchers tried to break down rider behavior in crashes and near-crash incidents into two categories: aggressive riding or rider inattention or lack of skills. The cameras and other data helped determine, for example, if the rider ran the red light because of inattention or aggressive riding.
The study found that aggressive riding increased risk by a factor of 18 while inattention or lack of skill increased it by a factor of nine. Combine the two, and odds of an incident increased by 30.
Making a real Star Wars Speeder Bike
Vintage Works built this fantastic motorcycle that is exactly like a Star Wars Speeder Bike. Only it doesn't fly. Sadly.
A cheap, simple fix for an achy throttle hand
Aching hands don't just ruin a long trip on a motorcycle, they can turn a leisurely ride into a dangerous nightmare. After ruining my last motorcycle vacation, friends recommended the $10 Cramp Buster as a solution superior to spending lots more on complicated mechanical throttle locks.
Cramp Buster is a lever. The most complicated thing about it, at least on my BMW, is getting it on the grip. 1970s BMWs have pretty thick grips, so I bought the "over size" version, and needed it. Once on, its quite simple. Adjust it by spinning it counter clockwise on the grip. Counter-clockwise opens the throttle, and doesn't spin on the grip. I find the plastic lever has a bit more flex to it than I particularly want, but I'm sure I'll get used to it pretty quickly.
For riding around the canyon roads near my house, the Cramp Buster didn't come into play much, as its really there to help ease freeway miles. I got to try it out on the 101 for a bit, and the lever allows a much more comfortable cruising position. I'm very much looking forward to trying it on a longer trip, in a week or two!
Crampbuster CB3 Black Throttle Mounted Motorcycle Cruise Assist via Amazon Read the rest
