Beware the Zazzle, it’s addictive! After I started monkeying around with t-shirt designs I couldn’t stop. I wanted to make a ‘cars suck’ shirt similar to the one I saw at the IndyGP. After a few attempts I had a nice design that said what the shirt at Indy said, but in a different way:
I’m always mindful of how heavy a motorcycle is, but there is a lot of static in the way. Between the splits Canadians do between the metric and imperial systems and the games played by motorcycle manufacturers, I’m often left second guessing what I think I know.
I’ve owned everything from feather weight KLX250s (278lbs/126kgs) to light weight Ninja 650s (393lbs/178kgs), heavy weights like the Concours (671lbs/305kgs) and middle weights like my current Tiger (474lbs/215kgs), but even those statistics are suspect because manufacturer’s will share a dry weight (no fluids) if it’s a bike that is bragging on its lightness and a wet weight (ready to ride with fuel) if it doesn’t matter so much or the bike has a tiny tank and lousy range. There is no consistency at all in this other than the marketing angles being played. I have no idea if those numbers published on the bikes I’ve owned above are even equivalent. Are they wet weight? Dry weight? Something else?
To try and get my head on straight I’ve gone looking for some stats, and found montesa_vr‘s work on ADVrider.com (great site! Check out their epic ride reports if you like to get lost in a long distance adventure).
I took that exhaustive list of street legal dual sports and dumped them into a spreadsheet, sorting them by comma separated values. Then I added in some handy metric/imperial connections and stats on weight of a tank of fuel, so you can see them all in one place.one gallon of gasoline weighs 6.2 lbs. One litre is equal to 0.264172 gallons (US liquid). So, 1 litre = 1.6378664 lbs. 1lb = 0.453592 kgs 1 litre of gasoline = 0.7429237021194 kgs
It ain’t heavy, it’s my Tiger. It’s obviously lighter than the Concours I rode before it, but much heavier than the Ninja before that. I just wish the stats were consistent and comparable.
The Tiger 955i is listed as a 215kg dry weight. With a full tank of gasoline it’s loaded up with almost 18kgs of fuel, putting it at about 233kg, yet it’s listed as a 257kg wet weight. So, that must be 18kgs of fuel and 24kgs of oil and coolant? That seems like an awful lot of oil and coolant (and brake fluid? and what, fork oil? How asinine does dry weight get?). At 566lbs, my old Tiger would be 7th in the current crop of heavy weight adventure bikes. I don’t think it’s exceptionally heavy for what it is, but it’s hard to tell with the smoke and mirrors.
Dry weight is virtually meaningless, I’m astonished that it’s even given as a statistic. When would you ever need to know what a bike weighs without any fluids in it? I couldn’t run, so it’s an academic statistic verging on pointless. I also get montesa_vr’s point that bikes shouldn’t be punished on weight comparisons for being able to carry a reasonable amount of fuel. Putting a peanut sized tank on a bike so you can brag about the weight seems disingenuous.
At least a wet weight comparison offers up a bike that is actually operational. A wet weight with an empty tank seems like the obvious standard if you don’t want to punish long distance capable machines, but no one seems to do it.
On March Break this week my family is hanging out with my buddy’s family. He has been riding for years but didn’t actually take his bike out at all last year. He’s thinking about getting a new bike so I pull up the Toronto Spring Motorcycle Show online. I tell him how much fun my son and I have had attending the mid-winter supershow and the manufacturer’s show this year. I suggest we all go down, four professionals who earn over $300,000 a year between them and their three kids.
My wife has doubts, the ‘feel’ of motorcycle shows online isn’t always very friendly toward educated, professional women and she’s also had concerns about our son going – it doesn’t seem a very family friendly affair. She pulls up the website to see what’s going on there and this is what comes up.
Guess what? We’re not going to the Spring Motorcycle show. My buddy with all that earning potential and a want for a new bike and his wife who is keen to adopt his old one but has no kit of her own aren’t going. My wife, who I think I can convince to get on two wheels if I can Vespa her up, isn’t going and has had her suspicions confirmed yet again. My son, who is on the verge of getting his first 50cc isn’t going, and my buddy’s kids, who are also two wheeled curious aren’t going. The irony is everything else on the site is actually motorcycle related and would have had us there, but you had to lead with the playboy model and list all the motorcycle related people below as an afterthought. Not cool.
