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.
I am sorry, but one that is not even able to pump up his motorcycle tyres shouldn’t design motorcycles.
Never seen this before. Where have I been? Beautiful looking bike in it’s own way. Like Akira meets a Sinclair C5! Frog NEED to do this again with a modern bike. Would love to see what they could do with the current crop of somewhat awkwardly styled litre class sportsbikes such as the R1 or GSXR.
Hm. They have an office just down the street from mine. I’ll have to check it out…
Same year that Ducati showed the Paso. :-)
Love the helmet. It’s so Sci-fi.
Outlawed in the Golden State? That doesn’t sound right. Was it just not being imported because of the tariff Harley got the ITC to impose on Japanese bikes over 700cc?
And does anybody else thing the front end look like a Dakar bike?
Christ what a mess. I do see the connection to the Hurricane and Paso both design disasters in their own right. At least Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki didn’t get sucked into that psychedelic hell.
FeelGoodInc, I hear from my old colleagues there that the thought of losing this bike from the front lobby prompted a couple of designers to take up arms (err, pencils… errr, styli) for a 21st century version. Not sure how far along they are, but I bet you see something in the near future.
If you check the Frog Blog (some trademark that name ASAP) posting’s last photo, I believe we’re getting a glimpse of that bike Marc, no?
If no one told me what i was before me laying eyes on it i could have sworn it was a BMW !
@johnrudpree:
Indeed, it looks Dakar-ish.
@Kumo:
+1.
I think it looks alright…like a LEGO Bike…lol.
Yes,the Ducati Paso.The helmet looks like a Givi top box!!
Wow, the helmet looks like my old Shoei GX-1 !
Horrendously ugly bike that has not weathered the passing of time well.
Was it designed with a ruler and circle guides? Where is the emotion in the lines?
Looks like a plastic toy version of a Suzuki GS 1200.
@Marc F, class!!! One to look forward to. Interesting to see what bike they choose as a basis and why. All the comment s on here about why this bike is so wrong are, to me, missing the point a little. Yes it looks a bit Dakary…daiquiri…like a rally raid bike, it looks a bit Lego, it looks a bit like Asimo or like a Buck Rogers prop and that is what makes it so good. Its from a different mold an all these year later its still dividing opinion and getting talked about! In nearly 3 decades time, who is going to be talking about a 2012 GSXR1000?
Gods that’s hideous. As a graphic artist, I’d say that’s a miss. I’ll take a Suzuki Falco Rustico prototype any day for cool bizzaro, or better yet, a mint condition red/silver FZ750. ;-)