Gear: LS2 Helmets present the new-for-2019 Challenger FF327

Sino-Spanish manufacturer LS2 Helmets (their head office and R&D centre are located on the outskirts of Barcelona) have a few new products in their lineup for 2019. Amongst them is the Challenger FF327.

This new flagship of LS2's range of touring helmets is aimed at bridging the gap between an aggressive sport-/track-oriented lid and a more subdued "daily rider" helmet. With that in mind it's not surprising to see that the design team based near the Catalan capital city have borrowed a fair few styling cues from their own Arrow C Evo helmet, while adding elements, such as the small spoiler towards the rear of the helmet that, if anything, make it even more aggressive to look at than the sleekly-styled Arrow Evo. This is definitely a lid aimed fair and square at sports roadster riders who want sports style and practicality in the same package.

Indian announce new Chief, Springfield and Roadmaster for 2019

Meanwhile, in Spirit Lake, Iowa... Indian Motorcycle have announced that they are rolling out new technology on the 2019 Chief, Springfield and Roadmaster models, as well as new paint options for the Dark Horse range.

Selectable Rider Modes

On the new 2019 models, riders will be able to choose between three rider modes: Tour, Standard and Sport. Tour mode smooths out the throttle response for a more relaxed cruising experience. Standard mode will provide a crisper throttle response - presumably identical to that of current models. Finally, Sport mode provides a much sharper and more immediate throttle response for more spirited riding, clean getaways from traffic lights and to ensure decisive overtaking. Rider will be able to switch from one mode to another on the fly.

New Harley-Davidson FXDR power-cruiser and CVO Touring bikes for 2019

It never rains but it pours. While everybody was still buzzing with the news regarding the bikes that Harley-Davidson intend to roll out over the next couple of years, the Motor Company decided to announce more new models, this time for 2019. This way, please.

FXDR 114

First stop is Harley-Davidson's new FXDR 114, a performance-oriented power-cruiser. Using the new Softail chassis, the FXDR 114 uses the 114 ci (1868 cc) Milwaukee Eight engine equipped with four-valve desmo heads, a high-flow forward-facing airbox with a performance-inspired air filter and a two-into-one sports exhaust. Power output is around the 90 HP mark, with 119 lb/ft of torque. Power is transmitted to the rear wheel via a six-speed 'box and belt drive. The engine sits in a Softail frame with an aluminium subframe to keep the weight down. Also in a bid to reduce unsprung weight, the characteristic steel Softail swinging-arm has been replaced with a sportsbike-style aluminium unit, which saves a claimed 4.62 kg. The weight-saving exercise continues with the bodywork, made out of composite materials, and aluminium cast wheels (19" front, 18" lenticular rear).

Harley-Davidson look to the future

Mention the Harley-Davidson marque in a conversation and most people - whether they're motorcyclists or not - will reply with words such as "archaic", old-fashioned", "slow", "agricultural" etc. The latest news from the Milwaukee-based manufacturer, though, seems to be giving the lie to that.

After having made headlines worldwide recently for having made it onto Donald Trump's "enemies of the people" list, the Motor Company is back in the news, this time to announce its plans for the years to come, in the shape of a whole raft of brand-new bikes. Let's take a closer look.

LiveWire

The Harley-Davidson LiveWire - sparking a great buzz

Of all the un-Harleyesque bikes that the Wisconsin-based marque is introducing over the next couple of years, the LiveWire is the one that will be the most discombobulating to Harley cognoscenti and ignoramuses alike. For one thing there's the riding position, which errs towards the sports roadster end of the spectrum (anybody who's ever ridden a Buell will be on familiar ground). But most importantly - this is an electric motorcycle! That's right: no pushrod V-twin, no "potato-potato", no vibration-per-piston-stroke ratio, no more stopping to "pump gas", as our transatlantic cousins say.

Qwart helmets - High-tech and hand-crafted

France has for a long time had a tradition of manufacturing quality motorcycle gear; companies such as Shark, Furygan, Segura and others are well-respected for their products throughout the world. Continuing in this tradition the French startup company Qwart, based in Saïx in southwest France, creates and manufactures a range of handcrafted designer crash helmets.

The range of Qwart helmets covers two models, the full-face Phoenix helmet and the open-face Hemi helmet. The Phoenix comes in two versions, the "Slick", which does not have a faceshield (Qwart make a bespoke pair of goggles that integrate seamlessly with this helmet); and the "STD" (for "standard"), which is equipped with a faceshield.

Gear News: Fuel "Sergeant" jeans

Following on their recent presentation of the Downtown jacket, Fuel Motorcycles have just brought out their new Sergeant motorcycle jeans.

