Articles by David Edwards
Born Free 3: metal is the message at California's coolest bike show
Hi, my name is Dave and I'm a concours-holic... Recovering, happy to say, but oh I had it bad, a certified carnauba-in-the-blood addict always with a Q-tip on hair-trigger, ready to banish that last offending fleck of dust. In the five years that I spent as a d'elegance devotee, I took home my share of hardware, including numerous bests-in-class and even a best-of-show. Then it all changed. I was ...
27 June 2011
Is the 2011 Zero DS finally ready for public consumption?
A certain smugness is unavoidable. Let the less enlightened suckle up to evil Big Oil's fuel pumps while you glide silently by on your Zero DS, its battery pack brimming with electrons from an overnight charge that cost all of 48 pennies. Not for you the tyranny of $4.29 per gallon gasoline. Best to practice a little humility, though, as you'll see those gas guzzlers again 25 miles down the road w...
26 June 2011
Custom: Streetmaster Brighton cafe racer
Café-racers, cool, yeah? I’m with ya on that. But have you spent any time on a pukka (sorry, Brit-speak for genuine) example? I have. Start speed-tuning on an old Triumph motor, say hello to unreliability, not to mention pesky oil puddles wherever it’s parked. And while my ample ass is pretty good at prodding a kickstarter, I’m up to snuff on the Ceremonial Tickling of the Amals, know how...
15 May 2011
Custom: So-Cal Speed Shop Miler
First things first and full disclosure, I’m a sucker for street-trackers. Own two myself, the first a bumblebee-painted Roberts-rep Yam XS650 in a nickel-plated Champion frame that may be the perfect motorcycle—well, in short 20-minute bursts at least. The second is the “Web Surfer Special,” a budget project bike done in conjunction with street-tracker ace Richard Pollock of Mule Motorcycl...
14 May 2011
News
Indian's New Chief: Interview with Polaris CEO Scott Wine
Poor old Indian. Just when it looked like the grandest nameplate in American motorcycling was about to make its troubled comeback stick, another speed bump. Stellican Ltd., the British-based investment house that purchased the Indian name at bankruptcy auction in 2004 and rolled out a much-improved Chief in '08, was having trouble selling the stylish, skirt-fendered heavyweight cruisers. Thi...
07 May 2011
News
Just shoot me: American Chopper refuses to die
Just when you thought our long national nightmare was over...they're back!!! The bickering, battling and increasingly litigious Teutuls, the bike-building family that lately has sucked all the fun out of dysfunctional, are returning to television. Say it ain't so! After seven years and 169 increasingly interminable episodes, it looked like "American Chopper" was finally headed for Rerun Heaven, bu...
24 April 2011
Reviews
06 March 2011
25 February 2011
Pierre Terblanche and Dan Van Epps on the new Norton
Despite an ailing economy, nose-diving new bike sales and naysayers insisting it simply cannot be done, looks like the new Norton's comeback is on track. Two recent big-name hires certainly have increased the start-up company's chances of success. First it was announced that American Dan Van Epps was coming onboard as head of Norton's U.S. operations. Van Epps was formerly CEO of Ducati North Amer...
04 February 2011
Search & Rescue: the art of the barn-find
Everybody loves a good barn-find story. The best of the tales read like a juicy detective novel. There’s rumor and intrigue, hidden clues, false hope, shadowy characters, high-stakes negotiations, invariably a trying voyage, sometimes even outright danger. But work through the plot twists, stay on the hunt, mix with a little good luck and at the conclusion we have a happy, satisfying outcome. In...
17 January 2011
King Kenny’s Bultaco on the block
Okay, the $2.8 mil for Kenny Roberts' California ranch, a.k.a. the "Hickman Haul-Ass Club," was just too deep a dig. But maybe you coulda stepped up to buy one of the King's better souvenirs, in this case a 1971 Bultaco Metralla Mk.2 presented to Roberts by old man Bulto himself and the Barcelona Bultaco Club back in 1994. Apparently the bike was brand-new and matching numbers, and had been pickle...
