From the monthly archives:

January 2005

Proton makes a move on Ducati

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/26/2005

in General

Proton, sponsors of the Kenny Roberts MotoGP team and controlling interest in MV Agusta, recently made a bid to buy into Ducati. They have abandoned those plans and intend instead to concentrate on growing their other motorcycle brands. They are the biggest carmaker in SE Asia and are planning to use the Agusta brand [...]

The universal engine

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/26/2005

in Engines, Motorcycle Builders, Motorcycle Design, Workshop & Tools

Over the last week or so I’ve been thinking and writing about motorcycle engines and I came across this series of columns by Marc Cook over at AVweb. Being an aviation web site his columns look at engines from that perspective and he examines the actual differences between motorcycle and airplane engines and the reasons [...]

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Future transportation – looks like today

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/25/2005

in Alternative thinking, Science frontiers

An interesting post over at Marginal Revolution notes that predictions of future transportation always have a lot of “gee whiz” yet when we finally arrive at the time of the predictions, things look a lot like they were. Is it steady progress that makes the changes seem small or are things really not changing much? [...]

Cycle World Show this weekend

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/25/2005

in Motorcycle Shows

For those of you up in the northeast where we are, don’t forget to check out the Cleveland stop of the International Motorcycle Show this weekend. It’s usually a pretty good time with a lot of bikes on display. The show is at the I-X center right next to the Cleveland airport. I’ll be there [...]

Defiant Scooters

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/24/2005

in Motorcycle Builders, Motorcycle Design

Everyone knows what a scooter is, one of those little things you see around some college campuses and downtown in crowded cities. Usually a bit small. I ran across this and it takes care of the small factor and it should cruise on the highways just fine since it’s powered by a Harley Sportster engine. [...]

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Old motorcycles and motorcycle engines

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/23/2005

in Engines, Vintage Motorcycles

It’s probably apparent that I like motorcycle engines. Old motorcycles and motorcycle engines are especially neat because there was such a wide variation in their design and appearance. Today, many engines are hard to distinguish from one another. As I was looking for something else I came across this web site, the Wolverhampton Museum of [...]

Technical illustrations

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/22/2005

in General, Motorcycle Design

Sometimes when we read an article about the latest motorcycle we look at the illustrations to better understand what the words are all about. It’s easy to breeze right over the skill involved in putting the illustration itself together so it’s accurate and artistic. Jim Hatch is one of those guys putting out great work, [...]

Motoczysz C1 by Red Bull

by Paul Crowe - "The Kneeslider" on 1/21/2005

in Motorcycle Racing

Cruising around a few motorcycle blogs and would you look at this, The Motoczysz C1 all dressed up in Red Bull paint. It’s going to be on display in New York City at the Javits center, beginning today. So they have a sponsor? How about a rider? This could be interesting. If he has pulled [...]