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.
Now how about bringing the Moab concept to life?!
Yeah, the Moab is the bike I want to see. And preferably with that awesome number plate/headlight dealy!
ditch the twin pipes and the headlight on this though, it’s a great start
Hooorrrible. Flashing back to the 70s in all the wrong ways. Bring us the Nuda in enduro form before this time machine afterbirth.
Remember that cute girl you went to school with? Now she’s turning tricks and getting slapped around by her fat German pimp. Heartbreaking.
A quick recap:
449 / 511: Gut – churningly ugly but capable dirt / supermotos built around BMW leftovers.
Nuda: A gut – churningly ugly fun bike built around BMW leftovers.
Strada / Terra: Gut – churningly ugly utility bikes built around BMW leftovers.
Baja: Gut- Another churningly ugly BMW bitza, except that this one has no redeeming features whatsoever.
I’m hoping that the fat German pimp will spend some of his ill-gotten gains developing a new 2-stroke Husky dirt bike to replace the worthy-but-long-in-the-tooth CR / WR range, but I get the feeling that he’s just going to blow it all on crack and ill-fitting Chinese bodywork.
The profile looks like something a 10 year old would create by mixing and matching parts from leftover Testors model kits…. 1/8 scale fuel tank and engine stuffed into a 1/12 scale chassis and wheels.
@Alex:
+1. I would rather Moab than Baja.
I think the double muffler is just bob weight (make it a dummy one, hollow, a storage compartment, like the 2Bros Muffler kit for the 06-07 ZX-10R, LOL.
Although, i have heard that MONOS are the hardest of engines to “shut up”… (something with no other cylinder to cancel each others sounds waves, etc ).
Sorry Husky, the barfy green number plate needs to go. How about real quality looking chrome panels on the tank? Dual exhaust on a single? Does the tank really need those angles? The 70 wr400 was a timeless beauty, no shame in coping it. I note that Triumph’s best selling bike is a near perfect replica of an old Bonneville that doesn’t have angles added to the tank. The 50ish guys who loved them don’t need hard to get loans. The tank angles aren’t going to suck in the “rad” crowd anyway. There is such a thing as timeless beauty. You Moab guys really like the front fender on that? It otherwise looks pretty much the same.
Instead of saying it is a modern take on a 400 Cross – which was a motocrosser – it’s more like the RT360, which was actually a dual-sport. Check it out here: http://www.enduro360.com/2010/09/04/featured/the-original-dual-sport-bike-husky-rt360/
The Baja concept is supposed to channel Steve McQueen’s Cross 400, which was made famous by its SI cover shot.
Thank God, somebody in the ADV bike styling department is starting do get it. While needing more work, this bike is certainly heading in the right direction. The styling on most of these Euro ADV bikes is ghastly. They are like having a really well built high performance woman with an athletic body, BUT, with a face that causes train wrecks. This BAJA is breaking new ground.
Anxious to see the styling on the new Buell AX [ if they ever get it out ]
I wish them well in this venture – putting the BAJA right next to their other bikes will be the tale of the tape. I bet this would sell 2 to 1.
I love Huskys, being old enough to remember the original enduros. I had great hopes for this Baja bike. The idea of a dual-sport that wasn’t trying to be a motocross bike, but had sensible gas tank and a comfortable seat. Pair that with modern fuel injection, advanced lighting, counter-balanced engine, and you might really have something. But this has gone in the wrong direction from the earlier prototype methinks. To get me to part with my torquey, simple and ultra-reliable 360-lb DR650se I want something that really combines the best of the old with best of the new. Don’t think this Baja does that. This just looks like a retro-tarted Nuda/Strada. As others said, the dual exhaust really kills it for me. Oh well, scratch another off the list of bikes to lust for…