Ken and Phil RANT about Virginia International Raceway before heading to MotoAmerica races at VIR.
Victory Motorcycles to race an electric bike at Isle of Mann.
Lost motorcycle rider found in Guatemala.
Yamaha and Triumph motorcycles recalled for the same bad part.
Ducati customers are the most satisfied?
World Superbike in Imola.
Dani Pedrosa returns.
The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US
This week show was a bit out of the normal.
Phil is still out (supporting his mom and dad) for a couple more weeks and with the bad weather here in in Northern Virginia we decided to do the show remotely. There was no live broadcast, it was about an hour long and we recorded via Skype so the quality is not as high as normal.
Click this link to get to DAWGHOUSE MOTORCYCLE RADIO SHOW #297
This week we discussed:
A man, struck way lane-splitting in the UK, was awarded $10 million.
When love of motorcycling and love of your spouse goes a little too far.
Are your accessories secured?
Breaking News…. Phil takes a bike out of the WienerMobile!!
Tips for Buying a Helmet
Entry Level BMW?
AMA Supercross Arlington Texas.
Ducati’s first totally new GP bike since the Audi acquisition, the GP15, debuted in Sepang and it looks like Ducati may give Yamaha & Honda some competition.
Does he have a splitting headache or what?
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO OR DOWNLOAD THE BROADCAST!
On this episode…… Ken is out with shingles (not the roofing kind)
The most BADASS biker ever….could you ride 60 miles on rough roads with a KNIFE IN YOUR HEAD?
Ken pokes fun at Harley on its 5th year anniversary in India
Riding NAKED will get you deported!
Racing Update
AMA Supercross Phoenix results and discussion.
Dakar Rally update.
Ride naked…get deported!
Below are the news items, in no rank order that had the most interest to me in 2014. They run the gamut from touring, racing, safety to just stuff I liked. Why 9, because everyone does 10 and 11 is too many. Hope you find them interesting as well.
Interactive map of American Byways
America’s Byways Website: A website the federal government got right!!! I wrote about this site back in March in this post. America’s Byways is an interactive, map based, website that will provide you a listing of each of the 150 different roads. Those roads are comprised of the National Scenic Byways and All-American Roads. You can select the road from a national or state map to see basic information on the road (length, average time to travel the road and historical background) as well as route maps, directions and photos.
Electric Iron Butt Ride: 1000 miles in 24 hours on a motorcycle can be hard on a normal bike. Terry Hershner completed the endurance ride on a heavily modified 2012 Zero S electric motorcycle. You can read about his ride and see pictures of the bike at this link.
Project Live Wire: Speaking of electric motorcycles everyone has to take notice when Harley Davidson rolls out their prototypes on a nationwide tour. I got to ride one of the bikes a few months back and I was impressed how well they performed/looked for prototype machines. We even had John Wheeler from Harley Davidson Project Live Wire as a guest on The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio Show #291.
Safercar.gov: Another website done right by the government… how quaint. Although saffercar.gov has been around for a while, this year they added the ability to look up your bikes VIN to determine if it has a recall applied. Check that feature out here.
Sons of Anarchy: The final season. I liked the entire series but that last episode seemed like it was more of “let’s get this done as fast as possible” instead of well thought out end to a classic show.
MotoAmerica: I am not a huge motorcycle racing fan but after hosting The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio with Ken and Phil I have learned a lot. One of the things I have learned is that there is a lot of excitement for the new AMA sanctioned racing series. Daytona Motor Group was replaced by MotoAmerica, lead my former champion Wayne Rainy. The series is coming to Virginia this year and I plan on attending. We interviewed Wayne on the Dawghouse a few months ago, you can hear the interview here.
BMW R1200RT Do Not Ride Recall: That a BMW has a recall is no big deal. That “Bike of the Year R1200RT” has had a recall that lasted 4 months is a big deal. Multiple magazines and websites declared a bike, which owners could not ride for a large part of the year, the best bike of the year, what crap. Now don’t get me wrong, I do not think this is a BMW issue, they have went out of their way to support owners of the bike. This is a big deal to me because industry media leaders fell all over themselves for a bike that did not deserve the accolades. Was this advertising dollars at work?
Marc Marquez – Again, I do not follow racing that closely but WOW. A dominant performance from the defending champion to win the MotoGP championship for a second straight year. He set the record for the most races won in a season with 13. Take a look at the link to see all the records he has broken and he is still a very young guy at 21.
Lane Splitting – Apparently it is a lot safer then we all thought. A study by University California, Berkeley for the California Highway Patrol found, for example:
> 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.