If motorcycling in North America would just grow up it would have a chance of becoming more mainstream and less an excuse for creepy old men to act like adolescents. I live in hope.
I’m watching Morgan Freeman’s Through The Wormhole again. This particular show is all about whether or not luck exists. In the episode they introduce the concept of micromorts – a unit of measurement based on chance, in this case a one in a million chance of instant death. Using statistics, the micromort allows you to assess the risk involved in various activities based on your chances of a fatality.
Needless to say, motorcycling is up there. Compared to other forms of transport shown, you earn more micromorts motorcycling than just about anything else. Of course, you have to remember that being alive costs you micromorts each day (and more each day you get older). Sedentary activity? Smoking? Drinking? They all get you. A twenty a day smoker generates the same micromorts as a motorcyclist who rides 100 miles. Every 28 months you live with a smoker earns you the same micromorts as that 100 miles on a motorbike. Next time a smoker is telling you how dangerous motorcycling is, you can hit ’em with some micromortization (and maybe point out that your motorcycling doesn’t kill everyone around you quicker either). When you get into extreme sports the micromort count skyrockets. Ever felt the urge to climb Everest? That’ll cost you about 40,000 micromorts, or 266,666 miles on a motorbike. Of course you’d spend a couple of weeks climbing a mountain or years on two wheels racking up a quarter of a million miles. Funny how one thing is considered brave and noble and the other reckless. Of course, riding a bike also uses less fossil fuel to move people around, while climbing Everest creates an environmental disaster.
One of the hardest things to wrap your head around with micromorts is how they change over time. As a baby you’re small and weak and much closer to death. Through your middle years you’re stable and as far from death as you’ll ever statistically get, but as an older person you face death more and more each year. Considering that, you have to wonder why more older people don’t get into biking. Just waking up the in morning in your sixties nets you more micromorts than a hundred miles on a bike. If you’re facing that long good night anyway, do not keep trying to turn away from the inevitable hoping to go gently. The point of us being here isn’t to be here for as long as possible. Motorcycling, more than anything else, will remind you of that every moment you’re in the saddle. There are some things than cannot be reached without risk, and they are usually the best things. If I’m going to rack up micromorts anyway, I’d rather be doing it on a motorbike.
Do not go gentle into that good night Dylan Thomas, 1914 – 1953 Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
So, the rims are back from Fireball Coatings. They look fantastic, but I’m a bit baffled by the process. Mark, the owner, suggested getting candy coated gold, though I’d initially said I’d just go for the plain gold. After being convinced of the upgrade the process took longer than expected (about 20 days instead of a week) because he was out of the product needed to do it. Communication wasn’t a strong point during this wait. I was worried about tolerances changing on the inside of the rims, but I was assured that they would be masked off. The end result has a fair bit of over-spray, which isn’t easy to clean up (which I guess bodes well for the rims themselves in regular wear and tear use). With a Dremel I’ve been able to clean up the over-spray and I’ve begun to rebuild the rims for re-installation. The final bafflement came when Mark said that black bits dropped into the process and there are minor imperfections as a result. They are barely visible, but his explanation was that no one does gold candy coat on rims. This begs the question, why up-sell me on them then? All the strangeness aside, they do look fantastic, and I’m looking forward to seeing them back on the bike again. The final cost to coat two rims was just over $300 Canadian taxes in (or about a dollar fifty US).
I’m not sure what I’d do differently next time as I don’t have much experience with industrial coatings. I think I’ll give Fireball another go in the future though, just not if I’m on a tight timeline. I imagine less finicky (ie: rims without a shaft drive hub on them) parts would be less of a headache. They had a coated motorcycle frame on the floor at the shop that looked spectacular. Mark figures he can coat all the basic parts of a bike (frame, swing arm, exposed bits and pieces) for about $1000.
Buy ’em online and you’re looking at a lot of money for tires unseen and possible long on the rack.
The tire portion of the process was handled by Two Wheel Motorsport just north of Guelph on Highway 6. It’s my first time doing motorcycle tires (everything previous was well rubbered when I got it and sold safetied as is). What I’ve learned is that motorcycle tires are expensive! And evidently wear out much sooner than car tires (odd considering how they are supporting much less weight on lower mileage). The tires from the dealer were about forty bucks more per tire than online, but you’re buying them on the internet sight unseen, and they might be cheap because they’re stale. I got the benefit of very experienced Concours owners in the parts department helping with tire choices rather than depending on the generic tire size finder online. No one seems to support the OEM Dunlops that originally came with the bike twenty two years ago, so selecting ZG1000 tires is about preferences rather than manufacturer’s recommendations.
