Yahoo Autos These Are Some of Jalopnik’s Favorite Motorcycle Videos
Riding a motorcycle is one of life’s great pleasures. Nothing really comes close to offering as much of a sense of freedom with as much power to clear one’s head as does throwing on some gear, throwing a leg over a bike, and pointing it toward the horizon.
Unfortunately, for many of us, the option to just drop everything and go out for a rip isn’t really an option at all. We’re chained to our desks or don’t want to deal with the weather, or a thousand and one other reasons get in the way of seat time. Fortunately, YouTube is a thing, and lots of people upload lots of quality moto videos every day.
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These are some of our favorites.
Lossa Engineering - Solus
Lossa Engineering’s short film “Solus”
For a while in the early-to-mid aughts, the Yamaha SR series of single-cylinder bikes was the hot ticket when it came to cool customs, and while that popularity has faded with time, the sound of an uncorked thumper (that’s a single-cylinder motorcycle for you non-believers) is still a mighty appealing thing. Add in riding around LA by night without traffic, and it’s all gravy.
Scandi Riders - BMW R NineT vs Ferrari 458
Scandi Riders! BMW Ninet VS. Ferrari 458 in the Swiss Alps.
Now, the title of this particular video makes it sound like some kind of street racing hooligan bait, but it’s actually a BMW R NineT with its 1,200-cc flat-twin ripping around the Swiss Alps without voice commentary.
Iconic Motorbikes - Honda Motocompo
Bike of the Day: Honda Motocompo
Everyone loves a Honda Motocompo, which is seemingly why people are paying huge sums of money for them. Sure, they’re cute but what’s it actually like to ride one? My pal Abhi of Bike-urious and Iconic Motorbikes rips one around the streets of Santa Monica so you don’t have to shell out to find out.
The History of the Britten V1000
The man who built a world-beating Racebike in his Garage
Moto content on YouTube isn’t all on-bike footage, y’know? There’s also a bunch of great documentary-style content like this history of John Britten and his world-beating Britten V1000 motorcycle. If you’re not familiar with John and his wildly original shed-built race bike, this 20-minute film is going to blow your mind.
Peter Hickman Isle of Man TT Demo Lap
PETER HICKMAN BMW HP4 RACE | IOMTT | Chin Camera full lap!
If you’re into cars or bikes, the likelihood that you’ve heard of the Isle of Man TT is pretty good. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an unbelievably dangerous and fast on-road time trial that takes place yearly on the Isle of Man. Peter Hickman has won his class at the TT five times, so he knows his way around the 37.73 mile course pretty well, something that’s evident in this pants-shittingly-fast demo lap. Seriously, this being all chin cam footage somehow makes it even more harrowing.
Blitz Motorcycles - Long Live the Kings
Blitz Motorcycles x Edwin - Long Live The Kings
You can’t talk about motorcycle videos without touching on the super hip BMW airhead-riding beardo contingent and few do that better than the boys from Paris motorcycle shop Blitz. This short film is, to its credit, pretty epic looking and does its job of making me want to get out on my bike and get lost.
Also, I am beginning to suspect that I’d be a lot cooler if I was French.
Anything by FortNine
Honda’s $225 Million Mistake – Rune Review
FortNine is kind of like the Canuck version of beloved moto gear retailer Revzilla, but its become famous/infamous for the high concept, deeply weird, super funny video content created by Ryan Kluftinger, aka Ryan F9.
Some of the videos are genuinely useful consumer advice, others are deep dives into motorcycling’s dusty corners to better understand and appreciate the bikes and the people that made this whole thing what it is. Also, now I want a Honda Rune.
Revzilla Common Tread XT
1,000 Miles Across Alaska! 1975 Honda CT90 vs. 2021 Trail 125 | Common Tread XP
If you consume any kind of motorcycle content in the U.S., you probably know Zach and Ari — formerly of Motorcyclist, then Motor Trend and now, finally, of Revzilla. These two moto-besties have known each other since they were kids and their friendship as well as their genuine excitement for all things two-wheeled makes everything they create an absolute blast to watch.
Turning up to a motorcycle launch in LA and seeing Zach or Ari is always something that I get stoked about, even if I know I’m going to get left in their dust 38-seconds into the ride.
Riding September
MUSIC VIDEO RIDING SEPTEMBER
This is another one featuring those French rascals from Blitz, but I’m not 100 percent sure what the point of this video is, and that’s part of what attracted me to it way before I ever got my bike endorsement. It’s a bunch of dudes goofing off and having fun for a few days on bikes, and that dream is something that I’ve always sort of carried with me. Also, moto camping with French dudes who seemingly can cook seems like a real good idea.
Bonus points for the song featured in this one: The Felice Brothers’ “Frankie’s Gun.”
Rennie Scaysbrook’s Pikes Peak Record Run
Rennie Scaysbrook Pikes Peak Motorcycle Lap Record - Cycle News
Pikes Peak is an incredible place. It’s also foreboding and surrounded by myth, and it’s so different from what all the video games and magazine articles would have you believe. It’s a smaller event than you’d imagine, and it’s also one that I have a really complicated relationship with.
See, I was at Pikes Peak in 2019 when Rennie set his unbelievable time up the mountain on a mostly stock Aprilia Tuono V4, but I was there with Ducati. If you follow Pikes Peak, you know that Ducati’s star rider, one of the most experienced guys on two wheels there, Carlin Dunne, was on track to beat Rennie’s time before he crashed fatally near the top of the mountain.
The excitement in the pits as the Ducati team and I stood around the timing board and watched the sector times was palpable. Carlin was on the Streetfighter V4 and was absolutely storming up the hill. Because there’s no video coverage at the paddock, all you have to watch is those sector times, so there’s no way of knowing what happened when the expected time for a section of the track passes with no updates. Eventually, we found out that Carlin had gone off the side of the mountain.
Rennie’s record is an unbelievable achievement, and I still love watching this video from time to time because it represents what is likely to be the fastest official time anyone will ever set at Pikes Peak on two wheels, but that’s because it’s probably the last time they’ll ever allow bikes at the event.
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