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1. 🛞 🛞 Jane Motorcycles is hosting Two Wheel Tuesday in Brooklyn this week. Keep an eye on the weather though…

2. 🪖 When an Alpinestars Supertech R10 Helmet review is not really a review…

3. ⛑️ ⏯️ Speaking of helmet reviews, these guys are the real deal; watch this video first

4. 🧤 🚫 Ditch your touchscreen gloves. Use this instead. “Coolest product on Shark Tank so far in 2023”

5. 📹️ ▶️ Here’s the entire on-board video of the fastest lap from Isle of Man. I’m running out of adjectives and expletives on describing this…

6. 🖤 ☠️ Wicked Wednesdays is @ Island Powersports this umm, Wednesday

💸 Road bikes don’t need wings, and other dumb shit people say about bikes that make 200hp

My Ducati Streetfighter V4S has wings on it and it’s ridiculous.

But so is 208hp.

So is a fully electronic suspension.

And the Brembo calipers.

Oh and the rider aids on rider aids on rider aids.

The rain mode takes the horsepower down to a “manageable” 165hp.

It’s all ridiculous, right? Any one of these things would be stupid on a road bike but it’s the wings we focus on. I get it; they stick out and are easy to make fun of. But you can’t pick on the wings on a road bike unless you also pick on everything else. We don’t need 208hp yet here we are.

That brings me to the BMW M1000R ▶️. That thing has WINGS. But it’s also got all of the aforementioned text on its spec sheet and it’s fucking glorious. In fact, on top of that spec list, it’s also got adjustable slide control, GPS lap timer, pitlane limiter, launch control, etc. That thing will absolutely shred on the street and on track.

Yet out of all of those insane numbers and electrics, people pick on two stupid pieces of plastic. We don’t buy these things because they’re sane or practical; we buy them because this is what we dreamed of as kids. Stop picking them apart. Let it go. We’re here now.

Quit fumbling with your phone and wear your music controls ⏪️ ⏯️ ⏩️ on your sleeve

What a cute god damn name. But for real, these things are fantastic. This is a great example of such a simple product done to absolute perfection and I’m here for it.

I use these in the summer on my jacket sleeve so I don’t have to fumble through my phone for music controls and in the winter when my gloves are too damn thick to do anything with.

I’ve ridden with the Chubby Buttons in the winter, rain, sweltering heat and they just. work. every. time. I pair them to my phone once and I’m good to go.

But whatever, don’t take my word for it. They’ve got great reviews on Amazon too.

🔋 Electric bikes aren’t the best at anything, but neither are ⛽️ gasoline bikes

Comparing and complaining about electric bikes (motorcycles, not e-bikes) is like everyone’s favorite thing to do now. But why?

Why don’t we complain about how much maintenance gasoline bikes require?

What about the heat they generate?

Or the noise they make?

I get it; loud pipes save lives, working on your bike makes you feel more like a man, and leg burns are a rite of passage. But hey, guess what; people do have various opinions and according to them, they are all correct.

In reality, electric bikes solve as many problems as they create; just like gas bikes! Everything can be argued both ways and just like you might have 3 bikes in the garage fulfilling different purposes, an electric bike can also coexist.

Think of riding in the city. An electric bike won’t generate heat, it’s easy to ride (no clutch so you can use both hands to slap mirrors), incredibly easy to maintain (you ever try working on your bike in a Manhattan garage?) and keep charged (plug it into a regular garage socket), and you can silently sneak up on people not paying attention crossing the street.

But here’s the thing: they suck at so many other things. A Livewire’s highway range is like 70 miles. And good luck taking them on a group ride. An air cooled Scrambler in the city is essentially useless unless your legs & nether regions are completely impervious to heat. See what I’m doing here?

I test rode a Zero and rode a Livewire for 2 weeks. It’s just not for me. But not because it’s electric; it just so happens that the build quality on either is for shit and the ergonomics on the Livewire are like sitting on a plywood board with handlebars & buttons built for apes. But I’d love a well-built electric bike and would gladly tool around the city on one.

⛰️ Build your own damn routes…

Teach a man to fish, right?

I build my own routes through pain staking research on the route itself, the area, food options, lodging, and of course actually riding the ride before writing about it.

Researching the roads usually starts by looking at a map, searching for what others have done, researching the road quality, elevation, etc and then planning how I’m going to get there from NYC. If I’m heading farther than let’s say 3 hours from the city, I’d consider trailering the bike.

Revzilla created Rever, an imperfect tool for navigating but pretty good as part of my research arsenal when looking for new routes and they put together a pretty damn good guide on how to find new routes.

I’d suggest finding the routes there, and then plotting the routes on Google Maps to follow for turn by turn. Try to limit the number of waypoints on Google Maps though since it makes you hit the “continue” button when you reach them; tough to do when you’re mid-way through a corner.

I’m working on a guide for how to create routes on Google Maps so stay tuned for that as well.

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Don’t forget that this month’s referral contest is still going!

From last week:

Just for this month (June, 2023), I’ll select 3 random referring emails to grab a $50 gift certificate to Revzilla. The more people you refer, the more of a chance you’ll score a gift card. Easy. Grab your link below.