The Harley-Davidson V-twin Racing Street Custom, or VRSC for short, is a bike like no other in the Milwaukee company’s portfolio. Born in 2001 as a means to mainly fight off the Japanese muscle bikes (but others, too), it stayed in production long enough to draw in a massive fan base, but also to stir an entire custom industry based around it.

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The Harley-Davidson V-twin Racing Street Custom, or VRSC for short, is a bike like no other in the Milwaukee company’s portfolio. Born in 2001 as a means to mainly fight off the Japanese muscle bikes (but others, too), it stayed in production long enough to draw in a massive fan base, but also to stir an entire custom industry based around it.

As one of Europe’s (and probably one of the world’s) largest custom motorcycle garages, German Thunderbike transformed the VRSC into a core product as well, coming up over the years with all sorts of builds based on what was at the time of its introduction the first Harley street bike with a modern engine with DOHC and liquid cooling.

We’ve seen a number of these VRSC-based Thunderbike builds over the past year or so, but these guys’ portfolio is so vast we’ll probably keep on talking about it for a while longer.

We’’ll kick off this weekend with something called Track Racer, a VRSC conversion described as a true power cruiser. The build is based on one of the many VRSC variants thrown into the mix over the line’s existence, the V-Rod – that would be the variant that was in production from 2002 to 2006, when the Night Rod made its way out into the open.

Wrapped in black with effective traces of red on the massive fuel tank and fenders, the bike is the recipient of a large number of changes. There’s a new, custom swingarm, new wheels, a bespoke body kit, new fenders, in-house pulley and brake discs, but also smaller parts, like custom grips, radiator cover and license plate frame.

The entire build, looking like a very shiny muscle bike with an attitude, cost around 6,000 euros ($7,200 at today’s exchange rates) to put together, but that does not include the base bike, the man-hours, and probably a host of other parts we are not being told anything about.

from https://www.news10.com

After last year’s rally being canceled, the 2021 Americade Motorcycle Touring Rally is playing things as safe as possible in order to rev the engines around the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 38th annual Americade rally has been rescheduled from its original planned June dates to Sept. 21-25, according to event manager Christian Dutcher. That additional time was added to make the difference in safety confidence for riders, vendors, and the village of Lake George.

“We want to make 100% sure that a 2021 Americade will happen, but we’re not confident an event of this size will be permissible in June,” said Dutcher. “But, moving it to September gives us a very high likelihood of it happening. And, September is also a perfect time of year for riding, with mild temperatures, no rain, and foliage season beginning. It should be beautiful.”

Americade said that the decision also helped them to secure certain venues, some of which can more easily agree to involvement with more time for vaccines to be administered across the state and nation, and ideally for coronavirus restrictions to be lifted.

The new dates also allow riders and visitors to enjoy the village during the fall, not too far past the summer tourist season, without bumping heads against Labor Day weekend.

“We’re very lucky to have found a 2021 date that works for the community and for the motorcycle industry,” said Dutcher. “I feared we may have to cancel until Americade 2022, but miraculously we are able to slide it into September.”

by Joe D’Allegro from https://www.cnbc.com

• Harley-Davidson unveiled a new 2021 lineup featuring several advances in engineering, electronics and styling, and its first rival to BMW and Honda “adventure” bikes.
• Hog motorcycle sales peaked 15 years ago and have dropped 40% since.
• But as it cuts costs, total number of models and geographies under a new CEO, and looks to electric motorcycles and e-bikes, Harley could be in for a smoother stock market ride.

As a tradition-minded 118-year-old motorcycle manufacturer, Harley-Davidson may not seem ideally situated to prosper in a rapidly changing world where vehicles are increasingly electrified, self-driving, and shared. But the iconic company could be better positioned than many stock market investors betting on transportation suspect.

