The Kneeslider is reporting that a new motorcycle manufacturer is about to appear on the horizon:  Motus American Motorcycles.

A brand new motorcycle company, right here in the U.S., has been operating under wraps for the past year and, with their permission, it’s now time to let all of you in on a very big breaking story, Motus American Motorcycles is well along in their development of an all new next-generation, sport-touring motorcycle with a proprietary V4 powertrain. Partners Lee Conn and Brian Case began one year ago, to design and manufacture a motorcycle, the type of motorcycle Brian wanted for himself but, he found, did not exist. This is a clean sheet design, fresh and new, not an old name brought back for another try.

Oh, really?  Well, tell me more!

Unfortunately, there’s not much more to tell.  The company web site is just a placeholder with a nice, but uninformative home page…and nothing else.

Brian Case, one of the Hotshots at Confederate, is one of the partners behind the new company.  He popped up in a post on Sport-Touring.Net to write:

Thanks for your interest guys, keep checking www.motusmotorcycles.com for updates. We are currently designing the engine and we hope to release details soon. This is no crazy science project. We’re just making an affordable bike with proven technology and a kick-ass engine. We’re going against the odds though, especially in America, so we need your support!!

For what it’s worth, you got it.  Now, show me the bike.  Even a concept drawing would be nice.

Last night, my final replacement racing stripes came in from Premier Cycle.  I put them on, so this morning I finally got to ride my fully restored FJR to work.  Actually, I’ve been riding it every day since my last post, but without all the stripes.  Now they’re all back on.

Back to 100%+

And, I even added a farkle, for good measure,  You can’t really see it in the cell phone pic here, but I went all out and got the heavy-weight, matte black and decoratively milled silver Throttlemeister, and installed that, too.

So, the FJR is now better than it ever was.

I’m almost back to 100% physically, too.  I’m still having a little problem with tendon synovitis–whatever that is–in my right wrist, which is still causing me a little pain.  So, I’m still in physical therapy once a week for that.  Happily, the orthopedist gave me a prescription for a patch that uses a medicine called Flector, and that seems to be fixing things up, too.  So, I should be given a clean bill of health in the next few weeks.

All that remains after that is settling up with the insurance company for my personal injury claim.  I don’t know what the claim will actually end up being, but I have missed a couple of days work over this, and ended up with a bit less than $1,000 in out of pocket medical bills over and above my insurance.  What with all the time spent once or twice a week in physical therapy, MRIs, nerve conduction tests, and what-not, I bet it’s not going to be cheap, though.

I suspect I’ll probably end up being able to pay off a number of bills for other things.

I’m also hoping to get a corbin seat, and replace the rear seat and backreast with a Corbin Smuggler trunk.

I’m comfortable with riding again, although I notice that I really take a long hard look at all cross traffic now.

As of yesterday afternoon, I have my motorcycle back!

I’m a little rusty on my timing and technique, but it seems to be coming back quickly.

I. Am. Happy.

Well It finally came.  I received a check from CNA insurance for $6,427.08 to pay for the repair of my motorcycle.  I drove over to North County House of Motorcycles with a cashier’s check, and they’ll be ordering the parts for my bike on Monday.

It’s been two and a half months since my accident, but now, in another week or so, I’ll have my motorcycle back, and I can start riding again.

As far as the larger personal injury claim goes, I had to go in this last week and get an MRI.  As it turns out, I did, in fact, break my leg.  They found a non-displaced stress fracture of the tibia, as well as another fracture to something called the patellar plate.  That would, most likely, explain the weeks of crutch and cane I needed to use.

I still have a few weeks of physical therapy left, but after that, we’ll be looking at the claim for injury, lost wages, and what-not.

But for now, I’m just glad to know that Fidget is getting fixed.

This is a picture of the Desmosedici RR.  And a really hot chick.

Ducati Desmosedici RR and...companion.

I have no idea what they have to do with each other.  But, I like them both equally.

My lawyer has informed me that after two months of stalling, CNA Insurance has finally accepted liability for the driver who ran the stop sign and hit me.  A check for $6,700 is on the way to repair my FJR.  And now that they’ve accepted liability, that means that they’ve accepted that they’re on the hook for my larger personal injury claim for my injuries.

One more week of physical therapy, and I’m done.

Below, I write about the Honda Fury, and their try at making a radically designed chopper.  It doesn’t quite cut it.  Meanwhile, extreme rake excepted, the guys at Victory are getting the job done.  They’ve unveiled a new concept bike called the CORE.

Victory Chopper

It’s just a concept bike right now, but apparently it’s the basis for a new generation of naked bikes from Victory.  No compromises on this beast.  It sports heat wrapped straight pipes, hardtail frame, and instead of the little 1300cc VTX engine, it’s the full 1o6ci (1731cc) air-cooled Victory twin.

