A little over a year ago we reported that long time staple of motorcycle journalism Cycle News had decided to close up shop after 40 years of bringing motorcycle news to the masses on a regular basis. Well they didn’t stay away for long and they have returned to reporting on the motorcycle industry and motorcycle racing in a big way. Leaving behind the traditional print publication that they were known for and moving to a digital edition. The new and improved Cycle News is a once a week digital publication that you can not only read on your computer but on your smart phone or tablet. … Continue Reading

Editor’s Note: Patrick Garvin is an in-house product specialist and ecommerce expert here at J&P Cycles, lending his extensive motorcycle and motorcycle parts knowledge to the website and to the blog. This is the first in a two-part series about his working relationship with a 35-year-old beauty named Suzuki.

About six years ago I found myself traveling back and forth on a regular basis through Illinois for business. I’d time my trips so I could stop off for lunch in a small spot in the road called Prophetstown.

Now the only reason I was making stops in this one-horse town is that I’d stumbled across a pretty damned… Continue Reading

Just before I set out on my trip to Sturgis this year, I decided to throw a new set of shoes on the ZX-10R. I’d heard all the hype surrounding the Dunlop Q2’s when these tires were released a while back, what with the media claiming they were great, resulting in faster lap times and so on and so on.

But the hype still left me wondering about the tire’s abilities on the street. I was pretty certain they performed quite well at the hands of experts on the racetrack, but I had questions about how well they would operate under a bit of a whack… Continue Reading

It’s not often in the motorcycle world that something truly new comes along. But in the case of longtime performance exhaust manufacturer Akrapovic, something new has come along and it’s moving pretty fast.

For years, Akrapovic has set the standard as the best of the best when it comes to performance sport bike exhaust systems, a factoid that is reinforced by the many factory superbike teams that install them on their bikes at the highest levels of racing.

And now, Akrapovic has made the decision to cross over a bit, releasing a new line of exhaust equipment for late-model Harley-Davidson motorcycles. They brought with them an innate ability… Continue Reading

Once again, the AMD World Championship of Custom Bike Building set up shop smack dab in the middle of Sturgis and true to form, exhibited the absolute cream of the crop when it comes to fabrication. In fact, it appeared to us that fabrication skills were on display more so this year than bike-building skills.

Functionality appeared to be lost in the translation on a lot of these entries. To us, it looked like builders were more intent on showing off their insane engineering and fabrication pieces, and the motorcycles themselves were secondary. So as Zach and I cruised the isles looking for the… Continue Reading

This year marked my second consecutive in-person visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Indy MotoGP after years of following what I consider to be the world’s premier motorcycling championship on the television set.

Last year I experienced some culture shock during my first visit — but it was my kind of culture and so I embraced it! This year’s trip was just as exciting, but I experienced less awe and a whole lot more agenda. It was after all, a working trip, so the first few days were spent setting up the J&P Cycles rig in the interactive vendor display area.

Then it was… Continue Reading

For the past seven years I’ve worked in one capacity or another in Sturgis, and each of those years I’ve thrown a leg over my bike in late July, pointed it west and pinned it for 800 miles. I do the ride in one day, simply because I just don’t have all that much time.

I get there three weeks before the start of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and when I arrive, I’ve got exactly one day to do whatever I want before I get down to work. Other than my short morning blasts through Vanocker Canyon, that’s the last riding I do for the next… Continue Reading

Two of the most beautiful words in a motorcyclist’s vocabulary are “barn find.” It’s something most of us bikers daydream about. You know, an old Knucklehead or old single-cylinder HD just waiting patiently for us to rescue it from the corner of a some old farmer’s shed and refurbish it for a triumphant return to the open road.

That being said, I’m thinking Williamstown, New Jersey, might just be home to the mother of all barn finds. Four decades ago, Nick — of Nick’s Custom Cycles — opened up a small bike shop in what was originally intended to be a chicken coop. Nick slapped some additions onto… Continue Reading

The café racer got its start in Europe in the early 1960s, making its way across the pond later in that decade, and eventually catching on with a few factories in the U.S. Even Harley-Davidson gave it a shot in 1977 with the XLCR. But the AMF-built bike was pretty much ignored in showrooms and quickly vanished from the H-D lineup. Unlike the Beatles and Stones, the café racer trend in America was short-lived.

Then a new craze smacked America upside the head in the late ’80s and early ’90s with bikers morphing their motorcycles into grossly overpriced machines where functionality took a back… Continue Reading

Let’s face facts. Stock sucks. Doesn’t matter if we’re talking about stock pipes, stock air cleaner, stock windshield or stock seat. Hell, the motorcycle industry is based on the very idea that “stock sucks.” If stock didn’t suck there’d be no need for  an Arlen Ness or a Jesse James. If stock didn’t suck, you wouldn’t be reading this right now. You’d be out on your  stock bike put-putting down the street.

So now that we’ve established the lameness of stock, why are you rocking a stock stereo in your bagger? I’m pretty sure you ditched… Continue Reading