These smart jeans, which look cool whether you're riding your bike or just hanging with your riding buddies down the pub, are available in two versions, "Waxed" and "Sahara". Just like the Downtown jacket, don't be fooled by their stylish look; they're up to speed on the protection front, too.

Sergeant Waxed Jeans

The Sergeant Waxed jeans are made with premium 12.5 oz denim on the outside, waxed for waterproofing, and an anti-abrasion aramid fibre lining on the inside. They are cut in a traditional five-pocket style, with an extra pocket on the right thigh closed by a waterproof YKK zip. They feature heavy-duty suede strips on the outside of the thighs and on the inner part of the lower leg, with quilted panels on the front. They also have stretch panels at the knees that allow you to move freely on the bike. The Sergeant Waxed jeans are equipped with Level 2 body armour at the hips and knees. The knee protectors can be fitted and removed easily via pockets with an opening on the outside. The jeans' tapered fit makes them easy to fit inside a pair of riding boots.

Bike News: Harley-Davidson to add two new models to the Sportster range (from Press Release)

Harley-Davidson announced yesterday that they will be expanding their already profuse Sportster range with two new models: the Iron 1200 (hmm, I know a fellow blogger in France who'll be happy as a pig in the proverbial! - Ed.) and the Forty-Eight Special. These two new Sporties are the latest in a line of 100 high-impact models that the Motor Company intends to present between now and 2027. The leitmotiv for these two new machines is, according to the company, "High handlebars, cool graphics and garage-built attitude".

Ever since its birth in 1957, the Harley-Davidson Sportster has been endlessly customised and reinterpreted, as much by the Milwaukee-based marque as by thousands of owners worldwide. We've seen the Sporty reinvented  countless times as a bobber, a chopper, a scrambler or a cafe racer. It is with this in mind that Brad Richards, Harley-Davidson's VP for Styling and Design, states "What we've done to create the new Iron 1200 and Forty-Eight Special is what Sportster owners have been doing with their own bikes for generations".

Gear News: Harley-Davidson want to dress you up in style

For 2018, Harley-Davidson have brought out not one, but three new clothing ranges aimed not just at owners of Milwaukee's finest product, but at anybody who wants to cut a dash wearing some authentic Americana.

The "Genuine Motorclothes" range covers the Harley-Davidson branded riding gear but also includes casual wear, with a comfortable cut for the menswear range and a more tailored cut for women. The Genuine Motorclothes jackets are manufactured with long-lasting leather and textile fabrics and in various styles, including vintage "distressed" styles.

Genuine Motorclothes

Gear News: Davida Lightweight Metropolitan Summer Gloves

While most of us in the Northern hemisphere are shivering away wondering how far we are from the corner spring is supposedly hiding behind, British firm Davida have already presented their new-for-2018 Metropolitan lightweight summer gloves.

Tech News: Watchdog System connected disc lock

If there's one thing that motorcyclists fear apart from dropping their bike, it's having their bike stolen. Manufacturers incorporate solutions such as immobilisers or transponders that you carry around with you - usually as a key fob - to their products to make them harder to steal. One can also buy a variety of alarms, disc locks, security chains, padlocks etc. At the end of the day, though, all of these devices are simply deterrents designed to slow bike thieves down; though as the saying goes, "where there's a will, there's a way" and a determined bike thief will steal your pride and joy, however hard you try to make that impossible. One answer to this is to fit your bike with a tracker so that police or private security firms can follow the criminal's trail and recover your bike - and sometimes bikes stolen from other unfortunate motorcyclists.

Back in the Seventies, the French had a popular saying: "On a pas du pétrole, mais on a des idées*". The French startup Watchdog System has definitely had a very clever idea indeed and has developed a high-tech disk lock that is connected to a smartphone app that informs you in real time about things happening to your bike. This is done by means of a complex algorithm that uses machine learning techniques to recognise various situations, such as somebody trying to move your bike, a bike toppling over, or a bike being lifted off the ground. The alert is not only sent to you, but also to all other Watchdog System users in the area, the idea being that if you can't reach your bike, some Good Samaritan can.

Gear News: Fuel Downtown jacket

The main problem about stylish gear aimed at café racer/scrambler/bobber riders is that in order to have The Look you need to compromise on protection. Which is a bit silly, really: you're just as likely to have a moment on your "built, not bought" machine as you are on a high-tech sports roadster (or any other kind of bike, for that matter); and from my own personal experience, road rash is painful. Motorcycle jeans have been around for a few years now, as have casual and more formal footwear options. Motorcycle jackets however, have lagged behind when it comes to combining chic with protection. But with many European countries contemplating legislation making it mandatory to wear proper protective clothing when riding a powered two-wheeler, manufacturers are starting to get the hint.

