MOTORCYCLE NEWS

£450K Welsh safety grant
 

The Welsh government has announced a £450,000 road safety grant to be equally shared by two firms, Armourgel Ltd and Fusion Processing Ltd. Both companies are working on high-tech projects that could have significant ramifications for motorcyclists. Armourgel has offices in London, Taiwan and China. The firm has developed a "revolutionary" new padding material that's claimed to be capable of absorbing shocks and impacts far higher than most, or all other such materials on the market. The padding can be fabricated to fit everything from crash helmets, to general protective equipment, to more extreme body armour. We checked the firm's website, and we weren't too impressed. [More...]

H-D Discover More comp
 

Take a trip to your local Harley-Davidson dealer and you could find yourself taking another trip anywhere in the world. All you have to do is book a test ride on any of these touring motorcycles ...

Superlow 1200T
Heritage Softail Classic
Road King Classic (image above)
Street Glide Special
Road Glide Special
Ultra Limited

... then stick your name in a hat or a helmet and leave fate to do whatever it feels it has to do. It's all part of Harley-Davidson's ongoing Discover More marketing campaign to woo the likes of thee and we into the showrooms and give the salesmen a few precious minutes on the killing floor.

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Kickback Show April 2016

The next Kickback custom bike show will be on 16-17th April 2016 at Stoneleigh Park Exhibition Centre, Warwickshire. The last show was in December 2015 at Stamford Bridge, London. Then, the tickets were free. But this is Stoneleigh Park. It's a more suitable venue, and it will cost you a couple of bob this time around.

It's actually the eighth occasion that this event has been held, and it goes from strength to strength—but only because the nation's creators of bespoke motorcycles keep beavering away at their workbenches dreaming up new ways to sculpt, twist, hammer, forge paint, polish and present metal.

To that end, the organisers are still looking for new entrants. That includes cafe racers, street trackers, brat style motorcycles, choppers, bobbers and free style. [More...]

Denali SoundBOMB horn
 

This has got to be one of the ugliest aftermarket parts you're ever likely to bolt onto your motorcycle. But it's one of those things that you just can't do without, not if you want to stay vertical when out on the open road. Moreover, these aftermarket horns are never loud enough, no matter how hooty they are. But this one reckons it's knocking out 113 decibels, which is way better than the factory fitted horns on most modern motorcycles, and is probably only one notch behind the racket made by a hand grenade. [More...]

New Triumph Tiger Sport
 

Triumph calls its 2016 Tiger Sport an "adventure sports" model which helps the firm plant a flag in two camps that aren't exactly complementary. But you might as well call it an "adventurer sports tourer cafe racer and general purpose runaround", because these Tigers pretty much do it all without much fuss and bother. Then again, we live in a world of marketing pigeon holes, and this pigeon is officially where Triumph wants the bird to be. The Triumph Tiger Sport was introduced in 2013. For 2016, the biggest changes are ride-by-wire throttle (as opposed to ride-by-cable) and traction control (as opposed to ... well, no traction control). Selectable rider modes include Rain, Road and Sport. [More...]

BSA Motorcycles book

You can't judge 'em by their covers. Books, that is. That's the conventional wisdom, and it certainly applies in this instance. The cover of this title is as dull as accountancy and will do little to sell this publication. But grab a copy, open it, sit back and read. It's actually a pretty good tome. Not the best we've ever seen, but it's a long way from the worst, and there's much stuff in this slim volume that we didn't know; notably comments, observations and opinions in the sections headed: WHAT THE PRESS SAID. We already know that you can't trust the media, of course, least of all the bike media. But the various comments from the journos and publishing pundits provide an amusing anecdotal distraction that helped keep us thumbing the pages.

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Indian motorcycle boots
 

The Indian Motocycle Manufacturing Company was founded in Springfield, Massachusetts in 190 (correct Indian spelling of "Motocycle"). Red Wing Shoes was founded in Red Wing, Minnesota in 1905. Both firms have a long and proud manufacturing history; Red Wing with its military and domestic boots, and Indian with its military and domestic motorcycles. The current Indian Motorcycle Company owned by Polaris, is now also based in Minnesota, so it was perhaps inevitable that the two heritage firms would sooner or later unite and lend their names and reputations to a joint branding exercise. [More...]

Royal Enfield Himalayan
 

The much-hyped Royal Enfield Himalayan adventure bike has been finally launched in India by RE's CEO Siddhartha Lal. The event has given the press its first real opportunity to study the motorcycle up close and assess its virtues, and vices. Remote impressions naturally have only limited validity. Nevertheless, the Himalayan appears to reinforce the feeling that if Royal Enfield was in the film industry, it would make B movies. That said, there's often an inherent charm in products that almost make it to the A-list, but fail by the smallest margins, and this bike comes dangerously close to moving the Chennai firm up into the premier league. [More...]

Harley-Davidson profits fall

Harley-Davidson has had a pretty lousy 2015, financially speaking. The firm sold 264,627 motorcycles between January and December, which probably sounds pretty good to most of us, and it's the kind of numbers that Triumph would love to be boasting about. But that figure represents a 1.3% drop which in turn brought company bike sales revenue down by 5.9% to £3.06bn. But the firm has other incomes streams aside from motorcycles which includes accessories, franchising, and financial services. Nevertheless, the company's annual revenue fell 3.7% taking it down to £4.19bn. Operating profit fell by 9.8% to £807.9m. Net profit declined by 10.9% to £525.9m. [More...]