STOP praising motorcycles, OK?

"The Rider" is a new film with an old mission: Explain motorcycles. 

If motorcycle riding is so great, why do we need to keep saying so?

If motorcycles are so great, it ought to be self evident, right?

I'm as guilty as anybody. I love riding my old Royal Enfield, and everyone I know is tired of hearing me say it.

Maybe it's time to just let it go. It's getting a little old.

And yet, excruciatingly, there's now a NEW way of praising motorcycles:

Step One: Admit they're a terrible thing, and people are crazy to ride them.

Step Two: Argue that the fact people still adore them proves they are, despite all evidence, fantastic.

Gimmie a break.

What finally broke me down is encountering the short film "The Rider" on The Vintagent website.

You can watch it there.

The film opens with director Roberto Serrini musing that "motorcycles are the worst."

They're murderous.

"I can't think of another vehicle in which YOU are the fuselage," Serrini says.

"They're horrible, horrible machines. So...why?" he asks.

Why ride them? Why praise them?

The film's full title is "The Rider; Not WHO, but WHY?"

The film goes on to present testimony from adoring BMW riders about how superb riding is.

It's "presented by BMW," on the occasion of its 100th anniversary. The film tries to soft-pedal the brand message in favor of letting selected riders explain why they ride.

Other motorcycles are mentioned, but there is no doubt left that BMWs are special.

The specific reasons the featured riders give for riding motorcycles break little new ground. But "The Rider" is a fun, funny, gorgeously shot short film. You'll enjoy it.

One of the reasons you will enjoy it is that, having read this far, you obviously think motorcycles are marvelous.

OF COURSE they are.

"The Rider" doesn't cheat us. It answers the question "why" with one phrase: "Persuit of absolute perfection."

Yeah. It's spelled, on screen, as "persuit" instead of "pursuit." I don't know why.

Give it a watch.

Scotland, Vincents and a classic movie

What better way to tour than on a 1952 Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle?

 This summer's vacation in the western isles of Scotland left me with a taste for Scottish heather ale and new respect for riders of vintage British motorcycles. 

I personally didn't ride; I drove, enough of a challenge for an American getting used to staying left and shifting with my left  hand. 

Still, I was filled with wonder at the wonderful (narrow!) roads of the island of Mull and the sight of two Vincent motorcycles in the colorful port of Tobermory on Mull. 

This was quite a summer vacation for a resident of Florida. It was a big change going from a place of oppressive summertime sun to a place where any sunshine at all is a welcome godsend. 

Rain didn't prevent this Vincent from taking to the road.

A special treat was making our way to spots on Mull used in the making of the 1945 movie "I Know Where I'm Going," staring Roger Livesey and Wendy Hiller.

If you've seen this classic movie, you know that it also stars the awesome Highland geography of Scotland and the wild sea that surrounds Mull.

Driving through that geography means miles on end of single-track roads, diving into occasional pull-outs to avoid on-coming traffic. If no pullout is close you may have to back up to find one.

The single-track roads we encountered on our vacation seemed just as narrow as they were in the 1945 movie!

Walking along a single-track road on the island of Mull.

"You're TOO CLOSE on my side," my wife would shout.

"I'm too close on my side, too," I'd respond.

There was no room to spare, and here we were driving one of the smallest cars Americans have seen: a Fiat 500.

Respect for people who do this daily.

And respect, too, for the riders of the Vincent motorcycles we saw, and not only because of the roads. The weather was a factor too.

"You'll have to wipe the rain off the seat," a wife advised a rider preparing to mount.

Vincent on tour, in Tobermory, island of Mull, Scotland.

But, oh, the glorious melodic sound of that Vincent V-twin as the he rode off.

I could develop a taste for that sound.

First, though, I'd like to quench a different taste developed in Scotland: for Scottish heather ale. The whiskey is fine, but the heather ale is heavenly.

Sizing up the new Himalayan 450

At 6-foot-2, with size 13 boots, Jalopnik's Bradley Brownell rode the new Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 all day.

 Royal Enfield officially unleashed its new Himalayan 450 adventure bike to the U.S. on trails near Park City, Utah. With an MSRP starting at $5,999, initial reviews were enthusiastic. Very. 

I've already featured Jonathon Klein's rave review in RideApart after he rode the Himalayan 450. 

Here are additional excerpts from those first reviews and from Royal Enfield's own announcement. 

"This is a machine that will fit right into any garage and onto any North American road or trail, combining rugged capability with refined design to ensure our riders don’t just conquer their journey—they’ll dominate it." Nathan Kolbe, Head of Marketing for the Americas Region, Royal Enfield

At 5' 4" Staci Wilt of Ride to Food found the Himalayan 450 fit her. 

"The Himalayan 450 is very approachable for shorter-statured riders like myself (I’m 5’4” with a 30” inseam), having a 32.5 – 33.3″ adjustable standard seat height. There’s also a low-seat option available, which I did not have the option to test out. I’m not flat-footed, but I can easily get one foot on the ground with the standard seat in the low position. The Himalayan 450’s seat is also quite narrow compared to the larger ADVs I’ve ridden, which does help." Staci Wilt, Ride to Food

"I liked this bike a lot, and I even liked the tires—but if I was planning to ride off-pavement with this machine, I’d replace them quickly, to avoid the rapidly-heading-one-direction–then-rapidly-heading-another-direction experience. Aside from that, the little niggles can mostly be forgiven because of the price tag of $5,799 in the U.S. At least, I think so. That price tag is in the same ballpark as the Honda CRF300 Rally, Kawasaki KLR650 and Suzuki DR650, and on paper, the Royal Enfield offers more than those machines—except years of reliability on the record." Zac, Adventure Rider

Rob Brooks of RoadDirt finds the Himalayan 450 "beautiful."

"What really impressed me was the confidence that this motorcycle instilled in me. We were ripping through some dirt trails at pretty high speeds. We even took on some technical sections of steep uphill and downhill riding. We crossed through mud that was as slippery as ice, and not once did the Himalayan feel unsettling, or unmanageable." Jared Solomon, TopSpeed

"The bike easily cruised at 75 mph as we rolled up on a tanker. I didn’t think the ride leader would pass the truck, seeing as our group was large, but away he went. A downshift to fifth was necessary, but the Himalayan eagerly accelerated to 85 mph, and the pass was stress-free. I would later discover that with my 5’11” frame at 161 pounds, the bike topped out at 96 mph." Seiji Ishii, Gear Junkie

Notice that the Himalayan 450 is doing this on street tires.

"Another major highlight of the new 450 is its full color Tripper dash, a 4-inch round TFT display that looks like it was pulled from a bike twice the Himalayan’s asking price. We felt the display did a great job of putting all the most important bits front and center (speed, tach, gear indicator, and fuel level) while removing any unnecessary info-clutter from the equation." Kurt Spurlock, Motorcyclist

"The Himalayan is just a touch over 400 pounds, while a new BMW R 1300 GS Adventure weighs in at 593! This is a light and manageable bike on the trail, and when you inevitably drop the damn thing in the muddy rain, you won’t need a helper to lift it back up." Bradley Brownell, Jalopnik

Here, from Big Rock Moto, is how the Royal Enfield Himalayan stacks up against single-cylinder adventure bikes from competitors:

A more comprehensive chart is on Big Rock Moto video.

Here, also from Big Rock Moto, is the most comprehensive U.S. YouTube review I found of the Himalayan 450. This video actually demonstrates how easy it is to pick up the Himalayan 450 after a fall!