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.

Wide load

So, last time we had Justin Bieber in Friday Fudge, it was because of the MV Augusta “Bat Bike” he’d been given for a birthday present. Now, he seems to have sworn off the two-wheeled life, and like other Hollywood celebs, has taken to riding around on a Can-Am Spyder.

Except, the Bieb doesn’t seem to get that he isn’t still on a motorcycle. There’s been a big fuss in the gossip mags lately that says he’s in trouble with the fuzz for trying to save time by riding on a sidewalk. Sorry, Justin, but lanesplitting antics just don’t work when you’re on three wheels. Maybe it’s time to invest in something with two wheels again, or even better, invest in some common sense.

Duck tale

Go to your average Canadian dealer, and you can talk them into throwing a little perk into a new motorcycle purchase. Say, a helmet, a free oil change, a jacket or whatever.

In Vietnam, though, things aren’t quite the same. A bunch of dudes on a trip around the country (following the route that Top Gear took during their famous ride there) bought a motorcycle for their journey. The bike sellers’ incentive? A free duck.

We’re guessing most locals would have eaten the bird after the deal was closed, but not these fellows. They constructed a cage and took the bird with them on their 1000-mile trek. If they ate at a restaurant, the bird ate with them. If they were on the open road, the bird was with them. They even took him cave exploring.

Alas, the story had a sad end, as the riders had to abandon their avian friend (named Rab) at trip’s end, when they couldn’t find anyone to adopt him. They left Rab in a Hanoi lake, and even then they had to speed away from the scene, as he wanted to follow them.

Source: Express

Ichiban Moto moves on

Ichiban Moto: The YouTube channel is best known for its ingenious solutions to common problems faced by cafe racer builders, but didja know the guy is also tech-savvy enough to build a camera? (For the purpose of photographing your “bad-ass” bike, of course).

You can see Ichiban’s latest motorcycle-specific tip below – here’s how to build a “torque meter.”

Road work

Here in Canada, we complain a lot about the state of the roads: They’re too bumpy, they’re too straight, etc., etc. But, at least we have roads.

That’s not the case in the Vietnamese town of Ea Huar Commune, though. That’s not entirely true – there’s a road that will take you to the community – but just before you get there, it ends at a river. No probalo, right? Just get on the bridge, or take a ferry, or ford the waterway, and you’re in business.

But you see, they don’t have a bridge or ferry to get you into town, and you can’t ford the river in the rainy season. Then, all they have is a steel cable that carries villagers across the river. As a result, we’re guessing most people there are sticking with motorcycles for transportation, as seen in the photos, instead of SUVs.

Harrowing barrier

The trouble with this guy is, he isn’t getting enough seat time on his bike. Literally. If he spent more time sitting on the bike, riding like a normal person, he’d probably spend less time crashing into barriers.

One Shot

Here’s what the chaps from Icon do when they’re not designing gear or practicing wheelies and burnouts. Actually, we’re pretty sure this video came to fruition after watching too many People Are Awesome videos.

Beemer fail

They got us.

Dutch moto-site Oliepeil is usually fantastic at finding information on new models before they’re released, so when they say they’ve got a hot tip, we pay attention.

Alas, when they recently ran an article detailing the discovery of a new BMW S1000RR design mock-up, they weren’t serious. You may recall, we ran the article here. At the time, we noted the machine in the rendering looked quite a bit like the current model, and that some of the differences might have only been designer liberties.

Well – we were right, sort of. Oliepeil has announced the whole thing was a fake. Thankfully, we didn’t get suckered like most news sources; according to Oliepeil, many mags ran the photo with the Oliepeil logo airbrushed out, without giving credit, which was the sort of thing the Dutchmen were trying to uncover in the first place. Well played, chaps, well played.

You can see a list of all the sites who ran the piece on Oliepeil here.