kyokushintiger posted this awesome Wayne Gardner riding video to YouTube. I first saw it on VisorDown‘s Bugsplat email #126.

What can we learn from the comments?

• According to fackorf (if that is his real name): “It’s a honda VFR750 from 1987, codenamed 6X as it had titanium valves and a few other sweet mods.” Interesting: a rare factory “prototype” that looks like a production bike.
• sprcampbell tells us that this is Oran Park in Australia, and until [February 2010?] you could ride this track but it is being replaced by houses.

Image owned-by, linked-from, and linked-to http://www.leopoldobloom.it/ Click on image to follow.

This is an old post that I updated on 2010-06-21.

A few years ago I purchased Valentino Rossi’s hardcover comic book by Milo Manara. Most of Signore Manara’s art is erotic, and this comic isn’t an exception: adults only please.

The comic book is called “Quarantasei” (46 in Italian), and is only available in Italian, although there is an image of a Spanish cover here.  I still haven’t translated it, so the accuracy of my description may be in-question, but here goes: A secret organization is attempting to steal Valentino’s genes in order to create superclones, but first they steal Valentino’s good-luck charm affecting the outcome of the race.  It’s up to Guido, and Osvaldo the Chicken to save Valentino! Rossi talks to the ghosts of Steve McQueen, Jim Morrison and Enzo Ferrari in his dreams. The book contains real-world MotoGP events amidst the fantasy elements.

Remember Valentino Rossi’s 2006 Mugello helmet?  That was to commemorate the publishing of this book.

Image owned-by, linked-from, and linked-to http://rossihelmets.com/ Click on image to follow.

Interested? Back when I purchased Quarantasei the publisher’s Web site was Italian-only. The good news is that they now have an English option. The book gets shipped directly from Italy, and if I remember correctly, I received it in just a few days. The DVD version is Region 2 only, and Italian only, so that won’t work on American DVD players (Don’t you just love the DVD consortium? Not.), but books can be viewed by anyone.

• Quarantasei may be purchased via this link to Leopoldo Bloom Editore.
• Go here for the Limited Edition version of Quarantasei signed-and-numbered by Valentino Rossi, and Milo Manara (I wonder who got #46?)!
• Quarantasei ArtBook is available from Leopoldo Bloom Editore via this link.

Jorge Lorenzo’s “Lorenzo’s Land” comic book was published in 2009 by Panini Comics and created by Estudio Fénix. Jorge wakes up from a brutal crash and cannot remember being a grand prix motorcycle rider. According to the publisher: “Fiction and reality, celebrities and circuits, are intertwined in the search for a destination that brings us closer to the actual figure of Jorge Lorenzo creative, restless, tenacious, meticulous…”.  [2010-06-21 UPDATE] You previously were able purchase “Lorenzo’s Land” directly from Jorge Lorenzo’s official merchandise site. It is not currently listed there.

Image owned-by, linked-from, and linked-to http://www.motogp.com/ Click on the image to go to http://www.motogp.com/.

2010 John McGuinness Video

Don Emde shared an Isle of Man TT video on facebook. This one is a 2010 video of John McGuinness! Yes, Mr. McGuinness is that good.

2009 Videos

Don Emde shared this beautiful Isle of Man TT video on facebook, and mentioned that he wants to go as a spectator in 2010. The music is “Now we are free” by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard, from the movie Gladiator. It was uploaded by Mirko Guzetta. Thank you Don and Mirko!

Isle of Man Tourist Trophy 2009 Steve Plater Onboard:

Scott Harwood shared this 2009 Isle of Man TT video with us:

Scott also shared a video from this year’s TTX with us:

Superbikeplanet.com's "caption this photo": I chose, "I go like this: motorcycle goes 'brrrrraaaaaaaap.'" Click on the image to go to its facebook page.

]]> http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/6797/feed 1 http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/416 http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/416#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 05:00:07 +0000 Paul Danger Kile http://dangerismymiddlename.wordpress.com/?p=416

Larry Pegram Lean - AMA Sign - at Hearland Park Topeka, Image © 2009 Paul Danger Kile http://dangerismymiddlename.com

I really like this one. There is so much to see in it: the worn knee pucks, the details on the Sidi boots, the beautiful blues on the titanium exhaust, the miss-matched red paint, the top of the chain losing slack because Larry is opening the throttle, the fact that the Leo Vince exhaust ad off-track overpowers the Akrapovic logos on the bike. You can even read the Ohlins logo on the forks (in higher res), and brembo logo on the brakes. Larry leans so far that his tires are worn in places that aren’t even meant to touch the ground.

Ducati left US racing, for the most part, so what did Larry do?  He build a Ducati team. If Ducati ever comes back full-tilt, then they will already have a team that they can promote to factory-level support. This is what Micheal Jordan (yes, that one) should have been doing instead of using suasion to change the rules.

My lenses are cheap, my camera focuses very slowly, and neither the body or the lenses have anti shake features. My best shots involve a ton-of-luck. I see the pros not taking pictures of every bike, and I just don’t get it. Riding like this is amazing. It should be captured and appreciated again-and-again.

I am really proud of this shot. Interestingly, it almost looks as though Jason is looking down.

Valentino Rossi does look at the ground midcorner. When asked why he appears to be doing-so, Rossi said something like, “I look down to see where I am in the corner. I don’t need to see where I am going. I already know where I am going.” Kids do not try this at home.

Jason DiSalvo at AMA Pro Tornado Nationals, Image © 2009 Paul Danger Kile http://dangerismymiddlename.com

]]> http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/2932/feed 0 http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/6284 http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/6284#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:00:55 +0000 Paul Danger Kile http://dangerismymiddlename.com/?p=6284

Ben Bostrom getting a ride back to the pits

The previous WordPress.com version of this Web site had earned very high rankings in Google— at least compared to similar Web sites, but it’s not facebook. I really depended on that Google ranking. There are only two ways to take your Google ranking with you:

1. Don’t let your URLs change. If you want this one to work for your WordPress.com Web site, then you really need to pay WordPress.com to use your domain name from day one.
2. Use a 301 redirect to prove to Google, that yes, you really are moving, and that the new site really is yours. Unfortunately WordPress.com would not allow me to do this.

Needless to say, my traffic here was devastated. People reading my words is what motivates me, and the lack of traffic indicates that people aren’t.

Why the ads? A number of organizations were satisfied that this is a valid form of media. (Thank you Ducati, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, DMG/AMA Pro, the AMA, and the rest!) But the Dorna rep said that they weren’t interested in helping anyone with a personal Web site. Those ads were an attempt to be more professional-looking.

Other reasons why my posting slowed down?

1. The 2009 racing season ended.
2. Most of my favorite racers, and their fans, are on facebook and willing to “friend” me.

Number two is the kicker. My readers are on facebook, so I have been posting to facebook.

There is only one way out of this mess.  Move to facebook. Facebook apps are actually hosted on non-facebook servers, so I might be able to tweak this puppy so that it exists both as my Web site, and as a facebook app simultaneously.

The red line marks the point where I moved the content from http://dangerismymiddlename.wordpress.com to http://dangerismymiddlename.com. These are monthly statistics. Both axis on both graphs are different. The site reached 2,661 hits the month that it was ended, and topped-out at 4,742 hits the month afterwards.

These are weekly stats for the new site. Yes, moving without 301 redirects is that bad. Note: both axis on both graphs are different. The week that we reached 2,130 hits was a week where many people gave this page a thumbs-up on StumbleUpon.com: http://dangerismymiddlename.com/archives/3979

onthethrottle.com and Seamus Taaffe of Yamaha Factory Racing show us how to clean brake calipers.

Links and images used by permission of Sean de Fraine— Sean is the Web master for www.blarneyquick.com and the Kevin Schwantz School – Official Page facebook page.

Do you want to learn Barber Motorsports Park?   How about getting a tow from Kevin Schwantz?  Sean de Fraine and his friend Keiron Mooney attended the Kevin Schwantz School at Barber and Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year.  What next?  How about the 2009 Red Bull Indianapolis GP?  Yeah, they attended that too as spectators.  Sean came over from the UK, and the guys decided to make the most of it.  Sean wrote up the story and the Kevin Schwantz School published it here. Check out Sean’s story.  It’s a good read.