The tire pricelist from the Toronto Motorcycle Show – 2 Wheel was cheaper, and could get the weird size for my Concourse.
I was going to go with Bridgestones, but when a guy with over a million miles ridden (!) suggests the Michelins if you want good handling and amazing mileage, I didn’t ignore him. All was well until I got the $600 bill… for two tires! I think my last car change was 4 Yokohamas for the Mazda2, and it cost $650 and included balancing and installation. Like I said, bike tires are expensive! It was $35 to install each tire – ninety nine and change for the work. I think I got charged for tire disposal even though the rims were bare, and even though I asked for a 90° valve stem on the back I didn’t get one (though I don’t think I was charged for it). I thought maybe buying tires at the Bike Show would save money, but the prices listed weren’t as good as the sale prices offered over the desk at Two Wheel, and they didn’t have the weird sizes I need for the Concours anyway, so that isn’t a way out. I used to be a tire guy at Canadian Tire when I’d just gotten out of high school. I know my way around the tools involved. In the future I think I’m going to try and get tires and bits and pieces online and then do the install myself. I’m going to install balancing beads on my current tires. If they work as well as advertised, balancing (the only part that requires expensive machinery) won’t be necessary. When I do the tires on the XS1100 I’ll do them in-house and see how it goes. Speaking of in-house, the last frustration was removing the bearings. I took them in to school figuring that the autoshop had a press and could take them out easily. They sat there for a week before I finally took them home and knocked out the bearings in ten minutes. While there for the week they managed to lose my bearing retaining clips and the front bearing spacer as well, so I’m having to spend another $20 at the dealer replacing parts they lost. The moral of this story? Do the work yourself. You learn more by doing it, and you’re less likely to lose parts you need to put the thing back together again. The missing bits and pieces should be in this week, I should have the bike back on its feet by this weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing how it looks with its new kicks on. Parts Costing TIRES Online Dealership Difference Michelin Commander II 150/80/16 $174.45 $213.79 $39.34 Michelin Commander II 130/70/18 $208.00 $244.54 $36.54 ——– money saved buying online $75.88 + gas & time going to and from the dealer (online delivery is free) Dealer parts total: $458.33+$4 (shop supplies) = $462.33 (don’t see any charge for the valves) Online order total: $442.61 (including a 90° rear valve & a front valve) Labour Costing Dealership installation of two tires (with new valve stems, no balancing, no disposal – though they charged me for that anyway): $99 How to change your own tires.
Google ‘biker’ and you get a lot of pictures of old white guys. Good luck selling them bikes in 20 years.
The other day a fellow rider on twitter shared a link to this article on how the motorcycle industry is in real trouble. Among the litany of problems was the hyper conservative nature of the industry and its habitual focus on old white guys. The biker image is a bastion of pre-Twenty First Century prejudices; women (unless they’re pillions and dressed like dolls) and non-white riders need not apply. Groups like Bikers for Trump continue to find a comfortable place to operate within these old-school prejudices. I’d suggest that an industry that wants to cling to this dying sense of privilege deserves to be in big trouble. Of a less cut and dried nature (unless you’re clinging to colonial, white guy privilege) was the piece about how young people aren’t riding motorcycles or even driving cars as much any more. I’d argue this is a larger and more difficult problem to solve. I struggle daily with getting young people to engage with and master real world technical problems (it’s my day job). I wasn’t at all surprised to see this as a conclusion from the research: “…many millennial consumers were “bubble-wrapped for safety in their youth” or raised by overprotective parents who discouraged risk-taking”
A few years ago I suggested we start a motorcycle club at our school. Some of our students go out and get their licenses and begin to ride and others dirt bike ride, so there would be interest. We could use the experience and expertise of our teacher-riders to help students more safely and effectively take to two wheels. The skills learned in maintaining and repairing motorcycles in our shop would mean safer vehicles for our students to use and an increase in technical skill. They all sounds like good ideas, right? It was nixed immediately: a hard no. We run rugby teams and downhill ski race teams and go camping in bear country, but riding a motorcycle? Way too dangerous. I suggested that was exactly why we should do it, but still a hard no.
