THE MOVING BIKERNET WEEKLY NEWS for February 19th, 2026

Hey,

I just received a message from CO2 Coalition boss. He is trying to save motorcycling from being forced to go all-electric. I put him in touch with a major motorcycle rights group. They are all over it.

Every week is like this. I received a call with serious implications for expanding the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame.

I was asked to come on the board of directors of a charitable foundation.

Let’s hit the news:

The News was provided by the Bikernet Team including: Wayfarer, the Redhead, Bob T. Sam Burns, Agent Zebra, Rogue, Laura, Barry Green, El Waggs, Jenn and the rest of the crew.

The Bikernet Weekly News is sponsored in part by companies who also dig Freedom including: Easyriders Magazine, Cycle Source Magazine, the MRF, Iron Trader News, ChopperTown, BorntoRide.com and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum.

Q: What is the Spirit of Ecstasy?

A: The official name of the mascot of Rolls Royce, she is the lady on top of their radiators. Also known as “Nellie in her nighty”.

–Sam Burns

SAWICKI SPEED– Intimidator Exhausts Now In Stock and Available Through WPS/HardDrive Dealers Nationwide

Sawicki Speed has announced that its all-new Intimidator Series performance exhaust systems for Harley-Davidson M8 models are now in stock and available through Western Powersports (WPS) / HardDrive, making it easier than ever for riders to purchase through their local motorcycle dealership.

Sawicki Speed’s new Intimidator Series exhaust for Harley M8 Touring and Softail models are now available through WPS/HardDrive dealers.

Following the recent launch of the Intimidator Series – a fully CAD-designed performance exhaust platform engineered through more than 1,000 hours of R&D – Sawicki Speed has partnered with its distribution partner, WPS/HardDrive, to ensure strong inventory, dealer availability, and fast fulfillment nationwide.

With WPS/HardDrive stocking the Intimidator lineup, dealers can now access systems quickly for M8 Touring, Softail and Low Rider ST models, helping riders get upgraded and back on the road without extended wait times.

Intimidator Exhausts through WPS/HardDrive:

Hand-Brushed Stainless Steel finish (Now in Stock)

Jet-Hot Black Ceramic Coated finish (Coming Soon)

“We’re excited to strengthen our partnership with WPS/HardDrive and to give their dealer network direct access to Intimidator inventory,” explained Chris Clark, President of Sawicki Speed. “We’re excited to see riders get their hands on the most advanced exhaust system we’ve ever built.”

Learn more about the Intimidator Series at www.sawickispeed.com. Find a WPS/HardDrive dealer near you using the WPS Dealer Locator. Be sure to follow Sawicki on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube for the latest updates and product announcements.

URAL MOTORCYCLES ANNOUNCEMENT–Parts for Legacy Motorcycles

We know that many of you are concerned with support for your existing Ural motorcycles and frustrated with the parts availability. Here are the current updates:

– We secured the entire remaining inventory of EFI Gen 2 system components from our supplier, including oxygen sensors, ignition coils, and other related parts. This shipment is expected to arrive in the U.S. by mid-March.

– A large consolidated order of factory-produced parts is being organized in cooperation with our European partner, Congenia GmbH, with support from dealers and long-time Ural enthusiasts. We especially want to thank Mike Paull for his support and financial contribution.

This shipment includes a number of items with long manufacturing lead times (crankshafts among them). Because of this it’s expected to leave from Kazakhstan at the end of May and arrive in the US mid-July (second half of June for the EU). While that’s a wait, this shipment should cover the majority of backorders and create some buffer inventory.

– We are working with other suppliers outside the factory to secure available inventory and address backorders.

An important piece of context. The Ural parts business on its own isn’t large enough to be self-sustaining without ongoing bike sales. It also requires significant working capital due to large minimum order quantity, long lead times and slow turnover. The very limited presence of aftermarket alternatives for most of the Ural-specific parts reflects how niche this ecosystem is.

