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Boon Siew Honda (BSH) officially announced the 2021 Honda CB650R and CBR650R with significant upgrades.

The middleweight motorcycle now comes with Showa 41mm Separate Function Big Piston (SF-BP) forks, USD Type-C socket, refresh LCD and new graphics and colour.

According to BSH, The new fork provides a high-quality suspension system that offers better handling ability.

The SF-BP fork puts a pressure separation damper in one fork tube, and spring mechanism in the other delivers high damping performance and lighter weight.

Meanwhile, a USB Type-C socket located under the seat provides easy charging for smartphones, increasing motorcycle practicality as daily transportation.

Both motorcycles continue to use the same 649cc, DOHC 16-valve Euro 4 engine that produces 93.8hp @ 12,000 rpm and 63Nm @ 8,500rpm.

The 2021 CB650R is available with two colour options, Candy Chromosphere Red and Mat Gunpowder Black Metallic and priced at RM43,499, while the CBR650R is available in Grand Prix Red and Mat Gunpowder Black Metallic and priced at RM45,499.

After updating the Honda Gold Wing with the Android Auto last year, the Japanese marque is now bringing the same updates to the CRF1100L Africa Twin.

The Android Auto function enables you to access Google Maps, music, answer calls, and other services via the TFT display connected to your smartphone.

Android AutoTM integration for the CRF1100L Africa Twin

According to Honda, this software update is free and current owners can bring their Africa Twin to nearby Honda dealers to execute the latest upgrade.

 

For those interested to do the upgrade yourself, Honda also shared a link on how to launch the update, which you can find HERE.

All you need is a USB 2.0 or a higher flash drive with 512MB of space, a computer, or a laptop with a high internet connection.

The updates will take at least 15 minutes.

Before you get too excited, the said Ducati 1299 Superleggera on sale is in the United Kingdom, the same guys that are offering the 1996 Kawasaki ZX7-RR for approximately RM224,500 last week.

This time around, they offer a zero-mileage 2014 model from Italy for a price of GBP69,995 (RM392,900).

The 1299 Superleggera was the focus of 2014 when the bike was firstly introduced at Milan Motorcycle Show as a replacement to the older 1199.

As the name goes, the 1299 Superleggera is a lightweight motorcycle with Ducati claimed the weight at 167 kilograms with the help of a carbon fiber monocoque frame and carbon fiber rims.

It is also fitted with the most-powerful Superquadro L-twin cylinder 1,285cc engine that produces 215hp @ 11,000rpm and 146.5Nm @ 9,000rpm.

Since Ducati only built 500 units of these bad boys and the unit no.197 with zero-mileage is being put on sale in West Yorkshire is easily one of the rarest 1299 Superleggera you can find in the present time.

The question is, if you can afford it, what do you plan to do with it? Well, we think if you keep it for another 15-20 years, the motorcycle might get you close to a million ringgit.

All of those aside, who would not want to have a Ducati in their garage?

According to reports online, Harley-Davidson products are no longer available for sale on the biggest e-commerce site in the world – Amazon.

The decision seemingly came from the HD boardroom, and CEO Jochen Zeitz has confirmed the news.

So why would Harley-Davidson take such a step? Wouldn’t selling on Amazon make it easier for consumers and fans of Harley-Davidson to buy its merchandise?

Well, by removing all of its merchandise from Amazon, Harley-Davidson has basically ensured that only Harley-Davidson and its dealers benefit from the company’s apparel and range of motorcycle kits, which is a business that is said to be more profitable than the motorcycles.

“We want to have a fully integrated, digital e-commerce business with our dealers,” Zeitz said to The Detroit News. “Amazon was not really something that got our dealers into the mix.”

By removing its products from Amazon, Harley-Davidson is basically ensuring that its fans and customers continue to buy directly from dealers, and subsequently ensuring its dealers continue to make profits.

This strategy is part of CEO Jochen Zeitz’s turnaround strategy dubbed “Hardwire”, which is designed to strengthen the brand and its pricing power.

