Every decade or so we get ourselves in "eco-frenzy", green this and that. Motorbikes included in those this n' thats.

Far as electric motorcycles go there's a few commercial players out there like Erntia's Brammo and Zero Motocycle's offerings. Even some recently defunct ones like Vectrix. There's certainly interests from multiple sources, either it bye from the established industry of manufacturers to the armchair engineer in his garage.

Much like when the first automobiles, it was competition that leads to innovation. When there were hundreds of small time companies making cars trying to cut themselves a chunk of the buying marke t. Pioneering ideas with success and even failures. Ideas borrowed and stolen, improved upon and cutting a path for better products.

The British company Ariel who made bicycles, automobiles and motorcycles, invented the wire spoke wheel. An innovation that made motorcycles how we know them today possible.

It's guys like Patmont Motor Werks who make these kind of innovations. With contributions to the future and make history. Paramont Motor Werks' Shocker is set up as a tri-sport (street, dirt and freestyle) giving a lot of flexibility between charges. Sporting a brushless motor that acts as a brake for regenerative braking.

Most notable is the suspension, no tubes, shocks or springs. What they're calling 'Cantilevered Independent Dynamic Linkless Indispension" or CDLI. Giving it a huge span of travel, 13.5" front and 13.5" again in the rear. The front fork gives it a lot of dynamic anti-dive properties, it's so alien looking that it makes me nervous to look at. Watching the videos of the bike in action, it looks as if this suspension does a really kick ass job.

Steering is like any other bike as far as the operator, but the mechanical bits are managed by a hidden cantilever bar and throttle is wireless.

Still a prototype, with their hopes to come to market sometime in the next year. No price has been suggested or even hinted at yet. I'll be excited to see how it all pans out, the future is great for those who live to see it unfold.

Unlike used underwear, I don't mind buying a used bike. There's a lot of benefits to a used bike. The obvious is the cost, let someone else take that premium gouge out of their wallet for new and you reap the savings on the backend.

There's even more reason to consider a used bike.

Checking out a used bike, you get to see how well it's held up after X number of miles. Assuming modest care, is it leaking oil? Pinging? Knocking? Smoking? Imagine if you had bought this new, paid thousands of dollars more for... would have you been happy bout it? Afforded to fix it? Having someone else bare that cross with their wallet is better than doing the same with yours.

Generally people are pretty honest and upfront about their bike, they'll tell you've what they've done or what to look out for if you ask. Do a bit of research beforehand, see what common problems there are for the bike, recalls, service bulletins. Look before you leap, be prepared to know what to look for.

Either it be finding the bike you've always wanted, a bargain, first bike, second scoot. Whatever floats your boat, but finding it's the key.

I stumbled across a great site for helping you find motorcycles in your local area. Previously I've kept my eye in the classified ads in the news paper, cycletrader, eBay motors and craigslist. But this one is a new spin that makes things a bit easier.

http://findyourauto.net/

Essentially it's a homogenization of eBay Motors and Google Maps. It lets you select motorcycles or cars, plug your zipcode in, and a radius and it'll put some pushpins on the map of where each bike is located. As well as sortable listings for prices, price points, distance, milage, and bout any and everything you'd wanna be able to find.

Read some statistic that women riders are the largest growing population of new riders. That's a good thing... need more buyers out there when it comes to sell my bike to get something bigger and better! That's where this Moto Guzzi Breva 750 comes in.

No, I'm not saying it's a 'girls bike'.

What I thought was a nice bit of innovation on Moto Guzzi's part was to offer a "Lady Seat" for this model. At first glance, when I read "Lady Seat", I thought they were being chauvinistic portraying the seat as a 2-up setup for your girlfriend to ride on back. Not at all! They made a seat where it sits lower and has a different contour to a lady's ass (a broke ass if she's reading this). All this ass speak makes me wonder where the engineers at Moto Guzzi's minds are most of the time...

Enough ass-chat, back to the bike!

Engine is typical Moto Guzzi, atypical of most of the V-twins out there and it looks great. Pushing a hair over 48HP thru a 5-speed transmission with a dry clutch being fed by a Weber-Marelli electric injection. Weber-Marelli sounds a bit more like a law firm than EFI but will keep you out of court with no fines for emission checks.

Pretty light at 401lbs dry and should have no trouble taking any turn, nor powering out of one. Would have preferred to see dual disc brakes up front but should have adequate stopping for it's weight.

Getting service and parts can be a bit of a concern depending where you live. Always something to consider with any purchase with or without wheels. Some solace comes in the form of the bundled warranty. A reassuring 2-year warranty with roadside assistance comes standard with the Breva 750.

Starting price is $7,790. If you're looking for something different to turn some heads as you turn corners, check out the Breva!

It's going to be Winter sooner than we'd like to admit. No amount of whining and pouting will stop it's march along the seasonal front lines. Best to be prepared to ride in it. No real man in Alabama Winterizes his bike for storage.

Typically motorcycle gloves are expensive and they should be. They're made of quality materials, good workmanship and offer good protection from our nemesis and benevolent friend: asphalt. What I haven't been able to find, is affordable and ultimate warm motorcycle gloves. May just be a factor of my local, not a lot of Winter riding going on down here and thus ly not a lot of local options when it comes to Winter gear.

I carry 3 different gloves i n my saddle bags, I got my armored Summer gloves for the bulk of my riding. A pair of winter motorcycle spec gloves that are great in the Fall; but by "Winter" I think they mean in Hawaii cause they aren't good enough for when it's 35ºF out. That's where these North Face Montana gloves come in.

I ride year around, no matter how cold it is outside. Don't have a windshield or faring. It's just me against the icy wind.

All the other gloves I have, about 5 miles down the road in 18ºF weather and your fingers sting and throb. Which is a bad sign of frostbite potential. But these North Face gloves keep my hands from turning black and rotting off.

They're pretty reasonable, got mine for $49 at a local sporting goods store. May be able to get a deal on them this time of year while they're not in seasonal demand right now.

Water and wind proof, breathable fabric, has 120 grams of 3M Thinsulate. That Thinsulate stuff works great, I can ride for a few hours in these gloves in our coldest temperatures and not get any numb digits. Elastic draw cord gauntlets to keep the wind from going up your sleeves. Even pockets to drop in those hand-warmer packets.

The mobility in these gloves is better than I would have thought, they're not so thick and bulky as to inhibit your clutch and braking. The pads of the fingers and palms have a rubbery textured pattern to aide in your clasping the grips.

If your home has longer Winters, make the investment and getting the best Winter gloves you can afford. Skimping on warmth can leads to an accident. Ever been out in the cold so long that you can't work your hands to unbutton your pants, even if Megan Fox was in front of you? Well imagine the same thing, after your done imagining about Megan Fox, when you've been riding for an hour and go to pull the brake lever in. Frostbite and roadrash both suck.

But if you're down South with me, consider these North Face Montana gloves. They do a damn fine job and should be easy to find.