The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

MMI – Motorcycle Mechanics Institute

By

Many of us have had the experience. You have a problem with your bike, it's a tough job, you don't have the tools or the time, the know-how or perhaps you just would rather have it done for you because there are other things you need to do. You get to the bike shop, probably your dealer but maybe an independent shop and you go to the service department. You start explaining … [Read more...]

The new Yamaha Vmax – ideas

By

Now we've seen the new Vmax, or at least some early design ideas. Yamaha still needs feedback so I thought I would send some their way. Yamaha, are you taking notes? Memo to Yamaha: The Vmax, when first introduced, was a knock down, take no prisoners muscle bike, and everyone knew it. Those days are long past. A lot of current sportbikes will kick sand in the face of Mr. … [Read more...]

New Yamaha Vmax from Tokyo Motor Show

By

The advance ticket holders are already spewing out loads of photos from the Tokyo Motor Show, we hope to have some of our own shortly, but in the meantime, you might like to see these, a design study of a new (hold your breath!) Yamaha VMax! (Or is that a Star Vmax? yuk!) This was noted briefly on the Yamaha website but here are the photos. This is not the final design, … [Read more...]

Honda DN-01 automatic sports cruiser

By

Honda is introducing their DN-01 concept motorcycle at the Tokyo Motor Show. It's powered by a water cooled 680cc v-twin connected to a continuously variable transmission and their goal is to introduce this to the market in the near future, so this is no pure design exercise. The CVT is actually called an HFT (Human Fitting Transmission) with two modes, either fully … [Read more...]

Screamin Eagle Destroyer runs low nines

By

Back in July Harley Davidson introduced their Screamin Eagle Destroyer, a race only version of the V-Rod. Talk of nine second quarter miles when in the right hands sounded pretty decent for a Harley but no independent runs were available to know what it would really do. Motorcyclist magazine got to try one at the strip, and instead of sending a quarter mile pro, they gave … [Read more...]

Hybrid Motorcycles not necessary

By

Some time back we posted about hybrid motorcycles but the definition in that post wasn't clear and after some thought, I believe that is one area of automotive development where motorcycles have no need to follow. Think about it, hybrid cars are a gasoline or diesel engine combined with an electric drivetrain for short distances or low speed driving. The end result is a car … [Read more...]