Motorcycles in Movies

Have you ever watched a movie in which the protagonist hops on a motorcycle (or steals one) and rides in the climactic chase scene? It always baffles me how skilled they are. Of course there’d be exaggeration, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. The movie Exit Wounds comes to mind. In it, Steven Seagal clotheslines a guy and steals his Ducati Monster. He picks up the bike and instantly wheelies it and rolls into a huge stoppie when he brakes. Unbelievable!

 

Another movie that stands out is Fled. In the final chase scene, Stephen Baldwin and Laurence Fishburne ride Ducati 916’s like they are professionals. They drag knees on every corner, wheelie, and split traffic (actually 2 semi trucks I believe). It’s very entertaining, especially to someone like me that really appreciates skilled riding, but come on! Anyone off the street trying to ride like this would become road splatter.

 

I guess I really don’t take much issue with scenes like this, but I just want to point out how unrealistic they are. I know it’s meant to increase the perception of the protagonist's skill, bravery, and overall badass-ary, but this could never even come close to happening in real life. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred a newbie would crash in the first 30 seconds. I guess that wouldn’t make much of a movie scene though.

 

Oh...and if you really want to get me going on stupid motorcycle scenes, bring up the girls’ motorcycle fight in Torque. Yikes!

 

“Cinema is the most beautiful fraud in the world.” - Jean-Luc Godard

Three Years of MotoBlogging

 

 

Last week I listened to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. His guest was Dan Carlin. If you haven’t listened to Dan’s podcast, Hardcore History, do yourself a favor and check it out. I especially enjoy his series on World War I which is titled, Blueprint for Armageddon. The conversation turned to how they both make most of their money from podcasting and anyone can do something similar, they only need to start doing it.

 

After hearing this, I instantly started to draw parallels to beginning this blog. It’ll be three years next month that I wrote the first blog post for KLK. At that time, I was pretty miserable at my job and I believed I had made the wrong career choice (engineering). I began to think of ways that I could build an online business that pertained to my passion, motorcycles. First, I wanted to create a YouTube channel (which I have and still might pursue more in the future), but after thinking about it, I decided a blog would better suit me. I asked two of my best friends to join me and KLK Cycles was formed.

 

Three years later, I’m still an engineer. Actually, I have been pretty content with my job lately and no longer feel a need to find another. While I haven’t turned blogging into another career, I do believe it has helped me a lot. In three years I have received quite a bit of free stuff to review, I’ve written for larger blogs, and recently I had an article published in a motorcycle magazine. The number of page views per post is now five times larger than it was two years ago and a following is slowly building. I haven’t made any money doing this, but I find it extremely fulfilling and enjoy both writing and seeing the number of page views progressively increase. Who knows what the future may hold.

 

"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back

Monster Love

 

The Ducati Monster is my favorite motorcycle. Well, that’s mostly true. Sometimes another bike can challenge for the top spot in my motorcycle hierarchy, but most of the time if you ask me, my favorite is the Monster. If that Monster is matte black, then look out, I’m reaching for my wallet. I mention the Monster because I just read this article from Motorcyclist. I hadn’t realized that Ducati has already been making Monsters for 25 years.

It was around 1996 when I first noticed a photo of a Monster. Prior to this, I was definitely interested in motorcycles, but I hadn’t had much interest in reading motorcycle magazines. That year, I was a junior in high school. For some reason, I was placed in a study hall with only middle school students. I literally knew no one. So, I spent that time in the school library, where they had a monthly subscription to Cycle World. I’d read that magazine cover to cover and anxiously await the next month’s copy. This is when I first saw the Ducati Monster.

I can’t say I fell in love with it instantly. I’m sure I thought it was cool and would’ve liked to have one, but I could say that about a lot of bikes. This did put the Monster on my radar, though. Two years later when I was traveling to Milwaukee to visit my Grandfather, I stopped in a Ducati dealership to check out the new bikes. There it was. A matte black Monster 750. That’s when I truly found my favorite motorcycle. 21 years later, I’m still riding a Ducati Monster.

If you haven’t seen a Monster in person, go check one out. Make sure it’s matte black, though. It’s not that I don’t like other colors, but yellow and red just don’t look as good on a Monster in my honest opinion.

“So that was it. This bike was really not like any other Ducati. It was just like the loud stubby powerful thing on its way into the ooze. A prehistoric beast. A monster. The kind of animal you thought they didn't build anymore.” - from Monster Story by John Burns, featured in Cycle World

Robots on Motorcycles

I’m not sure how I missed it for this long, but Yamaha has a robot that rides a motorcycle. Not only rides, but races. In fact, this Popular Mechanics article details the race between this robot (named MOTOBOT) and arguably the best man to ever race motorcycles, Valentino Rossi. I thought I was fairly up to date on motorcycle technology, but seeing as the first reports on MOTOBOT were back in 2015, I guess I was wrong.

I am not embarrassed to say that this thing kinda creeps me out! When I look at the photo in the article, I’m immediately reminded of all the sci-fi movies that have killer robots. If the next Star Wars movie had a droid character that looked like this it would surprise no one. One Day humanity could be slaves to such robots (okay, I’m exaggerating a bit).

If I overlook the creepy stuff, I can see the great implications that this could have for motorcycles. Imagine being able to road test a bike without worrying about injuring a human. If you remove the fear of injury or death, then a motorcycle could be ridden to its absolute limits. Now, you can argue that many of the people testing and racing motorcycles may not have that fear, but we cannot be sure of that. I repeat myself when I say this, but I’m really looking forward to what the future holds for motorcycles.

“In the twenty-first century, the robot will take the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization.” - Nikola Tesla

Millennials and Motorcycles

Apparently, the millennial generation is not buying motorcycles like previous ones. I’ve read this in multiple articles that were trying to explain the recent dip in sales for Harley Davidson. Although I’m all for anyone and everyone riding motorcycles (the more, the merrier I say), I think that this dip in interest could be a good thing.

If less people are buying motorcycles then companies will need to innovate to keep existing interest and to attract new people. This may mean increasing performance, styling, safety, or all the above. Necessity breeds innovation. I’m looking forward to what the future may hold.

If less people are interested (less demand) than prices will also drop. It’s simple economics. This will especially hold true for used bikes. I noticed this when I was in the market for a new bike. Ducati Monsters with less than a thousand miles were selling for under $7000. I nearly bought one, but I was too attracted to a new model, so I didn’t make the smart financial choice. My next bike will definitely be used.

I highly doubt that the market is really that bad. I’m probably going to the International Motorcycle Show in Chicago next February (I’ve been going nearly every year since 1999). If I do attend, I imagine that the crowds will be just as large as ever. The motorcycle industry isn’t going anywhere, but we may see some changes in the near future.

“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” - George Orwell