One notable difference between the Victory Vision Street and Tour production motorcycles and the CORE Concept Motorcycle is the absolute absence of bodywork on the CORE. In fact, the concept bike’s frame is the body, incorporating fuel, air-box, battery box and the entire electrical system. Maintaining the minimalist theme, the motorcycle is a rigid frame without rear suspension and features a contoured mahogany seat. The overall impression is a thin, low, sharp and purposeful motorcycle that is elemental and fierce at the same time.

I imagine that the lack of a rear suspension would make sitting on that hard seat a bit more painful than it has to be, but overall, this an Epic Win as far as I’m concerned.  In looks, at least, if not in rider comfort.

Stellan Egelund of Sweden was commissioned by Triumph to build a cafe racer out of the…wait for it…Rocket III.  Triumph is going to make five of these motorcycles, and all five of them will be sold in Sweden.

This is what Egelund came up with.

Egelund Rocket Cafe Racer

All I can say is, that must be one hell of a cafe racer.  Going the dark custom route works really well for the Rocket, in my opinion.  It really does minimize the brutish look of the tractor engine that runs the thing, and that big ol’ radiator almost seems to disappear.  I like it a lot.

The “bear claw” is gone from the left side of the bike, too.  The air filters are fully exposed.

Those air filters exposed like that are badass.

I like the looks of this bike a lot.  And with 161hp, and 160lb/ft of tourque, I bet it’s a hoot to ride, too.  I bet Triumph is charging a pretty penny for this factory custom.

And that doesn’t even include the air fare to Stockholm to buy one.

All right.  I admit it.  I’m not that much of a chopper guy.  Some of them look OK, and have fantastic paint jobs.  On the whole, though, they strike me as inconvenient with their tiny little gas tanks.  And they don’t seem very maneuverable, with 70° of rake, and wheelbase as long as a Cadillac’s.  There are some functional problems with that cool chopper look. The other drawback has always been price.  Choppers are essentially custom motorcycles with a custom price tag.

Honda Fury: Right Side

But, Honda is addressing the price problem with a new factory chopper called the Fury.

The guys over at Gizmag are writing about it.

hough no-one outside Honda has ridden it yet, we’d suggest that it will be the best handling, sweetest running, most comfortable, most reliable chopper the world has yet seen, lacking just one thing – a Harley Davidson badge.

That’s not the only thing it’s lacking, but we’ll address that in a minute.  Gizmag continues…

Sketches from Honda’s trademark application for the Fury have been circulating across motorcycle news magazines around the world recently, and we’ve gotta say that the first reaction amongst the motorcyclists on the Gizmag team was … why?

The Japanese big four bike manufacturers have been chipping away at the Harley Davidson market for decades, and we thought that it had already been proven that you can build a better Harley in every respect, add more cubes and take full page adverts in all the magazines, but it still won’t be a Harley Davidson. You can even build it in America, but it still won’t be a real Harley.

Perhaps the regular winds of change and the passing of time that slowly soften and dissipate long-held, deeply-rooted, emotionally-based attitudes and prejudices within certain population groups will prove us wrong, but … we’re still wondering why now we’ve seen it.

Honda Fury: Left Side

I’m wondering, too, especially after looking at the left side of the bike.

Ick.

There’s something non-choppery, and too high-tech about that look.  The way the engine and tranny mates to the frame has a weird, science-fiction look to it.

It’s too finished, too…perfectly formed for a chopper.  Too refined, but in an unpleasantly styled way.

But that’s not the worse thing.  I mean, sure, the styling alone is enough to ensure that no Harley guy will want to touch it with a 10-foot cattle prod.  But as Steve, at BikerNewsOnline notes:

I knew it all along, this new Honda Fury that everyone’s been raving about is just another VTX. They took their VTX 1300 engine (1312cc, 52°) and slapped it on a different chassis.

And now metric fanatics are saying this is going to erode away at Harley’s market.

Yeah, right, as if the VTX ever eroded away at Harley’s market.

And there you go, in a nutshell.  Honda slapped a VTX1300 engine into a chopper frame, and then  writes it up like it’s the King Hell chopper they’ve got coming off the factory floor.  And, the Honda riders who already like the VTX will probably buy some.

But this isn’t the thin wedge of Honda’s cracking of the Harley market.  It’s just a segmentation of the already existing VTX market.

But, if you want an aggressively styled VTX, I’m sure you’ll love this.

The dark custom movement isn’t restricted to the cruiser set, apparently. Buell is introducing a dark custom version of the XB9, right along with HD’s rollout of the Iron 883. It’s an all-black version of the Lightning, and it’s aimed for the low-priced cycle market, coming in somewhere near $8,400.

