Blurred to protect against spoilers, we’ll just leave things simply by saying that World Superbike’s Race 2 at Donington Park is well worth a watching if you haven’t already seen it. Decided right down to the last few turns, race pundits surely will be discussing the race and its outcome over the next week. Unsurprisingly, geography is playing a major a role in how things are being viewed. Though in a race where a number of questionable passes occurred, it is hard to single out this one event from the plethora of others that occurred during the race, but of course this one had the biggest effect on the race outcome. Click past the jump for the he said, she said, and of course for some slightly sharper photos.
More news from Norton, as the British firm has begun track-testing its V4 road race bike, in preparation of the 2012 Isle of Man TT. Focusing on the bike’s handling, Norton has been working hand-in-hand with Öhlins and Dunlop developing the bike’s chassis. The trio has devised the highly sophisticated “165 mph no hands” test, which supposedly checks the stability of the bike, though we imagine Health & Safety would frown upon it. With the bike’s Aprilia RSV4 motor putting out 195hp at the crank, and with the total race package weighing 419 lbs (195 kg) when it is sopping wet, the Spondon-framed Norton may not be exactly what fans of the famous marques were hoping for after seeing the very appealing Norton NRV 588, though it does seem to be a potent package.
Launching in downtown Los Angeles, the 2012 Brammo Empulse R & 2013 Brammo Empulse broke their cover and officially debuted. Right off the bat from the designations, you can see that Brammo intends for the Empulse R to be a 2012 model, with the base model Emuplse coming out next year (more on that further down). As we expected, the Brammo Empulse R got quite the price bump after its 22-month marination, and will be $18,995 MSRP. Meanwhile when the Brammo Empulse becomes available next year, it will have a slightly more palatable $16,995 price tag.
While the EBR 1190RS race bikes were on the track, their $40,000+ street-legal counterparts were on display outside of the Erik Buell Racing garage. Rocking an American flag livery, I naturally took pictures of this show bike. Eye catching to say the least, nothing says “Made in ‘merica” better than a red, white, and blue color scheme, especially when it is laid over carbon fiber. And while I want to love this bike because of its nuances and outside-of-the-box technical design, I don’t.
If there’s one lesson we can take from Sunday’s race at Estoril, it’s this: “I’ve always said we know Casey’s the guy that’s the fastest guy in the world. Maybe over the seasons he hasn’t put the championships together, but by far he’s the best guy in the world.” Cal Crutchlow is not known for mincing his words, and his description of Casey Stoner pulls no punches. But given the fact that Stoner only managed to win the Portuguese round of MotoGP by a second and a bit, is that not a little exaggerated?
Brammo is back for electric motorcycle racing in the North American TTXGP series, as the Ashland-based company is set to defend it’s #1 plate this year with Steve Atlas on board ( Shelina Moreda is slated to join the team later in the season). Gaining a title sponsorship from Icon, Brammo arrived at Sears Point with some edgy graphics on the 2012 Brammo Empulse RR. Dropping roughly 35 lbs in weight, and gaining roughly 50hp over the bike they ran at last year’s season opener, Brammo is making most of those gains in its revised motor and power inverter for the newest Empulse RR.
As you can imagine, the bulk of the commentary, both from readers and from professional journalists, has centered around the absurdity of the claim, with even jokes being offered about how an aged BMW rider should be thanking the German motorcycle brand for saving him money on Viagra, etc. The situation reminds me of the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit. You know the story, right?. A woman buys a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, spills it on herself while in the car, and sues the bastards for her incompetence. True to litigious American form, the unthinkable happened, and a jury awarded this gold-digging woman millions of dollars. It is repudiating, and it stands for everything that is wrong with the legal system, or so we would be lead to believe — especially by the media.
Never say never, but few are expecting Valentino Rossi to hang up his spurs at the end of the 2012 MotoGP Championship. Going out on a career low-point is certainly not the Italian’s style, especially as it casts a particularly dark shadow on a career that has enjoyed the bright-light superlative of “Greatest of All Time” from some of motorcycling’s most knowledgeable sources. Hoping to cast that phrase with an underlined typeface, and not with an interrogatory question mark, there is sufficient evidence to believe that Rossi will want to end his career in a way that will leave no doubt about the nine-time World Champion’s abilities. The question of course is how those final seasons will play out, and who they will be with.
Just a little over a year later, debris from the Sendai earthquake and its subsequent tsunami is starting to make its way across the Pacific Ocean, with the first bit major piece of fallout to hit Canadian soil just now being reported. Though the effects to the motorcycle industry were only a small portion of the overall devastation, for our purposes it seems fitting that the first sizable item to wash ashore is a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Landing in the Haida Gwaii islands of British Columbia, the Harley-Davidson Softail was discovered by Peter Mark, who was riding his ATV along the coast of the isolated beach.
