Day at Velocity (February 5, 2010)

Been visiting some motorcycle shops this winter to see some of the new 2011 motorcycles. Those have been (mostly) Harley-Davidson's as the other brands new bikes are not out yet. Today, visited Velocity Motorcycles at 1202 N. Boulevard in Richmond, VA. One of my favorite shops in Richmond, they sell new Royal Enfield, Bajaj, Ural and Hysung motorcycles, but also some really great classic bikes. Seen at right is a Honda CB1000, I think dating to 2004 if I remember right. The engine was an in-line water cooled four. Honda has a much updated version, the CB1000R coming out this year. This is basically an early version.
The motorcycle seen at left is a BMW motorcycle, and I believe it is an older model. It is one of the famed "Boxer" twins, though they now make a number of great motorcycles including an in-line six touring model, and even a couple of in-line fours (including one howling sport bike). Known for technical innovation, the company started building aircraft engines (the company emblem is designed to represent an aircraft propeller) and built its first motorcycle in 1923. That bike, the R32 is the basis for many of the motorcycles they are still building today. BMW motorcycles are popular in a number of applications, and said to be very reliable.
Ducati is a Italian manufacturer, and makes some of the fastest motorcycles on the road today. They have a great racing history and use a lot of that technology in their motorcycle designs. Among their bikes are the Monster line, Multistrada line, the new Diavel sport cruiser, and the 1198 among others. Ducati started in 1926 though it did not build motorcycles until around 1950, but it has a number of racing championships in that time period. Richmond does not have an actual Ducati dealership, but a number can be found at Velocity at any given time. I am looking forward to seeing some of the new 2011 models in the near future.
Finally, this is a very interesting model from Bimota. With some research was able to find this is a Bimota DB3 Mantra. It was a very rare motorcycle and was only made for a very few years. Like Ducati it is an Italian company, though with a much shorter history which began in 1973. This bike uses a Ducati 900SS engine; most of the models used engines from Ducati or a number of Japanese manufacturers. The company went out of business, but has in recent years began production again. I checked out their web site, but its mostly in Italian, but features a number of new bikes.
I enjoyed my visit to Velocity, and have also put a few more photos, plus larger versions of these on my Photo Page which is one of the links to this site. There is always something interesting to be seen there, and some very friendly people to help you. They also rent motorcycles at the shop, something I may take advantage of later this year, as my bike is in North Carolina and I have never ridden in Virginia on a motorcycle.