Since 1980 Canadian Biker magazine has been informing, entertaining, occasionally annoying and on-and-off amusing Canadian motorcyclists. We began as a newsprint publication aimed at BC riders but soon noticed that the rest of the country needed another motorcycle perspective and what better place than the roads of British Columbia to provide it? Turns out that was a good idea. We moved to glossy paper, we sold the magazine across the country in newsstands and through subscriptions and the rest is history.
We have evolved over the years. We quickly learned that you can’t keep every motorcycle rider happy. No, hold on, that’s not what we meant. We strive to make everyone happy most of the time. Our subscribers love us – except for that one guy and his motorcycle. We cover just about every aspect of motorcycling (we just did a story on snowbikes). We like motorcycle travel stories (don’t we all ride to get away?)and we have one in every issue. We like vintage because every motorcycle is vintage eventually. We have an intrepid contributor who travels the world attending press events in likely and unlikely locations. We like custom motorcycle stories because sometimes buying an old bike and making it your own is the way to go.
Motorcycles and riding are fun, a passion for ourselves and our readers. That sense of fun has come through in our magazine. That is what we aim to provide.
The August – September 2018 issue features the new BMW F850GS and F750GS. Let’s get the confusing part out of the way so that we can move on to the good stuff. The bikes are called the F850GS and the F750GS but they both feature a 853cc parallel twin. For those that have been fans of the BMW middleweights since the bikes debuted 10 years ago will be familiar with the confusion as the previous generation also had the same odd nomenclature. Perhaps what the two new bike should have been called the F95GS and the F77GS referring to the horsepower that is rather than the displacement that isn’t. We ride the two bikes in Spain and come to a decision as to whether we prefer the off-road biased F850GS or the on-road biased F750GS. The bigger, beefier F850GS is pushing up into the old R1200GS territory so you know that it was built to be a serious contender with a price to match. On the other hand you can get a lighter more agile machine for less dough. Decisions, decisions.
Boom! What’s that sound? It’s Harley-Davidson blowing some conceptions out of the water. The bar and shield boys and girls knew that they had to do something dramatic to move the company into the future. Unlike the layers of secrecy that have surrounded the unleashing of new models in the past, this time the company swung open the doors and said this is what we will be doing and introducing over the next 5 years. And some of it is way, way, way, way (okay, you get the idea) off what we have seen in the past. Oh except for that one time at Buell camp…
We take a look at the Race to The Clouds at Pikes Peak and see who took home top honours. Alert! Alert! Be advised that we mention cars in this story because one particular car came to the Peak, saw the Peak and blew everyone and every all-time record away. Cars, schmars you explicate. Well, this particular car had something to teach us that applies to both cars and motorcycles….
We don’t talk about cars when we discuss the winner of the Rat’s Hole show at this year’s Sturgis, nor do we talk about cars when we discuss several custom Hondas, a custom BMW bobber or the Vintage in the Valley show. But they may come up as something to be cautious of as two riders decide to explore what is at the end of the Dempster Highway – that being the new extension of the legendary highway up to Tuktoyaktuk where you can dip your front wheel into the Arctic Ocean.
Enjoy….Brrrrrrr.