Launching Neo and restoring meaningful unit sales is the only realistic path to rebuilding working capital and establishing stable, long-term parts supply for legacy bikes. Supporting the Neo project – especially by introducing new riders to sidecars – directly contributes to that outcome.

A number of dealers and long-time Ural enthusiasts have stepped in to support the Neo rollout financially. If you’re interested in helping us move Neo faster – please reach out privately to madina@ural.com

Neo Engineering Development

We’ve reached an important milestone in the Ural Neo journey: the engineering development of the Ural Neo 500 is complete, and the final technical specification is now confirmed. This marks the end of a year-long process of refining the original platform with three priorities in mind: performance, reliability, and compliance.

A MUST TO SUPPORT–RE: Support H.R. 3385 — Clarifying the Federal Definition of “Motorcycle”

We write in support of H.R. 3385, legislation that directs the Secretary of Transportation to update the federal definition of “motorcycle.” Far from eliminating innovation or harming American jobs, this bill provides long-overdue regulatory clarity, strengthens consumer safety, and restores coherence between vehicle design, performance expectations, and applicable federal safety standards.

H.R. 3385 does not constitute a ban. It corrects a definitional inconsistency that has allowed fundamentally different vehicle architectures—three-wheeled vehicles equipped with steering wheels, pedals, and bucket seats—to be regulated under motorcycle standards that were never designed for such configurations. Ensuring that vehicles are regulated according to their design characteristics is not market interference; it is sound public policy.

Our support for H.R. 3385 is based on the following considerations:

Regulatory Integrity and Safety Alignment

Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) were developed with distinct engineering assumptions for passenger cars and motorcycles. Vehicles equipped with steering wheels, foot pedals, automotive-style seating, and occupant restraint systems operate, handle, and protect occupants in ways that differ materially from traditional motorcycles.

Maintaining these vehicles within the motorcycle classification creates a structural mismatch between design and regulatory oversight. Updating the definition of “motorcycle” ensures that safety standards are aligned with vehicle architecture and consumer expectations. Regulatory clarity enhances—not undermines—innovation by establishing clear guardrails for compliance and future product development.

Pathway to Appropriate Classification — Not “Limbo”

Opponents characterize H.R. 3385 as creating “classification limbo.” The legislation directs the Department of Transportation to update definitions through rulemaking. This process provides manufacturers with notice, opportunity for comment, and transition periods as appropriate.

If a distinct safety category for these vehicles is warranted, the appropriate mechanism is deliberate rulemaking — not indefinite reliance on a definition that was never intended to encompass automobile-like vehicles. Clear classification promotes legal certainty, preserves interstate consistency, and protects consumers.

State Law Harmonization

It is true that some states reference federal definitions. That fact underscores why federal definitions must be precise and technically sound. When state statutes incorporate federal terminology, Congress has a responsibility to ensure that those terms accurately reflect vehicle design and safety intent.

Updating the federal definition will provide states with a clearer foundation for registration and operational laws. Any necessary adjustments at the state level can and should occur through orderly legislative processes, as has occurred historically when federal vehicle standards evolve.

Economic Stability Through Regulatory Certainty

The powersports marketplace is significant, and its continued strength depends on predictable and defensible regulatory frameworks. Long-term economic stability is not served by preserving regulatory inconsistencies that invite litigation, enforcement uncertainty, or uneven safety oversight.

Manufacturers innovate best when classifications are transparent and durable. Clarifying definitions now reduces future risk exposure for manufacturers, dealers, and consumers alike.

Fair Competition and Market Transparency

H.R. 3385 does not “pick winners and losers.” It ensures that vehicles competing in the marketplace are regulated under standards that correspond to their design and risk profiles. Allowing automobile-configured vehicles to remain classified as motorcycles may inadvertently create uneven compliance obligations across vehicle categories.

A fair market requires consistent application of safety standards. Updating definitions to reflect modern vehicle designs strengthens competition rather than suppressing it.

Preserving Public Confidence

Consumers reasonably expect that vehicle classifications correspond to meaningful safety distinctions. Regulatory precision reinforces public trust in the federal safety framework. When classifications become stretched beyond their original intent, confidence erodes.

