While Ducati Corse is busy playing hide-the-Desmosedici at Sepang, HRC is all business in Malaysia this week, and has debuted its 2012 Honda RC213V MotoGP-contender. Honda isn’t saying too much about the RC213V, simply stating that the race bike is all new, but is also a continuation of the company’s design with the 800cc Honda RC212V. Testing the Honda RC213V over the course of last season, reigning-World Champion Casey rode the new 1,000cc machine three times in 2011, while teammate Dani Pedrosa swung a leg over the RC213V twice (missing one test because of injury).
You may have been misled by some eager journalists today and yesterday, if you saw a Ducati Corse livery-clad Ducati Desmosedici GP12 that some sites were passing off as the first shots of the “90% new” GP12. With the alleged new GP12 looking surprisingly similar to the aluminum-framed “GP0″ that was tested at Valencia, Valentino Rossi’s mechanic has now Alex Briggs confirmed that the photos taken were not of the all new “GP12 Phoenix” that the factory team will race this season. While the Ducati lords can taketh away, they can also giveth, and Valentino Rossi himself has posted the first photo of the factory Desmosedici GP12, and the bike is clearly different.
Zero Motorcycles has announced the full-commencement of production for its 2012 model line, which is expected to hit dealers in February & March of this year. First off the line was the 2012 Zero DS back in December, though the electric motorcycle company has recently started building the Zero S, Zero XU, Zero X, and Zero MX at its Scotts Valley facility as well. A story we broke back in November, Zero Motorcycles debuted its important 2012 electric motorcycle line up at the 2011 EICMA show in Milan, with the 2012 range being a substantial improvement upon the company’s previous offerings.
Getting a look at Dainese & AGV’s 2012 collection, Asphalt & Rubber was down in Orange County earlier this week to see the highly anticipated Dainese D-Air Racing leather suit, which has a four liter airbag system that helps reduce the risk of injury during a motorcycle crash. Dainese has been working on the D-Air Racing system for 10 years now, and after soft-launching the airbag suit in Europe, the Italian company is ready to bring the game-changing technology to American soil.
Us Danes, we’re a strange breed. From the culture that taught you how to rape and pillage, Scandinavia is making yet another contribution to the motorcycling world with this latest video. Featuring Danish Supermoto Champion Andreas Mikkelsen, we get a RoToR camera-esque perspective (this rig is actually home made) on the Dane’s practice session at the Als Supermotard Club in Denmark. It’s videos like this that are slowly eroding my will-power to resist getting into supermotard riding. Also, I don’t know who was in charge of the music selection on this thing, but my hat is off to him/her. I love the nightlife. I’ve come to boogie.
Our friends over at IndianCarsBikes.in were in attendance at the KTM 200 Duke launch in India this week, as the Austrian brand launched its somewhat bigger-displacement version of the popular KTM Duke 125. During the press event, KTM talked about the future of the mini-Duke line and its product roadmap for the emerging country, as well as abroad. With the Austrian brand confirming/clarifying that KTM would release a KTM 350 Duke for India in 2013, zie Austrians also confirmed that the KTM 350 Duke would be built locally in India by Bajaj, but would be exported worldwide — allaying fears that the KTM 350 Duke would be an India-only model.
Now that the first Ducati 1199 Panigale has rolled out of the door in Bologna, the die is cast, the chips are in play, and our course is set to see if Ducati has created a “massive breach of brand trust and honesty.” The realization of course should be that Ducati’s brand was never in danger with bikes like the Hypermotard, Multistrada 1200, or Diavel. Instead, the danger of serious brand dilution has always rested on how Ducati handled its Superbike line. A failure to produce a two-wheeled machine that is both as striking visually as it is kinetically, could permanently alienate a loyal fan base that has endured a great deal in the past half-decade.
There is a lot that can be said about why dealerships fail or succeed (we’ve already seen an interesting insight on the subject of shops being open on Sundays), and one aspect on how to be a successful dealership that will surely rise to the top is one of community. Here, Vancouver-based Motomethod is all about the community, as the do-it-yourself community garden style repair shop has become a place for British Columbian riders not to work on their motorcycles, but also to congregate together with a shared love of riding on two wheels. Not exactly a new concept business-wise, but still a fresh perspective in an otherwise unwilling to change industry. More on this thought process to be published in the coming weeks. Enjoy.
