Motorcycle Blog on 2040Motos

Batman: The Dark Knight Motorcycle Gear for the Everyman

Love Batman?  I mean, REALLY love batman?  Love Batman enough that you dress up like him even when it’s not Halloween? Hey, me too!  Now you can look like Batman even while riding your motorcycle and be fully protected from the elements (and maybe falls). It was going to happen sooner or later.  With Batman’s latest movie, The Dark Knight, featuring Batman on his Bat-cycle (or “Batpod”), you knew there had to be some motorcycle-batman crossover paraphernalia.  Actually I’m quite shocked this wasn’t out sooner.

Rocking Horse Motorcycle is Rockin’

Maybe if I had one of these as a child instead of a traditional rocking horse, I’d be out building log cabins, competing in arm wrestling competitions, and “man’ing up”, instead of sitting at my comfy desk, looking at pretty pictures on the internet with my iMac and sipping Orange Pekoe tea. You want to set your kids on the right path early on in life.  Starting them on a rocking horse hog could one day lead them to being the next Jesse James or Evil Knievel. You want that, don’t you?

Top 10 Least Expensive (Cheapest) Scooters of 2009

What is the cheapest scooter? We’ll show you! Cheap doesn’t mean bad, in fact due to tremendous competition in the 2009 market scooters are better and more affordable than ever!

Honda Fury Special Edition Controversy?

It seems the idea that there is a “special edition” Honda Fury has achieved urban-legend levels. Motorcycle.com recently spoke to Jon Seidel of American Honda to clarify some of the controversy generated in www.furyforums.com regarding a special edition Fury model. According to Seidel, no mention was ever made to the media during the Fury’s press unveiling or in any press material or at any other time, “that any Fury color or specific Fury model was a special edition.” Seidel stated that he also queried Honda’s product planning department about the existence of any special edition models and reported that no information had ever been released or implied from Honda Product Planning as to the existence of a Fury SE.

Vines motorcycle scrappage

  Following this year’s earlier Budget announcement about the government’s car scrappage scheme, Vines of Guildford BMW has created a similar scheme for motorcycles. Bike owners with motorcycles bought five or more years ago will be given £1,000 off the list price of a new BMW motorcycle when using their old bike as a part-exchange*.  Riders just need to ensure they have at least six months MOT left and the bike must be taxed with clear HPI.  Just like the Government’s car scrappage scheme has been put in place to help drivers, and the car industry, through tough economic times, Vines of Guildford wanted to offer motorcyclists the same opportunity, to purchase a brand new BMW motorcycle with the benefit of the £1,000 part exchange. As well as enjoying this benefit on the purchase price of a new BMW bike, riders can also look forward to complimentary panniers with all new R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure models, and complimentary Zumo sat nav system with the new R1200RT until 30 Sept, plus access to BMW’s Select Finance options to get riders on their bikes straight away with the option to change their new bike every two to three years.

Ban on Youth Motorcycles and ATVs is Misguided

Get the Flash Player to see this player. The world is getting more and more paranoid about safety for children.  Sure, this can be a good thing in some aspects but in others it’s just ridiculous. In America, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act became a law which allowed congress to ban products that could be harmful due to traces of lead found in them.  Sounds like a good idea on paper but it seems that this could be doing more harm than good.

Vectrix Close to Bankruptcy

Due to lack of investment interest, Vectrix looks like it will officially file for bankruptcy within the next 30 days and already have laid off all but essential staff.  The electric scooter manufacture based in Rhode Island, produced its first model the VX-1 back in 2007, it had a great range on a full charge but couldn’t shake the main criticism, which was the hefty price tag. After getting a first hand look at the Vectrix superbike concept at the Dealer Expo last year, I was excited to get our hands on one for a review, check out some shots of it after the jump.

Got £99? Get a Ducati Monster

Ducati have announced a new finance package for their trusty naked, the Monster 696. Deposit £1843.70, make a first month's payment of £258 and then 35 more joy filled months of paying £99. The whole deal is on a 15.5% APR interest rate, which, like the bike, is Monster.

Maddison Jumps London’s Tower Bridge

Australian freestyle motocross star and stunt driver, Robbie Maddison, has once again impressed the masses with another stunt, this time jumping over the River Thames via the Tower of London’s famous lift bridge. Maddison currently holds the world record for the longest motorcycle jump at 350.7 feet. Check it out after the jump.

