Editorial

After 175 cold, soggy miles on BMW’s (relatively) affordable demi-sport, I’ve come to a couple of conclusions. It’s a bit small you aren’t. And if you’re over six feet tall, the optional tall seat really isn’t an option. To be fair, shorter gearing in the top three cogs and a ...    Read more

Photo: Monica Almeida/The New York TimesThe Paris Hilton we know promotes perfume while toting handbags containing pocket-sized Chihuahuas, so it comes as a surprise that she is starting her own MotoGP team.According to The New York Times, the pink-loving socialite will be part owner of “SuperMartxé VIP by ...    Read more

A friend told me about a guy who was looking for a female rider. The gig called for a stunt woman for a music video he was filming. Well, I'm no stunt woman, but I do ride a motorcycle. Turns out, there weren't really any stunts involved, but I did ...    Read more

Its been 3 years since the ZX-10 underwent any changes, but that doesn't mean the gearheads at Kawasaki have been on vacation. They've been hard at work redesigning the entire bike - from the engine, frame and bodywork to the wheels, electronics and suspension - in order to elevate their ...    Read more

Pub culture. It's an oxymoron in the States and an institution in the United Kingdom, albeit an increasingly endangered one. After a fair amount of wandering around the walled city of Chester on my first visit to England, I stumbled into at least one obstinately authentic example. No T.G.I. McFriday’s ...    Read more

It’s been quite a while since the Mechanical Meditations blog has been updated, because instead of wrenching on and writing about the MB5, I’ve been riding it! The bike has been tuned and registered (temporarily, anyway) and has carried me to work in shrieking style a dozen times in the ...    Read more

I am not now, nor have I ever been a Luddite. There’s nothing wrong with old and simple. Take me for instance, or my 75 Yamaha RD350B. But fresh technology is a beautiful thing when it works. There’s a 46-inch flat-screen television bolted to my living room wall, where a ...    Read more

Sudco has a sack of main jets waiting for me at their Commerce office, but I won’t have the time to swing by until later in the week. With nothing on the agenda yesterday afternoon and a burning desire to work on something, I decided to pull the engine (a ...    Read more

Saturday morning I sprang out of bed and was at the workbench by 8:00 am. The frame was back from the Doctor’s and the only thing keeping me from starting the MB5 for the first time was assembling the thing! I forwent my normal morning mountain bike excursion and dove ...    Read more

Viewed from the street, John “the Frame Doctor” Fromberg’s shop just looks like another crowded mechanic’s bay in a busy industrial park. But walk past the racks of metal stock and rows of dusty bike frames into the back room and you’ll see this is no ordinary chop ...    Read more

Cafe Desmo, the fifth annual Italian bike show, was a success!The event was put together by Bill Nation and his staff at Pro Italia Motors in Glendale, California. Italian bike aficionados participated in a ride up the Angeles Crest Highway to Newcomb's Ranch, where they rocked out to a concert ...    Read more

In my last update the MB5’s fate was uncertain. I’d discovered that the frame, swingarm, and both wheels were bent. Well I’m pleased to say that things have taken a wonderful turn. Immediately after realizing my stuff was tweaked I turned to that inexhaustible online resource – Craigslist. The planets ...    Read more

At some point in the last three decades, the MB5 must have been crashed. Hard. As it turns out, both Comstar wheels and the beautiful powder-coated X-frame are badly bent. The frame and fork have been perched on the center stand in my living room for several weeks now, and ...    Read more

The contents in the various boxes and crates are steadily dwindling. When I started this project 3 months ago the shoebox-sized plastic bin I use for random fasteners weighed about 10 pounds and was fist-deep. Now the tub weighs less than a pound and the layer of hardware is shallow ...    Read more

A few posts back I had Rusteco purge the MB5’s fuel tank of 28 years worth of rust. The procedure was a success, but removing all that iron oxide left quite a few pinholes, and that bare metal is awfully susceptible to corrosive coastal air. Brazing the holes would only ...    Read more

It’s been a while since I’ve posted; the MB5 project was put on the back burner while I flew to my hometown on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to marry my girlfriend of 9 years. Now I’m back in LA, and with the sun just rising in the sky, the wife still ...    Read more

If the prospective adventure tourist’s first question is which bike do I buy, question number two usually comes down to which BMW GS. If you’re asking me, the next question is standard 1200GS or Adventure? Judged strictly by the numbers or a quick visual once over, the more heavily armored ...    Read more

I can only imagine what my neighbors thought of the persistent metallic tapping coming from my apartment well after the dinner hour last night. When darkness interrupted my efforts to separate the MB5’s case halves, I moved the project indoors. Piece by piece my makeshift shop was reconstructed in the ...    Read more

My dad taught me that you can clean up a rusty tank with a handful of nuts and bolts and some serious shaking. That rudimentary remedy has worked on countless tanks, but the MB’s reservoir is rustier than anything I’ve encountered before. In my last update I’d noted the tank’s ...    Read more

The tranquilizing effect of this project is a godsend. While I run near redline most of my waking hours, when I’m wrenching I am able to roll back the throttle and idle for a while. The din of Santa Monica Boulevard traffic fades from my awareness as I chase damaged ...    Read more

After surviving four days and 1000-odd kilometers in Morocco on a BMW R1200GS, I learned a few things. Some I expected. Don’t drink the water for instance. Others, like never leave your native land while an Icelandic volcano with a name nobody can spell is pumping 750 tons of ash ...    Read more

Last weekend's season opener at North Carolina's Maxton Monster Mile, home of the East Coast Timing Association's land-speed trials was history making. Bill Warner rode his turbocharged Suzuki Hayabusa to an outrageous 272.34073 mph top speed, shattering the previous record by more than 12 mph. Our friend Don Smith was ...    Read more

Wisconsin Sportriders (WiSpr), a group that I'm lucky enough to ride with on occasion, has released a film documenting their last year of street riding. WiSpr is not your average crew of Sunday morning social riders (though they seldom pass a good all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet...). A close-knit, semi-exclusive group of ...    Read more

Despite the dissolution of Buell motorcycles, the popular Buell Homecoming gathering will continue in 2010 thanks to the dedicated efforts of core Buell enthusiasts.Slated for June 16-20th at Alpine Valley Resort in East Troy, Wisconsin—the home of the former Buell Motorcycles—the event will offer Buell owners and fans of the ...    Read more

It’s a small thing, really: a thin, stubby blade cast into the tip of the BMW S1000RR key, and every new BMW motorcycle key I’ve seen lately. But if you’re ever tried adding two clicks of rebound damping with a dime – not quite thin enough – because the tool ...    Read more