After years of preparation and anticipation for organizers and athletes alike, the 2008 Beijing Olympics draws to a close this weekend following a mesmerizing 14 days of competition.

Originally developed by the United States Department of Defense for military purposes, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has had untold benefits since it was made freely available for public use. While many drivers use it for point-to-point navigation purposes, professionals use it for land surveying and map-making, and 'treasure hunters' use it for geocaching, a new phenomenon called GPS drawing is just being discovered by the motorcycling community.

WORDS: Tim Carrithers

The black bike is pure American badass, styled like a prizefighter and with the same pugnacious manners. The platinum-colored bike is an exotic Italian beauty, long and lean with an undeniable air of exclusivity. Though the Buell 1125R and Aprilia RSV1000R appear very different on the surface, these stepbrothers from different moto-mothers both carry Rotax-made V-twins under their fairings. Do similar mechanical hearts make them more alike, or more distinct? We paired them off on the street and track to find out.

Which bike did the editors of Motorcyclist magazine pick as their Motorcycle of the Year? Visit Motorcyclist Online on August 5th to find out.

BMW Motorrad's Chris Pfeiffer is never one to turn down a challenge, especially one that he has set for himself. The current Indoor Streetbike Freestyle World Champion has amassed many records over the years, including a 'bunny hop' over 33 people without a ramp in 1997 and performing 15 wheelie circles in just 30 seconds in 2000. However, his most recent challenge saw him quite literally rise to the occasion on a BMW G 450 X.

Iceland is not only closer than you think, but far different than you ever imagined. It is Europe's second largest island (after Great Britain) and is a fantastic place to ride a motorcycle. Where else can you witness tremendous icecaps and glaciers, spouting geysers and steaming volcanoes, raging rivers and magnificent waterfalls, a multitude of birds, whales and many other surprises. Summers are surprisingly warm and winters not as cold as you might expect.

NEW YORK -May 2, 2008 - Moto Guzzi USA recently announced that it has joined forces with American Motorcyclist Association Grand Tours in the establishment of the inaugural "Moto Guzzi Grand Tour of Italy in America," an innovative program which celebrates the passion of this important Italian motorcycle brand.

Around 50 years ago, a 10-year-old Armenian boy living in France became aware of his first motorcycle - a black Solex - that left a lasting impression of the possibilities of two-wheeled travel. Half a century later and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Ara Gureghian lives life 'on the road' on an old BMW R 1100 GS with a sidecar for his dog Spirit. But how did he end up living the nomadic life in America? Ara's story is as fascinating as the man himself...

Imagine if your dentist told you of his plan to jump on a motorcycle and speed off on an around-the-world adventure with a purpose - to show that it's possible to deliver basic oral health care anywhere, using a minimal amount of instruments and materials. You are hardly going to advise him against it, especially if he has a drill in one hand and a sharp needle in the other!

Adding Up The Ultimate 650cc Solution

Single, twin, triple or four? However you slice up 40 cubic inches, this refreshingly eclectic middleweight mix of motorcycles requires no involved spec-chart dissections, lap-time debriefing or hair-splitting.

Have you had time to reflect on the weekend's victory and what it means to you?
The other riders were pushing hard and all of them said I deserved the title again without any doubt, so that makes me very happy. The event in Switzerland is my favourite competition and I am proud that I made it through, although the pressure was high.

You've got a busy few months coming up, with shows in Libya, USA, Malaysia, France and Spain. How difficult is it to transport your bikes around to the long-haul destinations?
Well I have several identical bikes and we send them around the world with DHL in crates. These guys do a great job and so far I always got my bikes in time at the events - even in some exotic countries where custom clearance is not that easy. Riding overseas takes much more effort than it does in Europe and sometimes I feel as if I am working for a logistics company as a side job! In central Europe we travel to the events with the Knaus motorhome and a trailer - that's so easy and relaxed.

Charley Boorman, 41, is best known as Ewan McGregor's partner in the Long Way Round (London to New York) and Long Way Down (Scotland to South Africa) TV series. He also did a documentary on the Race to Dakar, but broke both hands during Stage 5 and failed to finish. Son of film director John Boorman (Deliverance, Excalibur and The General), Boorman is an actor himself and lives with his wife and two children in London, England.

Without the genius of the unheralded tuner, even the most talented rider would be a mid-field runner. And one of the most-genius ever was Udo Gietl.

