#2016

MO’s editorial staff met for a week at a glorious resort in Cabo to review our notes and statistics for 2016 in order to bring the following analysis to our faithful MotoGP readers. Before commenting or criticizing our difficult decisions, we ask that you do the same. —BA

The life of a Motorcycle.com editor is mostly the same as yours – good days balanced by ones we’d rather forget. Hammering out endless streams of words for your education and entertainment steals opportunities for the seat time behind a handlebar we all crave, and we have several friends who spend more hours riding than we’re allowed. But then every so often our motojournalist cards can provide entry into the kinds of experiences most civilians can only dream of.

Yep, 2016 is on its cool-down lap before pulling into the hot pit for the last time. That means it’s time to begin our end-of-year wrap-ups. While text is the backbone of MO’s publishing process, the importance of other media is ascending. You’ve probably noticed that we’re spending more time and effort on the videos that accompany our bike reviews and shootouts, and that’s because you all want to see what the bikes look like in motion and how they sound, which is a difficult task to accomplish in text form.

Let’s face it; by many accounts, 2016 was an awful year. We had terrorist attacks and the Zika virus, police shootings and the normalizing of the “Alt-Right,” Brexit and whatever the hell Ryan Lochte did at that gas station in Rio.

Mannequin challenges are all the rage, and this is the right season for it. An ice bucket challenge could lead to hypothermia. Still, not everyone has the facilities and the cast of characters that Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA does. So, sit back and enjoy the next two minutes of power sports mayhem and mannequins. The mannequins are where the action is.

To keep us from getting our Vitpilens mixed up with our Svartpilens, Evans Brassdraggings is semi-live at EICMA, bringing us the videographic scoop on this pair of 373cc KTM Single-powered Husqvarna hotties.

2017 is shaping up to be the year of the small-displacement ADV bike. Honda ( CRF250L Rally), Kawasaki ( Versys-X 300), and here Suzuki’s V-Strom 250/ABS. Let us not forget the first-to-market CSC RX-3 introduced two years ago.

What will people reading this remember about the 2016 MotoGP season?  A Marquez year, his third of many, for sure.  The year Crutchlow won his first two races?  The year Jack Miller, Andrea Iannone and Maverick Vinales each won his first?  The year Suzuki and Ducati and Australia broke their droughts?  The year Yamaha started one of their own?  My fave is the year nine different riders stood on the top step of the podium, some for the first time and some, perhaps, for the last.

To no one’s surprise, Triumph has developed a Scrambler version of its enviable Bonneville platform, unveiled today at EICMA in Italy. It uses the 900cc parallel-Twin motor as previously seen in the Street Twin, Street Cup and Bonneville T100, not the 1200cc motor from the Thruxton and T120.

What would a motorsports show be without custom bikes? With the inclusion of this video, we now know that Content Editor Tom Roderick wasn’t out generating content the entire two days he’s been at the AIMExpo. We have a very distinct impression that he’s actually spent time looking at custom motorcycles. Sounds like using a company-sponsored trip for personal enjoyment to us. However, in Tom’s defense, the bikes are pretty cool. Take a look and let us know if he was really working or not.

You may notice that Tom Roderick is sitting down for this wrap-up video from the 2016 AIMExpo. There’s a good reason for that, too. Just look closely at his shoe in the bottom left corner of the frame at the beginning of the video. We’re pretty sure we can see smoke coming off of it. After all, he’s been racing around the arena floor for two days bringing the inside story from the expo. So, watch his summary of what happened this year and prepare yourself for a new location for next year.

For many, Autumn is the beginning of the end of another riding season. But for any motorcycle enthusiast, Autumn is also the time of the year when we see the fruits of R&D departments being unveiled, enticing us with fresh motorbikes that we’ll be anxious to ride in the year ahead.

The fall motorcycle show season kicks off next week in Cologne, Germany, at the semi-annual Intermot exposition. Although manufacturers try to keep secret the news of upcoming bikes that are nearing production, we already know of several that are due to be revealed this autumn. Here’s a list of some of what we’re expecting to see this year:

Cast your vote for who’s gonna win this week’s MotoGP race in Austin. Hint: Marc Marquez has won every MotoGP race held at COTA since the track’s Grand Prix debut in 2013. Can he make it 4 in a row?

If you’ve been salivating over Harley-Davidson’s Breakout since its CVO introduction in 2013, you’re in luck. After a year hiatus, the Breakout returns for 2016 in CVO form with a variety of changes (upgrades?), and for a price tag $800/$1,200 less than its predecessors ($26,499/$26,899 MYs 2013/2014 vs $25,699 MY 2016). There’s the standard Breakout for $18,799, but we’re going big, and when you go big you go CVO.