I don’t know about you, but I’ve kind of always wondered who designs the stuff I put on my motorcycle and how they do what they do. This popped right to the front of my mind a few weeks back when I got a press release from Giant Loop talking about their redesigned Fandango and Diablo tank bags.
A quick email to Harold Cecil, who runs Giant Loop and was one of my first guests way WAY back in Episode 10, got me in touch with Lindsey Clark, the person who redesigned the popular tank bags.
Listen to this episode to find out what goes into designing motorcycle luggage – and redesigning motorcycle luggage, too! It may just be the most educational episode of Chasing the Horizon yet, and I promise you won’t need a degree in chemistry or structural engineering to understand it. Probably. It might not hurt, though!
The news kicks off with -and sorry for letting my history freak flag fly here, but I am a history professor after all- news about not one, but two museums. First up is the planned resurrection of Austria’s TOP Mountain Motorcycle Museum, which burned down in January 2021. Second is the hoped-for reopening of the British National Motorcycle Museum, which is being financed with a raffle for a pristine British motorcycle from 1979. If you live in the UK, you can get in on the raffle; if you don’t, consider making a donation to the museum to help them reopen. Find everything you need to know on the BNMM website.
Since it’s been a couple of episodes since we had any news about Harley-Davidson, we get caught up with The MoCo, getting some info on the Pan America demo truck set to tour the US from sea to shining sea between April and October 2021. In the management office, Harley announced CCO Larry Hund is retiring in a few days and will be replaced by Edel O’Sullivan, which puts three women in Harley’s C-suite. O’Sullivan is the second executive brought in since the ascension of new (since May 2020) CEO Jochen Zeitz.
For electric motorcycle news, find out what’s going on with Zero’s latest partnership (with Viatec) and how far Triumph has gotten with their TE-1 electric motorcycle prototype, a concept drawing of which (shown here) gives us an idea what direction (thoroughly modern!) Triumph is taking with what is likely to be their first mass-market electric motorcycle.
Since we don’t have a Patreon page for you to visit, the easiest way to support Chasing the Horizon is by joining the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America. Digital memberships are $39 a year and traditional memberships are $49 a year; each come with a wide range of member benefits, including access (digital or in your mailbox) to BMW Owners News, the MOA’s monthly magazine. You also get access to one of the best roadside assistance programs for motorcycles available (sorry, only applies to the US), become eligible for a $250 motorcycle training scholarship every year, up to $750 off a new BMW motorcycle, discount tickets to great events and much, much more than a Patreon subscription can offer you. Join today!
Thanks to webBikeWorld for connecting us with the best motorcycle news on the web. Check out their site for up-to-date motorcycle news and in-depth product reviews.