Archive for category Motorcycles

For this story which ran in the December 2009 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News, I spend more time researching than any other story I’ve ever written. I reviewed three years of repair records (nearly 10,000 total), on over 240 police motorcycles. I talked with officers, instructors and mechanics. In the process, I was able to come to a deep understanding of not only the experience the various agencies had when switching from the Kawasaki police motorycle to the Honda, Harley or BMW, but also, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various 3 platforms for police work. The article is here. Enjoy! This is Part 1. Part II comes out in Jaunary of 2010.

If you are the sort of motorcycle mechanic who does your own work because you know you can do a better job than most local shops, the uView 550000 is for you.
One of the best reasons to live in Phoenix if you are a Goldwing owner is Stu Oltman. He’s the senior technical editor for Wing World Magazine, the Gold Wing Road Riders Association’s monthly publication. The more difficult and harder a problem is to solve, the more he seems to enjoy it. He’s also a great source for new product ideas – especially ones involving the repair and maintenance of motorcycles. I saw him demonstrate the uView 550000 at one of his famous “Garage Days at Stu’s” and so I ordered one. When it came in I took it over to Stu’s garage to make sure I did everything right. That also left my hands free to make notes and take some photo’s.
This review is the result.

While on a ride in Turkey several years ago for RoadRunner Magazine I met Dan Moore, an accomplished entrepreneur from Cleveland. Dan’s an irrasible, irreverant, charming 70 year old with more potential for trouble and excitement than half a dozen 14 year old boys. He’s also managed to create more high-value businesses than anyone I’ve ever met, and I’ve met a few.
Six months after our ride he called me about his friend, Don Frank, who had created a company to build and sell high quality motorcycle windshields. Don sent me one, I put it on my bike and used it for 18 months. It is pretty incredible. Here is the review I wrote about it which appears in the December, 2009 issue of Motorcycle Consumer News.

Christa from Road Runner magazine (a terrific publication, by the way, and if you don’t subscribe you absolutely should) was here a few weeks back and asked me about riding the Mogollon Rim Road. It is a 55 mile forest service road from Forest Lakes to Show Low, AZ and runs 5-10 miles south of Hwy 260 right along the rim. At the time (early spring) reports said it was too damp, too rutted and nasty for motorcycles, so she passed.

However, I was curious about it so I did the ride on Wednesday. Round trip from the house was 396 miles so it made for a long day (of course, the route I chose was partially responsible). However the intensity of the Rim Road ride and especially the last 7.7 miles would lead me to recommend this as “the” primary ride of the day and not to try and put too much before and certainly, not too much after you get off this road – as you will be beat. Here is a more complete description of the road and some more photos. Let me know what you think: mogollan-rim-road

Best bike for this would be a dual sport oriented more toward off-road. I was on my Wee-Strom and would have much preferred a 1200GS or any KTM.

About six weeks ago an interview with David Hough in the BMW Owners magazine in which he highlighted the lack of a single comprehensive list of motorcycle training schools in the US, prompted me to begin putting such a list together. You can see it here.

Since creating the list, I’ve quietly been sharing the link with friends and been getting a number of valuable comments and suggestions. Just recently, David Hough wrote to me as well, and we’ve been in email dialog and based on his inputs I’ll be adding several things to the list, including trike training.

I believe frequent and regular training should be a part of every motorcyclists regimen and my hope this list will provide guidance and motivation to get out there and take some of these classes.

We are in the process of revising the site and adding lots more new content. Until it is done (say, mid-February) you really don’t want to visit here. The site will be a major mess with broken links and things generally not working. In fact, even navigating to this site could cause your browser to crash. No, no, even worse, it could cause an unrecoverable hard disk crash – and may in fact, cause your house to catch fire – SO LEAVE NOW! I will let you know when it is safe to come back.

Thanks for your patience.

Steve