We need to bring back the kind of inclusive advertising that worked for Honda so well over forty years ago.
There is, no doubt, a danger halo around motorcycling that is a big part of its mystique, but the operation of a motorcycle isn’t dangerous in and of itself. Many riders like to play to this mystique, making it seem more edgy because that’s the image they want to convey, but it isn’t helping the sport. That focus is also used to hyper masculinize the image of a motorcycle rider and plays to the conservatism that plagues the industry.
Enjoy having your assumptions subverted, it’s good for you.
Apart from the prejudices and mythology around motorcycling, we also have a new generation of people who aren’t taking up the sport, but then they aren’t taking up vehicle operation in general. “For 16- through 44-year-olds, there was a continuous decrease in the percentage of
persons with a driver’s license for the years examined. For example, the
percentages for 20- to 24-year-olds in 1983, 2008, 2011, and 2014 were 91.8%,
82.0%, 79.7%, and 76.7%, respectively.” There are a lot of social reasons for this to be happening. More of us live in cities than ever before and driving in cities is misery. Many jurisdictions don’t acknowledge the advantages of riding a bike in an urban environment either, making riding an even dimmer proposition than driving. The independence afforded by vehicle operation that used to define coming of age as a teen has become increasingly expensive even as wealth has been concentrated in a smaller and smaller class of people; fewer rich get richer while more poor get poorer. With money slipping out of the hands of a vanishing middle class, the idea of buying into the independence of operating your own vehicle becomes increasingly impossible for many youngsters, especially with systemic economic discrimination like insurance forcing them off the road.
There is a final piece to this perfect storm diminishing the motorcycle industry that I haven’t seen as much about. Last night I watched Kingsmen: The Golden Circle, and like every other film I’ve seen in the past few years, it’s a few moments of acting tied together by ludicrous computer generated imaging. When I was young I stumbled upon a Bruce Lee marathon late one night and got really fired up about it. Watching Bruce do his thing was inspiring. I’d make the argument that a generation brought up on fake, computer generated action wouldn’t feel that kind of inspiration to get out in the world and do things like do kung fu or ride a motorbike.
Marketing is happy to pick up this idea of showing you cars doing things they can’t actually do because you’re buying an idea. How the car makes you feel is what makes it valuable, not what you can actually do with it. Whether it’s Nissan pretending their cars are in Star Wars or Chevy pretending their cars are skateboards, the marketing and special effects departments are more than happy to sell you on an idea rather than engineering. I won’t even get into Kia selling you on a car that will drive for you because you’d rather be daydreaming.
In this digital dream-time we’re all immersed in, you can you see why something as unforgiving and physically challenging as motorcycling might be one of the first casualties. It’s going to be a long time if ever before we see accident avoidance on something as elemental as a motorbike. For all those young drivers who expect their car to drive for them when they can’t be bothered to pay attention, this moves motorcycles even further away from the realm of possibility. Coupled with the danger mythology many riders are guilty of promoting, it’s little wonder that motorcycles increasingly seem like something from another time and place.
Forgetting the old white guy thing for a minute (it’s going to go away on its own anyway), how can the industry get people back on motorcycles again? The obvious first step is to make your advertising plausible and inclusive. Don’t digitally animate anything. Show riders of all types enjoying the elemental freedom of riding. This doesn’t need to include jumping canyons or putting knees down; the joy of riding is a simple, accessible pleasure. Show people commuting, going out on a date and otherwise living their lives. Minimize the costuming, especially the pirate thing, emphasize how effective modern safety gear is. Honda had this figured out decades ago and it prompted a renaissance in riding. There is no reason why we couldn’t do it again.
Build bikes that appeal to all sorts of riders. Smaller, easier to handle bikes for beginners that push technology to create something so efficient that it makes snooty hybrid car drivers look like diesel pigs. A 100mpg bike is an immediate possibility. A hybrid touring bike that gets mega mileage but can still move two up easily? An all electric bike? These things should be moved on aggressively.
