The Hypermotard series is growing long in the tooth, and while everyone expects the Ducati’s smaller Superbike to get revamped in 2013, here is some evidence to suggest that the big news at EICMA this year will be an all-new Hypermotard model. Expected to have a water-cooled motor, best guesses would have the new Hypermotard using the 849cc Testastretta power plant, which would dovetail nicely with the supersport-sized Superbike getting an ~800cc variant of the new Superquadro motor.
It is hard to upstage Valentino Rossi. It takes something large, significant, to take the limelight away from the nine-time World Champion, and the man who has been the charismatic heart of MotoGP for the best part of 15 years. To do that, you have to “Go big or go home,” as British road racer Guy Martin likes to put it.
At Le Mans, Casey Stoner upstaged Rossi. The press conference – usually a rather staid affair, with the usual niceties about the track, each rider’s chances at the circuit and a couple of witticisms – started unusually, with Nick Harris, the veteran commentator who leads the official press conferences, saying that Stoner would like to make a statement to the press. Stoner then proceeded to press the big red button that set Twitter, the internet and newswires ablaze. In the process, he did not so much ignite the 2013 MotoGP Silly Season, as douse it in liquid oxygen and set a flame thrower to it.
At the press conference at Le Mans, where Casey Stoner made the shock announcement of his retirement, Stoner answered questions from journalists present about his decision to retire at the end of the 2012 season. You can find his original statement in this story, but below is a transcript of what Stoner told journalists when they were given a chance to question the Australian about his retirement.
We have already shown you Julien Dupont playing around on the Audi e-bike Wörthersee, but now we have got some more details about the German brand’s electric bicycle. Designed to be a fun and sporty urban two-wheeler, the Audi e-bike Wörthersee resides somewhere between the growing electric motorcycle trend and a moped, but boasts some impressive technology no matter what segment you think it hails from.
At the heart of the electric drivetrain is a synchronous permanent magnet motor that puts out 3 hp, and a 48-volt .53 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. With the whole cycle weighing 46 lbs (21 kg), the package is heavy by bicycling standards, though very light in practical application. Charging in 2.5 hours off European electricity, a recharge time of 5 hours should be achieved here in the US, with the pack itself being detachable from the e-bike for charging (presumably allowing for pack swapping).
While electric bike/mopeds are nothing new, the Audi e-bike Wörthersee certainly brings a level of build and spec to the space that has never been seen before, but the real secret sauce is the electronics package the German automaker has included with its design, and how it has adapted the two-wheeler to fit our daily lifestyles.
Coming on the heels of the news that Casey Stoner will retire from MotoGP at the end of the 2012 season, Valentino Rossi was pitched a question on the same vein at Thursday’s press conference.
Asked how much longer he planned on racing in the premier class, Rossi replied that he no plans of following the reigning-World Champion into retirement, and would like to spend two more years in the Championship.
In a shocking turn of events, Casey Stoner announced at the Thursday press conference for the French GP that he would be retiring at the end of the 2012 MotoGP season. The news is a turn of events, as the Australian denied such rumors at Estoril, saying he would quit motorcycle racing when he no longer enjoyed it, though not any time soon.
Citing his disappointed with the direction MotoGP is currently headed, Stoner main critique with premier-class motorcycle racing has been the introduction of the CRT rules, which use production-based motors in prototype chassis, and have been notably slower than the full-prototype machines.
Stoner first voiced the idea of his retirement over the CRT issue back in Valencia of last year, when the newly crowned World Champion stated that if the future of the MotoGP Championship was in the CRT formula, then it was a future he did not want to be a part of. Today’s announcement seems to make good on that statement.








