More Friday Afternoon Moto News - Honda, Adventure and the BMW R1200GS Adventure

First, a trip to the past - again - to look at Honda's racing heritage. This is an incredibly detailed look into Honda's early racing experiences in Japan and their preparation for Soichiro Honda's goal of racing in - and winning - the Isle of Man TT. There is some great information here about the models raced in Japan during those early years and some of the great racers from the factory. Read it and you will learn something...

http://tinyurl.com/ycq3gez

A story of Ivan Pisarenko and his attempts at riding the continental divide (see previous post on another attempt). See, he had many problems during his riding experiences and has managed to come back and try again and again. This man is determined and has also become a sort of folk hero. He even took time during his journey to earn money to continue it...it's an inspiring story and one which should be written about in a book.

http://tinyurl.com/yb5blps

http://tinyurl.com/yfgymmp

And, finally for this post, another riding impression of a BMW - and an appropriate model considering the previous story - the R1200GS Adventure. What an amazing machine! However, it will have to compete with even more similarly focused motorcycles coming from the likes of Ducati, Moto Guzzi, Moto Morini and more. However, the fact that this machine is adventure-proven does make it a very good choice for riding anywhere you want to go...

http://tinyurl.com/yac7p78

This Week in Motorcycle Racing History - Road Racer X Speed Dating

There are several important birthdays this week! It is hard to believe, but something much come from being born in November in the motorcycle racing world. Soichiro Honda would have been 102 on Tuesday. Others include Yoann Tiberio, Kurtis Roberts, Tom Kipp, Helmut Bradl, Akira Tamitsuji, Jimmy Filice, Steve Rapp, Tom Halverson, Eric Bostrom, Neil Hodgson, Alvaro Bautista, Scott Parker, Dave Molyneux, Joan Olive, and - finally - Lukas Pesek. That's some serious racing cred and some interesting history plus some up-and-coming talents as well. It must be something about the cold...or being in your mother's womb during the summer...

http://tinyurl.com/yb38r8z

The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy in 1959

It was fifty years ago and the TT was the most important race in the world at that time. Soihiro Honda was there to race the RC142...and, well, the rest is truly history!

http://tinyurl.com/yb7jryu