MotoBrief

Jay Leno’s Garage is one of the best sites in the world. Leno’s collection of cars and motorcycles is legendary. And he’s a true enthusiast, who loves these vehicles and enjoys getting them out and on the road. I think he’s awesome.

Here’s a recent segment where he talks helmet sizing and construction with Arai’s Bruce Porter. Leno has had his share of crashes, so he speaks from experience when he promotes helmet use here.

[/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.

We’re into the second week of the MCN Fantasy Road Race 2008, and I’m in second place. There are plenty of races coming up, so it’s not too late to sign up and try to win an Arai helmet. MotoBrief.tv will also be giving away a helmet camera to the second place finisher.

All you have to do to participate is go the the Fantasy Road Race website, create an account and pick your team, then send me an email and tell me your team name. I’ll send you the code necessary to join the MotoBrief.tv league and you’ll be in the running for a new (and pretty awesome) helmet.

Gizmag has an article on Dainese’s motorcycle airbag. It’s a revolutionary system — the high tech gear does not require a connection to the motorcycle like the airbag on the Honda Goldwing. Instead, accelerometers and gyros identify movement that looks like a crash and deploys an airbag stashed in the hump on racing leathers.

The idea of an airbag on a motorcycle has always struck me as kind of crazy, but the airbag has already been used in an actual race. It was used for the first time in the Valencia MotoGP 125cc world championship. Let’s go to YouTube for the action:

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.

Boing Boing points out an open face helmet by Nexx covered in denim. Denim?

I can’t say that I’ve ever felt a burnining desire to have a denim-covered helmet. And I’m usually an advocate of full face helmets, because I consider my face an important part of my head.

Still, Nexx has some pretty cool helmets of the non-denim variety. I like their off-road line, the Cross X20, and they have an interesting modular helmet. And if I were looking for an open face helmet, I’d take a close look at the X60 line.

Here are some of my favorites:

Vision Vintage
Vision Yamaha
Pop 01

Just definitely not the denim.

[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.