Europe

Real Reason We’re So Shocked By Deadly Floods

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The Real Reason We’re So Shocked By Deadly Floods Is Because We’re So Good At Preventing Them Deaths and damages from floods in Europe have declined dramatically over the last 150 years by Michael Shellenberger The floods in Europe that killed over 150 people in recent days were a result of climate change, many people say. “Deadly Floods Show World Unprepared to Cope with Extreme Weather,” read the front page headline of The New York Times. “‘No One Is Safe.’” Said a German climate activist, “This is the climate crisis unravelling in one of the richest parts of the world.” The country’s interior minister agreed. “This is a consequence of climate change,” he said. But the reason the floods were so deadly is because European nations were so unprepared for them. Last fall, the German government held a national “warning day,” when loud sirens and text messages were supposed to alert people to danger. “It was a debacle,” The Times of London reports. “Most of the technology didn’t work.” A professor of hydrology who helped build Europe’s flood prediction and warning network said there was a “monumental failure of the system.” She added, “We should not be seeing this number of deaths from floods in 2021.” And there is evidence that Germany failed to prevent dams from collapsing. “I noticed that, for the last three weeks, all the dams were just 20 – 30 centimeters from the brim,” a resident told a television reporter. “Why didn’t they release some of the water in a controlled way much earlier? This whole thing should not have happened if there had been 10 or 20% more available volume in the dams.” The reporter added, “That’s criticism I’ve heard again and again today.” It’s true that flooding is affecting more people and more areas […]

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Motorcycle riding rules including clothing gear for US Army troops abroad

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by Keith Pannell from https://www.army.mil Clearing up confusion on motorcycle gear BAUMHOLDER, Germany – The warmer weather means more motorcycle riders are taking advantage of Germany’s scenic roads. Riders should also take time to reacquaint themselves with the garrison and U.S. Army Europe-Africa motorcycle policies. Some rules may seem obvious: “Motorcycle operators will ride only on the permanently attached seat,” according to the joint U.S. Army Europe-Africa Regulation 190-1/U.S. Air Force Europe-Africa Instruction 31-202, Section 5-6, b, 1, (June 18, 2020). But, there may be some other “guidance” which has been passed down from other riders that may not be exactly accurate. “Active-duty service members, civilian employees, contractors and family members are required to have a U.S. state-issued motorcycle license or endorsement on a current U.S. state driver’s license to operate a motorcycle in Europe,” said Herbert Nold, U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz Safety specialist. “Additionally, riders are required to complete a four-hour approved U.S. Army in Europe motorcycle orientation course and pass a 30-question written test to receive a USAREUR-AF motorcycle license.” The joint regulation also states that motorcycle riders will wear: “a helmet fastened under the chin, which meets all the American National Standards Institute” guidelines and, shatter-proof or shatter-resistant eye protection Besides a helmet and eye protection, anytime a Soldier, civilian employee, family member or contractor pulls out of a parking spot, they are required to wear full-finger gloves made of leather or other abrasion-resistant material and over-the-ankle footwear “of sturdy leather and have a good, oil-resistant sole.” Riders must also have on a long-sleeved shirt or jacket and full-length trousers any time they’re riding the motorcycle, according to the regulation. Those requirements apply both on and off a military installation. “One of the things that’s popped up recently is what riders have to wear when they come

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Horwin’s EK3 Crushes Electric Competition With Motorcycle Infused EV