The company’s U.S. bike sales peaked at more than 260,000 way back in 2006, and have since dropped about 40%. Demographics are part of the story, and it is a well-charted one, in the stock price and broader narrative about Harley’s consumer market. In 1985, the year before Harley went public, the median motorcycle owner was only 27, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. By 2018, the median age had risen to 50. But the iconic “HOG” brand is turning itself around under the leadership of president and CEO Jochen Zeitz, who took the helm last year after drawing praise for a turnaround engineered at European consumer brand Puma.

Zeitz, and other new executives pushed the “Rewire” initiative, which has driven the manufacturer to exit international markets with low potential to focus on 36 high-growth-potential areas in North America, Europe and Asia. The company also laid off 700 employees to trim costs. It closed out 2020 by entering into a distribution agreement with Indian motorcycle maker Hero and spinning off its electric bicycle operations to a new firm where it holds a minority stake.

“We think they are on the right track,” noted Garrett Nelson, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research. He praised Harley’s late-October agreement with Hero as beneficial to both parties. “Harley gets access to Hero’s existing distribution network in India and Hero benefits from the sale of additional motorcycles at its dealerships,” he said. “It’s a trade-off. Harley surrenders some of the margin for access to the distribution network in the fast-growing market.”

He added that Harley should pursue similar opportunities with other established players to widen its exposure in faster-growing Asian markets.

Harley in a Tesla world

With the new financial strategy in place, Harley’s is now looking ahead. On February 2, it will introduce its plan for 2021 to 2025. Called Hardwire, the new plan is “grounded in desirability,” according to the company, though it has not released details.

Next month Harley also is unveiling the Pan America, a large adventure-style motorcycle meant to be at home both on- and off-road. It is the company’s first foray into the adventure bike market in which competitors like BMW and Honda already have a large presence. The recreational market has become a more intense focus for consumer brands as a result of shifts driven by the pandemic.

Nelson also was cautiously optimistic about the manufacturer’s prospects in an increasingly electrified future. The LiveWire, Harley’s sole current electric motorcycle, shows promise, but the company has been somewhat slow bringing it to market since its release in late 2019, he said.

“More of a concrete strategy on the electric bike, the Livewire, will be necessary,” Citi analyst Shawn Collins said, but he added that EVs remain a longer-term rather than immediate financial priority. “EV cycles are a rounding error at the moment,” he said of the sales.

The LiveWire retails for nearly $30,000, making it one of Harley’s more expensive motorcycle offerings for the 2021 model year, which range from $9,500 to $49,000.

“Over time, we are bullish on the opportunity, given that we think lithium-ion battery costs are going to continue falling in the coming years and electric vehicles are going to be heavily subsidized by the new administration,” Nelson said. “We expect the cost of electric vehicles to reach parity with internal combustion engine vehicles by the middle of this decade, as battery costs continue to decline.”

Harley-Davidson’s share price is at a 52-week high — like many companies in this extended bull market — but remains well below its all-time peak.

The company’s iconic brand remains attractive, even as its financial fortunes have fluctuated.

“Harley-Davidson is the most valuable motorcycle brand on the planet,” wrote Craig Kennison, a senior research analyst and director of research operations at Baird, in a recent research note. Harley’s strong brand, scale, and loyal customers give it an advantage over competitors, in his view. Meanwhile, Harley’s new leadership has put in place operational changes that should drive growth in 2021, Kennison said, including streamlining its product portfolio, reducing dealer inventory 30%, and instituting ongoing annual costs savings of $115 million. “We increasingly like the investment case for Harley-Davidson,” he wrote.

There may be more cost-cutting to come, according to Nelson. He said Harley should look to further shrink its global footprint to focus on markets that are the most profitable with the greatest long-term growth potential. But shrinking the overall footprint does not mean less focus on overseas consumers.

Revving up profits

“Right now, they are spread too wide,” Nelson said. “Between 2006-2019, the company grew its non-U.S. exposure from 22% of total unit sales volumes to 42%. We think they need to continue growing this percentage out of necessity because we believe its North American market is in secular decline.”

