Friday Fudge

Welcome to Friday Fudge. If it’s weird, funny, or strange motorcycle news, or it just plain won’t fit anywhere else on the site – you’ll find it here.

Crime doesn’t pay

We’ve said it before, and we’re saying it again: You might get away with a slap on the wrist for motorcycle theft here in North America, but in other parts of the world, it’s Very Serious Business to get caught pinching another man’s wheels.

Check out the video below that shows one such heist gone wrong.

It seems a couple of bike-borne baddies decided to stick a gun in another biker’s face, then relieve him of his cycle. Sadly for them, but happily for everyone else involved, an off-duty cop saw the incident and intervened. When the thief foolishly pulled his piece on the cop, he ended up on the street, perforated by bullets. He’s supposedly recovering in hospital now, which is a bit surprising, seeing that nobody seems to care too much about his well-being after the shooting.

You might think that we’re being a bit too harsh on the crook, and that he doesn’t deserve a good hosing down with bullets. But, he actually ended up a lot better off than another recent wannabe bike thief in Mali, who tried to steal someone’s “Jarkarta” (a Chinese bike brand popular in Africa).

This heist didn’t go as planned either, and the thief ran into an angry mob. The thing with angry mobs in Africa is, they don’t just hold placards and shout about how much they hate the government. Nope, this angry mob caught the thief and burned him to death in the middle of the street. Supposedly, local police said “‘If it’s a Jakarta thief, then it’s okay.” See, someone, somewhere, actually has a lot of respect and affection for their Chinese motorcycles …

Source: France 24 

 Mad marketing

What’s a good way to sell a motorcycle helmets? Why not get a sports star to endorse your lids? Even better, why not put together a marketing campaign that creepily Photoshops your face into a YouTube video, riding pillion with the sports player? Well, that’s what Shark did, with this promo featuring a French rugby player. I mean, what self-respecting motorcyclist wouldn’t want to star in a creepy video, cuddled up to another rider?

Flying the WheelChair

Sidecar racing is nuts. That means, former sidecar chair jockey (and world champ!) Stan Dibben is probably nuts, too. But that’s fine by us … check out this video from the New York Times. It isn’t laugh-out-loud goofy or funny, but it’s time well-spent.
 

A holy bike

Remember that little Harley-Davidson 110th anniversary party that we told you about a few weeks ago? Well, part of that celebration was a stopover at the Vatican, before the final party in Milwaukee. And at that stopover, they gave the pope a Harley-Davidson. Maybe they figured the Popemobile was a little too restrictive, and that Pope Francis could really bond with Catholics if he was riding in the wind, picking bugs out of his teeth at gas stops?

Alas, it seems Pope Francis doesn’t agree, and he’s auctioning off the bike, to raise money for a hotel for the homeless. We bet the real reason is that he’s working on an endorsement deal with Indian …

High Flier

A few weeks ago, we told you electric motorcycle record-setter Chip Yates, who took the battery bike racing scene by storm a few years back, was on to higher horizons – much higher. Yates has taken to flying electric airplanes, and he’s standing out from the crowd there now as well. Apparently, he’s broken five records in the past four weeks, including an speed records, and an altitude climbing records. At the rate he’s going, the only place left for speed records will be outer space, which leads us to this question: Is Yates going to become a battery-powered Captain Kirk?

Source: Wired