Rider articles from May 2006

Rider archives from May 2006

eBay experience: braving the eBay Motors miasma for the first time.(One trackmind)
May 1, 2006... Since it was founded in September 1995, over 100 million people worldwide have registered on eBay, the online auction Web site. On any given day millions of items are listed there. Three weeks ago one of them was, regrettably, a motorcycle...

Sport-Touring Rider.(Response)
May 1, 2006... I don't know whose idea it was to have a sport-touring section, but give him or her a raise. I hope you are buried with letters like this one. My wife and I have been enjoying this type of riding for years. Our last five bikes have been Yamaha...

Going to the Sun.(Response)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2006... Having worked seasonally in Glacier National Park for a number of summers, Centered Touring (February 2006) by Greg Hohn caught my attention. I am fortunate to be able to ride the roads in and around Glacier every summer. However, I must...

Georgia backroads.(Response)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2006... I really enjoyed the article about some of the backroads of North Georgia written by Wyatt Gordon (Favorite Ride, February 2006). It was a beautifully written piece about a beautiful area. To learn more about the area, riders might be...

Clarification.(Correction notice)
May 1, 2006... Thanks for the review of our new Olympia MotoSports Airglide 2 Jacket in the March '06 issue of Rider. I wanted to point out a few problems with your copy and review. 1) Regarding the shower test, Bill Stermer writes... a. "In our...

Trailering.(Response)
May 1, 2006... There are bike owners and then there are bike riders. Riders would never think about using trailers unless their bikes do not run, will not start and you have to get it to the shop. I don't care if you have a beat-up '82 Honda or a $100,000...

From good to bad.(Response)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2006... BMW figured out the best motorcycle turn-signal control decades ago. A 1978 R100/7 has the turn-signal switch built down low on the throttle grip, with a nice big paddle for the right thumb. It's a simple, three-position switch: Flick it up for...

Well said.(Response)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2006... Mark Tuttle has an editorial in the March issue of Rider which is a must-read. He 'splains why we ride as well as anybody I've heard say it in a long while. Find a copy, read it and contemplate. Then read it again. Now if I can just get my...

Best buy.(Response)
May 1, 2006... Regarding Grodsky's February column, my best motorcycle buy at the dollar store is a "Freddy Krueger" face mask. They sell these for a dollar at Halloween. I ride with an open-face helmet and I keep this flimsy mask under the seat for when I...

Kickstarts.
May 1, 2006... MEANER MONSTER Ducati has unveiled the successor to its popular Monster 620, and it's a doozy. The new Monster 695 is said to make 73 horsepower and 45 lb-ft of torque--the highest output per cc of any Ducati air-cooled engine--with...

State on-highway motorcycle equipment requirements.
May 1, 2006... STATE ON-HIGHWAY MOTORCYCLE EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS Motorcycle Industry Council JUNE 2005 Safety Eye Rearview Brakes Handlebar Helmet Protection Mirror Height ...

Leaps & bounds: 2006 Yamaha FZ1.(RIDER TEST)
May 1, 2006... A lot of water has passed under the proverbial bridge in the half decade since Yamaha's first-generation FZ1 was introduced, and the world is a different place. When that groundbreaking 2001 model was launched, company officials later admitted,...

Faster flagship: 2006 Honda CBR1000RR.(LONG RIDE * SHORT RIDE)
May 1, 2006... It wouldn't be fair to test a world-class sportbike as if it were a touring machine, so I'm not going to do that. But last time we checked, the CBR1000RR has a license plate, and it's designed for the road and that's where most people ride...

ST snapshots: some of our staff's favorite sport-touring rides.(SPORT TOURING RIDER)
May 1, 2006... TEXAS' BIG SECRET Texas. Forget everything you've heard about straight roads, flat country or meals of nothing but steak. Head for the Texas Hill Country. North from San Antonio, or west from Austin. It's the place for sport touring. Miles...

ST comfort fixes: more miles with less pain.(TIPS & TRICKS)
May 1, 2006... Most contemporary sport-touring bikes are pretty comfortable right out of the box. Others--and most sportbikes--simply are not suited to the long haul, especially for riders who've grown a little less pliable over the years. Whether you need to...

Gear test triad.(SPORT TOURING RIDER)
May 1, 2006... OGIO TANKER Ogio has a huge line of hip and functional sports bags, motorcycle gearbags and backpacks, but the Tanker magnetic tankbag is the company's first foray into on-bike motorcycle luggage. Ogio started big--the 25-liter Tanker...

Dressed to thrill: 2006 Yamaha Star Stratoliner.(RIDDEN & RATED)
May 1, 2006... Yamaha's new Roadliner cruiser is new-for-'06 yet has already received hearty praise from the moto press for its thundering power, beguiling handling and grandiose style. You can read all about it in our February 2006 road test. About the only...

Couch for two: Kymco Xciting 500 scooter.
May 1, 2006... Kymco invited us to ride its new scooters (from 50cc to 500cc) and a fuel-injected Venox 250 motorcycle on their test track some miles from Kaohsiung. The track was essentially a two-lane paved road about a quarter-mile long, with a wide area...

Favoriteride: the legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee the lake it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy.(Waterfalls, Shipwrecks and Lighthouses)
May 1, 2006... In The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot refers to Lake Superior by its Chippewa name: Gitche Gumee (which means "big water"). Lake Superior is the largest body of fresh water in the world. So large and deep, it can hold as much...

Rivco hitch rack system: Honda's Gold Wing is definitely the packhorse of choice in the North American motorcycling community. Since the introduction of the GL 1800 model in 2001, however, wing enthusiasts have had to make do with significantly less storage volume within the confines of the factory luggage compartments.(GEARLAB)
May 1, 2006... Rivco has remedied this in part by developing a rear-mounted luggage platform that mounts to a trailer hitch on the bike, or (as in our case) attaches using a specially made bracket that allows the use of the rack on hitchless Wings. ...

Scala Rider Bluetooth wireless headset: the Scala Rider is a helmet-mounted headset with a Bluetooth transceiver that allows you to make and receive calls remotely using your Bluetooth-equipped cell phone.(GEARLAB)
May 1, 2006... Now, before you fire up the computer to send us a nastygram, please appreciate that, of course, I have mixed feelings about reviewing anything that facilitates using a cell phone while riding a motorcycle. To be thorough I tested it while...

New&cool.(Product Spotlight)
May 1, 2006... ALL OF THE GOODS AND SERVICES LISTED IN NEW & COOL ARE CHOSEN BY RIDER'S EDITORS BASED UPON THE INTEREST TO READERS. THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS PROVIDED FREE OF CHARGE TO VENDORS OF MOTORCYCLE PRODUCTS AND SERVICE, WHO BEAR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY...