Blog

The Backpack Scooter Lets You Walk Then Ride

This may not require a Flex Jacket or a Quest Jacket, but he should definitely have some Axis Gloves!

“This is the Bergmönch – the Mountain Monk – a scooter that folds into a backpack, thereby allowing the brave to ride down the hills the climb up at breakneck speed. There are no pedals – just a pair of disc brakes – and it costs $1,880.

The kit weighs about 20 pounds and, while I admit I’m no mountaineer, looks pretty rugged. I would only worry that the scooter handlebars would stab you in the back at some point or you’d fall on the wheel and get impaled by a spoke, but I supposed all that doesn’t matter when you’re Matterhorning down a mountain yelling “Trollolololol” while pushing yourself along on a portable scooter.

Product Page via Wired via OhGizmo via TechCrunch“

Click Here to view the original article.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/12/the-backpack-scooter-lets-you-walk-then-ride/

Photo by Dave Hoenig

Hagerstown Half-Mile Preview: Maryland Hosts the Quick and the Smooth:

“DAYTONA BEACH, FL (July 1, 2011) – After a round spent on the rough-and-tumble limestone of Lima’s Half-Mile, the AMA Pro Harley-Davidson Insurance Flat Track Championship next turns to the smooth, fast, car-track half-mile in Hagerstown, Maryland, for a July 9 event. The tenth round of the series’ 22-round calendar, the Hagerstown Speedway Half-Mile comprises the championship’s only 2011 appearance on the Atlantic Seaboard.

The “Hub City” classic treats the large crowds that pour into Hagerstown Speedway with racing as hot as the July weather. Kings Kustoms/Larry Zumbrun Racing’s Sammy Halbert solidified his overall Grand National Championship points lead with a victory at Lima, but the red clay of Hagerstown Speedway has traditionally been very good to Halbert’s main challengers: Jake Johnson, Jared Mees, and Kenny Coolbeth, all of whom have ties to the area.

Defending Grand National Champion Johnson (Zanotti Racing) currently sits 25 points behind Halbert, but he’s hoping to repeat his win from 2009. Johnson also counts four top-five finishes in his nine Hagerstown mains, and he’ll be particularly motivated to do well this July 9 weekend. Originally from New Jersey, this race is as close to home as it gets for Johnson.

Rogers Lake Racing/Blue Springs Harley-Davidson’s Jared Mees had his recent hot streak somewhat cooled with a fifth-place finish in Lima and is now 31 points back of Halbert. The trip east is a homecoming for the transplanted Pennsylvanian, and Mees — who’s been able to grab two thirds and five top-five finishes over the years at Hagerstown — has plenty of reason to think he can do well again this year.   Harley-Davidson Motor Company’s Kenny Coolbeth is 50 points out, but Hagerstown has been very good to the veteran. The former Grand National Champion has two wins (in 2007 and 2008) along with four seconds in his fourteen Hagerstown mains.”

Click Here to read the original article.

Great cause…

“Fourteen intrepid motorcyclists have signed on as members of the Dirt Brigade to ride Adventure for the Cures 2011. This second, of a planned ongoing series of mission based Adventure Riding tours, is one of two breast cancer fund raising programs hosted by the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation with major support from Progressive Insurance. This summer’s participants are members of a growing army of volunteers willing to challenge themselves in, on, up, over, around or through mud, gravel, sand, rocks, ruts, mountains and whatever the weather throws at them.

Their mission: to put breast cancer into world history books. The challenges these riders face will honor the donors who have made pledges on the 2000 dual sport miles they’ll cover on their journey on behalf of www.komen.org/globalpromiseforacure.

Their trek also pays tribute to the courage and tenacity shown by the millions of people around the world who have faced breast cancer, who are presently battling the monster or have succumbed to this insidious disease. In the throes of fighting for their lives, these very people also soldiered on with their responsibilities as spouses, daughters and sons, neighbors, siblings, friends and colleagues. Consider the total number of people touched and you are pretty much covering a major portion of the world community.

To be successful, each rider must raise a minimum of $2000.00 for the Susan G. Komen for a Cure Global Promise Fund. This funding effort knows no borders. If promising research evolves anywhere in the world it could get funded. If a grant proposal meets the criteria for saving lives through education or early diagnosis and intervention, it can get funded. The Global Promise for the Cure is a worldwide effort to eradicate breast cancer, the number one form of cancer on our planet.

Covering their own expenses to be a part of this expedition, the Dirt Brigade will camp along the way, build community, improve their riding skills and add to their knowledge about the scourge that is breast cancer.

To support all of the riders efforts and those of the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation, Progressive Insurance and MotoQuest Tours are each helping to keep the overall costs down. BMW Motorrad USA, Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., and Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA, have signed on by loaning motorcycles.

Now it’s your turn to help. Make a donation by going to: www.komen.org/tributepage. Go down to the bottom of the page and click on FIND A DONATION PAGE. By typing in WMF, you will find all of the riders participating in this year’s campaign. Once you have picked a rider to follow, keep track of your rider’s fund raising progress plus her/his progress on the trail from August 5-18, 2011.

