Cycle World

The artist, scientist, and engineer influence one another because they share the same world. Physicists of 1900 were nervous because theory and experiment could not in important respects be reconciled without making upsetting assumptions. Albert Eins

Photography by JEFF ALLEN Aluminum is everywhere that either lightweight structure or high thermal and electrical conductivity are required. The typical sportbike has an aluminum cylinder block, head, and crankcases, plus a welded aluminum chassis an

Photography by SPENSER ROBERT Bikes such as the Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special and Indian Chieftain Dark Horse account for most of the motorcycles purchased in this country every year. Yet, to me, they hardly make sense. They’re heavy, low, and

Photography by DAVID DEWHURST You can be ahead of your time, you can build a better mousetrap, you can have a VPN connection straight into the distant future—but if you fall short on execution, your chances of success are identical to those of Icarus

It’s an aggressive claim we’ve made at the Petersen Museum—that what’s happened in the motorcycle scene in the past 10 years amounts to a revolution—but there’s no denying that the custom world has been turned upside down, taking the motorcycle indus

Photography by DREW RUIZ Roger DeCoster doesn’t think he’s very smart. The Belgian expatriate marvels at how his youngest son—who is studying to be a doctor—absorbs knowledge quickly, or the way an engineer at KTM can create a part. “I just have a lo

Photography by JEFF ALLEN Few elements have as large an impact on a motorcycle’s design as the exhaust system. From header to exit, the gently curving shapes help define some of our favorite bikes, but the shapes are far from purely aesthetic. Exhaus

Photography by DANIEL PETER A forgotten Moto3 prototype chassis and 1968 Ducati narrow-case single are a strange yet perfect match. It’s easy to focus on the hard parts when they come together so effortlessly like on this sweet and tidy Ducati. But i

Photography by JULIA LAPALME Legendary motorcycle designer Miguel Galluzzi is as refreshingly direct as his most famous creation, the Ducati M900 Monster. When it was released in 1993, the bare-bones Monster was considered revolutionary, which speaks

Photography by DREW RUIZ, YAMAHA, AND SPENSER ROBERT Yamaha has been wrestling with ways to improve frontend grip for more than 11 years. The Niken three-wheeler is the result. A look inside one of the front wheels. The Niken does a lot of things, bu

Photography by BOSCH Being handed a pair of earplugs by Bosch PR people at a demonstration of what’s new in electronic rider aids was unexpected. But not nearly as unexpected as the rocket blast that came from the side of a motorcycle using the compa