Cycle World Podcast

Cycle World

Join Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer for the weekly Cycle World podcast for lively conversations about motorcycles and the people who build and ride them. Cameron’s legendary knowledge and ability to describe highly technical subjects in ways that are easy to understand allies with Hoyer’s massive testing background and hands-on work in the CW garage.

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129 episodes
Updated July 1

Episodes129

Newest first

Sep 25, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
Yamaha V4 vs. Inline Four! Will a new engine design save Yamaha in MotoGP?
Yamaha is a passionate racing company but recent success has eluded the tuning fork folks. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer dig into Yamaha's new V4 MotoGP racer that debuted at Misano and is under continued testing. Will the V4 solve all the company's problems? Will rides love the new engine and bike? What are the advantages and disadvantages of V4s and inline-4s. Listen to find out!
Sep 17, 2025 · 1 hr 27 min
HOW FAST COULD WE GO?! What's making new motorcycles slower than they should be?
Kevin and Mark dive into what's holding back the ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE of your motorcycle. What could be changed in the engine or with aerodynamics that could help us hit 250 mph? What are the tragic shortcomings and amazing strengths of motorcycles today? Jump in the slipstream and take the ride with us on the Cycle World Podcast.
Sep 10, 2025 · 1 hr 10 min
SHAKE IT! Does Vibration Eat Horsepower?
Engine vibration...does it eat horsepower? How do we control it? Where does it come from? What's secondary vibration vs. primary? Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer discuss the many types of vibration in engines and the various schemes used to control it or let those vibes we love come through.
Sep 3, 2025 · 1 hr 7 min
How has Honda Sold MORE THAN 100 MILLION SUPER CUBS?!
The little step-through that changed transportation around the globe and helped Honda achieve Grand Prix Racing success, technical dominance, and massive wins in automobiles, the 1958 Super Cub hit a target for buyers no one had yet considered. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer discuss how Soichiro Honda and Takeo Fujisawa helped conceive of this little motorcycle to function easily in broad conditions and the unique features that helped it fly off the showroom floor from the very beginning.
Aug 27, 2025 · 1 hr 18 min
How Emissions Regulations Improved Motorcycles
All we've ever wanted is complete control of combustion in our motorcycle engines and we are closer than ever. Find out how cleaning up emissions has enhanced power, running quality, engine life and more as Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer discuss the combustion process and all the tricks used to move ever closer to stoichiometric. What's that? Listen and find out. Also, there's a chance someone might say "Velocette" or "TZ750," so don't miss it!
Aug 20, 2025 · 1 hr 23 min
Ran when parked?! HOW TO GET AN OLD MOTORCYCLE RUNNING!
Barn finds, garage finds, yard finds and alley finds, that abandoned old motorcycle isn't going to start itself! Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer run through the steps and tricks to get an old carbureted or fuel-injected motorcycle running. Two-stroke oil in a four-stroke? Yes! De-rust a gas tank--we have a way! Listen as discuss the smell of old gas and getting a motorcycle out of the barn and back on the road.
Aug 13, 2025 · 1 hr 10 min
10 Crazy Cool Concept Bikes You Probably Don't Remember
Concept bikes can be crazy weird looks at a possible future or be hints about new models to come. Some are even intended as near-production but never make it. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer run down a list of 10 concept bikes that might have been and one that actually made it to the streets of America. Hybrids, superchargers, inline-sixes, alternative front suspensions, and one called "Biplane"?! And if it has four wheels but leans, is it still a "motorcycle"?
Aug 7, 2025 · 1 hr 10 min
CONSISTENCY IS EVERYTHING! Kevin Cameron gets molecular on Cyclic Variation. What?! Listen to learn!
If every combustion event in your motorcycle engine was the best it could be, power and efficiency could rise by as much as 20 percent! Find out how engineers and designers work toward this optimal goal and how chaos just keeps getting in the way. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Mark Hoyer talk about all the things that influence how the charge lights off in the cylinder of your motorcycle engine.
Jul 30, 2025 · 1 hr 20 min
INSIDE THE HOT ROOM! The magic in your motorcycle engine's combustion chamber.
Leave it to Technical Editor Kevin Cameron to start in 1862 with the first guy who conceived the four-stroke combustion cycle. KC proceeds with Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer on the journey to the combustion chamber we have today and why it's shaped how it is, flatheads to hemis, two valve, four valves and more valves! There's so much to cover in such a small space. Join us!
Jul 23, 2025 · 1 hr 25 min
Do YOU know about these 7 (or so) STRANGE MOTORCYCLES that made it to market?
Motorcycle manufacturers made some strange experiments as they looked for new customers or that novel idea that would create a new type of machine. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer go down a list of odd and wonderful machines that made it to the market--sometimes not for very long. Did you know about the two-wheel-drive dirtbike? The cruiser with the fabulously expensive front suspension? What's a Monotracer? Watch now and join us on this oddball journey.