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by Cristian Curmei from https://www.autoevolution.com Electric mobility is officially a booming business. With such a growth, we’re bound to witness all sorts of EVs aimed at relieving overcrowded cities of traffic. One company, Horwin, hit the market with their Red Dot Design Award winning moped, the EK3. Now, the way I ran across this company may surprise you. I was walking around my neighborhood and strolled past a building with a sign saying SmartBalance. As I walked by, I started to understand what the shop was all about, EVs. I could see a few vehicles inside, but one in particular, which I later found out was the EK3, winked at me from the corner of the showroom. My research into this vehicle led me to find out about Horwin. This rather fresh team of motorcycle enthusiast, industrial experts, and even professional racers, ranging from Germany, China, and Austria, hit the market with the CR6 and CR6 Pro (L3e class / 125 ccm) light electric motorcycles. The “CR” stands for Café Racer. With a range of 150 km (93.2 mi), top speed of 105 kph (65 mph) and acceleration from 0 to 60 kph (37 mph) in just six seconds, these babies paved the way for Horwin’s triumph. As it stands the 2020 EK3 comes in with a length of 1900 mm (74.8 in), width of 690 mm (27.1 in), height of 1130 mm (44.4 in), and a minimum ground clearance of 125 mm (4.9 in). With the seat height at 780 mm (30.7 in), you’ll be positioned quite upright as you ride. The wheelbase is of 1320 mm (51.9 in). What makes the EK3 so attractive is its speed and acceleration. With a max power output of 6.2 kW (8.3 hp) at 95 kph (59 mph), and max torque of

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Yamaha XSR125 makes global debut

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from https://www.financialexpress.com Smallest neo-retro XSR to launch in Europe in June. A new-retro-styled Yamaha has just been revealed which would make fun daily commuter, enter XSR125 – the smallest XSR to date. The Japanese manufacturer is expanding its 125cc portfolio with the XSR125 which is based on the same platform as the MT-125 and R125 but with classic clothing. Although it packs a range of modern features which are quite a necessity now. Yamaha XSR125 is powered by a 124cc liquid-cooled SOHC engine that puts out 14.7 bhp at 10,000 rpm and 11.5 Nm of torque at 8,000 rpm and is paired with a six-speed transmission. The engine boasts advanced Variable Valve Actuation and is Euro V compliant. Being a neo-retro, the XSR125 gets a round headlamp casing but with an LED lamp and an LED tail lamp as well, a rounded fuel tank design, and a long flat seat. Bodywork has been kept at its minimal with the underbelly revealing the engine and radiator, but it does get an engine guard. The instrument cluster is a retro-themed LCD display with a chrome outer finish. Colour options include Redline, Impact Yellow and Tech Black, along with contrasting decals for each. Suspension setup includes 37 mm upside-down forks and swingarm for the rear and brakes are covered by a 267 mm disc up front and a 220 mm at the rear. Tyre sizes are 110 and 140, front and rear. It weighs in at 140 kg with a seat height of 815 mm, 160 mm ground clearance and a fuel tank capacity of 11 litres.

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Harley-Davidson hit with 56% EU tariff effectively blocking it from the EU market

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by Rick Barrett from https://www.jsonline.com Harley-Davidson hit with 56% EU tariff, an ‘unprecedented situation’ that will block the motorcycle maker from the market, CEO says Harley-Davidson Inc. has been slapped with a 56% European Union tariff on all its motorcycles, the company said Monday, effectively blocking it from the EU market. Harley said it would appeal the ruling scheduled to go into effect in June. “This is an unprecedented situation and underscores the very real harm of an escalating trade war to our stakeholders on both sides of the Atlantic. The potential impact of this decision on our manufacturing operations and overall ability to compete in Europe is significant,” Jochen Zeitz, Harley chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. Europe is Harley’s second largest market after the United States. “Imposing an import tariff on all Harley-Davidson motorcycles goes against all notions of free trade and, if implemented, these increased tariffs will pose a targeted competitive disadvantage for our products, against those of our European competitors,” Zeitz added. In 2018, the European Union placed a 25% incremental tariff (31% total tariff) on motorcycles imported into the EU from the United States. Under the latest proposal, the EU would place a 50% incremental tariff on U.S. motorcycles for a total tariff of 56%. The ruling would even apply to Harleys manufactured in Thailand, where the company had set up operations to get around the 2018 EU tariff. Monday, Harley posted a quarterly profit of $259 million, or $1.68 a share, up from $70 million, or 45 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $1.4 billion from $1.3 billion a year earlier. “The actions we have taken to reshape the business are having a positive impact on our results, especially for our most important North American region,” Zeitz said.