After testing for three days at Jerez with Carlos Checa and Franco Battaini, Ducati Corse may not be saying much about the new Ducati Desmosedici GP12, but that hasn’t stop Karel Abraham from releasing some details about the new Italian steed today. The “official” technical specifications of MotoGP race bikes are always a bit vague, and Ducati Corse has unsurprisingly stuck to that trend with the GP12. Stating horsepower in the 250hp range, 15hp more than what was quoted for the GP11, Ducati also lists a top speed of over 360 km/h, up from the GP11′s 340+ km/h quoted figure.
Husqvarna continues its push into the on-road market, and has debuted another concept while at the New York IMS show today. Already showing us the Husqvarna Moab Concept in Milan, the folks at Husky have continued the thought process with the Moab, and built a more off-road capable dual-sport, which they are calling the Husqvarna Baja Concept. Another modern-take on retro design, the Baja concept carries over with it many of the Moab’s bigger design features, while sporting a 19″ knobby front tire for better off-road use. Husqvarna simply states that the concept uses a four-stroke liquid-cooled 650cc single-cylinder motor (same as the Moab), which surely will be sourced from BMW’s G650GS.
looks good. you can really get an idea of lines and shapes of the body and tail with it being in green now. looks good. Honda tail +R1 swing arm.
now i just wanna see it with headlights.
Let’s go Big Green!
Sagging sport bike sales? Maybe if there bike weren’t butt ugly they would sell more! This one looks OK, but i will reserve judgment until till it comes out in street form. Hopefully it’s not crossed eyed like the last one!
That front end (headlight area) have TO GO…AWAY… IT looks as BAD as the current ZX10R.
The Designer OR Team on charge of that part of the Fairing should be skinned and burnt alive in front of KHI HQ in Japan as an example setting of how hideous and wrong it looks. I hope a miracle happens and the Street going version will look good.
PLEASE! No more turning signals on the Mirror Stems.
Nothing yet in the Kawasaki 1K LineUp looks as clean as the 2004-2005 ZX-10R. JMHO.
I think Kawasaki’s GP Bike looks Cleaner and Simpler than this cookie cutter SuperBike effort.
Is cleaner and simpler bad things to have on bikes nowadays ?
Is that rearshock mounted horizontally? It seems like it… wonder why.
I think i have read somewhere they are using this new location to get the shocks as far as possible from the exhaust pipe in order to keep temps stable and shocks action constant (no heat to make it’s oil thin thus keepeing things pretty even stable).
Maybe even to the point to aid mass centralization ?
Wierd, cause all this time i never heard someone complaining about how it’s shock was being cooked by the rear cylinder…..oh, wait…that only seem to be a problem on Sport-Twins (RC51, SV1000S, Mille, TL1000R(S), maybe even some of the undertail exhausted I4s (R1, CBR600-1000RR, previous ZX-6R, ZX-10R, etc.) So yeah, maybe there was always a reason after all.
Just talking out of my rear end here, lol (^_^ )
Never noticed my rear shock being cooked on my Mille.
And what do you have against turn signals in the mirrors? I like it. Less stuff protruding from the body.
Maybe “cooked” sounded a bit strong for what i tried to imply. It does get “warm” back there tho. Unless the Mille has a build in “wall” in the swing arm betwin the shock and the rear cylinder head pipe. ALso, yours is a 60* twin so maybe your rear head is not “sharing” heat as much as the others ? being that it is a narrower engine front to back.
My SV1000N doesn’t have this “wall”. Both rear head pipe and shock share the same swing arm cavity. The shock comes with some kind of sheet metal “sock” but i doubt is any good.
No, nothing against it “build in the mirror plastic housing” {like the latest gsxr1000 comes to mind} but it looks fugly when they tack it to the metal tube that connects the plastic housing to the handle bar or clip on. JMHO.