Harley’s issue is about the top line, or revenue from motorcycle sales, and Citi’s Collins said into its earnings and February investor day how management talks about increasing the top line will be a key to continued investor confidence. “Lots of people have faith in Zeitz, but he has a high bar,” Collins said. “There is no simple answer. … The top line has been horrible.”

The biggest problem for Harley is well known: the brand has had trouble appealing to younger riders.

Younger consumers have shown an aversion to purchasing motorcycles for safety reasons, and vehicles in general due to the rise of ridesharing, as well as financial and urbanization trends, according to Nelson, and Harley’s domestic demand has been waning for well over a decade.

“Harley at one point was unstoppable, in the 80s and 90s and even through most of the 2000s,” Collins said.

The Citi analyst noted Harley competitor Indian Motorcycle, owned by Polaris, has had success bringing in a new audience, and Zeitz has shown his ability to work “marketing magic” when he oversaw the turnaround at Puma, which had lost consumers to Nike and Adidas. “His job is to try and insert the magic back into Harley so a younger person wants to buy one. That’s what he has his eye focused on for the next three year to five years,” Collins said.

“Harley-Davidson has known for a while that it needs to reach younger customers,” said Dennis Chung, the production editor at Motorcycle.com. “The problem is that demographic doesn’t necessarily want the same things in a motorcycle that Harley-Davidson’s older base values.”

A lot will hinge on the next generation of Harley-Davidson’s popular Sportster lineup of mid-sized cruisers, according to Chung. “There is definitely value in the classic Harley styling, but it needs to be balanced with modern design and modern technology,” he said.

The Sportster lineup has been in continuous production since 1957, and is one of Harley’s oldest model lines.

One way Harley-Davidson is responding to a more tricky consumer market is by shifting its focus from growing market share on an absolute basis to increasing brand exclusivity. The Rewire plan was an acknowledgment from management that blanketing the globe in a search for new sales wasn’t the way to go.

“Instead of trying to increase its sales volume, Harley-Davidson is now trying to earn more profit from each sale, even if it means selling fewer bikes,” Chung said.

Harley-Davidson recently reported a 39% increase in net income in the third quarter of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, even though its global retail motorcycle sales in the third quarter of 2020 were down 8% compared to the prior year.

North American sales did grow in the third quarter for the first time in a long time, Collins noted, and there are broader trends in place that could benefit Harley. Sports and recreational vehicles sales are growing as a result of Covid and that tailwind could cross over to the motorcycle market as well.

“They do have the No. 1 brand in the market with 40% market share and the brand is unlike any other,” Collins said.

The European market, meanwhile, is growing and the new adventure bike Pan America should do well in that region.

The decision to reduce its product line by roughly 30% seems like a smart and necessary move because of overlap.

“A lot of Harley’s products are very similar. Eliminating some of the lower-performing products creates a more streamlined product portfolio, which helps reduce costs,” Chung said.

The company dropped a handful of models from its 2021 U.S. lineup – the FXDR 114, Low Rider, Breakout, Street Bob 107, Deluxe, Street 750, Street Rod, and Roadster.

As the company offers fewer models, it sells a range of accessories and customization options. This way, buyers can individualize their bikes in details such as paint, luggage, seats, stereo systems, brake upgrades, and other areas.

Collins said Zeitz understands the opportunity in bike parts and Harley lifestyle accessories, and while these are not strategies that can turn the business around at the top line level, they are important pieces in a more comprehensive plan to maximize revenue while keeping costs down and generating higher profits. He recently pegged as much as 15% upside in Harley’s stock ahead of next month’s earnings and investor day, writing in a note to investors that he continues to be encouraged by new management’s decision-making.

Even with a trimmed portfolio, the manufacturer still offers two dozen different motorcycles, mostly concentrated in the cruiser and touring market segments, as well as a trio of three-wheeled bikes.

“We believe Covid-19 has given Harley the opportunity to press the reset button on its strategy and refocus effort back on its core consumer, one which we believe holds the key to higher profit margins,” stated Morningstar senior equity analyst Jaime Katz in a November report. She praised the Rewire initiative as a means of balancing restoration of the firm’s core business and entry into new markets. Prioritizing profitability over scale should also refocus Harley on the success of high-margin parts and accessories and general merchandise segments.

