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Jensen Beeler

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The Indian Motorcycle Company is recalling 18,367 motorcycles today, for an ignition issue that may see unburnt fuel pass through the exhaust system during a misfire, which could result in the exhaust temperature increasing and potentially causing a fire.

The recall affects basically all of Indian’s motorcycles that use the Thunder Stroke 111 engine, built between 2014 and 2016.

Specifically, the recall affects the Indian Chief Classic, Dark Horse, Chieftain, Roadmaster, Vintage and Chieftain Dark Horse motorcycles that were manufactured between April 15, 2013 and June 16, 2015.

It should be noted that the Indian Springfield is not a part of this recall, being the newest bagger in Indian’s lineup.

Many of you have likely seen Walt Siegl’s “Bol D’Or” custom MV Agusta Brutale 800 with a retro-flare. It is an amazing piece of work, and the basis for today’s post, which brings you a glimpse of the David Yurman Forged Carbon Moto by Walt Siegl.

Actually the first model from Walt Siegl’s Bol B’Or line, we are just seeing this motorcycle now because it comes with a twist: it has forged carbon parts, crafted by jewelry maker David Yurman.

A lot can be said about forged carbon, enough worthy of its own article, but the tl;dr version is that the composite material is set to replace traditional carbon fiber parts – in a big way.

Racing seems set to return finally to the Bonneville Salt Flats this year, as the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) has found the conditions favorable to run its Speed Week event next month (above is a photo taken of the salt flats, just two weeks ago).

This is good news for land-speed racers, as racing at Bonneville has seen a two-year hiatus because of deteriorating salt conditions in 2014 and 2015.

Now, the SCTA says that it sees the Bonneville Salt Flats as being suitable for three courses – an 8-mile “long course”, 5-mile “short course”, and a 3-mile “rookie course” – and has begun prepping the salt for its Speed Week event next month.

TechCrunch is reporting, and our sources have confirmed, that the investors behind the Skully AR-1 helmet have ousted one of the company’s founders, Marcus Weller, along with his brother Mitch Weller. For those who don’t know, Marcus Weller was Skully’s CEO, while Mitch Weller served as the company’s Chief of Staff.

The departure of the Weller brothers comes after Skully continually missed its delivery deadlines with its first product, the Skully AR-1, which is a helmet with an integrated rear-facing camera, small computer system, and heads-up-display oculus.

The Skully AR-1 helmet debuted to much fanfare, but it soon became clear that the company’s leadership wasn’t up to the task on delivering the promises they were making to the public. Seemingly on a different page with their investors as well, Marcus and Mitch Weller were fired by the company’s Board of Directors.

It looks like Martin Fitcher, Skully’s current COO, will take over the reigns for the company, or what’s left of it, as its new CEO. Hopefully this means that Skully will finally get on the right path and begin delivery helmets to its plethora of early backers. We are not holding our breath, however.

The Honda CBR250RR is getting closer to breaking cover, with a teaser video of the quarter-liter sport bike coming to us this week from Honda’s Indonesian importer.

The video doesn’t give away too much on its face, but it does confirm the “RR” status of the new bike, and shows that many of the details that we have seen already on the Honda “Light Weight Super Sport” concept have made it into the production machine.

This bodes well for small-displacement motorcycle fans, with the upcoming Honda CBR250RR likely being the bike that many hoped Honda had initially produced, instead of the Honda CBR250R and Honda CBR300R combo.

Episode 32 of the Paddock Pass Podcast sees Steve and Neil talking about the MotoGP, Moto2, and Moto3 racing at the Dutch TT. The guys talk about the unusual circumstances with the weather, which caused a red flag in the MotoGP race, and had quite the affect on the results.

Steve and Neil also talk a bit about Ducati’s missed opportunities this year in MotoGP, and the real prospects of riders like Alex Rins finding factory seats in the premier class. The show finishes up with a look at the Moto2 Championship, and there is an in-depth briefing on what is going on in Moto3.

Lastly, we get a preview of the World Superbike racing that’s going on at Laguna Seca this week.

The show is a bit later than we would have liked (my fault, and my apologies), but we think you will still find it highly relevant, especially as MotoGP gets ready to go to Sachsenring for the German GP.

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