Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2017 i Motorcycle Mojo Magazine

There are some bikes that seem to entice you into a ride more than others. The KTM 1290 Super Duke GT is one of those bikes. The GT is KTM’s version of a touring bike, but the Austrian bike maker has a different idea of what a touring bike should be. To be fair, it’s really a sport-tourer, with a very heavy emphasis on the “sport.” The GT is based on KTM’s Super Duke R, but features a few touring amenities, such as a frame-mounted fairing with adjustable windshield, cruise control, easily removable 30-litre side cases, and a seat with a larger passenger section. But it’s still a Super Duke R at heart, and that bike had set the bar for power among naked roadsters, with its 1,301 cc liquid-cooled,…

I exited Highway 3 and rolled into the small community of Midway on my Kawasaki KLR650. The border town was quiet on an overcast Sunday, barely showing any of its population, except at the grocery store where a few folks were carting their sustenance for the coming week to their cars. I thumped through its dry, dusty streets, my search for my intended destination becoming increasingly desperate. I decided to pull over in my full hi-viz riding gear to ask for directions. A bespectacled lady in her 70s was walking her poodle. To my delight, she didn’t scuttle away from my motorcycle, but smiled as I asked loudly over my engine noise where the museum was. She pointed northwest and said it was just off the highway. I thanked her,…

The crash of a large animal breaking through the undergrowth shook me from a dead sleep. I peered out from my bivy in the light of early dawn. It had rained in the night. I lay still, listening to the rushing water of Two Mile Run behind me, and the songs all around of warblers, orioles, and even a yellow-billed cuckoo. One snap of a twig and my eyes darted in time to catch the movement of a dark shape just beyond the cover of thick forest. Almost immediately, down to my left, a high-pitched squeal, like a nasal whistle, confirmed my suspicion: elk. A mother was calling her calf to follow. And off he went, still too awkward to move silently, a skill he must soon learn if he’s…

Polaris Industries wasted no time in 2017, opening the new year with the announcement that it will be winding down production of Victory Motorcycles. The reasons why are varied, but include low profitability and the fact that Victory and Indian are competing against each other for a shrinking market share. “This was an incredibly difficult decision for me, my team and the Polaris board of directors,” says Polaris Industries chairman and CEO Scott Wine. “Over the past 18 years, we have invested not only resources, but our hearts and souls into forging the Victory Motorcycles brand, and we are exceptionally proud of what our team has accomplished.” By sacrificing the Victory brand, Polaris hopes to bolster its Indian Motorcycles line as well as that of its Slingshot three-wheeler. As such,…

Illicit rides in the early 1950s aboard a 250 cc BSA motorcycle paved the way for a life-long association with speed and twowheel power. Michelle (formerly Mike) Duff’s first forays on a motorcycle were taken aboard her brother’s 1949 BSA without permission. From the rather staid BSA, Duff went on to campaign some of the most technologically advanced racing machines built during the “golden era” of motorcycling – the years between 1960 and 1969. For Duff’s involvement in the heyday of motorcycling and helping put Canada on the racing map, she is this month’s legend from Ontario. “When my brother, Stuart, was in high school, he was friends with a group of about six kids,” Duff says. “One of them had bought an old Levis motorcycle that was often at…

Late in the riding season of 2016, a great weight was lifted off me. Its enormity was almost unbearable and it even threatened to cripple my career. Thankfully, a close friend, to whom I owe many thanks, was able to help me right the ship, as it were, and just in the nick of time, at that. Had he not been there, I’m certain all 382 kg of Vaquero would have crushed my pride, and possibly some bones, and most certainly could have left me pinned to the ground, helpless and ripe for social media mockery. I learned a lesson that day, and that is, there’s lots of steering lock available on the Vulcan 1700 Vaquero ABS SE – it turns out to be 35 degrees in either direction in…

BMW R NINET SCRAMBLER BMW has never had a scrambler in its lineup since the bikes began making an appearance decades ago. That’s about to change, with the German motorcycle maker production of the R nineT Scrambler. Read all about it in the next issue, and find out what the company knows about the genre. THE POWER OF PEACE In 1926, Liz Jansen’s grandparents and father immigrated to Canada and began to make a new life for themselves on the western frontier of Alberta. Liz’s first motorcycle visit to this area is an exploration of self and home, and though much has changed over several decades, Liz discovers the same pioneering spirit is alive and well in the Peace River region and the small town of Beaverlodge. DEMPSTER HIGHWAY Once…