17 January 2011
Time Machine Triumph: when Trackmaster met Tracy
My friend Brian Dietz is a cruel man. Like me, he shares an unhealthy fascination for the non-stock – cafe-racers, street-trackers, bob-jobs, choppers...anything uncommon, interesting or flat-out oddball. So a week before Christmas when he e-mailed photos of a strange and wonderful Triumph with the note, "This needs to be under your tree for Xmas, I'm in a dealing mood, make me an offer," I knew...
28 December 2010
Honda CL750 Scrambler: will Big Red build one for you?
Dear Honda, hi, it's me again, David Edwards. Different soapbox, same rant I'm afraid. Last time we talked, it was to implore you to build the CB1100F retro concept bike as seen at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show. And, in fact, the bike did make production, even if it's not (yet?) imported to America. At least you are bringing in the CB1000R naked sportster, another of my suggestions. I wish you would...
17 December 2010
Lunch with Dr. T and the mysterious screw adjustments for Desmo valves
Ever had lunch with one of your heroes? That's the enviable situation Steve Anderson found himself in one fine day in 1986 when Fabio Taglioni, the famed "Dr. T," designer of Ducati's signature desmodromic valve system, visited the Cycle World offices in Newport Beach, California. At the time, Anderson was the magazine's tech editor, formerly (true story) a rocket scientist with a degree from MIT ...
16 December 2010
The BSA Gold Star that conquered Daytona Beach
Who knew sitting in front of a computer screen pecking away at a keyboard could be so dangerous? No physical threat from my gig writing catalog descriptions for the upcoming Bonhams motorcycle auction in Las Vegas, but I am in deep danger of moto-lust about every third bike. A Munch Mammoth TTS, an Excelsior Big X board-tracker, a Brough Superior Black Alpine, a Suzuki RG500 Walter Wolf, a Condor ...
14 December 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...
02 December 2010
News
The trouble with sportbikes
Don't get me wrong. I luvs me some sportbike. We all do – "we" being card-carrying moto-journalists. That's part of the problem. Dig into our closets (scary thought, that) and you'll find full leathers, not fringed chaps. We like our gloves armored, not fingerless. Helmets tend to be racer replicas, not fiberglass yarmulkes. Most of us are better than average behind a set of handlebars, too, wit...
22 November 2010
Saying goodbye to the “Guggenheim CB750”
It was time. The motorcycle had been part of my life for 17 good years; now, thanks to the reach of eBay, it rested rather forlornly in a wooden box awaiting a UPS truck and the 2000-mile trip to its new owner. For a moment, I wanted to call the whole deal off, to renege on the sale...but, no, it was time. The last few woodscrews cinched the crate shut, paperwork was signed, the forklift was fired...
16 November 2010
The Dark Side: moto-journalism in the age of the Internet
So, Mr. Editor Siler says to write us something about the good old days, y'know, when PR accounts were flush and motorcycle magazine editors were plied with heaping mounds of cocaine and rows of leggy high-class hookers. Sorry, Wes, nothing nearly that sordid, though things did get kinda ugly in a Rome clipjoint once when I refused to pay $300 for a demi of cheap champagne, a plate of ladyfingers ...
08 November 2010
Henry Manney III’s Manx Norton
The argument over best-loved automotive writer of all time would last far into the night, but among the finalists has to be the late Henry Manney III. No finer wordsmith ever grasped a steering wheel or set of handlebars. For decades his pieces were required reading in Road & Track magazine, especially his "At Large" column, which often signed off with his trademark shorthand coda, Yr Faithfl Srvn...
30 October 2010
News
Cycle World fires “Song of the Sausage Creature” art director
It’s ironic, but Hell For Leather seems to be the publication of record for any items involving print motorcycle magazines these days, i.e. the whole "Dexter Chronicles" affair and the busted Kawasaki ZX-10R embargo. So the following may be of interest. Elaine Anderson, Cycle World's longtime art director, is no longer with the magazine, a move lost in all the recent firings and bloodletting at ...
21 October 2010