Despite the intense cold, or maybe because of it, here are several interesting motorcycle related articles I’ve been reading over the last week that you may want to read.

- 5 Reasons Not To Ride A Motorcycle Or Scooter In The Winter (Scooter In The Sticks)
- Riding Motorcycle In The Winter Part 3 (Motorcycle Blog From Jafrum)
- Nolan N104 Helmet Review (Revzilla Blog)
- Motorcycle-only Checkpoints Rev Up Controversy In Congress (LA Times)

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Three companies got together back in 2007 to develop better motorcycles, and here is their first brainchild. The three companies, Inmotec (Moto2 and Moto3 racing technology), Luma (Europe’s biggest anti-theft devices) and Dhemen (industrial design group).

The joint venture company is called LEM, and their first product is named LEMev Stream, and it is an electric scooter. The scooter is 100% Spanish, designed and built there, and funded by national and local authorities.

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Just because there’s snow and ice, doesn’t mean you can’t go and have fun on your motorcycle. And it doesn’t even have to be an off-road bike with big studded tires, just some spikes in your tires will do the trick (just look at the spikes on the tires…).

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For a fourth consecutive year, sales of motorcycles and scooters in France has declined. While 2007 was a record year, 2011 is turning out to be one of the worst of this millennium.

But interestingly enough, the European motorcycle manufacturers saw incredible sales increases, while the Japanese (except Honda) saw the reverse.

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It’s so cold out here in Europe, that even the motorcycles freeze over.

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We’ve already reported on Milan’s congestion charge, something motorcycles do NOT have to pay, since they are allowed to go into the city without paying the tax.

After the first week of the congestion charge, authorities stated that traffic inside the inner city was reduced by 37%! Cars dropped from 122,000 to 77,000 during the operating hours of the congestion charge. Carbon emissions dropped 30%.

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French tire giant, Michelin, introduced a couple of new tires last year meant for discerning motorcycle riders, and to mark the occasion, they are adding new categories to their Michelin Power Cup motorcycle races.

Newbies, women only and endurance categories have been added, plus the ability to sign up for individual races, and not have to commit to a whole season.

Plus, they have instructors available to help you on the circuit.

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If you are into photo (and video) cameras, it will probably not have escaped you that Nikon launched its latest pro or semi-pro camera, the Nikon D800. This latest DSLR gives you what can be considered the latest technological goodies that cameras can offer, from a 36 megapixel photo cameras, to full HD video making capabilities.

For the launch, Nikon commission Sandro Miller to make a short video (5 minutes) with the D800 camera, and Sandro in his artistic vision, used his talent to create this beautiful video of a Joy Ride on a motorcycle.

You’ll need to see the video itself, it’s below, but for those of you who are interested in how it was done using this latest camera, there’s a “The Making Of…” below it.

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Liquid Image, a company that makes extreme sports video cameras, have recently released the Torque HD camera goggles for motorcycle helmets.

The Torque HD video camera google not only record in full HD (1080p), or at 720 but at 60 fps, but it also streams to a smartphone app via onboard WiFi.

The motorcycle goggles will be available mid this year for US$399.

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You’ve probably all seen the Japanese motorcycle using our natural excrement (read shit) as fuel.

Now it looks like the Chinese are trying to replicate it, but in their own unique fashion.

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