“It’s okay to be in a shrinking market, if you’re improving the profitability of the products you sell,” Katz told CNBC.

How daily-news journalists think, work, and function.
By J.J. Solari

J J Solari describes and explains news and journalists in his latest article on Bikernet.

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Atlanta GA, USA, Jan. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Central to the values of Triumph Motorcycles is a passion for riding. To share this passion Triumph Motorcycles America has partnered with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) to make the MSF Basic eCourse available free of charge to prospective new riders, or former riders interested in riding again. The 3-hour eCourse, valued at $20, is a great introduction to riding. It is also a prerequisite for the hands-on MSF Basic RiderCourse, which in most states will make student eligible to obtain a motorcycle endorsement upon completion.

“Triumph Motorcycles has always been ‘For The Ride’, so this is a very fitting partnership to help share that passion. Now more than ever, people are looking for new forms of recreation, so I couldn’t think of a better time to help them discover the joy of riding.” Rod Lopusnak – General Manager, Triumph Motorcycles America.

“We’re excited to partner with Triumph and help people embark on their journey into motorcycling. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation believes in lifelong learning, and prospective riders will find the eCourse to be the best first step to becoming a lifelong rider.” Erik Pritchard – President and CEO of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

To facilitate the offer, Triumph has launched the website TriumphRider.com, where prospective riders may complete a form to be emailed a unique promo code, which can be applied when they register on the MSF website to redeem the Free Basic eCourse, compliments of Triumph.

1: All daily-news journalists are failed or in-the-process-of-failing fiction writers.

Daily-news journalism is a category of the trade called “writing.” “Writing” is a trade that embraces a slew of categories, all of which require that they be “read” to be “fulfilled.” A painting or drawing or sculpture has to be “seen” and a musical composition or sonic composition has to be “heard” and an architectural structure has to be “seen” and is usually inhabited and thus has to be “physical friendly” to human bodies and human emotional states and writing needs to be “read.”
This collection of stuff is sometimes called the “arts.”

The “arts” can also include “practical” items, although the species of pompous gasbags known as “art critics” will argue this until their mothers tell them to stop. Whoever designed the Winchester 94 was an artist. Anyone who has one loves looking at it, whether or not it is being used for its primary function which is to propel metal and end a life way over there, and then do it again a half dozen more times quickly before reloading. Should an art critic ever be informed-of or actually be shown what a Winchester 94 is he would throw his panties at you if you dared to say it was a work of art.

2: “Writing” is one of the arts, or considered artistic, only if-and-when it’s judged by the panties-hurling gentlemen referenced above to be “literature.” All who declare themselves “writers,” in some dungeon of their soul, want to write literature. Because if you write literature that means that you are “a good writer.”

“Literature” comes in two forms: prose and poetry. Prose is sentences, usually conveying real-life practicalities or realities. Poetry is formulaic word-assembly, sometimes in patterns and rhyme, usually to inflict upon the reader the heart and soul of the fellow writing it. Burma Shave ditties, once conveyed in advertising signs along the highway, are not poetry except when I write them. Then they are a category of poetry called “filthy poetry.”

Daily-news journalism is the bottom rung of “writing,” just behind “school textbook” writing. While they are both abysmal from a competence standpoint, they differ in that school textbook writing is written to put you to sleep while daily-news journalism is designed to upset you and instill fear and ruin your day. Another difference is that school textbook writing is nominally factual except history books which are only accurate up to 1492 AD, while daily-news journalism is fiction 100% of the time, usually propelled by a political or personal agenda. Not many people are prepared to call textbooks “lies.” Daily-news journalism on the other hand is nothing but lies. And the reason is….item # 1 above.

