From Paul Dail:
When I left my career as a high school language arts teacher and set out into the world of freelance writing, my focus was primarily on fiction writing. As such, most of the reviews I wrote were for books. As I got into journalism, this extended into a few movie or theater reviews, but those still dealt with storytelling.
When I joined Rider Magazine as the managing editor, I was asked to stretch those reviewing muscles into product reviews. This presented some interesting challenges, such as how to delicately offer criticism of a bike when the manufacturer had just paid to fly me to Germany to review it. What I discovered ultimately, though, is that writing reviews for a consumer publication is still largely storytelling, especially when it comes to a motorcycle. Readers want to be drawn into the experience
Below are excerpts from a few of Paul’s review pieces, with links to the full articles.
To see Paul’s book reviews, click here.
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2023 Indian Sport Chief Review (American Rider magazine)
Racing up to the blind rise on the Texas highway, you roll off the throttle of the new 2023 Indian Sport Chief slightly, and the pleasing roar of the engine lowers to more of a threatening growl. As you crest the hill, there’s a moment of weightlessness, and you see a line of about a dozen other riders, all on the same performance cruisers, gliding down the roller coaster-esque drop and blasting back up the sweep to the left on the other side. It looks almost as if they are defying gravity – or getting ready to launch into the air.
It’s a quick flash of a scene, a rush of exhilaration that makes you feel younger than your years, and you open the throttle back up. The bike responds without hesitation, pulling you forward as if it can read your mind and knows that, in that moment, all you want to do is catch up and take off into the sky with them.
(Another) New Take on a Familiar Favorite
The first Indian Chief, offering 61 inches of displacement, was released a little over a 100 years ago. At the Feb. 21 launch for the Sport Chief, Brandon Kraemer, Indian’s VP of product and motorcycle electrification, said that Charles Franklin, who also designed the Scout, had a goal in mind when he developed the Chief. …
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California Heat 12V Heated Motorcycle Gear | Gear Review (Rider magazine)
If you live in a colder climate (as I do) and are wondering (as I was), “What could a California company possibly know about heated motorcycle gear?” you should know that “California Heat” is something of a misnomer. The family-owned and operated company is based in Maryland and presumably named after how you should feel riding in sunny California.
I don’t live in California, so as I geared up for my February trip from my home at 6,000 feet in Southern Utah to Las Vegas for the AIMExpo show, I was excited to try out California Heat’s 12V Jacket Liner ($230), Pant Liners ($190), and Gauntlet Gloves ($175), all covered by a lifetime warranty. …
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2023 Can-Am Spyder RT Sea-To-Sky Review | Ridden and Rated (Rider magazine)
I haven’t been on a vehicle with three wheels since I was a kid tearing around my family’s back patio on my Big Wheel. And I’ve never been on one powered by something other than my legs, so I was definitely curious about the experience of riding a 2023 Can-Am Spyder RT Sea-to-Sky.
If I were a betting man, I’d guess BRP, Can-Am’s parent company, gets tired of hearing, “It’s not a motorcycle.” Well, after 1,100-plus miles on the top-of-the-line touring model, which included about 900 miles roundtrip from Southern California to the high desert of southern Utah and back, as well as taking it for a spin with several passengers, including my 11-year-old son, my “gradually coming around to anything less than four wheels” wife, and my 77-year-old father with Parkinson’s, I believe the Spyder defies a lot of categories. …
Paul D. Dail 