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.
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.
Wow. Somebody has really put some good effort into marketing their new product.
I wholeheartedly approve. (but I dig sci-fi, so naturally I would approve of this sort of marketing)
If they make a hyperbike with near superbike handling, I might be all over it.
Haha, fantastic! Couldn’t agree more. Kudos to Kawi for a solid effort, and lots of variety in the campaign. I love all the attention to detail too, “Action News 14″ :-)
Too bad the zx-14 is a fat pig of a bike, only useful for painting with an Aztec mural and modding with an extended swingarm and a fat rear tire. If the ZX-6 is a “Ninja”, we should be calling the ZX-10 the “Samurai”, and the ZX-14 the “Sumo”.
@Alex
I agree on the weight issue. I don’t see any reason they can’t get this thing down around at least like 2003 Era superbike weight.
Even if this thing was around 420lbs dry that would acceptable.
I know this is Evolution instead of Revolution…but…im not feeling homely with that new face…
Why go so far as to use those huge new acrylic lenses when they are still using Proyectors ? Proyectors might be the shit on beam intensity w/e they have going on but they sure don’t help others see u coming from the sides…(safety thing)…reminds me of the complaints Triumph ST1050 owners would often bitch about with a similar Proyector set up.
I would rather have huge wide chrome plated headlights with HIDs standard (is not like they don’t have the room, right ?)
As others told, they kept the George Foreman Grills…seems they have added some fins or winglets at the outer-lower edges on the headlights ?
Honestly i thought they would inject lots of ZX10R DNA into it…LOOKS wise.
Hope the tail section is not the size of an aircraft carrier(again). It wouldn’t hurt if it went on a Diet this time around.
1440cc ? Seriously…c’mon don’t tease me like that, dealing with motorcycle BLUE BALLS ain’t fun.
And here i was thinking the GSX1400 (1402cc) was going to remain on motorcycle history as the biggest I-4…from Japan Inc. anyways (is there something bigger out there(stock production OEM)?)
C’mon Kawi…make me eat my un-educated opinions with a side of JAW-DROPPING-LIGHT SPEED ASS HAULING-AWESOMENESS.
L.A.M.E.
R1 influence to the headlight styling, but adding another set of lights?
I ride the the Big Ninja on curvy roads all over S. MO. Put nearly 40K miles on it 3 years. The bike is very agile and comfortable to boot. Doesn’t do too bad on roadcourses either. I easly kick the beans out of the “race bike” riders on a regular basis. They also didn’t think the 14 could slash and rip on curvy roads. It can do everything a race bike can do if the right pilot is on it.
you are so right…the big ninj is the king of all sportbikes,a real curve burner if you can handle it