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Anything that diminishes the tyrannical federal bureaucracy benefits the free American citizen. According to a Friday news release from the office of Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Ernst and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have referred two bureaucrats from the Bureau of...

Nitro Harley’s Thundering into National Trail event: PennGrade1 AMRA Ohio Nationals when: May 16-18, 2025 where: National Trail Raceway, Hebron, Ohio, USA National Trail Raceway has been in the news a lot lately, but this weekend it will be for action ON the track. The sights and sounds coming from the classic Hebron, Ohio drag racing venue won’t be from a Midwestern, May thunderstorm. Those flashes of light and thundering sounds will be coming from the pipes of Nitro Harley-Davidsons at the PennGrade1 AMRA Ohio Nationals on May 16-18. The Ohio-based team of multi-time Circle M Ranch Top Fuel champ Ryan Peery and Buddy Johnson will be on the leading edge of the nitro storm. Peery won the opening race of the year in Louisiana on his unpainted, carbon fiber bodied “Eleanor.” Johnson has finally gotten back on track with his “Lagatha”—the same bike that won multiple championships in the hands of Jay Turner and Tii Tharpe. Jay “Bulldog” Turner will be there himself along with his formidable team of riders John “JT” Toth, Randal “Fast Coon Ass” Andras, and “Nashville” Chris Smith. DayStar Machine and Cycle Concepts’s Tim Kerrigan runner-upped in Louisiana and looks to seal the deal in Ohio. The hard working Bad Apple Racing team of Tracy Kile and Jimmy “Mac” McMillan are hungry for wins, as is the Chris Stewart Racing team of Jordan Peterson and Finland’s Samu Kemppainen. Speaking of Finland, Juha “Sushi” Hintukainen and his ProCharged bike are fresh off of a runner-up finish at an AHDRA race. Jason Pridemore and his one-of-a-kind, Ohio homebuilt supercharged Nitro Harley will make one of his rare appearances to assault the 5 second barrier. Pennsylvania’s Michael Balch will be there, and more as the big dogs are coming to hunt. The slightly smaller dogs are the Nitro Funnybikes, but their bark is just as loud. Louisiana winner Jordan Peterson is back on his Romine Racing prepared, Phil Lower-owned mount looking to capture another bone. He will have to get past defending champ Cameron “Flash” Gunter of the formidable Bad Apple Racing team, Universal Fleet and Tire’s “Racin’ Ray” Robinson, former champion Jim Doyle, and more. The Hawaya Racing Pro Fuel carbureted bikes don’t exactly yap, but their bark is somewhat sharper and less threatening than the other two classes. There are a lot of dogs in this pack and they are all fighting for the alpha position. There is no more of an alpha dog in this field than “Bad Apple Mary” Dangrow, who is on a serious roll after a great late season run last year segued into a Louisiana win. She’ll face the gnarling pack of two-time defending champion Sam White and his White Lightning Racing team, Universal Fleet and Tire’s Jason Leeper, Louisiana runner-up Kenneth “Stubby” Hultman, Jim “Bad Influence” Martin, Curt Sexton, John Jenkins, Rocky Jackson, Mike Blair, Brian Conley Jr., Loren Potter, Darren Brinkman, and more. If they weren’t compared to their outrageous nitro brothers, gas Harleys would be considered thunderous, and National Trail will be full of them. Pro Outlaw, Zipper’s Performance Pro Bagger, Thundermax Street Bagger, Zipper’s Performance Modified, Super Gas 9.90, Axtell Cylinders Hot Street, Top Eliminator 9.30, BK Electric Super Pro 10.30, Pro Eliminator 10.90, Thundermax Street Eliminator 11.50, and Baker Drivetrain Eliminator Dial-in will all compete. The Nitro Harley competitors look forward to seeing the Harley-Davidson drag racing family, riders and fans at National Trail! The Nitro Harley racers thank Bad Apple Racing, Chris Stewart Racing, DayStar Machine and Cycle Concepts, Jay Turner Racing, White Lightning Racing, P and C Johnson Trucking, RP Motorsports, Hawaya Racing, and Johnny Mancuso’s Circle M Ranch. This report was prepared by Tim Hailey. Enjoy everything there is to read, see and watch about motorcycle drag racing and more at https://www.eatmyink.com ; The post Nitro Harley’s Thundering into National Trail appeared first on Bikernet.com - Online Biker Magazine.

