Motorcycles

Honda has been selling motorcycles in Japan since 1949. And it's been selling bikes to US customers since John Travolta had a paper route. Combine all those years, huge markets and great products, and apparently the number you come up with is 300,000,000. Wowza.

Motorcyclists, whether it be road riders or dirt bikers, are a unique sort. Often, the passion that starts with the parents is passed down to the children, becoming a generational hobby that connects parents, kids and in many cases, grandparents.

Motorbike riders looking for something with a little Latin flair have had plenty of choices on their hands, but most of them come from Italy: marques like Ducati, Aprilia and Moto Guzzi. But what if you wanted something more Spanish than Italian? That's where Bultaco comes in. Or came in, we should say, because the Barcelona-based motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1958 closed in 1983, but now it's staging a comeback.

If you're a fan of four-wheeled motorsports, there's no shortage of Meccas to visit - Indianapolis, Monaco, Daytona, Le Mans and the Nürburgring are all high on our list. For two-wheeled racing enthusiasts, though, the bucket list is likely a bit shorter, and could even be summed up by one event - the Isle of Man TT.

Bikes, whether powered by gas or pedals, remain a complicated issue on our country's roadways. For many motorists, two-wheelers can be a nuisance, whether it be a cyclist holding up traffic on a two-lane road or a motorcyclist weaving between cars, while two-wheeled enthusiasts believe (some would say correctly) that they have as much reason and right to be on the road as automobiles.

Consumer Reports has released its first ever study of motorcycle reliability, and students of its ratings on cars might notice a suspicious similarity - Japanese brands require fewer repairs than the leading American or German brands.

Sunday's incident between a black Land Rover Range Rover Sport and a fleet of motorcycles in New York City has been a topic of conversation across the internet, particularly here at Autoblog, where you, our readers, have racked up over 175,000 views and over 600 comments - some of which were quite cross - as of this writing. When the story first surfaced, conflicting reports from outlets as varied as the Daily Mail and Fox News made it difficult to determine what was what. Now, though, there's b

Video has emerged of an altercation between the driver of a Land Rover Range Rover Sport and a large group of motorcyclists. The incident, which occurred yesterday afternoon in New York City, looks to have been started when the Land Rover driver bumped one of the motorcyclists (it's difficult to tell from the video whose fault this was). The incident momentarily brought traffic to a standstill, but escalated anew when the SUV driver ran down a number of riders while attempting to leave the scene

Zero Motorcycles is recalling 268 of its electric motorcycles due a faulty mounting bolt on the front brake caliper, which is prone to corrosion. Were the bolts to fail or fracture, the caliper could come loose and that could stop the front wheels. This, of course, would be very bad news at anything more than a few miles per hour.

Reevu, that company that makes those nifty helmets with the built-in rear viewers has another innovation for those of the two-wheeled persuasion. Expanding on the idea of a rear viewer, Reevu seems to have integrated a display into the top of the visor.

India's Hero Motorcorp has taken a 49.2-percent stake in Erik Buell Racing at cost of $25 million; $15 million of that is in immediate investment, the remaining $10 million to come over the next nine months. The two companies formalized a partnership in February last year, when Hero sponsored EBR's two bikes in the AMA Pro Racing series and Buell sent engineers to India to help Hero develop new products.

Lotus founder Colin Chapman is famously quoted as saying something to the effect of "Simplify, then add lightness." We're a bit amazed that it took this long, but someone appears to be taking that message to heart at the British marque, losing a couple of wheels, a clutter of bodywork and a whole mess of weight. No, Lotus isn't planning another spindly Seven-style trackday racer, it's getting into motorcycles.

Not surprised? Neither are we.

We'll deliver the facts and leave it up to math whizzes to figure out how far an electric-powered Zero Motorcycle can go on an extra $2,500 worth of juice. We suspect it's a real long way.

Aceh, a province of Indonesia, is the only one of the island nation's areas to have adopted Sharia law. Over the past few years the region of 4.5 million has passed laws to bring its populace, native and otherwise, more into line with its interpretation of Sharia, opening a Sharia court and instituting a Sharia police force, passing a law to stone adulterers, banning tight pants and re-educating "punks."

Classic and modern scooters, and a few motorcycles, will be racing coast-to-coast next May in the 2013 Real Cannonball Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. The rally starts May 4 and will cover 2,926 miles between the famed Red Ball Garage in Manhattan, NY and the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach, CA.

The controversial E15 – the fuel that blends 15 percent ethanol in gasoline – is still waiting approval for use in California, and it's going to take a few years for the decision to be made. That's the statement sent to the American Motorcyclist Association by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

During next month's General Police Equipment Exhibition & Conference (GPEC) in Leipzig, Germany, BMW will present its next round of vehicles developed for police and VIPs. Five 2013 cars and four motorcycles – the 3 Series Touring, X3, 7 Series High Security and X5 Security, i3 Concept, R1200RT, G650GS, F800ST and K1600GT – will be displayed at the BMW stand.

The numbers haven't been definitively crunched, but it is expected that the estimated 32,310 traffic fatalities in 2011 were the lowest on record in the 62 years that records have been kept. Yet the good news about the total number of fatalities masks regrettable news for traffic safety authorities: automobile fatalities are down, but motorcycle fatalities are up.

We've been desperately trying to put our finger on what makes the idea of a supermoto so attractive, and we may have finally figured it out. The bikes are perfect all-purpose machines, equally at home dismantling stretches of mountain tarmac as they are bashing through the woods.

Automotive News is reporting that Audi is set to lay down $1.1 billion to purchase Ducati from the motorcycle manufacturer's current owner, Investindustrial. The news comes courtesy of a source "familiar with the matter," though neither Audi nor Investindustrial have officially commented on whether that price is accurate. As Automotive News points out, the price is around seven times what Ducati earned last year before interest, taxes and depreciation – even after subtracting any debt Duca