Buell Buell XB9SX CityX Black

There’s only one catch.  It isn’t available for the US Market.  Buell is only rolling this baby out in Europe, so all American customers do is complain to their local Buell dealers, and hope that their message gets through to Buell HQ.

Kelly Yahr at Harley-Davidson has emailed me again, this time with some pics of the newest Dark Custom motorcycle offering from the MoCo: The Iron 883.

It’s not a bad-looking bike:

The Iron 883

Kelly writes, “Not sure if you’ve seen it yet, but I wanted to let you know that Harley-Davidson unveiled the new Iron 883 - the latest Harley-Davidson Dark Custom motorcycle. This blacked-out, stripped-down Sportster starts at just $7,899, leaving plenty of freedom for customization.”

That’s not a bad price, actually.

I’m not a big fan of the 883 Evo engine.  There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with it mechanically, but, in modern terms, an 883 twin is fairly gutless in terms of power, if you’re gonna do much two-up riding.  Not that you’d really do any of it with this bike, which is essentially a black-power-coated Nightster.  The main problem with the 883 engine is that it weighs just as much as the 1200 engine, so the smaller engine doesn’t bring any weight advantages with it.

The Iron 883 Engine

In any event, according to HD:

Decked in black from fender-to-fender, the new Harley-Davidson Iron 883 brings the beat of an 883 Evolution engine backed up by a combo of gritty, old-school garage features like front fork gaiters, drag style handlebar and side-mount license plate holder.

The black powder-coated 883 cc Evolution powertrain with black covers takes the Iron 883 deep into the heart of darkness. With Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection (ESPFI) and performance tuning with a flat torque curve, the Iron 883 delivers plenty of power for the city scene. The pipes on the straight cut shorty dual exhaust flow the distinctive American V-Twin sound.

The black chopped rear fender with its combination stop/turn/tail lights shows more of the 150 mm rear tire and black, 13-spoke cast aluminum wheel, while the front tire also rides on a black wheel. The rest of the Iron 883 gets a darker-suited presence with black front forks and fender supports, fuel tank, oil tank cover, belt guard, drag style handlebar and mid mount foot controls.

A classic Sportster solo seat with a height of 25.3 inches fits the lone rider, while a passenger seat and a backrest in complementing black finishes can be added as accessories.

Check out more on the Iron 883 and Harley-Davidson Dark Custom motorcycles at www.harley-davidson.com/darkcustom.

It sounds exciting, if you’re interested in an 883.  I’m more attracted to the touring line, but, the 883 is a popular bike, and I suppose the Dark Custom deal is working out well for the MoCo, so this model will probably work out well for them, as well.

By the way, another note on HD marketing.  I’m a pretty small-time motorcycle blogger.  yet, somehow, HD found me, and Kelly keeps me updated on what’s happening at Harley.  And, they get some free marketing information dissemination from me.

Now, I’m an equal-opportunity motorcycle blogger.  But somehow, no one at Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, or Suzuki is interested in providing me with any similar content.  Even though that content would allow them to use me as a free marketing outlet for them.

What is the marketing lesson we learn from this?

I was hoping that by now, I could be looking forward to getting my fixed, and start riding again.  But nothing, apparently, is ever easy.

Last week, CNA insurance sent out the adjuster to look at the bike.  When he was done, I dropped a C-note on a towing compnay to take the FJR to North County House of Motorcycles.  They did their estimate, the adjuster agreed, and sent off the estimate to CNA, the insurer for the compnay whose driver ran into me.

So, on Friday, the shop called me and said they needed approval from me and the insurance company to make repairs.  So, I called the guy at CNA who’s handling the claim and asked him what was up.  He said, “We still haven’t decided to accept liability, so we can’t authorize any repairs.”

I started to get steamed “What do you mean you haven’t accepted liability?  How much of a liability question can there be?  I was on a divided four-lane avenue, and your guy came out of a side street, through a stop sign, and hit me from the side. You have the police report that states that your driver was at fault for the accident and was cited for failure to yield at a stop sign.”

He replied, “Did the police see the accident?”

Screw you, insurance boy.  I called my laywer.  Today, she got hold of the liability supervisor at CNA, and had a chat.  She told him that now, two months after the accident, and after authorizing an adjuster to do an estimate, it’s pretty frickin’ late in the game to be dithering over whether they are gonna accept liability or not.  It’s looking like a stall tactic.  So, if we don’t here anything from CNA by COB Friday, we’ll just file a lawsuit next week.  So the CNA guy said if they couldn’t find anything contradicting the police report by Friday, they’d accept the police report as proof of liability.

She also got my insurance company, Geico, on the phone, and gave them a heads up that if CNA didn’t authorize the repairs, we’d be going through my insurance with Geico, and that they could battle with CNA over getting the repair money.

