Founder's Blog

He Rode Toward the Danger
Twenty-five years ago today, off-duty FDNY firefighter Tim Duffy was working on his Harley-Davidson when he heard the first explosion. After seeing the second plane strike the World Trade Center, he put the spark plug back in, grabbed his gear and headed toward Lower Manhattan. As thousands fled the devastation, Duffy rode directly into it. Photojournalist Allan Tannenbaum heard the motorcycle coming down Broadway and captured a single frame: Duffy in full turnout gear, navigating a street buried beneath dust, debris and paper. The photograph became an enduring image of... Read more...
Can motorcycles improve mental health?
Motorcycles don’t cure anxiety, depression, or burnout. But for many riders, they create the conditions where healing becomes a little easier. On a motorcycle, your attention narrows to what matters: the next corner, the road surface, the sound of the engine, the rhythm of your breathing. The endless mental noise that follows us through the day often fades into the background. Research has found that motorcycling can reduce stress hormones while increasing focus and sensory engagement. Riders often describe finishing a ride feeling calmer, clearer, and more present than when... Read more...
Why DOT Helmets Have Trust Issues
DOT certification matters, but it is not government pre-approval. Here is what the label really means and what riders should verify before trusting a helmet with their head. Read more...
The Last of the Simple Harleys
If someone asked me to recommend one Harley-Davidson based on reliability alone, my answer would be simple: The 2003 Sportster. Not the biggest.Not the fastest.Not the most expensive. Just one of the most dependable motorcycles Harley-Davidson has ever built. Powered by the legendary Evolution (Evo) engine, the 2003 model represents the final year of the rigid-mount Sportster before the 2004 redesign. After nearly two decades of refinement, Harley had worked out the bugs and created a motorcycle that earned a reputation for going well over 100,000 miles with routine maintenance.... Read more...
Work Life Balance
Riding a motorcycle to work doesn’t shorten the workday. It changes what happens on either side of it. Instead of going straight from home mode to work mode, the ride gives you a transition. A few miles where the phone is away, the noise drops, and your attention has to stay right where you are. Then you do it again on the way home. Work stays at work a little easier. The commute becomes something you actually look forward to. And even on a rough day, you still get two... Read more...
Vintage Bikes Are a Pain. We Love Them Anyway.
Vintage bikes are a pain. That is the honest start of the conversation, because the people who love them usually do not lead with it. They lead with the chrome, the patina, the story, the way the thing looks parked in front of a café like it walked out of another decade and decided to stay. Then the bike refuses to start on a humid morning. Then a cable snaps. Then a tank rusts from the inside in a way that looks invisible until it becomes a leak. Then the... Read more...
Save Gas on Every Ride: How to Use Google Maps to Find the Most Fuel-Efficient Motorcycle Route
Gas mileage on a motorcycle is not a puzzle. It is mostly the usual things, just on a machine where they matter more because every gallon looks bigger when you are holding the tank between your legs. Here is the unglamorous version: Roll on, don't stab. A smooth throttle saves more fuel than any map setting. The engine is not impressed by how fast you ask it to work; it just burns more. Look ahead like you are reading the road. Braking late because you were buried in the car... Read more...
Ducati Turns 100 and Remembers That Desire Is A Business Model
A hundred years is a long time for a motorcycle company. It is an especially long time for one that spent most of those years being told it was either too expensive, too loud, too Italian, or too much of everything for the people who were not buying it. Ducati is not a hundred-year-old version of the same company it was at the start. That would be a lie. It is a company that kept changing its mind about what it was, often in public, and somehow kept the name.... Read more...
Lane Filtering, Lane Splitting, and Rider Safety
Lane filtering and lane splitting are two names for overlapping ideas, and the confusion between them is part of why the whole subject gets dragged into arguments that should have been settled by the brake light. Lane filtering is the narrower thing: moving between lanes of slow or stopped traffic, usually at a much lower speed, with the idea that the motorcycle is not trying to race past anybody; it is just not sitting in the same spot as the car in front of it. Lane splitting is the broader,... Read more...
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one of those books that people mention as if they have read it, because the title does a lot of the work. It sounds like a joke and a philosophy book had a child, and that child grew up to give lectures about the meaning of a wrench. The book is actually less mystical than the title wants you to think. It is, among other things, a long argument that caring about what you are doing is not a luxury. It is... Read more...
