Bike Trivia #1

So you have a bike and you consider yourself a motorcycle enthusiast, but how much do you really know about our 2 wheeled friends? A lot you say? hmmm, let's see....

Did you know......

• The first Ducati wasn't a bike but a radio. It was the year 1926 when Ducati first spread the sound of music through its radios. Almost 100years later and their sound is more beautiful than ever.

• To burn 1 liter of fuel (benzin) you need to add about 8500 liters of air. Keep your air filters clean guys!
• 'Honda' means rice field in Japanese (didn't know that, but somehow I'm not surprised. Nomen est omen, right? :-) )
• Yamaha's first product was a Harmonium (1887), a musical instrument, hence the logo with the 3 diapasons. They started producing their first bike in 1955, called Yamah YA-1. Very col indeed. Just like Ducati, Yamaha knows what kind of sound we like! RROOOOAAARRRR 
• BMW stands for Bayerische MotorenWerke. They started producing aircraft engines in 1917 and motorcycles from 1927. The logo represents a moving aircraft propeller and the white and blue colours are those of the Bavarian flag. Today, BMW bikes are produced in Berlin (North Germany) and not in Bavaria (South Germany).
• Piaggio started out in 1884 producing locomotives and aircrafts during WW1and bombs during the WW2. They used airplane rear wheels for their first Vespas. Below is a splendid Vespa 150 TAP, modified by the French Army to accommodate a handy light anti-armour cannon. It could be fired straight from the Vespa. I wish I had something like that on the streets of Thailand!
• The youngest GP world champion of all times is the Italian Loris Capirossi. When he won his first title in 1990 he was exactly 17years and 165days old. Sometimes I'm proud to have an Italian passport....sometimes