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.
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.
Honda…I dont care if this bike is electric or fossil fuel…build this bike please!!!!
O…M…G! Now this is quite a pleasant surprise for a Thursday morning… :-) And here I was thinking last night how the Toyko Motor Show has gotten really stale over the years with nothing of any real interest being debutted or offered. Nice Honda…nice!
I certainly hope Honda/HRC go electric road-racing soon with a version of this!
Mike D says it straight… dont care WHAT is under the hood. i want one.
(incredible how with one stroke- Honda has made Zero, Brammo, Czyz(?) and all those others look like a cheap prop from the original Star Trek)
From the tank backwards it looks surprisingly like the Brammo Empulse to me?
the back half does not a whole bike make.
Ah, there we go. Way to go Honda.
Finally, an electric that doesn’t look like it was built in a woodshed.
Make it red, give it some range, and make the price graspable.
I dig it. That is a hot little machine.
Oh to be company president for a day. By morning tea I would have bridged the disconnect between the development and production teams. Never again would the market have to ponder how a company with such consistently brilliant design concepts, could construct the absurd finished products that they do.
This is going to be a $50k + bike. I’m not holding my breath. None the less, absolutely beautiful machine!
Oh P.S.
Honda, THIS is how the new CBR600RR should look for ’13.
As good-looking as the CB 1100 R concept. Even seems to be a “functional concept”, if there’s such a thing, with radiators, functional brakes etc. Co-axial swingarm attachment, front sprocket AND eletric motor, take this BMW! :)
Well a little closure for those buying a 2012 CBR1000,
Your getting an 08 bike with a new face and whatever forks, R&D allocation for watch should have gone to updating the blade has gone here by the looks of things.
Looks intriguing, but what are the facts. I want to know range, speed, battery technology, and weight…
Bitchin. Awesome job, Honda. Give us an option for a V4 1000cc motor, too, please!
looks great!
i wouldn’t say it blows the motoczysz away though, more the contrary. The czysz cost a fortune to build, and it looks it too…IMO one of the most gorgeous and best finished bikes of all times. Nothing woodshed or cheap about that!
Looks like a Britten with conventional forks to me. (that’s high praise) I’d be seriously considering it if it comes in at a reasonable price. Honda should be able to mass produce something spectacular at a great price if they put their mind to it.
It all comes down to price… and what type of range you get for it… I like it, and that is hard for me to say for anything Honda…
Tee Tee Ex Gee Pee Domination!
@Westward says:
[QUOTE]PMLooks intriguing, but what are the facts. I want to know range, speed, battery technology, and weight…[/QUOTE]
Range: 50mi
Speed: 100+
Battery: LiOn
Weight: 500lbs +
typical of eBikes.
gorgeous
@Isaac
Got any sources for those spec classes. I mean they seem reasonable, just curious if you found a leaked spec sheet. I have heard that this uses a Insight Car electric motor
Range and particularly recharge time need to improve a LOT before electric sports bikes become relevant to me.
@ Isaac
How do you get 500 lb (277 kg) as “typical for ebikes”. There are only two ebikes in any kind of mass production, the Brammo Enertia which is 324 lb (147 kg) and what I have, the Zero DS/S. I have the DS and my ebike has a range of about 50 miles and weighs 268 lb (122 kg). There are no ebikes anywhere near 500 lb either as a production bike or a prototype. The heaviest I know of the Mavizen (which is a built to order thing not a production bike) is 374 lb (170 kg)
Why have you just made up “”500+, typical for ebikes “as a “fact”? You’re not alone, every single thread about electric bikes is full of made up facts
@Jason. The 500 lbs is typical of the weight the race bikes in the TTXGP and e-Power series, so it’s not baseless.
I am curious as to where Issac got his info. If those stats are true, compared to CRP’s, Brammo’s, and Zero’s top proposed 2012 bikes, then this is a poor execution by Honda.
@ttxgpfan Yes, the race bikes can be heavier, but there are only three road bikes in mass production at the moment. Zero XU at 221 poounds, Zero DS/S at 290 pounds and the Brammo Enertia at 324 pounds. Given that this is a road bike we’re talking about if you’re going to put in a throw away line like “typical of ebikes” in response to a request for “facts” then it’s just plain wrong.
I’ve been involved in a lot of internet discussions and it’s common for people to interpret things differently but it’s rare for people to just make stuff up. (I’ve never noticed it) However in electric bike comments sections it seems to be quite normal.
Btw In my previous post I gave the 2010 state of play. The second post I gave the 2011 state of play with the entry of the XU and a 10 kg increase in weight for the DS/S. The 2012 Zeros are a bit heavier at up to 340 pounds. Still no where near “500+”
Honda to debut electric racing motorcycle at Tokyo motor show: http://t.co/Yb0V7B7K
Besides KTM one year later still the same play bike Sherco presented way more advanced real size water cooled two speed off road bike and Gas Gas came up officially with their trials bike. Plus numerous good level children trials brands starting with the bikes for the 2 years old!
On the street esthetic Volta bikes are way ahead from others for a while now. Honda effort is good if it’s not some pointless prototype again. Husky proto was already strong enough so there is no competition at the moment;) But true as mentioned here above already, give us an option for a V2 1200cc motor, too, please! This electric stuff is lame PlayS generation thing where is no man any more. Any way the bike looks good. Make it happen Honda.