The Backroads Report Ocotber 21st 2023 #289

Published: Sat, 10/21/23

The Backroads Report

Motorcycle, Travel & Adventure News

From Around The World

Mark Byers'

On the Mark

A New Guy!

This past month, I had the chance to assist a guy, new to the life, who requested my help in getting a bike. He would be what we call a born-again - a rider returning to the life after a lot of time off - except he was never a rider with which to start. In his late 40’s/early 50’s with kids and a wife in the rear-view mirrors, he finally felt he had the freedom to try something he’d always wanted to do: ride a motorcycle. He wanted to use it for some inter-urban commuting from his home to where he was teaching at the Naval Academy. We hadn’t spoken in a while, so I was surprised when the call came in and even more surprised when he sprang it on me that he wanted my advice on buying his first motorcycle.

On the Mark

BMW R 1300 GS

The new BMW R 1300 GS: “Next level GS” featuring new boxer engine and new suspension, with significantly reduced weight and increased GS competence all round.

The new BMW R 1300 GS: “Next level GS” featuring new boxer engine and new suspension, with significantly reduced weight and increased GS competence all round.
BMW Motorrad established the new segment of touring enduros more than four decades ago with the R 80 G/S. The BMW GS with boxer engine has been the undisputed leader of the competitive field ever since. To ensure this remains the case in the future, BMW Motorrad has opted for an almost completely new design for the new R 1300 GS, with an impressive weight saving of 12 kg compared to the previous model.

BMW

See the New R 1300 GS at Morton's!
Tuesday October 24 4-8 pm

Here's your chance to see the new GS up close and in person! BMW Ambassador Shawn Thomas and Expert Louise Powers will be here giving a presentation on this landmark machine and answering all your questions!

We'll have the bike on display starting at 4 pm and they'll start the presentation around 5 pm, followed by Q&A until 8 pm. We'll order some pizzas and we'll have sodas and water on hand so you can relax, grab a bite, and dream...

Of course, our sales folks will be happy to take deposits for the new bike, as well as any other BMW you might like. Mark the date now and we'll see you then!

Morton's BMW

Plan Your Winter Track Day

https://www.ridehvmc.com/bike-rentals?mc_cid=5115d94c05&mc_eid=76f5470e0b

Schedule Your Winter Trackday Getaway Now!

RideHVMC Rental Fleet
No Bike? No Problem!

Looking to join us at the beautiful, sunny, and warm Chuckwalla Valley Raceway located just one hour southeast of Palm Springs, California.

You no longer have the "I don't have a bike to ride" excuse to use!

The RideHVMC Rental Fleet has expanded to five bikes of all different shapes and sizes.
How does it work?
Fly in to one of the several nearby airports, arrive to your own trackside cabin, and ride one of our bikes all weekend with tires and fuel included.

From October 1st through April 1st you are welcome to join them for Chuckwalla’s packed calendar.

The track boasts one of the most genuine track riding communities in the country with their close-knit group of 10 members adding to the fun!

RideHVMC

Why Do Superheroes Wear Spandex?

And, how did NASA Get Involved?

The rise, fall, and return of the super-stretchy material.
In the year 2000, superhero movies were at the precipice of a mainstream revolution, and leading that charge were the X-Men. But this was a new millennium and a new format. The tight, stretchy outfits worn by the team in their comics and iconic ’90s cartoon wouldn’t do. Instead, these X-Men donned black leather bodysuits. And yet, even that wasn’t cool enough for the most badass X-Man of them all.

Inverse

Modern Classics At Martin Moto Today!

The rain re-scheduled Modern Classics will be held Saturday October 21st at....

Martin Moto

1037 Unger Lane

Boyer town, PA

From 10am to 2pm

Modern Classics

SRC Moto Honda CRF 300 L & Rally Accessories!

https://www.srcmoto.com/collections/crf-300-l-rally

The wait is over for riders of Honda's CRF 300 L & Rally - The Africa Single!

SRC MOTO is dedicated to improving the fun, safety and performance of your Adventure bike, and they offer a wide array of parts and accessories for many of today's ADV machines - even the ones that seem to have litlte on the market.

SRC - just might have what you are searching for.

Check out their website and see what you can discover...

SRC Moto

The Most Haunted Hotels in the U.S.

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-haunted-hotels-in-us-historic-hotels-america

The official designation comes from an arm of the National Trust for Historic Preservation

he National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Hotels of America program has officially named 25 hotels that have been determined to be the most haunted hotels in the United States. The list was unveiled on Tuesday, and includes hotels built all the way back in 1716, as well as hotels built more recently, all the way up to 1959.

The places on this list are "places where generations of staff and guests pass on tales of spectral Revolutionary War soldiers, smoky silhouettes of the US Presidents, the melancholy spirits of tragic would-be brides, unexplained footsteps, as well as friendly phantom bellhops and engineers," according to Historic Hotels of America.

