Free Republic

Now is the time for all good FReepers to post photos of their present/past rides. You know the drill.

Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz is set to step down from the company after years of declining sales, which many have attributed to his woke agenda. The decades-old, world-famous company confirmed the news in a press release on Tuesday. Zeitz oversaw the company’s recent sales decline, which ultimately resulted in a rollback of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Between 2022 and 2024, motorcycle sales dropped in all but one quarter compared to the same quarter from the previous year, according to data from Harley-Davidson Investor Relations, via the Daily Caller. In August, the company announced it would ditch DEI...

Author and Marine veteran Philip Klay on Thursday expressed concern about the role that Trump Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth played in lobbying him to pardon war criminals during his first term in office. Writing in the New York Times, Klay highlights Hegseth's efforts on behalf of 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, a convicted war criminal whom Trump pardoned in 2019.

First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, 1st Platoon, C Troop, 4-73 Cavalry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division U.S. intelligence and defense officials have recently estimated that 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have returned to the battlefields to fight alongside ISIS in Syria. While these monsters are free to terrorize minorities, rape and sexually enslave young girls, behead Western journalists, and plot to commit terror attacks on U.S. soil, an American soldier is serving 20 years at Fort Leavenworth for trying to protect his men while fighting in Afghanistan. With the holiday season upon us, it looks as though...

On the morning of July 2, 2012, in the most dangerous warzone in the world, Lieutenant Clint Lorance took command of his small band of American paratroopers at the spearhead of the American War in Afghanistan. Intelligence reports that morning warned of a Taliban ambush against Lorance's platoon. Fifteen minutes into their patrol, three military-age Afghan males crowded on a motorcycle and sped aggressively down a Taliban-controlled dirt road toward Lorance's men. Three weeks earlier, outside the massive American Kandahar Airfield, Taliban terrorists struck by motorcycle, riding into a crowded area, detonating body-bombs and killing twenty-two people. Sixty-three days before...

Circa 1997, I was in Panama, on the Caribbean side, getting my boat ready to transit the canal to the Pacific. I was walking from Colon's old so-called yacht club (now long gone) through an industrial port area to get to Colon City. When I was passing about 20 fallow acres, I witnessed a training exercise by a dozen or so off-road motorbikes in green paint, each with a pair of uniformed soldiers on them. The soldiers riding on the back each carried a carbine. While I watched from a few hundred yards away, they did a "reverse starburst," that...

A man has been sentenced in connection with the death of a woman that occurred while they were on a motorcycle the man was operating recklessly. According to a press release from the Huntington Beach Police Department, officers responded to a fatal traffic collision on Pacific Coast Highway south of Wagner Avenue on Sept. 11, 2021, at 8:17 p.m. Upon arriving, officers located a motorcycle that had collided with an SUV. The passenger on the motorcycle, 22-year-old Meghan Wautlet, died at the scene. ... As a result of the investigation, Murray was arrested in February 2022 and the Orange County...

Iconic American motorcycle's muscular image and value of its bikes face headwinds ============================================================== Harley-Davidson is facing biker backlash over fears that the American motorcycle manufacturer born with the renegade image is now identifying as woke. "@harleydavidson has been one of the most beloved brands in America but recently on CEO Jochen Zeitz’s watch, they’ve gone totally woke," filmmaker Robby Starbuck shared with his more than 528,000 followers on X in late July. The bike brand's apparent decision to volunteer for the culture wars in America has been a high-octane topic at the 84th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota...

Czech company UDX is flying scale prototypes of a tandem 2-up eVTOL it calls Airwolf. With individually-tilting ducted fan propulsion, it's got enough wing surface for efficient cruise flight as well as agile movement from a hover. Imagine waking early Sunday morning to ride the twisty coastal mountains of beautiful southern California. It's going to be a perfect day and you expect exactly zero traffic, because you're leaving the Hayabusa in the garage and taking your UDX Airwolf hoverbike. You don your lid, crank up your favorite tunes, spin up the ducted fans, lift off and hover out of your...

During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Honda pulled back the curtain on its "Riding Assist Technology." The demonstration showed a rider standing tall on a Honda bike, both feet on the foot pegs, and arms fully stretched while Honda's Rider Assist Technology kept the bike from tipping over. The prototype borrowed from Honda's UNI-CUB personal mobility device. Skirting some of the heavier technology that other self-balancing motorcycle concepts used, the Honda Riding Assist Motorcycle keeps itself upright without gyroscopes. It was impressive to see in 2017 and remains so years later. However, since CES 2017, other manufacturers...

