Both my wife and I are members of the Polar Bear Grand Tour based in New Jersey. This is our 16th season riding with this motorcycle group and it's also the 29th anniversary of the founding of the group. I happen to be the Webmaster for the Polar Bears and I spend quite a lot of time taking pictures and videos of the various runs.
I'll be featuring these videos in a new feature, Polar Bear Grand Tour - Motorcycle Video Clips. I expect that more motorcycle videos will also be finding their way into this feature in the coming year. For the time being, it's mostly about what I've observed over the past few years as a Polar Bear member.
Take a look at these Motorcycle Video Clips. They're very short. It's too soon to tell whether I want to start featuring motorcycle video clips submitted by visitors.
Motorcycle Video Clips
Old Motorcycles - Picture Gallery
Motorcycle Audio Clips
I have just released my Motorcycle Audio Clips feature. It contains short audio clips of motorcycle engines and exhaust sounds.
I have my own motorcycles in there too as well as some engine sounds submitted by others.
If you like making short audio clips of motorcycle-related sounds, send them to me for inclusion in the feature.
Here are my Motorcycle Audio Clips.
Honda Recalls 2007 CMX250C for Crankcase Breather Defect
Honda has issued a recall of certain 2007 CMX250C motorcycles.
On certain motorcycles, the crankcase breather separator may be defected. During the molding process, the breather passage may have been blocked by a thin layer of the injected plastic material. This blockage will create a build-up of pressure inside the crankcase and may cause the left side engine seal to be pushed out of position and an oil leak will occur.
6784 units are affected.
Check out my Motorcycle Recalls feature for more details.
Antique Motorcycle Ads Gallery
BMW 101 for Cagers
Just saw this posting on the BMWBMW forum. Apparently, some people still don't know that BMW makes motorcycles, even though BMW started making motorcycles in 1923, long before they started making cars. Be sure to check out my BMW and a Quiz Too for some history about BMW and a short quiz.
Here's an excerpt from the posting:
"While stopped at a traffic light on the Reston Parkway a woman, driving a BMW 7 series car, puts her window down and shouts at me: Something like this;
Woman: You should remove those stickers
Me: What stickers?
Woman: Those BMW stickers. Everyone knows BMW does not make motorcycles. How dare you put those on..."
Read the rest of the posting.
Motorcycle Road Tests Index
Most riders want to be pointed to articles about a particular bike to find out what professional testers think of the bike. Since the motorcycle magazines tend to take a very long time to get a test published, more and more riders are turning to the Internet for bike evaluations. Many of the motorcycle electronic magazines listed on the Motorcycle Views site do give these more timely reviews.
The problem still is finding out if a particular bike has been tested, what magazine or electronic magazine it's in and the date of the publication. Often members of motorcycle forums post messages asking if anyone has seen a road test for such-and-such a bike. There is no simple index of these road tests.
To provide a means for these road tests to be indexed, I have created an index on the Motorcycle Views site called Motorcycle Road Tests Index. This feature lists the various motorcycle makes and models alphabetically on an index page. Clicking on the model of interest takes you to a separate page of information about that bike. This information includes the motorcycle magazine containing the test and the month and year of publication. Information is given so you can order back copies of the magazine. If any electronic magazine articles have been found for the same model, they are also listed.
So far, I have listed tests for 2006 models and for some 2007 models. I have a few more to add for 2007 to catch up with what has already been published. 43 tests are in the index at this writing.
Women on Motorcycles - Best Pictures for 2005-2006
When women see women riders from all walks of life enjoying the sport and recommending it to other women, they often are engendered with the spirit to give motorcycling a try.
The top women on motorcycles pictures were picked from pictures submitted in 2005-2006. Women were chosen for a variety of reasons. I looked at each picture, read each description, and picked those pictures that held my interest. There's a mix of women and motorcycles here that should give you an understanding of how deep the motorcycling experience is for women these days. Check out Women on Motorcycles - Best Pics for 2005-2006.
If you're a woman thinking about riding, be sure to also view our current Women on Motorcycles Gallery for inspiring testimonials from women riders and to see how diverse the population of women riders is.
Ural Recalls Motorcycles for Improperly Installed Wheel Bearings
Ural has issued a recall of certain 2006 Gear-Up, Patrol, Raven, and Tourist motorcycles.
On certain motorcycles, the wheel bearings may have been improperly installed at the factory. This can cause loose wheels or wheel lock up increasing the risk of a crash.
33 units are affected.
Check out my Motorcycle Recalls feature for more details.
21 Years of Honda Shadow - A Gallery
We present here a look at Honda Shadow models from the first model in 1983 to the year 2003 as provided in pictures submitted by visitors to the site. A gallery called "21 Years of Shadow: A Gallery" is provided that gives a picture and description for each model for each year from 1983 to 2003.
One-Stop Motorcycle Page
I've just created a One-Stop Motorcycle Page for the Motorcycle Views site. It contains links to information that riders seem to want to know. That information is all over the site so I've culled the major stuff onto this One-Stop page.
