December 2, 2010
Phantom EG: a Norton from the great beyond
Gawd, I hate it when I whiff on a call. Last year when pics of this Phantom Norton crossed my desk, I dismissed it as an inconsequential bit of British fluff. As if, in an economy nosediving like a suicidal Stuka, this silly thing stood a chance. One and done, I thought, hope the poor dumb bloke hasn’t sunk his life savings into this folly. Well, blow me down if the Phantom Manufacturing Company... KTM plans 250 Duke
According to KTM president Stefan Pierer, the company is developing a 250 or 300cc version of the new KTM 125 Duke and says it should be ready in about 18 months. “We’re working on a 250cc up to 300cc single-cylinder engine, also four valves with twin overhead camshafts,” Pierer told Alan Cathcart. “This has more or less the same external dimensions so we can install it in the existing 125... The bikes and builders of the Boundless Enthusiasm Bike Build-Off
This morning we showed you Much Much Go, the winner of Deus Ex Machina’s Boundless Enthusiasm Bike Build-Off, now, here’s all the other entries and entrants. Describing the Build-Off, Deus says, “It’s time to close your eyes and imagine a happy place, a place without boundaries where old American iron crossbreeds with 80s Japanese sport monsters. Where a rigid rear XR600 is a perfectly g...
Harley’s secret $2.3 billion taxpayer bailout
According to a new disclosure by the Federal Reserve, Harley-Davidson was given a previously secret $2.3 billion bailout during the fall of 2008 and winter of 2009. We’ve previously reported that Harley borrowed nearly $1 billion in emergency operating capital from Warren Buffett at 15 percent interest during the same period and has since upped that amount to nearly $2 billion from other lenders...