For more information on Adventures for the Cures, go to www.womensmotorcyclistfoundation.org. The Dirt Brigade Riders and the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation appreciate your support.”

 

Click Here to view the original article.

Source: http://www.roadrunner.travel/wp/2011/06/28/dual-sport-ride-to-end-breast-cancer/

Isle of Man Celebrates 100 Years of Racing This Weekend:

“The exact date of the first Senior TT Race on the famous Mountain Course is to be commemorated this Sunday 3rd July with a parade lap of 100 vintage machines, a hundred years to the day after Oliver Godfrey’s victory. All of the entrants will receive a replica of the 1911 finishers medal.

The event, which has been organised by the Isle of Man branch of the Vintage Motorcycle Club, will feature vintage machines at least 70 years old with 11 of the bikes officially in the ‘veteran’ class, dating from pre-1914. Riders and passengers are entering into the spirit by wearing period riding gear.

The machines will be setting off from Glencrutchery Road at around 9.30am, in the shadow of the TT Grandstand and they will then pause at the original start line on Quarterbridge road, where a plaque will be unveiled. The bikes will then follow the TT course to Ramsey before featuring in a display in Parliament Square in the morning. They will then leave Ramsey again at around 1pm, returning to the TT grandstand before being on display at the Grandstand to 4pm.

A special commemorative souvenir programme, giving the full list of entrants and documenting the early history of the event as well as featuring period photography, has also been produced. The programme also features a foreword by John Surtees, OBE, the only man to win world championships on two and four wheels and an article by Geoff Duke on his first TT experiences. It will also contain a copy of the original 1911 TT Races programme. Money raised by programme sales will be donated to support local charities including the hyperbaric chamber.

Sunday’s re-enactment is part of a series of vintage club events running from Saturday to Tuesday, which has attracted participants from as far afield as Holland, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, America and New Zealand.

Richard Birch the Chairman of The Isle of Man Branch of The Vintage Motorcycle Club commented:

“I would encourage anyone with an interest in motorbikes, or the Isle of Man’s history to look out for this event on Sunday. It is a great opportunity to recognise one of the most significant events in the Island’s long history and will be a chance to see some of the world’s most interesting motorcycles in action.”

[Press Release Courtesy of Isle of Man]”

 

Click Here to view the original article.

Source: http://www.allaboutbikes.com/motorcycle-sports/road-track-racing/isle-man-tt-racing/5325-isle-of-man-celebrates-100-years-of-racing-this-weekend?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+allaboutbikes%2FaIXA+%28AllAboutBikes%29

This is HUGE!

 

Check out what’s coming up for the 2012 snow season from Castle X.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8LDUhLSWuI?rel=0]

Watch for a full release July 15th at CastleSales.com

DAYTONA BEACH, FL (June 23, 2011) – While every spectator was treated to phenomenal racing in all four AMA Pro classes at last weekend’s Barber SuperBike Classic, one very special group walked away with a unique understanding of the Birmingham facility, and helped raise more than $1,000 for local tornado victims in the process.

 

The Tornado Track Walk — a shared project between AMA Pro Racing, Zoom Motorsports, and Barber Motorsports Park — wrapped up Saturday’s action at the circuit and featured the very best kind of student-teacher ratio: joining the 100-plus fan participants were more than twenty AMA Pro racers. Competitors such as Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes and Josh Herrin, Rockstar Makita Suzuki’s Blake Young and Tommy Hayden, National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden, M4 Suzuki’s Dane Westby, SuzukiScoopFans Racing’s Elena Myers, Vesrah Suzuki’s Cory West and Taylor Knapp, and many more spent roughly an hour and a half leading fans through corners at a considerably slower pace than usual.

 

As participants talked strategy and technique under the hot Alabama sun, they were simultaneously supporting local victims of the devastating tornadoes that hit Alabama and other areas of the South in late April. All proceeds from Tornado Track Walk ticket sales went directly to the Christian Service Mission, a local non-profit that connects resources with community needs.

 

AMA Pro Racing would like to thank all the fans who participated, as well as riders Jason DiSalvo (Latus Motors Racing), PJ Jacobsen (Celtic Racing/Fast by Ferracci), Tommy Aquino and Chris Clark (Y.E.S./Pat Clark/Graves Yamaha), JD Beach (Cycle World/Attack Performance KawasakI), Melissa Paris (HT Moto Yamaha), Cameron Beaubier (Jake Holden Racing), Huntley Nash (LTD Racing Y.E.S. Yamaha), Reese Wacker (Wacker Racing), and SPEED announcer Greg White.

 

The AMA Pro Road Racing Championship heads next to Lexington, Ohio’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the July 8-10 weekend, Round 6 on the series calendar. For tickets and information, visit www.midohio.com or call (419) 884-4000.

 

Via AMA Pro Racing News Release