Chronicles
Beautiful Views, Dangerous Distractions
During the five-year period between 1998 and 2002, the number of motorcycle accidents on The Blue Ridge Parkway increased over 60 percent. When Chief Parks Ranger John Garrison cited that statistic, he prefaced it by saying they had noticed a significant rise in accidents. But 60 percent isn't significant, it's catastrophic. And most of those accidents...
Time to Re-tire?
Life’s too short to only own one motorcycle, right? But most of us can only ride one at a time. If you own a bike that only does a couple of thousand miles a year, should you wait until the tires are worn out before you replace them? If not, when? And how do you know how old your tires are? Tire rubber is a complex compound blended with additives...
The Dark Side
A gas tank miscalculation means I'm riding through the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest after dark. Dense evergreens crowd the road, filtering out any moonlight that might have squeezed through the clouds, and the dark tarmac seems to drain the brightness from my headlight. As I round a right-hander, the dappled rear end of a deer, as high as my windshield,...
Welcome To Beemerville!
The Lima Allen County Fairgrounds became the landing point for Beemerville settlers in 2005. Many questioned the choice of Lima for the rally location. After all, the Midwest is not known to have the greatest riding in the country. The roads are flat and pretty straight – usually not the first or even the fifteenth choice for a bunch of curve...
Getting Wired
Mom knew there was a problem when the ceiling fell in. A sharp winter frost had frozen and ruptured a water pipe in the loft above our under-heated English house, and when the thaw came, there was water everywhere. It was 1943, and Dad was otherwise occupied in the Royal Air Force. But when he returned from duty, he determined to avoid similar problems...
Streetmasters Motorcycle Workshops
If we're being completely honest with ourselves, we all can admit to occasionally feeling the need to apply our brakes in the middle of a corner, or to cross the center line to save a turn we entered into too hot, or too early. As we leave the offending arc behind, smirking at us in the rearview, the ego offers reassurances that this was purely a freak...
Vintage Motorcycle Mania At Mid-Ohio
The American Motorcycle Association's 11th annual Vintage Motorcycle Days at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is almost too much fun for one place and one weekend to contain. Motorcycles are everywhere. Racing bikes scream around the road course, motocrossers spew mud as they careen around the dirt course, the racing paddock is a beehive of preparations,...
Not Your Typical BMW Emporium
The San Francisco Bay area is unique in many respects. One that readily registers in a motorcyclist's mind is that, for all its urban congestion – three major cities and a dozen smaller ones surround the bay, there are still amazing amounts of quiet, crowd-free, winding roads. Perfect for a Sunday ride and most of them are within easy reach of...
At the Sign of the Wolf
When I started out in motorcycling, my second bike was a BMW 1100 GS. And since it's routine, simply a matter of good form to do so here in Austria, I mounted a Remus Racing exhaust on it. What a sound! Before the Remus Company began developing and producing high-end vehicular components in the Styrian enclave of Bärnbach, this Austrian village...
The Benefits of Becoming a Scooter Commuter
Back When Gas was 25 Cents A GallonAs a youngster I remember our car's glove box held a little book in which my father dutifully tracked the gas mileage. Although gas only cost about 25 cents a gallon then, gas mileage was discussed among family and friends with an intensity that bordered on religious fervor. These discussions haven't changed that much...
