Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2018 i Motorcycle Mojo Magazine

Here we are entering into year 17 of the magazine with our highly anticipated calendar combined with your mailed copy of Motorcycle Mojo. With Eastern Canada’s record-breaking rainfall and the high number of out-of-control forest fires in the West, 2017 certainly wasn’t the best year in terms of weather and riding. If you’re like me, you didn’t get as much riding in as you normally would have or wanted to, but on the bright side, 2018 doesn’t have to try too hard to beat this past summer’s dismal riding. I was able to get away with a long-time friend for a last-minute extended week-long ride from my home in Ontario to New Brunswick to attend the Fundy Adventure Rally, with a fantastic ride back via Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula. What an…

4 The number of MotoGP World Championships that Marc Márquez has won in the last five years. 2018 The model year in which Yamaha has decided to rename its FZ and FJ family tree. Henceforth, the FJ900 will be the Tracer 900, and the FZ-07, FZ-09 and FZ-10 will be the MT-07, MT-09 and MT-10, respectively. 648 The displacement of Royal Enfield’s new engine (we’ve been waiting for a while to say that!). It’s a single overhead cam paralleltwin with four valves, oil cooling and fuel injection delivering 47 hp and 38 ft-lb of torque. Only took a half-century or so. 9 The number of new Harley-Davidson Softail models, as of the arrival of the Sport Glide. It’s being billed as the family’s “quick-change artist,” thanks to a detachable fairing and pannier set.…

Winter silently creeps up on us in Canada. In my previous life as a young motorcycle rider living in the city, I could potentially ride year-round, as the roads were always plowed quickly, and the snow didn’t accumulate as it does where I live now. I intensely disliked taking public transportation and I didn’t have a car, so I would pretty much ride any time the roads were clear of the white stuff. Was it smart? Perhaps not so much when I look back on it now. I remember one time riding to class in the evening, when the weather during the ride out was clear, but it later took a turn, and I was not prepared. Apparently, someone should have listened to the forecast for that evening. I ended…

Women have been riding motorcycles pretty much since they were invented (the motorcycles, not women). Why, in 1915, Effie Hotchkiss and her mother, Avis, became the first women to ride across the United States when they headed west from Brooklyn, New York, to San Francisco. You can probably imagine what the roads, and bikes, were like back then. I wouldn’t want to do it. Samson Lang of Rising Sun Motorcycles in East Vancouver says 40 per cent of his customers are women. As the owner of an all-makes full-service shop and custom-bike builder, he sees just about everything. “I think women are entering the sport at double the rate of men, whether it’s a young woman who is into the scene and the fashion or a 40-something who wants to…

Those with slightly larger-than-normalsized heads often have to compromise comfort for fashion. Because of this, Fatheadz Eyewear was born out of necessity. Back in 2004, a fellow named Rico Elmore realized, after trying on hundreds of pairs of sunglasses, that standard-width sunglasses just didn’t properly fit men with wide heads and that there was a need for wider than normal sunglasses. Don’t let the “fathead” designation scare you away, though. In addition to the company’s largest glasses, which measure 160 mm between hinge screws, Fatheadz also makes regular sunglasses that measure 130 mm between hinge screws, with a variety of sizes and styles in between. Many of the company’s premium sunglasses are made in the U.S.A., from the lightweight injection-moulded plastic frames to the polarized polycarbonate lenses that offer 100…

Apiece of riding advice that we have all heard at some point is that when riding, you should always look through a corner. This is a common statement that is widely accepted as truth, and while it is definitely good practice to look far through corners and look ahead when riding, there is actually a sequence of visual actions that should take place to get the best results from this technique. Maybe you’ve experienced the following: You’re riding a nice section of twisty roads and you try to look as far as you can as you tip into a sweeping corner – just as you’ve been diligently told. Partway through the corner, though, you become uncertain of your line and have to flick your eyes back to the apex before…

LIST PRICE $14,499 WARRANTY 2 years, unlimited mileage CONTACT indianmotorcycle.com/en-ca ENGINE TYPE Liquid-cooled, 60-degree V-twin DISPLACEMENT 69 ci (1,133 cc) POWER 100 hp at 8,100 rpm TORQUE 72 ft-lb (97.6 Nm) at 6,000 rpm BORE AND STRO KE 99 x 73.6 mm COMPRESSION RATIO 10.7:1 FUEL DELIVERY EFI TRANSMISSION 6-speed FINAL DRIVE TYPE Belt FRONT SUSPENSION Telescopic non-adjustable REAR SUSPENSION Dual shocks non-adjustable WHEEL TRAVEL Front: 120 mm (4.7 in.) Rear: 50 mm (2 in.) BRAKES Front: Single 298 mm disc with 2-piston caliper Rear: Single 298 mm disc with 1-piston caliper WHEELBASE 1,562 mm (61.5 in.) RAKE AND TRAIL 29 degrees/120 mm TIRES Front: 130/90-16 73H Rear: 150/80-16 71H WEIGHT (WET) 253 kg (558 lb) SEAT HEIGHT 649 mm (25.6 in.) FUEL CAPACITY 12.5 L FUEL ECO NOMY (Observed)…

The sun casts a shadow through the blinds in my bedroom window. It’s just after 5 a.m. on Friday and my wife, Lori, is peacefully asleep next to me; there was no need to set an alarm, as I knew I’d be wide awake with anticipation. Cool air washes across my face as the garage door opens, bringing my companion for the next eight days into view; my BMW R1200GS has been prepped and loaded, ready to go! The idea for this trip was 17 years in the making, starting with a print hanging on the wall in a co-worker’s office that inspired my desire to visit Crater Lake, Oregon, a dormant volcano full of pure blue water sitting at 1,883 metres above sea level. I knew I would get…

