Motorcycle Culture
Riding to Work
Motorcycling along my secret back road route to work on a spring morning, I'm completely focused on the ride. With no thought of the challenges waiting at my job, I'm enjoying the fresh scents of budding flowers and some colorful scenery on a two-lane byway curving through an attractive suburban area....
BMW Mendoza
Motorcycling on one's own is perhaps never wise, but often it is inevitable. There was a time when I intentionally scouted routes alone, but I have since learned how much more enjoyable it is to share the experience, good or bad, with others....
New York's Scooter Scene
New York, New York. So nice they had to name it twice. The Big Apple. Gotham, the city that never sleeps, is an unlikely place to find two-wheeled communion, plagued as it is with manic cabbies, potholes that swallow small children, and suburban sprawl that pushes any scenic back roads well beyond the city limits. But like dandelions growing in sidewalk...
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...
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...
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...
Renting the American Dream
Logistics. When used in conversation, the word is often accompanied by depressing qualifiers (nightmare, headache, royal pain in the...), assembled references that essentially mean "bummer," a term you shouldn't have to use when it comes to your hard-earned vacation and riding time. We work hard all year for those coveted two or, if you're lucky, three...
The Barber Vintage
Which motorcycles would you most like to see? Maybe that first bike you owned or the one Dad or Granddad rode during the war. Maybe you want to examine a legendary, historic or a one-of-a-kind ride? If you could see them all in one place, up close and personal, would the destination be worth the trip? In the case of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum...
