Wow, we’ve been waiting more than a year for Schuberth’s new modular to get here if the date on this MO story from last year is correct, but now it’s finally here, a brand-new E1 in Hunter Blue (one of 15 available schemes) in this case. At that coming-out party last September, Schuberth said the new E1 is a lot like the C3 modular it’s been manufacturing for years, but with an adjustable visor to make it an “Adventure” helmet. Mission accomplished!

Every Harley-Davidson owner and just about every motorcyclist knows that the Motor Company’s line of performance products is called Screamin’ Eagle. However, many may just look at the upgrades as being mostly the same as the multitudes of aftermarket hop-up parts available. Since the release of the Milwaukee-Eight engine in the 2017 Harley-Davidson touring models, the engineers and media people behind Screamin’ Eagle thought that now would be a good time to explain – in detail – what they feel sets these components apart from the others on the market. So, we were sent out to Milwaukee to learn about and experience first-hand how the Screamin’ Eagle kits can improve the ME’s performance without many of the compromises required by aftermarket kits.

I don’t want to look at other people my age in leather. Why would I put it on?
—George Michael

So, the other kids in the palatial MO offices make fun of me for being a gadget guy. That’s okay; I can handle it. Since I’m a photographer in the era of digital film, it comes with the technological territory. Besides, who is the one they come to, Lightning and USB cables in hand, wall-warts dangling limply, at dusk, in a campground with no electrical outlets? Do I remind them that my tank bag had a USB charging station set up in it for this very purpose while we were riding all day? Do I gloat and make them suffer an evening of electronics withdrawal? No, I just hand them my Goal Zero Venture 30 Recharger with its two 2.4A USB ports and tell them to make themselves at home. They were kept connected while I used the Goal Zero Sherpa 100 Power Pack to maintain the function of my camera and iPhone batteries.

Suzuki’s GSX-S1000 is another one of my personal faves; I like the way it looks, nobody can argue with the way the 140-plus horsepower four-banger goes – and the price is right too. Where else are you going to get that kind of grunt in a beautiful blue package for $10,499? Gabe was spot-on with his recent column.

In the past, I’ve called cleaning your motorcycle’s chain a messy-but-necessary task. Lubing the chain can also be messy if you’re careless, but neither chore needs to be that way. The secret is performing both frequently. After some time sampling the Velocity Chain Maintenance System, I think it could be just the ticket for simplifying both activities – and making a little less mess in the process.

Back in the Bad Old Days™, during rainy weather, riders had basically two choices when it came to gloves: bulky, hot “waterproof” winter gloves or wearing a pair of latex gloves under their regular hand protection. Neither were ideal. First, the bulky gloves didn’t offer either the feel or protection of regular riding gloves. Second, if the latex glove option was selected, the rider’s hands may stay dry, but the gloves would get soaked and require extended drying time.

Drum roll… And the award for most enthusiastic gear presentation goes to Alpinestars’ technical media guru, Heath Confran! Applause, cheers, whistles… Heath’s excitement for Alpinestars’ products is palpable and infectious. For good reason because coming soon Alpinestars has a variety of cool new kit for all riding disciplines. The marathon presentation included way too much to cover in entirety, so we chose our favorite five items. For viewing everything new that requires a license plate to ride, go here. For all you dirt-only guys, click here. To see our five faves simply continue reading.

Living on a budget is a fact of life, and MO staffers remember how buying our first motorcycles drained our available funds. So, like many young riders, we skimped a bit on our first riding gear. (I, for example, rode in a jean jacket until I could afford my first leather one.) The advent of textiles in the moto-gear arsenal of materials helped bring proper gear within reach of many budget-minded riders. On the flip-side, however, we’ve also noticed a ton of gear that went well beyond price-consciousness into the realm of cheap – as in crappy – gear that offers either little protection or sub-standard construction. The folks behind Pilot Motosport noticed this, too, and decided to create a price-point jacket that didn’t skimp on the protection or quality. The result is the Pilot Slate Air Jacket.

Pando Moto is a new riding apparel company from Lithuania specializing in riding jeans. On July 26, Pando announced on its Facebook page how stoked the company is to be celebrating its first U.S. retail location in Los Angeles at Beach Moto.

