Everybody's doin' it....

Hot off the heels of yesterdays blog about Matt Tyson from Ohio who spent his summer riding from town to town, making money along the way and consequently having the adventure of a lifetime, news came out today about an upcoming momentous motorcycle roadtrip.

Actors Ewan McGregor and Jude Law are reportedly planning to go on a motorcycle journey across South America together. They're planning to travel along the same route that revolutionary Che Guevara took with Alberto Granado in 1952, as documented in the recent movie 'The Motorcycle Diaries'.

I'm sure Jude will be looking to his old roommate for direction before and during the trip since Ewan took a similar trip last summer, only then it was through Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Alaska, and Canada, ending three and a half months later in New York City.

There are mixed reports on whether or not Ewan McGregor's actor-friend Charley Boorman, who joined him for that last trip, will be coming along for the next adventure. Last time they went out, matching BMW bikes were the name of the game and as you can see by the picture, coordinated outfits too.

Cute.

Of course they'll take along video cameras like last time with the ride ending up on DVD just as before with National Geographics 'Long Way Round'.

Here's some more pictures I dug up from around the internet taken during the last motorcycle ride 'The long way round.'











And what do you do after any long ride across barren lands....write a book of course!




Speaking of biking buddies, earlier in the week my friend and I were discussing whether or not we wanted to head up Daytona Beach for Biketoberfest. The decision not to go seems prophectic with Hurricane Wilma hovering around in the Gulf and expected to come across the state of Florida late over the weekend, just about the time we'd be riding back.

But even without the impending weather the bike rally has started on a depressing note. Unfortunately minutes into the first day of Biketoberfest, three people riding motorcycles lay crumpled and dead early thursday morning on a darkened road in rural southwest Volusia County.

The chaos began just before midnight Wednesday when a Honda motorcycle heading south on the two-lane road slammed into a shaggy black dog that troopers said had no collar. A Harley-Davidson believed to be traveling with the Honda bike skidded down the asphalt on its side, and another biker and his female passenger stopped to provide first aid and direct traffic.

The situation turned deadly when two Honda Civics that were following each other from Daytona Beach to Deltona unwittingly plowed into the earlier wreck, killing the 44-year-old Honda motorcycle driver, his 36-year-old wife who had been riding with him and the 47-year-old female passenger from the motorcycle that stopped to help. The driver of the Harley-Davidson was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Read the sad story in it's entirety at the Sun-Sentinel.

On a lighter note
Finally found a picture of the concept motorcycle Honda revealed at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show, the DN-01. Just the news of the bikes appearance caused enough of a stir to increase ticket sales, but now it's been reported that the motorcycle features an automatic transmission!

The motorcycle is equipped with a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) and a water-cooled, 4-stroke, OHC, V-twin, 2-cylinder, 680cc engine. Most significantly, Honda stated that it "will continue the development of DN-01 with the goal of introducing it to the market in the near future."

CVT has already been introduced into the market in a range of scooters with Suzuki's futuristic Burgman scooter the most obvious shining example. Honda's version of the CVT is being touted as different to other CVTs and is described as an hydraulic mechanical continuously variable HFT (Human Fitting Transmission) system featuring two automatic modes and a 6-speed manual mode which the rider operates through buttons on the handlebars. Source: Gizmag