So, I have to wait for the rest of the week now to see if the bike is going to get fixed by CNA.  If not, I have to pay my deductible for my insurance, and wait until Geico gets the money off of CNA to re-imburse me for the deductible.

As far as I can see, though, CNA is deliberately dragging their ass to put off paying for the damage their insured imposed upon me.

I am frickin’ livid.

North County House of Motorcycles has presented me–and the insurance adjuster–with the estimate for the repair of my FJR.  $6,500.

At that price, I doubt the insurance company will total it.  But the adjuster said that the payment would be coming quickly, so the repairs can be completed within a week or two.

So, finally, after two months, I’ll have a motorcycle to ride again!

The insurance adjuster finally came by today, and looked at the bike.  he said he’d wait on making an estimate until he heard what the repair shop had to say.  So, I called for a tow, and the FJR is now at North County House of Motorcycles.

I’ll have to go in first thing Monday and talk to my service writer about the damage, and the things that I know have to be repaired that aren’t obvious.

I’m still irked that it’s been six weeks since the accident, and I’m only just now getting the bike into a repair shop.  But, at least it’s there now, so finally I can see exactly what damage has been done, and if it’s fixable.

You gotta hand it to Harley-Davidson, boy.  They rarely m iss a step when it comes to marketing, especially in terms of rider outreach.  I don’t know of any other company that interacts with the riding community  so seriously, and with such a keen eye towards building the brand than the MoCo does.

And they’re doing it again.

Share Your Spark: A Guide to Mentoring is a tool kit the Motor Company developed for current and aspiring riders featuring information on how to be a resource and support system to others during their motorcycling journey. The mentoring kit includes information for both potential mentors and mentees, including a DVD showcasing tips on how to become or find a mentor, stories from successful mentoring experiences, a special Share Your Spark pin and a planning and reflection guide.

Grab younger riders by hooking them up with older riders who can positively reinforce the idea that the Harley-Davidson is the best motorcycle ever!

Nobody is as successful at this as HD.  I mean, with BMW, while there are plenty of rider events in that community, the company’s attitude seems to be that, if BMW has to come looking for you, then you’re probably not the kind of person they want to associate with anyway.  Honda…well, they don’t do much at all anymore.  Not only did they cancel the Honda Hoot, their bike line-up changes at a geological pace.  It seems like all they care about selling you is a Gold Wing.

HD, though, is hyperactive in their contacts with the riding community.

I got the call I’ve been waiting for.  The adjustors for CNA Insurance called me to assign an adjuster to my accident.  Supposedly, the adjustor will call tomorrow to set up an appointment to look at my bike.  I guess he’ll do the initial estimate, then I’ll have it carted off to North County House of Motorcycles to see where the hidden damage is.

It’s only taken six weeks…

…And a tale of two Robbies. This past week, for the big new years celebration, Both Robbie Madison and “Kaptain” Robbie Kneivel made highly hyped motorcycle jumps in Las Vegas.

Robbie Madison’s jump was…insane.

Robbie Kneivel’s jump was…meh.

I think Robbie Kneivel irks me.  First, he didn’t jump the volcano at the Mirage.  He jumped near the volcano.  And even if he had, so what.  I’ve been to the Mirage.  I’ve seen the volcano.  It ain’t that big. Jumping it really isn’t any more impressive than what the average motocross racer does every day, and Robbie–and FOX–acted like it was just as impressive as anything Evel Kneivel ever did.

It wasn’t.

If Evel had set this deal up, he would have jumped the volcano.  And he’d have done it riding a 600-pound Harley Sportster with stock suspension, not a lightweight little motocross bike with 18 inches of suspension travel.

Robbie Madison’s jump, on the other hand…well, not even Evel could’ve coaxed a Sportster up on top of a 100-foot vertical tower.

Granted, Madison used a motocross bike, too, but at least he has the excuse that it’s pretty much the only type of bike that could’ve done it.

In the video, the FOX announcer made a big deal out of the fact that kneivel doesn’t have a speedometer on his bike.  But a speedometer really isn’t necessary for a jump that can be made at any speed between 40 and 80 miles per hour.  At the end of the day, what Robbie Kneivel did was take a motocross bike and catch 25 feet of air from ramps on a level street, and it was hyped like the most amazing event ever.

I couldn’t do either of those jumps, myself.  But then I don’t bill myself as the world’s greatest motorcycle stunt daredevil.

That’s the main characteristic of diesel engines.  “Meh” horsepower, but brutal torque.  As a result, you don’t see many motorcycles with diesel engines.  Oh, there’ve been a  few, of course, but mostly as limited-quantity specialty bikes, or concepts.

