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Summer Kick-off Bikernet Weekly News for June 3, 2021

The Sun is Out and We’re Riding Hey, I wish I knew what to say today. My feeble mind is packed with thoughts and new experiences since landing lock-stock and barrel in the Badlands. On Memorial Day, I rode with Woody and about 20 riders to the scene of one of the last Indian battles. We found out where the name Buffalo Chip came from, Jonathan “Buffalo Chip” White. We rode north on the 79 past Mike Ballard’s biker home, I believe passed Sugar Bear’s Chopperville, Hoover and stopped at a magnificently built western bar. Let’s hit the news, I’m getting hitched today and need to finish early. Let’s ride fast and free forever, –Bandit Click Here to Read the Weekly News on Bikernet. Join the Cantina for more – Subscribe Today. https://www.bikernet.com/pages/custom/subscription.aspx

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A cross-country motorcycle trip filled with memories

by Christina Leo from https://www.inregister.com Baton Rouge financial planner Daryl Ellis began riding motorcycles between six and seven years ago, but when his daughter landed a seat in graduate school in the cedar climes of British Columbia, he knew that the time had come to really put his gears to the test. With Emory’s possessions distributed between her Jeep and a U-Haul trailer, Ellis hitched his BMW K 1600 GT touring-class motorcycle on the back and accompanied her last summer as they made their way northwest, a long but straightforward path ending in a brief visit to Ellis’ brother’s Seattle home before settling Emory into her new digs. As for the journey back to Baton Rouge? Ellis had something a bit more wayward in mind. For two weeks, Ellis drove an alternative route home, traveling a total of 752 miles through Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi and, eventually, back to Louisiana. “My wife had gotten me a book, Great American Motorcycle Tours, for Christmas a while back, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to check some of them out,” says Ellis. “As for deciding where to stay or where to eat, I was kind of just playing it by ear. Fortunately it all worked out better than expected, with blue skies almost the whole way home.” And a good thing, too, with so much sightseeing in so little time. The snowy peaks of North Cascades National Park, roadside waterfalls of Oregon’s national forests, wildflowers of Sun Valley, buffalo of Yellowstone, jagged knuckles of the Tetons, yellow farmlands of corn country and riverside roads of Hot Springs all served as welcome replacements for billboards and cramped car seats. “I had my iPod loaded up with music and podcasts and the like, so I had

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New Pan America motorcycle drawing national attention

by Sarah Hauer from https://www.jsonline.com Harley-Davidson Inc.’s newest bike — a less expensive and lighter motorcycle — is drawing national attention as the company tries to lure new riders. Harley-Davidson’s Pan America is arriving at hundreds of dealerships now. “(The Pan America) is definitely not your dad’s Harley-Davidson cruiser,” New York Times reporter Mark Gardiner wrote. The Pan America is about $2,000 cheaper and 200 pounds lighter than Harley-Davidson’s most popular touring bikes. The base model of the Pan America is around 530 pounds and starts at $17,319. Pan America’s launch was delayed a year. The company held a virtual launch event in February. Kevin Duke, who writes about motorcycles, was impressed by his test ride of the new bike. “The news about Harley for the past couple of years has been quite pessimistic,” said Duke, the editor in chief at Thunder Press in the New York Times article. “With the older demographic aging out, there was no real hint at what the company could do to gain market share, but this really changes it. The new motor is that good.” The Milwaukee-based company has been trying to expand its customer base for years. The company experienced a steep decline in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic. Motorcycle sales were up 9% worldwide for the company during its most recent fiscal quarter. That bump was driven by a 30% increase in North America motorcycle sales over the same three-month time period last year. Harley-Davidson launched its all-electric motorcycle brand LiveWire in May. The first motorcycle branded as a LiveWire bike is scheduled to premiere at the International Motorcycle Show on July 9.

