MotoBrief

I came across a link to a website that’s hosting some Moto Guzzi technical training videos for some late model Guzzis. Great quality, all in Quicktime. Very cool.

Tomorrow is the third Wednesday of July — which means it’s Annual Ride to Work Day! Ride to Work Day is an annual event intended to raise awareness of motorcycles and scooters as daily commuter vehicles.

The idea was proposed in 1992 in Road Rider magazine (now known as Motorcycle Consumer News) after a columnist mentioned that it would be neat if there was one day a year when everyone who owned a motorcycle used it to ride to work. The idea grew and was informally promoted by various businesses each year until 2000, when the non-profit Ride to Work was formed.

I commute on my motorcycle as much as I can. Traffic congestion is less of a problem, parking is much easier in crowded urban areas (provided your city isn’t actively anti-motorcycle) and the reduced fuel costs are awesome.

The Ride to Work site has a lot of great information about motorcycles as transportation. Apparently 4.3% of registered motorcycles in the USA are used as primary transportation; another 9.9% are used seasonally that way. That’s over 900,000 motorcycles in nice weather!

Ride to work, people!

Richard Foster has posted a fantastic ride report in the BMW Bikers of Metropolitan Washington forums.

Foster authored a short story that appeared in a 1973 issue of Road & Track. That story was Neil Peart’s inspiration for the song “Red Barchetta” from the 1981 Rush album Moving Pictures. Peart couldn’t locate Foster at the time and simply included a credit to Richard Foster’s story in the liner notes.

Foster didn’t learn of the connection until the mid-90s. In 2006 he read Peart’s book, Ghost Rider, about his travels on his BMW GS. I’ve meant to read this for years; by all accounts, it’s an incredibly moving story about Peart’s efforts to cope with the loss of both his daughter and his wife in the space of one year.

After exchanging some letters and emails, Foster and Peart finally met and took a ride through West Virginia — more than 33 years after Foster the grad student mailed off his short story to Road & Track. Foster’s write-up of the trip is just great; be sure to take a look.

I love the way motorcycling brings people together. It’s possible that Foster and Peart would have met anyway, but unlikely that Foster would have spent two days with the legendary drummer if it weren’t for their shared love of motorcycles.

Will we see a Yamaha Ténéré for 2008? Some people seem to think so.

I’ve only seen a couple mentions of this so far. Yet another big dual sport for those of us in the United States to dream of wistfully. Anyone think there’s any chance of this making it to the U.S.?

The word’s out that MotoGP will be coming to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008. More details are going to be announced July 16. This is fantastic news. Naturally, it happens after I’ve moved away from the midwest. I guess I’ll be taking a trip next summer.