Meet Rob Savela, or “Sav” as he’s known to the guys around the shop. As a local artist and longtime friend of Ryan’s, Sav is our fixer for all things arts related in the MSP and beyond. In addition to our regularly scheduled programming, Sav will be contributing music and arts reviews and forecasts to …
Category Archive
for: ‘Opinion’
Humble Beginnings :: The DesertCat DT360A
In most of rural America, this 1972 Yamaha DT360A would be dismissed as a “barn bike” tucked away in the back of a shed, uncovered and left to choke on a carb full of old fuel. More than likely, it would have been used as a farm bike and eventually dismissed in favor of it’s …
Away and back again
This time of year Christmas and New Year’s get most of the attention and fanfare. It’s the season of giving, and the bright promise of a new year and all that brings. There are other holidays clumped in around late December too — some cultural, some religious — but of all the days that can …
The times, they are a-changin
Maybe it’s the jet lag (I’m in Austria at the moment). Maybe it’s the pace of things for me right now, but as I think about what to post today there’s only one thing that really seems to matter. After a year of regular weekly posts, I’m going to be stepping away from the sweetest …
The old and the beautiful
I’m going to make a confession here. I don’t really like the Honda CB750. I know it’s an icon. I know it changed motorcycling forever. I know it’s the birth of the superbike. And I know it’s a favorite platform for Japanese Cafe Racers. Still, I’m not a big fan. There’s nothing wrong with the …
Hello, snow
Last Saturday morning the Twin Cities got its first real snow of late autumn. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to seal the season as far as I’m concerned. While we might yet see the brown ground once or twice more before winter proper, it’s probably safe to say that I’ve had my last …
Autumn Throws Us a Bone
Autumn is my favorite time to ride. The fall of 2007 was when I took up riding in the first place, so every year it feels like coming home. It’s a season of change, and a season of uncertainty. Any given day from September on could be gorgeous, could be cold, could be wet or …
Here’s to the runner
Mainstream American motorcycle culture tends to worship the shiny — tends to follow the new or the unattainable. That’s not all bad. Some modern bikes are brilliant, and I love a good custom bike as much as the next guy. However, I can’t tell you how many custom bikes I’ve seen at events like Bearded …
What does Cafe Racer even mean anymore?
Thanks to shows like Discover HD Theater’s Cafe Racer TV and its sister magazine, Café Racer, the motorcycle style of the same name is currently enjoying a renaissance in the American zeitgeist. We were even part of a Cafe Racer Q&A this year at the IMS. It doesn’t get much more commercial than that. If …
Economies of age
I had an interesting experience last weekend while riding my wife’s old Honda CM400 (a bike which regular readers will remember from the “Sick Honda” series). She was out of town and I was bored, so a ride was naturally in order. The weather, counter to most of this spring, was actually lovely for riding. …