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Europe’s Highest Motorcycle Museum To Reopen Winter 2021 after Fire

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by Dustin Wheelen from https://www.rideapart.com Motorcycle enthusiasts around the world were heartbroken when Austria’s Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum was destroyed by a fire on January 18, 2021. Known as Europe’s highest motorcycle museum (7,200 feet above sea level), the Top Mountain housed over 280 motorcycles and cars. Not one of them escaped the early morning blaze. Reports reflect that a faulty museum display led to the massive inferno. By the time firefighters arrived, they couldn’t save the 32,000 square-foot structure. However, they were able to contain the fire to the museum, keeping it from spreading to the nearby ski resort and restaurant. While the blaze is still fresh in our memories, Top Mountain founders Attila and Alban Scheiber are already planning a comeback for the Timmelsjoch museum. “We want to offer more than a world of experiences, the goal is to offer something also to non-motorcyclists,” the Scheibers said. “There will be 250 motorcycles already promised by collectors from all over the world.” Prior to the fire, the Scheiber brothers had plans to further expand the sprawling museum. The pair will leverage those blueprints to reconstruct the Passo Del Rombo facility along with the drafted expansions. The enormity of the project isn’t stopping the Scheibers from setting an ambitious goal of reopening by winter 2021. With the future museum hosting collectors’ motorcycles from around the world, safety will also be of the utmost importance. After the damage incurred during the January, 2021, blaze, plans should undoubtedly include fire repellent building materials and advanced sprinkler systems. Of course, the project has many months of hard work ahead. However, if we would have known that the Mountain Top Motorcycle Museum would be back in less than a year after the winter 2020 fire, we might have been a little less heartbroken.

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Bonhams Motorcycles Kick Start 2021 with Return to Stafford

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by Ben Walker from https://www.bonhams.com/press_release/31686/ The Summer Sale The International Classic MotorCycle Show (The Postponed Spring Sale) 3 – 4 Jul 2021 Stafford, Staffordshire County Showground The Gentleman’s Collection A selection of wonderfully restored Vincent-HRD’s consigned to the Spring Sale Following a successful year of sales at its Bicester Heritage base – with a 93 per cent sale rate – Bonhams Motorcycles is returning to Stafford for the first auction of 2021. The Summer Stafford Sale will take place on 3 and 4 July, in line with the rescheduled International Classic MotorCycle Show. Consignments are now invited to the auction to join early confirmed lots including two important collections, one of Italian sports bikes and the other a selection of classic Vincent-HRDs, the world’s fastest motorcycles of their time. THE RON CODY COLLECTION A selection of motorcycles offered from the Ron Cody Collection Well-known in MV Agusta club circles, the late Ron Cody, a former sports car racer and engineer, turned to his passion for building up and restoring his collection of Italian machines as a retirement hobby. This collection offers 48 motorcycles, with many examples of MV Agustas as well as other Italian marques. Highlights include: 1964 MV AGUSTA 150CC RAPIDO SPORT, £3,000 – 4,000 Like their larger siblings, the small MVs were very expensive, costing as much as a British 500, which explains why so few of these exquisitely engineered little motorcycles were sold in the UK. This 150 Rapido Sport displays a total of only 125 kilometres on the odometer since restoration. 1953 MV AGUSTA 125CC TEL ‘SPORT COMPETIZIONE’, £4,000 – 6,000 With superb engineering compared with any British contemporary, the MV Agusta’s 125cc TEL ‘stroker’ of 1949 was powered by a neat unitary construction single-cylinder engine which, somewhat unusually for a post-war design, featured detachable transfer

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Car and Motorcycle Companies Now Making Electric Bikes