You should be able to find almost anything about motorcycles by looking at the Main Menu on Motorcycle Views. Subjects are arranged on the left while the most requested items are explicitly listed on the right side. Even the top 10 most popular articles are shown in a special box at the top.
However, there are some items that keep being requested over and over. Those items will be found on this One-Stop Motorcycle page.
It's a Two-Way Street
Over the past eight years I've written a lot about motorcycles both on the old site and on the Motorcycle Views site, forum, newsletter, and this blog. However, writing can be like riding down a one-way street. I want it to be like riding down a two-way street being able to see my readers waving at me on their oncoming motorcycles. I want to be able to stop at a watering hole and get feedback on what I'm doing right and wrong and have riders submit articles, pictures, comments, and discussions to help the total site grow. I need submissions.
This is not a site in a vacuum. Never was before and won't be in the future. It's a site that depends on you.
At yesterday's Polar Bear run, I had several people come up to me and talk about this new site. They liked it better than the old site. It still has much of the old content but it's much simpler to navigate and is not cluttered with ads. It was nice to hear people talk about the new site in such glowing terms. However, success of the new site depends basically on three things: Search engine placement, User Submissions, and forum growth.
Search engine placement is a complicated process. I'm doing about all I can to foster this process. However, search result ranking often depends on having other sites linking to a site. That proves that the site is important enough to others that many other sites want to link to it. It seems to have the effect of raising a site's ranking in the search results. So, if you happen to have a motorcycle site and like what you see here on Motorcycle Views, consider linking to the main site. As always, I will provide a link back to your site as I always did on the old site.
I have seven items on my Submissions page. These include User Reviews, Motorcycle Pictures, Tattoos, Haiku Poems, Forum Participation, Newsletter Subscription, and Blog Comments. Take a look at my Submissions page to see where you can contribute most to the growth of the site. Nearly eight years of doing this has made it readily apparent to me that "It all depends on you." I enjoy reading the submissions and processing them to appear on the site. Help me out by writing a great user review of your own bike, submitting a picture of you with your bike, showing me your motorcycle-related tat, writing a simple haiku, becoming active on my forum -- it's FUN, subscribing to my newsletter, and commenting on this blog. What could be easier?
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Wild Hogs - Motorcycle Movie Review
I finally got around to finding time to go see the new motorcycle movie: Wild Hogs. I'm not one for going to a movie when it first opens, especially one that has been so hyped on TV. So I waited until the first snowstorm after the opening and my wife and I joined maybe 10 other people for a Wednesday afternoon showing.
It was pretty good. Not Academy Award material but a nice way to spend a snowy afternoon.
Here's my review of Wild Hogs.
Motorcycle Industry Council Comments on Wild Hogs Movie
Wild Hogs, the new movie starring John Travolta and Tim Allen, opens today. I saw a review on TV today that said to forget it. Another review in the paper gave it two stars out of four. So the reviews keep coming in. Of course, the true test is what the fans think and the box office take will be the final test.
The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) says, in a release to Business Wire, today that the reviews are mixed. Here's an excerpt:
"We want to give ‘Wild Hogs’ a thumbs-up for inspiring even more Americans to take a look at motorcycling and everything great it has to offer, the sense of freedom it provides, the adventure,” said Tim Buche, president of the MIC. “At the same time, we want to continue to encourage new and returning riders to go about it the right way. After you’ve taken the ride vicariously in the movie theater, enroll in a Motorcycle Safety Foundation RiderCourseSM and learn about two-wheeling in the real world."
Read the complete article.
Of course Motorcycle Views wants to encourage everyone thinking about learning to ride a motorcycle to do so but it has to be done right. That doesn't mean running out after seeing a movie like this and buying a new motorcycle and then trying to learn to ride it on your own. Check out my step-by-step procedure to do it right by reading You CAN Ride a Motorcycle.
I also have a Motorcycle Views Forum where you can ask questions about learning to ride and receive answers from our expert riders. Check out the Motorcycle Views Forum.
As I said before in this blog, I will be giving you my review of this movie soon.
Wild Hogs Suits the Fancy of Bikers
Almost every day there's another story or TV interview about the new motorcycle movie, Wild Hogs. Tomorrow's the opening day for the movie starring John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence.
Motorcyclists are tough critics of movies that try to explain the biker experience. They are even harder on TV shows that misrepresent motorcycling. However, the early returns from riders who have seen the sneak preview of Wild Hogs have been favorable even to the point of recommending that their buddies go see the movie.
I plan to see the movie and write a review. In the meantime, here's a story by Scott Bowles of USA TODAY that describes a trip up the Pacific Coast Highway with John Travolta, Tim Allen, and William H. Macy as they ride their Harleys in real traffic and encounter real people along the way. The article, From Hollywood to hog-wild, also has a great picture of the four riders.
Also, check out my previous movie review of Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage.
