Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Motorcycle Mojo Magazine

77 Although 81 years have passed since the first motorcycle races were held on the beaches of Daytona in 1937, a hiatus during the Second World War means this year marked the 77th running of the Daytona 200. 400 The number of jobs to be created at the Harley-Davidson plant in York, Pennsylvania, as the company moves production of the Kansas City plant after its closure. 50 The number of years that the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group has been in existence. The group started with 13 members in 1968, and over the years has grown to 33 sections across Canada, with more than 2,100 members who share a common interest in the preservation of old motorcycles. 40,000 The distance in kilometres that Expedition Electric riders JC Davis, Greg Smith and…

Helmet use is mandatory in Canada, but laws in several states south of the border leave it up to the rider. Some insist on riding lidless, and one of their biggest arguments against helmet use is that in a crash, a helmet can actually break your neck. Well, a study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery suggests that this argument has no merit. The five-year study examined 1,061 cases of motorcycle-crash victims treated at the Level 1 trauma centre of the University of Wisconsin Hospital (riders in Wisconsin don’t have to wear helmets), dividing the patients into two groups – those who were wearing helmets during a crash and those who were not. Cervical spine injury occurred in 15.4 per cent of the non-helmeted riders, versus 7.4 per cent for…

When I first started riding, my riding friends and I did stupid things on the street. We rode too fast and took too many risks. We thought it was cool to have close calls or near crashes, and sometimes we would even brag about them. I once boasted proudly about dragging a peg and making sparks. A friend bragged about feeling the front tire tuck and slide, while somehow recovering from it. We laughed and shrugged our shoulders and didn’t give it further thought. Sometimes we did crash, but usually we were fine and walked away, though some of my friends did not. As my riding career progressed, I started to realize how detrimental a crash or even a seemingly minor mistake could be; it was as if my little…

By now you’ve noticed that adventure bikes are getting increasingly popular. They attract new riders wooed by the thrill of exploring new, often-unpaved roads, and by experienced riders stepping off sport bikes and onto more comfortable, more capable machines. BMW pretty much invented the genre in the early 1980s with the R80 G/S; however, many other bike makers followed suit, producing their own variations of these do-all machines. You can find them with engines displacing from 300 cc to almost 1,300 cc, and utilizing engine configurations from singles to inline-fours. The Triumph Tiger 800 falls just about in the middle of the category. Triumph first introduced the Tiger name in the mid-1930s for a series of bikes competing in the International Six Day Trials. The modern Tiger that is powered…

Embarking on an adventure ride in early spring in the interior of British Columbia is somewhat of a gamble. Depending on the weather conditions, it’s that time of year when all that layered white stuff, nicely locked up in the mountains, either travels down to the lowlands in leisurely increments or unrestrained swiftness. Nevertheless, after being cooped up all winter and the bike scratching at the garage door, I decided that a short loop trip, spanning a couple of days, would be worth the wager. I had an enduring desire to ride a historic wagon route turned secondary (to call it that is a bit of a stretch, so let’s say tertiary) road that paralleled Highway 1, just south of Ashcroft and emptied out near the confluence of the Nicola…

If you’re looking for the most elaborately adorned, custom-painted Indian motorcycle money can buy – at least one that’s factory built – look no further than the limited edition 2018 Chieftain Elite. The Chieftain Elite features a 111-cubic-inch (1,811 cc) Thunderstroke V-twin, remote locking hard saddlebags, a 200-watt sound system with a seven-inch touchscreen, leather rider and passenger seats, and an electrically adjustable tinted windscreen among many custom styling touches. But it also gets pimped out in spectacular fashion with a paint scheme that’s called Black Hills Silver, which takes almost 25 hours to apply by hand. The Chieftain Elite starts at $37,999.…

Poor mechanical condition can be the cause of some motorcycle mishaps. I know you probably added stabilizer to the fuel and put your battery on a charger for the winter. If you didn’t, you might be like thousands of others right now, with your bike at a shop for a new battery and a spring tune-up. The good thing about that is that the mechanic will most likely inspect everything to ensure that your bike is safe. Whether a pro looks at your bike in the spring or you check it over competently, you should do it more than once a season. As the kilometres add up, things can wear, loosen or even fall off during the season. Since it’s not practical to take your bike to a mechanic to…

