There I was, having swung a leg over the all-new R1, given its starter button a punch and its throttle a big twist, etc., etc., and after a lap or two to warm the custom-built Dunlop D208 street tires (a bit of a knife in an Uzi battle) found myself...

Kentucky is an interesting place. Overflowing with lush greenery, swaying crops and small lakes, one would think it would posses near-perfect weather. From pictures, it all seemed too perfect not to.

As our recent shootout confirmed, making a performance cruiser is a difficult task indeed. Not only must the bike be able to accelerate hard, turn fast and precise as well as stop fast, it must also turn heads by maintaining some sort of boulevard bad-ass

We've heard that the Good Lord smiles on those who immerse themselves in absurdity. That's not to say it holds true, mind you. We've just heard it somewhere. Maybe it was Hunter S. Thompson.

More than likely, you've read our first ride report of the Yamaha Vino. As such, the main points derived from that report are: 1) the Vino is a very practical machine and 2) its not very fast.

In a shady part of San Francisco, a beatnik-type art freak is in transit. He's on an old scooter, half chrome, the other half rust, braaping his way along a bumpy road to a dank coffee shop.

We can all admire the brute force a race-replica like Yamaha's own R1 provides the user, but it's not anything that the average person will be able to flog and appreciate on a daily basis.

We may live in a mad world, but it's also one where the inhabitants are incredibly lazy. Motorcyclists are no different, really.

It's time to thank the technology gods - and invest in a healthy array of boxer briefs - since it's now become far simpler to scare yourself into a soiled frenzy: Just get yourself a 2001 Yamaha R6.

Honda may pride themselves on being the "the world's acknowledged four-stroke technology leader," but it's Yamaha that has produced the world's first production motorcycle with titanium valves.