Posts Tagged ‘American Flat Track’

Motorcycle News: 50 Years of Gold Wings, Motorcycle Racing

Posted: February 19, 2025 in custom motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle news, Motorcycle racing
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What you need to Know: Motorcycle Racing is Nearly Here

The first races of the motorcycle racing seasons are fast approaching. Here is a list of the first race of each of the major promotions.

MotoGP – March 2nd Grand Prix of Thailand

World Superbike – February 22nd Australian Round

MotoAmerica – March 29th Circuit of the Americas

American Flat Track – March 6th Daytona

Daytona 200 – March 7th

My Take: Winter may not be over yet, but sun rays of hope are flickering.  The start of Supercross racing just stoked my motorcycle racing appetite. BSB and Isle of Mann start in May.

I have plans, don’t we all, to attend at least one MotoAmerica race this year after missing out in 2024.

What you need to know: 50 Years of Honda Gold Wing at Daytona Bike Week

From a Honda Press Release:

  • Pop-up museum to document legendary touring model’s rich history
  • Schedule includes a host of customer-focused activities
  • Also planned: demo rides with Gold Wings and other Honda on-road bikes

American Honda announced today an expanded activation area at the upcoming Bike Week event in Daytona Beach, Florida, celebrating 50 Years of Flight with the Gold Wing touring bike. Situated outside Daytona Speedway from February 28 to March 9, the space will cover a total of nearly 32,000 square feet and will include a massive display tent and a demo-ride staging area.

Earlier this month, Honda unveiled the 2025 Gold Wing platform, which features special colors and logos commemorating the iconic model’s half-century milestone.

My Take: 50 Years of the Gold Wing!  I think it is great that Honda is doing something like this, taking a page from the Harley Davidson playbook.  If I have to buy another touring bike, I am going to take a hard look at the new Wing. 

My first American Flat Track Motorcycle Race – The West Virginia ½ Mile

Posted: July 4, 2023 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle racing
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My wife and I attended our first American Flat Track motorcycle race.   This was also the first time we had been to the West Virginia Motor Speedway.

I went as a fan, not part of the press, primarily because this was a last moment decision.  As a fan I had a lot of fun!  The dark brown clay-based track was in good condition, the racing was fast and exiting.  The venue was quite nicely laid out, easy to get around both or food and visiting the pits.  

We arrived just before qualifying started and stayed until the twins race finished.   My favorite flat track racers did not do so well Shana Texter-Bauman missed qualifying in the singles but did get a provisional entry to ride in the main event and JD Beach finished 4th in the twins final.

Part of the event was the Royal Enfield Build Tran Race (BTR). Royal Enfield is sponsoring a women’s only series of races one of which was held at the speedway. The women get a Royal Enfield 650 which they “Build” a race bike, then they get professional “Training” and then race a series of six American Flat Track events.  While there was a great disparity of talent the race for first place was very exciting. Morgan Monroe pulled out the win by .4 of a second.

The venue itself, the West Virginia Motor Speedway, was very nice. The “seats” were “bring your own chair” to place on the terraced “grandstand”.  Our location provided good views of everything but the start and part of the front straight. Luckly most of the action in flat track is in the turns and we got great views of all that work.

The only major issue I had with the speedway was the sound system. Even with just four motorcycles racing in the Mission Foods Challenge races you could not hear the commentary.

Speaking of Mission Foods, they are a primary sponsor of both American Flat Track and MotoAmerica and had a booth at the track. They were giving away chips and tortillas to all in attendance. We have been using Mission Food products for years, this and this was just a race day bonus!!

*****

Ride on, Ride safe

Motorcycle News: Lane-filtering, Supercharged Harley and Royal Enfield Racing

Posted: March 5, 2021 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle news, Motorcycle racing
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Up Shift – The State of Montana is now the third state to have legal motorcycle lane-filtering. 

Motorcyclists in the Big Sky State can overtake slow or stopped traffic by filtering between the lanes of traffic. But they have to stay at 20 MPH or below while doing so.

My Take – While I tremendously applaud the efforts of the motorcycle community in Montana for making this happen, was there much need for it? There are so few people in Montana how often will conditions allow lane-filtering?