First, if you love Moto Guzzi’s, you’ll want this in your collection. There is a lot of time devoted to lovingly portraying the ‘91 Moto Guzzi 1000S that Kat (the “girl”) learns to ride. There are other delectables, including old Nortons and Triumphs. Writer-director Eric Tretbar has created a beautiful-looking film, set in rural Minnesota, with a slightly overwrought storyline. Ruth Menard, as Kat, is a free spirit who won’t be controlled by any man, and trades in a more “traditional” life when she falls in love with the Guzzi. Perfectly understandable. Her many tattoos and overall look clearly send the message that she is counterculture, but frankly, she comes across as a bit of a brat, being manipulative and free-spirited often at the expense of those around her –…

Accompanying the recent unveiling of Honda’s 2018 CB1000R and its little brothers, the CB300R and CB125R [we aren’t sure if Canada will getting the 300 and the 125], was the CB4 Interceptor Concept. Honda claims it’s just a styling exercise (it said the same thing about the CB1000R), but if there’s one Honda we could own, it would be this old-school meets new-school endurance racer – minus the little fan in the front fairing powering the tank-top touch screen via kinetic energy; it is a concept after all.…

There’s no gathering on the motorcycle industry calendar more significant or glamorous than the one held under the bright lights of Milan, Italy, each November; the EICMA (Esposizione internazionale del ciclo, motociclo, accessori S.p.A.) is the grand stage of motorcycling, on which every manufacturer vies for the spotlight – and your attention. Here then are just a few of the finer performances for 2018 that we will see on this side of the pond. BMW F750GS and F850GS Thoroughly revised variants of BMW’s popular parallel-twin adventure bikes boast more power and convenience. Both bikes now displace 853 cc, with the F750GS gaining only 2 hp, for a total of 77 hp, while the F850GS gets an extra 10 ponies, bringing the peak output to 95 hp. Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX…

I could see myself in the officer’s mirrored shades, and I looked scared! I wasn’t being arrested, but I’d been threatened with a huge fine that would have crippled my already wobbly business. That was 15 years ago. Although my off-road school was getting busier, I still wasn’t drawing a salary, because back then, we would put every penny we earned into the business. I had also decided that to really create a professional image, we needed new, reliable bikes. To help out, my long-time supporters at Yamaha Canada had put together a really good price on six new TT-R125s. To save even more money, I happily agreed to pick up the units at the warehouse and assemble them myself. The assembly was simple enough: you just had to install the…

LIST PRICE $26,100 WARRANTY 3 years, unlimited mileage CONTACT bmw-motorrad.ca ENGINE TYPE Liquid-cooled inline 6-cylinder DISPLACEMENT 1,649 cc POWER 160 hp (118 kW) at 7,750 rpm TORQUE 129 ft-lb (175 Nm) at 5,250 rpm BORE AND STROKE 72 x 67.5 mm COMPRE SSION RATIO 12.2:1 FUEL DELIVERY EFI with 52 mm throttle bodies TRANSMISSION 6-speed FINAL DRIVE TYPE Shaft FRO NT SUSPENSION BMW Duolever, electrically adjustable RE AR SUSPENSION BMW Paralever, electrically adjustable WHEEL TRAVEL Front: 115 mm (4.5 in.) Rear: 125 mm (4.9 in.) BRAKES Front: Two 320 mm discs with 4-piston calipers Rear: 320 mm disc with 2-piston caliper; semi-linked ABS WHEELBASE 1,618 mm (63.7 in.) RAKE AND TRAIL 27.8 degrees/106.4 mm TIRES Front: 120/70ZR17 Rear: 190/55ZR17 WEIGHT (WET) 336 kg (741 lb) SEAT HEIGHT 780 mm (30.7…

I was going to say goodbye to a little town called Jordan River on the southwestern edge of Vancouver Island, about halfway between Sooke and Port Renfrew. The hamlet is on a stretch of Highway 14 (also called the West Coast Road) that hugs the western shoreline, and happens to be a particularly delicious section of the infamous Cowichan Loop, a “must ride” for those who come to Vancouver Island. But big changes were afoot in the little town of Jordan River. I’d read that after a major seismic study conducted by B.C. Hydro, the corporation decided to purchase and demolish all of the homes along the waterfront. They had determined that in the event of a significant seismic event (and everyone out here is just waiting for The Big…

My career in the motorcycle industry began in 1982, when I apprenticed as a mechanic at a small Honda dealership in Montreal. Barely out of school, I didn’t own any tools, so I worked using a shop toolbox that contained wrenches and screwdrivers salvaged from motorcycle toolkits mixed in with a haphazard mishmash of other tools scrounged from various sources. That apprenticeship led to a paying full-time job there, and soon thereafter, I began buying my own tools, some of which I still have today. Of all the tools I own, though, the one that stands out is my beloved Snap-On ratchet. Snap-On tools were expensive back then, and still are, but to a fledgling mechanic, they came with a degree of pride of ownership. Snap-On makes professional-grade tools, which…

This film deserves some attention. Filled with fine acting and interesting characters, it had me wanting to pack my saddlebags and head for the southwest on a similar quest, but I don’t think my liver could take it. Sanders, played by Andrew Rizzo, is a young, heavily bearded, downon- his-luck army vet initially hired to write a guidebook to the best bars in the American southwest. Ultimately stripped of all responsibilities and possessions, save his 1960 BMW R60/2 with Velorex sidecar, he embarks on a trip of self-discovery to write his own book about “the people, the culture and the campfire aspect” of the bars and taverns of the West. The product of Eric and Damon Ristau, this film, also from 2013, is equal parts moody, philosophical and scenic. It’s…