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.
” the S1000RR is begging for an update in the 2013 model year” How so? the 2012 was a very heavily revised model, dont expect a new S1000RR update till ’14 or ’15…
I’d hardly call the 2012 update to the S1000RR “a very heavily revised model”
Please, Dear Motorcycle Gods:
Don’t let it become another VISUAL FRANKENSTAINED ABOMINATION/ABORTION OF A GOOD LOOKING ORIGINAL Motorcycle…
Like those HIDEOUS Tuono V4 and StreetFighter( sorry Jensen buddy )…specially the Tuono, GOd that thing is FUGLY ! If i were the RSV4 i would hang myself out of SHAME.
No worries Mike, even the ugly girls need love.
MikeD, not everyone wants to ride a full fairing sport bike ya fag. The older I get, the more and more all superbikes look exactly the same to. Naked bikes have a unique look, deal with it.
@Jensen
Sometimes ugly girls actually need a little more lovin if you know what I mean. (I owned a Honda 919 Hornet for 5 years)
I personally think the S1000RR is hideous in it’s current incarnation, as an engineer I just can’t stand asymmetrical design and the ergos on it are torture rack-esque.
I agree that while the Tuono V4 is the highest performance sport naked ever produced, it looks like a hot mess.
Personally I think The Streetfighter and the Speed/STreet Triple are the best looking of the bunch. The z100 looks cool in a robo-anime kinda way as well.
@Damo, there’s plenty of examples of beautiful asymmetry on motorcycles: single-sided swingarm, single side exhaust, drive chain on one side – brake rotor on the other, single front rotor (e.g. Buell), kickstand (although I guess a center stand would be the symmetrical alternative). Consider that making both sides of a motorcycle look the same diminishes the joy in walking around it and treating the eye. I would concur though that asymmetry for asymmetry’s sake is … less sophisticated.
I like bikes that are reminiscent of an elegant woman, beautiful, and naked (usually Italian)…
@Tom:
Thanks for labeling me A FAG, i really apreciate it…it says a lot about you and what a smart and magnificent person you may happen to be.
U could have dissagreed with me in a million different ways besides name calling but i guess that’s how you get off and i guess your mental capacity is not up to the task at hand. Thanks for trying. LOL.
P.S: I don’t have to deal with it, i don’t harbour any ownership feelings towards the thing. I too ride a naked motorcycle…albeit not that ugly.
Maybe you own one and i stepped all over your pride/joy by calling it UGLY in the open ? My apologies, is just my opinion…we all have one and they all STINK.
Be cool about it like Jensen and his ” different looking ” Street Fighter… \(^_^)/
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@Damo:
The S1000RR has grown on me. I too happened to not like it when it came out, specially the WTF Look headlight arrengement. lol.
No doubt, the new Tuono is one hell of a burner…looks aside.
Of all 3 you mentioned i only like the ST (although i can’t wait for Triumph to DUMP that 1050 Dinosaur of an engine), i have quite warmed up to the new headligths, specially sporting the factory bikini windshield…The Z1000 it looked cool, i don’t know what happened…i don’t like it anymore.
The SF ? Not a chance.
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@Twin6 & Westward:
U guys are such helpless motorcycle romantics………LMAO. (^_^)
@MikeD
Agreed, the big issue with the 1050cc isn’t really the power so much as that lump weights a metric ton!
@Twin6
“asymmetry for asymmetry’s sake” is exactly where I was going. I feel that is kinda what BMW did.
@ Damo
It wasn’t done for “asymmetry’s sake”, and you should really get over your hatred against the BMW. They entered a new market segment in a year when most other people were pulling back (the 09 BMW was a much better choice than the non-existant 09 GSX-R). They have taken a sizable chunk of the superbike market in North America and are selling more bikes post-economic downturn than they ever have. Stop hating. The only thing asymmetric about that bike is the headlights and the side vents. Using different type headlights on the front and having different venting requirements on each side make a lot of sense. Coule they have made them to look the same and produced the same effect? Sure they could, but then that would have been symmetry for symmetry’s sake. Why constrain yourself to what everyone else is doing? They took a chance on a new design and it payed off BIG TIME. If only other manufacturers were making new and exciting clean sheet designs right now (aside from the 1199 which obviously fits that description). Stop hating Damo! And in 3 years they turned this bike from nothing into a beast in superstock, a force on the endurance curcuit and a WSBK winner. I mean, come on!
