Features

The 2024 BMW GS Trophy will take place in southern Africa in Namibia. Here, 22 teams – 16 men’s, and 6 women’s – will compete in numerous challenges over the course of six days to see whose region will come out on top and, of course, to demonstrate what the BMW R 1300 GS is capable of in the hands of “normal” riders. Challenges will range from technical slow speed maneuvers, to off-bike trials designed to test the team’s cohesiveness and communication.

It’s been a while since we’ve put (proverbial) pen to paper. But luckily, not for anything as glum as what kept us at bay the last time. While Ana is indeed still hard at work in Colorado fulfilling a few personal goals as an ADV tour guide, I’ve been traveling – a lot – for work, hustling and riding and touring the Italian countryside then off to the Pacific Northwest to begin (officially) training for Red Bull Romaniacs. But before we dive into that grand adventure, our visit to Italy was quite fortuitous, and it subsequently inspired today’s post. This particular exploit led us to the headquarters of our Seat Time gear brand of choice: Alpinestars.

Aside from a few fleeting social media posts, this will serve as the first announcement that myself and Motorcycle.com were invited by BMW Motorrad North America to serve as the “embedded journalist” to ride alongside and report on the 2024 GS Trophy and Team USA’s progress as they navigate the challenges that BMW Motorrad and Namibia will have on offer. To say that I’m excited and humbled to receive the invite would be putting it lightly. Not only do I see it as an honor to receive the personal invite, but it carries more weight knowing that this is the first time Motorcycle.com as a publication has been invited.

Earlier this week, Bombardier Recreational Products revealed its new adventure-touring three-wheeler, the Can-Am Canyon. Loaded with long-travel suspension, a bit more ground clearance, and the ability to carry a lot of luggage, the Canyon looks like a more capable adventure vehicle than Can-Am’s previous, most off-road competent three-wheeler, the  Ryker Rally.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of riding in the Black Hills of South Dakota you’re missing out on some of the best roads the United States has to offer. The rolling hills are tattooed with hundreds of miles of two lane black top connecting the state’s constellation of scenic views. Needles Highway, Spearfish Canyon, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse, Iron Mountain, Mt. Rushmore… the list is endless and the roads are mostly empty… for fifty weeks of the year. During those other two weeks, Sturgis, a town of roughly 7,000 people, transforms into the epicenter of cruiser culture in America. Anywhere from 300,000 to a record 747,000 motorcyclists make their pilgrimage to the Black Hills for one of the largest motorcycle events on earth: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

It wasn’t that long ago that the most popular trend in motorcycle technology was radar-based active cruise control and blindside detection. Today, it’s no longer the hottest trend in the industry, suddenly displaced by a sudden bumper crop of automatic clutch transmission systems.

In November 2022 Italian trophy brand MV Agusta, wholly owned since 2019 by Russian entrepreneur Timur Sardarov and his family, and Pierer Mobility AG – KTM’s parent company – reached an agreement on ‘future strategic cooperation’, as a result of which the Austrian firm headed by Stefan Pierer would acquire a 25.10% stake in MV Agusta via its KTM AG subsidiary. At the first meeting of the newly constituted MV Agusta board on November 15, a capital increase of €30 million was agreed, denoting the sum KTM had paid to acquire its new minority shareholding in the company. As part of this strategic alliance KTM took charge of purchasing all components needed to manufacture MV Agusta’s entire range of models, as well as responsibility for marketing, distribution and after-sales service for MV Agusta on a global basis outside Italy.

Barber Small Bore started out as the Smoky Mountain Crawl in Townsend, Tennessee back in 2017, very much thanks to Honda and its Ruckus and Grom models. Since then, its grown from a group of rowdy rednecks looking to have a bunch of backwoods fun, to more than 1,000 small bore enthusiasts (don’t worry, there are still plenty of rednecks) doing the exact same thing – and more – and now, all on the illustrious grounds of George Barber’s sprawling motorsports mecca just outside of Birmingham, Alabama. To say the event was wild would be an understatement. Racing, both on-road and off, stunt shows, hillclimbs, and more, went off with gobs of enthusiasm from both the crowds and participants alike as attendees cheered on the muddy mayhem that ensued, whether for glory or bust.