After a four-hour ride on his motorcycle, one BMW owner realized that he had a problem. Namely, a problem with his erect penis, which after some waiting would not subside. Now while most of us would cheekily reply that such a state is the sign of a good motorcycle ride, this San Francisco Bay Area native is not laughing, and has filed suit in the Superior Court of San Francisco County (CGC-12-520316) against BMW Motorrad North American and Corbin-Pacific. Saying that the motorcycle and its dealer-installed custom motorcycle seat have caused priapism, the man is suing for lost wages, personal injury, medical expenses, product liability, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Gee I’ve always been told ABS on a dirt road, fire trail was a STUPID idea and judging by the tests I’ve done with a GMC jimmy and a Grand AM it’s true! Oh it’s true! ABS sucks the south end of a north bound hippo and you stop WAY long. no thanks, no abs for this luddite EVER.
From my experience, most people with “all road” bikes are running it on paved roads 90% of the time, so ABS might not be a very bad idea. Just switch it off when you do dirt, or deal with it. I have a Speed Triple (’09 model) and I really think it sucks that ABS is not available on my bike, because on tarmac, you want ABS.
Triumph should at least make it available as an option to all bikes, so customers have a choice.
ABS is for people who can’t work a brake lever properly.
Traction Control is for people who can’t twist the throttle properly.
People who can’t work a lever or twist a grip likely have issues with balance as well so they should stick to 4 wheeled cages anyway.
Yeah, that must be why professional motorcycle racers at the highest level of their sport use both. They must not know how to ride a motorcycle.
+10 with what jake said. ABS has a time and place or so I’m told.
Traction and braking controls “at the highest levels of their sport” are contentious, depending on the racer; some like ‘em, some don’t. But using that as an argument for us mere mortals is irrelevant; MotoGP bikes would spit each and every one of us off and eat us with pancakes, with or without said controls.
I’ve never had the opportunity to ride a bike with ABS; not sure I’d really want to either. I’ve managed to survive riding for 35 years without and have severe Luddite tendencies as well. But hey, to each his own.
Watch out world, i(MTGR) have NO ABS and NO TC on my bike, im THE GREATEST rider EVAAAAR! OH, THE HUMANITY!
Do u want me to stroke your ego some more, lube is aditional. lmao.
Looking at the following pictures:
1) wireframe: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4036/5079239421_6afbc7d29b_b.jpg
2) spy shot: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4039/5079240157_d8932bc220_b.jpg
I am fairly certain that there will be an ABS option.
Fredrik,
It’s interesting that both those photos are of the road-oriented model.
@Jenny: Regarding the wireframe picture you are of course correct – my mistake. However, I’m not so sure regarding the spy shot.
Why? The bike on the photo seems to have the longer mud guard directly under the headlights (as opposed to the short one fitted on the road-oriented model). It also looks like it might have the spoke rims as opposed to the cast rims fitted on the road-oriented model (but it’s slightly hard to make out). What about the tire type on the spy shot? Well, either we’re seeing an XC with regular road tires fitted or maybe the exposure time of the photo makes the knobbie tires look like street tires.
another triumph junker——the triumph dealer still cant fix my 06 scrambler, keeps stalling going down the highway–dealer says they dont know whats wrong, dealer cant get parts from england——forget it buy some other more reliable brand
Did Triumph hire a new designer? The new Speed Triple looks like cheap plastic, and so does this new Tiger. Any news on when this guy is going to understand how a Triumph is supposed to look? Or is the finance/marketing involved in the *cough* design and discovered that plastics are cheaper to produce? It’s ugly and cheap looking (my personal opinion ofcourse)
As it turns out both models will be available with switchable ABS as an option. http://triumphadventure.com/ now has the full specifications for both models online.
Just took delivery of my new 2010 tiger 1050 , no abs, great bike, but if these new 2011 tigers came with a 1050 motor I would be slitting my wrists right now as they look sweeeet! Good job Triumph .
Gotta have ABS for those situatons on road where the idiots pull out in front of you. It has to be switchable on a DS since is brutal off pavement. I want one of these bad…..
@bert if you need ABS when someone pulls out in front of you then you’ve already screwed up and WILL crash. Everyone else just uses one of the several escape points they have preselected. 8^) I’ve yet to have issue with the many morons that have LT’d me. Swerve and scoot, swerve and maintain or brake and swerve….abs never comes into the picture.