ON THE PLUS SIDE…Other, vastly more populated, states (Oregon and Virginia for example) are also looking at legalization of motorcycle lane-filtering. Maybe the momentum is building for more states to pass the law.

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Up Shift – Harley Davidson my soon offer a bolt on supercharger for its V-Twin motorcycles. Cycle World is reporting that the Motor Company is working on the supercharger as part of it’s Screamin’ Eagle performance line. If you are not familiar with the Screamin’ Eagle line it is their in-house performance division that develops products (cams, exhausts, engines, etc.) to “hop-up” your motorcycle horsepower and torque. 

My Take – With the retraction going on at Harley Davidson I am a bit surprised with this development.  Harley has killed many new bikes designs, dropped out of racing and closed production lines so this new part is more the exception along the lines of the Pan American adventure motorcycle.

It will be interesting to see if it makes it into the parts catalog.

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Up Shift – Over the last few years American Flat Track racing has made quite a comeback, at least until Covid.  With the racing season to start soon Royal Enfield is joining the series with a factory sponsored team.

Johnny Lewis will be riding for Royal Enfield and the company is expecting good things to come from their involvement with American Flat Track.

My Take – This is great for the sport! More factory team involved means a greater chance for success.  But with American Flat Track on NBC and tape delayed how many fans are going to get to see Johnny and the other racers.

I don’t think that I am to different from the other fans in that if I know the outcome I am not going to watch the event.

*****

Ride on, Ride Safe

Upshift or Downshift: Motorcycle News

Posted: January 6, 2020 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle news, Motorcycle racing
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I have started a new type of post to replace the “5 Things That Caught My Eye” articles. I am going to “Up Shift” and quickly discuss motorcycle news articles that I thought was cool or good and “Down Shift” on those that are not. So bear with me as this evolves over the next few months. Feel free to comment or even suggest news articles for discussion.

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Upshift: Royal Enfield “Build Train Race” – Royal Enfield has challenged four women to Build Train and Race Flat Track motorcycles based on their new Interceptor 650.

The participants are: Melissa Paris, professional road racer, Lana McNaughton founder of the Women’s Moto BuildTrainRace_WHT-300x271Exhibit, Motorcycle enthusiast Jillian Deschenes and DIY shop owner Andrea Lothorp. Each has already received their Royal Enfield Interceptor motorcycles and are building their bikes now.

After some training they will race their Royal Enfield Flat Trackers during this year’s Milwaukee Mama Tried event. Check out the Royal Enfield Build Train Race website.

My take: I think this is great for a first year and hope it is not a one off!  In fact, while American Flat Track is a co-ed racing series, it might make sense for Royal Enfield to work with AFT on an amateur “spec” series for women. Run it on the same weekend with the Flat Track races. The pro series might just become even more co-ed in a few years.

*****

Downshift: Yamaha & Suzuki Leave MotoAmerica – Looks like the old racing statement of “Win on Sunday Sell on Monday” is no longer true. Sales at both Yamaha and Suzuki motorcycles are down and the companies are just not willing to spend the money on factory road racing in America.

motoamerica-logoBoth manufacturers are keeping their fingers in MotoAmerica supporting, for Yamaha, Estenson Racing and Team Hammer getting Suzuki support. But that does not lessen the sting of no direct factory teams in America’s premier motorcycle racing league.

My take: This news really hurts after the 2019 racing season. MotoAmerica was the best racing in the world with any of six teams capable of winning.  On top of that bad news, we know that a MotoAmerica fan favorite JD Beach has moved to American Flat Track (he ran both last year). We still have not heard what is going to happen with Josh Herrin or Tony Elias.

It is going to be interesting to see how things play out this MotoAmerica season maybe some fresh blood will rise to the top.

American Supercross you have done us WRONG! Or… NBCSC does not like motorcycle racing!

Posted: December 26, 2018 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle news
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ama-supercross-logo-vector-downloadAMA Supercross has left Fox Sports Network and moved to NBC Sports Channel, I am sure Supercross got a better deal financially but the fans are screwed.  First race is January 4th 2019.

