Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Motorcycle Mojo Magazine

Funny how priorities change over the years. Back in 2009, I found myself watching TV more than I liked and I realized that I needed a project bike to tinker with. Shortly afterward, I found a 1977 Honda CB750F at a garage sale. The bike was in really bad shape, but the engine wasn’t seized. The project was a complete teardown, but first I got the engine running (barely). Then, the bike started on fire in my driveway, thanks to four carbs that were leaking fuel. Every part was bagged and tagged. I took the engine apart and installed new piston rings, valve guides and seals, and the valves and seats were machined to ensure good compression. I painted the engine black and polished the cases – the engine looked…

THE NEXT BEST THING I know this is probably heresy, and you’ve been asked this before for sure, but have you ever considered writing about the CanAm Spyder? I’ve been a motorcycle rider for more than 40 years. I’m turning 76 this year and have been riding a 2016 Honda F6B Gold Wing for a couple of years. Lately, I have felt a bit nervous riding this heavy bike and dropped it once with very little damage. I have since bought a Spyder and sold the Gold Wing. The Spyder is certainly not a motorcycle, but it is the next best thing. The Spyder is plenty fast and very stable. I am not alone as I have spoken to many people my age who have done the same thing. Ageing…

I would like to introduce you to two typical yet fictional riders. Rider A, whom we’ll call Billy, has had his driver’s licence for 10 years, and took a two-day college safety course in a parking lot to get his motorcycle licence. He learned the basics of riding a motorcycle during that training, but has never really learned or practised emergency manoeuvres since. He’s been lucky and has had no crashes to speak of – except one tip-over in a parking lot caused by sand. Billy regularly rides about 15 km/h above the speed limit, and thinks that’s a safe speed to ride without getting ticketed. He rides about 8,000 km a season, usually in nice weather, and rides like he drives, carefully fixing his gaze on the vehicle ahead.…

If you are looking for a good read during lockdown, or this summer beside the pool, consider Gary Turner’s trilogy I’ll Take My Chances. Turner began his writing career here in the pages of Motorcycle Mojo (November 2012) with an account of his nine-week tour of Europe and visits to First World War sites. This was his spark for writing a novel of historical fiction loosely based on the life of his veteran grandfather. Ultimately, it became a sweeping, generational epic, featuring rich characters in a carefully woven plot that is swift and engrossing. Rooted in the lives of pre-colonial North Americans, the story turns to England, where Sidney Turner is forced out of his family home and negotiates a berth aboard a rusty old ship heading for Canada. The…

86 Dick Mann was the first racer to win all five types of circuits in the AMA Grand National Championship: short track, TT, half-mile, mile and road race. Mann passed away in April 2021 at the age of 86. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. 280,000 The exorbitant price in U.S. dollars for the motorcycle created by Feline Motorcycles in collaboration with designer Yacouba Galle. The bike, released in 2015, is considered to be the most expensive one in the world. The motorcycle offers clean, unusual lines and an 800 cc three-cylinder engine that pumps out 170 hp. 31.8 The longest distance in kilometres ever ridden on water on a motorcycle. This feat was achieved…

Ten years ago, around this time of year, I was hiking through the rugged northern B.C. terrain, keeping one eye on a bear in the distance while rooting through dirt along forested hillsides trying to find valuable morel mushrooms. I was mid-trip from Ontario to Alaska and desperately needed the money to continue travelling, and I wondered at the time if this was the best job I could get on such short notice. Over three months, I travelled 23,000 km from my home in Ontario to Alaska and back on my mom’s trusty steed: her Suzuki Gladius SFV650. Some long-time readers may remember the first article I ever wrote for Motorcycle Mojo was about this experience. I was 18 at the time and I hadn’t saved much money. The trip…

For everyone who’s ever had a hard time bleeding their brakes after a full strip – and what DIYer hasn’t? – there is a foolproof way to rid your lines of unwanted air in just five minutes. Guaranteed. First time, every time. Unfortunately, the process is expensive: you need an air compressor, a pneumatic brake-bleeding tool and, to finish the job off perfectly, some speed-bleeding valves for your calipers. Here’s the absolutely guaranteed, never fail way to bleed brakes in less than five minutes: First off, install speed-bleeding valve(s) on the offending caliper(s). The cheapest are from Speedbleeder.com, which also provides an excellent fitment chart so you don’t have to measure thread pitch. Nonetheless, I prefer the more expensive version from Stahlbus.com, because while the Speedbleeders are one piece (which…

