If you’ve bought an Öhlins shock or Öhlins steering damper in the last year and half or so, you may want to check your part’s serial number as it may be affected one of the two recalls Öhlins just issued for the company’s aftermarket suspension pieces.
One of the more amusing stories I think we’ve ever come across in A&R history, a Reddit user published his/her account of having a mystery fluid leak on their Suzuki V-Strom (shown above).
Unable to initially identify the fluid that was leaking down their forks, brakes, and front tire, our protagonist did the only logical method left to them: guess and check.
Tasting the fluid they found on their garage floor, and comparing it to the various “jus de vie” that make a motorcycle come to life, this Goldilocks of motorcycling was puzzled…nothing quite seemed right to their tongue.
The whole story, especially its ending, is perhaps best left to the original account on Reddit. But just so we’re clear…for the love of everything that’s holy, don’t taste the fluids on your motorcycle. It’s never a good idea.
Our friends over at OnTheThrottle.tv have put together a great video of Dane Westby, using footage they collected from the 2014 season.
It’s a great tribute to a competitor whose time came far too early, and it shows how the tough times are what make the good times so good.
If you say that you didn’t get a little misty-eyed in the comments, we won’t believe you.
Another year, and another April Fools Day is in the bag. I am fairly certain that for journalists, April 1st is better than Christmas, as it marks the one day where media outlets make the news the wish they could report on daily. And as usual, the imaginations of the motorcycle media pool didn’t fail to disappoint.
David had a timely piece on Dani Pedrosa going back to Moto3 with KTM, in order to win his fourth championship. Drawing on the Spaniard’s recent news about having severe arm-pump and needing to take a break from racing — the story caught out more than a few readers.
For those of us still working on our 2014 tax returns, and have deductions on the brain, we ran a story that the IRS would be allowing tax deductions, up to $500, on new helmet purchases — something we wouldn’t mind having occur in reality.
Our last story for the day on A&R was about Honda on the verge of releasing an autonomous motorcycle for the mainstream, a story we hope won’t come to reality for a very, very, very long time — if not ever.
How about from the rest of the industry though? In case you missed them, the highlights of April Fools Day are after the jump.
Before the start of the Qatar GP, Marc Marquez was again the odds favorite to win the 2015 MotoGP Championship; but a first-lap mistake, coupled to some very powerful Ducatis and potent Yamaha riders has the entire Championship up in the air, for whomever wants it most.
Marquez still rode an impressive race, coming from the back of the grid to finish 5th. Perhaps only Alvaro Bautista and his broken brake line were unimpressed with the reigning champion’s performance.
As for Marquez, he views the race as salvaging 11 points. In less than two weeks though he’ll be at The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas — a track he has absolutely dominated from Day 1. Will his Championship bid start there, or be fraught with more resistance? Only time will tell.
We have talked a great deal about autonomous vehicles here at Asphalt & Rubber, but usually the focus of that discussion has been about how autonomous four-wheel vehicles will interact with non-autonomous two-wheeled vehicles.
The time was sure to come though when a motorcycle OEM played with the idea of autonomous motorcycles, and that time is now.
Releasing early details about its autonomous motorcycle program, Honda Motor Corp. is staggeringly close to making the act of riding a motorcycle as simple as selecting a destination, and holding on tight.
If you’ve already filed your 2014 tax return, you might want to make an addendum before April 15th, as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made several last-minute exemption to the US Tax Code, one of which allows motorcyclists to claim up to $500 on a new helmet purchase as tax deductible.
The move comes about after a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that suggested billions of dollars could be saved if all motorcyclists wore helmets.
Citing the efforts of groups like the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) whose anti-helmet political agenda has resonated the most with the same anti-tax libertarians who routinely fail to pay federal income taxes, the IRS has finally decided to fight fire with fire, and believes it has effectively found a way to bring a non-compliant tax group in line with the law.
Aside from on-track action that comes during your typical Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS), it might be worth stopping by the world’s most famous driveway to see Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi on the same piece of tarmac once again.
That’s right, Lord March has invited both Rossi and Stoner to his mansion to ride a few bikes and to drive a few cars. Rossi will be participating on behalf of Yamaha Motor, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary of business; meanwhile Casey Stoner will ride a prototype Honda MotoGP bike, likely the Honda RC213V-S consumer halo bike.
The MotoGP rivals are part of a larger group of GP Champions who will be attending the FoS, the list including John Surtees, Giacomo Agostini, Kenny Roberts, and Freddie Spencer.
If you are one of the few people that pre-ordered a Kawasaki Ninja H2 street bike or Kawasaki Ninja H2R track bike, your wait is just about over as Kawasaki is ready to deliver its supercharged monsters to customers.
Built-to-order in a special facility at Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan, the H2 and H2R bikes have now been delivered to over 1,000 dealers in the USA.
As such, Ninja H2 customers can expect their bikes this week, while H2R owners will get their bikes later in April, once dealers have collected the necessary accessories (namely paddock stands) for the track-only machine.
First debuting a new website before the Qatar GP, it’s clear that Dorna has its social media team out in full-force for the 2015 MotoGP Championship season — the Spanish company finally taking a shine to the online world.
So with all the news coming out of the season-opener at Losail, it is unsurprising that my social feeds are full of posts regarding Rossi’s win, Ducati’s revival, and Dani Pedrosa’s shocking revelation — on top of all the usual fanfare that comes with MotoGP finally restarting.
One story caught my eye in particular though, less for its content, and more for its source. The caption to the story was your typical craftily picked social media headline, designed to illicit clicks and responses from readers. It read: “What would we do without our lovely ?#?MotoGP? girls?!”
It was by the Official MotoGP Facebook page, and it was not referring to the organization’s female racers. Le sigh.
If you’ve been following BMW Motorrad’s worldwide recall of over 300,000+ motorcycles, for faulty rear-wheel mounting flanges; well the recall has finally hit American shores, affecting over 43,000 units.
The basic gist of the recall is that on the affected motorcycles, the rear wheel mounting flange may crack if the rear wheel mounting bolts are over-tightened. This would cause the rear wheel to come off the motorcycle, which would of course likely result in a crash.
BMW Motorrad USA will notify possibly affected owners, and BMW dealers will replace the existing aluminum rear wheel flange with a new steel one, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin April 21, 2015.
Concerned owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417, and as always the NHTSA is also available at 1-888-327-4236 and safercar.gov.
You can find the full list of affected motorcycles, after the jump.