Some More New Bikes

Fall is not only the time of the year that leads to Winter, it's also new bike season.  Now, I've written about some new-for-2013 bikes and I thought I'd do it again.  The problem is which one do I write about...

I could write about the Yamaha YZF-R1, which is essentially the same as the the 2011 version.  No, that would be too boring.

Sticking with Yamaha, there's the new YZF-R6.  It has all-new styling, more horsepower and a boatload of electronics for 2013.  I would write about its fancy technology if I was an engineer.  I'm not an engineer, however, so I don't find valve angle to be that interesting.

Moving across the hall to Kawasaki, we'll see a new ZX-6R Ninja to join the new 250.  It has some new stuff like more displacement, a slipper clutch and a 12 percent bigger airbox.  Did you know its new clutch hub is 600 grams lighter than the old one?  That's because the new one is made from aluminum and according to scientists, aluminum is lighter than steel.

No, the ZX-6R is too boring.  Let's see...

Okay, there's the Kawasaki Z800, which has some of the worst styling ever conceived by a designer.  It makes the Vetter Mystery Ship look good in comparison...The Honda CBR250R can be had in Respol colors...The MV Agusta Brutale 675 gets a special paint scheme...There are some new BMW F-Series bikes...There are a couple of new Harleys...'New' and 'Harley' in the same sentence; that's a joke...

No, this is all going wrong.  There has to be something worth writing about...

Oh, here it is: the Ducati Multistrada Pikes Peak.  There; that will work.

The Multistrada is Ducati's entry into the big trailie/touring bike segment.  Since it's a Ducati at heart, it's much more focused on conquering the Stelvio Pass than the Road of Bones.  I'm sure it can do some off-road stuff but then again so can anything if you really tried.  It seems like more of an on-road tourer to me.

The Pikes Peak version is meant to commemorate Ducati's 1-2 finish at this year's Pikes Peak Hill Climb.  The winning Multistrada, piloted by Carlin Dunne, set a new course record for motorcycles. 

The special edition gets Ducati Corse livery, a sports exhaust and some carbon fiber bits.  All 2013 Multistradas get new windshields, which are taller and wider than before.

The Multistrada is a strange bike.  It has a slightly detuned Testastretta engine, so it's very fast.  It has a whole bunch of electronic stuff like Skyhook adjustable suspension, Bosch ABS and four power mode settings.  It also has radial Brembo brakes and fat Pirelli tires like a sports bike.   

Stranger than its equipment is its styling.  It has the beak of an adventure bike but with an added twist: two inlets for the oil cooler.  This means the beak looks like a nose, literally.  Add in the twin headlamps, high handlebars and high mirrors and you get a bike that looks like a frightened gazelle.  It also has the tall seat of an adventure bike to go with the adventure bike crash bars and sump protectors.

Of course, the Multistrada was never a looker.  The old version had a gigantic single headlamp, which made the bike look like a cross between The Punisher's skull logo and some sort of strange fish.  It also didn't know whether it wanted to be an adventure bike, a touring bike or a sports bike.

The Multi's L-twin puts out 150 horsepower, which is very unadventure bike like.  That's more than the Triumph Tiger 1200 (135 hp), the KTM 990 Adventure (115 hp), the BMW R1200GS (110 hp) and the Yamaha Tenere 1200 (110 hp).  Only the KTM 1190 Adventure R can match it for power.  Torque on the 2013 is up to 91 ft/lb, a massive increase over last year's Multi.  So it looks strange like a proper adventure bike but it goes like a sports bike...

To further muddle things up, you can outfit it with saddle bags and a top case, just like a touring bike.  The windshield is also adjustable just like a proper touring bike and requires only one hand to do so.

Before you get excited to try this schizophrenic machine, there is the price to consider.  The base Multi without fancy suspension or ABS will set you back $17,000.  The S model, which adds the fancy suspension and the ABS, goes for $20,000.  Add another $2,000 and you can get a Pikes Peak model.  Add more, of course, for the full touring kit.