1,3,2,4 The firing order of the four cylinders belonging to Yamaha’s 998 cc sportbike powerplant found in the 2017 Yamaha R1 and FZ-10. This engine utilizes the crossplane crankshaft, pictured here, which is famous for providing extremely smooth and manageable power delivery. 44,000 & 28,000 The price in English pounds, respectively, for the achingly beautiful Norton V4 SS and V4 RR superbikes. 8 The new RideConnected app from Sena allows riders to connect their intercoms using the LTE data package on their phones, so range is now infinite – though most people’s data packages are not. 2017/01/11 The date our friends at Leavinghomefunktion.com (May 2016 issue) completed their epic two-year adventure around the world in Ural sidecar rigs, arriving safe and sound in Manhattan. Congratulations! 1,492 The number of 2014–2017…

After Pierre Terblanche conceived the Multistrada for Ducati back in 2003 as an innovative blend of supermoto, street enduro and sport-tourer powered by an air-cooled 1000DS desmodue engine, it was followed two years later by a 620 cc junior version that was more accessible and quite a bit less expensive. But after Ducati completely revamped the model in 2010 as a supersport adventure-tourer by launching the Multistrada 1200 powered by the 1,198 cc liquid-cooled Testastretta 11° eight-valve engine, it’s failed until now to produce the junior-sized version that seemed to be such an obvious addition to its range. That became especially moot after it debuted an engine one year ago that was seemingly destined to power such a bike: the 937 cc version of the Testastretta 11° engine launched in…

On the fourth day of our epic 10-day adventure through the Italian Alps and Germany, I found myself behind the hotel bar pouring drinks with bartender Ilian, waitress Maria and my friend Nicole. Nicole was decked out in a pair of lederhosen and I in a dirndl, the traditional dress of Austria, South Tyrol and Bavaria. Both of us were drinking large steins of beer and shots of Limoncello, Prugna and Grappa with the locals. “But what are you doing here?” one customer asked us incredulously. “You’re really off the beaten path!” “That’s exactly the idea!” I replied. His name was Scott, from Scotland, but he’d lived in the area for 30 years. He said he was “gobsmacked” to see us, it being the first time he had witnessed tourists…

HAVING FRIENDS TOUR ME AROUND THEIR FAVOURITE TWISTS WAS ONE OF THE BEST RIDES EVER I have always believed growing old is mandatory; being old is optional. And yet, as I approached my 65th birthday, I decided to sell my 1976 Honda 400 Four Super Sport. I was riding very little. It was a classic bike and I wanted to keep the mileage low, and over the last two decades, I was also concerned about reliability. But the real reason I sold her to a collector in Alberta was I felt others would think me foolish to still ride. I was unprepared for how much I would miss knowing I could still ride. I’m a photographer, so to ease the loss I headed out to the racetrack at Shannonville, Ont.,…

British journalist Alan Cathcart’s series of tests of racing and road bikes constitutes one of the world’s largest archives of motorcycle data, including rare insider photos, much of it unavailable anywhere else. Thanks to online digital publishing, this can be accessed and downloaded by anyone wishing to build a personal library of fully illustrated, hands-on information about favourite bikes through The Motorcycle Files series of Kindle e-books. Since its launch two years ago, the series has been continually expanded, and now covers 24 of the rarest and most significant racing motorcycles and exotic streetbikes ever built, ranging from the prototype 1963 Ducati Apollo V4 1260 and the 1939 supercharged AJS 500 cc V4 to the four-cylinder 500GP two-strokes from Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki that lined up on GP grids…

The first picture is of my middle daughter, Kym (12), and me on my second motorcycle, a Honda 360T. It was taken in 1979 outside our home in Shearwater, N.S. The second picture was taken in Sabastian, Florida, circa 2002. The young lady on the back is Kym’s daughter, my granddaughter, Samara, also at age 12. —Submitted by: Joe Paquette, Yarmouth, N.S. Submissions to Remember When? are always welcome. If your photo(s) is printed we will send you $25.00 High resolution digital photos are acceptable as well as prints. If you wish the print back please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Send to: editor@motorcyclemojo.com…