Check out the complete list of hotels below, including their location and the date they were originally built.

Haunted Hotels

Ducati DesertX Rally:

Adventure Without Limits

The DesertX Rally is dedicated to adventurous riders who crave challenging journeys and rallies...

From the DesertX, the first Ducati equipped with a 21-inch front rim and 18-inch rear, now comes the new DesertX Rally model. Characterized by the best race-bred components, the DesertX Rally adopts high-quality solutions that are both specialized and effective in off-road use and sophisticated, as with every Ducati.

Developed and tested also on racetracks, the DesertX Rally prototype was the protagonist of the Iron Road Prolog at the Erzbergrodeo 2023 with Antoine Meo (multiple Enduro World Champion and European Supercross Champion), who took it to the top step of the podium in the twin-cylinder category (video illustrating Meo’s achievement here).

Like every Ducati, DesertX Rally has a unique and distinctive style. Thanks to the new livery and solutions typical of the off-road world that characterize its appearance, the DesertX Rally communicates its character from the very first glance. However, it is in the technical equipment that the Rally becomes an even more capable off-road motorcycle.

Ducati

Progressive

When Lions Really Were Kings

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/522-2309/features/11637-lions-ancient-world?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=emai

Across the ancient world, people adopted the big cats as sacred symbols of power and protection...

The world’s wild lion population is in grave danger. There are only 600 Asiatic lions remaining, all of which live in a wildlife reserve in the Gir Forest in northwest India. And just 23,000 African lions roam the land between the southern edge of the Sahara and northern South Africa. The total number of wild lions worldwide has dropped by more than 40 percent in the last half century. But in the past, lions were among the most geographically widespread animals on Earth. Each ancient culture that encountered lions had its own way of embracing their power, and the big cats became symbols of spirituality, kingship, bloodlust, divinity, and even safety and peace.

The Lion King

The Loneliest Road in Every State in America

Find your state’s quietest route...

Hit the backroads with four-time poetry Pulitzer prize winner Robert Frost, and this is what happens: At every fork in the road, he chooses the road less traveled. And so you end up on each state’s loneliest road.
Actually, that’s not how this map came about. It owes more to bureaucratic bean-counting than to poetic obstinacy. Telematics specialists at Geotab gathered 2015 data from the U.S. federal government’s Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) to find, for each state, the route with the lowest annual average daily traffic (AADT). HPMS data covers interstates, U.S. routes, and state routes over 10 miles long.

Loneliest roads

Bluebird of Bitterness

A Quick History of the Acoustic Guitar

Origins of the Acoustic Guitar

The earliest form of the guitar can be traced back to ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians and Greeks, who developed stringed instruments with long necks and resonating bodies. The lute, a predecessor to the guitar, was widely used during the Middle Ages and Renaissance period in Europe. Its popularity continued to grow during the Baroque era, with the addition of the guitarra española, a six-string instrument with a curved back and shorter neck.

Zaar Guitar

Presents

Escape of the Week

Eagles Mere Motorcycle Museum

Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania

The Eagles Mere Motorcycle Museum is located at Merritt Field Airport and shares space with the Eagles Mere Air Museum and the Eagles Mere Auto Museum (which also has 15 bikes on display). This growing collection of unique motorcycles exhibits motorcycles from 16 different manufactures and shows over five decades of progress in the motorcycle industry. There are about 65 unique bikes to see, some of which are one of a kind or never imported into the United States.

A major theme of the collection is Superbikes of the 70s. This time period was pivotal in the motorcycle world. It was a time when technology was rapidly evolving and manufactures weren't afraid to take risks in an effort to usurp their competition. This is the period that the Japanese motorcycle industry truly came into its own by challenging, and defeating, many established European makes both on the racetrack and the sales floor.

Eagles Mere Motorcycle Museum

Song of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhkI3sG8ilU

Lucky Man

Aaron Emerson & Friends

This powerful and inspiring version of the classic track Lucky Man, written by Greg Lake and originally performed by Emerson Lake and Palmer, features Keith’s son Aaron and a host of rock music luminaries as they pay tribute to the extraordinary talents of Keith Emerson - one of the greatest musicians of all time.

We love the guitarist Marc Bonilla too - how cool is his guitar?

This video has been released to celebrate the launch of Keith Emerson- Variations, a 20 CD plus coffee table book anthology of this once in a lifetime artist.

Keith Emerson - Variations is released by Spirit Of Unicorn Music and is available now through Cherry Red Records, Burning Shed, Rough Trade, Amazon and all good independent music retailers.

Thanks Charlie for sending this our way....

You can find out more at:
www.emersonlakepalmer.com

Lucky Man