3: Fiction writers write lies that every reader knows ahead of time even before they read the fiction….that’s it’s lies. All fiction books announce themselves as fiction: someone – a writer – sat down and started writing lies. Even if the fiction story actually happened the reader does not concern himself with that. The story is announced as fiction and that’s the end of it. However, the names have to be changed to fictional names. The events can be actually true…..but the announcement is made that it’s fiction and that the names are changed. Most fiction however is sheer fabrication. And everyone understands that going in. You read fiction to be told a story. Fiction is make-believe.

4: Daily-news journalism claims to be true. However, it is lies. It is make-believe. Because the journalists are writing fiction in the only venue that will get them readers: the news. Were they to write a novel or a short story no one would read it because it would be so bad. In their role as fiction-writers claiming to be fact-writers, daily-news journalists spare themselves the problem of being sued for libel or slander by inventing a vocabularic “buffer zone” between themselves and the lies they are telling you. That is why you see the word “report” often at the end or beginning of a headline: “Trump kills small negro child with grenade then eats the parents: report.” This means that you are being informed via a report…of a report. You are not being told the incident happened. You are being told that a report of the incident – which may or may not have happened – happened. The report of the incident happened. The incident probably did not.

Naturally you believe the report of a report because it is “news.” People believe the news. Even though it is 95% fiction. Most “reports” in daily-news journalism come from the journalist writing the story. He reports something imaginary to himself and then he will tell you about it via the keyboard, leaving out the fact that he’s reporting on one of his own reports. Which he made up.

“Trump throws thousands of bags of terrifiedly-mewing kittens off the roof of one of his high-rises and then ignites the bags into flame by remote control while laughing at their pain according to sources close to the former President who spoke on conditions of anonymity said an expert familiar with the story who did not wish to be identified” translates into “I am now going to tell you a whopper I just made up.”

5: Words used to keep the journalist out of court are “sources,” “may,” “could,” “has been shown,” “studies suggest,” “might,” “spoke under conditions of anonymity,” “the whistleblower said,” (whistleblowers do not have to be identified, thus granting immunity to liars, assuming the liars even exist, which is often not the case in a daily-news journalism fiction tale.) “Sources” are nine times out of ten the journalist himself making something up. He’s the “source.” “Studies suggest” is a two-fisted sluggo-festival to your brain inasmuch as a study is not a “finding” or a “fact” or a “result of an experiment.” Which makes them basically nothing. The fact that nothing is then used as a basis to suggest something…is taking nerve, moxie and unmitigated gall to an almost admirable level of bursting-out-of-the-starting-gate preposterousness. What’s even more preposterous is that the words “studies suggest” is interpreted by the idiot reader as “this is an undisputed fact, I am not balls-out lying to you right now.” But yes he is.

6: You might be asking yourself “Why do daily-news journalists do this?”

They do it because they are the people actually running America and it’s fun. And they’re not just in America. I know what you’re thinking, “Yes, they are also in Russia and Iran!” No! They are in England and France and Canada and Australia! The Guardian and The Telegraph in England are more fixated on the USA then they are on England. I guess they figure the jihadists are so well entrenched in England and Canada and Australia and France that they don’t need any more assistance from the Press. Whereas in America there is still some resistance to turning America into a caliphate. Not a lot but some.

You might also be asking “How is it daily-news journalists are running the Country?”

Well, because of the First Amendment. Daily-news journalists have convinced everyone who isn’t a daily-news journalist that the “news” is the only actual job mentioned in the Constitution. Which is almost true. Actually, the ink and mechanical device itself is what is being talked about, not the propaganda cabal known as The Press. But I’ll let them have this one. Sometimes – rarely-daily-news journalists utter a truth. It’s always inadvertent.

Since the job of daily-news journalism is mentioned in the Constitution, and since it is declared “safe from Federal onslaughts against it” the average American dunce comes to the subconscious conclusion that the “press” is superior to the Constitution. Which in fact it is. That’s nothing: it is also superior to everyone in public office, including the President, the head of the Pentagon and any other American bureaucrat – or private citizen – you might want to suggest. The Press has also realized this and did so a lot sooner than I did, to the extent that, in yet another back cartwheel double Axel tour-zhah-tay crossover toe-hold of breathtaking nerve, the press has declared itself The Fourth Estate.

