Mission Motors tweeted out something interesting just a moment ago, a link to a new website for Mission Motorcycles. Teasing there a photo of the Mission R, it would seem that the electric superbike that does competitive AMA Supersport lap times at Laguna Seca, is finally set to come to production. It seems we won’t know everything about the new Mission Motorcycles project until June 3rd, though we can speculate pretty accurately on what the A&R Bothan spy network has been telling us. Expect to see the Mission R electric superbike in street legal trim, honed even further than when we rode the machine back in August last year.
Stefan Pierer’s acquisition of Husqvarna continues to baffle me. You will note I say Pierer, and not KTM, bought Husqvarna, since the Austrian CEO used Pierer Industrie AG in the transaction as a means to help side-step European antitrust issues. After all, we can’t have Europe’s largest dirt bike manufacturer, nay largest total motorcycle manufacturer, gobbling up even more brands in the two-wheeled world. But, I digress. Developing three road bikes (Husqvarna Nuda 900, Husqvarna Strada 650, & Husqvarna Terra 650), with three more concepts waiting in the wings (Husqvarna Moab, Husqvarna Baja, & Husqvarna E-G0), it is with even more confusion that we learn that Pierer & Co. intend to kill the Husqvarna Nuda project and its other street siblings.
In case you missed the story last week, Kevin Schwantz is preparing to race in this year’s Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race. For the race, Schwantz will be riding on a team formed by Yukio Kagayama, who in addition to having raced in the MotoGP, World Superbike, and British Superbike Championships, is also a previous Suzuka 8-Hour winner with the Suzuki Endurance Race Team (also joining the three-rider team Noriyuki “Nitro” Haga). Releasing a Q&A about his team’s Suzuka 8-Hour entry, Kagayama-san walks us through how the team came together, what equipment the riders will use, and his outlook on the team’s competitiveness.
A single-cylinder hooligan-maker, the KTM 690 Duke is 330 lbs (curbside without fuel) and 67hp of two-wheeled fun, and we hope that the Austrians bring the KTM 690 Duke R our way as well. While we are on the topic of things missing from KTM’s American line-up, a decent supersport is painfully obvious, yet we can’t see the folks at KTM following the paths of other brands. That’s where our friend Luca Bar comes to mind with his latest concept: the KTM RC4. Using the KTM 690 Duke platform and its LC4 engine, Bar has designed a super-single full-fairing sport bike that takes the Austrian company’s “Ready to Race” DNA and applies it to an idea that is not all that disimilar to the Ducati Supermono.
When I sat down with Claudio Domenicali at the Ducati 1199 Panigale R launch, the now-CEO of Ducati Motor Holding was still just the General Manager of the Italian motorcycle company. Four weeks after our interview though, Gabriele del Torchio would leave Ducati for Alitalia; and Domenicali, a 21-year veteran of both the racing and production departments of Ducati, would take his place at the top of Italy’s most prestigious motorcycle brand. After reading our interview from Austin, Texas after the jump, I think you will agree too.
That Yamaha is working on a seamless gearbox is no secret, with Yamaha’s test riders currently racking up the kilometers around tracks in Japan. Recently, however, Spanish magazine SoloMoto published an article suggesting that Yamaha has already been using its new seamless gearbox since the beginning of the season. My own enquiries to check whether Yamaha was using a seamless gearbox or not always received the same answer: no, Yamaha is not using the seamless gearbox. To test this denial, I went out to the side of the track on Friday morning at Jerez to record the bikes as they went by.
After a very public father/son break-up between Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr., a steroid-ring scandal involving Paul Sr., and finally a bankruptcy proceeding, it appears that Orange County Choppers is the impossible to kill multi-headed hydra of doom that we all knew it was, as the custom chopper shop is once again headed to the small screen and recruiting some talent, on and off the show. Looking for “someone who will work alongside Paul Senior, running the shop and helping build some of the best custom motorcycles in the world,” OCC says it will be back on television with a new show later this month. Please for the love of god, will someone give this man the attention he craves so dearly??! Or, just shoot us in the face.
We love us some concept bikes here at Asphalt & Rubber, and we have featured more than a few pieces of stunning design and imagination on our pages. Though, we can’t remember the last time one of these works of art were brought to us by a legitimate racing team, but that is what we have here with the Team Alstare Superbike Concept. A nod to the former Suzuki team’s return to the World Superbike Championship as the Ducati factory squad with Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini, Alstare has enlisted the help of designer Serge Rusak of Rusak Kreaktive Designworks to ink the shape of its futuristic Superbike concept, while Tryptik Studios handled the 3D modeling prowess.
If you didn’t watch Thursday’s pre-event press conference for MotoGP at Jerez, it is worth a viewing right to the end (assuming you have a MotoGP.com account). Building off the news about the NBA’s Jason Collins coming out as gay in a self-written feature in Sport Illustrated, my good colleague David Emmett had the courage to inquire about the culture and acceptance of the MotoGP paddock for homosexual riders. For the sake of accuracy, after the jump is a full transcript of David’s question, as put to riders Cal Crutchlow, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Stefan Bradl, and Scott Redding, as well as those riders’ responses to David’s inquiry.
News that Suzuki plans on returning to the MotoGP Championship in 2014 should be old information for dedicated Asphalt & Rubber readers, and the Japanese company’s inline-four race bike was already spotted doing test laps last year by the eager eyes at Cycle World. Well the American print-mag has another set of eyebrow-raising high-quality photos of the 2014 Suzuki GSV-R to mull over from the Motegi race track, along with some technical insights provided by the venerable Kevin Cameron.
