www.citybikerblog.com

It’s happened to everyone at some point: you’re riding along when you see something interesting, the next thing you know the car ahead of you is at a dead stop and you’re grabbing a handful of brakes. Maybe you’re by an airport watching a plane take off while doing a fist pump ala Top Gun…  Or maybe you’re looking away for a justifiable (not so Jersey Shore) reason: like looking over your shoulder at a car behind you while switching lanes…(something I usually do), or reading a street sign, or something…  Now if you’ve ever been surprised by something after looking away, you know how quickly it all happens…  You just looked away for a moment, and a moment later all hell breaks loose…  Especially in NY!

Here’s why: at 30 mph, when you look away for just one second you’ve already traveled 44 feet!   That’s three car lengths!  And you’re still in first gear.  At 50 mph you’re going 73 feet per second…  At 100mph, you look away for a second and you’ve just traveled 146.6 feet!!  That’s nearly half a football field – in one second! Continue Reading »

This is straight out of the movie Dune…if you move slowly the material will bend and give, but try to move it quickly and it won’t let you.  Great for snowboarding gear, and even better for motorcycles… The US military even uses it to stop bullets!  So where can I get my hands on some d3o body armor?  Right now the only way is to buy gear with the armor installed: Armadillo, or FirstGear.

Now I haven’t seen the stuff first hand, and I’m not in the market for any gear (although I like the Armadillo parka) – have any of you bought gear recently with d3o?  I’m interested to know if you feel a difference wearing it.

If the job of advertisers is to make commercials good enough that people actually *want* to watch them, then for me, these Triumph ads come pretty close. I don’t think I could live with a Bonnie myself, and yet I really love the bike. It looks the way I always imagined a motorcycle should look. And this commercial looks like it takes place in some alternate universe NY (the one right outside of Barcelona – or some other place warm and clean) where it’s safe to ride with open face helmets (and not get road schmoo on your face). Anyway – if you’re into Triumph adverts – here’s a bonus one after the jump… Continue Reading »

Moto Guzzi…? No MV Agusta. Think of it as the Italian inline-4 that Bruce Wayne would ride…albeit with a very Honda-ish sounding name. A few years ago they came out with a version of the F4 that put it on top of the list of most expensive motorcycles by using precious metals instead of the regular performance stuff, tipping in at around $135,000 US. What makes the F4 unique looking from behind is the four parallel exhaust pipes out back making it look like a vintage pipe organ… The new F4 holds onto that (although I know it’s not particularly noticeable in the video – it IS noticeable in person).

If you have twenty grand or so burning a hole in your pocket, and you don’t want to be like the other guys buying the new BMW or Aprilia or R1 – then MV Agusta is the name you need to remember!

Once you’re done learning to connect the dots with Colin Edwards, you can jump over here for a 15 minute track lesson with Rossi.

I don’t know what the deal is with the guy standing in front of the camera in the beginning, but after that the video has some nice lines and impressive lean angles…

I never noticed supermotos until a couple of years ago when I first saw Ducati’s Hypermotard…then I started to notice more DIY supermoto’s dirt bikes with road bike 17″ rims and sport bike tires. Although I was skeptical at first, today I think they’re brilliant. But do they make the best city bikes? I don’t know about that… They’ve got the torque and wheelie ability (because every good hoodlum bike needs to wheelie easily), but on the down side they’re neither as practical (or comfortable) as scooters or as fast as sport bikes… But what do you think too hot, too cold or just right?

We’re hunkering down for another snow storm here in NY, and one of the practical things about 250’s is…not only are they cheaper to buy and maintain, not only are they great on gas mileage, but they’re also great in the snow. You can learn things riding a smaller motorcycle that you will never learn on a larger (also heavier and more expensive to repair) machine. So here’s a little Motorcycle.com video on some 250 options…

If you like retro scooters then you might have heard of this little company called Genuine that’s been importing brand new PX150’s made in India to the U.S. Continue Reading »

The cool thing about motorcycles is that you actually don’t need a good sense of balance to ride them.  Twist the throttle, and the magic of gyroscopic forces does its work keeping you on a vertical plane.  But when the wheels start to slide (and also for tight low speed maneuvers) your sense of balance is what keeps you from hitting the ground.  Ever see someone catch an unexpected slide?  How did she do that?  It happens too quickly to think about what to do.  The only way is if your steering, throttle control, and sense of balance are in sync to save your butt from the pavement. Continue Reading »