FULL TITLE: 'Something was off': Survivor says US troops were stalled by a village elder before they were ambushed by 50 terrorists in Niger for hours following a near 24 hour patrol operation The four American special forces killed fighting in Niger were ambushed by 50 ISIS terrorists after they were stalled by a village elder, a survivor of the attack has revealed. The group of 12 American forces had accompanied 30 Nigerien forces to an area about 85 kilometers north of the capital Niamey on a routine reconnaissance mission on October 3, when a dramatic new order came through...

It's not uncommon for bikers to hear all the negative aspects behind riding a motorcycle: "It's too dangerous" or "I don't trust the other people on the road" and by far the most ridiculous stereotype, "Are you going to join a gang?"Motorcycling isn't for everyone, which is fine. Because if everyone in the world rode a motorcycle, then it wouldn't be the symbol of rebellion, freedom, and independence that we recognize. It's for those of us who march to the beat of our own drum, step away from conformity and choose to fulfill our lives on our own terms. So...

I can’t think of a worse example of a corporate CEO misreading his customer base than this via the Robb Report (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll, Instapundit) “At some point in time, Harley Davidson will be all-electric,” the executive [Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz] recently told Dezeen. “But that’s a long-term transition that needs to happen. It’s not something you do overnight.” Zeitz’s pronouncement seems guaranteed to make a not-insignificant portion of the manufacturer’s customer base cringe. For many enthusiasts, the thing that really sets a Harley apart from other motorcycles—American-made or otherwise—is a thunderously loud internal combustion engine. But the company...

An Outlaws Motorcycle Club member who was arrested during Biketoberfest when his motorcycle ran out of gas as deputies said he tried to flee from traffic stops is in more trouble. He was recently accused of grinding down identification numbers on the motorcycle’s engine and transmission, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office. Robert Patrick Wilson, a 31-year-old Ocala resident and Outlaws member, was charged with two felony counts of possession of a vehicle with altered vehicle identification numbers, according to a press release Wednesday from the sheriff’s office. Wilson has been locked up at the Flagler County jail since...

Last year, Kawasaki revealed plans to electrify all of its motorcycles in developed markets by 2035, and also have at least 10 electric or hybrid models in the range by 2025. Now, late-stage prototypes for both types of powertrains have been revealed thanks to a surprise demonstration ahead of the Suzuka 8-Hour motorcycle race in Japan. Kawasaki gave no prior notice of the demonstration and made no subsequent announcement, nor did it release any images. However, thanks to friends at the Japanese motorcycle magazine Auto-By who were present at the demonstration, we’ve acquired detailed images of both prototypes. Hybrid The...

The Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST in gray, long and low with saddle bags on a bright, sunny day. I expected to hate this -- but I didn't. In the motorcycle world, Harley-Davidsons are a lot like Jeeps: You either get them or you don't. And I'm not going to lie, I've always counted myself in the "don't" crowd. While I've been suitably intrigued and impressed by Harley's recent efforts at branching out, like the Livewire and the Pan America Special, the traditional big, V-twin cruisers that defined the company have never done anything for me. Even BMW's attempt at making...

It’s now legal in Brazil to kill motorcycle thieves. Compilation video is outstanding.

"It’s now legal in Brazil to kill motorcycle thieves. Compilation video is outstanding." Dunno if true or not. Video at site.

TOKYO -- Honda Motor and three Japanese rivals plan to discontinue about 20 motorcycle models by the end of this year, Nikkei has learned, in response to tougher emissions standards to be implemented in Japan in the fall. The retired motorbikes represent 10% of the roughly 190 models available from Honda, Yamaha Motor, Suzuki Motor and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Going forward, the companies will shift to electrics. Honda will electrify its entire lineup of vehicles by the 2040s. Yamaha will make 90% of new vehicles plug-ins by 2050. Honda, the world's largest motorcycle company, will retire approximately 10 out of...

Ryan from Fortnine is one of the best bike personalities aside from Bikes N Beards. Holds a Physics background so he explains on his videos how an engine works so he does simplify the science behind motorcycles for each of Fortnine's videos..(meaning go back to your Physics high school class lol)