Sean posts photos, videos, and links to the “Kevin Schantz School – Official Page” facebook.com fan page.  To learn more about the Schwantz School go to www.schwantzschool.com.

You can see the guys riding down below.  That’s Kieron Mooney on the Blarney Quick Racing (BlarneyQuick.com) GSXR750, and Sean de Fraine in the Rizla+  leathers.  Rizla+ sponsors the Suzuki MotoGP team. It’s the series, and manufacturer, that Kevin Schwantz won the championship for in 1993.

For more about Kieron and Sean’s Schwantz School Experience see “Kieron Mooney Met Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Nicky Hayden, Kenny Roberts, Wayne Rainey, and Kevin Schwantz While Attending The IndyGP version of the Kevin Schwantz School”.

Keiron Mooney, Kevin Schwantz, Sean de Fraine

That's Sean de Fraine (in the Rizla+ Leathers) and Kieron Mooney and on the BlarneyQuick.com GSXR750.

This one is showing up on all the best Web sites.  Bill Wagner doing Sachsenring supermoto stylee no doubt.

Originally published 2009-10-12, edited 2009-12-26, content by Joe Salas and Paul Danger Kile.

Supermoto is a form of racing that combines on-road, and off-road, within the same track. The racers typically ride dirt bikes with road-racing parts added. What if one were to take an SV650 bike to a Supermoto race? It’s too big, right?

Dan Sewell races for CODE4Racing, is sponsored by Twin Works Factory, and teaches for Z2TrackDays. Here is his Web page. Below are images of Dan racing an SV650 in Supermoto. When does anyone do that? This may be the first time!

The photographer, Joe Salas, gave us permission to use the  images here.  Joe photographs track days, and races, and makes the photos available at 4theriders.com.

These quotes are from the official NESBA Web site:

“NESBA offers an Intro group to non-members at no charge. This FREE Intro Group is for the street rider who’s unsure about signing up for a full day of riding. The Intro Group receives the Beginner classroom session and has access to the track for two 15-20 minute Beginner sessions in the morning rotation.”

“There is no bike preparation requirement; however, participants must pass a tech inspection as defined in the Riders’ Manual. The number of riders in the Intro Group is limited, so sign up early! You can sign up for this FREE offer only once.”

Click here to sign-up for your FREE NESBA track Day!

Here are the tracks that NESBA uses.

Go here to learn about demoing a new Yamaha sport bike at a NESBA track day!

VisorDown.com has the following image for it’s caption competition. My entry? “DMG AMA Pro Racing has announced the use of a pace car in AMA Pro Wall of Death Racing.” Yeah. It’s like that. Clicking on the image, or the above link will take you to the contest.

DMG AMA Pro Racing has announced the use of a pace car in AMA Pro Wall of Death Racing.

Go here for FREE live timing of the MotoGP races a throughout the weekend this-weekend.  This benefit was provided by the Red Bull Indianapolis GP.  Thank you, Indianapolis Motor Speedway! You can see how each rider is doing throughout each race.

MotoGP.com has a Fantasy MotoGP 2009 prediction game here. 2008′s winner, Willem from noord-Brabant in the Netherlands won a Shinya Nakano replica helmet. 2009′s winner will get a JogRR MotoGP official paddock scooter. This game has you picking the top 15 finishing positions each race.

Dainese shares a lot of fun stuff on their Web sites: and English is an option.  Dainese’ fantasy MotoGP game is called: D|CHALLENGE.  Each player chooses the top-5 for each MotoGP race, and is awarded points based on the results.  Winners may be given coupons to redeem at Dainese’s DStoreOnline.  The images of the coupons look like racer-denomination Euros; the Rossi coupon is worth “46″ euros, and has his face on it, for instance.

Dainese has an online Flash application called “My Valentino’s Face“.  Remember Valentino Rossi’s 2008 Mugello helmet?  It was the one with his face on it.  “My Valentino’s Face” is where you go to design an AGV-brand helmet just like that, but with your own face.  There is a “Buy your helmet” link there.  You can actually purchase the helmet with your face on it.