The 2024 Isle of Man TT is done and dusted, and a new King of the Mountain has been crowned, Joey’s own nephew Michael Dunlop. With three more victories, he now stands at 29 TT wins, the most successful rider in TT history, breaking the 24-year-old record held by ‘Yer Maun.’ But the fortnight also saw a new force emerge, Davey Todd, who won his first two TT races. The Milwaukee BMW Motorrad rider nipped Peter Hickman in the first RL360 Superstock TT Race by a scant 2.2 seconds, the lead pinging back and forth throughout.

Last November, at EICMA, Honda became the first motorcycle maker to bring to market an electronic clutch. Debuting as an option on the CBR650R and CB650R, Honda’s E-Clutch combined elements of its Dual Clutch Transmission technology with quickshifters to allow for up and down shifting with without needing to use a clutch lever, but otherwise using a regular gearbox and foot shifter.

If, in 2024, you were to plonk yourself beside virtually any segment of the 37 ¾ mile Isle of Man TT Mountain Course, and witness the incredible sound, sight, and fury of race bikes blasting past a mere few feet away, you would be experiencing virtually the same thing (more speed and less tweed notwithstanding) as someone in that same spot 117 years ago. Keeping this event alive and thriving despite a world that has changed beyond what that person in 1907 could have ever imagined is the challenge. And the pull of tradition vs. the push of progress is where the friction lies.

One of the most frequent questions I hear from non-riding friends – well, at least one that doesn’t involve the inherent risks of riding – is about how you carry stuff on a motorcycle. Most of them are drivers, so naturally, they typically just toss their things in the trunk, or on the back seat.

If you’re new to this series, I’ve been documenting all of my experience off-road on the KTM 390 ADV here on MO. Aside from one single additional weekend, where I went out and got some drill practice and trail time in Ridgecrest, just a few weeks before the Biltwell 100, I had little to no experience riding the bike off-road in anything resembling deep sand, much less doing it for multiple 25-mile laps of an off-road race.

In our last Question of the Day, we asked people if they wore All The Gear All The Time, and got a wide range of responses, with most of them mentioning helmets.

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, which makes it as good a time as any for all of us to take stock of our own riding habits, both good and bad.

Most motorcyclists are familiar with the acronym “ATGATT”, but for those who aren’t, it stands for “All The Gear, All The Time”. That means wearing the right safety equipment every time you ride, whether you’re commuting to work, or hopping over to the corner store for a carton of milk.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has updated its vehicle-to-vehicle front collision testing to learn how well small SUVs do at avoiding hitting motorcycles – and as most motorcyclists suspect, the results were not very impressive.

Last week, Harley-Davidson announced its Q1 2024 results, but tucked away in the numbers was the announcement that LiveWire is moving its operations from California to Milwaukee, joining its parent company at its historic headquarters.

Forecasts predict that Internal Combustion Engines will be all but extinct within the next 20 years, so where will we get the fuel for our classic bikes and how much will it cost?

In our last Question of the Day, we asked about some of the more… questionable names given to motorcycles (Hondas seemed to come up fairly often in the replies, which is both interesting and somehow not surprising.) I mentioned how it’s generally safer for a manufacturer to stick to a combination of letters and numbers.

A little while ago, I wrote about my admiration for the Gladius, but conceded that its name didn’t really connect with people the way Suzuki probably wanted it to. If you knew that a gladius was a type of sword used by ancient Roman soldiers, you could see how it might make sense for a company that also gave us the Katana. If you didn’t, then it just sounded too much like “Gladys”, and the only vehicle that name would make sense for, is a midnight train to Georgia.

This weekend, MotoAmerica’s King of the Bagger series is getting a big boost on the international stage as a supporting class to the MotoGP round at Circuit of the Americas. Bagger racing has been around for a few years now, but this was the first time it took place at the same track and weekend as MotoGP.

In January 2020 Norton Motorcycles, then owned and run by UK entrepreneur Stuart Garner, collapsed into bankruptcy, and on April 17 that same year was acquired from the liquidator for a cash payment of £16 million by India’s third largest motorcycle manufacturer, TVS Motor Company. Currently manufacturing more than three million powered two-wheelers annually at its Hosur factory outside Bengaluru, TVS has also been associated with German giant, BMW Motorrad since April 2013.