Wearing black leather on summer ride can very quickly turn a protective garment  into a sauna when not actively riding. A long stoplight can be torture enough to make some riders swear off wearing proper riding gear. Without putting too fine a point on it, let’s just say that they’re fools.

Even if you’re wearing fully-perforated or mesh riding gear, you’re going to get hot while riding in summer heat. The minimized airflow inside of less-than-fully-vented leather or textile jackets and pants only exacerbates the problem. However, no matter what protective gear you have on, your body will sweat during higher temperatures. The trick is getting air to flow over the sweat and cool your body through evaporation. Rev’It’s Oxygen Shirt and Pants aim to move moisture away from the rider’s body for a cooler, more pleasant ride.

At one time back there in the mists of time, a Bell helmet was the motorcycle helmet to have. If Bell didn’t invent the full-face helmet, they did have the first one everybody wanted. Things changed, the brand was sold, quality became poor or inconsistent, and those of us lucky enough to have our druthers started wearing Shoeis, Arais and other expensive foreign lids.

Companies that go racing love to promote how the lessons learned at the racetrack trickle down to the products we use on the street. Besides being great marketing fodder, the idea behind racing is to develop products that will benefit the everyday consumer. We generally think of sportbikes (and liter-class sportbikes in particular) as being direct translations of racetrack development trickling down to production models, but we sometimes forget about the only part of the motorcycle in continuous contact with the road: its tires.

I lovingly refer to my RSD Zuma as my Lynyrd Skynyrd jacket because this retro cafe racer piece of kit rocks. It’s “Timber” color is ’70s très chic, and the wing-footed RSD logo is a shoe-in for Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits album cover. In addition to being hipster fashionable the Zuma fits well, is protective, and is good for three out of four seasons.

Right off the bat I have a confession to make: Alpinestars has discontinued the Hellcat denim jeans being reviewed here. That said, the Hellcat is still available new via online retailers. It’s also become one of my favorite pieces of riding apparel, so I feel compelled to tell you why. If you’re the type to wait and buy closeout items of discontinued stock, then this review is for you.

Our Garmin Virb XE action camera is quite the world traveler. In our possession since its introduction last year, our Virb XE has been put to task aboard Honda’s exotic RC213V-S on Portugal’s GP racetrack in Estoril, as well as in the Karoo region of South Africa during another Honda launch, the Africa Twin. While in South Africa the Garmin went fishing (waterproof to 50 meters) on a great white shark diving expedition. So far, it’s proven to be a durable, dependable unit capable of not only recording excellent video, but also acquiring data with its G-Metrix system.

If I were looking for ultimate foot and ankle protection while riding, a full racing boot would be the way to go. When it comes to racing, engineers and designers are constantly looking for ways to prevent injury to the all-important foot and ankle during high-speed get-offs like you’d see in racing. Fortunately, that kind of protection translates well to the street, too.

Riders on the European side of the pond are probably more familiar with the Swiss manufacturer iXS Motorcycle Fashion Apparel than those in the American market. However, don’t let the word fashion in the company name fool you. iXS produces motorcycle gear ranging from technical undergarments to race-ready one-piece leathers and everything in between. Since the company is looking to expand its presence stateside, the timing was perfect to sample part of the iXS vintage line of leather jackets. To my eye, the Flagstaff looked to provide an ideal balance between retro styling and real-world protection.

Part of our jobs as editors at a motorcycle-focused publication is to model a variety of riding gear for our readers, as it gives visibility to a wider variety of gear than you might have access to at a local motorcycle dealership. So, while displaying a variety of gear options is part of our job, you’ll also discover, if you look closely, that every MO staffer has their favorite items that show up in more photos than others. In my case, for the better part of a year, you would have seen quite a few appearances of the Troy Lee Designs Apex Pro Glove.

We’ve ridden the Indian Chieftain a few times, and we’ve always been fond of its engine and power delivery. Still, the semi-secret, unofficial MO Motto is “More is more.” So, when the Indian PR folks asked us which model Chieftain Dark Horse we wanted to take home to cuddle up with, a stocker or one that had been blessed with the complete listing from the factory performance catalog, you can probably guess our answer. Then toss in the fact that, with the exception of the model-specific exhaust, all of these modifications could be made to any Thunder Stroke 111 engine, and we saw the opportunity to share our bounty with our readers.

