Honda VFR

In a digital world driven by touchscreens, scrolling menus and artificial intelligence there lives a Unicorn, a 1993 VFR 750. In this electric world measured by binary strings of 1s and 0s she is a deliciously analog endangered species driven by feel, a deft but heavy touch, proper feel at the levers. Her cockpit is full of spinning number odometers and sweeping white needles on black numbered faceplates that don’t disappear when the bike turns off. When I feel saturated by screen time and need to unplug and return to the heart of motorcycling, the core of who I am, I ride The Unicorn.

2024 Motorcycle Sport Touring Tires Shootout: Final Results

by Ted Edwards | Aug 9, 2024 | Bikes & Gear, Nuts & Bolts | 31 |

We test tires because you just never know. Bikes are different, riders are different, seasons are different and as we are finding out, tires are different. Much, much different. We test tires by attempting to control for everything- riding the same bikes, at the same time, with the same riders and same fuel loads following each other all season. We even order the same coffee, all in the name of accuracy. Sometimes the results are predictable and other times, as in this test, the results are shocking.

Nine Ways To Miss

by Ted Edwards | Jul 28, 2023 | Ride Life, Rides & Roads | 9 |

I miss the anticipation of the trip, the packing, the excitement of cramming my saddlebags full of warm clothes and strapping camping gear everywhere until it was heavily laden like a Yukon bound pack mule seeking a golden fortune. However, instead of heading for the frozen north, we were pointing our front wheels south to mine our memories from the golden shores of the Pacific Coast Highway. Levering my weighty bike off the kickstand and thumbing the starter felt like a leap into the unknown, the first steps of a thousand mile journey, my Honda VFR’s repaired electrics held together by electrical tape and happy thoughts, partly because I got lazy, party because it finally worked and I didn’t want to mess with it lest the whole mess unravel.

Red Light Blues

by Ted Edwards | Jun 26, 2023 | Nuts & Bolts, Ride Life | 4 |

The red fuel injection warning light came on. The engine died. Time slowed.
In motorcycling physics, miles per hour equals radius. More speed means a wider circle. Cut throttle (or have sudden power loss) and your circle tightens immediately. Engine power that had been keeping me passing the tanker truck around the outside abruptly left like a girlfriend scorned, and my radius tightened towards the tanker truck on my right.

Summer Tire Shootout- Dunlop Roadsmart IV vs. Michelin Road 6

by Ted Edwards | May 17, 2023 | Bikes & Gear, Nuts & Bolts | 15 |

Road Dirt’s summer tire shootout is back.
Last spring, after Dave “White Girl” Wensveen and I grossly over caffeinated ourselves, our acute grasp of the obvious made us realize we had the exact same bike. I suggested that it would be a perfect test bed for tires. Two identical bikes, two identical riders, each following the other around all spring, summer and fall while testing and taking notes sounded like the ideal way to put to bed all of the heresy regarding tire performance.