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.
Sorry, it doesn’t do anything for me…
That’s just a photoshop of a MST.
Make it Duc red, get rid of them bags, lower them front bars and I would think about getting one!
I agree with Richard, this wasn’t worth posting.
YUK……bloody awful………and don’t give up ur day job..
Looks ok. If I loved the brand and was looking for an ST, I might consider it. Those luggage would need to be bigger though, that angle at the back of them limits the space inside, like it does on the Multistrada. Of course it’s not as sexy as an 848 but, it’s an ST.
I’ve had better looking bowel movements. Admittedly, mine tend to be rather beautiful, but still.
It still has the “throttle by wire”,, which means a piece of silicon holds your right wrist hostage.
Put cables on it and watch it sell.
Just a thought.
While the bike in some form is needed, deriving it off of the multistrada is definitely NOT the way to do it. The STs are supposed to be beautiful italian designs that are somehow practical. Like a Maserati Quatroporte. I rather see a photo chop of a 998 made into a sport tourer….
Some lovely concept shots of a Ducati ST1200 – http://bit.ly/bDfIz4 – Maybe next year, but i still want the 'strada more
There is much about the Multi 1200 that would be worth saving, but the body is not one of them. Giving Captain Beaky a nose job is like the proverbial lipstick on a pig – it still goes ‘oink’. Ducati has a deep repertoire of pleasing designs that could easily be mated to the engine and frame of the 1198, with Monster 1100 ergonomics and a nice pair of forks. Bingo, you have the ST we have been wanting.
Good start, but the main elements to me are wind blast protection and comfortable seating, both single and two up. It doesn’t look compatible for two up, looks like a sport bike configuration. I agree the design should employ more “Italian” characteristics (we know what that is but can’t describe it, you know it when you see it). The luggage is too sharp and perhaps the concept as well.
I know the reason why Ducati dropped the ST line, poor sales. But the real reason in my opinion was poor design and lacking sport/tour features. Now that a few years have passed, the technology is available, the need for a sport tour bike is obvious and Ducati has a wonderful opportunity to bring the bike back as the leader in this segment. Lastly, another reason and likely a main sticking point in sales success is the fact an owner is required to bring his bike in every 6K miles for an expensive and not cost effective service. This was changed to 7.5K miles, but thats hardly an improvement. But, with better engine design and tuning the Testastretta motor in some of the newly released models are required service intervals of an amazing 15K miles! This is no small improvement, this is hugh, especially in a bike category that promotes touring. This alone will attract buyers.
I’ve been a sport bike rider most of my life and feel I’m past due converting to a more comfortable sport tour bike (more touring than sport). I would have bought an older ST but the service intervals defeated that idea. So it looks like I will be “divorcing” the brand loyalty when I decide to make the change because Ducati is ignoring a large and getting older riding crowd.
I like the idea but, let’s have a pipe on either side and a bit larger fuel tank to take a decent 21Ltrs or more, none of this 15Ltr rubbish like nowadays! Oh yes and RED it just has to be RED!
For a quick and dirty ‘chop, that’s really pretty good. Ducati could probably pull this off with a high degree of parts commonality and relatively little additional R&D. Probably a good idea for them. Personally I’ll take the long suspension and upright seating of the multi.
Lazarus, FYI the MTS 1200 has a 20L fuel tank.
Oooo, here’s an idea! Add a blower to it and dethrone the C-14 or whatever is today’s most-powerful sport-tourer ;) If the Australians can do a limited production 999 making 200hp, surely Ducati could get a reliable 200hp out of a lightly blown 1198 mill.