If you wear the same pair of pants for weeks, months or maybe even years without washing them, they become so saturated with the oils from your skin that they become a whole other kind of material, one that has unique waterproof characteristics. The downside is your pants also develop a unique smell that’s familiar to you if you use the free internet terminals in a big-city library, where a guy is searching for evidence that the government agency beaming radio signals into his brain also kidnapped the keyboard player from the early-’80s funk group Dazz Band and replaced him with a robot.*

Riders who prefer wearing tinted shields on their helmets instead of sunglasses tucked inside them are painfully aware of the conundrum: How do we handle the switch to a clear shield after dark?

Since 1979 Metzeler has produced only motorcycle tires. This singular focus has yielded significant firsts. In 1978, the company created the first tubeless motorcycle tire. The first tire with transversal grooves rolled out of the Metzeler factory in 1982, and the first mass-production tire with a Kevlar belt came out a year later. The first rear tire with a 0° steel belt came in 1992, and four years later, the first set or radial tires with 0° steel belts was released in the form of the Metzeler ME Z4. The march continued in 2008 with the patent of Interact technology for the Roadtec Z6 Interact. Now, Metzeler has released the heir to the popular Roadtec Z8 Interact throne, the Metzeler Roadtec 01.

While Dunlop was in town to show off its new Elite 4, it went ahead and dropped its new Adventure bike tire on us too: The new Trailsmart replaces the long-running Trailmax TR91.

There are only three things you really need to know about the all-new Dunlop Elite 4, sayeth Dunlop: mileage, mileage, and more mileage. According to a test performed by an independent lab in March of 2016, with 130/70R18 and 180/60R16 Dunlop Elite 4 tires on a 2007 Honda Gold Wing, you could cross the U.S.A. six times before needing to replace your tires. Correct, up to 18,000 miles.

Come on, admit it, you’ve wondered what it would be like to be a pro racer. You know, with your custom-fit leathers replaced if they develop any unseemly abrasions or the rack of helmets – all with interiors sculpted to your exact head dimensions – so that you never have to suffer the indignity of donning a sweaty lid during practice. Well, Shoei is offering the chance for average riders to bring their current generation Shoei to select events in 2016 and experience the luxury of having a helmet custom-fit to the nooks and crannies of their noggins. And…wait for this…it will be free for now. Pretty cool, eh?

In our Beginner-Ish Sportbike Shootout, the KTM entry got beat up about its brakes. When compared to the CBR300, the Ninja 300, and the YZF-R3 , the poor RC390’s binders, well, just didn’t compare. Of course, this sparked discussions about whether the ByBre brakes were inferior to the components that its parent, Brembo, both designs and manufactures. Well, thanks to Scandinavian Brake Systems (SBS), we’ve had the opportunity to test this theory with a set of SBS 877RS pads. For this test, we’ve enlisted a 390 Duke, which shares its single 300mm disc and 4-piston, radial-mount caliper with the RC390, as our test mule.

As part of my job, I wear tons of motorcycle boots both on bikes and walking around at events or on daylong photo shoots. These Rev’It Regent H2O are the first boots in my 20 years of testing gear that have made the transition to becoming part of my everyday streetwear – boots that I choose to put on even when I’m not planning on riding.

Most people don’t think too much about the sunglasses they wear when riding motorcycle. They cover my eyes? Check. They look good? Check. Then I’m good to go. Uh, no.

What it is, really, is a street-going knobby for big, heavy adventure bikes, which are all the rage lately in case you hadn’t noticed. The leader of that dusty, BMW R1200GS-riding pack has for years been the Continental TKC80, which Michelin had squarely in its sights with the new Anakee Wild, as well as your Metzeler Karoo 3 and Heidenau K60 Scout. The Anakee Wild (not to be confused with the Anakee 3) cleans all their clocks, according to Michelin (as well as being good at cleaning itself in mud).

Don’t know about you, but when I think about the latest, greatest hot sticky tires for sportbikes, I don’t think “Continental” first, and the new Conti Sport Attack 3 isn’t really designed to change that. Probably that’s because Continental isn’t really associated with racing like Bridgestone, Pirelli, Dunlop, not in the U.S. at least. The new Sport Attack 3 is a sportbike tire designed for street use, for long life, for good but not ultimate grip, and in the case of this tire, increased wet traction.

