Free Republic

MOTORCYCLE DESIGN TROPHY 2005 10 February 2006 The overall winner of the 2005 Motorcycle Design of the Year has been announced; The winner was the Ducati Hypermotard concept bike, with the runner-up bike being the Yamaha MT-OS. Other bikes which were highly rated by a panel of motorcycle designers included the Yamaha R6, MotoCzysz C1, Aprilia RS125 and the Victory Vision. Presentation of the awards will take place later in the year - full details will be announced on the MDA website.

Redesigned for 2006, the flagship CBR1000RR hits all the marks, trimming pounds but improving performance and looks Whether on the track or on the street, Honda proposes the question: Was its new 2006 CBR1000RR redesigned to be the fastest bike for the ultimate rider or as a fast bike for the widest range of riders -- including those with a little less experience who are curious to get a glimpse of life in the fast lane? Honda (HMC ) claims to have done both with its new model. I was invited along with a few other motojournalists for a firsthand...

Karl Logan, lead guitarist of heavy metal powerhouse Manowar, was injured on Tuesday, January 24th 2006 in a motorcycle accident. Logan sustained severe injuries to his left arm, which will prevent him from performing for an as-yet-unknown period of time. "Manowar will have to reconsider all of our plans, but the good news is that Karl is ok and he'll be back stronger than ever," says Manowar bassist Joey DeMaio. Logan was preparing to record his lead guitar parts for the upcoming, yet to be named, Manowar album, the release of which will now be delayed. Touring plans are also...

Health Care Denied Imagine you went to work one day, and your boss handed you a memo that said your employer, to protect the benefits of “responsible” employees, would no longer cover motorcycle-related injuries under the company’s health insurance? Plus, the company wouldn’t make good on its employee life insurance policy if you were killed in a motorcycle crash. You’d still be covered if you did almost anything else: bungee jumping, skydiving, scuba diving, skiing. Just not on your motorcycle. Outrageous? We think so. But that’s exactly what happened this summer to hundreds of workers at the American Coal...

They’d have to stop for red lights and check for traffic but then could proceed. Street-level complaints sometimes inspire letters to lawmakers. But Sumter resident Billy “Reb” Richardson took his concern one step further. He was inspired to write a law. Richardson got tired of getting stuck at traffic lights riding around the state on his Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycle. His solution: Let motorcyclists drive through a red light once they have stopped and checked for traffic. Traffic lights often are triggered by sensors that pick up metal and mass when a vehicle stops on them, but some modern motorcycles...

'I have always striven to be your full-service column-writer. For example, for readers who are not as immersed in the news as we copy editors, I have written helpful summary guides covering clowns such as Cindy ("Warmonger!") Sheehan and Joe ("Spy Leak!") Wilson. Then, two weeks ago, I described how to feed yourself until next February on just $400 by producing a Big Blue Bucket of Meat. Therefore, you should not be surprised that today I'm offering even more valuable information. I want to tell you how to beat the price of gas. The answer is simple: the motor scooter....

Greenville officer arrests man who stole his motorcycle Associated Press GREENVILLE, S.C. - A Greenville police officer found his stolen motorcycle after stopping a truck that didn't have its headlights on. Cpl. Jeremiah Motz said he saw a pickup driving through his apartment complex parking lot early Saturday morning with a bike in the back. "I was shocked," said Motz, who confirmed the motorcycle was the one taken from his yard the day before by checking the license tag. When the driver spotted the officer, he sped off, according to a police report. The truck eventually pulled over in a...

(09-29) 9:24 PDT FORT ROSS -- The body of a Santa Rosa motorcyclist missing since Sept. 19 has been found along with her bike several hundred feet down a cliff off Highway 1 in Sonoma County, police said. Melinda Moore, 40, an avid biker and student at Santa Rosa Junior College, had last been seen by her fiance when she left the Santa Rosa home the couple shared. On Wednesday, a caller told police he had found a motorcycle helmet that day that matched the description of Moore's. He found the helmet on a rock alongside Highway 1 about 3...

A night before a driver pinned Igor Kruk's motorcycle to the back of a sport utility vehicle with his car, killing Kruk in what police are calling a fit of road rage, Kruk had a dream his bike was in pieces on the ground and that he was unable to put it together, his family said yesterday.

Friday, September 23, 2005 Highway accident have been avoided with a helmet? Erin Stein of Lee was not wearing a helmet Wednesday night when he lost control of the motorcycle he was driving and crashed into a tree in downtown Dover Wednesday night. He was 32 years old and now he is dead. Would a helmet have saved his life, or were his injuries of such a nature that he would have died anyway? People at the scene did everything they could to make Erin Stein comfortable. Dover firefighters did everything they were trained to do. But it was too...