When coupled with a campaign to emphasize how efficient bikes can be at moving people around, especially in cities, it would play to the urbanization of our population instead of against it. Motorized bikes are capable of moving people more effectively and efficiently than just about any other form of transportation, if we let them. Why do you think crowded developing cities are so full of two wheelers? Pressuring governments to recognize this and encourage two wheeling instead of vilifying it would be a great step forward. Can you imagine how many people would flock to a motorcycle industry couched in marketing around environmentalism and the elemental thrill of riding as an escape from the digital miasma? Escape the Matrix indeed.
Governments ignore a lot of research that clearly
demonstrate how efficient motorcycling can be,
especially in an urban environment.
Ontario offers thousands in incentives for people driving environmentally questionable hybrids. What would happen if you got thousands back in incentives for buying a motorcycle that gets better mileage than a Prius? There are a lot of them – my fourteen year old 955cc Tiger gets better mileage than the Toyota green flag waving hybrid and was way less damaging to manufacture. Can you imagine how many more people would ride these environmentally minimalist machines in cities if they could lane split and move quickly to where they needed to be, reducing traffic and improving the flow for everyone?
Why not do one better and apply those incentives to emphasizing the power and importance of the rider? Instead of advertising about how your car will drive for you because you’re too much of a drip to do it yourself, maybe motorcycling could emphasize the importance of the rider and include them in any upgrade. How about training being automatically included when you buy a bike? This would immediately result in lower accident rates and better insurance costs. If you’re a beginner you get the training as a part of the purchase because you are immediately recognized as a vital part of the riding equation. If you’re already experienced then an advanced riding course in the area of your choice (off-road, track, road) is included to continue your advancement in pursuit of mastery. Motorcycle training courses blossom and grow and sales are encouraged. How about industry and government formerly recognize the importance of the rider and collaborating to make riding the life-long learning opportunity that it should be; motorcycles become paradigms of skill, self-discovery and mastery.
Shows like Ride with Norman Reedus are gender and race
inclusive and celebratory of motorcycle culture in its many
forms. We should be encouraging more shows like it.
De-snootying motorcycle culture, especially where it’s at its snootiest (North America) isn’t something to wonder about, it’s a marketing imperative. Anyone out in the wind, even if they aren’t on a cruiser, is a part of the culture. Scooters and three wheelers aren’t for losers, they’re a part of the sport that needs to be embraced and included. Three wheels mean older riders and those less physically able can still enjoy being out in the wind, how is that a bad thing? Next time someone gives you a wave from a trike, don’t be a jerk, wave back.
If the current motorcycling industry is unwilling to embrace the Twenty-First Century maybe they should be in real trouble. There are always smaller concerns in the shadows waiting to step in and make changes where the established, conservative powers are not. Business as usual is clearly not working. Hopefully the industry that feeds our hobby will realize that and stop coddling Twentieth Century prejudices. A brave new world of opportunities awaits them if they do.
LINKS No easy ride: Motorcycle industry is in deep trouble and needs help fast, panel agrees http://ift.tt/2j1CNNT The Decline of the Driver’s License Fewer people of all ages are getting them, and it’s not quite clear why. http://ift.tt/2mcL7Lp
I came across some motorcycle media recently that is a nice diversion if you’re suffering from PMS. Eatsleepride.com has a series of motorcycle short documentaries that will keep you rolling on two wheels, even if it’s vicariously. The Women’s Motorcycle Exhibit video led me to the site; much better than the floozy on a bike photography you usually see. There is nothing sexier than a strong, capable woman riding a bike (as opposed to a skinny model draping herself on one). The other shorts were all new to me except for Long Live The Kings, which has since spawned The Greasy Hands Preachers. The reviews for that film have suggested that it’s a shallow but pretty look at current motorbike customization trends. I was hoping for something that plumbs the depths like Matt Crawford’s Shopclass As Soulcraft (a must read), but it evidently isn’t that, though I’m still looking forward to seeing it.
I also found Brittown, a documentary about Meatball, a master mechanic and Triumph motorbike connoisseur out of California. It’s a genuine look at a genuine fellow. You’d be hard pressed to find any hipster bullshit in this video. I also completed the set. Having already seen Faster and Fastest, I was finally able to see The Doctor, The Tornado and The Kentucky Kid, the middle Motogp video in the trilogy. It’s a close look at a single race at Leguna Seca. The phoned in interviews are a bit low-rent, but the drama is as engaging as ever. If you want to get into Motogp, these videos will give you the background you need to get right into next season. In the meantime, the mighty Austin Vince put out Mini-Mondo, another motorbike short (poem!) that (hopefully) gets you out on two wheels and seeing what’s around you:
We’re buried in snow in mid-November and thoughts of riding are weeks behind me now, but at least the media I’m finding keeps the two wheel dreaming alive.