A major racing news bombshell dropped on, of all days, April 1, as Liberty Media, the owner of Formula 1, announced it was acquiring Dorna Sports, and both MotoGP and World Superbike racing. Of course, it was no joke, especially not when a $3.8 billion dollar transaction is involved. While it’s too early to know how this development will change things, we’ve already seen concerns raised about how much it will cost to watch these racing series, either on television, streamed, or in person.

After releasing the limited edition LXP Orioli at EICMA, MV Agusta officially announced the regular production model today, under the name Enduro Veloce. While we’re always glad to see another adventure bike on the market, we, like many others, weren’t sure we’d ever see the Enduro Veloce actually go into production.

Can you feel it? The sun on your shoulders, the warm breeze, and the longer days? The time we have been waiting for months is now here. It's time to fill the tanks, start the engines, and let the good times roll. Spring is here, and it's time to ride and explore Ontario’s awesome motorcycle roads!

I’ve heard plenty about the weekend ADV-immersion trainings that have an incredible way to kickstart the adventure bike journey that so many are seeking. There is absolutely something special about the type of people that give in to that urge to spend the whole day charging up and down the trails on heavy adventure bikes, and something even more particular about the folks that turn around and make it their mission to share that same passion and joy on the trail with others. Austin Moto Adventures is one such place.

[Kyra, KS] My Hard Enduro journey started with a crash. A big one. I didn’t break or tear anything, but I’ve done what is (so far) lasting damage to my sternum or diaphragm or somewhere in the chest cavity. An injury which still seems a mystery to my physician. That fateful moment, sprawled out in the middle of a dirt road in Baja, set off a chain of events which led me to become the rider I am today: a mediocre, albeit eager… kook. But a kook with better posture, focus, and sight, as well as significantly greater confidence. Time will tell if the latter is growing faster than my skills. Nonetheless, I’m still learning. However, my technique is tenfold what it was during my pivotal collision with the ground. And with every training session, each clinic, and all those drills take me yet another tire rotation to my goal. Towards the finish line at Romaniacs (*cough* 2025).

Yesterday, Triumph announced the 2024 Rocket 3 Storm GT and R, the latest iteration of its plus-sized cruiser. Triumph says they are more powerful than the previous Rocket 3 models, claiming 180 hp at 7,000 rpm and a whopping 166 lb-ft. at 4,000 rpm.

Throwing the 390 Adventure into some dirt at the bottom of a hill wasn’t ideal, but as I was nearly at a complete stop, it wasn’t the dramatic dismount I had pictured when worrying about the training I was in the midst of. My friend Hailey was cruising down the trail after me and coasted to a stop as I hit the kill switch and turned to look at the bike, splayed across the silty clay colored dirt like a bright orange toy. Another rider stopped just ahead of us, throwing his kickstand down and yelling ‘I’ll get it” over the sound of other passing bikes. “Don’t help me!” I yelled back. This was the first time the bike had been on its side and I was eager to see how it felt to pick up 387 pounds of small adventure bike. Grasping the handlebar closest to the ground and the grab bar at the back of the seat, I was surprised when the bike lifted clear of the dirt on the first try, and with a pause and some extra effort, it was vertical again a few seconds later. Maybe she’s born with it... maybe it was the adrenaline. I didn’t get a chance to test the theory again during the full day ADV Class I was participating in, though if that was due to skill or caution, we’ll never know.

Last month, we asked for our Question of the Day whether people expect anti-lock brakes to come standard on all streetbikes, or perhaps offered as an option. There were some good responses to that, both for and against ABS, but it brought a related question to mind: what should be offered as standard equipment that currently isn’t standard on all motorcycles?

Here at MO, we always do our best to bring our readers information about all the latest new motorcycles. Of course, not every motorcycle gets updated every year, and all manufacturers bring back several models from the prior year, often with a fresh paint scheme or a slight price adjustment. These so-called carry-over models don’t get the same attention as the newest and latest, but they’re an important part of the motorcycle industry.

It’s Feb. 28, 2024, which means today is the fourth anniversary of Jochen Zeitz being appointed acting (initially) president and chief executive officer of Harley-Davidson, replacing Matthew Levatich.

