Motorcycle Mojo Magazine July 2021

Funny how priorities change over the years. Back in 2009, I found myself watching TV more than I liked and I realized that I needed a project bike to tinker with. Shortly afterward, I found a 1977 Honda CB750F at a garage sale. The bike was in really bad shape, but the engine wasn’t seized. The project was a complete teardown, but first I got the engine running (barely). Then, the bike started on fire in my driveway, thanks to four carbs that were leaking fuel. Every part was bagged and tagged. I took the engine apart and installed new piston rings, valve guides and seals, and the valves and seats were machined to ensure good compression. I painted the engine black and polished the cases – the engine looked amazing.…

Everyone knows riding a motorcycle is fun, but if you really want to turn up the entertainment factor, you gotta turn down the engine displacement – by a lot. While motorcycles displacing an eighth of a litre are relatively slow, they’re a real hoot to ride. They’re small, featherweight and not intimidating in any way, even for the most junior of novices. As added bonuses, they’re cute and they’re dirt cheap. Among the major manufacturers, only Honda and Kawaski offer a street-legal 125 cc motorcycle in Canada. However, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. offers enough 125 cc models that there is a miniMOTO category on its consumer website. Aside from the very limited selection of eighth-litre bikes over here, there are a few other interesting choices we thought you’d also like to…

Yamaha has expanded its line of motorcycles with an all-new sportbike based on its now proven and potent 689 cc parallel twin. Yamaha introduced the 689 cc CP2 parallel twin in the FZ-07 in 2014, which eventually became the MT-07 of today. The MT-07’s engine, which features a 270-degree crankpin layout that provides a rhythmic rumble and broad spread of torque, proved to be a narrow, lightweight and powerful engine. Therefore, the engine naturally found its way into the retro-styled XSR700 and, more recently, into the Ténéré 700 middleweight adventure bike. The next logical step was to insert the CP2 twin into a sporting chassis, and Yamaha has done so by introducing the YZF-R7 The R7 is designed to fit between the entry-level YZF-R3 and the potent, track-focused YZF-R1. Although Yamaha touts…

THE NEXT BEST THING I know this is probably heresy, and you’ve been asked this before for sure, but have you ever considered writing about the CanAm Spyder? I’ve been a motorcycle rider for more than 40 years. I’m turning 76 this year and have been riding a 2016 Honda F6B Gold Wing for a couple of years. Lately, I have felt a bit nervous riding this heavy bike and dropped it once with very little damage. I have since bought a Spyder and sold the Gold Wing. The Spyder is certainly not a motorcycle, but it is the next best thing. The Spyder is plenty fast and very stable. I am not alone as I have spoken to many people my age who have done the same thing. Ageing is not reversible,…

86 Dick Mann was the first racer to win all five types of circuits in the AMA Grand National Championship: short track, TT, half-mile, mile and road race. Mann passed away in April 2021 at the age of 86. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993 and into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1998. 280,000 The exorbitant price in U.S. dollars for the motorcycle created by Feline Motorcycles in collaboration with designer Yacouba Galle. The bike, released in 2015, is considered to be the most expensive one in the world. The motorcycle offers clean, unusual lines and an 800 cc three-cylinder engine that pumps out 170 hp. 31.8 The longest distance in kilometres ever ridden on water on a motorcycle. This feat was achieved in 2015 by Robbie Madison,…

I’ve always wanted custom graphics on a motorcycle, but I’ve never really had the means or the bike for them. That changed, however, when all the plastics on my KTM 200 XC-W had to be replaced. (Yes, I crash that often.) There sat my bike for a few wintery months with plain, white, new plastic, practically screaming at me to do something about it. If there is anything I hate, it’s plain, white, crisp and minimalist design. I find it boring and lacking personality. So, I decided to do something about it. I called Ryan, a friend of mine who owns PTI Graffix (ptigfx.com), a company based in Surrey, B.C., that specializes in creating graphics and decals. I asked Ryan what it would take to create a set of custom graphics…