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Recall

Harley-Davidson Recalls 185,000+ Bikes for…Saddlebags

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Harley-Davidson has another massive recall on its hands, as the Bar & Shield has a bevy of models who are affect by saddlebag mountis that may not adequately secure the saddlebags to the motorcycle.

The recall affects certain model year 2014-2015 Road King (FLHR), Street Glide (FLHX), Street Glide Special (FLHXS), Electra Glide Ultra Classic (FLHTCU), Ultra Limited (FLHTK), Police Road King (FLHP), Police Electra Glide (FLHTP), CVO Ultra Limited (FLHTKSE), 2014 CVO Road King (FLHRSE), and 2015 Electra Glide Ultra Classic Low (FLHTCUL), Ultra Limited Low (FLHTKL), Road Glide (FLTRX), Road Glide Special (FLTRXS), CVO Street Glide (FLHXSE), and CVO Road Glide Ultra (FLTRUSE) motorcycles.

Say that three times fast.

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Recall

Recall: KTM 1290 Super Duke R

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Attention 2014 KTM 1290 Super Duke R owner, KTM North America is recalling 640 units of “The Beast” for a fuel leak that may occur from the threaded inserts at the rear of the gas tank.

Obviously, a fuel tank poses a safety hazard to the rider, not only for its propensity to combust, but its ability to degrade traction to the rear tire. As such, KTM will notify affected owners, and KTM dealers will seal the threaded inserts to prevent future fuel leaks.

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Products

Gear Review: Arai Corsair-X Helmet

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When it comes to helmet brands, Arai Helmet is perhaps one of the best known in the business; and when it comes to the Japanese company’s flagship model, the track-focused Corsair reigns supreme.

So, it’s a big deal when Arai decides to update its ready-to-race helmet offering, creating the Arai Corsair-X in the process.

This week, we got to test the new Corsair-X in the flesh, spending a full-day riding at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California on Monday — melting away in the 104°F heat — as well as riding around my new hometown of Portland, Oregon.

So let’s cut the fluff, breakdown what’s new with the Corsair-X, and talk about what our impressions are of this top-of-the-line helmet.

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Dirt

Recall: Yamaha WR250R & WR250X Dirt Bikes

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If you are the owner of a 2008-2011 Yamaha WR250X or 2008-2015 WR250R dirt bike, this recall might concern you. Affecting 12,721 units in total, Yamaha is recalling its WR off-roaders because of the insulation on the starter coil, which may become damaged and short-circuit due to insufficient heat resistance.

The result of such a failure would result in the battery not getting charged, and thus ultimately dying. This can cause the engine to stall, which in-turn can be a safety concern for the rider.

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News

California Lane-Splitting Stalls before Senate Vote

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Just last May, California seemed set to be the first state in the USA to codify a lane-splitting law. That effort seems to have stalled though, with Assembly Bill 51 being pulled by the bill’s authors, after the California State Senate didn’t seem to have the same support for the law that the State Assembly had shown.

This action doesn’t change much for Californian motorcyclists, who can still legally lane-split through traffic, though they do so under the state’s more nebulous “safe and prudent” catch-all driving provision.

The news, however, is a huge blow for lane-splitting advocates in the rest of the country, who hoped that California’s codification of its lane-splitting practice could be a model law for the rest of the United States.

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Lifestyle

PSA: How To Ride Bitch

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On the lighter note of things, here’s a useful entertaining video that illustrates the proper way of “riding bitch” on a motorcycle.

Mimicking the iconic PSA video style of the 1960’s, our protagonists take us through several useful riding positions, like the meerkat, teapot, and cowboy, along with some helpful tips about riding two-up, along the way.

Incredibly tongue-in-cheek, we hope the creators make some more of these videographic gems. Enjoy!

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Products

Could Golf Balls Be the Answer to Helmet Noise?

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Helmets are a rather stagnant segment of the motorcycle industry, with even the more “innovative” designs being evolutions to the basic principles of crash helmets, rather a revolutions.

Helmets like 6D and Bell’s Moto-9 Carbon Flex use two different variable techniques to lessen hard and soft impact types.

Companies like Skully and Reevu aim to add more visual features to helmets, while major brands like AGV, Arai, and Shoei are ever improving their designs for better customer fit, whether it be through additional helmet models, or rethinking how the helmet fits to the rider’s head.

All of these improvements are good for us motorcyclists, of course, yet they are all based on the same basic principles of a hard protective shell, lined with some sort of impact absorbing material.

In fact, the only truly revolutionary helmet design we have seen, comes from the bicycle sector, and involves advanced airbag technology. In 50 years, we’ll be wearing these helmets (or not wearing them, as the case may be). But until then, the basic design continues to evolve.

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News

UC Berkeley Study Shows Lane-Splitting to Be Safe

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The University of California Berkeley has finished its study of lane-splitting in California, and the results are encouraging for lane-splitting proponents.

Researchers, led by Dr. Thomas Rice of the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC), reviewed nearly 6,000 motorcycle-involved traffic collisions between June 2012 and August 2013, including 997 in which the riders were splitting lanes at the time of the crash.

The big takeaway from this research is that when done reasonably, lane-splitting is just as safe as riding a motorcycle. As such, one of the more important insights found by Rice and his team was that motorcyclists can travel up to 15 mph faster than the flow of traffic with no statistical increase in crashing.

This study will be important for shaping the conversation about lane-splitting, not only in California, but throughout the entire United States. It’s no coincidence then that California’s current attempt to codify lane-splitting mirrors these findings from UC Berkeley.

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News

Dainese D-Air Racing Suits Coming to the USA*

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*For reals this time.

For those looking for more protection from their racing leathers, Dainese D-Air Racing suits are finally coming to the USA. Already bringing the technology in Europe last year, Dainese is set finally to bring the D-Air Racing technology to the USA, in September 2015.

Riders interested in the airbag-equipped leather suit have two options: 1) the top-of-the-line off-the-rack Misano D-Air cow leather suit ($2,499), or 2) the made-to-measure Mugello D-Air custom kangaroo leather suit (Price TBD).

This announcement represents the first airbag-equipped motorcycle race suits to go on sale in the USA (Alpinestars Tech-Air system is still not available, though the rival Italian brand is close to coming to market), and offers track riders the same level of protection as Dainese’s MotoGP riders, like Valentino Rossi.

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News

California Close to Formalizing Legal Lane-Splitting, And What It Means for the Rest of the United States

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Out of the 50 states in The Union, only California allows lane-splitting on public roads and highways. California’s position on lane-splitting has always been a bit nebulous though, falling only under the “safe and prudent” provision of the California Vehicle Code.

Several attempts to demystify California’s policy on lane-splitting have come and gone, including the very public kerfuffle with the California Highway Patrol’s riding “guidelines” for lane-splitting.

Most recent attempts to “legalize” lane-splitting have seen laws that were even more restrictive than the CHP’s frankly fair provisions, and created much ire in California’s vocal riding community.

On the table now though is Assembly Bill 51, which would actually grant more privileges than what the CHP deemed reasonable, and could set the tone for a larger national push of lane-splitting.

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