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Ken’s News:

Charity motorcycle stolen in Brooklyn, New York.

Rocket powered motorcycle from the 1920s.

Massachusetts woman decides backing over cop is a good idea.

Speeding on crack – why didn’t I think of that?

 Warren’s News:

Sold your bike… better cancel the insurance!!!!

Supercharged Ninja imminent

HD CVO owners hot over coolant

New Indian off the reservation Scout

3 Terrific Charity Rides and 3 Rallies in the DC Metro Area.

Racing News:

MotoGP & Moto2 from Silverstone.

Well looks like the go green team is stepping up the game. Kawasaki has confirmed that a supercharged Ninja will be on the showroom floors sometime in the near future. Their press release states:

“With cutting-edge performance recognized as a core element of the Kawasaki worldwide DNA, the company will showcase yet another ground-breaking motorcycle at the Intermot Motorcycle Show in Cologne starting on Sept 30th. A motorcycle “Built Beyond Belief”.

Drawing on skills and experience from experts within not just the company’s motorcycle division but across its aerospace, gas turbine and other high-technology contemporary manufacturing disciplines as well, Kawasaki is anticipating huge international interest in the project that has evocatively been christened Ninja H2. Harnessing the power of the Kawasaki manufacturing group “collective strength”, the H2 will represent a unified engineering and state of the art technology approach.

Capturing the spirit of the 750cc Mach IV H2 that, along with the 500cc three cylinder H1 and all-conquering 903cc Z1 Super Four, epitomized Kawasaki’s market defining performance image, the Ninja H2 project is set to add yet another name to the roll call of machines that embody Kawasaki’s performance and engineering expertise while changing the motorcycle landscape forever.”

The press release pretty much matches other recent statements from Kawasaki. What we really know beyond this press release is that there will be more teaser statements/videos until the cover is pulled off on the 30th of September.

rattle the runway

The 3 Motorcycle Charity Rides are:

The first ride is the annual Rattle the Runway Ride, this year’s ride is the 7th of September (rain or shine). Debbie and I have ridden in this ride multiple times and, with one exception, it has been a great, well organized, well run ride. All proceeds from the event goes to the Pentagon Memorial Fund.

The Rattle the Runway Ride follows a symbolic route from the Dulles Airport to the Pentagon. Staging for the ride is at the rear of the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum and ends at the Pentagon 9-11 Memorial.

 

battlefield runOn September the 12th the Battlefield Run supports the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF). The funds raised for the SOWF provide college scholarship grants, based on need, along with financial aid and educational counseling to the children of Special Operations personnel from the Army Special Forces, Rangers, Navy SEALs, and Air Force and Marine Corps Special Operations Command that have been killed in operational missions or training accidents.

Beginning in Leesburg, VA the ride passes through or near multiple Civil War Battlefield sites and culminates in a final, slow speed trip through the Gettysburg Battlefield.  The ride itself ends at Battlefield Harley Davidson in Gettysburg.

 

DGRNext is the Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride on the 28th of September. Raising funds worldwide for prostate cancer research the DGR will be held on the same day in over 200 cities all over the world, check the website for the nearest ride to you. For the ride in the DC Metro area check out their Facebook page.

The Distinguished Gentlemen’s Ride was founded in 2012. Inspired by a photo of Mad Men’s Don Draper astride a classic bike and wearing his finest suit. It was decided a themed ride would be a great way to combat the often-negative stereotype of men on motorcycles. That first ride brought together over 2,500 riders across 64 cities. The success of the event encouraged the organizers to consider how it could be used to support a worthy cause. And the rest, as they say, is stylishly-attired history

 

The 2 Rallies include:

September 11-14 is the Ocean City BikeFest at Ocean City, MD.ocean city bike rally harley davidson maryland

Vendors at two locations

Stunt teams

Wall o’Death

NASCAR Simulator

Lots of Bands including The Marshall Tucker Band

ijustwant2ride.com

Harley Davidson Vehicle Operations, York, PA Open House

 

 

The Harley Davidson Vehicle Operations York Open House in York, PA is going to occur 18-20 September.  The wife and I attended the 2013 Open House and had a good time. In addition to the free self-guided tour of the plant there will be the following activates:

Five dealer shopping area

Live entertainment (last year they had the “Globe o’Death”)

HOG Pin Stop

Test rides of new models (’15 Road Glide???, LiveWire???)

 

At the same time of the Open House the York “While Rose Thunder” rally will transpire. While the website has more details, the rally includes a hill climb event and a Parade of Chrome!

Some of the events for the rally include: ijustwant2ride.com

AMA Flat Track Race

Paul Yaffee

Antique racing bikes

Bike Show

My wife Debbie is a huge fan of the TV show “The Waltons” so this ride was for her!

The creator/writer of that show, Earl Hamner, based the show loosely on his life growing up in the mountains of Virginia in the Depression era 1930s. Our 301 mile round trip took us from our home to the Walton’s Mountain Museum, across the street to the house that inspired the stories and back home.