Okay, raise your hand if you’ve ever whiled away an evening watching those ubiquitous Russian dash-cam videos. They can be, quite literally, a train wreck from which we simply can’t avert our eyes. Well, technology is making it possible to take people’s selective (and biased) memories out of the blame assessment process for motorcycle accidents, too. Or, maybe, you just want to post your hero videos from your latest ride or track day for your friends to view online. (Just make sure it doesn’t become fodder for your entry into the Darwin Awards.) Either way, the Innovv K1 Motorcycle Camera offers a reasonably priced, permanently mounted camera/DVR system available for motorcyclists.

When it comes to one-piece riding suits for the streets, Aerostich has been the benchmark others have strived to equal. Anecdotally speaking, I see more Aerostich suits on the road than I do any other brand. Ironically, I never quite meshed with the ‘Stich suit I had in the past as it restricted my leg movement while riding. Shame, since I really wanted to like the suit as the concept behind it is solid.

Comfortable shoes. It’s the foremost important aspect of enjoying any large consumer or trade show. Comfortable Shoe Editor, Troy Siahaan, and I had this conversation last November when attending media day at Long Beach IMS. We both rode to the show, but whereas he brought sneakers to change into, I arrived in a new pair of Bates Adrenaline riding boots and put them to the ultimate comfort test by wearing them all day during the show. Four months, a parade’s worth of walking miles, and thousands of riding miles later, I’m here to report the Bates Adrenaline boots are, unequivocally, the most comfortable riding boots I’ve ever owned.

Intelligent Cranium Helmets is developing a prototype helmet with more electronic functionality than any other smart helmet available or imagined. The iC-R features twin full-color heads-up displays, twin rear-facing cameras, a LiDAR rear collision alert system, an electronically tinting visor, built-in Bluetooth communications, phone connectivity, and a solar panel to help power all this equipment. Can a helmet with this much future tech be realized with current batteries? Get approved by DOT, Snell or ECE? ICH says yes, and that the company can do it for a retail price less than $1,600. According to the most recent update (1/6/2016) on the company’s website, ICH has entered into development agreements with:

Retailing for $1,099.95, the Dainese Veloster one-piece perforated suit is an affordable alternative to the more expensive offerings in Dainese’s closet. For sure, you’re sacrificing some of the features and benefits of the high-end suits, but primary protection remains as does comfort. Best thing, the Veloster is of the “In” boot variety, meaning, instead of stuffing bulky leathers inside your boots, the Velosters are designed to be worn over the boot.

Our apologies to our friends on the east coast who actually do experience a winter, but here in Southern California, where the MO gang call home, the weather lately has been nothing short of perfect. Hot, even. Save for a couple rain showers here and there, El Nino has hardly made a dent in increasing our water levels and it’s come nowhere close to causing homeowners to cash in their flood insurance. In the long run this doesn’t help California’s drought problem, but in the short term at least we can go ride. And with the moderately high temps during the day cooling down dramatically once the sun goes down, a three-season jacket is the thing to have.

We’ve all had that sinking feeling as our motorcycle starts to sputter unexpectedly, triggering a quick glance to the fuel gauge or low fuel light. Have you ever noticed how much quicker a bike seems to slow down when it runs out of gas compared to when you just chop the throttle? It probably has something to do with the complete lack of control you have over the throttle at this moment. Still, even in the best of circumstances, running out of gas on a bike is a pain. You’ll either have to push the bike if a station is in sight or go get a container of gas.

The idea behind the Headwave TĀG is turning your helmet into a giant, wearable speaker – a “Concert Capsule” as Headwave likes to call it. Does it work? Absolutely. Does it work well? Not really… at least not yet.

Today, Black Brand launched its line of motorcycle gear aimed squarely at the V-Twin/Cruiser market, and you might be wondering why you should care. Well, when developing the line the folks behind Black Brand did their due diligence and found what they think is a huge hole in the cruiser gear market. Anyone on the cruiser scene is aware of the 800-pound gorilla of the V-Twin world, and the Harley team does a pretty good job of dominating its corner of the market with well-made clothing with its name emblazoned all over it.