So what exactly is the Multistrada, then?  Is it an adventure bike, a sports bike or a touring bike?  I guess it's a mixture of all three; a jack of all trades, master of none.

You could call the Multistrada all things to all riders...Provided they're tall, of course.

Loaded out in touring mode, the Multi looks like it can take you anywhere.  The luggage looks huge and makes the bike look like a frightened gazelle that has been forced to double as a burro.  On the plus side, I bet you could fit a few illegals in the big bags.  That ought to help you make the monthly payments.

Turning Back the Clock

Call it trite but I have a soft spot for the BMW R1200GS.

I'm not really sure why because it's too heavy, too tall and too expensive for me to rationally decide to purchase one.  And like most modern German vehicular products, it has too many electronics for me.  I think BMW feels the need to put electronics everywhere because...You know, I really don't know why.  Maybe it's because they can and so professors in high-viz will continue to buy them.

But what really puts me off buying the GS is the styling.  It's a bit of a mess.  It tries to look butch and utilitarian but instead looks confused.

For starters, the headlamps are two different sizes and that's just odd.  Combining that with the beak-like protrusion makes the front of the bike look like a plague doctor's outfit.  Another thing I don't get is the beak, which I'm guessing is supposed to look like a motocross fender, and the tire-hugging front fender.  How many front fenders does one bike need?  There's also a bit of plastic hugging the rear tire.  Why?  Isn't that just going to pack with mud as you bound across Tajikistan?  Then there's the exhaust, which is enormous and mounted perilously low on a bike with off-road pretensions. 

So there it is: I like a bike that I don't like. 

Thanks to the Italians at Unit Garage, though, there is some hope for the GS after all.  For about 4,000 EUR, Unit will sell you a kit that transforms your GS from a confused styling mess into an R80GS replica.

Fans of the GS will know that the R80GS was possibly the original adventure touring bike.  In the early Eighties, BMW packed their reliable 798cc flat-twin lump into a new frame and drizzled the bike with off-road goodness, creating a whole new market.  Sure, dual purpose off-road/street bikes had been done before but not to this scale.  Within a few years, every manufacturer you can think of had an adventure bike in their lineup.  Thirty years on, the adventure market is one of motorcycling's largest.

What's nice about the R80GS' styling is its simplicity.  It had one round headlamp, a gas tank and a seat.  That's it.  There is only one front fender and no weird plastic thing hugging the rear wheel.  Better yet, the R80GS as a whole was simple.  It wasn't swimming in electronics like the new version.  It even still had carbs.  The bike was simple and that's what's important if you're going to build a bike intended to go where the road ends.

And Unit's kit captures this simplicity with stunning grace.  Leave it up the Italians to take something ugly and make it beautiful.  Everything that makes the new GS look like an ugly wart is replaced.  In its place is the stylistic simplicity that helped make the original GS such a ground-breaker. 

I think it's just fantastic.

This is a standard R1200GS Adventure and it looks terrible.  It looks like it weighs five million pounds and was designed by a group of people not in contact with each other.  

And this is the same bike with Unit Garage's replica kit on it.  As you can see, it looks much better.  All the function of the GS is retained but it's covered in a more-appealing shell.  My only complaint is that the front still looks like a plague doctor's outfit.  Options such as a Paris-Dakar-style flyscreen can be chosen and you can opt to retain the low front fender and lose the beak.  The weird plastic piece behind the rear wheel is still there, though.

When is a Motorcycle Really a Car?

My half-assed attempt here at a blog is about motorcycles.  I like motorcycles and I like writing about them.  I also like other stuff, too.  I like cars, for example.  So how can I write about a car on a motorcycle site?

I know, I can write about the Morgan Three Wheeler!  It's classified as a motorcycle here in the U.S.  Hello, loop hole.

The Three Wheeler is a modern nod to the three-wheeled cars of Morgan's past, including the fast versions called the Super Sports.  Like all Morgans, they used wood for parts of the chassis and as the name suggests, had three wheels.  Two wheels were in the front and one was in the back.  Keen observers and those studying for the GMAT will notice that two front wheels plus one back wheel equals three wheels total.

