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Ultimate Motorcycle Road Trip Packing List

By General Posts

Road tripping on your bike is an excellent way for celebrating your love of riding

Are you planning a motorcycle road trip? Then you’re in for an enjoyable time. Road tripping on your bike is an excellent way to visit scenic locations while celebrating your love for riding.

However, bringing all the necessary supplies on your trip is essential to having the best experience. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of all of the most critical items you’ll need for your trip. Read on to learn our ultimate motorcycle road trip packing list.

Click Here to Read this short, simple guide on Bikernet.com

Ride Free, Ride Safe ….

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Barn Find Project: Where to Start

By General Posts

Key tips for enthusiasts

No matter how old we get, we keep daydreaming. It’s these hopeful visions of what’s possible that help fuel the proliferation of the barn find trend.

So, let’s all close our eyes and ponder: What you would do if you opened that random garage door and found a 1928 first year of the Harley Flathead 45 or a racing OHV Peashooter? Where does one even start in bringing a project like that back to life?

As the venerable Tom Cotter has said any number of times on the Barn Find Hunter video series, it certainly involves more than just dropping in a fresh battery, airing up tires, and turning the key. Fortunately, it’s a lot easier to bring a bike back to life than a car.

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Best motorcycle cleaner for 2021: Top 10 products

By General Posts

by Kyle Hyatt from https://www.cnet.com

Cleaning your motorcycle can be a pain, but this stuff makes it a lot easier.

Motorcycle cleaner notes
The visual benefits of keeping a clean bike are pretty obvious, I mean, more shiny is more better, right? But there are some performance and safety benefits, too. For example, if your bike is filthy, it can be hard to see if you’ve suddenly sprung a leak of some vital fluid (usually oil).

Some road crud can be corrosive over time to the exposed steel and aluminum parts of your motorcycle, not to mention the fasteners that hold things onto your bike. You thought changing out that clutch was going to be easy, didn’t you? It would have been if you hadn’t left a bunch of road salt all over the bike for months. Now it’s broken-bolt city, population: you.

The performance benefits are more subtle but no less real. This is especially true when it comes to chain maintenance. Just think, if your motorcycle has to fight the friction of a dry, dirty or corroded chain, then that’s power lost. If you’re on a 200-horsepower sport bike, that’s not a big deal, but if you’re on a 20-horsepower motorcycle like the Royal Enfield Meteor 350 I recently reviewed, you might just notice.

Keep your bike clean with a well-stocked motorcycle care kit, and make your life easy.

Best general motorcycle cleaner overall
S100 Total Cycle Cleaner $15

Best general motorcycle cleaner overall runner-up
Muc-Off Nanotechnology Motorcycle Cleaner $16

Best motorcycle quick detailer
S100 Detail & Wax spray $15

Best waterless motorcycle wash
Muc-Off High-Performance No Rinse Bike Cleaning Spray $18

Best motorcycle chain cleaner and lube
Maxima Clean Up and Chain Wax $28

Best motorcycle chain cleaning brush
Simple Solutions The Grunge Brush $14

Best motorcycle wheel cleaner
S100 Motorcycle Wheel Cleaner $21

Best motorcycle chrome cleaner and polish
Simichrome Polish $14

Best complete motorcycle cleaning kit
S100 Motorcycle Detailing Kit $50

Best motorcycle helmet cleaner
Motul Helmet Clean $8

I love riding motorcycles, but kind of hate the care and maintenance that they require — especially when it’s my own bike. Luckily, I live in a place where things are dry and dusty rather than wet and muddy, so I can get by most of the time. But when it’s time to buckle down and wash the bike, there are a few motorcycle cleaning products I always turn to.

In addition to keeping your bike clean, it’s important to clean and lubricate your chain (if you have one) and make sure your helmet is free of crud and dried bugs. I’ve listed some of the best motorcycle cleaner products here. They’ve been good to me over the years for both purposes and hopefully you’ll appreciate them too.

Best general motorcycle cleaner overall – S100 Total Cycle Cleaner
I’m one of those people who like a clean motorcycle, but hate actually cleaning their motorcycle. That used to mean that I’d just live with a dirty motorcycle most of the time, but not since I found S100 spray cleaner.