Helmet? Umm yeah, whatever!

Enter the new Downtown jacket by Barcelona-based Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles. When this handsome garment was brought to my attention by Constance Diaconu of Codi & Co. and Barcelona We Ride fame, my first question was "does it have body armour?" Yes, I admit it: as I get on in years I'm becoming more and more of an ATGATT* bore. When Constance replied that it did have body armour, I decided it was time to take a closer look.

Ride Report: Indian Chieftain Dark Horse

"We have the Chieftain Dark Horse available at our HQ, would you like to ride it?"

It's fairly obvious what the answer to that proposal was going to be. Thus in due course, on an autumn morning that felt more like a spring day, I found myself on the train to La Garriga, the small town some 40 km (25 mi) north of Barcelona where Polaris, Indian's mother company, has its Spanish HQ. Once I had located the business park, a brief ten-minute walk from the railway station, I had no problems locating Polaris España's premises: the matte-black bagger that was going to be my ride for the next six days was already parked in the street, waiting for me to hop on board and rumble off into the middle distance.

A quick visit to the nearby petrol station and it was time to roll. Fire up the big 1800cc V-twin, switch on the radio (which I managed to do more by luck than by design - by the way, I still haven't worked out how one switches it off!), and hit the dual carriageway that snakes past the Montmeló Circuit de Catalunya F1/MotoGP track and on into Barcelona. Getting up to the speed limit, I instantly thumbed the button that controls the electrically adjustable screen and watched as the screen slid back and upwards into its fully-deployed position. That cut down buffeting and wind noise; adopting a slightly more recumbent seating position meant that I was in a pool of quiet air behind the swoopy "batwing" fairing; this was comfortable even with the open-face LS2 Spitfire helmet (read our review here) I was wearing on this mid-November day.

Tech: Cosmo Moto

As a motorcyclist, one of the best things you can do to improve your safety - apart from not riding like a knob, of course - is to make yourself more visible. That means high visibility colours and light-reflective inserts on jackets and crash helmets. Of course, it won't always work, but at the very least if you do get punted down the road by another vehicle, the other driver's standard-issue "sorry mate, I didn't see you" excuse will sound even more pathetic than usual. That said, some motorcyclists roll their eyes at the merest mention of hi-vis this and reflective that; sarcastically suggesting that we should all ride around with a flashing light stuck on our crash helmets.

Well in fact French startup Cosmo Connected do think that having a light on your lid may be a good thing. This company, founded by none other than Romain Afflelou (son of of the owner of the internationally-implanted Afflelou chain of High Street opticians), has developed a device called the Cosmo Moto, which is a sort of supplementary brake light that you fix to the back of your crash helmet.

But calling it a brake light is somewhat inexact and simplistic. Instead of lighting up when you squeeze the brake lever or push on the rear brake pedal, the Cosmo Moto's accelerometers detect when you slow down (either by braking or by rolling off the throttle) and light up the incorporated 24-LED light. The device is also connected to a complementary smartphone app that allows you to customise the unit's functions: as well as the basic configuration, you can choose to have the light on all the time with increased intensity when you slow down, or set it to flash continuously - this configuration can come in handy when filtering, in bad visibility conditions, or as a safety beacon if you're stopped by the roadside or on a motorway hard shoulder.

Gear Report: LS2 Spitfire OF599 helmet

When I got confirmation that I would be riding an Indian Scout Sixty at the 2017 Distinguished Gentleman's Ride in Barcelona (full road test here and DGR report here), I soon realised that wearing either a track-oriented full-face helmet or a a modular "flip-up" lid just wasn't going to cut the mustard. No, what was needed was an open-face crash hat. I looked at my scuffed, scratched and battered road-weary Airborn, but soon realised that it was now probably well past the end of its useful life (I've had it since 2007). I was left with only one option: to go on the blag for an open-face skull bucket.

So which manufacturer should I go to, cap in hand, to be lent a helmet? I thought of approaching one of the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride global sponsors, Hedon, but realised that it was probably too short notice. I also thought about reaching out to Davida, but there again, time was at a premium. Finally, as I was taking a break from a particularly tedious translation, I checked my browser history to see which manufacturer's website I had last visited. And so I ended up surfing LS2's website. Almost immediately, I saw the answer to my problems: the brand-new Spitfire helmet. I saw the name as a good omen - guess what my favourite warbird is - and in due course I sent an email to David Foschi, their design guru; a few days later a courier knocked on Thruxton Towers' portcullis and I unboxed the Spitfire.

