MotoBrief

[/caption]Amazon has sold various bits of motorcycle gear for some time, but now they’ve pulled it all together under a Motorcycle & ATV section. It’s convenient to have everything in one spot and they have a pretty broad selection of gear.

Unfortunately, the product categories are a mess right now. Parts includes communication systems and balaclavas and many more non-parts items. Don’t even bother with the sub-categories — browsing the Parts/Engines sub-category right now doesn’t turn up a single engine part of the first page. Most sad is the Vehicles category, which turns up a page that’s almost entirely pocket bikes.

This has the potential to be really useful. I just hope that Amazon and their sellers can get their acts together and get this thing organized.

Some members of the BMW-GS mailing list recently spoke highly of the Oregon Scientific ATC 2K Action Cam Flash Memory Camcorder. I may try one of these myself, since it seems an inexpensive alternative to the well-armored cameras from HelmetCamera.com. The ATC 2K quality doesn’t seem to be as good but it’s hard to draw any conclusions from highly compressed web video. Oregon Scientific has a site for the camera where you can check out some video yourself. I think it’s worth looking into for a self-contained unit costing less than $100.

Some guy put a LoJack on his bike. It turned out to be a good idea, since it was stolen by some scumbag. Police followed the signal and busted a motorcycle chop shop.

From the article:

When authorities searched the location they found 11 motorcycles. All but one was reported stolen. They also found all sorts of other stolen motorcycle parts with serial numbers removed or scratched out so they couldn’t be traced.

Are there people out there for whom a scratched out serial number doesn’t raise a red flag? Who buys parts from these people? How can anyone who rides a motorcycle, who loves motorcycling, buy a part that they know has been stolen from someone else’s bike?

I’ve wanted a GPS for a long time. The BMW GS mailing list discusses various models of Garmins all the time and they’ve created some serious lust in my heart.

Now Engadget reports that TomTom has released the motorcycle-specific Rider 2nd Edition. Sadly, the TomTom website is pretty bad — there’s no feature comparison between the TomTom Rider and Rider 2, they don’t clearly explain what I get for my extra $100, and the screenshots and gallery sections don’t appear to work in Mac OS X or Windows XP.

Going back and forth between pages, it looks like you get an improved Bluetooth headset (albeit with shorter talk time) and the 2nd Edition is listed as waterproof rather than merely water-resistant. And it supports TomTom’s bizarre voices feature so your Rider can sound like Mr. T, Gary Busey, Dennis Hopper or other, ever more wierd, options. I think I’d prefer Genuine People Personalities.

How’d I miss this?!

Steve Jobs has long touted the iPod’s integration with a wide range of cars. Now the new Victory Vision will support the iPod. Scott Bourne of The Apple Phone Show is reporting that the Victory Vision Street he just ordered includes an iPod connector that lets you tuck it away safely in a compartment on the fairing. The iPod is operated with handlebar-mounted controls and displays on an LCD on the motorcycle’s gas tank.

I always ride with my iPod and this would be a really nice thing to have. Scott has promised to post more when he takes delivery of the bike.

[Originally posted to my blog Portlanded.]

BMW riders are some of the most likely to be wearing a helmet — and some of the least likely to have a place to put it. I’ve always been frustrated by the lack of a helmet lock for my bikes. Lately I’ve been trying the Helmet Guardian and it’s become one of my favorite gadgets. It’s kinda boring (I’d rather add a GPS or something else fun) but it does the job. It’s pretty inconspicuous and securely holds two helmets.

Here’s an action shot from Cycle Gadgets — the bike I have mine on is a bit torn apart right now.