by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com/ Despite the fact that it is probably the world’s most famous motorcycle brand, Harley-Davidson seems to be struggling to come to grips with the realities of the age. Plagued by financial problems, Harley recently lost its CEO, and more stormy weather seems to be looming ahead. There are however plans in place for a turnaround. These plans cover everything from new models to the reinvention of the dealership network. As far as new products are concerned, we already talked about the two new motorcycles Harley plans to launch by the end of this year. Both – the Bronx and Pan America – are built on a new middleweight platform and use new Revolution Max family of engines. But perhaps more exciting than anything is the return of the bike maker to the custom scene, with a yet unnamed motorcycle announced for 2021. Previewed at about the same time with the other two, the custom machine is described as one with “a muscular stance, aggressive, stripped-down styling and 1250cc of pure performance.” Officially, that’s about it when it comes to this product fom now, but by the way it looks (see in the gallery above) and given the fact that the Pan America will use the same 1250cc Revolution Max engine with 145 hp and 90 lb-ft of torque, we expect the specs on the custom to be even more extraordinary. All the bikes we mentioned here are part of a plan meant to reinvent the company by 2022 and increase the number of Harley customers by 1 million by 2027, for a total of 4 million in the U.S. alone. “The bold actions we are announcing today leverage Harley-Davidson’s vast capabilities and competitive firepower – our excellence in product development and manufacturing, the global appeal of the brand and of course, our great dealer network,” said in a statement back in 2019, when the moves were announced, Matt Levatich, at the time the company’s CEO. “Alongside our existing loyal riders, we will lead the next revolution of two-wheeled freedom to inspire future riders who have yet to even think about the thrill of riding.”

Kimberly Chapman was known as the “ultimate motorcycle enthusiast,” earning a national reputation for being a motorcycle community advocate.

The 55-year-old was killed in 2011 when she collided with a vehicle that pulled in front of her at a Phoenix intersection.

Months later, some of Chapman’s friends spearheaded the creation of the Arizona Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for safer practices for motorcyclists and eliminating distracted driving in the state.

“She was heavily involved in the motorcycle community,” said Mick Degn, the foundation’s executive director.

“I’ve been a motorcycle rider and been involved in motorcycle organizations and we just felt that there wasn’t anything that was really being done to help be preventive in regard to motorcycle crashes. So myself and seven other folks formed AMSAF.”

“As we spent time looking at what we wanted to accomplish, our biggest thing was to help reduce crashes and fatalities and promote motorcycle safety and awareness,” Degn added.

In Arizona, 150 motorcyclists were killed in crashes in 2018, a decrease from the 161 killed in 2017.

In Tucson, fatalities doubled from 7 to 15 from 2018 to 2019.

The foundation, which primarily focuses on educating riders of all levels, used a pilot scholarship program to reduce the cost of motorcycle training, an expense reaching upwards of $300, according to Degn.

By 2014, the foundation’s mission expanded to allocating monthly scholarships.

So far, more than 3,500 Arizona riders have been trained.

The foundation’s statewide effort has received support from the Arizona Governors Office of Highway Safety, the Arizona Department of Transportation, the Arizona Trauma Association and various organizations in the medical and law enforcement fields.

“We’ve seen an increase in motorcycle registrations — there’s 400,000 plus people registered, but at the same time we also see that even though they’re registered motorcyclists at the end of the day, they’re not trained,” said Alberto Gutier, director of the highway safety office.

“One of the issues that we have with motorcycles is the lack of what I call mutual respect. Motorcyclists need to respect the vehicles and follow the rules of the road and cars also need to have some respect for the motorcycle community.”

In November, the governor’s office provided a $50,000 grant for the foundation’s efforts.

It’s being used to fuel the foundation’s newest effort of operating the state’s first helmet scholarship program for motorcyclists.

“Arizona is a choice state on wearing a helmet, but if you’re going to wear a helmet we want people to wear a good helmet, a department of transportation helmet that’s going to protect them,” Degn said.

The foundation has helped more than 100 riders get discounted helmets, working with five vendors in the state, including RideNow Powersports and Cycle Gear in Tucson.

After applying for the scholarship and giving a $50 tax-deductible donation, the foundation provides $125 off a helmet. The sellers tack on an additional 25% discount.

“You wouldn’t believe the number of phone calls I get from parents who want to get their kid a motorcycle, but they want them to take a motorcycle course first and they want to get them a good helmet,” Degn said.

“We help them in both ways … we’ve been able to save them money in both areas and now they can help their child.”

The scholarship saves riders hundreds of dollars for a full-coverage helmet, which could cost nearly $600.