The first three “estates” considered “real” by medieval philosophers and other unemployables and “political scientists” of the time were the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry. The nobility and the clergy needed the peasantry as slaves so they could survive, and the slaves were programmed to believe that they needed the nobility and the clergy as protectors in order for them to survive this life and the next one otherwise the slaves would all kill each other, having no guidance.

The “press,” created by a man named Gutenberg – who inadvertently created reporters in the creating of the printing press – the “press” announced – quite boldly and without embarrassment – “All three of you need us: ‘us’ being the Self-Proclaimed Fourth Estate. We can make you topple or we can make you thrive. You decide. Being nice to us and worshipping us will get you more friends among us than calling us names will.” This worked! And the Press hasn’t struck out since.

Witness the actions and emotional rollercoaster of anger and befuddlement that a “press secretary” who is unliked by the press performs as he takes “questions” from the daily-news journalists. He doesn’t see them or think of them as worthless untalented loser asshole snots who can’t think a thought that has not been written-out for them beforehand by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto. No, he thinks of them as cunning wary super-intelligent magicians who in an instant can form-up into a pack. Which they are actually already in, they don’t need anything as meaningless and impotent and frightened as a Press Secretary to unify against a common enemy, which would be anyone who does not properly bow down to them and beg them for favorable write-ups. Daily-news journalists are more unified against all critics than cops are. There is nothing more pathetic and strangely entertaining than seeing a “press secretary” try and deal with the press. It’s like watching a blind chihuahua trying to deal with a circling clutch of adult and starving hyenas. At a “press conference” the two sides are not discussing plans and events: they are courtroom recreations with one side on the witness stand and the other side attempting to prosecute. The “press” is always the prosecutor. And the press has never lost a case when it unites itself in order to divide others and infuriate press secretaries. Which pastimes news-writers consider reminders as to who is actually running things.

Daily-news journalists and bureaucrats go head-to-head because they both have one thing in common they can relax about and relate to each other about: neither knows what the actual “job” of government is. No one on earth knows. Have you noticed daily-news journalists rarely write about anything not government-related? That’s because they can say anything they want to politically since no one knows what government actually is. Since the bureaucrats also don’t know what government is but do know that people obey all its billions of edicts and in fact respect and pay homage to the edicts, you have two of the “estates” – the nobility and the press – vying for dominance against the lesser influence and power of the clergy and the populace; the populace being the people paying the mortgages for the other three. And doing it willingly and with enthusiasm and even with surgical masks on their faces as commanded by the bureaucrats and the daily-news journalists.

One other thing the press and the public servants know is that being “moral” – which has never had a definition anyone in history has ever agreed on – is what both sides are claiming superiority in and they both agree that your job as a non-bureaucrat non-journalist is to trust their righteousness and do as they tell you. Because mommy knows best. You do not want to be immoral.

7: Daily-news journalists are all aligned and in lockstep on all political issues presently holding sway, which would be Collectivism, and on all determinations of what people in particular are deserving of “favorable press” and what people are going to instead be driven to despair and hopeless and utter oblivion by the press. There are no renegade journalists in The Media.

No ambitious journalist who wants to get promoted out of the mailroom at Rolling Stone or Esquire is ever going to say in print that the journalists at the New York Times and the bottom-feeding untalented failed novelists and failed screenwriters at the Washington Press Corps who are getting-even with their mothers for turning them into shit-fitting little girls and getting-even for God making them ugly, uncoordinated, tone-deaf, rhythmically challenged and bad-at-writing petulant snots who spray food all over the room when they eat and can’t get heterosexual dates……are shitty writers and idiot thinkers. Not if he ever wants a career in bad writing.