These links are US, and English Language specific, but other countries, and languages can be chosen from each Web page:

• DStoreOnline Catalog for Motorcycle Riders (Dainese sells non-Motorcyclist sports equipment also)
• D-Club: this page links to D|CHALLENGE and “My Valentino’s Face”.  It also has five other “Coming Soon” links. The D-Club link for “My Valentino’s Race” actually goes to “My Valentino’s Face”.

All photos are from the Web sites listed below. Permission was given by Laura Klock.

Written 2009-09-26, re-edited 2009-11-06

World’s Fastest Bagger (WFB) is one of Laura Klock’s Web sites. Brian and Laura are from Klock Werks Kustom Cycles, but the WFB site is dedicated to the family’s Bonneville Salt Flats runs.  WFB also refers to the bagger that Brian built for those runs.

WFB shows sweet bikes making Bonneville runs, and these riders are women: as-in Mom, daughters, and friends. Now that‘s mega-cool. The Web site’s images (and the images at other family Web sites) will make you want to learn more about the story behind each one.

The images at these site made me wonder things such as:

• Didn’t I read about this family in the AMA’s American Motorcyclist magazine March 2009 “Everyday Racers” article? The answer to this one is: yes.
• Is the YouTube video below essentially the same as the “Everyday Racers” article? The answer to this one is: yes.
• Who rides on the racing team?
  • Mother Laura “God gave me fast angels”
  • Daughter Erika (18)
  • Daughter Karlee (15)
  • Michelle Mielke, who is the wife of
    Klock Werks service manager, Joe
    Mielke.
• Who’s awesome Buell Blast is that?
  • Karlee’s
• Who else uses Buell Blasts for land speed records? (See photo from Joe Milke below)
• Who’s awesome V-Rod bagger is that?
• What are those people doing?
• Should I try the run-what-you-brung class for fun?
• Should my wife?

Here are the Klock family, and friends, Web sites that I am aware of:

• Movie (other than the one below) at: http://www.worldsfastestbagger.com/Worlds_Fastest_Bagger/Movie.html
• http://www.worldsfastestbagger.com/
• http://www.kustomcycles.com/
• http://www.kustombaggers.com/
• http://www.lauraklock.com/

http://bigjoe.smugmug.com/photos/638217377_SvNiC-O.jpg

Our current MotoGP content provider is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS). Ironically IMS sends us almost the same stories word-for-word that are available from Dorna, except Dorna won’t send them to dangerismymiddlename.com, but IMS will, and IMS explicitly gave us permission to post them here. Thank you so much to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!

This Web site primarily exists so that motorcyclists can share opinions. These opinion stories are augmented by Press Releases. The distributor of each Press Releases is solely responsible for its contents.

1. Our first priority is to respect all content holders. If you would like us to remove any content, then please ask via email, and please accept our apologies. We also apologize for any imposition. This has occurred one time. The AMA sent us a Press Release. I embedded a photo from the AMA’s Web site. It was a photo that they were using with their copy of the story-in-question. We were asked to remove the image, because it was owned by a third party that gave permission only to the AMA. We removed the image immediately.
2. Our second priority is to leverage available resources within the cloud at little cost as possible. As of 2009-11-06 this Web sites revenue is $0.00.
3. #1 trumps #2 always.

Press Releases are chosen for these reasons:

1. They tell a story that we feel is appropriate for this Web site, even though these aren’t our stories, and in some cases, these stories may be contrary to our opinion.  For instance: if the Press Release is from AMA Pro Racing, then that is AMA Pro Racing’s opinion, and may not be the opinion of dangerismymiddlename.com.
2. We have permission to re-distribute them, either by request, or in some cases the distributors are making these stories widely available via their Web sites, with permission to redistribute stated there.  In some cases this statement is in a terms-of-use document, and in some cases the Web site makes Web site embedding code available.

These press releases don’t do much as far as getting search-engine hits is concerned. Apparently Google “knows”, that they are not unique to our site.

We want to say an extra-special thanks to the following organizations for creating content that we used on dangerismymiddlename.com.  Thank you. I heartily apologize for any missed organization from this list.