What made the Morgan Super Sports different was not only that it used three wheels, but that it was also powered by a motorcycle engine.  The engine was usually a V-twin from Matchless or JAP.  Now, since I'm talking about a car, you're expecting the engine to be under a hood (or a bonnet, depending on where you're from) and you'd be wrong.

You see, Morgan mounted the engine outside of the body.  Most motorcycle engines of the time were air-cooled, so mounting them in the breeze made perfect sense.  Strangely, some Super Sports used liquid-cooled motorcycle engines, so placing them in the breeze ahead of the radiator made less sense.  Eventually, the use of motorcycle engines was abandoned and Morgan used a four-cylinder engine mounted inside the body.  The three wheels were also soon joined by a fourth wheel and an era came to a close.

Morgan, being a backward-thinking company that still uses wood construction in its 170 mph supercars, decided last year to bring the three wheeler back.  The new version is called the Morgan Three Wheeler.

True to form, the tub-like body is there, the front wheels are spoked like the originals and there's an air-cooled motorcycle engine out in the breeze.  There are two small screen that act as wind deflectors and two roll hoops behind the seats are for safety...maybe.

Sadly, Matchless and JAP went bust like most of the British motorcycle companies, so the new Three Wheeler is powered by a 1990cc, pushrod S & S V-twin.  All 80 of those American horses are funneled to the lone rear wheel through a five-speed manual sourced from the Mazda Miata.

The entire car, er, motorcycle is completely bespoke, so you can choose the color, seat leather and from a whole slew of graphics.  Among the graphics are semi-naked ladies, RAF roundels and the 112th Squadron shark mouth.  And, yes, part of the chassis is made from wood.  Hey, it's light and strong.  So what if it's not as sexy as carbon fiber?

All of this elemental motoring is not cheap, however.  In the U.S., a Three Wheeler will cost about $40,000.

I don't really care that it's expensive, has an American V-twin and uses wood in the chassis.  It looks like a total blast to drive and I really want one.  I like that it's completely ridiculous and it knows it.  The Three Wheeler does not take itself seriously at all and I find that endearing in so many ways.  I'd get one with RAF Roundels, the shark mouth and some stick-on bullet holes.

$40,000 will buy you this or an Acura TL.  I think that's an easy decision.

Cheap Mods

Modifying your motorcycle is a fun, worthwhile experience.  Not only do you get the benefits of improvement, but you get to know your bike and how it works on a much more intimate level.  However, there are downsides to modifying.

One, the mods don't always improve your bike.  Welding on a hardtail is a mod but does it really improve your bike?  No, it doesn't.

Two, modifying can get expensive.  Oh, sure, the parts are cheap (sometimes) but who's going to put them on if you can't?  The costs can quickly escalate.

Don't get put-ff, though, because there are ways to mod your machine on the cheap.

Back when I bought new exhausts for my Triumph Bonneville, I removed the snorkel from the airbox.  It was a cheap, simple and quick way to get more air into the box.  Wanting more, I removed the restrictor from the airbox. 

The previous two mods cost me nothing.  I even had extra silicone sealer laying around that I used to reseal the box when I removed the restrictor.  Those two mods worked well.  With the airbox and exhaust changes, the bike felt like it wanted to rev more and wasn't so choked up.  I imagine a few horses were added, too, but it's hard to tell without a dyno.

Still wanting more without spending more, I decided today to open up the inlet to the air filter. 

It was a simple job that took maybe five minutes total.  A few months ago, I purchased a used airbox off EBay and hacked the inlet from that one up in case I messed up or didn't like the results.  You see?  That's called thinking ahead.

Anyway, I cut away the bit that wasn't holding the air filter in place and ended up with this:



The old inlet is on the left and the new modified inlet is on the right.  As you can see, there's quite a difference.  Total removal of the old inlet and installation of the new inlet took about three seconds. 


With the job done, it was time to see if I wasted a whole 303 seconds of my life.

I rode around a bit to get the bike warmed up and then headed to a nearby stop sign that leads to a long bit of straight road.  I gave it as much as I dared off the line and the result was amazing.