8: The daily-news journalist’s audience is “everyone.” No other writer can make that claim or assumption. No intelligent writer would want to make that claim. Only a daily-news journalist is comfortable within his shallow, limited soul enough to boast that he has no target audience. He writes for any dimwitted naive imbecile who will pay him the homage of considering him “objective and fair.” To have a target audience a journalist has to focus on what his audience wants to hear. Not what he wants the audience to be converted to. Which would be obedient idiots. Like himself.

To have a “target audience” a daily-news journalist would have to be able to do or know something or have some sort of empathy or rapport with a group that was not a group of journalists. Which will never happen. Daily-news journalists are isolated, usually homely, unambitious incompetents who have stumbled onto a secret pathway – “the press” – to inflict upon everyone else what Nature inflicted upon them: neuroses.

9:There is no such thing as objective or fair “news.” There is only intentionally erroneous or misleading fiction from….that’s right, failed fiction writers. You might ask, “What is it about daily-news writers that make them so dedicated to lying to everyone?’ And the answer is they are getting even for failing at appealing to any specific target-audience. Their motivating engine to get them to the pad and pencil is to have their name read by others. Forget about what the name actually wrote, since daily-news journalists can’t write worth a crap.

Read a New Yorker article or a Huffington Post article, both entities of which write for no one in particular. If there’s a difference in the two the difference is you can actually understand what the Huffington failed-novelist is trying to communicate because Huffington “news” is geared to the mind of a child.

The New Yorker article, on the other hand, might as well have been written by a stream-of- consciousness gymnast doing floor exercises on the keyboard. They’re so sophisticated you can’t possibly rise to that level of insight. Bring whiskey when you read it, that’s what the writer brought when he wrote it. You come-away from a Huffington article with the yucky feeling that you have just been lectured-to by a third grader telling you off. You come-away from a New Yorker article wondering 1: why you read what you just read and 2: why other people will consider you quite the inquiring intellectual for having read it.

10: The word “expert,” the word “explainer” and the words “here’s what we know.”

The fact that 99% of the literate global population are now journalists thanks to “social media” and the home computer has resulted in the “real” journalists – the ones affiliated with an “authentic” news “source,” such as
Refinery 29
Salon
The Huffington Post
The Daily Beast
Bloomberg News
Politico
Yahoo News
Yahoo Finance
Yahoo Sports
Esquire
Elle
GQ
Rolling Stone
The Washington Post
Reuters (rhymes with goiters)
AP
AFP (whatever that even is)
The National Interest
Buzzfeed
The Guardian (England)
The New York Times
Time
Newsweek
USA Today
ABC
NBC
CBS
FOX
CNN
Atlantic
The New Yorker
The Independent
Marie Claire
Cosmopolitan
NPR
PBS
Vogue
Sierra Club
AARP
The Economist
The Realist
National Review (lost and confused, sometimes accurate)
Variety
Business Insider
all art publications on planet earth
all entertainment magazines on planet earth
most “science” publications on planet earth ESPECIALLY Scientific American
National Geographic (except for the tit pics of the lives that matter on the Savannah)
Popular Mechanics!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!
Hello giggles
Eat This Not That
The Weather Channel
Redbook
Glamour
The Telegraph (England)
Scary Mommy
Bazaar
The Wrap
Marketwatch
Deadline
She Says
all local newspapers
Barrons
The Conversation

…. to successfully having all sensible dissension removed from social media to emphasize the “fact” that they are the upper apartments of the journalist totem pole and they demonstrate this by eliminating the “comments” section of their articles, printing only like-minded Twitter barbs, and claiming to be getting information from “experts” that are more than qualified to “explain” today’s political lies to you since they are experts, plus which experts are the correct experts and which experts are not to be paid attention to, and then do it with even more lies of their own thrown in. “Here’s what we know” is especially nervy inasmuch as 1: journalists actually know nothing whatsoever and 2: they amazingly insist that their lack of knowledge is still more knowledgeable than your surfeit of it. Keep in mind and always remember and never forget that you are being “explained”-to by someone who has never been able to write for a target audience. So, he is instead writing to you. Since you are not a part of any reality any more than he is. Obviously, since you are reading him. This of course is another journalist lie. But one he manages to subconsciously get you to accept as fact, as you very likely accept all news-utterances as fact.

