Friday Fudge

Welcome to Friday Fudge, where we bring you all the best motorcycle content of the Internet. Well, not actually the best, more the weirdest, and some of it is definitely the worst. You decide.

Taking flight

Over the years, we’ve lampooned our fair share of “flying motorcycles” here in Friday Fudge, usually because they’re unsafe-looking deathtraps, with rotors that threaten to de-limb the unwary rider as soon as they encounter turbulence.

However, this vehicle from Jetpack Aviation overcomes that danger, at least, even if it still suffers from the “fall off and die when you plummet to the ground” safety issue.

Jetpack Aviation made a whole lot of headlines when it developed an FAA-approved personal jetpack (hence the name) a few months back, and now it’s raised $2 million to build a prototype of this new aircraft. Jetpack Aviation calls it the Speeder; it runs off aviation fuel or diesel, comes with autonomous or piloted flight capability, has a 15,000-foot ceiling, and some versions can top 240 km/h.

The Speeder will come in a military version, but also in a couple of civilian versions, including a restricted version that won’t even require a pilot’s licence. And, unlike other “flying motorcycles” we’ve shown on here, it does not use exposed rotors in flight. You aren’t as likely to lose a limb, at least, while you’re trying to drag a knee mid-air. We still don’t like the idea of falling off mid-flight, though.

Of course, it’s going to be highly expensive, but if you want to cruise around on a machine straight from The Jetsons, is any price too high? If you’re filthy rich and feel you need one of these, then you can find out more at Jetpack’s website.

Perfect landing

Speaking of airborne antics, check out this video from Australia:

Grave situation

So, have you ever wanted a motorcycle sooooo badly that you’d do almost anything to get one? That’s the situation a man from Mozambique found himself in recently, when the po-po nabbed him on suspicion of digging up the graves of his parents and his uncle, stealing the bodies.

What could drive a man to such madness? Too many Stephen King novels? Ed Gein-style depravity? Naw, according to Unilad, this guy just wanted a motorcycle. The alleged perp told the police he’d been approached by a man who was looking for some dead bodies, and said he’d trade a motorcycle and a few hundred bucks. Sounds like he was paying … a stiff price! (read that pun in the voice of the Crypt Keeper).

Anyway, no word on whether the alleged bodysnatcher got his bike or not. And no word on whether it was his first crime or not. If it was, then we’d say he’s … made his bones! (insert more Crypt Keeper laughter!). And if he actually does go to jail, then when he’s released, we’d suggest he open … a body shop!

The 12 o’clock gang

Ah, the joys of thug life. Ripping around a city’s core on a dirt bike, no helmet, no problem. Of course, it helps your street cred. ‘Course, it helps if you don’t fall off mid-wheelie.

Community service

So, if you heard of a motorcycle club called the Iron Order, and you heard they were doing a public service, what would you think? Maybe something about court-ordered community work?  If so, you’d be wrong.

No, the Iron Order is supposedly law-abiding and made up of cops/jail guards etc., and instead of hustling drugs, is now volunteering their time in one of the most interesting projects we’ve heard of: an attempt to make self-driving cars safer around motorcyclists.

According to Mashable, one of the club’s chapters recently spent a day with the people behind Aurora Driver, a self-driving autopilot system. The point of the day was to expose the car’s self-driving AI to a wide variety of motorcycle encounter scenarios, including street bikes and dirt bikes. Given the trouble that autonomous cars have had with recognizing motorcycles, this is actually a really great community service project for a club to get behind. Hey, it’s much better than some of the other press the Iron Order has gotten …