H.R. 3385 represents an effort to modernize statutory language so that federal law keeps pace with evolving vehicle designs while preserving the integrity of established safety standards.

For these reasons, we respectfully urge the Subcommittee to support H.R. 3385. Clarifying the definition of “motorcycle” is not an attack on innovation. It is a commitment to regulatory consistency, consumer protection, and long-term market stability.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide this perspective and welcome continued engagement with the Committee and its staff as this legislation moves forward.

HELP VETERANS AND FIRST RESPONDERS–Find Relief After Service

Many veterans and first responders live with the effects of service long after the job ends, and for some, traditional mental health care feels out of reach.

Motorcycle Missions offers a practical path to relief. Through Throttle Therapy, veterans and first responders reconnect with a community through riding, shared purpose, and camaraderie.

Your one-time donation directly makes these programs possible for people who might never raise their hand for help, but still need it.

Support at the right moment can be the difference between someone continuing to struggle alone or finding a way forward. That moment is now.

Make a one-time donation today to help veterans and first responders find relief after service.

–Motorcycle Missions

DIRECT FROM THE BASE OF THE THOUGHTFUL MOUNTAIN–Choices

Life continually places us at crossroads. Some decisions are small and fleeting, others shape the entire direction of our lives.

“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” — Denis Waitley

As this day begins, let us remember that we will be presented with choices in every conversation, every reaction, every thought. The most powerful choice we make is this: Who governs my day — me, or circumstances?

The past has no authority over this moment unless we hand it that authority. The future cannot intimidate us unless we give it permission. All true power lives in the present. Today is a gift, an opportunity to rise to a higher awareness, a higher expression, a higher way of living. We learn from yesterday so we can create a better today, but we are never required to relive what is already finished.

At times we may feel controlled by habits, fears, or addictions. It can seem as though we have no choice. Yet even believing we have no choice is, in itself, a choice. Some accept defeat. Others decide to seek help, to find support, to lean into faith, to do the inner work. They choose to reclaim their lives. They choose to become victors instead of victims.

When we shift our consciousness, life responds. The Universe meets us at the level of our decision. When challenges arise, pause — even for a breath — and turn within. The Infinite Wisdom that animates all life is present within you. The answer is never outside your reach.

Only you determine how you respond. Only you choose your attitude. Only you decide what meaning to assign to events. That is your power.

Today Know:

I choose to live fully in the gift of the present. I have learned from my past, but I am not bound by it. I refuse to surrender my peace to anyone or anything. I move forward confidently, willing to try new paths and make new decisions. I welcome the good that is unfolding in my life. I am supported by Divine Love, always and unconditionally. My life is shaped by my choices, and today I choose wisely.

“Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked.

‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat.

‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered.

‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.’” — Cheshire Cat from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Clarity of direction gives power to our choices.

Five Daily Affirmations for Making Better Choices

I pause before I respond and choose wisdom over reaction.

I choose thoughts that strengthen me and release those that weaken me.

I take full responsibility for my decisions and their outcomes.

I trust the Divine Intelligence within me to guide each step.

I choose growth, courage, and love in every situation.

Three Reflective Questions

Where in my life am I surrendering my power instead of making a conscious choice?

What old pattern am I ready to release so I can choose differently today?

If I fully trusted the wisdom within me, what decision would I make right now?

Namaste.

–Yale

ALEX EPSTEIN UPDATE–Solar and wind aren’t real power sources, they’re intermittent fuel-savers

As a recent week of winter weather illustrated, solar and wind don’t replace reliable power sources—they just save them fuel, usually at great expense.

We hear constant claims that solar and wind are rapidly and cheaply replacing fossil fuel power; Storm Fern demonstrated this is 100% false

We’re bombarded with supposed examples of solar/wind rapidly and cheaply replacing fossil fuel power: rapid rises in solar/wind “capacity”¹ or “generation”²; solar/wind credited for supplying most of a day’s electricity³; stats claiming solar/wind is now cheaper than fossil fuels⁴.

