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.
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.
The bike geek in me just blew my load. As did the sci-fi/comic book geek in me…
Win/win scenario then!
me gusta
She has good taste. That’s great looking thumper.
She can be my wingman anytime. Or vice versa. That’d be OK too. :)
I thought she was use to riding Cylons, now it looks like she is riding Bender…
That is really cool. Bonus points that she’s still got it with the old-school kick starter and no electric-start conversion.
Well done, Classified Moto.
Gorgeous – in every way.
The bike is aright too…
It’s funny how big 17″ wheels look on a minimalist bike.
That Kawsaki front end is an interesting choice. I would have liked the overall look better with some black or gray fork tubes. I wonder if that was a design choice or a “we had it laying around” choice.
really dont give a rats ass if the fork tubes were shit color blue they both look awesome I’ll take em both!! Lol
ok, who is guilty of the ham fisting the post crop vignetting? it is so over done it is hard to even look at the cover photo. the last photo shows more restraint and a better eye.
I SEE NO MOTORCYCLE. (O_O)
P.S: Bike is alrigth too.
I wish we would hear some feedback on how such bikes actually perform. Given the sheer number of custom motorcycles and ‘Café racers’ being produced it seems odd that we never seemed here about how they ride, or ever see anyone actually riding them. Personally I’ve never heard one word about how a bike like this actually rides.
Are these really motorcycles, for RIDING, or are they just works of art, to be parked in people’s living rooms as topics of conversation, expensive coffee tables, or perhaps the current substitute for the coffee table book in today’s culture.
I don’t know anything about Ms. Sackhoff’s riding experience or background, other than that she rides a Harley, and I saw a video of her getting off a BMW, so I don’t know if she’s capable of evaluating a real motorcycle’s performance, given the kind of riding experience the average Harley offers. But I posed the question to Katee on twitter, and I’ll pose it again here, how does this bike ride?
Love it. So simple and “open” it makes a Hypermotard look like a full-dresser by comparison. I wish Honda and BMW would take a good look at customs like this to understand the appeal of bikes stripped down to the basics.
That said, I’m way, way tired of the cafe-racer clip-on handlebars that force you to lay down on the tank. This bike, with its fat front tire, would handle much better with higher, wider bars. I also bet one front disc would be more than enough.
I also question whether this bike will every be ridden much. No plate holder and no turn signals means this thing ain’t street legal in most jurisdictions. I’ve pretty much written off any “street bike” without signals as a mere design exercise. Still, I think the builder has done some nice things with the bike. The twin front lamps work from a looks standpoing — take note Triumph. You ruined the Speed Triple with the last set of headlights!
I never wished so badly to be a bike seat. I LOVE YOU KATIE!
@Paul McM:
+100000000 on the stupid clip ons on this kind-o-bike. For me there’s no such a thing as too much brakes on a bike, im super cool with the double disc setup.
Im also sick and tired of every Joe-Jane Schmoe that sees him/herself with an arc welder and a grinder thinks they can build a contraption=cafe racer on their spare time and backyard out of any P.O.S bike the can rape.
Gotta love hipsters/builders…they r so full of ISH.
@Spektre:
ROTFLMAO.
MikeD, you just summed up why I canceled my subscription to Hell For Leather last year. ‘Hipster doofus’ is an understatement for what those guys turned into after going paid along with the whole wanna-be 70′s biker scene that guys like the ‘Born Free’ supposedly ‘live’. So you can grow a beard, wear metalflake helmets and are stupid enough to think rigid framed 74′s are awesome handling bikes. I also blame horrid shows like that Cafe Racer one. The host/magazine editor whatever he is guy with the lisp can barely even can ride and flat out said in an episode that he never had worked on a bike before. Like every other group of tools like Goth’s, skaters, HD Pirates, Canyon jockies…. if you look and act exactly like every other moron you hang out with than none of you are individuals, you’re just another pathetic sheep following the herd.
More Sanctuary type bikes, less Icon owned Bike Exif crap please.
That bikes fit for a Sci-Fi show…….with her on the saddle. Merry me?!
RT @johnryland: “@Asphalt_Rubber: Frak Me: Starbuck's Classified Moto KT600 Custom – http://t.co/ZfDymsh4 #motorcycle” @kateesackhoff
I’m betting it takes an extremely skilled rider to coax performance out of either of those rides.
And that rider is ME.
As a whole I love a good cafe/minimalist custom bike and I think this is a good example.
I agree clip-ons are overrated, but I would love to see more people use a generation one Speed Triple fork set up. The grips are high mount like full bars, BUT they mount to the top triple-clamp give a nice clean look, but you still get the comfort/control of a full bar setup.
I am with the rest of you on the hipster bike movement. Some hipster choad in my neighborhood rides around on a chopped to crap Yamaha XS 650 that barely runs, complete with his metal flake helmet, denim jacket and diddler mustache. Wearing the hipster uniform for all to see.