It’s not too late to get back to the Christmas-morning joy you had the very first time you swung your leg over a motorcycle. The key is discovery. (Photos by Kevin Wing) I fully appreciate that my role within the space of these two pages of Motor School is to provide you with riding concepts, training exercises, and things to think about to help make you a better, safer rider. I get that. But today I thought I’d start with a question, and then together we can unpack some ideas and see if any of this stuff sticks. Sound good? Here goes. Why do you ride a motorcycle?  Now before you roll your eyes and stuff me into your sock drawer with the March 1983 issue of Popular Mechanics you’re saving because of an article you forgot about long ago, just think about the question. At first glance it may seem silly. Surely you ride because it’s fun, it represents freedom, or it’s a long-standing ritual you and your buddies do together. There’s nothing wrong with any of those, but I want to challenge these broad-stroke answers by arguing that your level of personal satisfaction from riding has steadily degraded from when you first fell in love with motorcycles. Yes, you still enjoy it, gravitate towards it, and appreciate the shared experience you get when meeting up with your buddies. But if you’re honest, the magic motorcycle elixir is not as potent as it once was. I started riding when I was 9 years old. I sucked. I barely knew how to shift gears, stalled regularly, and had no idea why I needed a front brake when I had a perfectly good rear one I could stomp on. My definition of bike maintenance was cleaning off whatever dirt accumulated on the seat by rubbing it off with my jeans as I rode. Yet despite my lack of skill, experience, good equipment, trophies, or riding buddies, the joy I had when riding was absolute. I rode, and when I wasn’t riding, I was thinking about it, dreaming about it, talking about it, on and on. This early experience sent me on a path probably similar to yours: I stitched motorcycles into the fabric of my daily life through training, racing, equipment upgrades, like-minded friends, and newfound skills. But as the years ticked by, it started to feel routine, and I chased that first high from those early days by riding more, buying more, and just doing more on the bike. I didn’t know it, but the magic was fading. Why? And what was this magic ingredient that was slowly leaking out of my motorcycling experience? Over time, I came to realize I was losing joy. Pure and simple. The joy that 9-year-old Quinn experienced was slowly dissipating. After giving it some thought, I figured out that to maintain joy, I should have kept up with my on-bike discovery. Without discovering new things, I was essentially going through the motions, falling into that familiar routine of riding I had known for years. Little by little, the joy went away. My leaky bag of joy was due to two key things: 1) Diminishing returns on my riding investment: Just like anything we get better at, the learning curve tapers off as we climb, providing less and less juice for the squeeze. This made new discoveries (and the joy I got from them) harder to come by, so at some point I stopped discovering and just went with what I knew. 2) Once I stopped discovering new things, I was living off whatever process I had adopted up to that point, and it started to feel like Groundhog Day. I’m not saying I didn’t still love motorcycles or failed to appreciate my abilities on the bike, but the ride-rinse-repeat cycle got old after a while.  