#review

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.

In case you somehow haven’t noticed by now, Motorcycle.com has a separate YouTube channel – because sometimes (okay, most of the time) you’d rather see the motorcycles we ride in action rather than just read our words about them. Sometimes it can be even better if you can get our immediate thoughts about a motorcycle directly as we’re riding them. Of course, this means talking and riding at the same time (it’s harder than it sounds if you’re a MOron like us). The challenge is capturing good, clean audio with little to no wind noise. Bonus points if you can do it on the cheap. Say hello to the HelEquip HelMic 3.1. Since this is a microphone review after all, watch the video below to get my thoughts. Otherwise, feel free to read on.

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.

There’s really no other bike in the off-road dirtbiking world that carries more clout than the Honda CRF450X, except for possibly the XR650R or XR400R models the 450X was designed to replace. Originally introduced in 2005, the CRF450X went on to win the 2006 Baja 1000 in its first attempt. Since then, it’s become the winningest bike in Baja 1000 history, with 11 wins at the 1000 and nine at the Baja 500. As if that weren’t impressive enough, Honda-mounted teams have won 20 of the last 21 Baja 1000s. So, to say Honda knows a thing or two about building a competitive, well-rounded dirtbike would be a massive understatement.

From the moment the rumor mill first started hinting at KTM developing an 800cc parallel Twin way back in 2014, droves of performance-minded motorcyclists, myself included, have been salivating at the thought of throwing a leg over one. Stuffed into a light, nimble chassis, this engine could power what middleweight fans have been dreaming of for years: A razor-sharp instrument for dissecting any twisty road thrown at it. 

When I first saw Indian’s photos of the updated Chieftain line, I immediately thought of the presentation during the 2015 Indian Scout introduction. During his speech, Gary Gray, Indian Motorcycle Product Director, said that with Indian’s initial models under Polaris ownership, “we needed to earn the right to change the brand. So, how do you earn the right? You pay the deepest respects you can for the brand, and you pay honor to the people that came before you, and you build a bike that people clearly will see as an Indian.” All of the Indian models prior to the Scout were classically styled in a way that harkened back to the company’s early history, the nod to the past that Gray referred to.

You read that right, folks – Motorcycle.com wants to ride your bike. By now, loyal Motorcycle.com readers are familiar with our Church of MO pieces we run every Sunday. Reviving the stories and reviews from the motorcycles of yesteryear, it allows us to admire the engineering, styling, or otherwise excellent decisions some companies have made with models that have withstood the test of time. It also lets us laugh, mock, and otherwise shame the motorcycles that should have never made it out of the design phase.

Don’t be confused by the new appellation: The MT-07 is the same Yamaha FZ-07 that’s won every MO middleweight mashup we’ve thrown it in since it was new in 2014, beating up on all sorts of bikes since then, including the KTM Duke 690, all Suzuki SV650 variants, various Kawasaki 650 mutations, Hondas of diverse specification, the H-D Street Rod, et al.

I’m a capital C Conservative when it comes to holding onto some rituals, chief among them being the time-honored tradition of toasting one’s co-workers with a beverage at the end of a hard day of motojournalism. That tradition, I’m sad to say, is coming under attack from the forces of evil. At the recent Austrian launch of the new Yamaha Niken, it was almost difficult for me, Rider magazine’s illustrious Editor Mark Tuttle, and the 50-something guy Popular Mechanics sent, to enjoy our cocktails, knowing that the 20-somethings Cycle World/Motorcyclist sent were at that moment out gathering even more video footage of the Niken, on top of the thousands of hours we’d already captured that day. I know what it’s like to be young and ambitious, but outworking the other guy is no way to get ahead in the modern workplace. That’s only going to bring out the Tonya Harding in people.

You may not realize it, dear MO reader, but the 2018 Ducati Scrambler 1100 was the first motorcycle I reviewed after coming back to Motorcycle.com after nearly 12 months away. In many ways this was the perfect motorcycle to ease me back into the game – the Scrambler line is all about having fun on two wheels and less about dissecting the spec sheet for every last ounce of performance. Believe it or not, the more you do this job, the more you tune-in to the details, and having been away for a short while, I think I was a bit rusty. Had I been reviewing, say, the Panigale V4, there might have been some important details I may have overlooked.

There seems to be much doom and gloom in the motorcycle industry surrounding the state of sportbikes these days. We keep hearing about dropping sales and shifting consumer interest, which will combine to turn the sportbike as we know it into a museum piece one day, gone the way of the Dodo bird.

As a lifelong supporter of the underdog and a proponent of keeping things cheap and stupid simple, I was a big fan of the Suzuki GSX-S1000 right from the start. Basically, we’re talking 2005 GSX-R1000 with much improved ergonomics, more supple suspension, EFI, and other conveniences of modern life that make deploying 144 screaming inline-Four horsepower a kinder, gentler and more comfortable experience every time you leave the house.

Since my review of Ducati’s all-new Panigale V4 was posted, I’ve had several friends reach out to ask me – candidly – if it’s really as good as I claimed in my report. Indeed, it truly is.

It’s rare that a manufacturer debuts two new models at the same time unless there are multiple trims such as the Aprilia RSV4 RR and Factory versions. When MO found out we would be riding both Aprilia’s new Dorsoduro and its Shiver 900, I was actually looking forward to the novel opportunity. It would be interesting to see how different the motorcycles would feel while sharing many of the same components, most notably, the same 896cc 90-degree V-Twin engine.

In the fall of 1992 Ducati introduced its first ever Monster, the M900. It was a bike aimed outside of the company’s typical sportbike targets, a simple roadster that blended the frame from an 851 superbike with the air-cooled 904cc motor from the Super Sport series.