Daily news about motorcycleshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/en-usTue, 21 May 2013 18:00:00 +0200 Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:00 +0200

#Exposition #Monks #Abbey - Here's an interesting travel tip for those of you who are planning to visit France shortly. Starting on the 17th of May, until the 30th of June, in the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Ligugé the monks there are holding an exposition of enameled motorcycle art.

The expo is named "A Golden Century of Motorcycles", and consists of 25 enamel based portraits of vintage and modern motorcycles, even the latest Ducati Diavel and the Yamaha V-Max.

Apart from passing through the obligatory gift shop, you can even ask the monks to make an enamel rendering of your favorite motorcycle. All exposed artwork can also be purchased. Each artwork is on a copper plate measuring 17 x 25 cm...........

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-monks-motorcycles-and-holiday.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-monks-motorcycles-and-holiday.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-monks-motorcycles-and-holiday.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/france-monks-motorcycles-and-holiday.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-monks-motorcycles-and-holiday.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0200

Usually when I go out to make photos for an article, it involves packing up my motorcycle with all my cameras, computers, sleeping gear, toothbrush, etc, or it might involve planes, trains and automobiles. But whatever the mode of transportation, it'll mean it's going to take a while before I get there, and even longer before I get back. That's because I live in the real countryside, in a small (186 inhabitants) village in Upper Normandy. My next door neighbors are cows, and I mean the animals.

Once or twice I've had something as a source for an article close-by, usually 15 to 30 minutes ride from my house, and that made me happy, but last weekend on Sunday, in the closest town to me, Cany-Barville, was a exhibition called "100 Years of Motorcycles". Cany-Barville is almost at walking distance from my house, a little over 5 kilometers, so the expo got marked in big black marker in my agenda (something my iPad did not like), since it was going to be one I was not going to miss.

The only thing that troubled me, and I never got a response, was why "100 years". Motorcycles have existed for more than 100 years. Anyway, it didn't spoil my fun. So off I went to the exhibition. Now do remember, we're in the middle of "shit-kicker" country, so whatever it was going to be was small but done with gusto. ..........

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-100-year-celebration-of-the-motorcycle.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-100-year-celebration-of-the-motorcycle.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-100-year-celebration-of-the-motorcycle.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/france-100-year-celebration-of-the-motorcycle.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-100-year-celebration-of-the-motorcycle.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0200

#electric #eBikes - You can see that electric motorcycles and scooters are becoming more mainstream when they get their own exhibitions. Between April 16 and 18, Paris will see the opening of the eBikeTec exhibition, an expo dedicated to electric PTW.

The expo runs at the same time as the eCarTec, the electric car exhibition. The venue is Port de Versailles in Paris, and although the accent of the expo is more BtoB (business-to-business) the general public is welcome...........

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-1st-electric-motorcycle--scooter-exhibition.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-1st-electric-motorcycle--scooter-exhibition.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-1st-electric-motorcycle--scooter-exhibition.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/france-1st-electric-motorcycle--scooter-exhibition.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/france-1st-electric-motorcycle--scooter-exhibition.htm?opendocument&comments Wed, 9 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0200

Talk about equality and discrimination. The Minister of Equal Opportunities in Belgium, Joelle Milquet, is fed up with going to car and motorcycle exhibitions, like the show that opens on Friday in Brussels, and see sexy and scantly clad ladies demonstrating cars and bikes.

So she's putting a law into place that will forbid this, a bit like a Muslin Sharia law for exhibitions..........

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/belgium-minister-wants-to-ban-sexy-demo-babes-from-exhibitions.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/belgium-minister-wants-to-ban-sexy-demo-babes-from-exhibitions.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/belgium-minister-wants-to-ban-sexy-demo-babes-from-exhibitions.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/belgium-minister-wants-to-ban-sexy-demo-babes-from-exhibitions.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/belgium-minister-wants-to-ban-sexy-demo-babes-from-exhibitions.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0200

Sorry for all those folks who were looking forward to seeing my photos and articles on the latest motorcycles, accessories and demo dollies at world's premiere motorcycle exhibition, Eicma.

I arrived today very early at the Parisian airport for a flight out to Milan, when I collapsed, waking up in the first aid room. I had been exhausted for the last few days, and having not slept the night before, carrying 30 kilos of cameras and computers on my back, was enough for my system to crash, requiring a reboot.

With a drink plenty of liquid, take 2 aspirins and call me in the morning, I was sent home. I wasn't allowed to board. So I've arrived home again. This is the second big motorcycle expo that has gone sour on me, right after the Intermot train disaster.

It's becoming very expensive since my flights and hotels were all prepaid....

Sorry about it folks. Hope to do better next year. For the next few days, I'll leave the pre-programmed articles so I can rest a bit.