Valentino Rossi should retire. In fact, he probably should have retired last year. I say that as a lifelong fan who still views 2015 as an injustice that has gone too long unpunished. Nonetheless, since even his recent visit to Jerez, a favourite track, offered no respite, it’s probably time for VR46 to move on. The problem is simple: the old-timer hasn’t adapted to MotoGP’s new realities. Oh, he can drag elbows and knees with the best of them. He’s also learned how to manage carbon fibre discs, hole-shot with the best of ’em and fiddle with traction-control mapping at full throttle. What he has not learned to do is manage Michelins. Unfortunately, that seems the most important job for a MotoGP rider these days. Indeed, not so very long…

I’ve always wanted custom graphics on a motorcycle, but I’ve never really had the means or the bike for them. That changed, however, when all the plastics on my KTM 200 XC-W had to be replaced. (Yes, I crash that often.) There sat my bike for a few wintery months with plain, white, new plastic, practically screaming at me to do something about it. If there is anything I hate, it’s plain, white, crisp and minimalist design. I find it boring and lacking personality. So, I decided to do something about it. I called Ryan, a friend of mine who owns PTI Graffix (ptigfx.com), a company based in Surrey, B.C., that specializes in creating graphics and decals. I asked Ryan what it would take to create a set of custom…

Here’s a hard, cold fact for Harley-Davidson management: You deserve every bit of skepticism that greets this, your latest reorganization. When you look back at the last 10 years – even longer, in fact – you’ll find you’ve worked pretty darned hard to earn the disrespect of pretty much every biker who doesn’t self-identify as a “one-percenter.” Indeed, Harley history is littered with the “next great things” that the Motor Company seems to trot out every couple of years, only to be quickly cast aside whenever the new MBA gets bored or the winds off Lake Michigan change direction. The V-Rod died for such a lack of commitment. So did the XRs. Did anyone ever think that Harley was really going to produce electric bicycles? Seriously? Hell, the LiveWire had…

Alan Cathcart brings us the most lust-worthy bikes from around the world It’s become a cliché to describe MV Agusta as the Ferrari of two wheels, with each marque dominant in its own form of Grand Prix racing, and each presided over by an autocratic despot. Likewise, its Benelli rival has been described as the Maserati of motorcycles, each the product of the impecunious but passionate endeavour of a band of brothers. But in Britain, there’s a couple of comparable analogies, with Triumph so very much motorcycling’s equivalent to its close neighbour Jaguar, thanks to its sporty Speed Twin and later Bonneville derivatives, while the fast, luxurious Ariel Square Four – whose showroom debut in 1931 marks its 90th anniversary this year – is most definitely a two-wheeled Aston Martin.…

Motorcycle-related online web forums run ablaze when someone asks what kind of oil they should use in their motorcycle. Opinions vary widely, as do brands of oils, brands of motorcycles and the drain bolt torque specifications. Well, we’re not here to settle the oil argument. We’re here to tell you what you should do with the engine oil you’ve just drained from your bike. The main thing to understand about used engine oil is that it is still useable, and it is still valuable after it’s done its job of reducing metal-to-metal contact in your bike. Used oil isn’t worn out; it’s just dirty. Therefore, it can be cleaned. But none of those reasons are why you shouldn’t be chucking it down the nearest sewer drain, spreading it into soil…

MASSACHUSETTS In the days before Covid and closed borders, Jeff Davison travelled to the U.S.’s first coast to visit family. In addition to finding great roads, he discovered a wealth of information and 400 years of rich history 2021 TRIUMPH SPEED TRIPLE 1200 RS Triumph Motorcycles has released the 2021 Speed Triple 1200 RS, the company’s most potent streetfighter to date. The new, clean-sheet 1,160 cc, three-cylinder engine delivers a whopping 177 hp and 92 ft-lb of torque. After test rides on the street and the racetrack, we ask the question: could this new engine, coupled with the bike’s natural rideability, mean Triumph and its Speed Triple will reclaim the streetfighter crown?…