Quinn never rides his motorcycle without first letting his inner child bring a little bit of Elvis to the pre-ride warm up session! Fast forward to when I went to police motor school. I had to learn new ways of interacting with the motorcycle and new ways of thinking about my environment as a motor officer. In other words, I started to discover new things. Was I the best motor officer when I graduated from motor school? Absolutely not. Did I make lots of mistakes and have some near misses in the early years? Without a doubt. But I was discovering new things, and in the process, finding joy in ways I hadn’t since I was 9. It was transformational. This brings me to my long and winding point: I want you to find joy in your riding experience again too! That same joy you felt precisely 30 seconds after you swung your leg over a motorcycle for the first time in your life. Now pay close attention: Here’s how we get the joy back and make sure we never lose it again. The first thing we need to do is disconnect our thinking that a given level of riding ability has anything to do with discovery and joy on the bike. It doesn’t. And for that matter, I ask that you let go of the anxiety and judgment you often feel when someone shows you something new on the bike. Hey, I get it: The more we learn, the farther behind we tend to feel. And rather than finding joy through discovering new ideas, we negatively judge our existing abilities, get frustrated, and decide that we stink. Well, I’m here to tell you that thinking like that doesn’t move the joy needle. Stop judging yourself and concentrate on discovery. Now that we understand that joy comes from discovering new things, regardless of our individual skill level, let’s ask where and how we might increase the probability of finding it. Here’s a mental exercise for you: Think of someone you know who rides worse than you. Someone with less skill, maybe less time on the bike, and less overall ability. Now be honest, would you ever ask this person for riding tips? Especially when there are far better technical riders out there who you can learn from? I’m guessing no, you wouldn’t. And I think most people would agree with you. After all, why pay attention to techniques and execution performed by lesser-skilled individuals, right? But why not? If we agree that we are going to reset our compass and point it towards discovery, why can’t everybody be our teacher? Can’t I, theoretically, learn something from anyone, assuming I pay close attention, stay humble, don’t judge, am willing to learn, and try new, even contradictory ideas? A resounding “yes” on all counts. In fact, some of the best motor techniques I’ve discovered over the years were from closely observing riders that didn’t even break into the top 100 in competition standings. That’s huge, because that meant my discovering new ideas didn’t require or have anything to do with whether they originated from “good” teachers or not. Just chew on that for a minute. Once we focus on discovery, the lessons can come from virtually anywhere. Does this mean we adopt them all and blindly incorporate them into our program? No. But it means we start to ask ourselves, What can I discover in this particular observation? Isn’t that the same question you asked when you started riding motorcycles? Were you not open-minded, absorbing everything around you? Did you not discover new things just about everywhere you looked, regardless of a rider’s skill, the environment, the location, or the type of bike somebody rode? Absolutely, because you were excited to experience everything motorcycles had to offer. Well guess what? You can get back there! I’ll finish up with this: The world is full of lessons if you open your mind and look for them. And lessons are an opportunity for discovery if you stay humble and allow yourself to accept the information. Of course, discovery will undoubtedly lead to increased ability on the bike, but the real benefit will be newfound joy in the process. Wild, crazy, silly 9-year-old joy from this point forward and for the rest of your life on the motorcycle. Pretty damn cool, huh?   Quinn Redeker wears Lee Parks Design gloves exclusively. Find Quinn at Police Motor Training. See all Motor School with Quinn Redeker articles here. The post Motor School with Quinn Redeker: Rediscovering Joy appeared first on Rider Magazine.

