The 2019 Yamaha R3 feels incredibly nimble as I flick it back and forth effortlessly between corners along a mountain road. As we snake our way up into the dense fog surrounding Palomar mountain in San Diego County, dodging gravel and mud that was spread across the roadway from the week’s downpour, I’m thankful for the precise handling the R3 offered. It easily changes direction, almost too easily I think to myself as I close into a tight right-hander just before the apex.

Somebody went off in the photo studio with the Factory Custom Thruxton, Triumph’s new ship of the line, fully encrusted with carbon fiber this, machined billet that, and basically dripping with exclusivity and the finest in suspension and exhaust bits.

And in those waning days days of the 20th century, everybody knew his place. Crotch rockets with cylinders numbering four, came from the East in great numbers to be ridden by sybarites and Phyllistines, and motorcycles from Germania were for aged gentlepersons of great wealth and knowledge but low testosterone. And you knew who you were then, goils were goils and men were men, those were the days. A reading from the Book of MO…

If there’s one thing that gets motorcycle riders – and Motorcycle.com readers – worked up, it’s the debate about whether a three-wheeler is considered a motorcycle or not. If you’re one of the haters, this news might brighten up your day: Campagna Motors, the company best known for producing the T-Rex, is shutting down.

Within  Triumph’s Modern Classics line there was always a sizable gap between the Bonneville T120 and the Thruxton. The Bonnie had a nice standard riding position and more sedate power delivery, while the Thruxton had a much more committed rider stance and sportier performance. What about riders who wanted an upright riding stance but craved more get up when the go knob was twisted? Well, the good folks in Hinckley have answered the call with the 2019 Triumph Speed Twin.

Yamaha’s new XMAX scooter appeared in the US last year with little fanfare – possibly because Yamaha didn’t want to call attention to the fact that its long-running and updated-for-2017 TMAX maxi-scooter came up missing about the same time.

Ever since the 2019 Triumph Speed Twin was announced in early December, we’ve been excited about the prospects that it posed. The idea of Thruxton power wrapped in a more relaxed package intrigued us, and now, the moment is at hand. Thanks to the magical tubes of the internet, we have the skinny on the Speed Twin just hours after the press briefing at the riding launch in Mallorca, Spain.

The first thought that went through my head when our former bro, Brent Jaswinski, was assigned to attend the Honda CRF450L launch was, “Damn, that’s going to be a fun one.” The new Honda dual-sport was a much-anticipated model with promises of real trail bike performance in a plated package. Did it live up to the hype? Well, I couldn’t wait for Brent to write his review. So, I shot him a text, “How was it?” To be honest, I’m pretty sure I texted him while he was still at the launch for the bike. I was curious, as was the rest of the world, about whether this new model would be a thrilling performance-driven machine, or yet another soft polite dual-sport with street bike mentality. I don’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure he responded with something along the lines of, “It rips!” It was at that moment I couldn’t wait to start planning a comparison of the Honda CRF450L against the time-tested king of dual-sports the KTM 500 EXC-F.

A new Triumph Rocket III has been spotted by spy photographers, revealing substantial changes to the British manufacturer’s mammoth cruiser. The current Rocket III has been around in various forms since 2004, and though it is still available in North America, the bike was dropped in Europe due to Euro4 restrictions. It doesn’t look like we’ll have to wait very long for its replacement as the bike pictured here looks close to being production ready.

Indian has filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reserve the name “Indian Renegade” for use on “motorcycles and structural parts therefor.” The filing follows another trademark application submitted last month for “ Indian Raven“, giving us two potential names for future Indian models.

Ex-Motorcyclist staff writer, current Milwaukee-residing advertising man, and all-around good guy Aaron Frank’s new book puts an interesting twist on telling the tale of Harley-Davidson. Rather than rehashing the history of all the models – though there’s a bit of that here for all the major updates – Frank worked in cooperation with the H-D Museum in Milwaukee to look back through the lens of the museum’s holdings and displays. It makes sense, since the museum staff has already gone through the painstaking work of winnowing God-knows how many H-D artifacts into what will fit in a 130,000-square foot building. Buildings. If you’ve been to the museum, you’re already familiar with what a lot of fascinating objets d’ Harley, and Harley people it contains.

