Why the 2011 Triumph Speed Triple makes every other naked look silly This bike... By Sean Smith Reviews - Sep 19 2011 -
Gear: Icon Overlord jacket Gear: Icon Overlord jacketTwo weeks ago, Ashlee and I stopped by Berts Mega Mall in Azusa to figure out her sizes in a few different kinds of gear.... By Sean Smith News - Sep 13 2011 -
Aerostich TF3 armor explained The recognized benchmark for protective motorcycle gear is CE approval. If you buy a jacket from Alpinestars, Dainese, Icon or any of the other common brands, it will almost certainly have CE approved armor in the shoulders and elbows. The amazing viscoelastic TF3 armor in an Aerostich Roadcrafter isn't CE certified, so is it safe? Just like a Snell or ECE 22.05 sticker on your helmet, a CE certi... By Sean Smith News - Sep 9 2011 -
Bombs, poison and WTF: Rossi's Misano helmet Rossi hasn't released an official statement saying whether or not he'll be racing at Motegi, but his Misano helmet tells us a lot about what's on his mind. The infographic in the speech bubble shows a cartoon skull and cross-bones, starburst, lightening, tornado, thunder-cloud, bomb and finally, !?!. A radioactive drop-shadow sets the context. What does it mean? Danger and confusion with radioact... By Sean Smith News - Sep 7 2011 -
Gear: Aerostich Roadcrafter Putting on race leathers makes most people feel like a superhero. You just feel invulnerable. You also get that stepping into a Aerostich Roadcrafter. By Sean Smith Gear - Aug 26 2011 -
Custom: Ellwood Two-stroke/Four-stroke Hybrid Conceived in Siberia after an unfortunate encounter with a dentist's ultra-sound machine and 100 days of 'medicinal purpose' Vodka, the Ellwood Hybrid is as strange and crazy as its maker, John Ellwood. Essentially a greatest hits of internal combustion, it breathes through the crank cases with reed (one-way) valves and uses the underside of the piston as a sort of supercharger to compress air and... By Sean Smith News - Aug 23 2011 -
Gear: Fulmer ADV helmet The Fulmer ADV helmet is a bare-bones, low-cost, dual-sport helmet. It's not as nice as, say, an AGV AX-8 Dual, but it's ECE 22.05 rated and retails for less than $150. It's also got a removable peak, comfortable liner and a level of quality you'd expect to find on much more expensive helmets. Starting with the outside, fit and finish are better than you would expect. Paint quality looks great ... By Sean Smith News - Aug 21 2011 -
A Motegi gas mask for Valentino Rossi Valentino Rossi is known for his Drudi designed helmets. Always bright, often humorous and very noticeable on the grid, his new helmet paint schemes often mark significant moments in his career. Rossi is refusing to race at Motegi next month because of measurable levels of radiation, but if he did decide to join the competition, Good Spark Garage has a new helmet ready just for him. In 2009, Ros... By Sean Smith News - Aug 18 2011 -
Icon gets practical Already leaving its gear-for-squids image behind with a high quality-to-price ratio and innovative features like the incorporation of D3O armor, Icon’s new products for Fall, 2011 bring a welcome dose of understated style and peerless function to their range. How about some no-logo armored overpants that look just like jeans, armored gloves capable of operating touchscreens and a pair of women By Sean Smith News - Aug 17 2011 -
Gear: Icon ARC Mesh jacket Riding in the heat sucks. Showing up drenched in sweat is always a bad look, but cruising around in a t-shirt results in sunburn, windburn and sometimes serious, life threatening injuries. What if you could buy a jacket built out of a strong, abrasion-resistant material that also has lots of holes for airflow? Well, you can. It's called a mesh jacket and it's the next best thing to having A/C on y... By Sean Smith Gear - Aug 15 2011 -
51 studio photos of the Husqvarna Nuda 900R So the Husqvarna Nuda 900R is a new naked sportsbike rival for the KTM SuperDuke from BMW's Italian dirt bike brand. It even apes KTM's angular, folded-paper design language, but instead of a sexy, fun v-twin it uses an upstroked version of the boring BMW 800cc parallel-twin, hopefully adding character and power with the extra capacity. In these new photos, we see possibly two distinct spec levels... By Sean Smith News - Aug 12 2011 -
Aprilia Dorsoduro 1200: Italian for hooligan It might be heavy, but it's fast! By Sean Smith Reviews - Aug 11 2011 -