3 weeks ago I bought a used Kawasaki KLR650 motorcycle from a dealership in another state. While I was riding it a week ago, I had a very low speed accident which damaged the bike (I wasn't hurt.) While I removed the damaged parts from the bike and waited for new parts I'd ordered from another dealership to arrive, I found many things which were wrong with the motorcycle, most significantly damage to the air filter housing which was not particularly evident from the outside of the bike, resulting in the engine ingesting dirt. I've put about 170 miles on...

CHEYENNE, WYO. - A man and a woman on a motorcycle were killed when they tried to turn around on Interstate 80 and were struck by a tractor-trailer rig near Pine Bluffs. David M. Rhoades, 55, and Lillian K. Rhoades, 50, both of Lewisville, Texas, stopped alongside the eastbound lanes Saturday to take pictures of the Nebraska state sign, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. David Rhoades then drove their 1995 Harley-Davidson across the median. He pulled into the path of a Volvo tractor-trailer, which hit the motorcycle broadside. The truck driver was not hurt.

Nationally syndicated talk-show host Laurie Roth was critically injured in a motorcycle crash on highway 206 Thursday near Mount Spokane High School. Roth, who lives in the Spokane area and is heard locally on AM 590, hit a deer while riding her motorcycle just before 4 p.m. She was airlifted to Sacred Heart Medical Center, where Thursday night she remained in critical condition. State Troopers say Roth was wearing her helmet at the time of the accident.

Drivers in Texas, Iowa, and Indiana will enjoy higher speed limits next month as legislation raising the top speeds on rural roads takes effect. On Friday, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) signed HB 2257 into law making 80 MPH the maximum allowable speed in the state. Rural portions of I-10 and I-20 will enjoy the new top speed, while other rural roads could see the limit rise to 75 MPH. Both the state House and Senate adopted the legislation without opposition last month. On July 1, a law signed by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack (D) creating a 70 MPH speed...

Airman dies after motorcycle collides with van By Juliette Rule rep9@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - She stopped and looked both ways, but she didn't see the motorcyclist. He couldn't stop in time to avoid crashing his new Yamaha motorcycle into the van. The crash happened about 5 p.m. Monday at the intersection of Powderhouse and Four Mile roads. Airman Justin R. Souza died at the scene. The van's driver, Donna Martin, wasn't hurt, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Martin hasn't been cited in connection with the crash, but that could be pending. The intersection is controlled...

A recent study of claims data on more than two million motorcycles insured over the past three years by The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, the country's largest motorcycle insurer, uncovers the makes and models of bikes most and least likely to be stolen or crashed. Motorcycle Thefts: Most Likely to be Stolen 1. Suzuki GSX-R Series 2. Yamaha YZF Series 3. Honda CBR Series 4. Suzuki Hayabusa 5. Kawasaki Ninja Series Least Likely to be Stolen 1. Suzuki Savage 2. BMW R1200C 3. Honda Rebel Series 4. Honda Shadow Series 5. Yamaha V-Star Motorcycle Crashes: Most Likely to be...

Wednesday May 11, 2005 HIBBS, Pa. (AP) A man angry about an argument chased down a motorcycle and rammed it with his pickup truck, killing the bike's two riders, state police said. Edward A. Belch, 44, of McClellandtown, apparently got in an argument with the motorcycle's passengers Tuesday evening, authorities said. The two people then got on the motorcycle and left, and Belch followed them on state Route 21, passing other vehicles, until he hit the motorcycle, police said. Terri Lynn Gresko, 44, and a 54-year-old man whom police didn't immediately identify died at the scene. Belch was being held...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea on Saturday called President Bush a "hooligan" and said it expected no solution of the standoff over its nuclear program during his administration. The comments by North Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman followed a White House news conference Thursday in which Bush described North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a "tyrant" and a "dangerous person." "Bush is a hooligan bereft of any personality as a human being ... and a Philistine whom we can never deal with," the ministry spokesman said Saturday, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency. North Korea "does...

Cruise escaped bike crash unscathed Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise escaped unharmed when he crashed his brand new motorcycle. The Collateral heart-throb was riding his turbo-charged Ducati in Beverly Hills, California, when he skidded on a patch of oil. The 42-year-old ended up sprawled on the road but was able to give concerned onlookers autographs before re-mounting his mean machine.

Steve Rossier rides his motorcycle across continent By Karl Chalabala Steve Rossier rode through Alaska with a shotgun strapped to the front of his motorcycle, on the lookout for bears. “I felt much more comfortable because of it [the shotgun] when I was in the bush,” he said. “People were telling me to watch out for bears. I was just pulling off dirt roads and camping. But there was only one night I heard anything. It could have been a bear or a moose. I always slept in my clothes so I wouldn’t have to roll out of bed in...