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.
Boy if this isn’t the truth…..
haha pretty good spoof. I would challenge the reliability dig, tho. I have yet to see a crotch rocket w/ 100k+ on it…
diff bikes for diff purposes…
100K is childs play. Try a 93′ CBR900 with 240K and still running. Or an SV with 110K and climbing. I personally have seen several sport bikes with well in excess of 85K with zero maintenance and repair work besides forks and tires.
Sport bikes owned by responsible people, that do not abuse them, run forever but bikes owned by idiots and children will be destroyed in months, wheelies and crashes claim most of the sport bikes I’ve seen.
reality is setting in at HD, there comes a time when a push rod air cooled engine bike for $30k just wont cut it anymore, that reality is NOW, HD has lost its ENTIRE 25-35 yr old following, not many 25yr olds i know want to ride a 883 skirtster which is about all they can afford at that age, now a 146hp 1125r/cr, THATS what they ride!! not just my opinion, look at the last 3 quarter HD sales reports!! they are in the crapper!!! sucks to be HD
That’s funny as hell.
“This is the most reliable bike on our show room floor” Priceless, and oh-so-true.
F*#k H-D. Buell FTW.
Spoof: The Last Honest Harley-Davidson Ad – http://aspha.lt/11f #motorcycle
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Spoof: The Last Honest Harley-Davidson Ad – http://aspha.lt/11f #motorcycle
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Spoof: The Last Honest Harley-Davidson Ad – http://aspha.lt/11f #motorcycle
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Spoof: The Last Honest Harley-Davidson Ad http://aspha.lt/11f
RT @Asphalt_Rubber: Spoof: The Last Honest Harley-Davidson Ad http://aspha.lt/11f (via @ScooterDiva) hahahaa
RT @Asphalt_Rubber Spoof: The Last Honest Harley-Davidson Ad – http://aspha.lt/11f #motorcycle
MY FIRST BIKE WAS A 1937 HD knucklehead 61cu.in. PAID $675.00 FOR IT IN 1969. RODE THAT BIKE FOR 20 YEARS, 4SPEED TANK SHIFT, HARDTAIL! PUT OVER 100,000 MILES ON IT, AND ONE DAY A GENTLEMAN OFFERED ME $16,000 FOR IT, AND I SOLD IT, WITH REGRETS. SINCE THEN I’VE OWNED 14 MORE HARLEYS, HAVE BEEN RIDING FOR 41 YEARS NOW. SURE I HAD MY BREAKDOWNS, BUT THEY WERE FIXED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, IT DIDN’T TAKE A ROCKET SCIENTIST TO GET ME BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN, AND MOST OF THE TIME, THE FIX WAS CHEAP! , AND PEOPLE HELPED FOR FREE! GOING ON A TRIP WAS AN ADVENTURE, NOT A BORING HUMMMMMM, WE’LL BE THERE SOON. I’M A MOTORCYCLE ENTHUIAST, NEVER BAD MOUTHED IMPORT BIKE RIDERS, ” AND I AM BEING POLITE”, BUT THEY ALWAYS BAD MOUTHED THE HARLEYS, WHY IS THAT? IS IT BECAUSE AFTER 20 YEARS OF OWNING A IMPORT BIKE YOU WERE LUCKY IF YOU GOT $400.00 FOR IT , IF IT STILL RAN? MY 37 HD IS STILL RUNNING, AND TODAY IT IS WORTH AROUND $25 TO $35,000 DOLLARS! YOU WILL NEVER SEE THAT IN IMPORT BIKES, IN YOUR LIFETIME. YOU SEE THERE ARE BIKERS, AND THEN THERE ARE REAL BIKERS, YOU ARE PROBABLY TOO YOUNG TO KNOW THE REAL DIFFERENCE, AND I REALLY DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO EDUCATE YOU. PLUS I AM PROUD TO BUY AN AMERICAN MACHINE, MADE BY FELLOW AMERICAN WORKERS, AND SUPPORT THEM AND OUR COUNTRYS ECONOMY, NOT SENDING MY MONEY TO SUPPORT A FOREIGN COUNTRY, AND THEIR WORKERS, WHILE OUR OWN ECONOMY IS AT STAKE, DUE TO THE FACT THAT THERE ARE AMERICANS, AND THEN THERE ARE REAL AMERICANS, ANOTHER THING I DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO EDUCATE YOU ABOUT. EVEN IF THOSE IMPORTS WERE BETTER, I WOULD STILL SUPPORT MY COUNTRY AND IT’S WORKERS, AND I ALWAYS WILL, YOU WERE PROBABLY BUSY PLAYING PAC- MAN , WHEN IT WAS TIME TO LEARN ABOUT ” AMERICA “, AND ” UNITED WE STAND “. THANKS TO ALL YOU IMPORT BUYERS, YOU HAVE HELPED SELL OUT YOUR OWN COUNTRY, AMERICAN WORKERS AND JOBS AND INDUSTRY HERE. HOPE YOU FEEL REAL PROUD DRIVING THAT IMPORT , AFTER ALL ,I AM SURE IT GETS YOU ALOT OF ATTENTION, MAKES ONE HELL OF LOUD GROUND SHAKING RUMBLE, HAS GREAT LOOKING BABES WANTING TO GO FOR A RIDE ON IT, AND EVEN THE OLD, OLD, OLD, OLD, PEOPLE COME UP TO YOU AN ADMIRE YOUR MACHINE, AND START TELLING YOU ABOUT THERE RIDING TRIPS AND MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURES IN THEIR YOUNGER DAYS, WOW, SOUNDS JUST LIKE WHAT HAPPENS TO ME WHEN I RIDE MY OLD HARLEY……
Dude,
Try inserting some paragraphs, line breaks, or some other way to break up that wall of text.