Happy Birthday, Beautiful
A strange thing about freedom: it is easier to celebrate than to practice. Practice asks more of us. It asks us to pay attention. To build something honest. To disagree without becoming cruel. To love a place without pretending it is perfect. To remember that gratitude and criticism can live in the same chest. That is the healthier kind of patriotism. Not blind worship. Not performative rage. Not costume freedom. Just the stubborn belief that a place is worth caring for, a life is worth building, and the road ahead... Read more...
Top 25 Movie Motorcycles
Photo taken at Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh, NY Here’s my top 25 movie motorcycles, ranked by screen legend, design, cultural impact, and how badly they make you want to ride. Rank Motorcycle Movie Why it belongs 1 “Captain America” Harley-Davidson Panhead chopper Easy Rider The definitive outlaw-film motorcycle: stars-and-stripes tank, long forks, pure counterculture icon. Multiple bikes were built for the film. (The Sun) 2 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy Terminator 2: Judgment Day Arnold’s T-800 on a Fat Boy is one of the most recognizable motorcycle images in cinema. The model... Read more...
Royal Enfield at 125: Why the Brand Matters Again
Royal Enfield is not a brand that has to explain itself to everyone. For some riders, it already has. For others, it is the odd-looking motorcycle with the upright riding position, the modest horsepower, and the history that shows up everywhere except the specs sheet. At 125 years, the thing to notice is not that the company survived. Survival is common. The thing to notice is that it stayed legible. Royal Enfield did not turn itself into a word that only makes sense inside a corporate presentation. It remained a... Read more...
The Best Motorcycle Chase Scenes Ever Filmed
The best motorcycle chase scenes are not the ones with the fastest bikes. They are the ones that understand what a motorcycle actually does in a chase: it makes every bad decision smaller, quieter, and more dangerous. A car chase is a big object shoving through space. A motorcycle chase is a person deciding, repeatedly, whether the next tight thing is survivable. That is why the good ones depend on tension before power. The bike has to feel like a choice, not a toy. When a rider leans into traffic,... Read more...
Top 25 TV Show Motorcycles
Photo taken at Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh, NY Here’s my top 25 TV show motorcycles, counting scripted TV, reality/docuseries, anime/tokusatsu, and major small-screen bike icons. Rank Motorcycle TV show Why it belongs 1 Jax Teller’s Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide / Super Glide Sport Sons of Anarchy The modern TV outlaw-bike icon. Jax’s black Dyna is practically a main character and is widely identified as a 2003 Harley-Davidson FXD Dyna Super Glide/Super Glide Sport. (SlashGear) 2 Fonzie’s Triumph Trophy TR5 Scrambler Custom Happy Days The cool-guy sitcom motorcycle. Fonzie first used... Read more...
The Meaning Behind “Alive by Luck. Fueled by Spite.”
"Alive by luck. Fueled by Spite." is not a slogan you put on a product to make it sound tougher. If it is doing its job, it is doing something narrower and less flattering than that. It is admitting that the brand is built by people who know they are not owed anything, and who are still here anyway. The luck part is not a boast. It is a recognition. A lot of what keeps a small motorcycle-rooted brand alive is not genius. It is timing, stubbornness, a few good... Read more...
130+ Motorcycles, One Cause, and a Perfect Sunday in Boston
A perfect Sunday in Boston is not a perfect Sunday because of the weather. It is perfect because Boston knows how to hold a crowd without making it feel like a crowd. The routes, the coffee, the riders in leathers and club shirts and faded riding gear who have learned to meet each other somewhere between the start line and the finish, all of it adds up to the right kind of morning. One hundred and thirty motorcycles, one cause, and a city that knows how to make room for... Read more...
I'm Riding for Men's Health in The Distinguished Gentleman's Ride
Riding in the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride is not about looking polished. It is about using what you already do; showing up on a motorcycle, gathering with other riders, making a morning out of something that could have been just another weekend; and pointing it at something that actually needs it. Men's health is the cause. Mental health and prostate cancer research are the part that stays in the room. Those are not abstract topics for a lot of riders. They are the kind of thing that shows up in a... Read more...