Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2019 i Motorcycle Mojo Magazine

A chance placement beside the Northwest Territories tourism department at the 2010 Edmonton motorcycle show allowed me and Merven Gruben, the mayor of Tuktoyaktuk, to chat about motorcycle riding in the NWT. There had been riders taking the gravel Dempster Highway into Inuvik, but taking a motorcycle the last hundred or so kilometres into his hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk could only be done by boat up the Mackenzie River in the summer, or ice road in the winter. He did mention there were rumours of the government wanting to put in an all-weather road from Inuvik to Tuk, but as with all government projects in the North, nobody believes them until they are fully completed. At the motorcycle show in January 2018, we were again positioned a few booths away from…

On a warm August night in Vancouver, I back my bike against the curb by an ice cream shop and shut down the engine. I managed to squeeze into a space, along with more than 100 other bikes lining both sides of the street. I’m greeted by Warren Fenton, one of the Vancouver hosts. He tries to greet everyone, makes introductions to be sure everyone meets someone new, takes photos and posts them to Instagram. “This isn’t shop-ride oriented, so we don’t have any ride worries. It’s strictly for people to meet new people, make new friends and talk,” Fenton explains. Riders arrive on everything from scooters and vintage rides to current street bikes and mini-bikes and even a sidecar outfit with a dog in it. I meet Dave with…

In a moment of weakness, Dale Marchand hit the “bid” button on an eBay auction for a pallet of parts, including a 1957 Harley-Davidson Panhead engine, transmission and springer fork, together with a 1974 Paughco frame, some hubs and rims and a handful of other odds and ends. “I was at my cousin’s stag party and it was three or 4 o’clock in the morning when my friend Mark Schultz sent me a link to the eBay auction,” says Marchand. “It looked like a bike that had been built up in the 1970s and then torn apart quite a few years later, but I ended up buying it out of Virginia and had a pallet of parts shipped to me.” There’s a First Time for Everything No stranger to motorcycles,…

When I see this photo of my twin grandchildren (taken in 2017), I remember as a little kid my cousin would ride to our farm on his motorcycle. I would sit on it and marvel at the gas cap, windshield, gauges, levers and switches. He would take me for rides, and it was an overwhelming thrill to feel the vibration, the acceleration and the lean into the corners. By the time I was 13, I had my own motorcycle, a Francis-Barnett. I purchased this Honda CB350 brand new in Denmark in 1971 when I was 24 years old. That year, I travelled with it in Europe, the Middle East and Ethiopia, and then I shipped it back home to Alberta in June 1972. In 2004, I restored it and then…

BMW New Boxers BMW has completely revised its lineup of liquid-cooled boxers; we must make the distinction, since the oldergeneration air/oil-cooled, horizontally opposed twin still powers BMW’s Heritage bikes – the entire R nineT series of retro bikes. The big news is the new engine. It has been completely redesigned and now displaces 1,254 cc, up from 1,170 cc, through a larger bore and longer stroke. Output has gone up from 123 hp to 134 hp, or an even 100 kW. The power gain comes not only from the larger displacement, but also through an entirely new valve train that utilizes a system BMW calls ShiftCam. Each intake cam has four lobes to operate its adjoining two valves. One set of lobes has low lift; the other, full lift. As…

Nestled in the interior of British Columbia rests the Okanagan Valley, and as September came to a close, you could find a gathering of a special kind of people. The kind that bleeds adventure, the kind willing to sacrifice their bikes and bodies in search of an adrenalin rush and a great challenge. This gathering was the second annual KTM Adventure Rally Canada 2018, held September 26–30, with riders from Canada and the United States taking part in the events throughout the week. Riders started to arrive as early as Monday to take part in the skills clinics put on by extreme enduro champion Chris Birch and to try out some of the new Austrian machinery at the KTM demo rides before the rally routes started on Thursday. I had…

Like many, when I vacation by motorcycle, I look forward to spending time with good friends, having the opportunity to make new friends, and enjoying the scenery and the experiences that will ensure lasting memories. Mojo memorialized our last trip to the Gaspé Peninsula with a published article of our exploits (“Cruz’n the Gaspé,” Jan/Feb 2016). On that ride, three of us rode counterclockwise, stopping at Matane to cut across the peninsula to New Brunswick. This time with my long-time friend Bob, who was also on the first Gaspé ride, we would be covering the section of the Gaspé we didn’t get to see. Bob’s hometown is Wolfville, on the eastern edge of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley. I reside an hour away in Dartmouth; we started in Stewiacke on Highway…

There was a time when most bikes coming out of the Yamaha factory had inline four-cylinder engines or V-twins. Most of those bikes were either sport and supersport bikes or cruisers. Supersport machines, at least in the middleweight class, fell out of favour after being taken out by the double-blow of the economic crash of 2008 and hikes in insurance. As for cruisers, well, just look at Yamaha’s 2019 lineup: about the only bikes there that fit in the traditional cruiser mould are the Bolt and the decadesold V-Star 250. It’s understandable that those categories suffered losses in sales, since they were both very focused; one produced bikes centred on racetrack performance; the other on bikes primarily built to look at – both sacrificed comfort and practicality to feed their…

Before we rode the F850GS, we were teased with a ride on the F750GS – same engine, frame and characteristics, but built to be more road-oriented to tackle everyday travel and maybe a bit of spontaneous adventure. Don’t let the name fool you, the F750 is actually the same 853 cc engine as the F850, but with a lower state of tuning that produces 77 hp, as opposed to the 90 hp output on the F850. Torque is also 6 ft-lb lower than the 850, at 61. We rode along a sheer cliff, winding up the mountain road covered in sand and loose shale – all with street tires on. Throughout the many kilometres of dirt we rode, I had to keep reminding myself that this bike didn’t have a…

An all-expense paid trip to the KTM Merzouga Rally in Morocco is the ultimate goal for determined riders at the six international adventure rallies. To have a shot at the Merzouga Rally, riders have to compete on their own twin-cylinder KTM in the Ultimate Race. The Ultimate Race is an additional competitive challenge for serious riders. Challengers compete in a timed enduro course each morning before riding the R1 route for the day. Riders must also compete in a skills and strength test, all of which contribute points to the participant’s overall points total toward a potential win. Based on the initial skills and strength tests, 38 riders at the KTM Adventure Rally Canada 2018 were set to compete in the Ultimate Race qualifier. Riders gathered each morning as the…