Advocates of solar and wind replacing fossil fuel power downplay the obvious, glaring problem that the grid requires electricity on-demand and that weather-determined, intermittent solar and wind can provide nothing resembling that. They either don’t mention intermittency or claim it’s easily addressed.

Take Elon Musk. He posts incessantly about solar replacing fossil fuels, and the vast majority of the time he doesn’t mention the intermittency at all! When he does he treats it as trivial, e.g., addressable by just storing excess daytime power in batteries and deploying it at night.⁵

If you want to understand why intermittent solar and wind are not rapidly and cheaply replacing fossil fuel power, there is no better case study than their frequent disappearance during the high-demand week of Winter Storm Fern (1/23 to 1/31)—and the high costs this imposed on the public.

Solar/wind frequently disappeared during Storm Fern’s huge power demand, leaving Americans 100% reliant on our gutted reliable power sources

The electricity grid that our lives and prosperity depend on requires that power plants and their supporting infrastructure—pipelines, transmission lines, distribution lines—provide exactly as much supply of electricity as consumers demand. If our power plants can’t do this, the grid blacks out.

For any technology to replace fossil fuel power, in whole or in part, it needs to make a reliable contribution to providing the on-demand, all-the-time (24/7/365) power our grid needs to work. In technical terms, it needs to provide “capacity”—the ability to generate electricity as-needed. If a technology can’t reliably provide capacity then we still need the exact same amount of fossil fuel power infrastructure to meet demand.

Arguably, the single most important time for a power source to operate reliably is during winter storms, where demand is high, persistent, and existential. E.g., the cold from Storm Fern generated near-record winter demand throughout the country, causing a week-long period of extreme electricity consumption such that if the power went off many Americans would quickly freeze to death.⁶

We commonly hear about the impressive “capacity” growth of wind and solar⁷. But this is a perversion of the proper meaning of “capacity.” For traditional, reliable power plants—nuclear, coal, gas, oil—“capacity” is the amount of electricity it can generate on-demand, when needed. For solar and wind, “capacity” is the maximum potential electricity it can generate when there are perfect weather conditions. Storm Fern showed how in real-world conditions, solar and wind’s “capacity” is an illusion.

Wind frequently provided very little electricity at times of high demand during Storm Fern. For example, the Mid-Atlantic grid (“PJM”) and the Midwest grid (“MISO”) each had at least one morning of peak demand where wind performed at around (and sometimes lower than) 10% of its supposed “capacity.” And for a 6-hour mid-day period on 1/29 in MISO, wind provided only around 2% of its “capacity.”

As badly as wind performed during Storm Fern, solar—which Elon Musk and his acolytes treat as infinitely superior to wind—performed far, far worse. As often happens during winter storms, solar was mostly or totally useless during the times of highest demand (evening and early morning).

Observe that in Florida, which was hit later than other states by Storm Fern’s cold, solar provided zero help during its intense evening peak demand on 1/31 and 2/1, barely any help during the morning peak of 2/1, and zero help during its highest demand time of all, the morning peak of 2/2. Solar’s real “capacity” was obviously zero.⁸

Not only did solar predictably disappear when needed most, during evenings and early mornings, it also underperformed during the day—meaning it could not reliably charge the batteries we are told are solar’s savior. Observe that in New England, solar performed far, far lower than its “capacity” for days on end, to the point that burning wood and trash often provided significantly more electricity than solar.⁹

We are often told that if you combine solar and wind together, they’re somehow reliable. But this is not true, as Storm Fern painfully illustrated. For long stretches of time in most affected grids, solar/wind combined generated less than 10% of their supposed “capacity”—meaning that even together they couldn’t be relied upon to provide power or charge batteries.¹⁰

The only reason that the lights and heat stayed on around the country during Storm Fern is that we have, barely, kept enough reliable capacity to provide all the power when solar and wind disappear. But just barely, and at great cost, since the anti-fossil-fuel policies urged by solar/wind propagandists have reduced the supply of reliable power plants and supporting infrastructure.¹¹

