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.
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.
I have a feeling that this new CBR 600RR is a tad uglier than before…look at those lamp..
So far I like it. I hated the last one’s styling. I think this looks nice in profile. Want to see it in person though.
Brutally hideous. The previous version wasn’t the most beautiful supersport, but this is just about the ugliest bike I’ve ever seen. I thought this was a joke when I first saw pics. Side and lower fairings look like the 05-06 model! Huge step back in the styling department in my opinion.
The red+blue+white scheme color just like Ultraman…hahaha
Its like they are racing towards the title of ugliest bike. Honda is clearly in the lead.
Whoever penned this bike had better commit hari kari before they’re let loose on the new V4.
Its the honorable thing to do.
“Butterface” ……nuff said.
“Butterface” ……nuff said.
I think you nailed it! But I wouldn’t…
So they pretty much gave me no reason to change from my 07 model to this one. Well played Honda. At least you can see the engine again unlike the 09-12 models. Fairings that are simpler and not pieced together from a stupid number of smaller panels would be at least nice. It looks like they at least did something about that but of course they uglified it in the process. Same engine with the lowest in-class horsepower and same chassis with just some revised suspension. Hope Yamaha does a little better whenever they get around to revising the R6.
Love it.
Honda man thru and thru……but this is one of the ugliest ‘things’ I have ever seen. That is not a race bike. It doesn’t look mean. It looks like your great uncle Gilbert with his bifocals on.
The wheels look brilliant. The front fairing looks like Starks first helmet in Ironman 1. What were they thinking of.
Prices for earlier models with it would seem the same performance will go down though.
Big influence from moto2, look at those fairing, hahaha…
I like it. Love that it evokes older designs while echoing the RCV213. It’s like an anticipation of greater things to come. Nostalgia that you can buy today, because tomorrow’s will be radically different.
Of course, that’s just me. Again, I like it.
Honda has lost its mojo.
The Desmosedici/R6 front end is growing on me.
Can’t say the same about the rest of the plastics…same as the 05 MY ? It does have a sligth stench of Moto2 to it.
I like the Solid Red…refreshing.
The least they could have done to it looks wise could have been slap the under belly 1000 xhaust and lower the tail unit…at least to get it out of the early 2000′s look.
Ugliest thing I have ever seen. By far, the japanese have lost some innovation in their designs. I kept waiting year after year for an update, and this is what we get lol. I am sure its overall a better bike, but man is it an ugly mofo heh. The front is just hideous.
To echo the general sentiment of the thread, this thing is a MASSIVE step backwards for Honda, aesthetically.
The profile of the front end looks very similar to the ’05 Yamaha R6. That was back when I still didn’t pay attention to Yamaha b/c they didn’t know style. The ’06 fixed that…
All the hate on the web about the design of this bike … I swear, I must be looking at a different bike. It’s quite a departure from last year’s design, in a great way.
I realy like it. I have a black and green 2009 CBR600RR and I like the look of this one better. Putting the lights back above the exhaust, and changing the fairings to free up access to the engine oil fill again is better. It may be older concepts, but it makes more sense.
It’s a shame that so many people complain when things stay the same, but at the same time they’re so resistant to change.
At least there won’t be so many out on the street, and I can pick one up for a steal.
The new design is awesome. I love that they’ve put the tail light back above the exhaust, and retained the under-seat exhaust. But the headlights are without a doubt the best part. Factory repsol paint on a 600rr is great, and the retro classic tri-colour is also
It looks much more aggressive, and less feline. Thank god we’re finally seeing the end of the obsession with making headlights and noses as sharp and pointy as possible, as if that makes it look “faster”.
Compared to the ’05 R6, they look nothing alike, and the ’13 600RR is far superior.