North America’s legendary Crocker motorcycle was untouchable by Harley-Davidson or Indian. Al Crocker was born outside of Chicago in 1882, and after graduating from Northwestern University with an engineering degree, he went to work just after the turn of the century for the Thor Motorcycle Company based in Aurora, Illinois. There, he achieved success racing various high-performance Thor V-twin models, in the course of which he formed a friendship with his rivals George Hendee and Carl Hedstrom, the founders of Indian. By 1910, Al was working as a designer and engineer at the Indian Motocycle (as it was originally spelled) Company in Springfield, Massachusetts. Crocker duly turned his attention to selling the bikes he’d helped create, taking over the Indian agency in Denver, Colorado, in 1913, then managing Indian’s branch…

HE STEPPED BACK, PUTTING HIS HANDS TO HIS FACE, TURNED AROUND, AND CRIED A few months ago, a friend of mine sent me a video of a bike reveal she did for a client of hers who is also a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. She had custom designed and painted his Harley Wide Glide in a unique and brilliantly beautiful manner, and recorded him seeing it for the very first time. The caption on the message said, “Try not to cry.” Moments into the video, tears were streaming down my face as I witnessed her client, and now new friend’s emotional reaction to finally seeing his bike and the incredible completed custom paint job she surprised him with. I knew I had to write his story and share…

Harley-Davidson has already committed to producing electric motorcycles with its Project Livewire, as we mentioned in the April issue, and it has recently expanded its interest in zero-emissions propulsion by teaming up with electric bike maker Alta Motors. Harley’s collaboration amounts to an equity investment in the San Francisco-based company, and will tap into Alta’s expertise to help with the development and production of future electric motorcycles. Says H-D’s president and CEO, Matt Levatich: “Earlier this year, as part of our 10-year strategy, we reiterated our commitment to build the next generation of Harley-Davidson riders, in part by aggressively investing in electric-vehicle technology. Alta has demonstrated innovation and expertise in EV, and their objectives align closely with ours.” The Milwaukee motorcycle maker plans to launch its first electric bike sometime…

“Baja favours no one.” I remembered fellow Pikes Peak racer Carlin Dunne’s words well as my Honda 450 bounced off the rev limiter on a dusty mountain road leading out of Ensenada. My first section of the 2017 Score International Baja 1000 was to get our team GoBajaRiding.com Honda CRF450X from the start, in downtown Ensenada, to my waiting teammate a couple of hours away in the mountain village of Ojos Negros. Our race started at 12:45 a.m. on November 17. The racecourse out of town was lined with locals partying it up – loud music, bonfires, cheering and flashing lights. It’s a pretty chaotic scene for a dirt bike racing through the night. Our team entry for this 50th Anniversary Baja 1000 was an effort of Bruce Anderson from…

Despite living 10 minutes from the U.S. border, I had never explored northern New York State, and only very little of Vermont. It was high time. Leaving Niagara, Ont., I was surprised at the beauty I had been missing. Pretty little towns adorned Highway 104, which I followed all the way across the southern shore of Lake Ontario, watching as it became neat farmland and new vineyards. East of Watertown, New York, was all beaver ponds and meadows (the remnants of beaver ponds), and beyond Harrisville, the increasing undulations and twisting roads began. By Lake Placid, I was full out in the Adirondack Mountains. The town itself was unassuming, but the formidable ski jumps and the Olympic Training Center were reminders of 1980, when the world came to Lake Placid.…

2018 KTM 790 DUKE Until now, KTM only had the single-cylinder 690 Duke to compete in the crowded middleweight marketplace. But that has all changed with the introduction of the 2018 790 Duke, dubbed “the Scalpel.” The newly designed parallel-twin 790 Duke fills an important gap in the midsize streetbike market, slotting between KTM’s 690 Duke and 1290 Super Duke V-twin, and promises to raise the bar in this highly contested mid-range field. THE WORLD OF LYNDON POSKITT Lyndon Poskitt is a unique individual. After quitting his job in 2014 and hitting the road to ride around the world, he hasn’t looked back. His YouTube video series Races to Places is just as it sounds – he rides around the world, jumping from one rally to another to compete in…