"I rode factory Yamaha Superbikes in 1986 and '87 and we didn't have much luck. Yamaha pulled out of racing in '88 and I was left without a ride. I had a new family, a two-year-old son and I just bought my first home, so I was really scrambling for something, anything, to jumpstart my career. Jerry Griffiths, Honda's dirt-track guy, was a good friend, and when he heard that Honda was looking for someone to ride the injured Masahiro Shimizu's NSR250 at the '88 USGP, he recommended me. I remember seeing a picture of Wayne Gardner at the beginning of that year on his NSR250 and thinking, "How cool!" I never imagined I'd soon have my own factory NSR250-the world's best racing bike-and Erv Kanemoto as my crew chief. Talk about a dream come true! That race was such a big event, the first USGP in 20 years, and I was up against the best of the best: Bubba Shobert (who was number one in America at the time), Christian Sarron, Sito Pos, John Kocinski-and I beat them all by 12 seconds! That bike opened up a whole new career for me. The year after that I raced full-time for HRC on a bike sponsored by Edwin Jeans, with Mick Doohan as my teammate, and I finished second at the USGP in '89 as well. That NSR250 opened so many doors, and opened some eyes too! Whenever I start feeling down, I think of that moment, that day, that bike, and feel better immediately."

You've read about it in these pages, probably even considered going: our annual Alps Challenge Tour, organized by Edelweiss Bike Travel. This year's Alps Challenge promises to be especially epic, as it takes place in the stunningly beautiful Austrian Alps from June 21-29. We'll start in Munich, Germany, ride southeast into Austria's picturesque Lake District, then head to Graz, one of Europe's best-preserved Alpine villages. From there we'll head west, traversing challenging switchbacks on our way to Zell am See, a high-end resort in Salzburg. Great food, great riding and even better camaraderie are all part of the deal. But then what would you expect from the evergracious Motorcyclist staff?

We know quite a lot about Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel. We know he was born in 1938 in Butte, Montana, was an above-average athlete as a kid, dropped out of high school, worked a host of blue-collar jobs and generally raised a lot of hell growing up. When he happened to see a Joie Chitwood stunt show one day as a youngster, the seeds of a lifetime of two-wheeled daredevildom and celebrity were sown.

It happened 15 years ago, but I remember it as though it were yesterday.In those days before e-mail, a hastily scribbled fax from Grand Prix correspondent Mat Oxley relayed the horrible news: "Bad day at the races: Wayne is in hospital with no feeling from the chest down." Unbelievably, three time FIM 500cc World Champion Wayne Rainey had been paralyzed in a racing accident.

I love to survey riders. What do they want from riding? How would they like it to feel? How would they like it to look? Want is consistently answered with smoother, faster and increased confidence. Feel runs the gamut through smooth, solid, stable and predictable. Look also ranks smooth above all, followed by fast, which translates into hanging off, knee on the floor. That is the dream. All sportbike riders are somewhat crestfallen until that magic moment finally comes: the krchchshh of getting a knee down. If only the photographer had been in that corner, on that lap! In the evolution of our species we've gone from knuckle dragging to knee dragging.

It's really not the sort of offer you turn down. The idea of watching a brand-new Honda CB750 take shape within 24 hours is enough to drag me out of bed--and photographer James Brown 500 miles from Los Angeles--to World's well-camouflaged Northern California industrial-park shop to see what's what.

It's not enough to be a competent 160-plus-horsepower hyperbike these days, I muse, after asking the many and various characters that loiter around the Motorcyclist bunker for their thoughts on the Kawasaki ZX-14. Reasons not to own one, allegedly:
1. Peaky Engine.
2. Not A Hayabusa.

Norifumi "Norick" Abe burst on the MotoGP scene at the tender age of 18 with a thrilling ride in the 1994 Japanese Grand Prix. After winning the 500cc class of the All-Japan Championship in '93, he was offered a wild-card ride for his home GP and shocked the establishment by challenging for the win. Riding a bright-red Honda NSR500 adorned with Mister Donut logos, the lanky teen with the shoulder-length hair started off fourth, and then incredibly passed Mick Doohan, Kevin Schwantz and Luca Cadalora to take the lead. The fairytale ended when he fell three laps from the finish.

Among the off-road community, one very welcome announcement has been BMW Motorrad USA's participation with a factory team in every round of the 2008 Grand National Cross Country series (GNCC) - the most competitive cross country class in the world.

The waving of the checkered flag at the Brazilian Grand Prix on September 17, 1988, marked the end of an era. A decade of exciting experimentation came to a close that day when the last ELF racing motorcycle completed its final race. In the 10 years leading up to that day, the ELF name had transcended its petroleum-industry roots. It had become synonymous with a series of ambitious, high-profile and determined attempts to expand the frontiers of motorcycle chassis design. ELF created an alternative motorcycle that would demonstrate its superiority on the most demanding proving ground-international roadracing competition.

Motorcycling can be dangerous. Over time and with proper training, we tend to get better at the safe and skillful operation of our beloved machines. Trouble is, crashes happen for a variety of reasons. If your buddy goes down on a group ride, do you know what to do and not to do?