Tabla de contenidos para Issue 3 - 2020 en Cycle World

Underlining one of the many reasons I am not in the economicforecasting business, I have to admit I never expected what would happen to the motorcycle industry as the coronavirus pandemic altered all our lives. I’m not alone, though, because nobody predicted motorcycle sales would boom. Earlier this year, as businesses and the economy shut down, the jobless rate shot up, and streets, restaurants, and pretty much any vaguely social activity was put on hold, money froze. Predictions for the economy were dire. So, while we all hoped for good health for us, our family, and friends, the motorcycle industry, and especially its dealers, were preparing for the worst. New-motorcycle sales over the last decade had barely crept up following the huge crash of 2008, and while it had sort…

We immediately think of oil and coolant containment—oil seals, O-rings, and gaskets—in this connection. But combustion gas is the fluid that produces power, so we have to add the sealing functions of piston rings, and intake and exhaust valves to our list. Long-lasting oil seals and O-rings are as recent as the synthetic rubbers that can make them impervious to gasoline, oil, brake fluid, or water. Consult Parker Hannifin’s online Fluid Power Seal Design Guide for compatibility. Retaining oil in motorcycle engines, forks, and wheel bearings are round dual-lip oil seals with one lip backed by a slender coil garter spring that holds the lip facing the fluid in constant contact with the shaft. Dimensions are the obvious ones—OD, ID, and thickness. The other seal lip is there to exclude…

To help understand what the Aprilia RS 660 middleweight twin sportbike is, it is helpful to understand what it is not. The Aprilia RS 660 is definitely not a rehash of the long-serving 600cc middleweights we’ve seen before. These have fallen out of favor for three reasons: They are too expensive—they had become pricey miniature Superbikes, designed to win Supersport races in the hands of professional athletes; they are too uncomfortable—the racer riding position is fun for a 10-minute “let’s pretend” but a pain in the long run; and they are too specialized—focus-group testing always shows that motorcyclists enjoy twist-and-go torque at any rpm, not a power-genie that explodes out of the bottle only above 10,000 rpm. This leaves manufacturers wondering what new kinds of products can sustain their business.…

Hiding from the rain, smoking a cigarette outside a bar in Milwaukee, J. Shia’s eyes flicker and dart as she talks about the pull-start BSA she had brought to the Mama Tried Show that year. The passion in her words is curling her shoulders forward and bursting from her fingertips as she speaks. “This bike reminds me of Brad Pitt from Fight Club,” Shia says of her BSA custom—the first member of the dysfunctional motor cycle family she is building. “This little, scrappy street-fighter kid, soccer-player kid. The pull-start is so aggressive. I was like, I wonder what his mom would be like…” Shia continues, half remembering her concept and half creating it as she goes: “He’s an assh—e, but his mom would be this mean, old, chain-smoking, back-alley, London…

“What’s wrong, son?” chuckles the man, laying his hand gently against the young boy’s cheek. A lamp on the bedside table reveals stubborn defiance and a trembling lower lip, the little face framed by a pillowcase adorned with a motorcycle motif. “No!” the young boy demands. “Wrong ending! Tell it again!” And so, with mock reluctance, the man launches into what is clearly a familiar tale of a thrilling racing battle waged between protagonists identified by colorful nicknames. A glimmer of suspicion lingers on the young boy’s rapt visage as the astonishing exploits of King Kenny and Fast Freddie tumble out until, with the imaginary conflict seemingly approaching its climax, a new character is introduced. “But wait, who’s this?!” the man exclaims, and the young boy’s wariness morphs into gratification.…

Ordinarily I’m not much for nostalgia. At vintage meets, I see bikes that I saw for the first time in the showroom. In the 1980s, in response to a story I’d written about a 1965 Yamaha TD1-B 250 production roadracer, a kind reader wrote to ask me if I’d like to have the parts to build such a bike. I had owned a used one for $500 in 1967 and had ridden it in a few novice club events. I drove to Maryland to pick up the parts. For 35 years, those parts rested quietly in boxes in my shop. I made occasional gestures toward restoration. I bought pistons, seals, and gaskets while Yamaha still listed them, and a friend painted the chassis and swingarm. The parts in their boxes…

Motorcycles need the multiple gear ratios provided by their transmissions because their spark-ignition internal-combustion engines have too little range to cover operation from zero to maximum vehicle speed. Early motorists were pleased that their single-speed motorbikes even ran. They were pleased that, on that single speed, they might effortlessly reach 25 mph—the speed of an athletic bicyclist. They were not so pleased to have to supply “light pedal assist” in climbing hills or, when even that failed, to jump off and push until exhausted. Rules for the 1911 Isle of Man TT races stimulated motorcycling to adopt amenities that had become standard on automobiles—the “free engine clutch” that made it unnecessary to restart the engine after every stop, and two or more ratios in a gearbox, making it possible to…