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.
Tell you what. I’ve always been a full fairing sport bike guy, but Dropped all the fairings off my ’05 SS and the difference is night a day. Some where between a Monster and SS now she is much light and more agile. This concept is genius. I thought they should take the Testtastrada engine and dub it the new “Supersport” though. More performance with modern liquid cooling at a more adored able price would rip! I lovey air cooled, but for a “Supersport” bike it just out dated.
Precisely my thoughts: very nice, but you can’t put an air-cooled in a supersport anymore. It was awesome in the 70′s, great in the 80′s and cool in the 90′s, but come on, it’s 40 years old now.
It’s still great in a city Monster and for short rides outside, but take it for a longer ride that implies stretches of highway and it’ll struggle.
Very well done, and should make for a very entertaining, and long-overdue, sportbike. The family ties to the flagship are not overdone (like the Porsche 911/Boxster) and it clearly has its own style. As far as the ‘outdated’ motor is concerned, go test ride a Hyper Evo, or even better, beg/borrow/steal some laps on a Millona… either one is max grinnage; nothing beats simple and light with midrange stomp. And for the record, I’ve put over 60k on a 2004 Multistrada, and it’s never ‘struggled’ on the highway… or anywhere else for that matter.
A better handling Monster with fairings? I dont see the market?
Just put the Superquadro Engine in a new Streetfighter so I can upgrade/trade in my 2011 796 Monster.
Oberdan Bezzi is a demi god!
How many times does Bezzi need to pen killer designs before a person reaches climax?
I agree, nix that air cooled and go for liquid. Bump the hp to around 120 so it at least feels like it would give any 4 cyclinder 600 race bike a run and I would be in.
I’ve owned Monster and now ride a 1999 900 SSie and to have the upgrade in forks, wheel’s,Brakes and on and on but still have the Air cooled Motor I’ll take mine in Red Please! This is long over due riders have talk about this for years ,it just makes sense to go at that market!! duh
And next InternatiolBike Show Novi Michigan I hope to see Ducati show up at this Show!!!
One small problem….take a close look at the shock next to the head. In real life that would never work. There is no room for it there. The frame would stick out and would be in the way of your leg.
So much for that CAD desgin.
Also, even though I own a two-valve Monster, that motor is not the right one for this bike. To hit a price point at 9000 Euro’s, ok, but it would sit on Dealers floors like a fresh turd. Sorry…..
Well I hope Ducati comes out with something, because the F3 from MVAugusta is currently the bike of choice in the lower CC class in my opinion….
BTW, they can also do better than the current mirrors on the 1199
Too much fairing around an AIR cooled engine, that thing on the first stop light will turn itself into a puddle of aluminium underneath the bike.
Going for a TL-S half fairing would make more sense here…just this guy’s opinion.
Kevin saw a very obvious problem with the shock’s placement…first thing i saw too but said f*%$ it, this thing will never see daylight anyways.
For those of u thinking W/Cooling…forget about it being affordable anymore, IF there’s still something like that in Bike World.
I will show this to my cousin we were just talking about this last month!
I, like a lot of other guys, are laying awake at night thinking about a super sport class vision of the Panigale -seems like sport bike nirvana.
My design two cents worth:
1 ) I agree with the other comments that an air cooled engine would not make sense here.
2) Trellis frame: it’s such a Ducati signature feature and looks so right. That’s a hard one to give up but if the new design actually works better, I’ll concede to progress.
3) Panigale style shock mount /swingarm: looking good.
4) Exhaust: I believe the Panigale should do it similar to what’s shown here. A belly-pan enclosed design -ala KTM- is super clean but the Panigale’s looks weird- like they were trying too hard.