Jul 16, 2025 · 1 hr 12 min
GOING IT ALONE: When Kenny Roberts Quit Yamaha and Built his own MotoGP bikes FROM SCRATCH
What causes a world championship-winning rider/team owner to quit the factory racing world and build his own engines and chassis? FREEDOM! Kenny Roberts took the considerable talent of his Yamaha factory team and forged ahead alone, first with the Modenas KR3 and then the Proton KR5. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer talk about the development of these bikes, and manage to get a few other Alternative Engines in such as the Aprilia Cube three cylinder. Listen now!
Jul 9, 2025 · 1 hr 2 min
SUZUKI in GRAND PRIX racing! Sheene, Schwantz, Gammas, the Suzuki Amazing GP Journey.
Suzuki found early Grand Prix success with two-strokes in the early 1960s and it bloomed into 500cc championships in the '70s, '80s, and '90s and 2000s with riders like Scheene, Uncini, Lucchinelli, Schwantz and Roberts. Suzuki even scored one in MotoGP's four-stroke era. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor Mark Hoyer talk about Suzuki's early days in GP racing and the Hamamatsu company's rise to the top.
Jul 2, 2025 · 1 hr 3 min
Inside Legendary Honda V-4!
Honda's VF750F arrived in 1982 with is square-tube steel frame that elevated the motorcycling handling game to new heights and launched a production V-4 dynasty at Honda. AMA Superbike championships followed as did many remarkable motorcycles including VF1000R, RC30, RC45, VFR750, 800, and 1200, plus the amazingly exotic oval-piston NR750. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer discuss the origins of the V-4 and its successes and failures.
Jun 25, 2025 · 1 hr 9 min
The Unlikely Success of Triumph's Modern Rebirth!
Triumph died along with the British motorcycle industry in the 1970s, with last-gasps into the 1980s. Then John Bloor came along and breathed new life into the storied British brand. And it wasn't some half-hearted retro effort, the company jumped right into modern motorcycles. Now, the company is a Moto2 engine supplier, has a full high-performance retro line, a collection of sporting streetbikes and the world's largest-displacement cruiser. It's even making 450 and 250cc motocrossers! Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer talk about the resurgence and evolution of Triumph from the 1990s to the present.
Jun 18, 2025 · 1 hr 29 min
MORE "NEW" Tech that's actually really OLD!
There is so much old technology people think is new that it didn't fit in one episode! So join us for our second round of interesting motorcycle and engine technology that seems new but absolutely is not. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer hit the podcast running with roller tappets...Listen to hear about those and the rest of the items on the list!
Jun 11, 2025 · 1 hr 23 min
The Remarkable Endurance of the BMW Boxer--More than 100 Years of Flat-Twin
BMW got serious about making motorcycle engines in 1923, when aircraft engine designer Max Friz delivered the first flat-twin to BMW. More than 100 years later, the Boxer engine remains the soul of BMW despite the company's success with many other engine layouts including the inline fours and sixes, plus singles and parallel twins. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer discuss the evolution from that first flat twin to the remarkable R 1300 that powers the new R 1300 GS, R 1300 RT, and more.
Jun 4, 2025 · 1 hr 20 min
FABULOUS or FAILURE? The Harley-Davidson VR1000 Superbike.
Long before King of the Baggers, Harley-Davidson committed to Superbike racing and hit the track in the early 1990s with the VR1000. This 1000cc V-twin had all the right ingredients for success, but what happened? Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer take a dive into the building of the bike, its evolving specs, it ultimate retirement and so much more!
May 28, 2025 · 1 hr 12 min
V8 Airplane engine in a MOTORCYCLE! The Amazing Glenn Curtiss. Was his 136-mph speed record real?
Glenn Curtiss was one of the great innovators of motorcycling and aircraft in the early days of the combustion engine. His V-8 and V-12 aircraft engines were legendary and record-setting on earth and in the sky. Technical Editor Kevin Cameron rates Curtiss as a hero, and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer agrees. We also have excellent technical information about land speed racing from a engineer/racer Wes Orloff who also rates Curtiss as a hero, and we examine Curtiss' speed record set on a beach in 1907.
May 21, 2025 · 1 hr 18 min
The Single GREATEST Motorcycle HANDLING REVOLUTION: What's a FEATHERBED?
Motorcycle frames were just glorified bicycle frames for a long time--spindly, flexible, poorly balanced. That all changed with a pair of clever Irish brothers who designed a motorcycle frame that revolutionized motorcycle handling--and it helped Norton remain a force in GP racing against higher horsepower motorcycles for years. It also changed motorcycling forever and helped us get to the exceptional handling motorcycles we have today.
May 14, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min
The Surprising Origins of the Harley-Davidson Softail!
Would you believe the great success of the Harley-Davidson Softail started in one man's private garage? Technical Editor Kevin Cameron and Editor-in-Chief Mark Hoyer talk about the FX of 1971 and how the Softail was born, plus how Dyna fits into the picture.