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A collection of 121 posts

Shop Talk

Basic Motorcycle Maintenance

Unfortunately, you can’t just hop on your bike and ride without performing proper maintenance and checks. If you do, you shouldn’t. Pilots check their aircraft before takeoff to mitigate any chance of an unscheduled landing. Motorcycle pilots should be no less diligent. A catastrophic failure on a motorcycle

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The Iron Boys Part 3: Meeting the Guys

Most people can recall a time when they could just kick themselves for being so dull or self-absorbed. I have four of them and they all involve famous racers. The first was when I was 21 and living in Georgia. It began with my brother’s 1956 Harley-Davidson Panhead chopper.

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Iron Boys Part 2: Minibikes and Shoeburners

The greatest movie of all time, On Any Sunday, is about those blonde-haired, blue-eyed, godless boys of sunny Southern California. Now, just hear me out. It’s not that we didn’t like the movie, up there in the black culm hills of northeastern Pennsylvania. We loved it, we idolized

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Iron Boys Part 1: The Iron Boys of Northeast Pennsylvania

These cobalt blue skies of September, so typical of Colorado, are much rarer an occurrence in the northeast of Pennsylvania between Scranton and Carbondale. Still, they transport me back to the days of riding motocross bikes with the iron boys. We, that piloted them, were the grandsons of Ellis Island

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Interview: Markus Flasch, Head of BMW Motorrad

Markus Flasch, born in 1981, took over as the head of BMW Motorrad on November 1, 2023. He succeeded Markus Schramm, who had been in charge of the company since 2018. After studying automotive engineering, this Austrian manager’s career got off to a flying start at engineering service provider

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The Meaning Of It All

The following is a transcription of a handwritten letter that arrived at the RoadRUNNER office in early March. The letter caught us off-guard with its directness and honesty, and while our original plan was to only respond to the writer, we thought you might also want to hear his story.

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Fantastic Plastic

Acerbis, a motorcycle components manufacturer and pioneer in plastic fuel tanks, recently celebrated its 50th anniversary with an entry in the Guinness World Records. The company’s founder Franco Acerbis took me on a journey through time during this interview. Ever heard of a motorcycle with a 28-gallon fuel tank?

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Motorcycles and 3D Printing: What to 3D Print For Your Bike

Modern 3D printing technology is opening new doors not just for motorcycle manufacturers, but also for riders. As I detailed in the Dec ‘22 issue, these once-futuristic machines have become so accessible and affordable that practically anybody can buy one. A 3D printer can turn your garage into a mini

Letter from the Editor Premium Content

I Remember My First Road Trip—A Letter From Marisa

I've been riding motorcycles since I was a young child. That said, it wasn't until college that I started traveling on one. In the first few months of being out on my own, I made several weekend moto camping trips with friends, but nothing too far from home. The summer

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Moto Morini: Up from the Ashes

The year was 1914. Italian teenager Alfonso Morini had just opened his motorcycle repair shop when World War I broke out and the youth was whisked off to serve in Italy’s 8th Motorcycles unit in Padua. After the war, Morini got back to his passion job and, in 1925,

Speed The Wheel

Motorcycle Smells

Of the five primary senses, smell enjoys a privileged connection with the brain, capable of drawing up memories with unnerving clarity. Marcel Proust, the esteemed French stream-of-consciousness writer, once commented that it was “by taste and smell alone” that the memories of his childhood came rushing back. His novel, In

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Vanson Leathers: From Versailles to Fall River

Back in the mid-1900s, most any gathering of motorcyclists would be dominated by leather clad riders. Leather offered warmth, abrasion protection, and style. The epicenter of Euro-centric leather motorcycle style was the Ace Cafe in London, where ton-up boys on their BSAs, Triumphs, and Nortons wore now-iconic leather jackets. Starting

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Speed the Wheel: A Father, a Son, and a Motorcycle

The object of my adolescent desires and unflinching obsession was the Honda Trail 70. A photo collage of the bike adorned the wall above my bed. But how were I to acquire the funds needed to purchase said motorcycle at the age of 12? My father solved that puzzle by

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A Life of Design: Heinrich Full Interview

Edgar Heinrich worked at the BMW Motorrad Design Studio, apart from a short interruption, since 1987. At the end of 2023, he decided it was time to retire from his leading position and handed the design department’s reins over to Alexander Buckan. Without any conspicuous image cultivation, at his

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Keep Your Bolts Bolted

It’s truly a marvel that the clockwork cacophony of motorcycle parts—all designed, manufactured, and arranged so precisely—hold together and continue to function for thousands and thousands of miles. However, something as simple as one bolt coming loose can absolutely wreck your engine or other critical system on

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Sidetracked

Pack Mentality—Gear

"I Was Only Going a Mile" We see it all the time. A pretty young lady riding across campus on a scooter, a bare-headed youth ripping through rush-hour traffic on a sportbike, T-shirt billowing over bare skin, or a middle-aged man, commuting to work on his cruiser. They are dressed

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Royal Enfield’s Project Origin

The company we know today as Royal Enfield began as Enfield Bicycle Company in the U.K. in the 1890s. As the 20th century dawned, Enfield engineers fitted a combustion engine to a bicycle-type frame and sent power to the rear wheel via belts and pulleys. In an unusual move,

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How Salvo Pennisi Shaped Pirelli’s World Class Tire Testing Practices

His business card reads: "Pirelli Head of Outdoor Testing and Technical Relations, Motorcycle and Bicycle." However, it’s impossible to explain Salvo Pennisi's job in one sentence—let alone who he is as a person. Perhaps a little anecdote, told during a dinner by the sea in Taormina, Sicily, will

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If It Ain't Broke...Give It Time

Murphy is alive and well, and he is nobody’s fool. Patient, cunning, and devious, he will get you when you least expect it … unless you’re prepared. We’ve been out here almost two weeks on the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route. The sun is about to set and we

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Speed Limits in the US: Pin it on the Beaver!

Have you ever been frustrated by flashing lights in your rear-view mirrors? Did you feel as if you were singled out because you were on two wheels rather than four? Speed limits—whoever thought of such a thing? It is all just surreal. There are at least 10 production motorcycles

Jan/Feb '24 Premium Content

E-Fuels: The (Potential) Fuel of The Future

We live in the e-age. We have email, e-books, e-commerce, and even e-bikes from the likes of Zero, LiveWire, and Energica. Soon enough, we can add e-fuels to this list. I can hear the confused whispering in the audience. How could liquid fuels be electric or electronic? Although the “E”

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Being a Part of the Show

I recently recounted my beginnings in motocross, which I shared with my best friend and next-door neighbor, Scott Johnson. We rode, learned, and raced together. Although I couldn’t afford to commit to racing, Scott stayed with it, moving from a beginner to a novice, intermediate, and then pro. In

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The Thunderstorm: Aprilia Tuono and I

I was struck by the world of racing at the age of 12 when the local motorcycle club organized the European enduro championship race in my hometown. All of a sudden, life came into the secluded world of the German state of Hesse on the edge of the Iron Curtain.

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A Motorcycle Reunion: Reviving a '75 Honda CB750F

When I was in college, say around 2006, my brother called me up and asked, “Do you want to buy a running motorcycle for $400?” Though I never had the chance to ride dirt bikes growing up, and I’d never ridden a motorcycle before, there was no hesitation as