OFF THE WIRE
By DANIEL MCDERMON
• Casey Stoner, who won the 2007 MotoGP championship while riding for Ducati, will join Honda’s factory team for the 2011 season. The most surprising element of the plan may be that Honda plans to retain its current riders, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, and compete with three riders. Long-standing rumors suggest that Valentino Rossi will join the Ducati team, but official confirmation has been elusive, even as Rossi, the six-time MotoGP champion, ventured onto a track for the first time since he fractured his leg in a frightening crash in early June. He put in 26 laps.
• Unsatisfied with the fuel economy of his Honda Innova step-through, a Dutch man built a full-size fairing that is said to help the bike get more than 200 miles a gallon. (ScooterScoop)
• An item published at Hell For Leather raised questions about editorial independence at Motorcyclist magazine.
• Ralph Barger, better known as Sonny, the 71-year-old éminence grise of the Hells Angels, has published his sixth book, “Let’s Ride: Sonny Barger’s Guide to Motorcycling.” Susan Carpenter of The Los Angeles Times met up with Mr. Barger and some pals at his Arizona home for a morning run to get biscuits and gravy. From the story:
Few Hells Angels have kids, including Barger; the club is their family.
They also refuse to follow, as I learned when Barger tired of riding behind a slow-moving camper, lifted his left arm and led us over the double yellow line into a stream of oncoming traffic.
A reviewer named Pappy at Amazon.com wrote that the new book is “Highly recommended for the novice and veteran alike.”
To answer your next question: Mr. Barger’s previous works include “Freedom: Credos from the Road,” “Hell’s Angel: The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club,” “Ridin’ High, Livin’ Free: Hell-Raising Motorcycle Stories” and two novels, “6 Chambers, 1 Bullet” and “Dead in 5 Heartbeats.”
Mr. Barger’s first literary appearance, of course, was in Hunter S. Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs,” which offered this description:
By turns he is a fanatic, a philosopher, a brawler, a shrewd compromiser and a final arbitrator. To the Oakland Angels he is Ralph. Everybody else calls him Sonny … although when the party gets wild and loose he answers to names such as Prez, Papa and Daddy.
• Police in New South Wales, Australia, filed a court petition to ban the Hells Angels outright. Perhaps the members ought to see whether Mr. Barger’s book has anything to say about hiring legal representation. (Bonus fact: in Australia, biker gangs are known as bikie gangs.)
• Fuzzy Galore offered tips for riding in hot weather. Over at Helmet Hair, a guest blogger offered instructions for staying safe that focus on the basics: training, helmet, leathers, maintenance.