The riding season is in full swing, and we don’t want to miss a bit of it. Whether you love long-distance riding, adventuring off the beaten path, blasting down canyon roads, or cruising down the boulevard, the right gear is sure to help you make the most of your summer riding plans. Our Summer Buyers Guide is packed with new products as well as time-tested favorites, including accessories to spruce up your bike, must-have apparel, high-quality tires, and more. We’re sure you’ll find something here that’ll make your summer riding even more enjoyable. Click here to subscribe to Rider Tourmaster Adventure Lite Jacket and Pants This jacket-and-pants combo is lightweight, durable, and flexible for off-road riding and features a waterproof polyester shell that’s reinforced with abrasion-resistant laminate in key areas. CE-certified Armanox armor covers the back, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, and the jacket includes zip-off sleeves and vents in the chest, arms, and back. The jacket is available in black or gray/black in sizes S-3XL for $209.99, and the pants are available in black in sizes 30-44 for $199.99. Mesh versions of both are also available. Shop for Tourmaster Adventure Lite Jacket and Pants S100 Total Cycle Cleaner Total Cycle Cleaner from S100 attacks hidden dirt and grime that regular soap and water miss, which can lead to corrosion, rust, and tarnish. Hailed by Rider as a “revolution for the Saturday morning wash,” Total Cycle Cleaner works its way into hidden nooks and crannies to clean out the grime you can’t see, then penetrates and loosens grunge so a sharp stream of water rinses it away. The cleaner comes in a 21-ounce aerosol or a variety of liquid sizes, from the 16.9-ounce starter bottle up to the 1.3-gallon canister. Available at many motorcycle retailers. Shop for S100 Total Cycle Cleaner Continental TKC80 Adventure Tires The legendary TKC80 tires return for use on adventure and dual-sport motorcycles, now built using a new manufacturing process. The result is a more robust carcass and compound for higher tolerance in harsh conditions, improved quality and durability, and better wet-weather grip, with a claimed 3.8-second faster lap time in wet conditions than their predecessor. TKC80s are available in a variety of front and rear sizes, with more sizes to be added soon. Visit your dealer for pricing. Shop for Continental TKC80 Tires Nelson-Rigg Trails End Adventure Saddlebags Built on the success of Nelson-Rigg’s Hurricane luggage, the Trails End Adventure saddlebags are constructed from UltraMax fabric with UV protection and abrasion resistance. They securely mount to most motorcycles via the Rigg Strap system and include waterproof liners, removable stiffeners, bottom bottle pockets, MOLLE panels, firm internal back plates, replaceable back pads, reflective accents, and metal D-rings to mount other bags on top. Sold as a pair, they offer 50 liters of total storage. Available for $369.95. Shop for Nelson-Rigg Trails End Adventure Saddlebags Saeng Stem-QS Mirrors These blind-spot mirrors are designed, engineered, and crafted in the U.S. to provide collision avoidance for motorcyclists. They clamp onto your bike’s round mirror stems and reveal vehicles in dangerous blind spots. Inserts are included to clamp to 10, 12, 14, or 16mm stems, and the mirrors feature durable glass optics. The housing is available in white, black, or chrome, and the O-ring is available in either red, yellow, blue, or black. They come fully assembled and can be mounted and adjusted in just a few minutes. Sold as a pair for $134.95. Shop for Saeng Stem-QS Mirrors National Cycle VStream Windscreen for Suzuki GSX-S1000GT The VStream windscreen for the Suzuki GSX-S1000GT (Rider’s 2022 Motorcycle of the Year) offers excellent wind protection. The patented V shape and dimensional contours push wind away from the rider and passenger for a peaceful, quiet ride. It’s made of polycarbonate for better optics and 23 times the impact strength of acrylic and includes a scratch-resistant Quantum hardcoat. Available in Low/Dark Tint (18.5 inches tall) for $249.95, Mid-Size/Light Tint (29.5 inches) for $264.95, or Tall/Clear (22.5 inches) for $269.95. Shop for National Cycle VStream Windscreen for the Suzuki GSX-S1000GT Arai XD-5 Dual-Sport Helmet Arai’s XD-5 has a round Peripherally Belted Complex Laminate Construction fiberglass shell that’s designed to glance off objects. Key features include a variable-axis faceshield system with a Pinlock-ready shield, a forehead logo vent, a chin vent that’s twice as large as the previous model’s, a toolless visor/shield attachment system, a multidensity EPS liner, and a removable comfort liner with