It already sucks when you’re involved in a motorcycle crash. I found that out myself first-hand recently. It’s even worse however when someone steals your bike while you’re lying on the ground with severe injuries.

That’s what happened last week to 35-year-old Glenn Hawkins in Bristol, England. According to a report in Britain’s Daily Mail, Hawkins crashed his Kawasaki ZX-6R trying to avoid a bicyclist who had suddenly stepped out into his path. The crash sent Hawkins tumbling to the ground, breaking his collar bone, cracking two ribs and puncturing a lung.

According to a police spokesperson, a passer-by then allegedly offered to help move the crashed Ninja out of the way of traffic, but instead took off with the sportbike. Continue Reading »

Adventure touring documentary star Charley Boorman and his BMW R1200GS Adventure have traveled a long way together, but the motorcycle had a bit of an adventure on its own after thieves stole the bike.

The stolen BMW wasn’t the one Boorman rode with Ewen McGregor in “Long Way Round” (that was a R1150GS Adventure) or the one used in the sequel “Long Way Down“. Boorman did ride it on his last project, “Charley Boorman’s Extreme Frontiers: Canada”.

The GS wasn’t gone for long however. The motorcycle was equipped with Bike Trac, an anti-theft GPS tracking system from U.K.-based Road Angel Group. The Bike Trac system was triggered at 4:29 am GMT on April 21 and tracked to a location in London. The trail then led to the nearby town of Watford. Continue Reading »

Lawlessness, rampant sexual promiscuity, theft, gambling, drugs and being a general menace to society are the stripes motorcycle riders wear… 40 years ago! No doubt the image of motorcycling in the U.S. hit a low spot starting in 1947 with the infamous, and allegedly staged, photo of a Boozefighter motorcycle club member surrounded by empty beer bottles in the gutter, lying next to his bike. There’s more detail to that story, but this incident eventually became the premise for the Marlon Brando classic, “The Wild Ones.”

A couple decades later, during the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Hell’s Angels became the face of all that was wrong with motorcycling in the public’s mind. Since then it’s only been in the past 15 or 20 years that motorcycling seems to have largely made a full public image recovery. Though there’s still a faction or two that seem to keep biking with one foot in the grave. Regardless, in the U.S. the image of motorcycles and riding them has come light years from where it once was for a very long time.

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Even if you’ve never played it, chances are you are familiar with the controversial Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video game franchise. The much anticipated GTA VI was released earlier this year where players are once again encouraged to steal cars, boats and helicopters but also motorcycles with reckless abandon.

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