The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US
Lane-splitting: perhaps not as dangerous as we first thought?
Mercedes Benz (Daimler) pulls the trigger on MV Agusta.
Stolen 1954 Harley Hydra-Glide Returned After 42 years
He and Dong buy bodies!
Interview with Chris Ulrich.
World Superbike Championship decided in Qatar.
MotoGP & Moto2 picks for Valencia.
What you need to know is that he did his own stunts. Also, nice stunts for the 20s!
This past September I rode in the Washington DC DGR ride. I wrote about the event and ride in this post.
A few days ago I received a letter, Air Mailed from Australia; from the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride organization (a motorcycle inspired charity). It was a thank you letter for the donation I made to the organization. It also contained a patch and a couple stickers because of the amount of money I donated. While I was not expecting anything in return it was a nice surprise (I went back to their website and yes if donate more than $100 you do get tokens of appreciation).
I really like the patch and it will make a fine addition to my vest and the stickers will go on my tool chest with all the other motorcycle related stickers. Maybe this winter I will do a post on my tool chest LOL!!
A lot has occurred on the subject of lane splitting (or filtering depending on where you are) this year to include the following:
> A complaint from one person forced the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to remove lane splitting guidelines from their website.
> In Australia, New South Wales is now allowing lane splitting and Queensland is will be legal in 2015.
> Change.org has a petition to make lane splitting legal in the state of Virginia.
> UC Berkeley issued a study, commissioned by the CHP, finds the practice does not increase safety risks.
The most important item of the year on this subject is the UC Berkleley/CHP study. The study shows that lane splitting is, mostly, as safe as riding in a standard lane. I can see this report supporting the movement to allow lane splitting in other states in the very near future. The report, titled “Safety implications of lane-splitting among California motorcyclists involved in collisions” studied the “prevalence of lane-splitting among approximately 8,000 motorcyclists who were involved traffic collisions in June 2012 through August 2013”. Some of the highlights of the UC/CHP study: (LSM=Lane Splitting Motorcyclist)
> The practice of riding in between marked lanes to filter through slow-moving or stopped traffic, is just as safe for riders as traveling in normal lanes
> Riders who split lanes are less prone to getting rear-ended; however, the likelihood of a rider rear-ending a car is greater.
> Danger level does increase for riders who are splitting at speeds of 10mph or faster than the surrounding traffic.
> They found that lane splitters were splitting at lower speeds and in slower moving traffic than they had been previously.
> Time of day also varied greatly by lane-splitting status 59.5% of LSM were involved in collisions between 6-9 am or 3-4pm, compared with 37.3% of motorcyclists who were not lane-splitting.
> Patterns of injury were significantly different comparing LSM and other motorcyclists. LSM were notably less likely to suffer head injury (9.1% vs 16.5%), torso injury (18.6% vs 27.3%), or fatal injury (1.4% vs 3.1%) than other motorcyclists. The occurrence of neck injury and arm/leg injury did not differ meaningfully by lane-splitting status.
The authors of the report have promised further analysis on the data they collected. They plan to look at things such as age, gender, rider characteristics, and roadway conditions to further dig into what exactly is and isn’t dangerous on the roads.
You can read the summary of the UC Berkeley/CHP study yourself at this link.
3-Time MotoGP 500cc World Champion and the man who will be spearheading MotoAmerica, Wayne Rainey will be joining the Pack on The Dawghouse, Tuesday night Oct 28th.
Wayne Rainey will forever be remembered as a man who dominated MotoGP in a time when the field was loaded with legends. Now he will also be remembered as a key part in the group that will be revitalizing American road racing.
The Pack is extremely anxious to ask Wayne about the new series, and his dreams and desires for it, plus throw in some old school racing talk. The show runs live on NTNRadio.com from 6-8 pm eastern with a live interactive chatroom on the website for listeners to chime in with their questions and comments. NTNRadio.com is also on the TuneIn app, Shoutcast app and Xiia app for our mobile friends. A podcast of the show will be available within a few hours of the end of the show.
The Dawghouse is a completely irreverent, totally biased, intellectually challenged and scornful study of the twisted life of the motorcycling world and those who inhabit our planet… all wrapped up in a disturbing weekly LIVE broadcast! Listen in every Tuesday from 6:00pm to 8:00pm (Eastern time.) on NTNRadio.com
I wrote this article a few days ago.. and it is now out of date!!!! The Harley Davidson “Captain America” bike from Easy Rider is now the most expensive motorcycle sold at auction. Going for $1.35 million US this is reportable the bike that was destroyed at the end of the movie and rebuilt a few years later. The “other” Captain America bike was stolen before the movie was finished and has never been seen again except for the fact that the man who authenticated this motorcycle as also authenticated another one as well….. hummmm. Here is a link to help explain this crazy story.