For a number of years now, if you wanted a dual-sport bike with true off-road performance, a dirt bike with turn signals if you will, there was one option and it was orange. KTM’s EXC-F lineup of plated dirt bikes show little compromise to their off-road prowess in order to maintain 50-state-legal status in the U.S. to be used on public roads. EXC-F models can be had in 250, 350, 450 Six Days Edition, and 500. Since more is more here at MO, we snagged the big boy out of KTM North America’s press fleet to see what’s been up with the big orange dual-sport from Mattighofen.

As the world’s tech companies gather in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Harley-Davidson has announced that the 2020 Livewire is now available for pre-order. Additionally, Harley has tossed out a few more tidbits about the company’s first electric motorcycle. First, the retail price will be $29,799 in the U.S. Second, we finally get some specifics about power delivery and range.

Along side the new 2019 LiveWire, Harley-Davidson revealed two electric urban mobility concepts at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The two as-yet-unnamed concepts, a mountain bike-style vehicle and a scooterish looking model, give us the first looks at a selection of “lightweight urban” electric models that Harley-Davidson says will go into production in 2021 and 2022.

Zero Motorcycles is teasing a new SR/F model through its social media channels, promising full details to come on Feb. 25. While a new model is notable, the more important news is that the SR/F will introduce an entirely new platform that will eventually expand to include other future models.

You’ll see a theme if you scroll back the last decade or so on MO: we have a thing for the Triumph Street Triple. After numerous rides and shootouts each time it gets updated, it’s safe to say we love that little 675cc three-cylinder. The sound it makes is outrageously cool, the power it delivers is fun without being overwhelming, and the overall package is an absolute blast. Yeah, the looks are kinda polarizing, but none of that matters once you twist the grip.

And in those years of 15 ago, MO’s Eurospondent Yossef Schvetz was having all the great adventures. In this chapter, he travels to the foreign land of Monza to ride a rare bike that we barely knew existed, yea verily, until we saw our first one a couple months ago at Iconic Motorcycles here in the Land of LaLa. Honda doesn’t lend its engines to boutique manufacturers, but this time it did, and the reason why is all in this gospel according to Yossef, who probably wishes he got residuals. Amen.

Every year Motorcycle.com gets invited to the press introductions for several new motorcycles – it’s the biggest perk of our job, and the reason all of us have stuck around as long as we have! The cycle goes like this: at the end of one year or the beginning of the next, manufacturers talk a big game about a new model launch, and/or the internet goes wild with social media rumors and opinions about a new bike. In turn we, the media, can’t wait to be the first to throw a leg over said bike to see what the fuss is about. Sometimes the motorcycle in question is a dud, other times it exceeds beyond our wildest dreams. Then you get the rare model that didn’t get much fanfare but turns out to be unexpectedly awesome.

You’d think we’d learn our lesson by now with these darn 24-hour races. Our Grom debacle was a serious test of our resolve and had us questioning why we even rode motorcycles in the first place, while our time aboard the Kymco K-Pipe we also rode around the clock didn’t present us with any problems, but boy was it ungodly slow. Maybe in my attempt to recreate the sense of accomplishment that comes with being the first electric team to complete a 24-hour race, I’ve tricked my MO cohorts into thinking racing little bikes for a whole day is fun. Thankfully, being MOrons, we clearly don’t learn our lesson.

Fifteen years ago, brothers and sisters, Ducati inverted the number of the beast and loosed upon us the 999, and its latest superbike got very little love. It was a style thing, really. You either loved its Raymond Loewy-inspired design, like me and a few other highly evolved aesthetes, or hated it. And so we must ask, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in the 999’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly that the 999 is swell AF. And the price is right, now, too.

Last month, during EICMA, Kawasaki announced a pair of new retro bikes in the W800 Cafe and W800 Street. At the time, Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A. announced the Cafe version would be coming to the States, leaving people to assume the Street version would not be making its way to these shores.

