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.
Lord how I hope those are more innacurate than the spy shots would lead me to believe. Looks like we’re going to have a repeat of the 749/999 era as far as aesthetics go (not that I thought those bikes were unattractive but the majority of Ducatisti thought they were heresy). Hopefully I can find a leftover 1198SP when the time comes to move up.
I think I’d wait a year to let them get the bugs out. A lot of big changes in one year.
Really Matt? I think the 1199 looks great, though I thought the 749/999 were good looking bikes in their own right (just not right for Ducati).
Ugh, I hope these renderings are NOT an accurate attempt at what the new 1199 might look like… Ducati can do MUCH better than that (I hope). As a fellow Ducatisti, I am well aware (and appreciative) of the past & present ‘iconic’ designs that they are famous for, and this “rendering” in comparison to the current superbike is utterly HOMELY. If the new Engine Technology is going to eliminate the famed trellis & underseat dual-exhaust, then the new design had better blow your fucking socks off… this sketch simply does not do that.
Please Ducati… don’t disappoint the motorcycle world!
I’m calling BS on these. Ducati would never leak that. The square head lights with a swoopy tank, back to square and straight, – no way that is not theirs.
There weren’t leaked by Ducati, they were made by Luca Bar Design. They’re based off photos of the 1199 testing at Mugello a few weeks back.
@matt, i wouldn’t worry too much (i’m trying not to). these pics are some guy’s best interpretation/extrapolation of the bike’s appearance from a low-res photo of said bike under a lot of camo. these renderings are weak sauce imho, but we’re all taking the bait now aren’t we?!
Looks like a 1000SS, far uglier than 999 based bike, crossed with a Ninja 650F (the horizontal shock) and general ugliness. With a hideous fishbowl tank, and that side fairing makes me feel sick.
I am hoping Ducati run the bottom fairing the whole length of the bike, with a hole cut for the side exit exhaust (perhaps one each side?). Also hoping for a one piece sub-frame, that can easily switch out between monoposto and biposto.
And the talk of them throwing away there traditional fuel-tank design hurts me :(
I really hope Ducati’s version looks better than this, I’m confident it will, but after seeing this I’m cautious… I normally enjoy Luca Bar’s work, but this just… wrong.
that sketch makes baby jesus cry. Don’t do that ducati, you’ve been making some great looking bikes of late!
If this is how the next gen Duc’s are going to look, my next bike with indeed be the MV Agusta F3.
AHHhhh… NO. Try HARDER Lucas, u might get it less FuGly.
looks like like that friggin Buell. just with a few corners rounded off.
The bike will be great looking I have no doubt. But seems to be going the same way Aprilia went with the RSV4, making a super compact super race oriented bike. This is great, unless you are over 5’10″.
The advent of these super small Italian bikes is forcing me back to Japan (or possibly Austria) in a hurry. I like a superbike I can use as an everyday driver and at 6’2″ 198lbs, these new machines are not an option.
I could see the advertising campaign: The performance….unmatched, the styling….flawless, the ergonomics….crippling.
@Damo- Have you sat on or ridden the 1098/1198/848? You might like it! I would say these bikes are great unless you’re UNDER 5’10″. At 5’8″, I found that I was too stretched out on my 1198. A friend of mine, who is 6’4″, rode it back to back with his S1000 and found the 1198 to be much roomier and more comfortable for him. By comparison, I found his more compact S1000 to fit me better.
Don’t go to Japan! (…or Austria, well maybe Austria)
@Kevin
That is just it! The 1198/1098 is comfortable for me, so are the last gen Aprilia RSV’s. But the new RSV4 is trick tiny. (I currently ride a 2003 Aprilia RSV Mille)
The BMW s1000, KTM RC8R and CBR1000 have been the more comfortable bikes of the current generation. I plan on upgrading within the next 18 months or so and it will probably be one of these. I haven’t checked out the new ZX10 or the MVF4 yet.
for sure that front end is not designed by ducati and even that fuel tank.
the 1198 is a jewel and i cant imagine how prettier they can make the 1199 lets wait and see.
Looks aren’t the most important thing to me. Performance is!!! I would rather have a Ducati that out performs every other superbike, than have a beautiful bike that performs like shit!
I’ve seen MCN’s take on this bike in last weeks paper and it looks CONSIDERABLY better. When i first saw the spy shots i thought Ducati had made a big mistake, it seemed so far removed from the 1198, but if it ends up looking like MCN’s take on it it will be a big success.
But, if it ends up looking like the Luca Bar design then who knows, looks ARE important when it comes to a Ducati superbike, that’s what seperates it from the Japanese. The petrol tank on the Luca Bar bike looks like it’s just been plonked on there – it seems totally alien to the rest of the design.
Why is there a picture of an Aprilia V4 posted? Kidding…but it looks like an Aprilia V4 and a Ninja 650 did the nasty and this is the aftermath.
They shouldn’t make these renderings with manufacturer’s logo on them, people begin to think the bike will really look like this and they start crying about it. These are just a figment of someone’s imagination, however I wouldn’t be surprised if the bike really does look like this, Ducati has been coming out with some real weird stuff lately. I for one think these are not so much ugly, just not sexy at all, unlike the 1198. Even the 999 looked better than this. Looks are the most important thing about a bike anyway (from a sales point of view) when you really think about it, I bet that a full 90% of bikes sold are sold based on looks. So I hope Ducati take their time and do it right, the new bike’s chassis is completely different so lets keep the looks evolutionary rather than revolutionary.