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I ran across a couple interesting articles on motorcycles at Gizmag.com on this subject. I was quite surprised at what I found as I read about the results of motorcycle auctions. I will not go in a lot of details, you can use the links below to read that and you should. The link also discusses the content of the top 100 bikes sold at auction.
What surprised me the most was the fact that the number one most expensive bike was one of which I have never heard. The top ten are:
1 – US$580,000 – 1910 Winchester
2 – US$551,200 – 1915 Cyclone Board Track Racer
3 – US$480,000 – 1939 BMW RS255 Kompressor
4 – US$463,847 – 1922 Brough Superior SS80
5 – US$452,234 – 1926 Brough Superior SS100
6 – US$450,000 – 1958 Ariel 650 Cyclone
7 – US$448,156 – 1929 Brough Superior SS100
8 – US425,943 – 1939 Brough Superior SS100
9 – US$394,101 – 1934 Brough Superior SS100
10 – US$383,317 – 1949 Vincent Black Lightning
Turns out that the person who bought the bike was a gun collector. I am very aware of the collector’s value of the name Winchester as several folks that I know collect Winchester. According to what I read only about 200 were made and only a few survived.
Winchester attempted to “diversify” and move into motorcycling along the lines of BSA and Royal Enfield which were also gun makers. Winchester had the bikes built and badged by another company and only stayed in the bike business for a few years. You can learn more about at the links below.
Now if you look at all of the top 100 most expensive bikes sold you would find that:
Brough Superiors in top 100 – 23
Vincent-HRDs in top 100 – 14
Harley-Davidsons in top 100 – 9
BMWs in top 100 – 8
Crockers in top 100 – 7
Indians in top 100 – 5
Ducatis in top 100 – 4
Flying Merkels in Top 100 – 4
Hendersons in Top 100 – 2
Iver Johnsons in Top 100 – 2
Hildebrand & Wolfmüllers in Top 100 – 2
To read more on the Winchester click here.
To read more on the Top 100 click here.
The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US
Ken’s News:
Want to see the world on two wheels? Here’s a guide to get you started.
Lost a bike in India – there’s a good chance it’s here…
Warren’s News:
NO Ferrari Motorcycle
Victory for Costco
Speed camera prank….AWESOME!
Racing News:
AMA Flattrack champion crowned.
Grand Prix of Japan from Motegi – MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3.
Picks for MotoGP & Moto2 from Phillip Island, Australia.
The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US
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Ken’s News:
Zero announces 2015 lineup.
Mike Tyson is a rider’s best friend?
Warren’s News:
Ferrari Motorcycle???
Get ready for $1000 dollar increase to the price of all motorcycles.
Racing News:
A very wet World Superbike at Magny-Cours tightens up championship.
Silly season in full swing early this year.
Picks for Japan Grand Prix Motegi.
News from Moto America
On the 28th of September I and hundreds of thousands of other around the world rode our motorcycles in support of and to raise money for prostate cancer. WAIT that did not sound right let’s try it again… We rode in a “dapper and genteel” manner to raise awareness of and money in support of the fight against prostate cancer. The ride was part of the world wide phenomenon known as the Distinguished Gentleman’s ride.
The Washington DC DGR began in Georgetown at the Exxon gas station near the Francis Scott Key Bridge and the famous “Exorcist” stairs. This was my first ride with the DGR, and I cannot state how different it is from any other event I have participated in to date. Riding in from Leesburg to Georgetown in jacket and tie I received more than a few double takes… but that is part of the purpose of the ride right?
From my research on last year’s DGR in DC I assumed that there would be a similar number of riders and bikes in attendance about 50-60. Well, there was, in my estimation, double that, at one point I noticed a thoughtful gentleman counting the bikes at the first stop (Belle Haven Park on the George Washington Parkway) he was at 102 when I moved to take pictures.
Due to the greater number of participates the organizers had to make a few “on the fly” changes as we progressed. An example of the changes was the revamping of the route to loop around the front of Mount Vernon instead of riding through old town Alexandria. That was a very wise decision as it would have caused a lot of traffic issues, which should not be gentlemen’s first choice. The riders took it all in stride and things worked out well, kudos to the organizers.
For the record I had two items that I was disappointed with during the DGR, both were my issues not the ride itself. First it was at Mount Vernon that I had to drop out from the ride. I missed the stop at the US Capitol and the hoisting of pints. Not something that I will miss next year! Second I am only contributing $100 to the cause, I just did not have time to get out and look for sponsors. I am making a calendar event now to start that process in early August for the next ride.
Please mark your calendars for next years ride!
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 