]]>http://192.168.1.4/Testblogs.nsfdx/eicma2012-disaster-strikes---me.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://192.168.1.4/Testblogs.nsfdx/eicma2012-disaster-strikes---me.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://192.168.1.4/Testblogs.nsfdx/eicma2012-disaster-strikes---me.htm http://192.168.1.4/Testblogs.nsfdxcomments/eicma2012-disaster-strikes---me.htm http://192.168.1.4/Testblogs.nsfdx/eicma2012-disaster-strikes---me.htm?opendocument&comments Fri, 9 Nov 2012 08:00:00 +0200

World's biggest motorcycle exhibition, the Milan, Italy EICMA will start Monday afternoon. It's an enormous event, with thousands of exhibitors showing off their latest motorcycles, accessories and clothing. Although press days are Tuesday and Wednesday, Monday will see two major press events; Ducati and Honda. Both have planned big events, Ducati at the fair's conference center, Honda in Milan itself.

As usual, I'll be there to cover this incredible event, armed with cameras, computers and smartphone. I've currently left my house in Normandy and making the long journey over to Milan with a stopover at Paris. I'll be back late Thursday.

Since press days are usually packed with press conferences back-to-back, with no room to even have lunch, it's going to be difficult to write up articles after each event. But I will be using my smartphone to upload interesting photos to my social media accounts. So while I'll be looking at the new motorcycles (and pretty demo girls), I'll have a few articles appear which I've programmed in advance so that you'll not find an empty space on this site. We'll keep you amused..............

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma-2012-on-my-way---here-is-how-to-follow.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma-2012-on-my-way---here-is-how-to-follow.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma-2012-on-my-way---here-is-how-to-follow.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/eicma-2012-on-my-way---here-is-how-to-follow.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma-2012-on-my-way---here-is-how-to-follow.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 8 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0200

A few more days and world's biggest motorcycle exhibition and fair opens its doors in Milan, Italy. Eicma as it is known is enormous, with more halls than you can imagine, more manufacturers, more stands and more visitors than anywhere else.

The annual event draws every major and minor motorcycle manufacturer and accessory maker in the world to show off their gear to thousands of journalists and visitors. So what can we expect to see? Well for one, as usual Eicma is FUBAR since they have not released the press conference schedules, so we do not know who will be presenting what. Which is normal for the Italian organization, they'll probably release it the day after the show has closed. So we'll just guess our ways...

But here's our guesstimates...........

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma2012-what-to-expect.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma2012-what-to-expect.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma2012-what-to-expect.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/eicma2012-what-to-expect.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/eicma2012-what-to-expect.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 4 Oct 2012 18:00:00 +0200

The Intermot 2012 motorcycle exhibition was a short one for me, thanks to a Belgian railroad strike that cut short my visit. So I missed most of the press conferences on Tuesday, and Wednesday, which is my walk-around day, was totally cancelled.

Despite the very short trip, only a few hours at Intermot, I did very quickly go through some of the stands and photograph interesting things. But it's not much... and my last article of a motorcycle exhibition is always a long one - the demo girls, better known as demo dollies. Unfortunately, this year is not much, since the girls come out on the 2nd day. But there were a few, so you'll see them at the last part of this article. Sorry for those that were expecting them.........

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-odds-ends-and-girls.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-odds-ends-and-girls.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-odds-ends-and-girls.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/intermot2012-odds-ends-and-girls.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-odds-ends-and-girls.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 4 Oct 2012 14:00:00 +0200

When the Horex was announced in 2010 in Germany, I was a bit sceptical. In the present day fuel and economical crisis, developing a new brand and motorcycle that has an enormous engine, and therefore fuel consumption, was in IMHO the wrong moment. I would have thought that any new manufacturer would go electric, or maybe hydrogen. But in this gutsy move Horex announced their first motorcycle using a 6 cylinder engine with a total of 1200cc.

The 6 cylinders are in V shape, but also inline, making this special design named VR. Their first, and so far only, model is a roadster, the Horex VR6, Roadster. So I decided to pay them a quick visit at the Intermot motorcycle exhibition......

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-horex---the-german-muscle-motorcycle.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-horex---the-german-muscle-motorcycle.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-horex---the-german-muscle-motorcycle.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/intermot2012-horex---the-german-muscle-motorcycle.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-horex---the-german-muscle-motorcycle.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 4 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0200

Although the Zero press conference was on Wednesday, the day I couldn't be at Intermot thanks to the Belgian railroads who decided to have an all-out strike, I still managed to visit the Zero stand on Tuesday.

Reports were already out that Zero had successfully updated their main electric motorcycle, their new flagship, to not only look like a real motorcycle, but have the performance and range that would make this electric bike acceptable for general use.

The new Zero S has doubled the range of their bikes, under ideal riding conditions you can ride a good 220 kilometers (137 miles) on a single charge. And if you have the "S" configured with the rapid charging option (CHAdeMO - something you can always bolt on afterwards), the 95% full charge can be done within an hour.......

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]]>http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-zero-motorcycles---making-electric-go-faster.htmExhibitionsMike Wernerhttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-zero-motorcycles---making-electric-go-faster.htm?opendocument&commentshttp://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-zero-motorcycles---making-electric-go-faster.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dxcomments/intermot2012-zero-motorcycles---making-electric-go-faster.htm http://news.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/intermot2012-zero-motorcycles---making-electric-go-faster.htm?opendocument&comments