The really surprising figure is that 34% of the people that purchased Harleys were college graduates. The 52% drop in domestic sales shows that the “image” is finally wearing off.
The 52% drop in domestic sales has little to do with HD’s image and everything to do with the complete collapse of consumer purchasing power in this country.
How many typical motorcycle buyers are in a position to spend thousands on a new bike when they’re not even sure they’ll still have a job in 6 months, their credit cards are still maxed out, their health insurance is gobbling up 20% of their income, and they now own more money on their house than it’s worth?
Mark,
Harley-Davidson lost 24.5% of its sales in 2007 & 2008, at the height of the economy. Still think it’s consumer purchasing power at play? Yeah Harley-Davidson saw its biggest drop in sales during the recession, but this was a trend that started well before the economic mess of late.
BMW and Triumph actually had an increase in sales last year.
@jack
Them, as well as Ducati had great years. Don’t know about Aprilia, MV Agusta and Moto Guzzi, would be interesting to see if all the European brands have seen gains, or just those three.
As for Harley, screw ‘em. They don’t bother improving their products, they shouldn’t expect people to keep buying them.
I think it is interesting how few have college degrees considering the average price of a Harley. What are the college graduates buying? With the days of easy credit over what is going to happen to their customer base. People are continually being critical of HD for the aging customer base I would think they are more worried about the income of their potential customer. With more and more decent paying jobs facing salary and benefit cuts and the lack of job security buying a Harley is going to be a dream.
Harley made a huge mistake closing Buell. Buell was the only bike made by HD that was available to the younger buyer. The younger buyer will not buy a Harley and dress up like a pirate. Harley’s sales will continue to drop while companies like Triumph and BMW that improve there line up and come out with new models with see increased sales. The new BMW K1600 touring bike is light years ahead of any HD touring bike. Even the long on the tooth Honda Gold Wing is far superior to any Harley. How can HD expect to continue in business selling there 1960′s motorcycles at 2011 prices.
HD made the right call dumping Buell. The brand sold 9,500 bikes in 2009 (the last full year before it closed). I’d bet good money that if you did the activity based cost accounting on that, Harley lost money on every Buell sold, which is more than likely the reason why it was ultimately shutdown. That’s just smart business.
Now how Harley-Davidson managed Buell, and the constraints it put on the company…that’s some poor decision making. You can’t make a sportbike brand act like a cruiser brand. Two different markets, two different buyer, operated with the same game plan: that’s a recipe for failure.
One interesting fact: there are SIX facts listed, not five.
Only 5 are interesting
Exactly.
Jensen, you’re dead wrong about Buell. Other than the Blast, every report I ever read said that Buell was in the black. Even if not, the smart business sense was to SELL Buell to Buell and make some money off the deal – you know, like HD completely failed to do with MV Agusta.
I’ll reiterate my sentence, “I’d bet good money that if you did the activity based cost accounting on that, Harley lost money on every Buell sold.” What costs did those “reports” you read take into account? How did it account for them?
For same reason I don’t think Buell made money when factoring activity based costs, is the same reason Buell couldn’t be spun out from Harley-Davidson. The business side of Buell was too extensively piggybacked off Harley-Davidson for it to be removed and still be freestanding.
What exactly would Harley have sold there? How much would it really have been worth? At the end of the day the write-off Harley could take on closing Buell was a better deal than what they would have gotten from a buyer, likely by an order of magnitude.
I love the Buell conspiracy theorists that think closing the brand was to slight Erik. Harley-Davidson did what it did because it was the best business decision to make. End of story.
Hey Jensen, how about a more thorough explanation here? What does “activity based costs” mean? What does “business side of Buell was too extensively piggybacked off Harley- Davidson” mean? I, and I suspect others, don’t fully understand why Buell could not have been sold. If Harely has no more plans for the brand, why not license it back to Erik so he can continue building bikes with his name on it? Harley’s decision to delete the brand without providing much of an explanation why other options weren’t pursued is a main reason why Buell fans are so mad at HD.
If anyone else can shed some light on this, please enlighten us.
Buell (or at least a younger image brand) was, and still is important to Harley’s future. They didn’t sell many bikes because most of the R&D money wasn’t recouped during the the first years. That was mostly due to the earned perception (or fact) they were brand new “old” bikes. They weren’t fast, or light, they didn’t handle well, and they were poorly made. So after the initial “honeymoon”, people bought better bikes elsewhere. Selling cruisers and sport-bikes with the technology, performance and efficiency from the 70s, aside from the muffler location and the rim mounted brakes, (and selling them) today is the biggest reason for lack of growth. Aside from a traditionalist why would you buy either one. Every other sport-bike made was better in every way than a Buell,, in every way!.. And the Japs figured out how to make a cruiser that didn’t weight north of 700lbs and it has more than 60 horsepower. Again, you can’t sell a bike from the 70′s in 2011. The Buell should have been created from ground zero to compete directly with the best liter bikes, not 600′s (stupid AMA/DMG),, Ducati made a world-beating twin with half the budget,, and they have been doing it for over 20 years.
In the end Harley will go chapter 7 or 11,, then a group of finance kings will buy it, and if they don’t do something different,, it will go the way of Indian. Different means compliment your updated (lighter, easier to ride, with pick-up truck beating acceleration) cruiser line with BMW/Ducati like sport tourers and sport bikes.,,, yep, re-invent the brand…
BTW – I was set on buying a “Lightning” until it got pissed-on in most measurable categories in a magazine shootout.
Harley is selling a sports bike for the past few years besides Buell. Since 2009 in the states. XR1200. Wish they would market the bike better, cause it’s a great bike and probably overal, the safest and most advance bike Harley sales.