While “safety is hard to sell,” according to Degn, the foundation’s future includes finding partners with large Arizona employers and organizations as they continue to promote their mission.

“That’s why we have to continually talk about distracted driving, sharing the road, meaning looking out for each other, looking out for the two-wheeled vehicle and the four-wheeled vehicle down the road,” he said.

Major traffic switch headed to I-10 near Ruthrauff: Construction crews are shifting traffic on Interstate 10 near Ruthrauff by the end of the week.

On Friday, all westbound I-10 lanes will shift to the westbound frontage road and all eastbound lanes will shift to the westbound I-10 lanes by Saturday.

Crews will work from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., reducing I-10 to one lane in each direction.

The Sunset Road exit ramp from westbound I-10 will move to the southeast, ADOT says. This exit will provide direct access to westbound I-10 frontage road businesses.

by Enrico Punsalang from https://www.rideapart.com/

It has as much go juice as a 50cc moped.

The world of electric motorcycles is growing as fast as that nephew of yours you only see once a year who’s now taller than you and is about to finish his PhD. In other words, electric bikes have been around for quite a while now, and can easily go by unnoticed, both literally and figuratively. Either electric motorcycles occupy a space that’s still way too niche for the common folk, or are completely shunned away by purists who think that machines running off dead dinosaurs is something sustainable (I’m not saying I’m not one of them)—the fact remains that electric motorcycles are the future.

Realistically speaking, the future entails the adoption of existing rules and regulations with regards to gasoline-powered machines. Hence, it isn’t unlikely that countries with licensing restrictions for motorcycle riders will start limiting the amount of go juice beginner riders on electric motorcycles can start with.

Super Soco has an eye towards the future—albeit a not so exciting one—with their newest bike, the TSx. The Super Soco TSx has the equivalent power and top speed of a 50cc beginner motorcycle. With a whopping top speed of 45 miles per hour, this little bike is definitely not going to get you in any trouble even when you’re giving it the absolute beans. This is something that parents of sixteen year olds looking to get into motorcycling could rely on to help them sleep at night.

Nonetheless, the Super Soco has style going for it, with a thoroughly modern naked sport bike aesthetic. It weighs a measly 154 pounds and is powered by a Bosch 1900W electric motor. The motor has two maps which allows it to limit top speed to 28 miles per hour on restricted mode, and 45 miles per hour on unrestricted mode. It’s capable of going 40 miles on a single charge, but also has a storage compartment for a second battery, boosting its total range to 80 miles. Each battery takes three and a half hours to fully charge.

The Super Soco TSx comes in four colors: black, gray, orange, and red. It retails for £2,999 or $3,740.

The winter riding season is filled with time-passing activities such as cleaning, polishing, tinkering, adding new farkle, map reading, route planning, and some occasional riding. In late February the weather allows us more limited access to the road, so sometimes we use our time to hone our skills.

Club President Mike Conley conducted a second training on the installation and use of the Sena 30 Bluetooth communication module on Feb. 19. While we have several modes of motorcycle-to-motorcycle communication (CB radio, cell phone, hand signals), the mesh capability of the Sena 30 is best suited for a group of riders going down the road spread over a distance of almost a mile.

Twenty-seven members attended the Quarterly Meeting and Social on Thursday, Feb. 20. The event is getting so popular that we are beginning to outgrow the Board Room at the Grill. Once again, we enjoyed great fellowship and the sumptuous hamburger buffet. We owe a debt of gratitude to our board members, but a big nod goes to Mike Conley for the great presentations at the socials. The information, pictures, and overall good synthesis of the material in an enjoyable format make for a great session.

Itching to get back on the road after a string of cold and wet weather, the club held a lunch ride to Nocona, Texas on Monday, Feb. 24. Cruising north central Texas is wonderful because of the great roads, homey destinations, and great places to eat. Nocona is always popular. The Horton Classic Car Museum is worth the trip by itself. It is quickly becoming the “Classic Car Capital of Texas” with over 120 classic cars in its collection.

The museum is housed in what once was the town’s Ford dealership. Over 120 cars are contained in the collection, which largely focuses on American vintage, classic, and muscle cars. Over 40 Corvettes are part of the collection, featuring nearly every year of production between 1953 and 1978. Different models of Chevrolets, Fords, Pontiacs, Packards, Plymouths, Oldsmobiles, and even a Studebaker are featured in the collection, which is always changing and growing. Riders included Steve Haugen, Steve Wiley, Jim Sico, Martin Munoz, Bill Culhane, L.T. Bryant, Mike Conley and Steve Williams. Despite 30 to 35 mph wind gusts it was a beautiful ride. As many of the restaurants in the area are closed on Mondays, the gang ate Texas style by going to the Dairy Queen in Nocona.