Holy smokes Sam! Whew. Where to start? Well, first with caps lock, yours is on. Here is a great link for capitalization rules http://www.libraryonline.com/default.asp?pID=48 I’m not touching the rest of it, I’ll just say therapy is a good option for you, lots of it. Then maybe another (maybe a 1st?) trip through high school to brush up on your writing skills. Then, maybe you should check the prices on vintage imports. Many of those Ducs, Hondas, BMW, MV Agustas, etc. go for many, many times what they went for new. Have you seen those ’70′s Honda CBs and what they get for those? A bit more than your average ’70′s AMF Harley, if you can find one running.
Urgh. formatting aside, I’d settle for just turning the caps lock off. It’s kinda funny, the caps lock personifies the obnoxiously loud personality that apparently comes packaged with a Harley Davidson purchase. It started off well, but quickly deteriorated to traditional mix of “Buy American”, “I bought a Harley for attention”, and “I bought it to be part of a clicke”. The memories he holds dear can be had on any bike, it doesn’t need a Harley Davidson logo and price tag. Riding is about the journey, not bragging rights and recognition. Harley has absolutley no bikes targeted at the entry level buyers. They don’t care about spreading the joy of riding to new riders, they’re simply banking on the exclusivity of their little club, which ironically is only exclusive in terms of money, not skill or passion. This cannot be any more evident than in the R&D department, if they even have one. If they cared about riders, they’d make improvements to their design to enhance the ride.
His paragraph starts off claiming he respects all riders, then quickly deteriorates to how he is exclusive and superior to the import riders. I’m happy that his bike is now worth $30k, but that’s not why I chose my bike. I chose my bike based upon power, handling, reliability, looks, comfort, and most importantly, price. I don’t view it as an investment, it’s meant to be enjoyed. I simply wouldn’t enjoy something that is rated lowest in every category yet highest in price. I thought the joy of riding, was riding? As such, I cannot choose a bike based upon recognition and exclusivity alone, and call myself a rider in the mirror. There’s no recognition riding a Buell, as you won’t even see me. I’m not cruising down mainstreet, I’m taking the twisties.
Nothing against Harley riders, but they need to learn how to respect the Jap and Euro bikes (and maybe Buells). I’m tired of not getting the wave when I pass one, because I didn’t buy his brand. Different tastes, still riders. They really can’t throw stones claiming we don’t love the road, because on paper we’re the true riders.
Ride safe everyone. May all your bikes reach the ripe age of 70. All the Gear, All the Time in case they don’t.
Fuggin' HYSTERICAL (and a touch sad). Got to love some Harley ribbing: http://bit.ly/97rvDr
Real good take on Harley Davidson. Harley needs to spend some money on R&D and not a new line of belt buckles and t shirts. I laugh every time I see some sucker riding his new out of date Harley. Even if I was interested in buying a Harley I sure would not buy a new one. The newspapers are full of used Harley’s selling at low prices. All of them are “low miles”. It seems the seller found out what he bought and now he wants to get rid of it at any price. A Harley is your basic “show off” bike. Take the muffler off, dress up like a pirate and ride around town making a lot of noise on your slow Harley trying to impress people. Actually, when people see those morons on Harleys with no mufflers they are thinking or saying “what a stupid moron”.
Hey Sam Fonte, couple of years ago I was itching to get a new bike. “Well” I thought, “should I get this cool looking and RED Ducati Hypermotard, or maybe support my country and its workers?” Well, like you mentioned, I went ahead and supported the American brand. Yep, got myself a Buell Ulysses and love it to death. What does Harley go and do? They stab Erik in the back, the dumb cowards. Buells were (are) the best bikes Harley ever produced. I just don’t understand their decision and have vowed to NEVER again set foot in a Harley shop, much less spend one cent of my money there. However, if and when Erik builds more Buells for the public I will be excited as hell to support American workers again. Hell, I might even apply for a job. Harley (and willi g.) can kiss my Hispanic ass!!!!!! Oh, and I’m getting one of those new CD’s of Erik and the Thunderbolts to support American made music.
Lol, that’s great! A certain irony that it was posted by Buell riders;)
I wish Harley would take their V Rod engine and use it on the whole fleet. keep a couple retro models for the die hard’s, but just move on.
Update and expand their line up, to include technology. wouldn’t hurt to come out with a couple new models for the entry level bikers either.
Please Harley, the whole country is begging!
Sam had 1 bike for 20 years, and a different bike on average every 18 months since..lol
and they broke down on him, holy taco’s!!!
Mr Fonte I have 10 bikes all 1000cc&up . & different brands including Harelys best Jims 131ci engine with roller rockers cams ect ect best of the best . Also Buells 1125 the the cyclone and again a XB12 firebolt with the best available parts . …BUT.. even then the european and Japanese products will outlast any harley product hands down . The Metalurgy might be the same qualityas the Jap/euro products but being 1950s technology beating itself to death with recipricating mass fighting itself internally with every rotation of the crank, the Harley engine will never hold up as well as the smooth running machines the competition has to offer. A person doesnt have to have an engineering degree to figure this out just not be in denial that harley is what it is.. an old tech behind the times dinosaur that has charm but not the longevity of all the other brands on the market .
I wish that was played in the board room at harley davidson,my be then they would wake up to the fact it’s not 1950.(PS)They for got about the druggy 2000 tail bone crusher bike that harley davidson has.
Yeah, that’s good
I own a 1996 S2T Buell and it has been the best all around bike I have ridden to date. I also have a 2006 VRSCR Streetrod. Harley should slam this motor in a touring machine and go watercooled. Traditionalists will catch on to the new model when it blows by their aircooled V twin. I would never buy a traditional V twin from Harley and neither should you. There are so many other great bikes out there now!