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Ducati Q1 2013 Sales Drop 5% – Audi Dishes the Details
Ducatisti: do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is that the market for motorcycles 500cc and up is down 17% worldwide for the first quarter of this year, which means the “good” news is that Ducati is only down 5% for Q1 2013. Not exactly the start out of the gate that Audi was hoping for its newly acquired two-wheeled brand, but what are you going to do? Western Europe is a mess, with Spain and Italy continuing to go down like a…well, you know. While we don’t enjoy the misery of motorcycle brands, the fact that Ducati Motor Holding is now under the Audi AG umbrella means that we get far more detailed quarterly and yearly reports from the two-wheeled marque, and we’ve got the digits after the jump.
Mission Motorcycles: The Mission R Lives??!
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.
Goodbye Husqvarna Nuda, We Hardly Knew Thee
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.
Q&A: Yukio Kagayama Talks About the Upcoming Suzuka 8-Hour with Kevin Schwantz & Noriyuki Haga
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.
KTM RC4 Concept by Luca Bar Design
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.
Q&A: Claudio Domenicali Talks Frameless Chassis, Sacred Cows, & The Future for Ducati
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.
Is Yamaha Using A Seamless Gearbox? The Data Says No
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.
OCC Coming Back to TV? — Universe Collapses in on Self
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.
Alstare Superbike Concept by Team Alstare
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.
Transcript: The Gay Question at Jerez
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.
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- MotoGP: Shuhei Nakamoto Talks Tech Specs & Development of the New Honda RC Production Racer
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- Trackside Tuesday: The Silly Suzuki Season
- US Motorcycle Market Drops 14.7% in Q1 2013
- MotoGP: Bridgestone Denies Lorenzo’s Tire Accusations
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- Saturday Summary at Le Mans: Of Exceptional Rookies, Real Race Pace, & What It Takes To Be Champion
All Money and No Talent!!!
better than me: all ambition and no talent, scary!
Obviously, he wanted to go driftin!
He wanted to get the temperature of those tires up to 11. *snicker*
He did save it, but still pretty funny.
We need an expression for track days that’s analagous to hunters’ expression ‘buck fever’.
Ahh, JenningsGP. It’s where the Pro’s go…. ;)
I’m surprised this didn’t happen to Ben Spies last year.
he pulled a “Pedrosa”
precisely why i quit riding track days at JenningsGP!
Man! Good double-save on his part. That got loose for a moment there. GoPros – Used to be you can make a dumb mistake and you’d laugh it off to yourself. Now the entire world laughs at you.
Not an easy thing to do.
Nice to see the rice burners comments in early. Not a surprise from the chav members of motorcycling.
Well saved though.
This is a local FL bike-only track… Jennings GP.. looks like the Ducati day… LOL
Nothing wrong with Jennings.. as long as you avoid all groups besides expert. Jennings is a nice, relaxing place though, real low key.
I think it was more like, “Hey Everyone, WATCH THIS…………….hold my beer”. Guess you really can’t by talent?
How is being excited to get on the track, and accidentally leaving your tire warmers on a guage of talent?! The guy obviously made a good save there, and probably took the aggression out on the track. Everyone saying this guy has no talent is clueless. Literally…. LOL
Shit happens. Been there myself. At least he is out riding….
If you can’t pay attention to the “little things”…is he in the right frame of mind to go fast? How is this different than the guy who forgets to put gas, tighten his oil drain bolt/filler, or check tire pressures. I am not saying it doesn’t happen (happens to someone almost every trackday I go to) but there is no real reason to be absent minded right before you’re going on a live track.
Maybe on this day his ambition did outweigh his talent….
Well I have been to Jennings when someone was actually killed at a trackday and it’s didn’t have to do with tire warmers, drain bolts, filters, or tire pressure. Just people riding over their heads, that’s what scares me at a track day.
The guy is newbie, it’s obviously the intro group – look at the bikes in the frame, license plates & taped over lights. Give him a break. He is never going to make this mistake again.
A newbike with tire warmers. Automatic eye roll.
very funny..I feel for the dude he is now humiliated on a global level…bawawawawawahaha !
Say what ya want… but that was a decent save.
First time I ever rode on a track, I was so nervous I forgot to put my sheild down until I was on the straight and couldn’t see anything!!! It seems impossible that I would forget that but I did.
For a tire warmer it had pretty decent grip! Probably cuz it was up to temp (ha)….where’d the cord go? Whoever took the bike off the stand must’ve noticed a cord attached? Unless it was Stevie Wonder?
Good times.