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.
A surprise addition to BMW Motorrad’s 2013 model line-up, zie Germans have announced a new middleweight adventure-tourer, the 2013 BMW F800GS Adventure. Like its larger predecessor, the BMW F800GS Adventure is a more travel-ready and off-road capable build of the recently updated BMW F800GS motorcycle. Featuring a larger windscreen, panniers, and a bigger fuel tank capacity (2.1 gallons larger, for a total of 6.3 gallons of fuel), the BMW F800GS Adventure keeps the same 85 hp, liquid-cooled, 798cc, parallel-twin engine found on the F800GS, as well as the same chassis configuration. Pricing in the US will be $13,550 for the base model BWM F800GS Adventure.
Former 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz has certainly been in the news a bit these past few months, mostly for his involvement and falling out with the Circuit of the Americas and the Americas GP, but also more recently for his comments regarding Dani Pedrosa — we also sat down with Mr. Schwantz in Austin, and the Texan gave us some sobering insight into the future of American road racing. As if all that wasn’t enough, Schwantz is making a return to two-wheeled racing, and has entered the prestigious Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race with Team Kagayama racing alongside Noriyuki Haga and team owner Yukio Kagayama.
An interesting development on the aftermarket side of things has graced our desks, as Öhlins has released a “suspension control unit” (SCU) that upgrades the electronically adjustable suspension on the Ducati Multistrada 1200 S so that it becomes a semi-active suspension system. Whhhaaaat??! So, if you’re the proud owner of a pre-2013 Ducati Multistrada 1200 S, and you think that your electronically controlled Öhlins suspension is no longer boss, now that Ducati has released its Sachs-powered “Skyhook” semi-active suspension pieces on its new batch of Multistrada sport-tourers, there is a remedy for your motolust.
In case you missed our exhaustive coverage of the Grand Prix of the Americas, those fools at Dorna gave me pit lane access this MotoGP season. So while the whole paddock waits for the Spaniards to come to their senses, I don’t plan on wasting the opportunity to share with our readers our extreme access to motorcycling’s premier racing class. Accordingly, here comes another installment into our ever-continuing “Up-Close” series, featuring the very finest Iwata has to offer: the Yamaha YZR-M1. Thirty 2000px-wide photos are waiting for you after the jump.
Naaaaasty Yellow !!!
Not a fan of the color, but the bike looks like it’d be huge fun!
Ducati could be testing reception to the yellow, but it’s not like plenty of other Ducatis haven’t come in yellow.
The bike isn’t the news here, it’s the fact that someone in the world still wears a forward-mounted fanny pack.
Can anyone see if it has ABS?
Fanny packs are still all the rage in Europe….
@irksome forward pack would be a fanny pack in the UK, that’s why it’s such a dirty word there but good call! I also question the mans cargo pants and wonder if he’s just not a tourist who didn’t have a clue what he was walking by
goooooooooddddd !!!!version girls!!!
Yes! 848 Streetfighter. http://t.co/0JCKnsJ Via @Asphalt_Rubber but @DucatiUSA lets ditch the Yellow. #Motorcycles
@ Daniel Croft: the Monster 1100 Evo, which is a bit more docile and is oriented towards the same type of use as this, does come with ABS, so there’s every reason to believe that this will have ABS as well. And I’m sure that the upcoming 1198 Streetfighter will also have ABS. And the Superquadrata will have it too, yes.
Speaking of the 1100 Evo – won’t the SF 848 simply eat it’s market share? Because I can clearly see someone who wants a streetbike with a bit more grunt – without looking for the present Streetfighter’s overkill (and that would have been, up to this point, tempted by the 1100 Evo) going straight to this SF 848… Ok, it’ll probably cost a bit more than the big Monster, but I don’t see this difference being more than 1000-1500 €, otherwise it’ll simply be too expensive.
I can only see the 1100 Evo appeal to the most faithful, though I don’t think there are enough of them for Ducati to make a profit out of that model.
What do you guys think?
@loki – I own an M1100 EVO and want a bike with ABS so the base streetfighter wasn’t an option for me. If the SF848 had been available when I bought my bike, I’d have seriously considered it but I’m not sure they’re exactly matching in terms of sales but there’s obviously a fairly substantial overlap. I’m not sure how Ducati plans on managing that. I’ve also owned an S4RS and know from experience the different characteristics of the liquid cooled as opposed to air cooled motors. Also, the ergonomics of the bike are quite different. I’ve wanted a mid sized liquid cooled monster for a long time, if there’d been an SF848 w/ ABS (don’t care about DTC too much) I’d probably have got that but I don’t think everyone has that mindset. I think the engine numbers will be the inverse: lower torque/higher HP.
I think there’s room for the 1100 and 848 – maybe sorta similar overall performance, but a very different approach. I think most folks will want one or the other without too much cross-cannibalization. I could even imagine having both:) the 848 fits nicely as a superbike derived, modern-styled naked 4-valve, liquid cooled, relatively high-revving performance machine. The M1100 is a classically styled (somewhat), low-revving, high-torque air cooled 2-valve machine that’s quick, but less about performance than an overall aesthetic and visceral connection.
I think ducati should be careful to retain the classic, gorgeous styling of the monster and not let the monster trend too much toward the droopy, angular “modern” street fighter look else they will become less differentiated (imo the current monster deviates from the classic too far, but not irreparably so – a better headlight would work wonders).
@BikePilot
I agree. Though there may be some performance overlap these two bikes go about their business in very different ways. The SF, like its bigger brother, will be a high revving screamer while the Monster is more torquey.
Also the riding position of the Monster is more relaxed when compared to the more aggressive seating position of the SF.
I could also imagine having both (or maybe replace the SF848 with a BMW S 1000 RR).
Screw this anemic scrawny 848 chic…i want to see a bare bones naked FULL BLOWN 1199 SuperQuadrata…(Bad)Bitch…lol.
Don’t forget the scooter with roll cage/roof across the street!
Ducati has a complete stable of excellent choices, what they really need to work on is maintenance costs, it seems like racketeering when it costs more to do the standard maintenance on a Ducati than it does a Mercedes or BMW… I’m mostly talking about bikes with 848cc’s or less, though I suspect those with higher displacements feel the same too…
I’m a peacock, I just want to fly!!!