The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Star Motorcycles

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Yamaha has announced the creation of a new brand, Star Motorcyces, which will basically be all of their cruiser motorcycles split off from the Yamaha brand. Seems the cruisers have been popular and have attained their own identitiy so Yamaha decided they could stand on their own. What I don't get is that they will not have their own dealers, they'll just have some different … [Read more...]

Dead battery winners

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I've mentioned Make magazine several times before, if you don't read it, you're missing out, really. They had a neat challenge, Makeshift, that set out a situation where you were camping and after one of the your cohorts leaves the lights on in your car you're stranded with a dead battery 50 miles from anywhere and bad weather closing in. They listed what you had on hand, so … [Read more...]

Amerityre polyurethane spare tire

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Wrote a while back about the Tweel which is a no-air tire technology from Michelin coming out for cars and now there's another company bringing out the Amerityre which is a polyurethane spare tire. It takes the place of the little donut tires we often see. I'll be interested to see if they can round off the profile a bit so it can be used on motorcycles. Off road bikes would be … [Read more...]

V8 motorcycles and Glenn Curtiss

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Sometimes it's easy to look at some new creation and think it's the first time anyone ever thought of it. V8 motorcycles have been tried before by a number of companies but how far back do they go? Glenn Curtiss made one back in 1907 and went 136mph on it. Glenn was an aviation pioneer but started out and always remained a tool guy. This V8 motorcycle is a good example of the … [Read more...]

More Chinese ripoffs

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Since Pennsylvania is the home state of The Kneeslider, this story hits a little closer to home. Zippo lighters are manufactured in Bradford, PA, have been since they started. Seems a company in China was caught with 750,000 knockoffs but their home province hemmed and hawed about doing anything. This article mentions a few other things the Chinese seem to have "designed" and … [Read more...]

GM sues China’s Chery

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Back here I said GM was ready to sue Chery over the copying of the design of the GM Daewoo Matiz. Well, they're suing and good for them. If the Chinese want to compete in the world markets with all of the vaunted capabilities of their billions of people, the least they can do is create something original. Malcolm Bricklin, who's planning to import the Chery, seems to see no … [Read more...]