Finally got out for an hour today. Only about 5°C, but sunny. With a sweater and my swish new jacket I was comfortable behind the Concours’ fairing. At speed on back roads you only get a bit of wind around the head. Your hands are protected by the wing mirrors and the rest of you is behind fairing. The Connie is comfy in the cold. The bike feels very light once it’s in motion, very flickable. I’m coming off a Ninja 650r, so I’m riding 350 more ccs, two more cylinders and one hundred more pounds of bike, but the Concours feels quick. It doesn’t spring forward with a banshee’s wail in the upper rev range in the startling way that the NInja did, but it’s not nearly so peaky either. It also has suspension more than up the task of dealing with Canadian roads. Where the Ninja used to rattle my teeth over a pothole, the Connie manages to swallow the worst of it while still feeling very connected to the pavement. The Concours pulls with urgency off idle, but that urgency becomes an avalanche of torque as the revs rise. I gave it the mustard off one stop light and was shocked with how quickly 100km/h appeared. Both bikes are quick, but I always assumed the bullet shaped, lighter, sportier Ninja would have been the quicker of the two, that stop light torque avalanche made me doubt that. I ended up looking up the stats on both bikes.
The bikes are coming out of hibernation in Canada – like this little jewel of a Honda with not a spot of rust on it.
The Ninja 650r does a 12.06s quarter mile at 108.79mph, the Connie edges it the quarter with a 12 flat at 109mph! While almost identical, how they do it isn’t. The Ninja needs a lot of throttle and a glib clutch to hook it up in the top half of the rev range, and then judicious gear changes to keep you in the top four thousand RPM through many gears. It’s a thrilling, high tension rush up through the gears. With the Concours you drop the clutch at about four thousand RPM and the motor just picks up the bike with no wallow and storms to the redline. A single gear change gets you up to legal limits. Where the Ninja had that intoxicating banshee wail, the Concours has a baritone bark that becomes a godlike roll of thunder. I used to think the Concours inline four wasn’t as happy a creature as the Ninja’s parallel twin, but after hearing the big-four warm and in voice today I’m starting to think she just sings a different tune, but it’s no less happy. The ride was only about an hour, but I went from constantly comparing the experience to my dear, departed Ninja to wondering just what the Concours is capable of. As a shakedown after a long winter of maintenance, it has begun the process of rebuilding my confidence in this new machine.
I’ve been perusing the youtubes for motorcycle related videos and came across a couple of humdingers. The first is BLAZER, a short (16mins) motorcycle mood piece based on a quote from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. If you’ve got the patience for it, Blazer builds from a joyous ride in the country to that moment we’ve all experienced where the machine you love becomes your worst enemy. The conversation between the biker and his old Triumph is one anyone with an older and/or dodgy vehicle has had.
Don’t be internet impatient and you’ll enjoy where this goes. The production values are excellent.
The second is another atmospheric piece (I’m a media arts teacher, what can I say? I love moody artsie shorts!) This one is about a bike mechanic in London (UK). It follows not only his work but his ethos. This piece not only follows the art of the mechanic, but it also follows the art of the craftsman. Once again, if you’re an internet twitch addict you’ll find this long and boring, but if you can lose yourself in a narrative, this one is lovely.
video missing (and since I didn’t title this years ago, I can’t find another link now 🙁
The next is another fantastic video production that catches the raw, wild feeling of riding. Cafe bike based and focused on friends completing a bike journey together, the video uses strong visual editing and audio to put you into their saddles.
This video uses music as effectively as BLAZER to put you into a motorcycle riding frame of mind.
If you’re looking for a more documentary approach, the Classic Motorcycles documentary series will give you an accessible review of the beginnings of such classic British marquees as Ariel.
(edit: not sure if this is that – no specific title so again I’m flying blind)
Open these up in the full youtube window and you’ll get suggestions down the right side about similar videos. You’ll discover a wealth of motor cycle culture well beyond the frantic, herd minded focus on current motorcycle news.