This cleaning product is awesome and it’s easy to use. Spray it on, let it sit for a few minutes and hose it off. It does a great job of removing dirt, road grime, grease, dried-on bugs and whatever else I’ve accumulated on my adventures. It’s also safe on plastics like your motorcycle windshield and metals, so no worries about it harming any exposed components on your motorcycle.

Best general motorcycle cleaner overall runner-up – Muc-Off Nanotechnology Motorcycle Cleaner
The Muc-Off Nano Tech bike cleaner spray is awesome. It smells better than the S100 and it’s biodegradable. Muc-Off also sells it in concentrate form, which I love, so you don’t have to constantly buy new plastic bottles.

Like the S100, it’s a spray on and rinse off affair and it does a great job of removing caked on road grime nastiness from all parts of your motorcycle without sending a bunch of harsh chemicals down the drain.

Best motorcycle quick detailer – S100 Detail & Wax spray
Sometimes you just need to touch up your bike before heading out on an all-day ride with your buds. I mean, you don’t want to show up and have the least shiny two-wheeled machine, now do you?

This S100 Detail and Wax spray is great because it’s specifically geared towards motorcycles and does a good job of shining paint and powder-coat. It’s easy to use, too. Just spray on the detailer and wipe it off with a good microfiber towel.

Best waterless motorcycle wash – Muc-Off High-Performance No Rinse Bike Cleaning Spray
What do you do if you have a dirty motorcycle and you don’t have access to a hose? Either take it to a coin-op car wash to use the pressure washer (which kind of sucks) or grab the awesome High-Performance Waterless Wash spray from Muc-Off.

Like basically every Muc-Off product, this bike cleaner is easy on the environment while still being tough on stubborn dirt and grime. All you have to do is spray it on, let it soak for a minute and wipe it off. After you wiped the dirt off, get a new clean microfiber cloth and buff your bike until it shines. It’s super easy and packs into a backpack or side case for easy motorcycle cleaning on the go.

Best motorcycle chain cleaner and lube – Maxima Clean Up and Chain Wax
Keeping your motorcycle’s chain clean and lubed is a miserable task, but it’s critical if you want to keep your chain and sprocket in tip-top condition. There are as many different products and techniques and old-timey sage wisdom for cleaning and lubing motorcycle chains as there are stars in the sky, but I’m going to recommend what works for me.

The Maxima products — Clean Up chain cleaner and Chain Wax — are the perfect one-two punch for chain maintenance. Clean Up does an excellent job of removing dirt, debris and and acting as a degreaser for old gross lube while at the same time being gentle on the delicate O-rings inside your chain. Chain wax is a spray-on chain lube that goes on wet and then dries into a waxy coating that resists coming off and doesn’t encourage dirt to stick to it. The best part is that Maxima offers it in a combo pack with a decent penetrating lubricant as a bonus.

Best motorcycle chain cleaning brush – Simple Solutions The Grunge Brush
As we’ve already established, cleaning motorcycle chains sucks. It’s greasy, grimy work and depending on how nasty you’ve let your chain get, it can be hard work, too. Having a good chain-cleaning brush in your cleaning kit is a huge help and my personal favorite brush is the Grunge Brush.

The Grunge Brush has stiff bristles that clean your chain on three sides at once, plus longer bristles at the other end for getting into your sprocket teeth and so on. It’s cheap and effective and it even has replaceable brushes, so you’re not constantly buying new ones. When paired with a good chain cleaning solvent like Maxima’s Clean Up, this makes the work of chain maintenance a whole lot easier.

Best motorcycle wheel cleaner – S100 Motorcycle Wheel Cleaner
There are a zillion different wheel cleaners on the market and they all do something a little different, but one of the things I like best about the S100 motorcycle wheel cleaner is that it is a thicker, more gel-like formula which sticks to your wheels better. It does a great job of getting brake dust, dirt and other grime off as well.

The other nice thing about the S100 Motorcycle Wheel Cleaner is that it’s gentle, which means it’s safe on all kinds of wheels — be they painted, powder-coated, aluminum, magnesium or stainless steel. If your bike’s wheels are too dirty for normal bike wash to take care of, grab a spray bottle of this.