See you on the road!

Beware of cagers and keep the rubber side down.

Okay, so the classic 19-inch spoked wheel rolled in from Black Bike Wheels, in Van Nuys. They have grown to build spoked wheels for every make and model in virtually every size. Too cool. If you need a spoked wheel give them a call and speak to Elliot or Eric. Tell them Bikernet sent you.

The wheel, with a tough used and stained aluminum racing rim, unpolished stainless-steel spokes and a blacked cast aluminum Black Bike hub painted and scratched by me looked perfect. It was shipped, carefully packaged with the machined center spacer, Timken bearings and new seals wrapped securely and separately.

At first, I thought I would haul it to the local bike tire repair shop on Western, in Harbor City. It’s a cool little gas station turned motorcycle tire repair shop. It’s a classic and they will replace and balance any motorcycle wheel on the planet. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like fighting traffic and I had a couple of other things going.

I crawled up onto our clean room, where I stash wheels and tires and dug around for 19-inch tires. I had two. One was a classic Avon Speed Master 3.00. The other was another Avon Tyre 100/90/19, a Venom. The rim was tough to measure the width, but it seemed to be 3 inches wide or slightly less.

Frankie was headed over, so I asked him to hit Cycle Gear for an innertube. As it turned out they had more than one size, so I went for the 3-inch job. I hadn’t mounted a tire in years but decided to go for it. I had several tire spoons and soapy water. The tube was called double tough and it was.

I took a large glass jar and pumped some dish detergent into it and water. I used the skull-faced pan brush to scrub the inside of the rim. I backed up the cleaning effort with a scotch-brite sponge. The used rim contained rubber residue, which needed to be removed. I scrubbed for awhile.

I slipped a couple of 2 by 6 boards under the rim, so as not to ding the hub or rim. I checked the rotation of the tire and the position of the rotor and popped the heavy bead of the tire over the edge of the rim. This was the easy part. Then I carefully worked the tube into the tire and against the wall already positioned over the rim.

The ultra-thick tube made the job tough, as if there wasn’t the space, I needed to feel the tube within the tire. I did my best to push the rim against the inside of the opposing wall of the tire.

The stem was interesting, and I made a special hook to help guide it through the rim stem hole. Also, a tricky maneuver.

I slathered the tire and the rim bead with soapy water and started to work the bead over the edge of the heavy rim with tire spoons. I had four. I tried to use the smoothest one and be careful not to pinch the tube.

Nervous but determined, it was a fight, but the tire bead finally popped over the edge of the rim. I added some air to the tube, but not a lot. I soaped the rim some more and bounced the tire around the shop and then added more air. It worked, amazing.

I put about 50 pounds of air pressure in the wheel and the Avon Tyre didn’t have a problem seating in its rim position.

Next, I greased the bearings and installed them on one side of the wheel and used a large socket and a rubber hammer to install the seal. The socket just barely fit into the hub, so it grabbed the OD of the seal and didn’t damage the seal mechanism. I tapped it into place and turned the wheel over.

I installed the carefully machined, by the Black Bike team, center spacer and the other heavily greased Timken bearing and seal. Then I turned the Black Bike Wheel over again and installed the rotor with the speedo drive spacer. I used 5/16 allens ¾ inch long. Ultimately, they were going to hit the caliper bracket, so I replaced them with domed stainless Allens and thin lock washers for more clearance. Damn, I still need to tighten them with blue Loctite.

Then I started to mess with the group of Paughco spacers I had. I put together the right grouping for the brake side on the right. This put both disc brakes on the same side of the bike. I liked that and that’s what Steve, from Paughco recommended.

With the caliper bracket race greased and in place on a special Paughco wheel spacer, I carefully measured for the tire to be centered in the frontend. This was a trick to determine the center of the tire and then the center of the front end and determine how much I needed to be machine off the spacer.

As it turned out it was about ¼ of an inch off caliper bracket spacer. I machined the spacer and tapered the spacer on the other side to allow it to fit properly in the seal. I put it together and dug around the shop for enough parts to make a brake system work. I found a front brake caliper for a Softail springer and Paughco sent me a right-side bracket, which I dunked in bleach to give it that patina look.

I sorta figured out how all the pieces fit together, and I had an 11.5-inch rotor. I also had a stock master-cylinder, which almost matched the stock (another year) clutch cable perch on the other side. Then I needed a brake line the right length and with Banjo fittings on each end. Amazing, I had one that reached with some slight modifications.