Alpinestars Venture Jacket combines enduro practicality with neck support When something is described as a "Race Replica" it's almost always a sportsbike with ridiculous graphics, an over-priced helmet or occasionally a really nice set of leathers. The Alpinestars Venture Jacket is another kind of race replica. For $279.95 you can have the same jacket that Marc Coma wore on his was to victory in the 2011 Dakar. This jacket is especially interesting to me because it's t... By Sean Smith News - Aug 4 2011 -
What the hell is the Diavel? What, exactly, is this weird un-Ducati Ducati? By Sean Smith Reviews - Aug 3 2011 -
2012-2014 KTMs leak This screen shot from the KTM North American dealer meeting lays out a promising future for KTM. Leaked way ahead of time, the lineup for the next three years is here for you to see. The big news here is the 2013 Duke 350. For a long time I've wondered why there are no fun, lightweight sub-500cc bikes for sale and the KTM Duke 350 is the answer to that. Since this shot is from the North American ... By Sean Smith News - Aug 1 2011 -
Why you should reconsider the Alpinestars Messenger Jacket The Alpinestars Messenger Jacket is supposed to offer affordable, stylish, all-weather protection for commuters and city riders. Until now, it didn't, but now it does. Here's why. In 2009 Alpinestars announced the city collection. The concept was simple: stylish motorcycle gear with minimal branding that doesn't look like motorcycle gear when you're off the bike. Back in 2009, I was working as ... By Sean Smith Gear - Jul 28 2011 -
Alpinestars CR-4 Gore-Tex XCR: hiking boots you can ride in Alpinestars CR-4 Gore-Tex XCR. Try saying that three times fast. The name may be overly complex and needlessly long, but the boots are simple and to the point. They combine motorcycle specific ankle protection, a steel and TPU (plastic) shank and ridged toe-box with traditional hiking boot features like a waterproof Gore-Tex membrane, chunky sole and durable leather construction. There is some ... By Sean Smith News - Jul 27 2011 -
Ben Spies on winning On Friday afternoon I sat down with Ben Spies and asked him about food, music, celebrity life and motorcycles. He'd had a few minutes to get cleaned up after coming off the track, but his mind was as occupied as you would expect. With a race two days away, a MotoGP rider needs to focus on lap times and bike setup, not journalists he's never heard of. Still, he was polite and gave me my fifteen min... By Sean Smith News - Jul 26 2011 -
In Soviet Russia, Sidecar rescues you. We're not in Soviet Russia Last week, Motorcyclist joked that we were going to need a helicopter to get the Ural Wes crashed out of the mountains. We're not Motorcyclist, so I headed back to the mountains on Tuesday lugging my trusty tool chest and a few parts that Ural sent over. I wasn't sure if the parts would fix everything, but I was hell bent that I wasn't going home unless it was aboard a Russian sidecar. Here's the ... By Sean Smith News - Jul 23 2011 -
Gear: Kushitani GPR5 gloves If you've never heard of Kushitani, I can't blame you. The small, high-end, Japanese brand isn't carried by Parts Unlimited, Tucker Rocky or Western Powersports. Nor is it found in many retail shops. They've built their brand around understated organic forms, high-quality products and minimal branding. The price tag often reflects this, but just like a Vanson, the quality and durability are real. ... By Sean Smith News - Jul 12 2011 -
How a dyno measures horsepower When it comes to superbikes, everyone appears to be very concerned with horsepower. Michael Czysz and Chip Yates go out of their way to make fantastic claims of over 200hp for their motorcycles. BMW claims the S1000RR makes 193 and the ZX10R is supposed to be 197. Even my GSX-R 600 has a claimed 126. But what is horsepower? How do we measure it? And most importantly, why does it matter? What is h... By Sean Smith News - Jul 5 2011 -
This is the Ducati 1199 Less than a week ago, Motociclismo.it teased us with with a leaked Ducati 1199 photo. Since then, there has been much speculation about every detail of the bike. Now that Motociclismo has published more shots, we can start to make more educated guesses about the bike. Immediately obvious is the LED headlight that we saw last week. Taste is subjective, but if I had to describe it, I'd say that i... By Sean Smith News - Jul 4 2011 -
Husqvarna 900: power, weight and power-to-weight Husqvarna has released technical details and a promotional video for their upcoming 900cc street-bike. We already knew the motor is a punched out hot-rod version of the F800 parallel twin and now that there are some numbers, we can start making real comparisons. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRy-O-TUUXwThis appears to be an official "spy" video released by Husky in part of this pathetically tr... By Sean Smith News - Jun 29 2011 -