Best motorcycle chrome cleaner and polish – Simichrome Polish
Unlike most cars these days, it’s easy to buy a brand new motorcycle with a bunch of chrome. And chrome looks great until it starts to dull or pit, but then it looks like crap. Thankfully the solution to that dull chrome problem is easy: Just polish it!

If you’re going to undertake that task, you’re going to need a good chrome polish compound and one of my personal favorites comes straight outta Germany. It’s called Simichrome and it works really, really well. All you need to do is apply the elbow grease with a microfiber towel using this metal polish and get ready to be blinded by the shine.

Best complete motorcycle cleaning kit – S100 Motorcycle Detailing Kit
If you’re detecting a theme with the S100 products here, you’re not mistaken. The fact is that S100 offers some of the best motorcycle-specific cleaning and detailing products around and at reasonable prices. Still, what if you don’t necessarily want to buy each product by itself? Thankfully there’s a motorcycle cleaning kit.

The S100 detailing kit comes with everything you’ll need to detail your motorcycle short of a hose and water — including a drying towel. Even better, it comes in a tidy little carrying case, so you can keep all your motorcycle cleaning supplies together and not let things get lost in the back of some dank, daddy longlegs-infested garage cabinet over the winter.

Best motorcycle helmet cleaner – Motul Helmet Clean
Everybody knows that riding with a motorcycle helmet is a good idea — hell, it’s even the law in most places. What people might not know is that while keeping your helmet clean is a good thing, using chemicals is a huge no-no — even on the outside. Luckily, there are a few great helmet cleaning products on the market and my favorite comes from Motul.

The Motul helmet spray not only does an epic job of loosening dried on bugs and dirt from the shell of your helmet, it also offers up a nice shine that is more resistant to getting bugs stuck on it in the future. Spray it on, let it soak and wipe it off.

For the inside of your helmet, never try and clean the pads and liner when they’re still inside the shell. Always remove them and wash them gently according to your helmet manufacturer’s guidelines.

Klock Werks Vent Screen Install

By General Posts

Klock Werks has created a simple yet effective part to accent the vent in the Harley-Davidson 2014-2020 FLH “batwing” style fairing. And on top of not only looking good it will keep some love bugs from flying through the vent.

Klock Werks offer a whole line of accessories for your motorcycle, not limited to just Harleys. Check them out. They are a great company with great support and that it is hard to find.

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Why SIPDE is Important for Motorcycle Riding Safety

By General Posts

How Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, and Execute work to keep riders safe in precarious moments

In this quick guide, we’re going to explain how Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, and Execute work to keep riders safe in precarious moments. We’ll go through the recommended applications for each letter of the acronym individually, and how to best apply them all throughout your riding career to allow you to enjoy the open road stress-free.

SIPDE, along with SEE (Search, Evaluate, Execute), are pushed by motorcycle instructors, group ride leaders, and many prominent online motorcycle safety resources.

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Useful Tips for Buying a Classic Motorcycle

By General Posts

from https://thekatynews.com

Motorcycles that are more than 25 years old are regarded as classic. If you want to buy a classic motorcycle, there are several factors that you must consider. Some of the things that you may need to take into account include budget, and how old of a bike you intend to buy. Choosing the right bike can be a daunting task since there are a lot of different bikes available on the market. Read on to learn the useful tips for buying a classic motorcycle.

Purpose of the Bike

First and foremost, you must clearly define the purpose you want the classic motorcycle to fulfill. There are different types of motorcycles, and these have been designed for various purposes. Therefore, you must select the bike style that best suits your needs. The common types of motorcycles that you can get on the market include the following:

  • Standard motorcycles are ideal for general purposes and appropriate for beginners and regular commuting. With this type of bike, you can save money, but it is not appropriate for long distances.
  • Cruisers are heavy, and they are good for style, comfort, and tall riders. However, the bikes are bad for small riders and off-road conditions.
  • Sportbikes are built for high speed and performance.
  • Touring motorcycles are designed for long road trips, and they offer comfortable riding. The bike also comes with additional features that make riding comfortable.
  • Dual sport motorcycles are good for off-road riding, and they are also lightweight.

If you want the right bike, you should look into these categories.