EVA Trak Diesel Motorcycle

But now, a Dutch manufacturer, E.V.A, plans to produce a diesel-powered adventurer tourer this year.  Called the “Trak”, this bike will be powered by an 800cc turbo diesel with a CVT transmission (No shifting?). It’ll weight about 500 pounds dry, and put out 54 horsepower and 74 ft/lbs of torque at–get ready for it–1800RPM.  That’s an engine speed that barely registers on the tach of a modern sportbike.  It also has optional ABS brakes.  Although not shown in this picture, EVA will have a nice set of aluminum luggage to mount on it, hence the “tourer” in “adventure tourer”.

It’s not the prettiest motorcycle in the world, but it apparently does have one big advantage, which is a claimed 100 miles per gallon.  That assumes you’re running the bike on diesel.  According to EVA, it will also run on vegetable oil.  With a 6-gallon tank, a 500+ mile range is pretty respectable.  You won’t get there fast, but you’ll certainly get there cheaply.

You will not, alas, get the bike cheaply.  EVA’s planned MSRP on the Trak is €17,500, which comes out to somewhere in the vicinity of $25,000 at the current rate of exchange.  So, you’ll have to ride it a lot to offset the steep sticker price with fuel savings.

EVA plans to release the bike in Europe first, but it could be coming to the US in September of this year.

Bruce McLaughlan, writing in his Detroit News column, warns motorcycle dealers that, with the economy winding down, they may have to change some practices if they want to continue selling motorcycles.

You hear a lot of excuses about why dealers don’t allow test-rides: Liability, potential for damage, wildly varying skill levels among riders, etc.

Some brands are definitely better at providing this opportunity than others. Harley-Davidson, for example, has recognized the value to the point of promoting rentals — you can live with a Harley model for a weekend, maybe try two or three this way, then buy the one that really fits your needs.

I have found some of the European brands such as Triumph, Aprilia and Ducati promoting test ride events.

My Buell dealer, Ray C’s Harley-Davidson in Lapeer, encouraged me to test-ride the bike I eventually purchased.

But I have seen multi-line dealers — these typically are the guys who carry some or all of the Japanese brands — who won’t give you the time of day, let alone a test ride…

So how do the multi-line sport bike guys stay in business? I think the answer can be found in Japan, where the factories keep kicking out new bikes — the life cycle between major makeovers is only about two years, or less than half the life cycle of a typical car or truck. These new bikes offer significant gains in nearly every aspect of performance every time…

With the economy imposing significant new factors in the latter part of 2008 and heading into 2009, will this dynamic change?

What if the factories decide it’s too expensive to pour R&D money into their bikes?

Given the perceptible drop off in traffic at this year’s motorcycle show, smart dealers had better take note. Bikes may not sell themselves for much longer!

The reticence that some dealers–mainly the Big Four–have against allowing terst rides is a real turn-off.  not only to me, but, according to JD Power, for nearly everybody.  It can be a make-or-break customer satisfaction item.  At a time when BMW, Triumph, Aprilia, and others are offering test rides, it’ll be interesting to see how long the UJM dealers resist giving their customers a taste of how a prospective bike suits them.

The economy is slowing down quite a lot, so the sales staffs at the dealers better learn some new customer service practices, or it might be a mighty lean couple of years for them.

As you can see, I’ve ditched the old theme I was using on the blog, and switched to one of the free Wordpress motorcycle themes I designed last week.  I’ve tweaked that design a little bit, and done some monkeying around with the CSS stylesheet to change some things, but in general it’s the same theme I designed previously.

I liked the old theme, but it was a commercial theme that required I maintain some links in the footer for marketing sites that I didn’t really want to sponsor.  There’s still a marketing link, but now it goes to my company, which, of course, I don’t mind at all.

I designed this theme with a new tool called Artisteer, which is supposed to be a design tool for not only Wordpress themes, but regular HTML web sites as well, with future support for designing Joomla and Drupal themes.

The software is in Version 1.0, so obviously it’s got a ways to go to get to where I can use it professionally.  For a first release though, Artisteer really does take a lot of the headaches out of designing themes, and web site templates.

Except that you really can’t use it to design web site templates.  Artisteer has some growing up to do before it’s ready for that.  But for slapping together a decent Wordpress theme, there really isn’t much out there that’s better.

Still, it could use some improvement.  Because I do web development for a living, I would love a tool that would allow me to slap together a great template in a very short time, using a simple but powerful WYSIWYG interface.  Unfortunately, Artisteer is not that tool.  Not yet, at least.

First, it combines the formatting for both posts and sidebar into the same section, and formats them the same.  This is a bad idea, because the content column, and the sidebar column do completely different things.  They are completely separate entities, and should be treated as such.  Artisteer formats them both in fell swoop.