Ride review: Indian Scout Sixty

As I laboriously made my way out of central Barcelona, which was already seething with demonstrations and protest marches in view of the independence referendum that was to take place three days later, I reflected upon how fate has a strange way of doing things. At the same time, one of the Indian's mirrors was reflecting - well, nothing much, at least nothing of what I wanted it to reflect. But that would have to wait until I got back to Thruxtonian HQ.

This was the weekend of the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride. I had originally planned to ride Black Douglas' new Euro-4 compliant 125cc Sterling, but minor technical issues sunk that option with all hands on deck. At first I thought about cancelling my participation in the DGR, but I thought that now that I was registered to ride, I might as well go through with it. Only one problem remained: what bike should I ride? One of my bikes (the one that gave this blog its current name) is currently off the road* and the other doesn't really fit in with the whole "Distinguished Gentleman" philosophy. It was obvious that I was going to have to beg, borrow or - umm no, we'll leave it at those two options - a ride from somebody. By the next day, Polaris España had kindly accepted to lend me a Scout Sixty for the weekend.

Sneak peek: Ruroc Atlas

Ever since since the very public failure of the Skully AR-1 project and the subsequent revelation of the company founders' misuse of capital obtained from crowdfunding, I've been very wary of Kickstarter and similar projects, whether bike-related or not. While the guys behind these projects might make you starry-eyed with promises of an all-singing, all-dancing product, chances for many of these products actually making it to the production stage are usually at the "slim to none" end of the probability scale.

Which is why, when the crowdfunding drive for the Atlas helmet project from Ruroc came to my attention, I greeted it with my habitual scepticism. Yes, sure, the helmet looks the dog's whatsits, and the glowing product description made me think "hmm, not bad", but at the same time I reckoned that this was yet another bit of bike gear that would never actually make it to the shops. After a bit of ferreting around on the internet I discovered that the Ruroc company already markets a helmet designed for snowboarding, freestyle skiing and downhill mountain-biking - all of which are sports that I'm not really very clued up on. And if I had paid more attention, I would have recognised their "extreme sport" lid as the one used by the works Suzuki Ecstar MotoGP™ team for its pit crew.

Royal Enfield Himalayan

Just over a year after it was launched on the Indian domestic market, Royal Enfield are releasing the Himalayan internationally.

The Himalayan is the Chennai-based manufacturer's first all-new motorcycle for quite some time, and is a departure from the bikes that have made up their range for decades. As its name suggests, this is a purpose-built trails bike, a totally new market segment for Royal Enfield, who are better known for manufacturing characterful retro-styled motorcycles. The Harris-designed frame houses a brand-new Euro-4 compliant 410cc single-cylinder, fuel-injected engine with a claimed 24.5 BHP @ 6,500 rpm, and has ditched the company's habitual twinshock rear suspension in favour of a more contemporary monoshock layout. Front suspension is entrusted to 41mm RWU forks that embrace a 21-inch spoked front wheel (the rear wheel, also spoked, is a 17" item). The bike has disc brakes all round: a 300mm single disc/two-piston floating calliper at the front and a 240mm/single-piston floating calliper astern. As per Euro-4 specs, the brakes are equipped with ABS.

Rockin' at the Ace... in Barcelona!

Barcelona: the Ramblas, the Sagrada Familia, the Camp Nou… and the Ace Cafe! That’s right, the Catalan capital is now home to the first Ace Cafe brand franchise on the Iberian peninsula (hmm, something other than Messi for the Madrileños to get hot under the collar about). Behind this lie three years of negotiations and hard graft, along with several million Euros’ worth of investments before the dream of Fernando Sanchez-Crespo and his associates (amongst which the Owner of the Barcelona dealership of a well-known British motorcycle brand) came true.

MHD Watches - Retro style made in the UK

What do you do in your spare time when your day job is designing sports cars? You design your own brand of wristwatches, of course.

Ideal for nipping off to buy a couple of bottles of champagne

That’s exactly what Matthew Humphries does. Humphries, the former design chief at Morgan, where he was responsible for the shape of the Aeromax and the breathtakingly desirable 3-Wheeler (our Editor can spend hours sighing in front of one until some good Samaritan reminds him he’s skint - and that he’s also in the way). After stepping down from that post, he opened his own automotive design consultancy firm and, as he obviously had a bit of spare time on his hands, decided to design wristwatches under the MHD Watches name.

A New Helmet Filters Through From Biltwell

Many of you who follow Biltwell’s social media presence may be forgiven for thinking that the lives of the lads from Temecula is simply about “having fun and riding bikes”, to paraphrase their motto and hashtag. And while it is true that they manage to find an awful lot of time to spend on the road, truth is that they’re a hard-working bunch.