Maybe I was wishful thinking but the bike felt much more aggressive on acceleration, especially as it got closer to the redline.  It felt a bit sluggish before, but now it feels like it wants to rev to the top much quicker.  And the increased intake roar adds much coolness to the experience. 

In all, I'm quite pleased with my cheap mod.  It's not often that something good comes from such a simple investment.  Plus, this will keep me satisfied until I eventually gut the airbox completely, which is why I bought the spare box in the first place.

This, then, brings me to the third downside to modding your bike: You'll never stop.

Some New Bikes

As we approach the Fall, manufacturers are staring to release their models for 2013.  Of the bikes released so far, two that caught my eye were the Kawasaki Ninja 250R and the Victory Boardwalk.

The mini-Ninja caught my attention because I like small-bore bikes.  If I wasn't so lazy, I'd post a link to where I wrote about the 125cc Aprilia RS4 awhile back.  I still like that bike.

Anyway, I like the 250 Ninja because it's small, relatively light and inexpensive.  For 2013, it will be completely restyled to mimic its big bro, the ZX-10.  In addition, the bike will get new pistons, new exhausts and new crankcases. 

The frame is new, too, as is the suspension front and back and the wheels.  The instrument cluster is sport bike chic with an analog tach and a digital speedo with fuel gauge, trip meter and something called an "economical riding indicator."

A Big Deal, at least in Kawasaki's mind, is the use of dual throttle valves similar to the ones used by the bigger Ninjas.  Team Green says this adds linearity to the throttle response and helps boost power.  We'll just have to take their word for it.

I like the ZX-10's Mini-Me because it's a cheap bit of fun.  There are loads of 250 Ninjas out there available for a song and they prove you don't need to have millions of horsepower to have a good time on a bike.  Since they aren't very fast, the rider is more involved in keeping his speed up and carrying momentum.   I think they're good bikes and, with the refresh for '13, good-looking bikes.


Now onto the Victory Boardwalk. 

The Boardwalk is a traditional cruiser, so that means big engine, lots of chrome and whitewall tires.  Victory says it's made for laid-back cruising, which could be said about every cruiser, and that it's perfect for a "quick escape."  It weighs 675 lbs dry; I'm not sure it's doing anything quickly.  In essence, the Boardwalk is a styling exercise and a rather boring one at that, so pardon my lack of excitement.

The Boardwalk caught attention my not because I like it (I don't) but because I'm disappointed by it.  Victory, as a company, disappoints me.  They could be the American answer to Triumph (victory and triumph sort of mean the same thing) instead of being another Harley clone.  I would like to think that Americans, being the ingenious people we are, could do better than building another "laid-back" cruiser with an air-cooled V-twin.  Erik Buell can't be the only American who knows what a corner is.

I think Victory setting its sights on building a better HD is setting the bar too low.  I think they can do better and I'm disappointed that they can't look beyond HD.  It's too late for Victory to change its line-up and its image.  It's just a shame they aren't more than what they are.

Speed Weekend

This weekend was a celebration of speed. 

Saturday, I went to the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (PVGP) and today I went to Vintage Motorcycle Days at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.  The first event has a bias toward cars, so cover your eyes if you don't like to read about that sort of thing.

I've been going to the PVGP for about 15 years and it's amazing how the event has grown.  When I first started going, the usual contingent of Porsches, MGs and Triumphs would be there.  Mostly, the car show was the aforementioned cars and a healthy sprinkling of muscle cars.  There would be maybe one Ferrari and a handful of Japanese cars.

In the past three years, the PVGP has blown up in size.  The number of cars there on Saturday was staggering.  MG was the featured marque, so there were tons of them and other British makes.  The amount of exotics, though, illustrates the expansion of the event.  There had to be two dozen Ferraris old and new and half-a-dozen Lamborghinis, including a new Aventador.  The sections of Japanese and German cars are enormous now, too. 

