MotoBrief

The 4th Mods vs. Rockers vintage motorcycle and scooter show happened yesterday. Eric Robinson has already posted a great flickr set from the event.

The photos include bikes, scooters and even a couple classic cars seen at this year’s MvR. Be sure to check them out. Nice job, Eric.

The Think! Take Longer to Look for Bikes campaign from the UK has landed in the US with an Americanized version of the public service announcement.

You can see the original UK version here. Be forewarned, the UK version is a bit more graphic.

Back in February, the Cool Hunting blog featured Blonde Redhead drummer Simone Pace. In addition to talking about his music and the band, Pace spends some time showing off his vintage Moto Guzzi and talks about his passion for motorcycles.

I see GlobeRiders has another DVD on adventure touring and on-the-road maintenance, this time for the R1200GS and R1200GS Adventure. GlobeRiders has done a great job with these videos — I have the F650GS video myself — and think that they’re a good introduction to gear and basic maintenance.

There’s more than 4 hours of info here. As usual, it’s hosted by Helge Pedersen, GlobeRiders founder, photographer and world traveler.

If you’re not familiar with the guy, you should probably check out his awesome book, 10 Years on 2 Wheels [affiliate link] if you can find it. It’s out of print and the copies on Amazon can get pricey. You might also try eBay, where it shows up occasionally. GlobeRiders has said they hope to reprint the book sometime this year.

The local newspaper has a good article on the Ural sidecar rig.

Author Arv Voss took delivery of a Ural Gear-Up and talks about the experience.

I’ve always been fascinated by Urals, although I’ve never had the opportunity to ride one. When they first arrived in the U.S. in the early nineties, I loved the idea of a clone of a vintage BMW, sidecar included, for less than you might pay to add a sidecar to a Harley or BMW. If memory serves, the first Urals started around $7,000. Reliability problems were thrown in for free.

Today they’re more reliable, I’m told, but improving build quality hasn’t come cheap. Throw in a weak dollar and a new base model clocks in at just under $12,000, and the two-wheel drive Gear-Up is priced at $13,600.

I’m not sure I’m as eager to own one at those prices, but Voss’ article is a good read. Now if someone could get the Oregonian to understand how irritating inline ads are.

BMW Motorcycles of America is offering a promotion through the end of 2008 to active members of the U.S. armed forces. The deal applies to all branches — Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, National Guard, and Navy — and anyone who is active or was active within the last six months.

The promotion allows $500 off on K-bikes, $400 on R-bikes, and $250 on G and F bikes and appears to apply only to new motorcycles.

Ah, the Transalp. It’s another one of those motorcycles that, as an American, I can only daydream about buying. For whatever reason, these awesome dual sports don’t make it to the United States. Today I was googling for the Transalp (masochism, maybe?) and found an MCN video from last fall that I really liked.

UK site DO THE TEST has a short video that will test your visual perception. It’s a must for every motorcyclist who wants to understand more about how the mind processes what we see.

I believe that video is derived from some of the excellent work done at the University of Illinois Visual Cognition Lab. You’ll find a lot more examples of similar work there. (And a surprisingly stern and crappy copyright notice on that page; so much for the spirit of collaboration and knowledge sharing in academic research.)

Discovery Turbo has launched Twist the Throttle. It’s awesome stuff. There’s more than four hours of video here as father/son team Milt and Dylan Weiss explore eight famous motorcycle brands.

The show looks inside each marque, covering its history, looking at how the bikes are designed and built, and then taking them for rides in some awe-inspiring locations. The high-definition video looks gorgeous and the Weiss’ commentary is spot on. I love this show.

Motorcyclists love their machines. Many of my friends in the VinMoto groups have a dozen or more bikes in their garages.

That same passion for the machine can be found in the work of Daniel Peirce, whose Up-N-Smoke Engine Project (named after the Texas BBQ joint where Peirce’s motorcycle club would meet) perfectly captures the beauty of the motorcycle power plant. He has photographed dozens of meticulously restored classic engines and each is really a work of art. Peirce manages to show how unique each one of them is. I know I’ll never look at an engine the same way again.

High quality metallic prints of the collection can be purchased directly from Peirce in a variety of formats. I may order one for the MotoBrief.tv studio.