You can read the whole study here and my earlier post on the issue here.
On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter: It is not too often that we get feature presentation style movies dedicated to motorcycling. This movie paid homage to the original 1970s movie (as a son would a father which in this case is accurate as the son of the original movie directed the Next Chapter). I saw this movie on the big screen and it was just great. Hopefully this will get some good karma for our industry and lifestyle
WOW.. you never know what you can find on You Tube, this historic record of motorcycle racing blew me away.
Mr. Frantisek Marik, an Indian Dealer in the Czech Republic, came to the United States to attend the 1920 races in Daytona (although some have pointed out it might not actually be Daytona). Mr. Marik was also pretty darn good with a film camera and recorded this account of the race. As you will see when you watch the film he recorded more than just this particular board track race event but this is the only one to survive.
Now, just what blew me away about the film:
1) The quality of the film was just better than what you normally expect from that period.
2) I have seen other board track videos but the SIZE and scope of this WOOD track was unexpected.
3) That they could race 10 -12 across if they wanted was very cool.
4) That Mr. Marik filmed from all angles including from cars and sidecars.
5) That they raced sidecar rigs as well as regular bikes on this track.
6) The sidecar guys were racing 7 across at times.
7) The amateur and sidecar races were 10 miles long and the professional race was 100.
8) How high the banking in the turns was.
9) 212 KMPH = 132 MPH
I got excited just watching this old film. As I have stated before I think this type of motorcycle racing might do well in modern America (pavement not wood) over road racing. I can just see 30 bikes racing at some of the NACAR short tracks.
All in all this is 10 minutes well spent if you have any interest in motorcycles history!
The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US
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Things got a little loud and crazy on this “fun”(?) filled episode.
SOA Red Rose discussion, what does it all mean
Ken is still talking about winter riding tips.
We discuss gifts for the rider in your life… it starts off really well and then……………………..
Yamaha recalls 28 YFZ-R6 motorcycles.
2014 MotoGP crash statistics
MotoAmerica get a GREAT TV deal
Recently I and the other hosts from the ”DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio” show watched the motorcycle movie “On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter”. The movie is an updated version of the original “On Any Sunday” which was filmed in 1971 and nominated for an Academy Award in 1972. The new movie was directed by the son of the original film, Dana Brown.
Dana’s “Next Chapter” follows a path similar to his fathers in that he works with the big names in modern motorcycling. People like Travis Pastrana, Robbie Maddison, Marc Marquez, Wayne Rainy, Dani Pedrosa and many others not so famous make up the cast. The movie has a heavy focus on motorcycling racing with MotoGP, Motorcross, Flat Track and other types of racing well represented.
The movie opens with a humorous moment of a dad filming his little daughter (4-5 years old). She is struggling to lift a mini bike but refuses any help, after getting it up and getting on her dad starts to talk to her when she takes off like a bullet. Dad drops the camera and you hear him trying to chase her down… it was much funnier in the movie. Next it moves on to Robbie Maddison riding through an Olympic style Bob Sled track and then jumping from a ski jump ramp. You may have seen this same footage on You Tube but it was SPECTACULAR on the big screen!
The filming of the entire movie was exceedingly well done and, if you can, you need to see it on the big screen. The section on motorcycles in Vietnam motorcycling was awesome but might underwhelm on a small screen. Check the film’s website to find out if it is coming to a theater near you soon unfortunately movies like this don’t spend much time on the big screen.
On the down side, movies like this need sponsorships to be made. Sponsors REALLY want their products portrayed and in this case they were, to the verge of being over the top. Red Bull, KTM and Skull Candy were all over the movie like sticky fingerprints on your face shield, I can’t blame them or the director for this as it is a necessary part of modern film making… but a lighter hand would have went a long way. Also, it would have been nice to get something from the east coast motorcycle scene in the final cut (maybe a scene from a DawgHouse broadcast LOL). These are the reasons I debated 4 or 5 stars, but the high quality won me over.
In addition to the racing the movie discusses how motorcycling families, overcoming disadvantages and just how motorcycles makes your life better.
The DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US
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Great interview with 15 year old Jayson Uribe an American racing professionally in Europe.
Discussion of latest SOA episode “Faith and Despondency “
Review of On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter
Discussion of Royal Enfields, Lighting Motorcycle, The Polaris Slingshot in Texas and Alpinestars Airbag Jacket.
If you are in the Northern Virginia area today (12 November 2014) at 4:45PM consider joining the DawgHouse crew at the Regal Cinema in Sterling Va to watch the this movie.
I JUST WANT 2 RIDE!! 
