1. Here’s a great gift to give, a shot at winning a cool bike. The latest raffle from the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame museum is this lovely original-condition 1986 Honda CR250R, a throwback to the mid-1980s when Hall of Famers like Rick Johnson, David Bailey, Jeff Ward and Broc Glover battled for AMA championships. The AMA had recently instituted the Production Rule for professional motocross, and the major manufacturers were investing increasingly more into developing their production bikes. This bike is ready to compete for post-vintage motocross glory — or to show off in your living room. Raffle tickets are available for a donation to the museum, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Tickets cost $5 for one or $20 for five. The drawing will be held at the AMA Championship Banquet in January 2016.
2. Good riding gear always makes an excellent gift. The latest leather jacket from Joe Rocket is the Classic ’92 leather jacket, made from 1-1.2mm drum-dyed cowhide. The jacket features a comfy neoprene-lined mandarin collar that snaps closed at the neck, pockets for available armor at the shoulders, elbows and back, and a zip-in quilted full-sleeve liner. Available in black or brown with either white or orange stripes. Sizes S-3XL. Price: Starting at $319.99.
3. Need gloves to match that jacket? Joe Rocket’s new Café Racer gloves are made of a combination of soft Nappa cowhide leather on top with a double-stitched leather palm. There are expansion panels at the cuff and fingers, and an integrated elastic cuff expander and YKK zippers. Soft, comfortable and requiring little break-in, these are great gloves for what’s left of the fall riding season or going into spring. Sizes S-3XL. Price: $54.95.
4. One of the easiest, most comfortable ways to carry stuff on a motorcycle is using a courier bag. Aerostich’s courier bags were some of the first on the market in the late 1980s, and they’ve seen many upgrades over the years. Made of 1,000-Denier Cordura nylon and featuring a bright-yellow PVC waterproof inner lining, the bag also features a 2-inch wide nylon strap with a comfortable oversize shoulder pad. A large strip of 3M Scotchlite reflective material runs across the front flap for increased visibility. Available in four sizes (Letter, Dispatch, Courier and Parcel) and a variety of colors. Dispatch bag shown. Price: $97.
5. Give the gift that keeps on giving. We’ve just completed compiling 10 years of Motorcycle Classics magazine, and it’s now available in a searchable format. This digital archive contains nearly 1,000 articles from the pages of the magazine, all loaded on this handy USB flash drive and ready for you to read on your favorite device. Search the entire archive, or browse the articles by each month and year. Price: $39.95.
6. Perfect for the office or garage wall of your favorite Triumph fan, check out the 2016 Triumph Calendar from Baxter Cycle in Marne, Iowa. This year’s calendar is chock-full of Triumphs including Thunderbirds, Tigers, Bonnevilles, a T20SM Mountain Cub, a TR5T Trophy Trail — even a rare Cheney-Triumph 500 Scrambler, a bike that combined Erick Cheney’s famous lightweight alloy chassis with a tuned 5TA or Tiger 100 engine, all photographed by Timothy Remus. Price: $25 with shipping.
7. Make your next motorcycle tour with buddies even easier with a TomTom Rider 400 GPS unit. This new 4.3-inch touch-screen unit comes with a charging bike dock that can be mounted on the handlebars of nearly any motorcycle, along with the wiring to connect it right to your battery. You can plug it into your laptop or home computer to preplan a tour route before you leave and it comes with lifetime maps and lifetime TomTom Traffic. Price: $499.99.
8. Riding jeans are a convenient piece of gear for any motorcycle rider. For superior abrasion resistance and lower friction heat transfer, these new Carbon SR6 jeans from Bull-it Jeans use Covec yarn to provide protection. Also, instead of using the liner in just the seat and knees like some other riding jeans, the Carbon SR6 jeans liner covers the hip, seat and all leg areas down to mid-calf. The jeans are made of 12-ounce black twill and follow a traditional 5-pocket design, while also featuring pockets at the knees and hips for optional armor. Price: $199.95.
9. An easy-to-install, quick upgrade for any bike is adding a new set of grips. The Thruster grips from Biltwell Inc. are made from injection-molded Krayton synthetic rubber, the same soft, comfortable rubber used on dirt bike grips and BMX bicycle grips and a great gift for any cyclist. Available in 7/8-inch and 1-inch sizes to fit a variety of motorcycles, they are available in black, chocolate (shown), blue and light gray. Price: $17.95.
10. You’re already joining us on our 2016 Motorcycle Classics Isle of Man Tour, right? Well bring a friend! Motorcycle Classics is heading to the U.K. for the Isle of Man Festival of Motorcycling and Classic TT races held Aug. 27 through Sept. 2, 2016. The 11-day tour will be led by Mototouring and Eligio Arturi, with editor-in-chief Richard Backus riding shotgun. Price: $4,950, or $3,000 if you bring your own bike.
11. Got a riding buddy whose bike needs a new set of mufflers? One of our favorite upgrades on the 1974 BMW R90/6 project we did a few years back was the Dunstall-Style Reverse Cone Mufflers from Dime City Cycles. These mufflers are 27.75 inches long and fit header pipes from 1.5- to 1.75-inch OD using a reducer. Made of steel with a nice chrome finish, they looked great and sounded even better on our BMW. Price: $54.95.
12. Perfect for working in the garage or for layering as the weather cools, Crank & Stroker offers a variety of denim shirts. All of their shirts feature two front chest pockets, YKK snaps, a top button neck closure and are made in the U.S.A. From left to right, there’s the striped Great Escape Denim Shirt, the brown Coyote Denim Shirt, the blue Stone Denim Shirt and the pin-striped Capone Denim Shirt. These shirts are all made of heavy 12-ounce preshrunk denim, which is much thicker than most denim shirts (usually made of 6- or 9-ounce material), making them wear like something closer to a jean jacket. Price: $90. MC