MV Agusta

I’m not normally a guy prone to fits of sibling jealousy. I admire the careers and lives of my brothers and sisters and applaud their successes.

But I admit I turned a little green around the edges when I got a recent e-mail from my younger brother, Dennis.

Dennis works for a Santa Barbara newspaper, and he recently traveled to Solvang on assignment, to visit a motorcycle museum and talk with a couple of retired motorcycle racers.

Not just any motorcycle racers. He got to hang around and chat with Giacomo Agostini and Phil Read, both legendary world champions a few decades ago. Some rank Agostini as the greatest motorcycle road racer of all time, and he has eight 500cc championships to back up that claim, along with seven 350cc championships. Read was a contemporary of Ago’s who won two 500cc championships and four 250cc championships in the same era.

They seem to work hard at looking intimidating, but I was reminded over the weekend that some of the cruiser bike crowd are softies at heart..

I attended a motorcycle poker run Saturday, more to enjoy the ride and barbecue than to contribute to the cause at hand.

A poker run, for those who have never participated, is an excuse to get out and ride,  socialize, raise money for some cause or another, and maybe win some bucks. The riders collect a playing card at each of five stops along the way, and the best hand wins. In this case the prize was $300, and low hand won $100.

The organizers had no experience at running such an event, but did a good job of  it – except for estimating the crowd. They had planned on as many as 500 riders. But they chose the wrong date – the annual Laughlin River Run was last weekend, and other large events were scheduled elsewhere in Northern California.

I was one of 10 riders who showed up, and it appeared that the organizers were going to take a bath on the event.

Adventure touring bikes are a lot like the ubiquitous four-wheel-drive SUVs: capable of off-road excursions, but many of the people who buy them have no intention of  wandering off the pavement.

I used to think I was impervious to that sort of thing. I sort of like the funky styling on the BMW GS, but I knew I would be a poseur riding one. I’ve never ridden in the dirt, and the thought of trying to wrestle a 1,200cc bike around on a surface with limited traction gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Some manufacturers have recognized that the bikes don’t really go off-road and have tilted them heavily toward street use: the Ducati Multistrada, the Suzuki V-Strom and the Triumph Tiger are examples.

My thinking on big dual sports or adventure bikes changed recently, however, when a friend urged me to test ride one. I had been test riding street bikes, and had complained to him that my aging knees suffered because of the tight fit between the footpegs and the saddle of  many street bikes. I’m an inch or so above six feet, and the low seat/high footpegs designs leave me searching for Ben Gay at the end of a long ride.

Things have been a mite hectic, and I haven’t posted lately. I’ll try to make up for it here with a listing of upcoming events in the region, gleaned from flyers at area motorcycle dealerships.

But first, I'll throw in this gratuitous picture of a vintage Laverda that I spied in San Jose two weeks ago:

Cool, huh? Anyway, here's that list of events:

The Sons of Thunder are presenting the 5th annual Bike Blessing on Saturday in Merced. Sign in is 8 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. at 650 East Olive Avenue, Merced. The blessing takes place at 10 a.m., followed by a ride through the foothills. A barbecue and live music will greet returning bikers, and the event is free. For more information, call Keith at 947-5269.

The 4th annual Cpl. Michael D. Anderson Jr. Memorial Ride honoring veterans will be held May 10th, sponsored by Mitchell’s Modesto Harley-Davidson. Cpl. Anderson was killed in combat in Fallujah in 2004. The ride starts at 10 a.m. at Modesto Harley-Davidson, and concludes at Jamestown Harley-Davidson with beer, a band and barbecue. The ride itself is free and open to all makes and brands. For more information, call Modesto Harley-Davidson at 522-1061, or visit www.cplandersonjr.org.

What is it about old British motorcycles? They leak oil, the electric system turns riders into pedestrians, they require tools that are neither metric nor inches….

And yet, they are among the most beautiful two-wheeled vehicles ever designed. The simple, clean and elegant lines of a Triumph Bonneville, a Norton Commando or a BSA Gold Star haven’t been matched since.

I was reminded of this with a trip to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Saturday to ogle the old British iron at a British and European bike show.

 New motorcycles, for the most part, seem ponderous and plastic compared to the light and lithe Limey roadsters. Sport bikes are covered in plastic body parts, cruisers are about 200 pounds overweight, and bikes like the Suzuki B-King and the Yamaha V-Max are just bizarrely styled.

It’s tough to make a water-cooled, multi-cylinder engine look graceful. Hiding a radiator and hoses is difficult at best, and the width of a transverse four-cylinder engine makes bikes look heavy.

A personal prejudice: I love European motorcycles. German, English, Italian, they are all great.

Japanese bikes are well-built, technological wonders, but I just think they lack the personality of European bikes. It’s hard for an average street rider like myself to discern much of a difference between the 600 cc sport bikes made by Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki, for instance.

The magazines will talk about tenths or hundredths of a second quicker to 60 mph or around a race track, but that’s really irrelevant to guys like me.

But a Moto-Guzzi is very different than a Triumph, or a BMW. Ducatis are different than MV Agustas, and KTMs are different than Aprilias. Call it character, quirkiness, eccentricity or just flaws, it makes the bikes more interesting.

There’s an opportunity to celebrate those differences this weekend in the Bay Area.

First, there’s the Clubman’s All-British Motorcycle Weekend, held Saturday and Sunday, March 29 and 30, at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose.

Motorcycle safety is NOT an oxymoron – although the term safety is relative.

Motorcycling is inherently more dangerous than, say, driving an Impala, or bowling a few lines at the local alley. But there are steps riders can take to reduce risks.

Two of them are wearing a good helmet, and taking a training course to improve skill levels.

Unfortunately, U.S. Transportation Department policy seems to be setting those two strategies against each other.

The American Motorcyclist Association, a lobby group for bikers, reports that Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is urging Congress to allow states to divert federal money from motorcycle safety training and awareness programs to mandated helmet use.

Mandated helmet use is a political lightning rod that I’m personally conflicted about. Wearing a good helmet, preferably full coverage, is a great survival tactic. States that repeal helmet laws experience more motorcycle fatalities. I never ride without a helmet, even in states that allow it.