Wheelers Blog & News

On the tropical Island of Bali, Repsol Honda’s World Champion Marc Marquez and teammate Dani Pedrosa revealed their new look 2015 race machines. The Repsol Honda Team enjoyed an incredible 2014 season winning Honda’s third Triple Crown in four years (Rider, Constructor and Team titles) and second in succession. Honda continue their partnership with Repsol – after celebrating their 20th anniversary last season – and remains the longest running sponsor-factory agreement of its kind in the...

The fourth round of the 2015 season of AMSOIL Arenacross, featuring Ricky Carmichael’s Road to Supercross, made its debut inside Bridgestone Arena on Saturday night in what ended up being a perfect night for Team Babbitt’s Monster Energy Kawasaki‘s Chris Blose. The first-year Arenacross Class competitor earned his second overall win of the season by becoming the first rider to sweep both Main Events, in addition to claiming the Head 2 Head Challenge. In the return of the Eastern Regional...

In 1940, Harley produced a special police model for the country of Chile. Built around a 74" model U, the bike featured a steel front fairing and armored sidecar. Just to show that the police in Chile meant business, a .30 caliber machine gun was mounted to the sidecar. A similar model showed up at a US trade show, but unfortunately no police departments felt the need to patrol the streets with something that could fire 600 rounds per minute.   Indian Motorcycles closed their doors in 1953...

Ernest Hemingway, that American author dude you should have read in high school when you were instead salivating over a glossy car rag, suffered from severe paranoia. He was convinced the Feds were hot on his tail, tracking his location and bugging his phone. No one believed him until an FBI file was released detailing Hemingway’s surveillance by the bureau. Oops.   Fast forward a half-century later and we’re at a tippin’ point where everywhere we go, everything we do, say and search for...

It’s certainly the most important Ducati in America and, really, might be the most important Ducati of all (behind only perhaps Paul Smart’s ’72 Imola winner), since it was the V-twin, this very bike, that really put the Italian company on the map in the US and helped establish the worldwide performance reputation still enjoyed by the company. And you can own it if you’re willing to hit the Buy It Now button on eBay, provided you’re approved to spend $1 million. All the better if you don’t...

1) The Panigale’s 1285cc Superquadro engine features the largest piston of any Ducati to date, measuring 116mm in diameter. As we learned in European Editor Bruno dePrato’s recent story on the engine, the decision to increase bore by 4mm rather than lengthen stroke was made to maintain the engine’s outer dimensions. Along with the new pistons come a new crankshaft, connecting rods, and steel cylinder liners. 2) Peak output is a claimed 205 hp. There’s also a claimed 15-percent increase in...

Harley-Davidson has just released its sales and financial figures for 2014. We’ve boiled down the report to the news of most interest to Cycle World readers: –For full-year 2014, Harley shipped 270,726 motorcycles to dealers and distributors, a 3.9 percent increase compared to 2013. –For full-year 2014, dealers sold 267,999 new Harleys worldwide, up 2.7 percent compared to 260,839 motorcycles in 2013. –Retail unit sales for 2014 were up 1.3 percent in the U.S., 11.8 percent in the Asia...

Has Riding a Motorcycle Really Become Safer? The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) reported the NHTSA's announcement of another drop in motorcycle fatalities for the second year in a row. These reports are always a year behind due to the nature of data collection and data aggregation. Nevertheless, the numbers are encouraging and may show the start of a trend towards safer motorcycling.   According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS data) that is collected by the federal...

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could not only ride, but also race a motorcycle well into your 60s?   68-Year-Old, Female Motorcycle Racer Some people would think that’s a silly thought especially since most pro-racers begin in their early 20s and retire around their later 30s to 40s. But let’s agree with those who don’t think racing has a time limit. After all, there are guys out there who’ve been racing for 30 or more years--a long time to be in the sport. Those guys are very fortunate to...

Winter doesn't seem like a great time to improve your riding. Sure, there are books to read and videos to watch on technique, but not really much you can do, right? Wrong! Riding a motorcycle, particularly sport or track riding, takes a great degree of physical fitness. If you find yourself wearing out 15 minutes into a 20 minute session, you've got a hole in your game that has nothing to do with your tire pressures or what oil you use. If you want to get the most out of your machine, the...