Why Motorcycle Gear Is For Both Comfort And Safety

Riding a motorcycle is a fun, exhilarating experience for sure. But motorcycle riders don’t have a lot of protection that surrounds them when riding, and if something goes wrong and the bike goes down or it is involved in an accident, there is no outer shell to protect a rider like there is in a car. So what will afford the best safety for motorcycle riders to help in such situations? It’s the gear or apparel that they wear that can be their best protection.

Of course, motorcycle gear like helmets, leather jackets and pants, and gloves also contribute immensely to riding comfort as they provide insulation against the wind and road debris that may be encountered on the ride. But they do so much more.

Take helmets for example. Motorcycle helmets come in several styles and paint schemes, but they all are designed for the same purpose, to keep you safe. Whether you choose a full-face helmet, half-face helmet, shorty helmet, or other types of a motorcycle helmet is a matter of personal choice and how much protection you are comfortable with.

A full-face motorcycle helmet affords the most complete protection, but make sure that you try one on first to make sure that you are comfortable with that kind of design first.

A shorty helmet is the least restrictive of all and gives more of the feeling of the open road as you can feel the wind in your face. But keep in mind that there is significantly less protection involved too.

Motorcycle leather is a biker’s best friend. Motorcycle leather can make the difference between an enjoyable ride and one that isn’t.

Also, if your bike goes down for any reason, there is nothing like a good “hide” to save your hide. Motorcycle leather can be the only thing between you and the road at that point, and you will be glad that you are wearing it. Just ask any biker who has experienced “road rash” when their bike went down and you can quickly understand how valuable good quality leather apparel can be in such circumstances.

And one of the most sensitive areas on the body is the hands. They are also usually the first thing that a biker puts out in an attempt to cushion their fall in an accident. That’s when you would be glad that you were wearing a good set of motorcycle gloves to help keep your hands safe from abrasion.

So if you ride motorcycles, be sure to stay comfortable and safe with good, high-quality motorcycle gear and apparel.

Mopeds And Scooters

The last time you went to a popular football match or ball game in your car did you have to sit in a traffic jam? Did the walk from the car to your seat take forever? Were you stuck in really bad traffic on the way home? What was your travel time compared with the time spent at the stadium? Did you notice people whizzing past your almost stationary car on mopeds and scooters? Did you notice these same machines parked up just next to the entrances to the stadium itself?

Mopeds and Scooters are becoming more and more popular in the USA as their availability is now countrywide. The original mopeds and scooters of Europe and indeed the rest of the world are at last available in quantity with quality in the US and many people are taking advantage of this cheap and stylish option not only to get to work and back but for fun as well.

Gone are the days of kick-starting your bike and it starts on the 24th attempt. Modern technology combined with stylish lines and ‘all the extras’ have brought the modern mopeds and scooters we see today into the new millennium with a bang. They are more popular than ever in a society that has suddenly realized that gas is becoming pretty expensive, particularly for larger cars.

Many people are beginning to realize that they don’t need their 6-liter car to take them 3 miles to work in busy traffic jams, where a moped or scooter could get them there in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. They are also, many people are finding out, very good fun.

The increasing use of mopeds and scooters for leisure activities is a product not only of the fact that they are now much more freely available in the USA than they were, but that more and more people, enjoying the experience of going to work on them, want to use them in the evenings and at weekends too.

The example of the football/baseball/basketball/ice-hockey matches is only one of a cornucopia of uses that the modern rider puts their machine to. A day out of town with the freedom of the open roads; a trip to the beach or your local beauty spot, with or without a friend; a trip to the city if you live out of town, without parking hassles; even just popping round to see friends the other side of town.

All these, and of course more, is easy if you have your form of transport. Often at 60 or more miles to the gallon (some even do 100 mpg), you can travel where you want at a fraction of the cost of ‘motoring’ without the aggravation or expense.

Mopeds and scooters are more and more features in people’s leisure time because they are good fun. Why be bottled up in a car in a traffic snarl when you could be on the open road? You will see more of them in the future so why not try one sooner rather than later? You won’t be disappointed.

A Brief History Of BMW Motorcycles

The history of BMW motorcycles dates back to the year 1921 when the firm started making engines for other firms. BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) launched its first motorcycle namely the R32, in 1923. Currently, the firm’s motorcycle manufacturing is under the brand name BMW Motorrad.

In the year 1916, two firms, Flugzenmaschinenfabrik (an Airplane Factory) belonging to Gustav Otto, and Flugwerke Deutschland belonging to Karl Rapp, joined to form the company Bayerische Flugzeugwerke. Initially, it made airplane engines and was later renamed Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW), by Max Friz and Karl Rapp in the year 1917. Their logo comprising a roundel, portraying an airplane propeller in a blue sky, has remained popular and is also seen on BMW cars today.

The German air force funded BMW to manufacture the Fokker DV II, which was among the best aircraft of the day. However, at the end of the First World War, in 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and Germany was forbidden from making airplanes. Reluctantly, the company’s head designer Max Friz turned to make automobile and motorcycle engines, to keep the company afloat. Most importantly, he designed the horizontally opposed twin-cylinder engine, which is better known as the “boxer” engine today. The M2B15, its first boxer engine, used the British Douglas design, which gave BMW moderate success. A more successful version emerged shortly afterward, using a light alloy cylinder head.

In 1923, the R32, the earliest BMW motorcycle was manufactured. With cylinder heads made of aluminum alloy, the engine had a re-circulating wet-sump oiling system, a very advanced feature for the time. This system was used by BMW until 1969, and the R32 became the basis for future boxer-powered motorcycles. It also had a shaft drive, which was retained till the F650 was introduced in 1994 – only the F650 series does not have shaft drive.

In the year 1935, BMW launched the first motorcycle using telescopic forks. In 1937, Ernst Hene set a world record, which stood for fourteen years, riding a supercharged 500cc OHC BMW at 173.88MPH. Ernst sadly passed away in 2005, at the age of a hundred.

BMW was in ruins by the close of the Second World War. Germany’s surrender forbade the company from making further motorcycles, and its top engineers were taken to Russia and the US for continuing their work in making jet engines that were produced by BMW, during the war. After the ban was lifted, it had to begin from scratch, and engineers used pre-war motorcycles as the basis of their designs. In 1948, the first post-war motorcycle was made by BMW, and production exceeded 17,000 units by 1950.

The R68, BMW’s first sporting motorcycle was launched in 1951, and by 1954 it was making 30,000 motorcycles. In 1957, it lessened to 5,500 or less, and it exported eighty-five percent of its twin-powered boxer motorcycles towards the late 1950s, to United States. From 1960 to 1984, BMW was in financial trouble, though it periodically launched single-cylinder models, offering the last of the series namely, R27 in 1960. During this period, however, a range of high-capacity boxer twins was produced including a model that many consider being one of the great modern classics — the R90S.

In 1983, BMW launched a 1000cc, water-cooled, four-cylinder engine, the K100 in Europe, which was introduced to the United States in the following year. However, demand for its boxer never waned, and hence it continued making boxer models. In 1985, it introduced a three-cylinder 750cc version of the four-cylindered one, which was smoother. In 1987, R100RT, the boxer-powered sportbike was launched again, with mono-lever rear suspension. In 1989, the K1, a sportbike based on K100 was introduced. ABS was introduced in 1988 and became the standard on all K models of BMW motorcycles. The F650 was introduced in 1994.