New Kawasaki Racing Widget for you Kawasaki Super Fans

Do you absolutely love Kawasaki?  Are you constantly trying to keep up to date with their racing team? Thanks to our recent involvement with Twitter, I’ve discovered Kawasaki’s new desktop widget to help you Kawasaki super fans stay up to date.  What is a desktop widget?  It’s just a simple program that is geared towards feeding you news and media. If you are running a Mac or PC, you can have your Kawasaki info right on your desktop, right next to your stock quotes ticker and your stash of Megan Fox pictures.

Laguna Seca: Track Facts

The MotoGP season touched down recently at Laguna Seca in the good old U.S o’ A. There’s really no reason you should have missed the race, we gave enough warning. If you did miss the race or just want a good wrap up we have that too (MotoGP 2009: Laguna Seca Results).

SBK Motorcycle Crashes from Misano [video]

Motorcycle racing crashes.  It’s hard not to wince when watching a rider go down and slide a few yards on his side into a wall. Superbike World Championship 2009 is currently in progress and SBK has been posting a few highlight videos on their YouTube channel. Check out the SBK crash montage in the rest of this article.

Leo Vince release RSV4 exhaust goodness

Leo Vince are releasing four exhaust systems for the new RSV4, two slip-ons and two full systems. The compact SBK-Factory silencers are 100% titanium construction, oval design with unique squared off tops and bottoms, shed kilo's of weight when compared to the gargantuan stock RSV4 exhaust, and are available in a choice of titanium casing, or carbon fibre casing complete with tapered carbon tailcone. As for sound, you'll get a typical deep LeoVince exhaust note from these large bore exhausts, much sportier than the standard offering.

Top 10 Least Expensive (Cheapest) Motorcycle Sportbikes of 2009 by MSRP

Are you stuck on the idea of getting a sportbike but feeling a little light in the money clip? Luckily for you there are lots of price conscious solutions on the sportbike market. This list will give you a good idea about what kind of bike you can get for as little money as possible.

Are you on Twitter? Follow us!

Twitter.  What a dumb name. It’s become quite the Internet phenomenon over the past 10 months so it’s kind of hard to ignore it. The Sidecar has jumped on board (like everyone else), and we are now on Twitter, tweeting twits!

Buell Motorcycle Factory Looks like a Fun Place to Work! [Video]

Motorcycle.com’s own Kevin Duke recently took a tour of Erik Buell’s “little” garage where Buell motorcycles are dreamed up and created and it looks like a mighty fine place to work! The Buell factory is a quite small operation but quite technically advanced, using high-tech testing facilities and computer programs to design, build, and test out their bikes.  There’s only 170 people on staff! Just 170 employees are responsible for the entire operation, and Mr.

Watching Mat Rebeaud Practice for the X Games Will Make You Barf [video]

Ugh.  I’m not feeling well after watching Mat Rebeaud’s practice.  He strapped a few cameras to his motocross motorcycle so we could experience what he experiences… sort of. It must be a pretty amazing feeling flying through the air pulling off those tricks and you can get a good sense of it through his video. My challenge to you is to sit very close to your computer monitor, set the video to “full screen” and try to watch it without feeling a little nauseous.

What’s the deal with all those Pink Motorcycles?

Picture a Motorcycle in your mind, any Motorcycle. It could be one you own, want to own, one you’ve seen. Can you picture it?  What Brand is it?  What Model, year, how fast does it go?  You can probably picture each of these elements vividly.

Valentino Rossi Works at the Yamaha Offices when not Winning Everything

Yamaha Motor Europe has recently posted up on YouTube a delightful video about their riders.  Their secret for being so good at what they do is that they totally immerse themselves in Yamaha by working at the Yamaha offices. Hilarity ensues. James Toseland works the mail room, while Colin Edwards does security, quoting Eric Cartman from a 10 year-old-South Park episode.  Jorge Lorenzo is washing windows and Valentino Rossi is working the front desk.

$8,000 Custom ATV up for Grabs at ATV.com

Our sister site, ATV.com, is ready to give away the Yamaha Raptor ATV they’ve been customizing over the last few weeks. They took a base Yamaha Raptor 250 valued at $4,499.00 and modified it into an $8,000 beast!  Why they just don’t keep it in the office to use for coffee runs is beyond me. They’ve slapped on new air filters, mufflers, new alloy wheels, new tires, front bumper and grab bar, skid plates, nerf bars, new grips, new seat cover, new plastics, and more!