The museum (in the former Schuyler High School) and Hamner’s childhood home are located in Schuyler, VA. While they are really out in the middle of the mountains and woods, it is easy to get there….just go until you think you went to far then go another couple miles! 🙂  This area of Virginia also has a lot of motorcycle friendly roads, a quick internet review will show you many.

The museum itself has multiple exhibits including replicas of the sets used in the TV show. It even has a real “confiscated locally” moonshine still to represent the Baldwin sister’s “Recipe Machine”. Earl Hamner’s home is across the street from the Museum and is on the Virginia Historic Registry.

While I knew a little of Mr. Hamner’s life story I was surprised at some of the things he wrote or was connected to. For example he was the creator of the series Falcon Crest, wrote for the Twilight Zone, wrote the tele-play for Hidi, Charlotte’s web and the book that inspired the move Spencer’s Mountain (based on his family, where his dad was played by Henry Fonda).

If you are a fan of the Walton’s, or not,  and are in the area this is a nice little side trip and if you are on a motorcycle it is so much more fun.

 

Click HERE to go to the PODCAST!!!!!

Racing News:

AMA Motocross Utah National.

Picks for MotoGP from Silverstone

British Sport Bike Report

 

Ken’s News:

Be careful riding in South Carolina.

Riding with the Oxen…sort of.

Google prepares to take over your bike…literally.

Autonomous bike

Batman rides a Can-Am Spyder?

batman-japan-header

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warren’s News:

Sturgis 2014 Stats

Motorcyclist’s Magazine Motorcycles of the Year.

RECALLED Motorcycle or Car? In the US look up your VIN.

vin entry

Ijustwant2ride.comThe US DOT on the 20th of Aug mandated that all major manufactures now list all the VIN numbers of vehicles affected by recalls.  And you can check that list at the Safercar.gov website.  Well not quite all manufactures yet, but the stragglers are coming around.

What is the mandate, all major light vehicle and motorcycle manufacturers are required to provide VIN search capability for uncompleted recalls on their own websites. This data must be updated at least weekly.

NHTSA’s new VIN look-up tool directly relies on information from all major automakers.

Determining whether there is a recall that consumers need to take action on is easy. After entering the VIN number into the field, results will appear if the consumer has an open recall on their vehicle, and if there are none, owners will see “No Open Recalls.”

If this works as advertised it will be, in my view, the second website that the government has gotten right.  The first being the American Byways site that I wrote about here.

Ijustwat2ride.com

From a tweet from HD… LOVE that silver flake!

2015 CVO Street Glide

Sturgis 2014 Stats

Posted: August 22, 2014 in Uncategorized

Interesting info on some of the Stats for this years Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

mac's avatarNorthwest Harley Blog

75th-Sturgis-LogoThe event has come a long way since it was known as the Black Hills Classic when Clarence “Pappy” Hoel, and some friends from the Jackpine Gypsies motorcycle club, decided to hold a racing event.

It’s now known as the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the 74th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is in the books.  

Below are the law enforcement statistics as of 6:00 a.m. Sunday August 10, 2014

14-Sturgis-Stats

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is the worlds largest and next year is the 75th Anniversary.  This will undoubtably ensure that attendance will break previous records. There is even a special 75th logo being rolled out for such a legendary event and will be emblazoned on every imaginable piece of merchandise for you to spend some cash.

You can thank Paul Resnick of Hot Leathers who designed the logo for the 75th Anniversary. Hot Leathers is the primary licensee for the Sturgis Motorcycle…

View original post 24 more words

ijustwant2ride.com

Motorcycle Radio…The #1 Motorcycle Show in the US

The DawgHouse: Motorcycle Radio podcast #273

Ken’s News:

Best 10 Motorcycles of 2014.

Betting on death.

Warren’s News:

Attention European Motorcycle Riders – This Is A PSA

Stories of Bike.

Conn. state trooper faces prison for theft from dying motorcyclist.

KTM to enter MotoGP in 2017.

Cow has beef with woman following motorcycle crash.

Racing News:

AMA Motocross Indiana National.

Czech MotoGP/Moto2 from Brno

 

Michele Smith & Jay Barbieri

Michele Smith & Jay Barbieri

If you watched any motorcycle TV at all I am sure you saw an episode or two of American Thunder (or Two Wheel Thunder as it was known for a single year on Discovery) it was on for 14 years.  The Thunder has been off the air for nearly 5 years.

 

Well…. The hosts of Thunder, Michele Smith and Jay Barbieri, are attempting to revive the show.  They are not looking for the traditional network TV route but are using a KickStarter campaign to raise money to create an Internet only show.  This is point where the motorcycling community can help support Jay and Michele.

 

If you liked the Thunder and want to see another version of that show consider contributing to the cause.  Go to the “Bring Back Two Wheel Thunder” KickStarter site and pony up.

 

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What was your favorite Thunder moment?  Mine was the time that Jay rode through a snow storm on the way to a Daytona Bike Rally.