@Faust
The reason I hate on the BMW has nothing to do with the engine or the technical benchmark BMW has achieved with the new bike. It has everything to do with the fact I think the bike is hideous and sitting on the bike is about as comfortable as getting put to the question in Salem Massachusetts circa 1692!
The main point which I have stated ad nauseam in the past:
Comfort and performance are equally important to me. My bike is my prime mode of transportation, so I need to be able to do 2-3 hours of riding on the bike on the regular (I also realize that my 6’2″ 200lbs frame doesn’t agree with most sport bikes) I urge you to go sit on a S1000RR and get back to me.
Maybe if BMW puts out a super high horsepower naked liter bike I might give them a ring, especially if it is priced reasonably. The Tuono would quite possibly be the ideal bike for me, good ergos, high performance, etc. but to say the dealer network is sparse would be an understatement.
@Faust
Also I thought as adults we have established that WSBK success (or lack there of) has absolutely nothing to do with their street models.
@Damo
Except we know that it DOES play into their street bike because racing development is what prompted the changes to this year’s model. The feedback from the racing versions is why they changed the swingarm pivot point, refined the chassis, changed the steering head angle, shortened the wheelbase, added trail, reduced fork offset, and reduced shock length. Without their racing program, this would not have happened.
As for comfort, from a man who was just saying on another article that he was looking hard at Ducati 1098/1198s as a future bike to bash on the BMW for ergos…. hmm….
@Faust
For my frame a 1198/1098 is light years more comfortable than the S1000RR.
I declare Faust to have lost this bout. Give up, take it like a man, and avoid the situation by not being so aggressive towards other’s opinions. I like everything about the S1000RR except for the fact that I can’t afford it.
@ Ryan
I went to high schol with Damo and we’ve known eachother since the mid 90s, so chill out. I’m just giving him a hard time. It’s what I do. Where do you get off thinking I care if you “declare” a winner to a debate, and who are you to tell me to “take it like a man”? Everything I said about the S1000RR is right on. You can’t afford an S1000RR? It’s only 15k man, wow.
Hey guys,
I agree with Damo that the BMW looks weird with asymmetric head lights and the vents, then again BMW ventured into a completely new design approach and it actually works!
When it first came out I thought WTF went wrong with the designers, but as faust said, sometimes you have to think outside the box and do something completely different.
Personally I love naked bikes, I own a Monster and purchased a Diavel no so long ago. And yes I really dislike the Tuono “performance aside”.
I was recently thinking about venturing into the world of sport bikes, so I test ride the 1198 and rode it for approximately a week “200 miles or so” and then the S1000RR.
Well, as comfort goes, I felt the BMW to be more comfortable than the 1198. The riding position is more upright then the 1198 and the handling “OMG” is amazing!
The BMW boast more self confidence and I felt that it maneuvers much easier then the DUC.
Although my heart goes to the 1198 but practicality and fun wise, BMW is the winner :)
@Ralph:
Aside from those who find it a matching piece to their body size (there’s one or 2 guys around here who own it and took it over the others 1Ks cause it fitted them well enough)………YES, the 1198 has been known to be one, if not the most “race oriented” of the litre bikes for a while now.
I think Honda followed closely by Suzuki are the most “comfortable” of the current 1Ks Crop.
I would have to agree that the naked look of the S1000RR-ish bike in the spy cam image is definitely fugly, IMHO. And this in spite of the fact that i too prefer a naked bike as opposed to a typical superbike with full fairing. It gives it more character. I would have to agree that all those superbikes look like clones of one another… lol.