Had we not shut down so many coal plants and suppressed so many pipelines and prevented so many gas plants,¹² Storm Fern’s demand could have been easily and cheaply met. Instead, it strained grids, spiked power prices, and spiked heating prices when solar/wind failed to deliver.¹³

Storm Fern was a perfect litmus test for purported replacements of fossil fuels. If a type of “power” or “capacity” cannot reliably contribute to preventing Americans from freezing to death during a week of nationwide cold weather, whatever else it is doing it is absolutely not replacing fossil fuels. Solar and wind failed that test.

The only way you can rely on just solar, wind, and batteries to provide on-demand, all-the-time electricity—is a combination of “overbuilding” and multi-day storage that would end up costing, in free-market conditions, 10-20X what a natural gas plant does!

THE NEW SCOUNDRELS FROM GRIFTER– Our latest addition to the Scoundrel lineup is this new olive color Scoundrel. We sourced this leather in Upstate New York, and are excited to bring it to you. This glove is the perfect soft leather glove, whether you are riding a bike or walking the streets. Order yours today.

All Gloves are made to order and can take up to 2 weeks to ship

At All Kids Bike, we’re continually inspired by the creativity, generosity, and heart of our supporters. Today, we’re honored to spotlight one donor whose personal challenge turned into a powerful gift for kids—and a reminder of what’s possible when passion meets purpose.

To celebrate his 65th birthday, longtime endurance athlete Doug Thurston set out to complete the Triple Bypass Ride—a grueling 120-mile cycling challenge through the Colorado mountains. But Doug didn’t ride just for himself. He turned this milestone into a fundraiser to bring the All Kids Bike Kindergarten PE Learn-to-Ride Program to Alameda Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

What started as a birthday goal became something even more meaningful.

Near the finish line, Doug was involved in a serious crash that left him with a broken femur and in emergency surgery. Despite this unexpected setback, the support of his friends, family, and community rallied behind him. Within just two weeks, Doug raised enough to fully fund the All Kids Bike program for Alameda Elementary.

Stories like Doug’s are a powerful reminder: every donor has the ability to create moments that change lives. Whether it’s a birthday ride, a workplace fundraiser, or a simple act of generosity, your support helps bring the joy and freedom of riding a bike to kids who might not otherwise have that opportunity.

Thank you for being part of this incredible community—and for helping us get more kids on bikes, one school at a time.

Let’s Bring This Joy to More Schools

TURN 14 HEADS TO DAYTONA BIKE WEEK– Kuryakyn, Biker’s Choice, Twin Power, Speed & Strength, and Skid Lid to Highlight New Products and Custom Bikes

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – February 19, 2026 – For Daytona Bike Week 2026, industry-leading brands Kuryakyn, Biker’s Choice, Twin Power, Speed & Strength, and Skid Lid are expanding their presence across two retail locations: Teddy Morse’s Daytona Harley-Davidson and the nearby J&P Cycles vendor lot. Each brand is part of the Turn 14 Powersports family.

The expanded footprint focuses on engaging directly with rally attendees. At Teddy Morse’s Daytona Harley-Davidson, Biker’s Choice, Twin Power, Speed & Strength, and Skid Lid will feature a large display near the main entrance. Kuryakyn and Kuryakyn Leather will anchor a dedicated space within the J&P Cycles lot. At both locations, product experts will be available to answer technical questions, provide fitment guidance, and discuss the benefits of each brand’s latest offerings. Kuryakyn will also offer on-site product installations at its tent.

A key highlight at each display area will be bikes from the company’s recently completed fleet of eight custom motorcycle builds, each showcasing products from Turn 14’s accessory brands.

The display areas will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., February 27 through March 8, 2026.

WHAT’S NEXT–We are cranking away and the new issue is out there. Things are interesting in the streets, but we’re dealing with anything they throw at us. It’s so wild and as an outlaw we understand the play.