AIMExpo is hoping that Harley riding U.S. Vice President Mike Pence may put in an appearance and make a speech it is Columbus show in September. The event is apparently in the Pence schedule and he has said he wants to do it, but final confirmation is awaited. Meanwhile Kawasaki and Suzuki have become the latest OE manufacturers to confirm their participation – last month AMD reported on Indian Motorcycle and Harley-Davidson both confirming their AIMExpo debuts this year.
In pimping its latest vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) telemetry sharing technology, Bosch has claimed that such systems could help avoid up to a third of all motorcycle crashes – those where a car (or other vehicle) driver has not seen the motorcycle, or vice versa.
Ford has patented a lane splitting detection technology for autonomous vehicles. Motorcycles pose one of the toughest challenges for so-called “driverless cars” (and other four-wheel vehicles). Their system uses a combination of microphones and video cameras to detect an approaching motorcycle.
Motorcycle thefts in the U.S.A. were up by +2.0 percent in 2016 according to National Insurance Crime Bureau data, saying that 46,467 motorcycles were reported stolen to police or insurance companies. However, thefts, though also up in 2016, remain well below the comparable 2006 figure of 66,774 motorcycle thefts; apparently thefts peak in August, with the lowest rate being recorded in February.
Harley has named the Full Throttle’s campground as its Official 2017 Sturgis Rally Campground for HOG members. Full Throttle owner Mike Ballard named his facility after legendary racer, Sturgis Rally founder - and Indian motorcycle dealer - Pappy Hoel.
Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. Trade Representative, has told a congressional committee that while he is “sympathetic” to American motorcyclists, dealerships and others in the “Beef for Bikes” controversy, he will not, at this stage, intervene and remove small displacement European motorcycles from a proposed import tariff on motorcycles of 500cc and less while negotiations continue in a dispute with the European Union over U.S. beef imports.