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.
nice attention to detail,exhaust pipe clamps with an inch of threads hanging in the breeze.cool lookin bake tho does the fr brake pass muster ??
I wonder if anyone will actually race one without changing out those stupid brakes.
Why would you change the brakes??? in NJMP i watched the buell bike of geoff it uses the same brakes with a nissin master cylinder. he was braking pretty deep into turn one and i dont recall anyone with brembo monoblocs out braking him lap after lap, i could be wrong i am going from memory – but the point is the brakes are good, very good. if you need better than those brakes you should be a world class rider. are the alternatives better, maybe, yes, by how much? ha, good question and one difficult to answer. simo rides on nissin in motogp – some say it is better than the brembo stuff; argument that really has no answer. preference.
I think it’s a fantastic looking bike. Until you get to the muffler. Feel like a GP-style or undertail would’ve looked a heck of a lot better.
I personally like this bike better than the 1098R, but i would not pay $40k for either; though if i had too, i would much rather pay it for this bike.
there is one thing i would like to get clear if anyone can answer. is the 175hp at the rear wheel or crank?
i like the accosato brake and clutch master cylinders used, but i would have preferred the nissin billet ones or the accosato billet MC, for the price your paying for this bike. and i would have made all 100 bikes the carbon model. i just dont see a customer buying this bike and saying, damn, i just dont have the $4,000 for the carbon model.
LOVE the general shape and look of the carbon edition. The exhaust just looks like it belongs on a two stroke through. Really seems to downplay the decent power figures with a little weiner hanging off the side like that. I agree with whoever said it defintely needs the various piss cups in something better than plain plastic.
40k huh. how many of these are going to end up ‘art’ in some execs ‘collection room’?
Geez, what a tough audience. It looks TITS and how bout letting it rock steady on the track for just a freakin second before we condemn it to some rich guy’s collection. I mean, you MAY be right but damn give it the same break you’d give YOUR favorite brand.
That damn logo has to Go Go, looks waaay too much like the Honda Wing imo
@luke – yes, the exhaust looks a bit like the old 2 strokes. I’d say this is intentional, and is meant to invoke what many consider the best, most hardcore days of MotoGP – the 500cc 2 stroke era. Besides, you know that no matter what exhaust they put on it, someone will complain. If they make it slim, someone complains it’s a ‘little weiner’. If they make it large, someone will complain about ‘that massive cannon’. It is impossible to satisfy everyone.
I think the idea with the wiener exhaust is to make it pass noise and pollution standards while allowing the actual owner to immediately remove it and toss it in the trash. You’d be left with a traditional underslung exhaust and maybe a few extra ponies after retuning?
More importantly, isn’t this an overpriced RC8 or 1198 without the electronics of the S1k, RSV4 or ZX10?
They rolled one out onto pitlane at the AMA races at Barber Motorsports last weekend during the fan walk. Our time was limited as we were trying to get to riders for autographs so I didn’t get to study it in great detail, but just seeing one in person was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t even pay attention to WHO rolled it out but just snapped a few pictures and moved on.
I did hear several comments similar to, “Look at all that carbon fiber.”