In this case, I just filled the reservoir with DOT 5 and started to pump slowly and watch for bubbles. Before I knew it, the damn thing was bled and we’re ready for a test ride. Hang on!

–Bandit

Funky Panhead Sources:

S&S

Biker’s Choice

STD
www.STDdevelopment.com

JIMS Machine

Lowbrow

Mallory
www.summitracing.com

Accurate Engineering
www.accurate-engineering.com

Bennett’s Performance

Paughco

Departure Bike Works
www.departurebike.com

Spectro Oils

Chopper Dave
www.chopperdaves.com

Black Bike Wheels
www.blackbikewheels.com

 

La Palma, CA — Performance Machine (PM) has been producing some of the world’s best motorcycle wheels, disc brakes, and accessories since 1970. This year marks the 50th Anniversary for the California based manufacturing company. To celebrate, Performance Machine is setup at Bruce Rossmeyer’s Harley-Davidson at Destination Daytona in Ormond Beach, FL with an all new look!

 

Visitors to the rally will have the opportunity to check out PM’s premium line of wheels, brakes and accessories, as well as the latest custom bikes showcasing new PM parts, all under one roof – the all new PM Big Rig awning! Fresh 50^th Anniversary graphics accompany the new awning to showcase the history of the brand.

 

“With PM celebrating its 50^th Anniversary it’s important we recognize the path we’ve taken and what the future has in store. Along with the debut of an entirely new collection of stunning products the visual presentation on the Rally Truck is also new. Created exclusively for its 50^th Anniversary, the graphics showcase a personal insight into the lives of our founders, the Sands Family, with great art at the same time,” said Sean Delshadi, brand manager.

 

Not sure what wheel or accessory fits on your bike? No problem, PM is proud to always have knowledgeable staff members on hand to point you in the right direction and install products right before your eyes. For more information regarding show specials and event locations visit the Performance Machine website: www.performancemachine.com

 

Each year the Antique Motorcycle Club of America host 13-National Meets, 5-National Road Runs and hundreds of local events through our 82 Chapters, locally and abroad. Because our events are spread so far and wide, any decisions regarding continuing, postponing or cancelling any event will be the responsibility of our hosting Chapters and their State and local officials.

We will closely monitor our National Meets and Road Runs and post event updates/changes on the AMCA home page under the Club News section.

The actions of each State and municipality are updated frequently. We are advising our Chapters to follow the instructions of their State and local officials.

Dee Mac Talked to some vendors….only permits are pulled for outside tent vendors…..stores and bars are open….bikers are a resilient bunch…

 

–Rogue

Senior Editor

Bikernet.com

 

Dunlop has stepped-up its support of the increasingly popular AFT series.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (PRWEB) March 12, 2020

With the announcement of the all-new DT4 flat track tire, Dunlop’s first new flat track tire in 40 years, and an extension of its official tire agreement with American Flat Track (AFT), Dunlop has stepped-up its support of the increasingly popular AFT series.

In addition to supporting the pro riders in AFT, Dunlop has also created an amateur program designed to help grow the sport by providing support and more exposure to young racers. Modeled after the highly successful Team Dunlop motocross program—now in its 14th year—Team Dunlop Flat Track will include amateur racers competing in the Road to AFT Program, as well as amateur flat track racers competing in other series.

Dunlop supports racing like no other tire company. Dunlop has been a supporter of Motocross and Supercross racing for 44 years, and has amassed 234 pro championships, including every pro Motocross and Supercross title for the last ten years. And our Team Dunlop supported motocross riders continue to dominate amateur racing and make successful transitions to the AMA pro ranks.

In AMA road racing, Dunlop has supported the sport continuously for more than 40 years through thick and thin and has been the official tire of MotoAmerica road racing since 2009.

What we learn from racing goes into the production tires we make available to the public. Everything we learned in the development of our dominant Geomax motocross tires to the new DT4 to the slicks used in the MotoAmerica series have years of racing technology baked into them. And they are all available to the public.

“Why do we race?” said Mike Buckley, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. “Dunlop loves competition because it drives us to continually refine our products for racers and the general riding population as well. The input we get from the best racers in America is truly priceless.”

To purchase or for more information on Dunlop’s new DT4 or other racing products, go to http://www.dunlopracing.com.

To apply or inquire about Dunlop’s new amateur support program for flat track, go to https://teamdunlop.hookit.com/flattrack/.

About Dunlop Motorcycle Tires
Dunlop is the largest supplier of original equipment and replacement motorcycle tires in the U.S.A. For more information, visit http://www.DunlopMotorcycleTires.com.