Second, when you aren’t exporting a Wordpress template, Artisteer still uses the insanely unecessary Wordpress DIV tag setup.  It’s so complicated that, when you open up your exported HTML file in Dreamweaver, it takes two or three minutes for Dreamweaver to render all of the insanely nested DIV tags into the preview screen.  Sure, Wordpress is complicated, because it’s a full-scale CMS system.  But designing a web page should result in a lot less complicated output.  As a result, the tool is useless to me for web template design, despite having purchased the “Standard” rather than the “Home” version.

Maybe, as this product evolves, it will become more useful over time.

I’ve spoken to the guys down at the ‘Ol BMW motorcycle dealership about the arrival dates for the new K-series bikes, The K130GT, K1300s, and K1300R.  They say that they are expecting to begin getting them in in late February or early March.  They still don’t have any firm word on what the MSRP will be, but considering that they’re getting close to delivering the the bikes, presumably they’ll have a price up very soon.  Looking over the bikes, I think BMW has a hit with two out of the three, in terms of looks and styling.

BMW K1300R

I’ll be the first to admit that I just can’t get past the looks of the K1300R.  I’m sure it’s sporty and fun, and whatnot–all the things the naked bike enthusiast really wants in a motorcycle–but it just looks goofy.

The flyscreen is literally that; just a tiny windshield to keep the bug guts out of the cables and wiring that sprout off the top of the triple tree (if that is indeed what it’s called on a BMW).  The two headlights, with their odd shape and mismatched sizes between the low- and hi-beams look goofy.  And what is that little grille-like thing below the headlights?  Does it even have a purpose?  And the styling of the front forks looks like someone stuck a dog’s leg on backwards.

I understand that there is a loyal customer base for this Frankenstein’s monster of a bike.  So, I’m sure you’ll like it, if this is the sort of thing you like.

BMW K1300S

Ah, the K1300S.  I can never own this bike, of course.  Just like I can’t own a Hayabusa, a ZX-14 Ninja, A CBR, or, really, any liter bike.  If I ever own a bike like this, I will go to jail.

Yes, I like to think I’m a grown-up, and I’m too mature for any of that bad-boy silliness.  I also know that’s a load of crap.  I’d flog this 180 horsepower monster worse than Captain Bligh would flog an insubordinate seaman, right up until the CHP grabbed me, and tossed me in the clink.

Either that, or I’d just kill myself on it, doing something outrageously stupid.

In any event, It looks great, and this factory paint job is one of the best out of Bavaria in a few years.

BMW K1300GT

My personal choice between these three is, as I’ve mentioned before, the K1300GT.  It’s more powerful than most bikes, but not as shockingly bad as the S model.  The engine has been detuned a bit to provide lower horsepower, but greater torque, which is what you want in a touring bike.

I especially like how they’ve shanged the tank insert on the side from dark gray to silver, which matches up much better with the steel blue color.

My only quibble is that BMW has designed the fairing in such a way as to make installing frame sliders difficult.  As I learned from my accident, the frame sliders are worth far more than their weight in gold in keeping damage to the fairing at a minimum.  The bike does have frame sliders, but BMW has installed them under the fairing.  They protect the engine, but not much else.  So, a bad foot slip in oil or gravel in a parking lot or at a stoplight will be about $1,0o0.

If I got the GT, I’d want to have the Automatic Stability Control, Electronic Suspension control, and the whole deal.

All I need is about $25,000, including tax, title, and license, to pull that off.

The one down side is that for 2009, BMW is ditching the traditional BMW turn signal switches for the standard, UJM-style switch on the left handlebar.  I dislike that a lot.  Indeed, one of the things I really liked about my Harley was having the separate switches on each handlebar.

Still, that’s the only thing I don’t like about this bike.

I am a little perturbed.  The lack of progress of any sort in clearing up the aftermath of my motorcycle accident is bothering me. I still haven’t been contacted, after a month, by the insurer of the livery company that employed the driver who ran the stop sign and hit me.  My motorcycle still sits, broken, in my garage.

My lawyer is difficult to get hold of, and seems too busy with other cases to tend to mind with any regularity.  Which I don’t understand at all.  A professional driver for a commercial livery company negligently ran a stop sign and struck my vehicle, broke my toe, sprained my knee, and badly hurt my leg and wrist.  I spent two weeks on crutches and a cane.  and, being a commercial livery company, they are required to have $1,000,000 in liability coverage.  You’d think a lawyer would be on that like gangbusters, but apparently not.  I had to call this week and light a fire under them to get on it.

As for my health, I am recovering, finally, from the accident.  I’m not 100% even yet, though.  My wrist is still pretty painful, and I have a line of pain that runs right up my shin to my knee.  My broken toe is still tender, too, which is to be expected, but last week I was able to start wearing regular shoes again.  So, I finally got to ditch the wierd, orthopedic, open shoe with the hard sole.