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Six Ways to Sunday Racing

One Rider’s Unique Racing Project by Kyle Smith from Hagerty.com I dreamt up the idea of racing six different disciplines on one machine about a year ago. Registered for all events in the Novice category, participating in events will encompass six racing disciplines in motorsports. The final push: Six Ways to Sunday racing begins this week. Click Here to Read this Fascinating Photo Feature on Race Preparation on Bikernet. Join the Cantina for more – Subscribe Today. https://www.bikernet.com/pages/custom/subscription.aspx

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Public Safety meeting discusses illegal dirt bikes and excessive noise

by Carolyn Noel from https://www.thereminder.com CHICOPEE – A Public Safety meeting took place to discuss illegal dirt bikes, motorcycles, speeding and excessive noise in the City of Chicopee on May 19. City Councilor William Courchesne, Ward 7, has been an active participant in the fight against this issue. At the City Council meeting on May 4, Courchesne spoke on the many phone calls he has received from upset residents in his ward. He also helped with updating the Code of the City of Chicopee to strengthen and modernize many noise ordinances. During the Public Safety meeting, residents were given the chance to voice their concerns on illegal dirt bikes, motorcycles, speeding and noise. Members of the Chicopee Police Department were also in attendance to respond and answer questions. One resident spoke on the danger of dirt bikes speeding along public streets. “They’re turning our public streets into their playgrounds,” she said. Attendee Gerald Lavoie agreed on the danger of dirt bikes speeding on streets, but also proposed that the city give them a safe space to ride. “The kids need a place to ride,” he said. Lavoie suggested opening up land for people to ride their dirt bikes safely by Westover Air Reserve Base, near Szot Park or anywhere else that could be accommodated. Resident David Perault spoke on his motorcycle-related concerns at the meeting. He said that from April through November the noise is “crazy.” He even compared the area he lives in to a speed race. “My apartment unfortunately faces the Chicopee River and what I like to call the Indianapolis 500,” said Perault. “These guys are flying.” He spoke on the excessive motorcycle noise that he had to deal with during the COVID-19 lockdown when he was home. He said that a lot of the motorcycles backfire,

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Hogs for Heroes gifts motorcycle to Wisconsin Dells veteran

by Erica Dynes from https://www.wiscnews.com A Wisconsin Dells man became the 18th veteran to receive a motorcycle from a Wisconsin organization that gifts motorcycles to veterans to help them cope with mental and physical wounds from their time in active duty. Marine Sgt. Rick Erickson was gifted a Harley-Davidson motorcycle from Hogs for Heroes at The Keg and Patio in Wisconsin Dells May 23. The presentation included a color guard ceremony by Wisconsin Dells American Legion Post 187. Eleven of the veterans who had receive motorcycles from the non-profit organization were there to hand keys to Erickson to start his new motorcycle. Erickson hand-picked his motorcycle after going to three different dealerships with the co-founders of Hogs for Heroes before finding his perfect one at an Oconomowoc dealership. To Erickson, the presentation was much more than receiving a motorcycle. It was sharing the emotional moment with the family he had become a part of, forming bonds with others who understand the pain and struggle of coming home from war. He struggled to fight back tears as he told the crowd what it meant to him. “As awesome as the bike is, it’s about getting back in touch with people who understand you, living life again, people who know me and who have shared experiences that I had and welcoming me into the family,” Erickson said. Erickson planned to follow in the footsteps of his father, who served in Vietnam as a Marine. He decided to enlist in the Marines after high school but was diagnosed with cancer, according to his biography on the Hogs for Heroes website. After being cancer free for five years, he enlisted in the Marines in 2003. One year later he did a six-month tour of Iraq and served as an artillery scout and gunfire controller.

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Round six of the 2021 Moto2 World Championship

Magnificent Mugello awaits Lowes and Fernandez. Round six of the 2021 Moto2 World Championship takes Elf Marc VDS Racing Team riders Sam Lowes and Augusto Fernandez to the technically challenging Mugello track in Italy’s picturesque Tuscany region. Lowes and Fernandez may not have come away with the results their pace deserved in Le Mans, but both arrive in Mugello eager to showcase their full potential in Sunday’s 21-lap Italian Grand Prix. The pair completed a very constructive one-day test at the Circuit Barcelona-de Catalunya last week and are confident of a successful start to a busy run of four races taking part over the next five weeks leading into the long summer break. 37 – Augusto Fernandez Fernandez is determined to convert his recent strong practice and qualifying form into a top result when he makes just his third Mugello appearance this weekend. Mugello was the venue for the Spaniard’s World Championship debut in 2017 and on his most recent appearance in 2019 he enjoyed a fantastic race and finished less than two seconds off the podium in fifth. “It’s an amazing but tricky track” “I’m really looking forward to going to Mugello. I had a very good race there in 2019 but I am still lacking experience of this track. It’s an amazing but tricky track and I’ll need to play video games again because I haven’t done many laps there! It was a big shame to finish the race in Le Mans so early when it was clear we had a chance of a strong result. But we performed very well and understood many things about the bike during the test in Barcelona last week. I’m feeling confident with the bike, but it is important to finish this weekend after crashes in the last two races. I’m sure

