A motorcycle is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar from a saddle-style seat.
The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is an American nonprofit organization of more than 200,000 motorcyclists that organizes numerous motorcycling activities and campaigns for motorcyclists' legal rights. Its mission statement is "to promote the motorcycling lifestyle and protect the future of motorcycling." The organization was founded in 1924 and as of October 2016 had more than 1,100 chartered clubs.
The term "Universal Japanese Motorcycle", or UJM, was coined in the mid-1970s by Cycle Magazine to describe a proliferation of similar Japanese standard motorcycles that became commonplace following Honda's 1969 introduction of its successful CB750. The CB750 became a rough template for subsequent designs from all three of the other major Japanese motorcycle manufacturers. In 2011, the New York Times said lightning struck for Honda "with the 1969 CB 750, whose use of an inline 4-cylinder engine came to define the Universal Japanese Motorcycle."
A streetfighter, muscle bike, or supernaked is a type of high-performance motorcycle. It is typically a large-displacement sport bike with the fairings and windscreen removed. Beyond simply removing fairings, specific changes that exemplify the streetfighter look are a pair of large, round headlights, tall, upright handlebars such as those on a motocross bike, and short, loud, lightweight mufflers, and changes in the sprockets to increase torque and acceleration at lower speeds. Streetfighters is also the name of a UK motorcycle magazine.
A sport bike is a motorcycle designed and optimized for speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering on asphalt concrete race tracks and roads. They are mainly designed for performance at the expense of comfort, fuel economy, safety, noise reduction and storage in comparison with other motorcycles.
The six main types of motorcycles are generally recognized as standard, cruiser, touring, sports, off-road, and dual-purpose. Sport touring is sometimes recognized as a seventh category or integrated with the touring category.
A sport touring motorcycle is a type of motorcycle that combines the performance of a sport bike with the long-distance capabilities and comfort of a touring motorcycle.
The Yamaha FZ1 is a naked bike made by Yamaha Motor Company in Japan.
The Honda CBR600RR is a 599 cc (36.6 cu in) sport bike made by Honda since 2003, part of the CBR series. The CBR600RR was marketed as Honda's top-of-the-line middleweight sport bike, succeeding the 2002 Supersport World Champion 2001–2006 CBR600F4i, which was then repositioned as the tamer, more street-oriented sport bike behind the technically more advanced and uncompromising race-replica CBR600RR. It carried the Supersport World Championship winning streak into 2003, and on through 2008, and won in 2010 and 2014.
Long-distance riding is the activity of riding motorcycles over long distances, both competitively and as a pastime. A goal of long-distance riding is to explore one's endurance while riding a motorcycle, sometimes across several countries.
Motorcycle touring is a format of tourism that involves a motorcycle. It has been a subject of note since at least 1915.
David L. Hough is an American writer on motorcycle rider safety, education and training. He has been a columnist for Motorcycle Consumer News, Sound RIDER! and BMW Owners News magazines. After his first book Proficient Motorcycling was published by Bow Tie Press it became one of the best selling motorcycle books. He currently has four published books and one 2nd ed. He has been recognized twice as a writer by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's (MSF) Excellence in Motorcycle Journalism award.
The BMW F650CS was a standard motorcycle made by BMW Motorrad from 2001 to 2005. CS stood for city/street, as it was aimed at urban commuters and it was also known as the Scarver, a portmanteau of street and carver. The CS was the third generation in the F650 single series, after the 1993–2001 F650, and 2000–7 F650GS. It was known for its offbeat styling intended to attract new motorcyclists.
A motorcycle tyre is the outer part of motorcycle wheel, attached to the rim, providing traction, resisting wear, absorbing surface irregularities, and allowing the motorcycle to turn via countersteering. The two tyres' contact patches are the motorcycle's connection to the ground, and so are fundamental to the motorcycle's suspension behaviour, and critically affect safety, braking, fuel economy, noise, and rider comfort.
Motorcycle hooliganism includes street racing, street stunting, and games of tag on public roads, or simply cruising, often in very large numbers, against local ordinances.
The Honda CB900F is a Honda motorcycle made in two iterations which appeared some twenty years apart. Both generations of the CB900F are straight four-cylinder four-stroke 900 cc (55 cu in) roadsters.
The following outline is provided as an overview of motorcycles and motorcycling:
This is a glossary of motorcycling terms.
Helge Pedersen is a long-distance motorcyclist originally from Kristiansand, Norway, who now resides in Seattle, Washington. He traveled more than 250,000 miles (400,000 km) touring the world on a BMW R80G/S adventure touring motorcycle between 1982 and 1992. This journey is recounted in his book 10 Years on 2 Wheels. The motorcycle he rode on was placed on display at the BMW Museum in Munich.