I have an appointment with an orthopedist on Tuesday, and he’ll look at my banged-up bits, to be sure everything is coming along OK.

After calling my lawyer this week, and now that the holidays are over, I’m hoping that the adjuster from the other insurance company will get in contact with me, and we can see if my FJR is reparable…or if it’s gonna get sent to the breakers.

One of the things I learned when I switched over to a Wordpress blog is that there really isn’t much of a selection of explicitly motorcycle-themed Wordpress skins available.  There’s about, uh, four I think, that I found online.

Well, now, I’ve more than doubled that number.

I’ve created a series of free Wordpress themes for motorcycle blogs, and have tried to take care of both the sportbike guys, and the cruiser guys.  All of the themes are 2.7 compatible, and widget-ready.  There are no links to third-party sponsors or anything.  Not even a link to me.  Although, a courtesy link would be nice if you decide to use the theme.

Just click on the screenshot previews below to download the ZIP file containing the theme.

BLUE RACER

Blue Racer Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

Blue Racer is a light-colored blue theme, with a racing bike header.

HOG ORANGE

Hog Orange Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

I certainly wouldn’t want to leave the cruiser guys out of the party.  It’s a dark, grungy theme, in the orange and black colors that are traditionally associated with a certain motorcycle manufacturer.

BURNOUT

Burnout Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

Burnout is a sportbike theme, with a nice pic of a ZX-14 tearing up the asphalt.  And its tires.

SEPIA CRUISER

Sepia Cruiser Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

This one is a very neutral-colored, sepia-toned theme.  Front and center is the image of the Tachometer of my Sportster.  So, if you don’t ride a Harley, well, you might want to find another image to use as the header pic that doesn’t have a big ol’ bar and shield on it.

Like, maybe, this version, which is less Harley-centric.

Sepia Cruiser 2 Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

HIGH SPEED

High Speed Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

High speed is done in dark steel blues, topped by a ‘busa screaming down the highway.

SPORT TOURING

Sport Touring Wordpress Motorcycle Theme

Sport Touring is square.  The theme is square, I mean.  Not a curve on it, and patterned squares are a central motif of this theme.  As is the FJR1300 in the header (with all badges removed, for, uh genericizing it).  Warm earth tones make this a soothing theme, in contrast to the sharp edges of the design elements.

So,  I hope you like the efforts above, and find them useful if you have a blog.

I guess today has turned into Harley Davidson day here, but I came across this bit of news.  Frankly, considering the current economic conditions, I found it surprising.  But the MoCo is running a promotion from now until 31 Mar that will give Sportster riders the original MSRP of their bikes if they trade them in on a Big Twin.

Riders purchasing 2008 or 2009 model year Sportster 883 or 1200 motorcycles (excluding XR1200) at a participating Harley-Davidson dealership between Dec. 26, 2008 and Mar. 31, 2009 can trade that Sportster in within one year to receive original MSRP on trade-in for qualifying Harley-Davidson Big Twin or VRSC motorcycles.

Riders trading in a 2007-2009 model year Sportster 883 or 1200 motorcycle at a participating Harley-Davidson dealership between Dec. 26, 2008 and Mar. 31, 2009 will receive the original MSRP on that Sportster toward the purchase of qualifying Harley-Davidson Big Twin or VRSC motorcycles.

What is considered the MSRP value? Harley-Davidson defines it as the factory-delivered MSRP (including factory installed options) of the qualifying new motorcycle.

“Those are some sweet numbers, Wade.”

Cycle World has gotten their hands on a 2009 Harley-Davidson Road Glide, and after a decently log trip, has written it up.  Apparently, they like the new changes.

In the end, the outside image remains quite traditional, but underneath is an ever-improving riding experience. The Road Glide is a very comfortable, easy-to-ride motorcycle in the Harley-Davidson touring tradition. But now it gives you a more solid position to make decisions about where you want to go, taking life’s curves with confidence and composure.

There’s not a lot of external change to the touring models, but there are big changes under the skin.The main change HD has made is to the frame.  That’s where the bit about taking curves with confidence and composure comes from.  The new frame apparently adds a signifigant amount of stability on the curvy bits, allowing you to ride with more confidence.  Additionally, the MoCo’s engineers have decoupled braking and steering, so adding in a little trail brake doesn’t break you out of your line.

If I were to get another Harley, the Road Glide is the bike at the very top of my list.

The new harley-Davidson XR1200 seems to be racking up the kudos.  Motorcycle Daily has a write up on it, and they conclude:

This is the ultimate Harley-Davidson Sportster, with performance and reliability completely unknown to the guys who owned a Sportster decades ago. Guys that dreamed (like Erik Buell) about what a Sportster might be or might become. That dream is finally a reality, with factory reliability and a factory warranty.