11: Who lies more, daily-news journalists, or bureaucrats and the new branch of government called “health advisors.” That is the question. Studies suggest they are eternally neck and neck and neck. However, sources close to the persons involved who spoke on condition of anonymity based on a hidden recording provided by a whistleblower closely involved with the matter insist the daily-news journalists are always the ones winning the Who’s Really in Charge Here race.

12: Thank you.

–jj solari

 

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives approved a SAN-supported bill to create a commission to recommend ways to commemorate Route 66’s 100th anniversary. The first all-paved U.S. highway was completed in 1926. The 15-person commission will include representatives from the states through which the highway ran: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

The commission may recommend the production of various written materials, films and documentaries, education programs, artistic works, commemorative memorabilia and celebrations to commemorate Route 66’s storied history. The bill was signed into law on December 23, 2020.

 

–SEMA

Brought to you by Aid to Injured Motorcyclists (A.I.M.)
Compiled & Edited by Bill Bish

The National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM) is a nationwide motorcyclists rights organization serving over 2,000 NCOM Member Groups throughout the United States, with all services fully-funded through Aid to Injured Motorcyclist (AIM) Attorneys available in each state who donate a portion of their legal fees from motorcycle accidents back into the NCOM Network of Biker Services (www.ON-A-BIKE.com / 800-ON-A-BIKE).

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by Sabrina Giacomini from https://www.rideapart.com

The 500 and 750 are out.

Harley-Davidson has been taking some pretty drastic measures lately to secure its spot on the market. On January 20, 2021, we discovered the extent of those measures when the Motor Company confirmed its upcoming lineup. While the digital event focused mainly on what’s new and exciting in the Harley showrooms, it also marked the end of the road for some well-known models that quietly disappeared from the maker’s website.

In the “Street” category, the Sportster lineup was reduced down to only three models with the Iron 883 and 1200 and the Forty-Eight left to hold the entry-level fort. The beginner-friendly Street 500 and 750 have been officially discontinued, putting an end to Harley’s small-and-medium-displacement era.

The H-D Street 500 and 750 were first announced in 2013. The company already knew back then that it needed to go after a younger demographic and expand its presence in markets where smaller displacements thrived. Those are the boxes Harley was hoping to check with the new Streets.

At the time, former CEO Matt Levatich explained that the new Street lineup “fills a need for people who want to identify with a brand but have a motorcycle that is less intimidating, and more inviting. This bike is easier to ride and easier to learn how to ride.”

Armed with a new frame, the then-new Revolution X engine, and a small price tag (the 500 started at $6,700 back in the day), the Streets seemed to have all the makings of good starter bikes. They also made getting on a Harley far more accessible to a wider range of riders.

The models received mixed reviews with some praising their simplicity and accessibility while others criticized their lack of personality. Ultimately, the Streets, in particular the 500, turned out to be prized by riding school thanks to their docile nature and approachable stature.

Back in September, 2020, Harley’s French branch confirmed that the Sportsters wouldn’t be updated to Euro 5 standards and that it would therefore be pulled from the European lineup for 2021. We already had a feeling the decision would have a trickle effect on the U.S. lineup. Granted, some of the Sportsters remain, but for how long? There is already talk of a replacement platform.

So, what now? We reached out to Harley to inquire about potential replacements for the Streets. As things currently stand, the role of “the entry-level” bike is now bestowed on the not-so-entry-level Iron 883. Our contact answered that the company will continue to supply Street 500s to H-D Riding Academy dealers for training, but declined to comment about any future models.

We suspect the entry-level spots won’t be left empty for too long. Though the brand’s presence in Asia has been greatly reduced in 2020, the market for small and mid-size bikes remains prominent, especially at a time when people are looking for new, socially-distanced ways to commute.