The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in the United States is said to be “investigating” a potential problem with the anti-lock brakes on over 400,000 ‘08-‘11 Harley models fitted with ABS brakes.
Swiss endurance rider Urs “Grizzly” Pedraita has succeeded in his attempt to set a new world record for circumnavigating the world on a motorcycle. Riding a Victory Cross Country Tour, “Grizzly” rode through five continents in 119 days and 21 hours – which includes the time the bike was “in transit” between continents; his riding time was a “mere” 72 days and 13 hours to cover a total of 47,390 miles (76,277 km). He beat the previous riding time record by over 47 days!
High End Products, the Californian seat manufacturer and owner of the Danny Gray and Airhawk brands, is in legal dispute with two former Airhawk employees over alleged patent infringements and other “false accusations”. When Don Mahoney (owner of High End) bought the Airhawk brand from former owner Roho in 2015, Craig Johnson and Scott Parman decided to use their experience to establish Wild Ass, a rival seat brand that is distributed by TR/Biker’s Choice. Wild Ass has applied to have what they say are Airhawk’s “false claims” dismissed in the US Federal Court in California.
The MAG Retail Group (MRG), the “multi-channel retail division” of Motorsport Aftermarket Group (MAG – a TR/Biker’s Choice ‘sister’ company) that runs J&P Cycles and Motorcycle Superstore, has announced the addition of Sean Laughlin, a former Harley brand manager, as its new VP Marketing. He reports to current MRG president Kevin Strawbridge and replaces Scott Huddleston, who has become VP Finance, Accounting & Business Intelligence for MRG, retaining his Motorcycle Superstore GM role as a part of the move.
Reports are now suggesting that despite the flurry of hype created by 2014’s ‘Project Livewire’ Harley could still be up to five years away from having a viable e-bike model to sell, according to Sr VP Global Demand Sean Cummings. The ‘Livewire’ was a proof of concept demo model developed in association with the now defunct San Francisco Mission Motors operation. However, work on a viable ‘Livewire’ e-bike is at least now getting underway.