The best way to demonstrate the features and benefits of Shoei’s raciest new helmet, the X-Fourteen, is at speed on a racetrack. So, while East coast residents were trying to avoid snow-shoveling-induced heart attacks, those of us residing on the West end were enjoying perfect trackday weather at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway. There were some rumblings that the long, banked, NASCAR straight at Auto Club Speedway would have been a better venue for high-speed, aerodynamic testing of the X-Fourteen, but besides that long, banked straight, the Fontucky track sucks.

When I’m looking for an all-purpose motorcycle boot, I have a few key requirements. First, it needs armor to protect my feet in a tumble or slide. Second, since my travels take me through temperatures from the low 40s to over 100 F, they should be three-season comfortable – breathability is important here. Waterproofness for rain/shine riding is a must, too. Finally, a general-purpose motorcycle boot should be nondescript, making it just as appropriate off the bike as on while blending in with any style street motorcycle. The TCX Touring Classic / AirTech EVO Gore-Tex boot achieves all of these requirements, making them part of my regular riding gear.

Back in the timeline of my motorcycle sales career, I managed to piss off the Arai rep who serviced the dealership I worked for by ordering an AGV helmet after having already ordered an Arai through him. A young racer named Valentino Rossi was rampaging the 125cc GP class, and his helmet design was one of the coolest I’d ever seen. The AGV didn’t fit as good as the Arai and I had to pay full-pop instead of the bro deal the Arai rep was giving me, but I wanted Rossi’s design that bad. Years later, returning from San Francisco’s Halloween festivities to where my T595
Triumph Daytona was parked on some side street, I arrived to find my beloved Rossi AGV cut from the bike, only a dangling D-ring left to prove it once existed. I still hate whoever that guy was.

What’s the first thing motorcyclists look for when modifying their bike? More power. So, when we got an email claiming a 1 to 4 horsepower increase from Sprint Filter air cleaners, we decided to check it out. Our test mule would be my beloved 2003 Yamaha R6 that is still – as far as the fuel and exhaust systems are concerned – basically stock. (In the interest of full disclosure, it does have a set of Factory Pro Velocity Stacks that I’d forgotten about until I opened the airbox.) What better way to finally get my 13-year-old 600 to the dyno to see how it compares to current generation sporting hardware?

It took a while to fully test Held’s Race-Tex gloves because we’ve been waiting for an opportunity to wear them in the rain. When the rain finally arrived, not only did the Race-Tex gloves prove to be impenetrable to falling water from the sky but also, as a follow-up test, to the direct torrent of water from the kitchen faucet. The Gore-Tex lining did its job of maintaining a dry interior while also keeping claminess to a minimum due to its breathability. Sometimes, name brands such as Gore-Tex are worth the extra cost of ownership.

For quite a while, I’ve been looking for a two-piece leather riding suit for use on sporting street rides that could also double as track leathers in a pinch. Yes, a one-piece suit could work, but in the world away from the track, I’ve found them to be more than a little inconvenient. (Think bathrooms and restaurants.) Two-piece leathers offer almost the same level of protection while adding the versatility of wearing the jacket with riding jeans or simply taking off the jacket when stopping at a roadside cafe. So, the Rev’It Replica Jacket and GT-R Pants caught my eye.

You don’t see many Davida helmets around, not this side of the pond anyway. When I got the word I’d be off to ride the all-new Triumph Street Twin, first of the new Bonnevilles, it felt like the right time to sample one. Davida has been at it for more than 30 years on the Wirral (Peninsula) in the U.K., cranking out helmets the old-fashioned way.

I’ve always been a fan of motorcycle tank bags. From within a month of my first bike purchase, I’ve had a tank bag for my bike. In fact, before I became a motojournalist, my tank bag was pretty much part of my motorcycle, only being removed for washing and track days. Twenty-five years ago, all tank bags were strapped on to their respective mounts, making them less convenient for folks who owned more than one bike. Along came magnetic tank bags, and the tank bag was revolutionized. So, naturally, the bike manufacturers countered with fuel cells below the seat and plastic “tanks” containing the airbox.

