Isle of Man TT Videos
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:
The future of this Web site -OR- How NOT to move from WordPress.com to your own domain.
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:
- 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.
- 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?
- The 2009 racing season ended.
- 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
A Sampling of Honda’s Motorcycles (Products and Concepts) from the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show
Scooters
The EV-Cub electric motorcycle is absolutely beautiful. It looks enough like a Honda Dream (or Super Cub) to elicit feelings of nostalgia for the vehicle that made Honda a global success, while at the same time looking ultra modern.
EV-Cub
EV-Cub
EV-Cub
CB1100 Series
Rumors abound about the CB1100, 4-cylinder, air-cooled universal Japanese motorcycle (UJM) coming to America. They are just rumors though. Yamaha has had a model like this in their lineup for sometime, but they won’t sell it here. The truth-is: these motorcycles would be a smashing hit here, but they haven’t been engineered for US emissions and noise standards. These are some of the most beautiful retro-bikes ever.
CB1100
CB1100
CB1100 Customize Concept
CB1100 Customize Concept
CB1300 Series
CB1300 SUPER FOUR
Like the CBs above, but these ones are water-cooled.
CB1300 SUPER FOUR
CB1300 SUPER TOURING
CB1300 SUPER TOURING
Want to see more?
Go to my SkyDrive to page see more Honda images from the 2009 Motor Show!
Enertia Electric Motorcycle
Read about the Enertia Electric Motorcycle.
Most folks will think of this product as a replacement for gas powered scooters. Brammo doesn’t say that in their marketing material, but “60 MPH, efficient, two wheeled vehicle for urban use” = “scooter”. The Enertia doesn’t have the storage capacity— or the step-through design— of most scooters, but we certainly understand if Brammo wants to avoid the s-word, because scooter = low price expectations.
We would like to see off-road vehicles (enduro, MX, mini-bikes, trials, etc.) go this electric route, because it solves the noise and fire-hazard problems.
A few years ago we had the opportunity to drive Micah Silverman’s Ford/Th!nk City electric car. The acceleration was amazing. It was a rocketship until it hit 55 MPH, but it didn’t go much faster than that. Everybody was checking-out the car, and this was before our current fuel-price issues. The car was an older model that looked like this.
Here are our thoughts about who will have the fastest electric bike next year: DC electric motors make maximum torque close to 0 RPM. James Parker (in Motorcyclist Magazine, October 2009) makes the case that transmissions will be used for different reasons in electric vehicles. Internal combustion vehicles use transmissions to keep RPMs high (in the max torque range for internal combustion). Electrics vehicles could use transmissions to keep RPMs low (in the max torque range for DC motors). Nobody had transmissions this year, but whomever does next year, will have a much faster bike. The potential is huge. What we are doing with electrics these days is the equivalent of driving a car in first gear only. How fast will we be when we get to fifth gear?
Here is what the newest Th!nk City looks like:
Two-wheel electric vehicles get Department of Energy development funding
CycleWorldMag sent the following link via Twitter: “Two-wheel electric vehicles get Department of Energy development funding. MPM“ The link includes the actual law.
Brand-new Street-legal Electric Motorcycle for under $3000
Yes Virginia, there really is a street-legal electric motorcycle for under $3000, and Lennon Rodgers is the man that designed it. The catch? You have to build it. Still, if Lennon can do it for this price, then why are companies trying to sell them for more than engined models cost? I don’t know, but that question isn’t what’s important to me: motorcycles and cool inventors are. To read more, please go to www.electricmotion.org If you are planning to build one, and you are capable of doing so, then you really must see this site; he lists the parts, prices, vendors, steps, specs, etc. Amazing.
Zero Motorcycles: Neal Saiki’s Electric Offroad Motorcycle
Zero Motorcycles is producing the Zero X electric offroad motorcycle. I would really like to see these bikes take-off. I also hope that the prices eventually come down.
Electric vehicles solve motocross’ noise problems. To be sure, the noise issue is more of an “I don’t want you to have any fun” issue. After all, many of the municipalities that outlaw riding-off-road-vehicles-at-home due-to-noise, don’t outlaw lawn mowers, and leaf blowers. That said, the noise-issue/excuse won’t exist if the bikes are silent.
…and then there is performance. I touched on this briefly in my Enertia Electric Motorcycle post. My experience with electric vehicles is limited to Micah Silverman‘s Ford/Th!nk City electric car. (Micah’s car was an older model that looked like this.) Anyway, the acceleration of that car was very impressive at lower speeds. Dirt Rider magazine’s July 2007 article about Zero Motorcycles does a great job describing what this is like. DC motors are simply torque monsters. Unfortunately most people think golf-cart, when they think all-electric, but thankfully the success of the Prius is starting to change that. So, let me be clear about this: electric is not a step-backwards. Not sure that you agree? Then check out these videos about the Zero X:
