Do you ever go for a ride in the woods, come home smelling like pre-mix, only to lose that sweet scent once you finally take a shower? Has the move to four-stroke machinery greatly reduced your ability to woo a worthy partner to make “brap brap” noises with throughout the night?
Never fear dear reader, we understand your plight. Behold, 2 Stroke – a manly cologne that has been scented from the smell of two-stroke machinery, with hints of pine and spruce. Your braplife needs this.
Things have been pretty heavy here lately at Asphalt & Rubber, especially with the “Sepang Clash” nonsense continuing to collapse the sport in like a dying star. The Tokyo Motor Show had a lot of hard news too, with a bevy of models and concepts making an appearance.
So much has been going on, we nearly forgot the number one reason we ride motorcycles: they’re fun! Never fear, we have our eyes on the prize here at A&R HQ, so here’s a little something to brighten your day.
If you ever need a lawyer in Fort Worth, Texas area, we know a guy…Bryan Wilson, the Texas Law Hawk. Click past the jump for so much internet win.
We couldn’t make this story up if we tried, but Yamaha Motor Corporation is using the internet meme “LOLcats” to promote its product launches at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show, complete with a kitten-written speech and internet-generated cat-meme photos.
Apparently this all started because in Japan, cats say “nya” instead of “meow” – this of course lead to the name “NYA-maha”…a ham-fisted bit of word play that should have never evolved beyond witty water cooler banter, or the best scene from stoner-favorite Supertroopers.
We seriously don’t know who pitched this idea, or how they fit their giant cojones in that conference room, but they must have been the voodoo master of marketing pitches, because here we are. You win Yamaha. You’ve robbed us of our innocence, but you win.
You cannot un-see this dedicated website, which has a prominent link on Yamaha’s global website. You also can’t un-read this “President’s Address”, or un-see the “product descriptions” for the Tokyo Motor Show, shown after the jump.
It’s all like looking at a solar eclipse of catnip, while getting Rickrolled by a giant multi-national motorcycle corporation that also happens to sell pianos.
It’s easy to focus on what is right in front of us, but every now and then you have to stop and think about the past – and a company like Honda certainly has a storied past.
Honda helped contribute to the rise of a post-WWII Japanese economy. It has built some of the most iconic vehicles in modern time, some of them two-wheeled, some of them not.
And for as much grief we give Big Red sometimes, it is one of the few brands in the motorcycle industry that truly sets the tone for everyone else. When Honda talks, everyone listens.
Maybe that’s what makes this short video from Honda, which debuted on Sunday during primetime football, so appealing to us – both as lovers of motorcycles, but also good branding.
The commercial is clever and well executed, and in less than two minutes it not only reminds us of the pedigree that is the Honda brand, but also of all the milestones the company has achieved in what will be 67 years at the end of this week. Pretty impressive stuff.
I don’t really get the people who obsess about riding a Ural – a Russian knock-off of a German sidecar just doesn’t strike me as an enjoyable time on a motorcycle.
Of course, my saddle time on a Ural has been relegated to around-town and highway riding, which isn’t really the Ural’s domain of choice. These Cossack bikes really shine off-road, where their funky WWII-era 2WD design becomes an asset, not a hinderance.
Add to the fact that Urals are bone-simple to work on — owning a Ural means you will be wrenching on it, a lot, by the way — and you’ve got a motorcycle that’s well-suited to the rough-and-tumble lifestyle of where the road ends…especially when the road ends in a river.
Attempting to ford the river, Oregon Trail style, these Ural owners are experiencing all that the Russian marque has to offer. Seeing is believing, after the jump.
Let’s just be clear: this is the coolest thing you will see today. Robbie Maddison is better known for his non-surfing abilities, but after today’s video – “Pipe Dream” – by DC Shoes, that might change.
Riding the waves iconic waves of Tahiti (Teahupoo and Papara), Maddison takes his two-stroke KTM where no dirt bike has gone before in French Polynesia.
We are all aware that with enough speed, and motorcycle can hydroplane over small bodies of water, and with some modifications, longer water excursions are possible.
For some reason though, no one ever seemed to think that surfing on a motorcycle could be possible. That is, until now. Seeing is believing, after the jump.
One of the more amusing stories I think we’ve ever come across in A&R history, a Reddit user published his/her account of having a mystery fluid leak on their Suzuki V-Strom (shown above).
Unable to initially identify the fluid that was leaking down their forks, brakes, and front tire, our protagonist did the only logical method left to them: guess and check.
Tasting the fluid they found on their garage floor, and comparing it to the various “jus de vie” that make a motorcycle come to life, this Goldilocks of motorcycling was puzzled…nothing quite seemed right to their tongue.
The whole story, especially its ending, is perhaps best left to the original account on Reddit. But just so we’re clear…for the love of everything that’s holy, don’t taste the fluids on your motorcycle. It’s never a good idea.
Another year, and another April Fools Day is in the bag. I am fairly certain that for journalists, April 1st is better than Christmas, as it marks the one day where media outlets make the news the wish they could report on daily. And as usual, the imaginations of the motorcycle media pool didn’t fail to disappoint.
David had a timely piece on Dani Pedrosa going back to Moto3 with KTM, in order to win his fourth championship. Drawing on the Spaniard’s recent news about having severe arm-pump and needing to take a break from racing — the story caught out more than a few readers.
For those of us still working on our 2014 tax returns, and have deductions on the brain, we ran a story that the IRS would be allowing tax deductions, up to $500, on new helmet purchases — something we wouldn’t mind having occur in reality.
Our last story for the day on A&R was about Honda on the verge of releasing an autonomous motorcycle for the mainstream, a story we hope won’t come to reality for a very, very, very long time — if not ever.
How about from the rest of the industry though? In case you missed them, the highlights of April Fools Day are after the jump.
I am always amazed by the sort of people that read Asphalt & Rubber on a daily basis — we have some very talented people in our ranks (including some even very famous ones), and it’s great to get email from them, even if it’s just to say hi.
Along those lines, I got a message from a reader named Brian recently, just showing us a spec commercial he and some friends made about motorcycling a while back. It features a Ducati, so I guess you could say it is aimed at the Ducati community, but honestly I think any motorcyclist would resonate with its words. Enjoy!
When it comes to the western states and motorcycling, California gets all the credit. But, Oregon has a thriving motorcycling community all of its own, especially in Portland — albeit, things can get a little weird up here, with influences like Moto Corsa, See See Motorcycles, Dirt Quake, and now Asphalt & Rubber.
On the vein of keeping PDX out of the norm, and reaffirming that there are no bad days on a motorcycle, we hear good news that the much-loved Alley Sweeper ride is back on for 2015.
For the uninitiated, the Alley Sweeper is an urband enduro of sorts, which takes place on the unmaintained alleyways within the Portland city limits. It’s part ride, part parade, part critical-mass….and usually more fun in the mud.
Apparently there is this guy named Al, and he’s really good at jumping over things. He’s so good at jumping over things, he goes by the name “Al the Jumper” — obviously.
Al has some pretty crazy ideas too, and that means he finds himself jumping over some pretty radical things — like in this case, where he jumps over two motorcycles that are speeding at him.
It’s an exercise in detailed planning, accurate execution, relentless training, and of course massive huevos. Happy Friday!