Articles by Grant Ray
News 
PSA: The end of subscriptions
Recently, there have been comments that HFL is changing, and that's true. Such is the life of a small, growing online company. Some of you have also noticed the subscriber-based pay wall has actually been non-functional for some time now. In fact, it came down just a little while after the last PSA I put up. I promised I'd follow up once I had some concrete to give you, and while I could bore the ... News
The best Hammarhead photo shoot ever
Everyone who reads HFL knows how much we adore Hammarhead bikes. Back in June 13, 2011, James Hammarhead hired me to shoot all three models in one very special location. The shoot was for an outside project that never materialized, leaving the photos to languish on my hard drive. Finally, James has decided to release the images and has even given HFL an exclusive of his reflections on that day. I ... How to gear up for adventure
While the idea of heading off into the wilderness on a bike armed with nothing more than a knife, blanket roll and a can of beans may seem awfully romantic, the truth is that’s a good recipe for getting stranded or never coming back. Best case scenario? You’ll simply be miserable. Instead, building a comprehensive adventure touring kit can make things easy, comfortable and safe. There’s no w... Gear: Scorpion EXO-900 Snow Ready
There was a time when I saw Scorpion helmets and turned up my nose, assuming it was so cheaply made I’d invariably break a lid just by trying one on. However, the EXO-400 I purchased for our Labrador expedition opened me to a brave new world. Somehow, that $130 Scorpion managed to be nearly as comfortable and functional as the much more expensive AGV GP-Tech I was wearing at the time, except I d... 2012 Honda Rubicon Utility ATV is working for the hoon
When Honda invited me last week to ride ATVs on the trails around Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino range, I didn’t hesitate. I thought it would be like past trips riding sport quads in Moab or Hungry Valley, so I didn’t care if the temps would be in the upper 20s with high winds and maybe snow. Then I got the itinerary listing Honda’s “ATV Utility” line. Ugh. Don’t get me wrong, my... Ural M70 Anniversary Limited Edition: Ceci n'est pas une Cruiser
Ural is launching 2 new 70th anniversary limited edition M70 models that pay homage to the M72, the first Ural. Only 30 of the anniversary M70 sidecars will be built and an even tinier run of 10 M70-Solo anniversary bikes will be produced. To be clear, the M70 is not so much an all-new machine as it is a repurposing of the older and somewhat clumsy model known as the “Retro” cruiser. Much like... MV Agusta F3 Serie Oro, minus the photobombing random dudes
MV Agusta just released two official images of the 2012 MV Agusta F3 Serie Oro. That swingarm that Wes was hoping was magnesium? Nah, it's just paint, silly. And those wheels that Wes also hoped were magnesium? Yeah, also paint. They're actually forged aluminum wheels. Wait, so why is this thing expected to cost €24,900? Well, it does have a TTX shock and steering damper, radial Monobloc Brembo... News
Wes fall down go boom. Again.
As some of you may have seen of his Facebook page, Wes had himself yet another epic bender sometime Saturday afternoon. I wasn't there and Sean is currently occupied taking Wes to a specialist, but after a good bit of texting and confirmation via IM, I've been able to piece together a story of what went down. Wes, Sean and Sean's buddy went camping around Big Bear this weekend, above Lake Arrow... News
KTM quietly faces the ugly truth about bikes
KTM is utterly desperate for the youth market. So desperate, in fact, that KTM Nightlight Session is a two minute video that has almost nothing to do with the KTM 125 Duke that the video is supposed to be promoting. If it wasn't for the beginning credits, nobody would guess it's even a KTM project since all of the visible branding in the first half of the video is for pinkpark and Scott. Neither ... News
Why you should be excited about Zero Motorcycles
The most interesting thing about the 2011 Zero launch wasn’t the bikes. Yes, the company has beefed up the components, restyled the existing line, added street versions of the dirt bikes as well as the new and very tiny XU model. Yes, the new management team has veterans plucked from Triumph, KTM USA and the remnants of Buell. Yes, Zero just scored $26 million in additional financing. That’s a... Zero's new motorcycles don't ride like bicycles anymore
When I first rode the Zero X two years ago at Glen Helen, I was basically riding a weirdo chassis stuffed with a giant battery box, then fitted with bicycle parts and an electric motor. When we tried out the Zero DS and S models in Brooklyn last year, Zero had just figured out how to get the throttle response to act with the same kind of variable input as an ICE, steady throttle finally equalled s... Handcrafted in Chennai will make you crave the hipster Harley