Type of Bike

There are different types of motorcycles that suit the needs of every kind of rider. To determine the type of bike that is right for you, you must consider your intended use, where you plan to use the bike, and your experience level. Professional marketers at timeless2wheels.com explain that there are different factors you should consider when you want to buy a motorcycle. For instance, it is imperative to know the engine size that can fit your needs. The engine sizes for motorcycles range from 250cc up to about 1,400cc. If you want an entry-level and low-cost bike, smaller engines in the range of 250cc to 500cc can be ideal for you.

Smaller bikes are easier to handle, especially when you are a beginner. Other specifications that you should consider when buying a classic motorcycle include weight, top speed, and fuel tank capacity. You may also need to check if the seat height is suitable for your needs.

Price of the Motorcycle

It is essential to consider the price of the motorcycle. Different factors like the type of bike you choose and whether you want a used or a new one determines the price. For a used bike, you can expect to pay a few hundred dollars. On the other hand, new bikes start from about $3,000. It is essential to define your source of funding. There are also additional costs that come with buying a motorcycle. These costs include riding gear, insurance, and licensing fees for your bike. More importantly, you must consider the maintenance costs of your bike and the availability of spare parts.

Buying a Used Motorcycle

When you are a beginner, a used motorcycle can offer you the best value and cost you less than a new bike. However, getting a reliable bike can be difficult if you lack knowledge about motorcycles. You must avoid motorcycles with high mileage, salvage titles, and excessive wear. The best way to get the right bike is to have it inspected first and do some research to get details about the value of the motorcycle.

Inspection of the bike should include checking for leaks, abnormal wear, rust, brakes, exhaust, chain, wheels, and others. You must ask useful questions to the seller of the motorbike so that you can make an informed decision. You can also check feedback about the seller before you buy a bike from them. Alternatively, you may also try to get referrals from other people like friends and family members.

Motorcycles are used for different purposes, and they come in various types and sizes. If you want to buy a classic motorcycle, there are various things that you should consider. The first thing to do is to define your needs so that you can get the right type of motorcycle. You also need to take into account other elements like the cost of the bike, availability of repair parts, and other related expenses. You should also procure insurance for your motorcycle so that you get coverage in the event of an accident.

Winter Riding Destinations from Cycle Trader

By General Posts

For many of us around the country, the colder months have hit… and they’ve hit hard. Looking for a warm-weather escape so you take that bike out of storage? We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite warm-weather rides perfect for cruising this time of year. You can send us a postcard to thank us later. You can send any season riding story to Bikernet.

Pack your bags and beat the winter blues by checking out one or more of these winter riding destinations.

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Ride the Arizona Backroads or Die Trying

By General Posts

Eric Herrmann’s Can’t Get Enough of the Desert and the Tarantula Gang

By Bandit, with illustrations by Eric Herrmann

Eric Herrmann wrote, illustrated and published a book about riding in Arizona. It’s called Ride the Arizona Backroads and it’s a guidebook for bikers who want to ride hot, flat, desert, rattlesnake invested roads of Arizona.

I started to read it immediately, and if you plan to blast into Arizona, you might want to read the first nine pages, quick. They immediately give you the life-saving do’s and don’ts around desert riding.

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Back To Basics – How To Change A Rear Tire

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Andie’s Garage: The How To’s for Basic Maintenance On Your Motorcycle

I want to share with you the basics of repairs so you can decide if you want to tackle it yourself, or just simply know what happens when you take it to someone else to get repaired.

I like to smoke tires, not drugs! The down side to this addictive behavior? Always replacing rear tires!

Not only do I complete a burnout before each and every pass I make on the drag strip, I like to do them for fun!

CLICK HERE TO READ A HOW-TO GUIDE TO CHANGING YOUR REAR TIRE

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Trike Touring Guide to America

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Trike Touring Guide to America : Get out, ride, explore, live and tell us about it.
by Ujjwal Dey

In 1903, Horatio Nelson Jackson became the first documented person to drive an automobile from San Francisco to New York using only a connection of dirt roads, cow paths, and railroad beds. His journey, covered by the press, became a national sensation and called for a system of long distance roads.

United States has 21 kilometres of roads per 1000 people. 5,486,610 kilometers of paved roads exist today in USA. Out of that 103,027 km are marked Expressways. Yes, you are connected to all Americans everywhere. What is stopping you? Get up, boot up, ride and meet these fellow citizens and explore your beautiful America.

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