For 2015 Alpinestars officially labeled its new Pikes Drystar jacket as sport-touring apparel. But what is sport-touring? Is it riding fast on a saddlebag-equipped Suzuki V-Strom 1000 in the above photo, or is it spending a long weekend aboard a Kawasaki Z1000 (luggage options available) in the photo below? My mind’s eye says the Pikes jacket is appropriate for either, and looks good doing both.

The Setgo Jump Jet is a bi-fold “dual-mode” messenger bag providing a minimalist approach to both conspicuity and capacity. In other words, the Jump Jet is the perfect carrying companion for those who don’t carry much.

If Richard La Plante wanted to build a perfect customer for his “ear movie,” the podcast/ radio play/audiobook Hog Fever, he would probably look a lot like me – middle-aged, neurotic, and a passionate lover of riding who also enjoys listening to podcasts and audiobooks in his spare time. I don’t know if that describes you, but if it does, you should read this.

With our heads in the moto-sand, we were unaware lithium jump starters existed until Weego’s motorcycle-specific press release arrived. Now on our radar, the Weego piqued both our interest and disbelief. A smartphone-sized device that can turn over, not only a dead motorcycle, but also automotive engines up to 4.6L! Nah … really?

MO readers know that electronics are changing motorcycling at a blinding pace – and I’m not even referring to the technology that the OEMs are building into the current generation of motorcycles. Today, your typical rider has a smartphone that can act as a GPS. Sooner or later, many riders will want to be able to hear those turn-by-turn directions while they ride. Then it’s a pleasantly slippery slope from earbuds to Bluetooth communicators to action cameras to who knows what’s next. The problem is that most of these gadgets run on batteries. And batteries need to be charged. That’s where the Goal Zero Venture 30 Solar Recharging Kit shines.

I’ve been looking for a brown leather jacket for a while, but nothing had quite tickled my fancy. While I liked the feature set, particularly the full perforation of the Dainese Street Rider jacket John Burns recently tested, I felt it was a little too sporty in the styling for my purposes. I wanted something that would look at home on a modern classic or cruiser as it would on a sporty bike. So, when I stumbled on the AGV Sport Element Vintage Jacket during some clandestine surfing on family movie night (a.k.a. dad suffers through yet another kid-friendly rom-com), I was pretty stoked. It had the right combination of classic yet modern style I craved. My only real hesitation was whether the arm and shoulder vents could make up for the lack of perforation in the SoCal heat.

A week or two ago I sang the praises of one of my favorite jackets, this Dainese Street Rider. Today, it’s time to confess my love for the jeans that complete the ensemble. I’ve had these Bonneville jeans for six months now, and they’ve become not just my favorite motorcycle riding jeans but my favorite jeans period. For me, I guess that’s almost the same thing; thanks to the hot summer we’ve been having that’s only now segueing into a hot winter. I only put on pants when I’m going somewhere on a motorcycle. (The rest of the time it’s the Spongebob boxers or the Speedo.)

If you’re already a fan of grand prix motorcycle racing, Hitting the Apex will transport you from the stands inside the garages and beyond, occasionally into the living rooms of the riders themselves. Any sports documentary capable of doing that must be deemed a success.

The Shorai LFX lithium-iron battery in my trusty R1 (trusty mostly because of the battery) first took up residence there in early 2010, when I toiled at a competing publication. At the time, Shorai was a new player in the battery business, had some teething problems, and walked back its claim that its batteries could last ten years (mostly because they were so new, there was no way to back that up).

One of the problems with having such vast facilities here at the MO Media Publishing Center for World Domination and Pizza Delivery Service is that, every once in a while, something gets mislabeled and improperly filed by our Automated Product Testing Storage and Retrieval Processor. Such is the case with the Lockstraps products we’re reviewing here. Tucked away in the back, behind some crates of recycled megapixels and spare terabytes, we found a mysterious analog box in the strictly digital section of our warehouse.

Here’s a first-world problem for you: You’re out riding a new road only to realize you’re lost. You’ve got somewhere to be and now, not only will you be late but you also don’t know where you’re going. Luckily, you brought a GPS and your cell phone is fully charged (or, if you’re really fancy, your phone is your GPS). But having to take your glove off to use the touchscreen is annoying. What do you do?