Hands down as emotively powerful as the epic Impossible Dream commercial for Honda by Weiden+Kennedy's London office, Royal Enfield's Indian-produced Handcrafted in Chennai is a visual masterpiece of storytelling in slow motion. Seriously, I got goosebumps watching this thing. Every scene is so perfectly framed that I had to edit down my shots for the gallery. If it sounds like I'm smitten, that's... 2010′s 10 best HFL photos
Following the theme of our favorites of 2010, Hell For Leather also had the opportunity to capture some pretty amazing moments with my trusty rangefinders. The following ten photographs, in no particular order, aren't giant panoramas of remote and rugged landscapes and definitely not shots of the ubiquitous "dude dragging knee on random road/track." Instead, I'd like to think of each snap as a doc... Labrador: Grant's gear
Believe it or not, Wes and I don't dress like twinkies on motorcycle trips. I decided against go-go boots and David Lee Roth high kicks and wore an unfathomably expensive Rukka suit and Alpinestars touring boots instead. I also ditched the fancy MX helmet for a cheapo full-face. After 3,500 + miles, which approach worked better? Scorpion EXO-400 Helmet I made it roughly an hour and a half befo... Sam Flynn's Tron Legacy Cycle Suit, FTW
Batman? Serious issues relating to the opposite sex. Iron Man? Definitely for losers with patriarchal baggage. Univeral Design's Limited Edition Sam Flynn Cycle suit? Fucking awesome. Like UD's two previous suits, the Tron Cycle suit is fully functional and fitted with CE-certifed armor. But instead of being ridiculous like the others, the Tron motorcycle suit is almost as sleek as the film versio... News
Johns Hopkins report: ATVs are deadlier than motorcycles, OMG!
Not wanting to incite panic or anything to fear-crazed moms and unhinged legislators, Reuters reporter Nancy Lapid's first sentence reads like a soothing commercial for Jaws VI, "If you think an all-terrain vehicle, or ATV, is safer than a motorcycle, think again." Just to make sure you get the message, death-by-ATV is mentioned no less than 5 times throughout the article. And if you think it coul... Cobra turns Honda Shadow RS into proper lemonade
While the 2011 Honda Shadow RS is finally acceptable enough to ride without wearing a brown paper bag, the 45hp Japanese V-twin still verges dangerously close to uncoolness. Working directly with Honda, aftermarket accessories maker Cobra Engineering has released 5 concepts to show the Shadow's potential, 2 of which are knockouts. The CL72-based high-pipe Scrambler and especially the Bubba Shober... News
Buell 1190RS gets official, marketing gets officially weird
This whole guerrilla slow-release-marketing-teaser-video thing that bike makers have finally caught on to might be going a bit too far. As usual, there's not a lot to go on, but what we know so far is the Erik Buell Racing 1190RS will be seen in a teaser video of some sort on Tuesday, September 14th. Plus the dude from Queensryche is involved, and is debuting his new band's hot upcoming single. No... News
Alpinestars TechAir race suit available July 2011, $2500 over the "Race Replica"
Shoulders and collarbones can leap for joy as The TechAir is a 6 staged system using sensors located in secret positions throughout a suit designed not to trigger unless a series of criteria are all met that meets a kind of mathematical definition of a crash. Here's how it works.During Stage 1 the sensors placed throughout the race suit record data and then that data is used for a diagnostic check... News
HFL + RSV4 Factory = NYPD
This is what happens when you ride a barely less than thoroughbred racing machine on Manhattan's Harlem River Drive. The Aprilia RSV4 Factory got me nailed at 80 in a 50 earlier today. The officer cornered me in the far left lane, stopped traffic and made me walk the bike across four lanes to the 125th Street exit. During rush hour. Granted, the rest of traffic was doing 75 when he popped me, I go... News
Band of Bikers captures the East Coast gay biker scene of yesteryear
Perusing the selection at the bookstore, nothing's really different or odd about it. A smallish green square book with a yellowed old color photo of some drunk bikers back in the day. You see shots like that in the online LIFE archive and Max Schaaf's blog all the time. Walking closer, you read the hand-written title Band of Bikers in the lower left corner of the photo's border. Cool, a new biker ... News
Moto Guzzi's V12 Strada concept: just in time for 2012
The third of Terblanche's trinity of V12 concepts unveiled at EICMA, the Moto Guzzi V12 Strada concept is a purist's motard, taking cues from classic enduro design and contemporary MX simplicity while keeping the focus on the mechanical details. Two of our favorite mash-ups of old-made-new are the flat-faced, numberplate-style LED headlamp and the MX fuel cap with breather hose. The real star of t... News