For starters, Zero is branching out by sharing its electric powertrain with vehicles packing more than two wheels. At this year’s IDTechEx Show! in Santa Clara, California, Zero showed off an electric Vanderhall (lead photo), along with a four-wheeled electric go-kart, both using its powertrain. According to an IDTechEx Research report, that’s a good idea given that the motorcycle market is the western world has been stagnant for the last decade. Italy’s Energica seconds that emotion, but adds that while the western motorcycle industry may be stagnant, electric motorcycle sales are growing in the rest of the world: Tapping into markets in Asia and  supplying quality powertrains for other light electric vehicles will be important paths to growth going forward. The rest of the report follows.

I’ve found myself riding in the King of Cool’s tracks more often than I’d realized lately. First, in November while participating in the 50th running of the Lake Elsinore GP, a southern California event McQueen raced in the early ’70s under the alias Harvey Mushman and again, as I jumped the 2019 Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE on the motocross track at Wim Motors Academy this past weekend in southern Portugal. Sure, Steve McQueen may not have jumped the fence in The Great Escape, but there’s no shortage of proof that the actor competed in many off-road races and had an affinity for motorcycles, including the Triumph TR6, a bike many may view as the original scrambler. The latest iteration of Scrambler to hit the market is the new Triumph Scrambler 1200 XC & XE and it will haul the mail, on-road or off, all the while looking the part of a premium modern classic.

Indian Motorcycle has filed a trademark application for name “Indian Raven” as a potential name for a new model. The application was filed today with the European Union Intellectual Property Office for the intended use of the “Indian Raven” mark for a “motorcycle and structural parts therefor.” We expect a similar filing to come with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in the next week. UPDATE: As expected, a trademark application for “Indian Raven” has also been filed with the USPTO, also for “motorcycle and structural parts therefor.”

The joy and fun of riding supermoto is something I personally love, but apparently this sentiment isn’t shared by most. It’s too bad, really. Supermoto offers all the fun of track riding for a fraction of the cost of taking your sportbike to a trackday. And if you’re a dirt guy, there’s even some of that, too. By their very nature, motocrossers are light, narrow, agile, and come packed with potent engines. Converting them into SuMos isn’t more than a wheel change, brake swap, and suspension tweak away, and yet the apparent demand is so small most OEMs – with the exception of Suzuki and its DR-Z400SM – haven’t taken notice.

We’ve heard the term “crotch rockets” thrown around but in this case, “crochet rockets” might be more appropriate. In what may be the most Yamaha thing you’ll see this week, the Japanese manufacturer wants to teach people how to knit their own mini-Niken three-wheelers out of yarn, either by the Japanese art of amigurumi crocheting or by a technique called needle felting.

Time flies. Has it really been six months since I picked this bike up in Portland, Oregon? I guess it has been, according to my original First Ride report. I think what happened is, since Yamaha is in the process of moving part of its operation to Atlanta, they must’ve forgotten we had it. That or we told them we wanted to keep it around to do a comparison with a Ducati 950 Multistrada, but we finally gave up trying to pry that bike loose from Ducati.

Earlier this month, BMW and Japanese builder Custom Works Zon presented a rather industrial-looking retro-styled roadster at the 27th annual Mooneyes Show in Yokohama, Japan. The bike itself, christened the “Departed” by builders Yuichi Yoshizawa and Yoshikazu Ueda, was an interesting combination of vintage styling and modern production, making use of a lot of milled aluminum, steel piping and sheet metal and drawing inspiration from the bikes ridden by racer and landspeed record holder Ernst Henne in the ’20s and ’30s.

Has it really only been 10 years since Erik Buell’s first modern 8-valve engine appeared? Verily, what with all the openings and closings, and everything we’ve been through – it seems like far longer. Alas, no. The Apostle Pete was there, rockin’ the MO leathers. Before the cock crowed, someone would betray us…

Markus Kramer said it so nonchalantly when I asked him. “Three months ago,” he said. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, so I asked in a different way. “You mean to tell me this motorcycle didn’t exist four months ago?” Again, the response was simple. “Yep.” Markus isn’t a man of many words, but that’s when I knew this ride aboard the GP2 Prototype from Kramer Motorcycles was going to be different. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Back when KTM’s 790 Duke was first announced, I knocked on Joe Karvonen’s social media door, asking the sole importer for Kramer Motorcycles USA whether the 790 Twin engine would make its way into a Kramer.

