MotoBrief

Yesterday, I posted the first episode of MotoBrief TV, a video podcast that’s going to follow the concept of MotoBrief.com — news for the passionate motorcyclist, with information on vintage bikes, maintenance, touring, gear, rallies and more. We’ll throw in some racing news, too.

The first episode — actually, episode zero — was a test run to get some practice shooting video on location at motorcycling events. I went to the vintage motocross races in Washougal, WA and watched the mud fly.

You can subscribe to the show via its RSS feed or iTunes. Other options, like Windows Media Player or Real Player, can be found on the show page at Podshow.

Sir Richard Branson delivered a batch of motorcycles this month to Kenya as part of its support of Riders for Health. He was joined by actors Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, who are also raising money for Riders for Health during their Long Way Down motorcycle adventure.

Riders for Health have been mentioned here before. Many times the problem facing African communities isn’t the availability of healthcare and medicine but the ability to deliver that care to isolated villages. Motorcycles are a great solution to this problem. Riders for Health provides the vehicles, training and maintainence necessary so that mobile health professionals can reach these far-flung communities.

The Moto Guzzi Norge 1200 was voted number one in the Granturismo category by readers of Italian motorcycle magazine Motociclismo. Is this a big deal? A bunch of Italians voted an Italian motorcycle as the best?

Actually, traditional GT favorites typically win this category — the BMW R1200RT has won seven times. Moto Guzzi has produced what looks like a fantastic touring bike. I’m going to have to try one of these things out.

The word’s out that 1993 MotoGP champion Kevin Schwantz wants back in the game. In a statement, Schwantz confirmed that he’s exploring management opportunities with the Suzuki team.

Schwantz racked up 25 wins during his Grand Prix career and currently runs the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School at Road Atlanta. He was featured prominently in the 2003 documentary Faster, which can be found at Amazon.

The tool kits that come with motorcycles range from the fairly useful to the woefully inadequate. Most riders find they need to supplement their tool kit in some way — a couple extra tools, perhaps, or some small spare parts.

H. Marc Lewis, one of the masters of Micapeak, has put together a great page detailing his tool kit and some minor changes he’s made to simplify on-the-road maintenance.

While HMarc’s page is specific to his R1200GS, there’s plenty of food for thought no matter what make or model you might ride. Lots o’ links, good pictures, some smart recommendations.

If only the whole web was like this.

If you haven’t seen this yet, Valentino Rossi scored 4th place (down from number 2) in Sports Illustrated’s top 20 non-American athletes. Total earnings were $30 million, beating out soccer icon David Beckham by $300,000.

This places the popular Italian MotoGP rider (who is trailing Aussie Casey Stoner by 14 points in this year’s world championship) in the same rarefied air enjoyed by American sports legends like Shaquille O’Neal, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Derek Jeter.

It almost makes you feel sorry for someone like Brett Favre, who scored a measly $18 million last year.

BMW appears to be giving away free Stuntwars DVDs at part of a promotion of the F800S. The DVD features Chris Pfeiffer, who currently rides the F800S in street freestyle competitions.

I guess Forbes Traveler is trying to be edgy. In between articles on first class travel to India and luxury beach destinations, they’ve put together a piece on America’s greatest motorcycling roads. The rides were compiled from recommendations from their expert panel and they do a pretty good job of representing America. Predictable favorites like Deal’s Gap are there but you’ll also find some obscure choices like a 410-mile cruise across the high plains from Trinidad, CO to Kansas.

The high plains route came from Peter Jones, whom Forbes Traveler calls a “writer/freelance journalist for Biking Pubs.” I’ve never heard of Biking Pubs; is this shorthand for “biking publications” that someone at Forbes thought referred to a motorcycling magazine?

Anyway, I’d like to try Jones’s route, which the article claims “all makes sense when you look at the map.” Unfortunately, they didn’t include the map. In fact, the entire article on famous motorcycling routes doesn’t include a single map.

I hate their website, too. Bleh. Still, the article’s worth a read since it’s the only place that describes Jones’s route; if the high plains route doesn’t thrill you, you can go directly to the slideshow and browse all ten of the rides.

It’s worth a look, even if the article was bungled by stuffy big media types.

Today is one of those days where I’m really missing Chicago. This weekend the Moto Guzzi demo fleet will be at Rosefarm Classics.

The Rosefarm Classics website is one of those unfortunate sites that seem to exist soley to frustrate customers and drive away business. All you’ll find there is an address and phone number, so you’ll have to head over to Google Maps if you want directions.

The details I received were Saturday, June 9 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday, June 10 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m You’ll probably want to call first to confirm.

I’d love to try out the Breva. I’ve always been a big fan of Moto Guzzi bikes, although I’ve never owned one. Have fun, everybody.

I’ve just noticed that insanely great freestyle rider Chris Pfeiffer will be appearing at Laguna Seca for the US MotoGP July 20-22.

I really wish I was going to be at Laguna Seca. Pfeiffer does some incredible stuff. He started his career as a trials rider and later switched to the streetbike freestyle competitions that he does today. Most recently he won the 2007 Indoor Streetbike Freestyle World Championship in Zurich.

You can find a lot of clips on YouTube — here’s one of him at last year’s US MotoGP.

BMW has also announced some UK dates — he’s popular at BMW events since he currently rides the BMW F800S.