Lois and Tors Motorcycle Weblog

The good name of American motorcycling will no longer be sullied by the Teutels' homoerotic father/son catfighting and novelty t-shirt promotion, TLC has cancelled American Chopper. Orange County Choppers and its shaved apes have been plaguing television screens since 2003, but lately the financial success the show inexplicably brought its protagonists has led to a bitter feud with Paul Teutul Sr suing Paul Teutul Jr for control of the company. It's believed that this lawsuit led to the show's cancellation. Hallelujah.

Elefantentreffen 2010 is held in Germany every year. It's located in a little town called Solla, in Bayerischer Wald near the city of Passau. Thousands of riders from all over Europe gather to camp and have fun in the snow. See pictures here. Enjoy.

SC Sandblast Rally 2010 coming up. Looks like a lot of fun. Might ride over to Patrick to watch Sat. 2/6/10.

Honda has released sales information comparing 2009 calendar year sales with 2008 for motorcycles. Global sales are virtually unchanged, but there are vast regional differences.

Honda had a rough year in 2009. Motorcycle unit sales fell in the North America market from 391,000 in 2008 to 204,000 in 2009. The market in North America (and Europe for that matter) is quite a bit different than the market in much of Asia, where small, inexpensive transportation devices replace Americans' taste for expensive, fast motorcycles often used for entertainment purposes. Nevertheless, Honda, and many other manufacturers, rely on sales of smaller, less expensive motorcycles to form the bulk of their financial results.

It is interesting to note that while some manufacturers have held steady, or even improved sales in the United States (Triumph comes to mind, and BMW had a much smaller percentage reduction than many other manufacturers), some of the Japanese manufacturers have seen huge losses in unit sales, and, presumably, market share here in the United States during the past year. 2010 looks to be even more interesting. We'll see whether Honda, and other industry giants, can recover to pre-recession levels, or at least head in the right direction.

With a V4 that is as smooth as a premium red velvet cupcake from Jamaica's Cakes in Los Angeles, the venerable 2010 Honda ST1300 returns for a seventh year (eight, if you're counting in Euros), and it proves that a classic recipe remains tasty over time. Full review here.

The rain started slapping and the thunder cracking a few hours into my cross-country motorcycle trip. I’d been racing the clouds since I left the Atlantic coast that morning, and now they’d caught me, in a barren stretch of road outside Tallahassee, Florida. I was already feeling stupid when I stopped to pull on raingear – and that feeling intensified when I discovered that, in the rush to blow town, I’d packed an extra set of rain pants instead of a jacket. With only swaying cypress for shelter, I did what I could – scavenged a white trash bag from my luggage and punched my head and arms through. Then I climbed back on my 28-year-old motorcycle and raced for Tallahassee. More than 3000 miles remained to the Pacific Ocean. The learning curve was going to be steep. Read whole story.

It was once one of the premier motorcycle rallies in the country, mentioned in the same breath as Daytona Bike Week, Sturgis, and Laconia. The shores of the Grand Strand would be flooded with motorcyclists enjoying the spring weather on the beautiful Atlantic beaches along the South Carolina coastline. Hotels and campgrounds were full, cash poured into the area, and for 68 years Myrtle Beach Bike Week attracted hundreds of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts over the course of a couple of weeks in May. Until last year.

Me? I don't really care. I never went down there anyway, even if we live very close to Myrtle Beach. We would really, really be out of place with our ST1300 touring bikes and without pirate gear. Read whole story.