custom-fit pads. Available in sizes XS-2XL in solids ($839.95-$859.95) and graphics ($949.95), including two new Trail graphic colorways (Blue is shown). Related: Arai XD-5 Helmet Review Shop for Arai XD-5 Helmet MotoGadget Mo.Switch Pro This universal handlebar fitting has six illuminated buttons to operate the horn, high beam, turnsignals, starter, and instrument functions. The black anodized housing is CNC-machined from billet aluminum, and the hidden stainless-steel mounting screw securely clamps the unit to the handlebar. The buttons are vibration-resistant and jet-water protected, and they offer optimal switch feeling when used with gloved hands. The two-part design makes mounting easy. This product fits handlebar diameters of 22.2 or 25.4mm. Available for $209.  Shop for MotoGadget Mo.Switch Pro Anthony’s Leatherworks Leather Care Kit Anthony’s Leatherworks, based in Corona Del Mar, California, has over 60 years of experience in leather restoration and repair. In addition to the company’s regular services, it also offers a complete leather care kit to help clean and protect your gear, and it includes conditioner, cleaner, and de-salter. The conditioner restores natural oils and removes most stains, keeping leather soft and water-resistant. The cleaner removes tough stains and works on cuffs and collars. The de-salter removes salt stains and mold. Available for $51.95. Shop for Anthony’s Leatherworks Leather Care Kit Michelin Road W GT Tires Designed for use on Honda Gold Wings and similar motorcycles, this sport-touring tire offers extended mileage, wear resistance, and reliable wet-weather performance for riders who enjoy long rides. Michelin’s Radial X-Evo, Aramid Shield, and Silica technologies are used in the tires’ construction to provide trustworthy handling in a variety of weather conditions, and special water sipes on the front tire enhance traction. These tubeless tires have an H speed rating and are available starting at $279.95 for front tires and $367.95 for rear tires. Related: Michelin Road W GT Gold Wing Tires Review Shop for Michelin Road W GT Tires Schuberth Helmet Communication Systems Offering customers more options for integrated helmet comms systems, Schuberth now collaborates with both Cardo Systems and Sena. The Schuberth SC Edge ($349) is based on Cardo’s Packtalk Edge and features second-generation Dynamic Mesh Communication, Bluetooth 5.2, natural voice operation, over-the-air updates, and a claimed range of up to 1 mile. The Schuberth SC2 Standard ($249) is based on the Sena 10S and features a four-way intercom, HD speakers and microphone, Advanced Noise Control, FM radio, and a claimed range of up to 0.6 mile. Shop for Schuberth Helmet Communication Systems Aerostich Darien Pants Designed for long-distance travelers and adventure riders, the Darien pants by Aerostich feature a single-layer construction of 500-denier Cordura TLTex fabric and include two front pockets, one back pocket, a flapped front fly, and a removable belt. The full-length zippered side includes inner and outer flaps for weather protection, and removable knee armor is included, along with large reflective ankle adjustment tabs and hook-and-loop for a map window pocket. Available in sizes 30-46 in lengths regular or long for $597. Color options are black, gray, or tan.  Shop for Aerostich Darien Pants Spectro Heavy Duty Platinum Full Synthetic Oil Spectro’s top-selling 20W50 oil is now available in a 1-gallon bottle to help riders save time and money on oil changes. Designed for V-Twin motorcycles, this oil offers heat resistance and engine protection to ensure a longer lifespan and better performance. It features PurePAO Technology for thermal stability, reduced friction, and resistance to oxidation and wear. The advanced synthetic formulation enhances engine longevity, reduces engine deposits, and performs in both high-heat and high-load conditions. Visit your dealer for pricing. Shop for Spectro Heavy Duty Platinum Full Synthetic Oil Bridgestone Battlax Sport-Touring T33 Tires Bridgestone’s Battlax Sport-Touring T33 radial tires offer improved performance and mileage compared to the T32s. A newly designed compound and optimized tread pattern and construction increase mileage by a claimed 47%. The tread pattern is said to provide confident grip, stability, and handling. The front tire uses a new cross belt, and the rear uses a mono-spiral belt and a high-strength wear-resistant compound. These tubeless tires are available in various sizes with W or V speed ratings. Visit your dealer for pricing. Shop for Bridgestone Battlax Sport-Touring T33 Tires The post 2025 Summer Motorcycle Gear Buyers Guide appeared first on Rider Magazine.