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Brooks’ lemon law bill for motorcycles clears Senate

from https://www.meadvilletribune.com The state Senate has unanimously approved legislation introduced by Sen. Michele Brooks to enact a “lemon law” for motorcycles, to better protect consumers who purchase or lease motorcycles with manufacturing defects that cannot be remedied after several attempts. Currently, the Automobile Lemon Law protects those who purchase vehicles by requiring manufacturers to repair any defect that significantly affects the use, value or safety of the vehicle, as long as the defect emerges soon after it is acquired. However, no similar protections are offered to those who purchase motorcycles, leaving the owner to either pay for repairs or fix the problem themselves. S.B. 82 remedies this inequity. “Whether a vehicle has two wheels or four, consumers who make major vehicle purchases should be protected from manufacturing defects,” said Brooks, whose 50th District includes Crawford County. Under the bill, a defective motorcycle would be replaced, or its cost would be refunded, if it could not be repaired after three attempts within one year of the delivery of the cycle to the purchaser, or during the term of warranty, whichever occurs first. S.B. 82 heads to the House of Representatives for that chamber’s consideration. Lemon laws are United States state laws that provide a remedy for purchasers of cars and other consumer goods in order to compensate for products that repeatedly fail to meet standards of quality and performance. Although many types of products can be defective, the term “lemon” is mostly used to describe defective motor vehicles.

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Do You Own a Motorcycle Airbag if You Have to Pay Extra to Inflate It?

by EditorDavid from https://tech.slashdot.org “Pardon me while I feed the meter on my critical safety device,” quips a Hackaday article: If you ride a motorcycle, you may have noticed that the cost of airbag vests has dropped. In one case, something very different is going on here. As reported by Motherboard, you can pick up a KLIM Ai-1 for $400 but the airbag built into it will not function until unlocked with an additional purchase, and a big one at that. So do you really own the vest for $400…? The Klim airbag vest has two components that make it work. The vest itself is from Klim and costs $400 and arrives along with the airbag unit. But if you want it to actually detect an accident and inflate, you need load up a smartphone app and activate a small black box made by a different company: In&Motion. That requires your choice of another $400 payment or you can subscribe at $12 a month or $120 a year. If you fail to renew, the vest is essentially worthless. Hackaday notes it raises the question of what it means to own a piece of technology. “Do you own your cable modem or cell phone if you aren’t allowed to open it up? Do you own a piece of software that wants to call home periodically and won’t let you stop it?” This Motorcycle Airbag Vest Will Stop Working If You Miss a Payment by Aaron Gordon from https://www.vice.com Airbag vests are pretty much exactly what they sound like, garments worn by people who undertake exceedingly dangerous personal hobbies in order to slightly reduce the risk of severe bodily harm or death. For example, in 2018 the motorcycle racing circuit MotoGP made airbag vests mandatory. Since then airbag vests have become steadily

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NHDRO Race – Lee and Adams Take $67,000 Shootout

RACE REPORT – NHDRO $67K Big Bracket Shootout Season Opener presented by Liguori Drag Racing by Tim Hailey event: NHDRO $67K Big Bracket Shootout Season Opener presented by Liguori Drag Racing when: May 13-16, 2021 where: National Trail Raceway, Hebron, Ohio, USA NHDRO’s Brian and Niki Welch have really perfected their Big Money bracket shootout formula with last weekend’s $67,000 Big Bracket Shootout presented by Liguori Drag Racing at National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio. A no-box ladder and delay box ladder (64 bikes each) raced for $33,000 a piece before facing off against each other for a $1,000 bonus. How fair is that for spreading the wealth? Click Here to read the race coverage on Bikernet. Join the Cantina for more – Subscribe Now. https://www.bikernet.com/pages/custom/subscription.aspx

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