I’m on the fence with this product. There’s an element with the Moto-Grip “passenger safety harness” that strikes you with one of those “now why didn’t I think of that” moments. The idea is a simple harness that a rider wears, which provides hand grips on the rider’s chest and back that a passenger can hold onto as they are performing their various pillion duties. Looking like one of those baby backpacks that helicopter parents employ to lug their child around in, the Moto-Grip is fairly straight-forward with its $179 design.

For those who don’t know, I’m an Eagle Scout. And with a lifetime of scouting, comes the duty to do some good in the world, a general inclination for thriftiness, honesty, & loyalty, as well as the occasional desire to start an imprudently large fire (rumors that I once started a campfire that the national weather service recorded as a forest fire might be true, and probably aren’t exaggerated). Hiking all over the higher altitudes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, Grizzly Adams and I could compare notes on how to shit in the woods, as well as our constant five o’clock shadows.

When I turned 18, I bought a motorcycle against threats from my mother on disowning me, and was off to college. Becoming a complete petrolhead, I was relieved when some guys went the long way around, and essentially launched the adventure motorcycle segment. The happy merger between camping and motorcyles, virtually every OEM has some sort of offering that can be wedged into this ambiguous market, which means an option for every flavor of ADVrider. With an predisposition for “needing” stuff that rivals a woman’s desire for another pair of shoes (or purses for that matter), hiking/camping and motorcycles are certainly gear oriented pastimes. With that long-winded intro, A&R presents to you the purpose-built motorcycle tent for adventure motorcyclists by Redverz.

It should be apparent by now that we loves us some Radical Ducati here at Asphalt & Rubber. And why shouldn’t we be? Those Spanish desmoholics have put out some really impressive motorcycles the past few years, not only putting their small shop on the map, but Spain as a whole as a budding venue of custom motorcycles (check out the work fro Sbay for more Spanish goodness for instance). The process at Radical Ducati is pretty simple, take parts collected from various Bologna motorcycles, mash them up with some creative flare, add-in some custom fabrication, and presto: you have some unique motorcycles that embody the best of Ducati’s designs.

Now typically if you wanted your own Radical Ducati you’d have to fork over a hefty amount of money, and the figure out how to get your masterpiece back to respective your country of origin. While this technically remains true, you can now at least give your Ducati Monster the Radical treatment, as those crazy Spaniards have come out with the Il Mostro customization kit for the Ducati Monster 696, 796, & 1100.

While we contemplate riding the 15 Top Motorcycling Roads according to the AMA membership, there’s an easier way to find great routes near where you live. For about a year now we’ve been following the progress on “The Greatest Road” iPhone application, the brainchild of Daniel Pifko, which recently got funding from SocialNav and will be taking on that name in the future.

The idea behind that app is a directory of the greatest motorcycle roads around the world, submitted by the riders themselves, complete with a social sharing element that lets motorcyclists comment on routes, post rides to social sites like Facebook, etc. Taking advantage of the iPhone’s built-in GPS locator, you can search for roads based on your location, or browse other locales to plan a trip. Basically it’s your Sunday Morning Ride in palm of your hand, and our happy merger of computer geekdom and motorcycling (woot!).

If you’re not in the motorcycle industry, the name Aldo Drudi might still ring a bell, as the Italian designer has done work with some of the biggest names in the sport like, Marco Luchinelli, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan, Alex Crivillé, Kenny Roberts Jr, Marco Melandri, Manuel Poggiali, and Valentino Rossi. Most recently Drudi has inked the livery for American Honda’s Moto2 wildcard at the Indianapolis GP, and of course worked on Valentino Rossi’s helmets and Ducati livery.

You can just tell there’s an engineer in Yamaha’s R&D department that dresses up like Wesley Crusher on the weekends just a little too often. Despite how tragically named this product is, Yamaha’s Power Beam is an interesting solution to a problem that few riders have the delicacies of detecting, yet will likely purchase anyway.

Originally developed for the Yamaha YZR-M1 during the 2003 season, the Yamaha Power Beam will initially be made available to 600 lucky T-Max scooter owners in Europe, which on its face makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

However given the hot-rodding culture in Europe that surrounds the T-Max (and the two-wheelers Jell-O like chassis), the “more horsepower than sense” crowd will likely gobble up this latest go-fast trick part from Yamaha.

Looking down the pipe, there is the likelihood that the Yamaha Power Beam will make its way onto future sport bikes from the tuning fork brand. What the Power Beam does is dampen the rate of flex in the chassis, presumably allowing the steel/aluminum frame of the motorcycle to move to its prescribed tolerances, but in a manner that’s more predictable and favorable to a rider’s needs.