Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Motorcycle Mojo Magazine

For those of you who are into restoring or customizing motorcycles, I’m sure you will appreciate the café’d Honda CX500 on page 32. There was a time I desperately wanted to resto-mod motorcycles. I was the guy who would buy them off the side of the road when I saw them solemnly sitting there lonely and cold waiting for a new owner to take it home. My thought was I’d putter on one until it was finished and move on to the next one. Any remaining forlorn two-wheeled treasures would keep me busy in my retirement. The idea was sound in my mind, but putting the whole concept into practice was heavily flawed. Taking stuff apart is easy — a monkey can do it — and I enjoyed the process…

I recently realized that I’ve been writing for Mojo for 18 years! That’s a lot of years of telling stories about riding, racing, skills, coaching, moto kids, and other moto-related stuff. Crazy. In the early days, columns were accompanied by photographs, but then, editor Glenn Roberts decided to switch it up, and hired caricaturist Dean Foster. I’ll admit that I wasn’t exactly stoked when I’d first heard of using caricatures instead of photos. How could a drawing replace an actual photograph? How would the artist know what to emphasize without having been there? My initial skepticism quickly disappeared as the first few drawings emerged — vibrant and funny, they added some oomph and visual flair. Since then, each issue of Motorcycle Mojo has become like a mini surprise; a what-did-Dean-draw-this-time…

Assuming your bike is running well and you want to keep it running that way, you’ll have to perform some regular maintenance. Your bike’s maintenance schedule and specs are found in the owner’s manual. The first thing on the list is the engine oil and filter change. Oil-change intervals vary between manufacturers, and note that the mileage given is under ideal conditions; frequent short rides, or wet or dusty conditions require more frequent oil changes. Changing the oil on most bikes is easy enough to be performed at home. If you do it on your own, use the recommended oil; you must use JASO-MA rated oil in wet-clutch bikes, unless the clutch rides in dedicated oil. Don’t use auto-motive motor oil in your wet-clutch bike, as it will eventually damage…

WATCH YOUR BACK I just read a story about a Tesla on autopilot lurching ahead and running over and killing a motorcyclist. Is this a new threat that needs to be investigated? Something else we need to be wary of for sure. CLINT STEINLEY VIA EMAIL Hi Clint Check out David Booth’s column on page 68 OCTANE RATING I like your motorcycle reviews. Where you list the specs at the end, I’d like to see one more item: recommended gas grade. It’s just one more criteria that can be important to some readers. By the way, Costa’s Mojo Garage piece about “Using the Right Gas” in the April issue was excellent. LAWRENCE DUNNING VIA EMAIL Hi Lawrence You are absolutely right. The octane is important so when I can find…

Do you talk to yourself when you ride? I do. And, I have not one, but two voices in my head. One is probably my ego, which often tells me to ride faster, jump higher and take more risks. The other voice is more mature and sensible, and points out the consequences of listening to that first voice. As I have aged, the ego-crazed voice has quieted down, but it still sometimes sneaks into my helmet, as it did the other day. We had just taken delivery of our new BMW R1300GS and F900GS bikes for our off-road school. I was very excited to take the first rides on these new GS models. A few friends had asked me if the hype of the big new GS was justified. Was…

It had been a long time coming. Fifteen years ago, I set out to ride the Pacific Coast Highway, but mechanical problems had collided with my timeline and, while I successfully experienced L.A. to San Francisco, I was forced to skip the Oregon Coast in favour of a more efficient Interstate 5. Now, at long last, I was back — this time on a long-term test ride of the then all-new Suzuki V-Strom 800DE — and I was excited not only to put Suzette through her paces but also to finally finish what I’d started. I found my trail exactly where I left it: north of the Golden Gate Bridge. There, the PCH rolled through Sausalito, a seaside town that had intrigued me since I was a teen and Diesel’s road-tripping…

On April 19th, another “self-driving” Tesla killed someone. A Tesla Model S, whose owner, Carl Hunter, from Snohomish, Washington, had engaged Autopilot, failed to see a motorcyclist in front of the car and, in the resulting collision — which saw the car come to rest atop the motorcycle — the rider, 28-year-old Jeffrey Nissen, succumbed to his injuries. According to numerous reports, Hunter admitted he actuated “self-driving” and was busy looking at his cellphone, obviously with the expectation that his attention was no longer needed to monitor his car’s Autopiloting. To those us familiar with Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) — that’s the official name for semi-autonomous driving systems — none of this comes as a surprise. In another life, I also test cars, and the one thing that is an absolute…

My son sent me this photo and it reminded me of a very similar photograph from years ago. In this unscripted, uncoached photograph, Grandson Cameron expresses his enthusiasm for his Honda 50 the same way I did almost 50 years earlier. I was pleased to see Cameron wearing better riding gear. SUBMISSIONS TO REMEMBER WHEN? ARE ALWAYS WELCOME. IF YOUR PHOTO(S) IS PRINTED WE WILL SEND YOU $25.00 HIGH RESOLUTION DIGITAL PHOTOS ARE ACCEPTABLE AS WELL AS PRINTS. IF YOU WISH THE PRINT BACK PLEASE INCLUDE A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE. SEND TO: EDITOR@MOTORCYCLEMOJO.COM…

RIDE TO LASSEN PARK — When I lived in Vancouver, I realized that Reno, NV, was a great turn-around location for riding holidays. Two days down and two days back in theory; however, the trip always took more than four days because there are so many great roads. This ride through the Sierra Nevada Range always gives me great memories. I’d leave Reno on Hwy 395, then onto Hwy 70 over Beckwourth Pass, elevation 1,588 metres, to the town of Quincy. At the end of the scenic Feather River Canyon, take Hwy 89 to Greenville and along the south side of Lake Almanor on Hwy 36/89, then north on twisty Hwy 89 to the 2,595-metre summit of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The road near the top was cut through two-metre-high…

It’s funny how when you’re immersed in an industry you may not see just how much something might be wrong; maybe you’re too close to the picture to understand what it looks like. Recently I experienced two situations polarized to one another which got me thinking about the inequality that is still rooted within our industry. I attended two different press launches and quickly saw a strong inconsistency within the industry. These past years, I’ve been excited about more women entering the industry in a professional sense through racing, writing, and working within brands and manufacturers. But there’s still a lot more work to be done. I recently attended a press launch — I would like to preface by stating that I wasn’t supposed to be at this press launch,…

ON A MISSION TO THE EAST COAST When Tim Burke’s daughter needed help setting up an apartment in Halifax while attending Dalhousie University, it didn’t take him long to answer the call with a fall ride beginning in Ontario through the Northeastern States to Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick, taking in all the sights along the way. MV AGUSTA ENDURO VELOCE In the next issue we test the MV Agusta Enduro Veloce, the company’s first-ever adventure bike. The Italian bike maker takes a slightly different approach at the genre, with a brilliant chassis that gives it a sporty edge, and a 931 cc triple that produces an appealing, seductive growl.…