Most of the fans of Supercross have to watch the races from home, few of the races are near most of us, especially if you live on the east coast. That being a fact, NBCSC is delaying the broadcast of 7 of the races. The Nashville race, for example, is delayed until 11PM EST. My wife and I love Supercross but we are not going to watch until 3 in the morning races of which we know the results.

Now NBCSC has a fix for this delay issue!

For the small fee of $75 you can watch all the races LIVE on line, imagine that! Well no thanks, we will pass. As an aside… I think NBC’s coverage of most sports is poor so I am hoping for the best with Supercross.

So now we get delayed, sometimes by weeks, broadcast of American Flat Track and now Supercross. NBC does hate motorcycle racing!

If you would like to hear what we had to say, regarding this issue, on the DAWGHOUSE MOTORCYCLE RADIO click here!

I had a “Revelation” With Harley Davidson’s new Electric Motorcycle

Posted: March 7, 2018 in Motorcycle news, Motorcycle racing
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A few posts ago I wrote my thought on the new electric motorcycles that Harley Davidson is bringing to market in the next couple years.  Now there is more information available and that got me thinking. (RUN for the hills) 

First a little catch up for those that might have missed it.  Harley Davidson has invested in Alta Motors whose claim to fame is alta motorsthe Redshift MX (the equivalent of a 250cc motocross bike) that has won some of the Red Bull Straight Rhythm races.  Alta also has SuperMoto bike, but I did not see it on their website. Alta and Harley are going to work together to bring two electric motorcycles to market under the Harley colors.  The name of the new bike(s) is Revelation. 

Now here is where my Revelation comes in! 

I was thinking that this would be an interesting twist on the Harley Davidson involvement with American Flat Track.  Harleyflat track does not have any motorcycles in the singles Flat Track series. Soooooo 

Why not enter a Harley team on the new electric motorcycles?  Could you not see Shayna Texter and Kolby “Flying Tomato” Carlile wining on Harley electric bikes?

BUT WAIT… There’s more! 

During this week’s DawgHouse Motorcycle Radio podcast (show #453), my buddy Phil tossed a greater even better idea out before I could even get started, and I fully agreed with his idea! 

Harley Davidson should run an exhibition race between the heats at “SUPERCROSS”  for me…. MIND BLOWN.  Phil hit ama-supercross-logo-vector-downloadthis out of the park.

Yes, Harley has not had dirt bikes for years.  BUT WHY NOT!  What a way to get a product (already proven) in front of people and get them thinking of Harley electric motorcycles. If they are talking about your electric dirt bikes they may come in to see your electric street bikes!

What would you think about seeing 20 of the top amateur supercross riders racing on identical dirt bikes with the Harley name?  On national TV every week for the entire Supercross season, with commercials for their electric motorcycles sprinkled about.

As I see it… what the heck… do both!  Harley Davidson electric motorcycles racing Flat Track and doing exhibition Supercross racing WOW!!!

What do you guys think? (I reserve the right to poo-poo on any negative comments 😊 )

DawgHouse Motorcycle News, Rants & Racing

Posted: October 5, 2016 in Motorcycle, Motorcycle advocacy, Motorcycle news, Motorcycle racing, Motorcycle radio
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This week on the DawgHouse Motorcycle News, Rants & Racing show #382

Phil has a minor rant about … Ghost Rider?!/!?!  Yes he does, Marvel Agents of SHEILD has twisted is nipple becasuse  it is GHOST RIDER not Ghost Driver!  IMHO they hired an actor and then found out he could not ride a motorcycle! It might not be real motorcycle news but it is fun.

Mondial Motorcycles makes a comeback with a scrambler! Ken’s motorcycle news story is about Mondial Motorcycles coming back from the grave.  Neither Phil or I recall ever really hearing about Mondial.  Of course when Ken was riding wheels were still made of stone.

Riding the Isle of Mann TT Course on one wheel. 37 miles on one wheel, gusts up to 40 miles an hour and the course was not closed for the stunt.  This is what Dougie Lampkin had to overcome to do something no one had done before.

AMA Pro Flat Track makes some big changes. Starting with re-branding as American Flat Track.

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