Shipped up and on its way to the Isle of Man, we can finally now see more than test shots of the Mugen Shinden Ni and get its basic racing specifications. The electric superbike that John McGuinness will ride in the 2013 TT Zero race at the Isle of Man TT, the Mugen Shinden Ni represents that evolution of the Japanese firm’s design, having now a TT race under its belt. Like its main competitor MotoCzysz, Team Mugen is eyeing a 110 mph lap around the Mountain Course, which would be a pretty remarkable one-year advancement for either team. With Mr. McPint at the helm, and seemingly brimming with on-board energy, Mugen is a serious contender.
Ducatisti: do you want the good news or the bad news first? The bad news is that the market for motorcycles 500cc and up is down 17% worldwide for the first quarter of this year, which means the “good” news is that Ducati is only down 5% for Q1 2013. Not exactly the start out of the gate that Audi was hoping for its newly acquired two-wheeled brand, but what are you going to do? Western Europe is a mess, with Spain and Italy continuing to go down like a…well, you know. While we don’t enjoy the misery of motorcycle brands, the fact that Ducati Motor Holding is now under the Audi AG umbrella means that we get far more detailed quarterly and yearly reports from the two-wheeled marque, and we’ve got the digits after the jump.
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.
It’ll definitely be fast as f*ck, but it’ll probably be a b*tch to start and maintain, and will likely cost a gazzillion dollars, hence we’ll mostly hear of rich tw*ts buying em up and sealing em in those bubble-things, never to be taken out on the road/track.
For those few that do take em out (and can afford it), I reckon it’ll be great fun. Just hope that “skyhook” suspension is well tested and doesn’t send riders skyward.
Still waiting for the first Dieseldromic DucAudi with Twattro all-wheel-drive.
And maybe a smaller engine sized Panigale?
@Skuzzy…hell yea a little 888 R6 killer something you could f*cking wring its neck out
I’d like to know more about the chassis/geometry changes.. or what is adjustable. Maybe they will do things proper with adjustable steering head and a nicely done rear ride height adjuster… one can hope.
NOT impressed with the finish on the tank… that is a crappy job. First thing I would want to do is fix the brush marks. Painted silver would have looked better. Sorry Ducati, bad job here. Rest of the bike looks spectacular so full marks there.
I own a 1098R and every time I ride it is privilege. All the best components and a race inspired engine. I bought my 1098R after first wanting the Panigale. What got me to buy my R was the engine performance.
What is disappointing about the Panigale is the powerband, it is only powerful beyond 8000 rpm. Unfortunately, the Ducati execs felt is was best to go after horsepower and chase BMW’s S1000RR rather than maintain a flat and high torque curve.
If in fact, these are the 1199R specs, the price and power reflect Ducati’s inability to find additional performance from the 1199 engine. And what we are left with is a tricked out 1199 selling at the same price as the Tricolore. For those who are unfamiliar, 1098R/1198R list at $40K+ and have a significant boost in performance over their 1098/1198 brethren.
We can only hope in the future the engineers are given the green light to produce a truly powerful engine to put in a supremely beautiful motorcycle and while they are at it, solve the ridiculously hot exhausts.
Yeah, what PDR said, and JD….
Beautiful bike can’t wait to see what she can do….. Exhaust looks awesome glad the undertail exhaust is gone cause the heat from it was brutal… That being said carbon exhaust canister doesn’t seem to be an option on this bike probably to HOT might melt.. Bike looks sick!!
Oh that would be awesome, a 888 or whatever capacity a twin needs to be to lineup with the middleweights. Spec it out like a true R with all that engine goodness. I would be kicking myself at the end of the year after going broke maintaining it and its inevitable backup engine.
x1 RCV213 (Production Clone)
x1 1199 R
That would be a nice upgrade for the old garage.
Is the 1199R going to have the carbon fiber ‘airbox’ (the stressed member between the engine and headstock) or remain aluminum like the current models?
With all the problems Ducati had with the carbon fiber ‘framed’ GP bike curious if they will go this route on the 1199R.
What an ugly bike! Still using an old-fashioned chain, and what’s that pointed thing up in the air–a way to streamline the riders a$$? What about all the drag underneath and around the open rear wheel? Agree with all the above — they should start with a clean sheet of paper!!!
@ SPORTY4LIFE: Did you wander into the wrong blog? Pretty much every “proper” modern sportbike uses a chain (less power loss) and yes, the tailsection is intended to limit the drag coming from the rider’s “a$$”. We live, eat and breath modern sportbikes around here… and the Panigale certainly looks just like that… a modern sportbike!
Sporty4life needs to find another sport to talk about, move along troll
@PDR: Yes, it doesn’t have the torque that the 1198 has. The torque that in pretty much all the road tests I read of the 1198, the testers said was almost too brutal on the road, and made it actually harder to go fast coming out of a corner on track.
Yet when the 1199 was tested hard on the track, the testers said it was a lot easier to lay the power down from early in the corner and then once you are finishing the corner, you get a nice wallop of power going down the straight.
@Mormont: The problems with the GP bike are so far removed from the 1199. It didn’t matter when they made the airbox out of aluminium or CF, same problems. Problems with a GP bike, on the most amazingly expensive and finicky suspension, with super difficult Bridgestone tyres, riding at the very limits above what any of us can do.
I read Stoner never liked the trellis frame, as having all the welds made each chassis handle much differently. He was quite keen on the airbox frame idea. When spec tyres came in, the Ducati went downhill.
Meanwhile Moto GP has come and gone.
If Ducati can rotate the engine cylinders farther to the rear of the bike then they could find a conjunction point for the exhaust tubes in front of the silencers instead of behind…therefore eliminating the need for an ‘exhaust loop’ at the rear engine cylinder. This might reduce the engine heat problems…
…and the problem with the Ducati GP bike never was the ‘frameless’ design, as Rossi and Burgess’s redesign missteps have proven! If a heavier, more physical rider (such as Spies) has success and improved lap times from this seasons attempts, then Ducati should retry the ‘frameless’ concept.
@Minibull With all due respect, some of us ride the motorcycles we blog about rather than repeat what someone has said or written.
The 1199 was created to allow everyone who wants a Ducati superbike to be able to own and ride one. If you want a “wallop” going down the straight hopefully the 1199R utilizes the much rumored KERS.
The 1198 and 1098R/1198Rs with the 1198 racing engines are not for everyone. When riding fast, it is all about minimal movements, easing into the throttle and easing into the brakes, grab either one and you’ve got problems. It is all about usable power and as engines become more powerful electronics play a bigger role in keeping the rider in control.
The Rs are meant for the rare owner who can afford to have the best and ride the best. It is all about performance and if you can’t control it don’t buy it unless you are poser.
The photo’s aren’t of the Actual “r” just an FYI.
Jensen is giving some highlight’s of what he believes will be on the R. If they spec it and build it like they should I will be purchasing. Add some Ti connecting rods, full race exhaust, tuned up to R standards, carbon bits, and dare I ask rear sets? Win.
And it won’t sit. It will see the track like my 1198SP did yesterday.
The photo’s above are not the exact R they will be releasing and based on the electronic suspension ability, I’d bet it has the eleectronics to dial in each corner of the track based on the GPS, DDA+, ECU, Skyhook, etc.
Message in reply to Andrey’s ill-informed comment:
Andrey says:
September 28, 2012 at 5:45 PM
NOT impressed with the finish on the tank… that is a crappy job. First thing I would want to do is fix the brush marks.
…those aren’t brush marks, bro, they are wire wheel (possibly sand paper) finishing marks in the aluminum!
w@BenChallenger1 this might help http://t.co/vIdmEpQI
@@BenChallenger1 this might help http://t.co/vIdmEpQI