If you’ve had a pulse the last five years or so, you’ve noticed the urge to take two wheels into the dirt has swept through the motorcycle community like a rogue wave. Riders across age ranges, experience levels and even financial demographics have turned to off-road, not instead of, but in addition to any and all riding they were previously doing. So it’s no surprise to see small-sized ADV bikes plodding along behind the surge like the sure-footed mules that they are. Standing out in the crowd is a gem that Yours Truly is about to get to know extremely well.

Imagine just five years ago, if I showed you a picture of a red Grand Prix motorcycle and a red motocross bike, and told you one was a Ducati and the other was a GasGas, you probably wouldn’t even bat an eye. But if I told you the MotoGP bike was the GasGas, and the Ducati was the dirt bike, you probably would have thought I was nuts.

Almost every major motorcycle manufacturer offers some sort of special or limited edition model, something with a little extra pizzazz beyond the run-of-the-mill production model. Whether it’s an anniversary paint job, or dressed up in items from the accessory catalog, special edition models give us something a little, well, “special”.

“People that still use ABS.”

That was one of many replies left in a previous Question of the Day about motorcyclist pet peeves, but somehow it stuck in my head a lot longer than the others (and yes, we do read them all).

What’s the worst motorcycle color?

Last week, American Honda announced a number of models returning for 2024 with no notable changes, save for new color options and some price adjustments. Of course, what caught our eye was the confirmation that the previous-generation CBR600RR was returning to the U.S. for 2024, despite the fact most other major markets are getting a new-and-improved version.

Ducati found it fitting to have the global press launch of its latest up-spec adventure bike in the north African country of Morocco – an amazing place to ride motorcycles, based on my previous experience. While riding impressions are embargoed for at least a few days, I wanted to take our readers along on a sort of “behind the scenes” journey to get a taste of the sights and adventures experienced abroad.

In the aftermath of Evans' passing, his family has had to make a lot of hard decisions. One of which was deciding what to do with Evans' beloved motorcycles – his KTM 790 Duke and Kawasaki KLX300. And when I say beloved, I mean it. Evans had reached a renaissance in his riding career. With his children older and more independent, he was able to rediscover his love for motorcycling. The 790 Duke gave him a lot of joy, and upgrading it to meet his definition of a 790 Duke R was a source of pride for him.

Have you ever wanted a time machine? Well, this might be the closest we're going to get. Up for grabs is a 1930 Indian Four that comes to us from Bring A Trailer and was kept in storage for seemingly ever. It even carries that all-important patina to show for it – hence the caption at the top, which was taken from one of the comments on the BAT listing. The current owner acquired it in 2020 and had it put back into running order with a working carburetor and magneto. Other than those two items and a fresh set of tires, this Indian Four wears the marks of having been on this earth for 94 years – and counting!

I've said it before and I'll say it again – I can't wait for Yamaha to release an R9. It makes sense to fill the gap between the R7 and the R1 with an R9, and since Yamaha already fills that gap in its MT naked bike lineup, it only seems inevitable that a fully-faired Yamaha Triple will arrive. Of course, this love and yearning for an R9 all stems from what is now the MT-09. But back when it was introduced, it was called the FZ-09. Silly naming confusion aside, the FZ/MT-09 has been a hit from the start, and what we have here is a clean example of a first-gen FZ-09 from our sister site fz09.org that has clearly been cared for. The best part? The seller is asking a very modest price for it – $4,999. The second best part? They've already done a lot of the basic upgrades that the bike should have in the first place. As always, the listing is posted below. If you're interested, go on over to fz09.org and contact the seller there.

For the first Friday Forum Foraging feature of 2024, we have a motorcycle that needs no introduction. Honda's RC51 will go down in history as the bike that beat Ducati at its own game. Honda took advantage of the Superbike rules of the early 2000s that allowed V-Twin engines a 1000cc displacement while the four cylinders were capped at 750cc. In the hands of Colin Edwards, it would go on to win two World Superbike titles – both in thrilling fashion.

Do you want a 2018 Kawasaki Ninja H2 SX for just $12,500? Really, it can be yours for a steal. Few bikes out there today provide the kind of thrill that the supercharged H2 series from Kawasaki can. So, why's it so cheap, you ask? Well, therein lies the rub. This particular bike, which comes to us from our sister site Ninjah2.org, has a blown engine. Specifically, the number 2 cylinder dropped a valve. The seller doesn't say how it dropped the valve, but the pictures and the seller's listing provide us with a glimpse into the bike's short 6200-mile life.