And the muscle car scene has dwindled, which I don't mind.  It's not that I don't like muscle cars, it's just that there are car shows all over the area that cater to muscle cars.  I like the PVGP because it's a chance to see something more interesting than Mustangs, Camaros and the other usual suspects. You're not going to see an Alfa-Romeo 8C at your local church's car cruise and I'd rather look at the Alfa.

The PVGP has also started to cater to classic bike owners within the last two years.  Previously, there was a bike run on Sunday but it was mostly Harleys and old bikes weren't really part of the show.  Since it's burgeoning, the bike area was a little thin.  The show was sponsored by a  Moto Guzzi club, so there were a handful of Guzzis, including a military Falcone and a MKIV Le Mans.  I also got to see a V7 Racer in the flesh.  I want to like it so bad but I can't. 

The biggest issue, I think, with having classic bikes at the PVGP is that Vintage Motorcycle Days is the same weekend.  VMD is a much larger classic bike event and will be hard for the PVGP to compete with it.

Today, I headed off to Mid-Ohio to take in the final day of Vintage Motorcycle Days.  I had a goal in mind for the trip: acquiring Ducati parts.  Sunday is the day of the swap meet and there's a guy in it with a lot of parts whom I make richer every year. 

This year didn't disappoint because I bought a frame and a chain guard for my two-wheeled money pit.  The original frame for my Ducati was in very bad shape.  It was pitted in a number of areas from all the years it sat and I wouldn't feel confident riding with a frame that bad.  My new frame is old and has some rust but it's all surface stuff and will clean up well.  I'm very pleased with it.

The show itself did disappoint a bit.  Instead of featuring a marque, the theme this year was Mods and Rockers.  This is a motorcycle site and if I have to explain the history behind Mods and Rockers, get off my site.  Anyway, there were far fewer bikes present than the last few years I've gone.  The only cafe bikes I saw were old Hondas surrounded by dudes in tight pants and tight t-shirts.  I didn't see anyone covered in pins, which I thought was de rigueur for this sort of thing.  I liked the theme when I first read about it but I hope they go back to highlighting a marque next year.  It seems to bring out more bikes.

So that was my weekend.  I have grease under my fingernails from my new frame and I have sunburn all over my face and arms.  Oh, and I got stopped by a Pittsburgh motorcycle cop because, like the idiot I am, I neglected to put my registration sticker on my Triumph's license plate.  He let me go, though, which was cool. 

All in all, this was a good weekend.

Art or not?

I'll get right to the question: can a motorcycle be art?

Some think so, as evidenced by the Guggenheim's Art of the Motorcycle exhibit from a few years ago.  A collection of bikes from all different styles were gathered and shown in the art museum.  Artsy-fartsy people say no, a motorcycle can't be art because it has another purpose.  They believe art exists for itself; it just is.

I think the art people are wrong.  A motorcycle can absolutely be art.  If you want proof, just look below:

The above is a Moto Guzzi built by German customizers Kaffemaschine and I think it's the best-looking bike I've ever seen.  Heady words, indeed, but everything about the bike is perfect.  From the paint to the seat to the fairing to the engine, every piece is magnificent.

What's also magnificent is that this bike was built to compete in vintage racing.  It's not some garage ornament funded by a corporate exec's bonus that will never see the light of day.  It's a real bike built for a real purpose.

This Guzzi began its life as an 850 Le Mans, which is a very good start.  Most of the standard Guzzi bits were tossed and replaced with new or one-off items.  The rear part of the frame was removed and a custom seat was fitted.  The piece de resistance is a custom carbon fiber fuel tank.  All the mods drop the typical fat Guzzi weight down to a svelte 387 lbs.

Forward motion is provided by a 1040cc V11 engine with a hot cam and big valves.  This results in 95 hp and a guaranteed good time.

Looking at this Guzzi, it's clear that a motorcycle can be art.  This machine is as purposeful as it it is striking.  The lines are all right; every piece flows into the next with nothing out of place.  It's a beautiful piece of sculpture; a bit like Michelangelo's David  but with wheels.  This Guzzi is everything a motorcycle is and should be in one package.  It is the perfect specimen. 

Okay, enough blabbing.  It's time for more pics.