Craziest Motorcycle Oil Commercial Ever [video]

I thought at first this was a fake or mock Castrol Oil commercial but I think its real, sounds and looks like its from Asia or the Middle East somewhere, does anyone know what language this is?  Would there be any chance of this TV Ad showing up on U.S. airwaves?  I think not! You just have to watch this after the jump.

New: Alu Pro Racing Front Paddock Stand

This awesome piece of kit is Valter Moto’s front bike stand, designed to work only with radial brakes on everything from the latest superbikes to those in WSB and MotoGP. The unique box-type design provides the stability needed for confidence to handle the most exotic bikes on the planet, while remaining light and manoeuvrable. Price: £322.17 www.pdq1.com

Easy Free Motorcycle Price Quote Directly from Dealers

Motorcycle.com keeps churning out the online tools to help you, the motorcycle community out. This time they’ve released their free online motorcycle price quote tool that can get you quotes on bikes directly from motorcycle dealers. Dang!

Can-Am Spyder Forums are full of Spyder Talk

The Can-Am Spyder is an interesting beast (arachnid?).  A snowmobile for the road, one might say.  In any case, it’s automotive spectacle that is hard to ignore. Do you love it, or do you hate it? If you are at all curious about this beast, head over to the Can-Am Spyder Forums and have a look around.  People have already been posting their pictures, reviews, questions and rants about their Spyders.

Michael Jackson in Speed Demon [video]

Michael Jackson was not known for riding motorcycles, he did own a 2001 Harley-Davidson that was on the action block earlier this year that was listed for $6,000 – $8,000, I never heard if it was sold or not.  We all have our different opinions about the mega pop star but we can all agree that he was larger than life and truly a boy in a mans body, case in point, take a look at the “Speed Demon” video that features Jackson on a bicycle, motorcycle and scooter, sort of… The “Speed Demon” video is available after the jump. Get the Flash Player to see this player. Source

Assen: Track Facts

A new week and a new MotoGP race. This time the boys and their bikes are off to the Netherlands to sort-out their differences at a little race known as Alice TT Assen. Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo & Casey Stoner enter this round of competition in a 3-way tie for 1st.

Motorcycle Robot

Designed by Yutaka Igarashi, this yellow robot bike prototype runs on an electric motor and is controlled by high performance robots. The swinging boom the controls steering while hydraulic actuators balance the motorcycle.  Good luck keeping this up on its two wheels, especially after watching how difficult it was for Blue Team and the “Ghostrider” project. See the computer generated composite after the jump.

Motorcycle Helmet Humidifier [video]

No joke, this is real product and can be yours for the bargain price of $34.00.  The motorcycle helmet shaped humidifier dimensions are 5.3 x 4.7 x 4.3 inches and weights just over half a pound, so it’s fairly compact and portable.  Some other cool features, it not only runs on batteries but has a USB option, uses cool ultrasonic waves so its safe and quiet and has a built in LED light to illuminate the water tank when its operating. Watch it in action after the jump. Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Vanilla Ice in ‘Cool as Ice’ [video]

I do vaguely remember this 1991 musical/romance movie that starred Robert Matthew Van Winkle (aka Vanilla Ice), maybe I just buried it so far back in my subconscious that it just seems like a faded memory.  The movie is loosely based on the classic film Rebel Without a Cause, and I do mean loosely.  Cool as Ice, did win its share of awards and recognition but not of the positive variety.  It received an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, made it to #7 on Blender’s worst performance by a musician turned actor and was nominated seven times at the 12th Golden Raspberry Awards. Claiming to have raced in professional motocross, Vanilla Ice did all of the motorcycle stunts in the movie, so I guess he deserves some props but that’s hard to do when he proudly admits to coming up with a lot of the one liners, like, “Drop that zero and get with the hero.” Check out the painful-to-watch tributes after the jump. Anyone know what kind of bike this is?

CorsaVino

After many trips to Italy, CorsaVino founder Arun Sharma, was exposed to Italian winemakers passion and obsession for quality and the detail that goes in to creating a fine wine.  Sharma, felt this kind of dedication resonated deeply with his appreciation for Italian motorcycles and sought out acclaimed winemaker Rich Cushman who also happened to have a passion for Italian motorcycles and started the CorsaVino winery. You can order this motorcycle branded wine through the CorsaVino website, prices range from $24-$55, but if you ride don’t drink and if you drink don’t ride. Source