Harley-Davidson is not the first major brand to pull its products off of Amazon, Nike too pulled its sneaker and apparel range from Amazon two years ago.

Read the full report on The Detroit News here.

The Royal Enfield Himalayan does not need an introduction. Though Malaysians may not see lots of them on the road or perhaps never at all, but fact of the matter is the Himalayan has brought a mountain of success to Royal Enfield.

Every since its introduction back in 2016, the Himalayan has been the go to bike for those looking for an affordable, fuss-free, comfortable and most importantly, capable dual-purpose motorcycle.

And now, for 2021, it has been updated with small but serious features that make it a lot more capable and environmentally friendly.

The 2021 Himalayan still uses the same 411cc single-cylinder SOHC air-cooled engine as before that still produces 24.3bhp@6500rpm and 32Nm of torque. The difference now? It is Euro5 compliant which means it is read to be sold in more markets around the world.

The same steel cradle frame has been carried forward unchanged, as have the 41mm forks at the front and the same straightforward monoshock rear.

The most obvious change is the new shape of the Himalayan’s signature front-mounted luggage mount frames, which also double as brackets for the headlights and instrument panel. It features a more subtle appearance now and sort of blends into the overall design of the bike than before.

Royal Enfield has also updated the seat, making it more plush and comfortable for long distance rides than before.

And the most important chance is the inclusion of the Royal Enfield “Tripper” navigation system which made its debut late 2020 on the Royal Enfield Meteor.

It comes in the form of an extra instrument panel bolted to the right hand side of the fuel gauge.

We have not seen it in action as yet, but some motorcycling sites are calling it “neat solution.”

It leverages the processing power of the rider’s smartphone, and acts as a display for Google Maps-based navigation. You simply key in your desired route and destination via a dedicated phone app, and live directions are displayed on the GPS display’s tiny screen with arrows telling you where to go and a distance countdown telling you how far away the next turn is.

And also new for the 2021 Himalayan is a new range of colors that include a new camp-style ‘Pine Green’, ‘Granite Black’, ‘Gravel Gray’, ‘Mirage Silver’ and two-tone ‘Lake Blue’ and ‘Rock Red’ versions.

There is no news yet on when the new Himalayan will be on offer in Malaysia.

Lane filtering or lane splitting is so engrained in the Malaysian motorcycle culture that it is hard to imagine riding a motorcycle without splitting lanes.

Can you imagine if that did not happen? Your Grab and Food Panda delivery orders will take much longer, and Malaysian roads would just be so – weird – if all bikers stuck to riding behind cars instead or riding in between them.

But this so called “accepted behavior” is not necessarily safe. In fact it does not need mega hours of research to tell you that lane-splitting is extremely risky. But that is what we are about to get into here – a detailed study on the safety of lane splitting.

A five-year experiment conducted by the Federation of European Motorcycles Associations (FEMA) and assessed by the Centre for Studies and Expertise on Risks, Environment, Mobility and Planning (CEREMA) found that lane-splitting caused a 12% increase in motorcycle crashes in areas where splitting was allowed.

And the areas where lane-splitting was not allowed, actually saw a decrease of accidents by a whopping 10%.

But then again, this is not something that needs an in-depth study, any biker that rides everyday can tell you that lane-splitting is very dangerous. And there are thousands of videos that show you what can happen when lane-splitting is done wrong.

But the purpose of this study is to protect motorcyclists.

French motorcyclists organisation, “Federation Francaise Des Motards En Colere’ which literally translates to “Angry Bikers Federation” was involved in the study from the very beginning and was one of the organizations that helped set up guidelines for lane splitting. And it found that with proper training of young drivers as well as setting up of guidelines for lane-splitting, the act of lane-splitting itself had a positive impact.

And even though the results were not satisfying, but with proper guidelines and training of both riders and drivers, lane-splitting can be made safe.

But don’t expect such a thing to every be introduced to Malaysia in the near future – lane-splitting is so engrained in our riding culture that it would take generations to make it safer through training.

You can read the full report here.

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