The legendary Speed Twin is back, returning as the newest member of Triumph‘s 1200cc Bonneville lineup. The new 2019 Triumph Speed Twin slots into the line by combining the Thruxton‘s performance with the Bonneville T120‘s more comfortable riding position.

Looking for the perfect Christmas present for a MotoGP fan? If you’ve got 250,000 euros (US$282,000) available, then why not pick up one of KTM‘s RC16 MotoGP race bikes?

KTM firmly places itself into the history books with its first ever superbike! It’s orange, its fast and its right straight out of the crate. KTM really managed to impress both Jeremy McWilliams and myself. The 1148cc V-twin from Mattighofen takes on the world.

The main difference between the 2016 Street Twin and 2017 Street Scrambler, and the new 2019 versions of each, is that my Aerostich Roadcrafter suit is much snugger when riding the new ones. On the first day we rode the new bikes from Cascais, Portugal, down the road to Lisbon in the rain. Semi-lost and wandering along, I was all set to conclude I couldn’t tell much difference between new and old. On Day Two, the rain had stopped, the roads were drying, and our Official Triumph Guide became a Brit called Nick Plumb, former Paris-Dakar regular.

We probably didn’t really need to compare the Honda CB1000R and Kawasaki Z900RS Cafe since they’re polarized enough in the looks department to make it appear that potential consumers will be drawn to one or the other – and their performance and mission statements both are close enough on paper to make them more or less interchangeable, aren’t they? I think we really just wanted an excuse to ride both of them again, they’re both such charismatic motorcycles. Everybody wants to hang out with them. What is a café racer? One that flits from Starbucks to Starbucks? Close enough for us.

Funny thing about electric motorcycles: if you’re already an early adopter of the technology, the name Zero Motorcycles is all too familiar. If you still think electrics are as evil to the motorcycling landscape as Jar Jar Binks was to Star Wars… well, you might as well stop reading here. No matter where you stand, the staying power of Zero Motorcycles is hard to ignore. For over 13 years, Zero has been leading the way in electric motorcycle technology, and its staying power has seen it outlast all its competitors. For 2019, Zero is further staking its claim as the leader in electric motorcycle technology, perhaps bracing itself for the arrival of the Harley-Davidson Livewire in 2020.

On this 100th Armistice Day, what better, less inappropriate way to remember all the WW1  gefallenen than by throwing an American and two Italians into battle. Okay, yeah it would be better with also a BMW and a Peugeot or Midual. It didn’t happen ten years ago, alright? But this comparison did. Nice work, Pete, and a moment of silence please, for Erik Buell – who gave the last, final measure of devotion not once, but two or three times. So far.

The air had a brisk freshness about it. Pure mountain air with a hint of fall from the turning leaves. The kind of unsullied atmosphere that can only be found far from the pollution of civilization. The sun had begun its slow descent behind the surrounding red rock mesas, and the cottonwoods and aspens appeared to glow in the late daylight, contrasting beautifully with the red rock, blue skies and well-manicured grass of the Gateway Canyons Resort. The resort sits at 4,500 feet, in the juncture of five canyons, some of which had been carved out more than a billion years ago. This would be the proving ground for our evaluation of BMW’s latest mid-size GS offerings – the 2019 F 750 GS and F 850 GS.

Riding the Ducati Panigale V4 S is quite a trip, as the experience is nothing short of relentless. There’s power everywhere, and if ever there was a machine to remind us that we, the riders, are the limiting factors in performance, this is it. By now there has been quite a lot written about the Ducati Panigale V4 S on the digital pages of Motorcycle.com. From our First Look of the bike a year ago, to Kevin Duke’s subsequent First Ride Review, we’ve then gone on to put it on the dyno against its natural rival, the Aprilia RSV4 RF, followed by a full-on showdown between the two Italians on both the street and the track. Hell, despite some of its shortcomings, we even gave the Panigale V4 S our 2018 Motorcycle of the Year award!

Kymco has carved out a niche producing scooters and small-displacement motorcycles like the K-Pipe 125, but the Taiwanese manufacturer now wants to reshape how we think about electric motorcycles. Debuting at EICMA, the Kymco SuperNEX concept looks to address some of issues consumers have about electric two-wheelers.