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.
Probably not going to go too far with what appears to be about 2 inches of front end suspension travel.
Would be fun to commute to the office on that though.
Naw, there’s nearly 7″ of travel there…now clearance with the front fender is a totally different matter.
@jensen
Doh! That’s what meant.
Brutus – The less effective solution to problems that were solved long ago.
Strike that.
Brutus – The less effective, less practical, more expensive solution to problems that were solved long ago.
Ummm… can you say, “Yamaha TW 200″? The Trailway was and is a fully capable vehicle. This seems to be a result of the “Bigger is Better” mentality. However, anyone who rode the TW or the competing Honda BigWheel can tell you… the smaller displacement engines are perfectly suited to the task. When crawling the kinds of obstacles and tackling the types of terrain that these bikes are designed for, you dont want a fire-breathing 750 spewing rocks and dirt in all directions. You want a nice, smooth, controllable 200-400 with smooth power delivery and a great bottom end torque curve. This bike, as cool as the design may be, is the combat equivalent of a tank in a firefight. You may accomplish the task, but at the cost of only being able to utilize 15% of the intended capabilities of the system. Sick looking bike… but, overkill. IMHO.
To Jake F.
I’m not being snarky, really, I’m not. What is “the solution to the problems that were solved long ago” that you are referring to?
I live in Montana, and I like to get into the mountains. But where I want to go does not allow ATVs, only single track vehicles (if any motorized vehicles are allowed at all – a lot of it is horse-packing only). A small enduro or dirt-bike works, but they break your ba**s with high, narrow and hard seats, and have short range. Some people use Rokons or old Tote-Gotes, but they are very slow and nearly as uncomfortable as a dirt bike. But they can haul out your deer or elk or bear.
I’d love a motorized mule that has modern power and technology, serious range, an ATV like seat and some comfort and convenience for long hunting trips. I’ve been looking for some kind of two wheeled Jeep for some time, and this comes pretty close. Bet I can’t afford it, though
Anyone see any foot controls?
ToddyO,
There are any number of dual-sport or enduro bikes currently on the market to suit your purpose. Don’t like the factory seat? There are several companies in the business of making comfortable custom seats. Plus, the pics shown here don’t exactly convey a comfortable, cushy ride. We don’t know what the range of this bike is just yet, but I’d bet a fair chunk of change it’ll be thirstier and with a shorter range than many other two-wheeled alternatives.
Transformers. More than meets the eye. Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons…
this reminds me of what a honda ruckus would look like if you threw in a 750cc engine and big fatties on it.
I’m sorry…hahaha, but I love this bike. Yeeeah…it might look like overkill of sorts, but so what. It just looks cool.. :-) I agree with Jensen….if this is to be a more practical sort of machine (if that is actually possible), then I’d think you’d want it to have a 2WD option.
Looks like the spawn of a Honda Rukus and a Rokon Ranger. At least the Rokon is 2WD.
I like it.
TW200 was my first thought. LOL. No clutch, perfect for urban dicing…more street biased tires wouldn’t hurt while at the same time giving back more front wheel travel….OR slap longer suspenders(up front at least).
But w/o an average 6′ human standing next to it i don’t have a clue as too how big or small this is.
No fuel capacity, speed, nothing ? I’ll reserve further skinning of this til i see some specs.
How much would this thing cost ?
I know some places in South Florida where this would be the perfect vehicle, places where four wheelers are too wide to get through, and standard dirt bikes sink up to their axles and spin. Now it just needs a couple of inflatable floats, and a snorkel for the air intake, to get it through the deeper holes, and you’re all set. :-)
It’s a design that is really only suitable for some very extreme environments close to the equator, and close to the Poles. And I agree that the addition of a driven front wheel would be more practical and preferable in such environments. But if you want hold wheel stands on the tundra to impress those polar bears, this is the bike for you.
Is there a website for the Brutus, too bad it aint 2 wheel drive…..it’s definitely cool