Cover Story
You never know what you'll find as the Cover Story of Friction Zone. Here is a sample of Cover Stories from the last six months. If you would like to order the magazine in which an article appeared, please fill out the subscription form indicating which issue(s) you'd like to receive.
June 2008 Motogiro America—Italy's Famed Motorcycle Rally Comes to America
For three or four days every July, California's Monterey Peninsula takes on the feel of a two-wheeled, leather-clad carnival as upwards of 50,000 motorcyclists descend upon the area for the MotoGP Championship event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. From all over the globe, these race fans journey to the California coast town in order to cheer on the world's best racers as they ride the ultimate in high-tech motorcycles. Always searching for greater quickness and the tiniest advantage over their competitors, teams in the MotoGP Championship series routinely push the envelope of technology when it comes to utilizing new materials and methods to go ever faster. And while few (if any) of those fans own rides that boast the level of technology that is routinely found on the mounts underneath Stoner, Pedrosa, Rossi, Hayden, et al, many of them do ride bikes that sport second- or third-generation doodads derived from racing development in the not-so-distant past. Because of this, the focus at Monterey's MotoGP events to date has been more about going high-tech and looking to the future rather than glancing back and appreciating the machinery of the past
May 2008 The Pacific Coast Highway North of San Francisco
Every year from early August until mid-December, a breathtaking parade occurs over Marin County and San Francisco. Each day, and sometimes at a rate of nearly a thousand birds a day, a steady stream of raptors flows over the Marin Headlands and across the wind-whipped waters of the Golden Gate Strait. Everything from kestrels to red-tailed hawks to turkey vultures (and even the occasional peregrine falcon) congregates right at this point as part of their annual commute between their far northern summer haunts and their winter havens in Mexico and beyond. Heavy and unable to swim, these birds come here to take advantage of the area's strong northwest winds, which they use to get across the strait's mile-plus body of water. And all the while hundreds of thousands of people walk, drive, and ride over that blood-orange bridge far below, with most of them completely unaware of the incredible procession occurring over their heads… Download the Tankbag Tearsheet!
April 2008 Style, Innovation, and Elegance—See It In May
At first glance, the event last May looked like something out of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Under a cerulean sky and against the backdrop of a slate-blue Pacific, scads of people wandered over acres of emerald lawns surrounding an imposing bluff-top manor. The only thing needed to complete the picture was a fast yellow car and Robert Redford in white linen. However, at this soiree, the crowd's attire leaned heavily towards black leather, and cars of any hue were in short supply. After all, the passion being played out on these broad green lawns had nothing to do with a woman. On that spring day, it was all about the passion motorcyclists have for the spectacular machines of both yesterday and today…
March 2008 What's on Your Calendar this Summer?
On the face of it, any right-minded person would have to assume that all motorcycle rallies would have one common denominator—motorcycles. Whether the event is a sportbike rally, a dual sport get-together, a vintage meet, or a mega-happening dominated by fans of American iron, it stands to reason that they are all going to include motorcycles—many, many motorcycles. After all, that is why they are called motorcycle rallies, right?…
February 2008 Being Seen—How Your Bike's Frontal Area Can Make A Difference
Motorcyclists have a lot of shared wisdom about riding. Some of it we get right, some of it we misunderstand. Consider the following statement: If you ride with your headlight on high beam, other drivers will see you and get out of your way. Is that really true, or is it one of those motorcycling myths we want to believe is true?…
January 2008 Ride Like A Pro
Sooner or later, you will see it—suddenly a nearby motorcycle policeman does a perfect U-turn. Small enough to be done on the proverbial dime (and fluid to the point of being balletic), the turn seems to require no inputs from the rider. The feet never leave the pegs, and the torso barely registers the heavy police bike's sharp change in direction. The only visible change in the rider's position is a sharp—very sharp—turn of the head. And as bike and rider gather speed and head away, you say to yourself, "Dang, wish I could ride like that!"…
Copyright © 2008 - Friction Zone
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