• American Motorcyclist Association (AMA)
• Buell Motorcycle Company
• Danny MacAskill (via YouTube)
• Daytona Motorsports Group / AMA Pro Racing (DMG / AMA Pro)
• Ducati Web Kit
• Fischer Motor Company
• Flickr.com
• Harley Davidson Motor Company
• HJC Helmets
• Honda
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS)
• James Gang/Hoban Brothers Racing
• Michelin
• Mission Motors
• Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF)
• New Jersey Motorsports Park
• OnTheThrottleTV
• Suzuki Media
• Twitter.com
• Yamaha
• YouTube.com

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ recently announced that a CMC Motorcycles is selling Ben Spies replica R1s.  Ben Spies!!!  They are also have the Kenny Roberts XJR1300, which is one of the greatest bikes not available in the USA.

They said:

The Spies replica costs £12,499 on the road and comes with the paintjob, twin Akrapovic carbon end cans, pillion seat cover and tail tidy.

12345►

To come soon: more details on the dual-clutch transmission.

Honda made-available images and videos to-all interested in the VFR1200F. What’s the story that they really want us to tell? I think they were saying, yes, the new VFR is a large sport-touring bike: like the Yamaha FJR1300A, the Kawasaki Concourse 14, and numerous BMWs before it, but Honda also has a long legacy of:

1. Racing V-engined motorcycles
2. Building high-tech hot-rod motorcycles

…and they deserve to write their own history: one that doesn’t begin with the words: “Following in the footsteps of the Yamaha FJR1300A, the Kawasaki Concourse 14, and numerous BMWs, before it…”.

Honda has built other VFR (a/k/a Interceptor) models for a number of years, but over time, as other sport bikes became more knife-edged the VFRs became more touring focussed: some of this was due to design decisions, and some of it was due to the fact that every other sport bike was getting sportier. That said: this new VFR is so new, that we believe should be considered a completely new motorcycle, and not an updated VFR.

Here is how Honda’s New VFR story broke:

1) A couple of years ago Honda released a sculpture that I believed could-not possibly be a real motorcycle, but the motorcycle magazines believed that the sculpture was newsworthy. They were correct. I was not. My other thoughts about it were:

• Why is Honda so proud of this?
• I like art just as much as the next Justice Potter Stewart, but really: riders won’t appreciate a motorcycle that doesn’t work!
• Ooh! The fairing-sides look like the Honda Red Wing logo!

2) Then Honda told us all about their new dual clutch transmission, without reminding us that Honda has built motorcycles with special transmissions in the past: only to not have them sell (see: Hondamatic).  What’s a dual clutch transmission?  It uses one clutch for the odd numbered gears, and another clutch for the even numbered gears. The clutches are activated mechanically, so that the gears can be changed without the rider needing to use a clutch control. This allows a single transmission to be used as both an automatic transmission (without the wasteful torque converter), and a manual transmission (without the clutch control, but with the rider’s ability to choose a gear). It reminds me of Tiptronic transmissions, and similar, but is actually different in design, and implementation.

3) motoblog.it released spy shots of the VFR1200F.

4) Honda makes these photos, and videos available to us, and they look really familiar. That’s what was going on during the spy shots.

The Conceptual Model

The VFR1200F

Is a picture worth a thousand words? These images say so much about planned options, how to adjust the suspension, features, who provides the GPS (Garmin of Olathe Kansas), etc. Interestingly, I didn’t include every image here.

Honda’s V-Engined Racing History

Honda’s V-engined racing history includes all of their MotoGP bikes. Here are some images of historic Honda’s that Honda chose to share. Click on each image to see a larger version.

These 1979 Honda NR500 (OX) videos and text were shared on YouTube by litaisan.

A factory road racer fitted with revolutionary oval piston engine (containing 8 valves per cylinder.) 1979 British Grand Prix entry. Rider: No.5 Takazumi Katayama.

1979 Honda NR500 Part 1, 1979 Honda NR500 Part 2, 1979 Honda NR500 Part 3, 1979 Honda NR500 Part 4

AMA Public Service Announcement— Think. Ride. Recreate Responsibly Off-Road: