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.
@11,900 for an R6…………………….
Used market is set to thrive even better… I’ll take a 2007-2008 R6 for half of that please.
Interesting to note.. I bought a 2008 CBR1000RR with 3K miles for $7000 in 2010 – meanwhile Honda was fire-saleing them for $7000 NEW. You can barely find the same model year NOW for that price.
Yamaha has been spending too much time on their Star business, they’ve adopted the H-D business model.
Note to editor: This thing looks pretty fast for 60 cc’s…
At least some other companies (Honda, Kawasaki, Triumph, and maybe Ducati) will be updating their supersports this year. It makes no sense to me why companies focus on either superbikes or budget minded 250′s and seem to ignore the supersports. Supersports make so much practical sense for so many sport riders. I’ve been looking to upgrade from my 2007 600rr but it’s been frustrating waiting for the manufacturers to get around to it. Honda and Yamaha both got WORSE in 2009 with increased EPA regulations. How they keep increasing the MSRP’s without doing any real developement is beyond me. The Kawi will be interesting to see tomorrow, especially since they should come in at a great price point comparatively while offering an engine with a little more character.
2013? It looks like a 2008. I bet they’ll wonder why they wont be selling many of these. The ‘same old, same old’ doesn’t cut it these days. So, far it looks like the Kwacker for me. Let’s see what Suzuki has to offer.
Disappointed. Yamaha haven’t done any proper model updating since the first crossplane-crank R1 got released. You’d have thought that this (or next) was the year for at least one of their sports models to get a full repplacement. Heck, even their 250 motocrosser is still on carbs for 2013. What the hell, Yamaha?!
Well, at least the exhaust didn’t get ginormous like everything else coming out for 2013……
I guess that I’m keeping my 06 50th anniversary R6 for another while. It’s not worth to upgrade for just another color scheme and more epa bullshit to eliminate.
Nothing to say that the other poster’s haven’t yet…or myself already on the R1 Article.
Yamaha…U BLOWS. I figure u must be in pain but you are not the only one…look at the others and how they are still trying, kicking and trying to invent themselves…LAME TOO MUCH ?
I hope u clean your act, redeem yourself with an updated CrossPlaned FJR, FZ1, FZ8 & street legal WR450F OR THIS:
http://www.yamaha-motor.eu/uk/products/motorcycles/street/xt660x.aspx
Swim or Sink, BEEATCH ! The global economy won’t get magically fixed tomorrow…(-_-)
@Gutterslob & BNP&G:
+1. Yamaha: Lay off the Star Kool-Aid and the Lazy Ass Rocking Chair.
Economy is doing well for the companies who invest in new technology.
Yaaahhhnmaha……..
If I were in the market for a new Supersport, I’d be looking at the new Kawasaki ZX-6R 636!
Id would have expected in the least that they woold have updated the styling in 09-10but this is redic. It looks the same as the 06 model. At least if they updated the styling it would give people the reason to go look a them in the dealers.
Im really shocked it just got color updates…. really…..Honda is in the same boat
Price range is $10,990 – $11,190. The blue is just $200 worth of stickers, not $1000.
…. nothing new …
Did ride the 2011 Suzuki GSX-R 600 and was impressed especially with the suspension, but also handling, rider friendlyness, low seat position, power band. The Suzuki is a friend of the rider, not some bike you are struggling against.
Thats the brand new 2008 model?? What gives yamaha? For 12k i would much rather buy a used liter bike….. bought my 10 RSV4 factory with 1k miles for 14.5 last year….
The least they could have done was modernize the turn signal and mirrors..
Crap. Math is tough.
Are you sure they didn’t accidentally send you the photo’s of the 2009 model..?
If not then maybe they should add ‘classic’ to the model name…
Its so sad how the motorbike market got affected, one can only imagine where this bikes would be if they had kept evolving at the rate they used to. That being said, honestly this is still one of the best looking supersports out there, one of the best looking bikes, period. One part of me knows this is one of those classic eternal designs and is happy that you can still by this brand new, and will be sad to lose her.
I own a 2009 yzf r6……Its a wonderful sportbike . lotsa of fun plenty of power exceptional handling…….But it was overly expensive in 2009,,,, and you havnt changed it… so, WHY ARE YOU CHARGING MORE FOR IT! And dont say inflation because most of the parts for this bike were made 6 years ago and have been sitting in a warehouse waiting to become your 2013 model. the tuning fork needs to man up! no one is going to buy this thing ! LOL
Obviously not true Yamaha fans here. Why would you change this bike at all. The styling is timeless and riding is extremely fun for a 600. Yamaha hit the nail on the head back in 2005/2006 with this bike. I own an 07 R6 and when put next to my friends 2011 CBR600RR the people choose mine as their bike of choice just by the way they are presented. They have the mean race look on the road.