From what everyone is saying, this seems like the closest thing to a modern sportbike that  Harley has ever built.

I hope that you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

One of the big motorcycle events of every year is the Honda Hoot.  Honda owners from all over North America show up every year in Knoxville, TN.

But, American Honda is pulling the plug.

American Honda announced today that the 2008 Honda Hoot will bring to a close 15 years of what has been one of the most successful motorcycle rallies in history. Over the years, almost a quarter of a million guests attended the Honda Hoot which was born in the hills of Ashville North Carolina and eventually moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. At the first event, a little over 3000 attendees enjoyed what would grow to become one of the largest rallies in North America…

Based on the current economic crunch which may have significant impact on our customers during 2009, American Honda will take this time to seek out new and innovative ways to engage with our customers so that we can continue to ride together.

The language of the announcement makes it sound like the cancellation of the Hoot is a permanent deal, not a temporary expediant due to the current economy.

This is especially interesting, coming as it does just days after the announcement that American Honda is withdrawing from AMA racing.  Again, Honda is using the current economic situation as the reason for withdrawing.  I do note, however, that in February of this year, Honda announced that in 2009, that its Motorcycle manufacturing operations would be transferred back to Japan.  That announcement came well before any economic concerns.

It seems to me like Honda had decided almost a year ago that its US operations would be sharply curtailed, and we are now seeing the public ramifications of that decision.  I’m inclined to the belief that something is going on at Honda.  But I don’t know what.  And I don’t know if that something is good or bad.

Based on Honda CEO  Takeo Fukui’s rather downbeat speech a few days ago, Honda is under some financial pressure, but in the same speech, he seemed to be a bit more positive about the state of the motorcycle industry.

But the recent indications are that American Honda is really scaling back a lot.

Motorcyclists have apparently never loved motorcycles as much as they do right this minute.  Apparently, according to J.D. Power, motorcyclists think their motorcycles are the tits.

Overall motorcycle ownership satisfaction averages 814 (based on a 1,000-point scale) in 2008, up 5 points from 2007. While all five components driving satisfaction improve in 2008, the most notable increases occur in the areas of cost of ownership and product quality.

I’d be a happy motorcyclist, too…if I had a motorcycle.

There’s been no progress at all on getting the FJR into a shop, no contact with the other drivers insurance company, or any other measurable sign that we’re moving towards resolving  my damages that resulted from the accident.

On the plus side, while I still have achey legs, I was finally able to start walking without a cane yesterday.   Still limping, but the cane isn’t necessary any more, so I got that going for me.

Viper Motorcycles has been trying to do two things.  1) Build a factory custom motorcycle that people want to buy, and 2) Get envionmental/emissions approval from the EPA–and CARB, in California–to actually sell that motorcycle.  As of now, they’ve accomplished 50% of their goals.

John Silseth II, Viper Powersports CEO, stated, “We have received our EPA certificate and have successfully completed our CARB testing for approval in all 50 states. During testing, we knew the Viper 152 inch short stroke motor was clean and produced less heat than our competitors and we are excited at the opportunity to move forward fully compliant. The 2009 Diamondback is in production this month and will begin shipping in early 2009.”

According to Terry Nesbitt, Viper Motorcycle Company President, “We are 8 years into this project and are ready to take our place as an OEM. The Diamondback 152 Super Cruiser is the only production cruiser designed and manufactured in-house in its entirety utilizing proprietary component parts distinctive to the Viper brand.”

Viper Diamondback

Viper is an interesting project.  Based in Minnesota–which gives them plenty of time during the winter to work, instead of ride–the compnay produced proprietary engines and custom motorcycles.  This move into the factory custom business in all 50 states moves them from a a custom chopper shop into an actual manufacturer.

Their premier bike, the Diamondback, has a Viper proprietary 152 c.i. V-Twin motor, belt drive, a six-speed tranny, and sports a 120/70-21 Metzeler tire in front, and a tiny little 260/40-18 Metzeler in back.  Dry weight is 600 lbs.  Rake/Trail is 34 degrees, with a wheelbase of 71 inches.

I’ll leave it to you to imagine the awsome canyon-carving ability the above implies.

Looking at the bike, it looks like a custom cruiser.  I’m sure you’ll like it, if that’s the sort of thing you like.  To me…well…it looks like another Arlen Ness inspired creation.To tell the truth, I’m not all that big on custom bikes.

Still, that’s just my personal taste, and I wish Viper all the success in the world.  They’ll probably need all the good wishes they can get, too.  The current economic conditions don’t make this the most auspicious time to introduce a new factory custom to the US market.