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by Roy Furchgott from https://www.nytimes.com They see branding opportunities as the pandemic and a desire by cities to curb traffic propel e-bike sales to new heights. The transportation industry has seen the future, and the future is 1895. That was the year Ogden Bolton Jr. of Canton, Ohio, was awarded U.S. Patent 552,271 for an “electrical bicycle.” A century and change later, electric bikes have gained new currency as car and motorcycle companies like Ducati, Harley-Davidson, Jeep, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Yamaha have horned into the market with their own designs. While the pandemic has accelerated bike sales, the overriding attraction is that cities worldwide are beginning to restrict motor traffic. These companies are betting that e-bikes are the urban vehicles of tomorrow — or at least vehicles for good publicity today. “In the past 12 to 18 months, you have seen a lot of new brands come into the market,” said Andrew Engelmann, an e-bike sales and marketing manager at Yamaha, which has been in the electric bike business since 1993 and claims sales of two million worldwide. “We in the U.S. have not seen this new energy toward cycling since Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France.” Credit the coronavirus pandemic, which has ignited bike sales of all stripes, but none so much as e-bikes. While retail unit sales of bicycles from January to October last year were up 46 percent from a year earlier, electric bikes were up 140 percent. Measured in dollars, regular bikes were up 67 percent and e-bikes 158 percent — so don’t expect a discount. Those numbers, from the market researchers at NPD, do not include online-only retailers such as Rad Power Bikes, so sales may actually be higher still. Ogden Bolton aside, there is a historical connection between bicycles and motorcycles. Many early

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Piaggio, KTM, Honda and Yamaha to set up swappable batteries consortium

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from https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com The consortium will define the standardised technical specifications of the swappable battery system for vehicles belonging to the L-category, mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles. Piaggio Group on Monday said it has signed a letter of intent with KTM AG, Honda Motor and Yamaha Motor to set up a Swappable Batteries Consortium for motorcycles and light electric vehicles. The consortium will define the standardised technical specifications of the swappable battery system for vehicles belonging to the L-category: mopeds, motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles. The companies will be working closely with interested stakeholders and national, European and international standardisation bodies. The founding members of the consortium will be involved in the creation of international technical standards. The Consortium will start its activities in May 2021. In the context of the Paris Climate Agreement and the transition to electromobility, the founding members of the consortium believe that the availability of a standardised swappable battery system would both promote the widespread use of light electric vehicles and contribute to a more sustainable life-cycle management of batteries used in the transport sector, the companies said in a joint statement. Also, by extending the range, shortening the charging time and lowering vehicle and infrastructure costs, the manufacturers will try to answer customers’ main concerns regarding the future of electromobility. Michele Colaninno, Piaggio Group chief of strategy and product, commented, “With the signing of this letter of intent, the signatories show their proactiveness vis-à-vis the major concerns of their customers and the political priorities as regards the electrification of vehicles.” An international standard for the swappable batteries system will make this technology efficient and at the disposal of the consumers, added Michele Colaninno.

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Harley-Davidson Pan America Apparel Coming From Europe

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by Daniel Patrascu from https://www.autoevolution.com It may be called Pan America, but Harley-Davidson’s biggest gamble in years requires a global reach to work. And we’re not talking from the sales perspective only, but from the partner companies’ point of view as well. Harley pulled the wraps off Pan America at the beginning of the week and announced it would be supporting the upcoming launch with a long list of home-brewed parts and accessories. It also secured the involvement of foreign companies, who were quick to jump on this new and shiny two-wheeled train. European apparel specialist REV’IT is one of them, and it will be making gear for Pan America riders, ranging from jackets and pants all the way to gloves and helmets. For all intents and purposes, they complement the other side of the coin, covered by Harley itself with the launch of luggage sets and accessories. “REV’IT! shares Harley-Davidson’s values in creating protective motorcycle gear that delivers functionality with refined style. Successful adventure touring gear delivers on providing protection, mobility, visibility, four-season versatility and storage, and this new gear was designed based on extensive REV’IT rider feedback and experience,” the company said in a statement. The REV’IT offer comprises two types of jackets and pants and two types of helmets. There are also boots and gloves on the table from the European supplier. Sadly, you will find no reference on pricing yet, as this piece of information was not released. The Harley-Davidson Pan America comes in two variants, 1250 and 1250 Special, both powered by the same 1,250cc engine from the Revolution Max family. The engine is rated at a maximum output of 150 hp, and that’s pretty good for motorcycles that tip the scales at 534 lbs (242 kg) and 559 lbs (254 kg), respectively.

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