I want to ride by on my RC51 and clothesline him, Lex Luger style, every time I see him.
Why hate on a fellow rider, especially in the US, when it would be better to have more…
Besides, the world could use more cafe racers and naked rides in my book…
Westward, I’m all for every American riding. The thing I’ve experienced with both the Hipsters and Born Free ‘bikers’ is they look down on ‘us’, the rest of the riding public. I hate to mention them again because they are such arrogant dicks, but the tools at Hell For Leather attack anyone that questions them about anything. They are such dolts that they did a review on a hunting knife they used while camping. Explaining that it is the best knife ever and was used to chop wood, etc. And when some guys that are also military veterans (and like me used a knife/bayonet as a tool daily) questioned their ‘expertise’ they attacked them personally. These are paying subscribers using the comments section available only to paying customers. Add in the attitude and fuck you-ness that dicks like JB Nesbitt (a contributor to the site) posted when guys expressed dislike towards him, his bike designs or his ball licking on Jay Leno and I wasn’t giving them cash ever again. Born Free is an admirable thing in that it is grass roots and free, but looking down on any bike that isn’t a Triumph, HD or ‘accepted’ Japanese bike (XS, kick start 3/4 cylinder ones) and it shows that it isn’t about bikes, it’s about fashion and the bikes are just part of the fashion statement.
Again, everyone should ride. Shit, I did a paper in college about how traffic congestion would be reduced if more people rode daily.
I think I just hear Walowitz have a nergasm.
Damo said:
I want to ride by on my RC51 and clothesline him, Lex Luger style, every time I see him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ROTFLMAO.
When I hit this page my heart stopped… Wow, just wow… :-)
@ justadude
You weren’t just clotheslined Lex Luger style were you ?
Not that I know what or who that is, I imagine some sort of local ruffian…
@ Crashmanjay
I don’t know about your neck of the woods, I have been to San Francisco for a bit of riding, and a bunch of local Ducatisti took me to a nice watering hole in the city where all manner of bikes were lined up and down the block on streets and sidewalks. There were cruisers, street bikes, mopeds, scooters, cafe racers, motards, Japanese, European, and American bikes alike. Everyone in the place seemed to having a great time drinking and carrying on.
Don’t know if it was typical, but it was fun times had by all…
@Crashmanjay
I am with you 100% on that. It is highly ironic when a “dedicated riding movement” becomes about fashion. This does seem true in any semi counterculture movement though (see punk, heavy metal, hip hop, etc.) If you don’t have the same uniform or same tastes you get ostracized.
@Westward
Lex Luger! Come on I can’t be the only 80′s child that grew up on pro-wrestling. All kidding aside, I noticed the bay are bikers I encountered on my last trip to California were some of the friendliest most dedicated group of people I had spoken with in awhile. It isn’t like that up here in the frigid North East.
We have basically four types of bikers up here: The born free/hipster type, the dedicated all weather types, 200 mile a year harley guys and squids. People on cruisers don’t even wave at you when you roll by on a sport bike of any kind and the hipster cafe kids rarely travel outside their groups or they just pose on their bikes at the local coffee shops. I tend to do massive amounts of solo riding because of this.
It is bad enough that bikers are rare bread up here in general.
https://twitter.com/johnryland/status/237741348822855680/photo/1
Here is Katee riding her bike.
Damo is not joking. In Texas the bike crowd is really friendly, but when I went up North to visit, I literally spent all day on Damo’s RC-51 waving to cruisers and getting stared at with utter contempt and disgust. It was absolutely bizarre. I can’t believe how absurd the riders are up there. I was shocked when he told me it’s always like that. If you aren’t “with them” then you are treated like you don’t exist. Sad.
@Faust
The unfortunate truth is that people in the Northeast just aren’t terribly friendly in general, but you already know that.
Hence why everyone calls us “Massholes”.
@ Westward
I was clotheslined alright but it was by the incredible Ms. Sackhoff and her quite cool motorcycle. I’m still not breathing right… :-)
@ Faust
I live in the Northeast and every word you speak is true. The cruiser crowd up here treats all other motorcycles as non-entities. All they do is ride around in their little parades dressed like pirates and clog up the roads.
@ Faust
What do you “Massholes” call us in Connecticut? Connholes? :-) It’s funny how each state thinks that no one from any other state can drive… :-)
Yup. I live in NY state and go to LA/SoCal a lot. “Bikers” here are douchebags. Here we have 2 kinds, legit 1% gangs that won’t even look at you unless you are patched and wannabe pirates on parade that suck up to the 1%’ers. Then there is the mostly minority ghetto extended swingarm crowd with chrome Nazi helmets and the suburban crotch rocket 18-30 year olds who wanna be ghetto swing arm idiots. We have a small hipster doofus scene too that follows the ‘if I cut the tail off and add clipons that makes it cool’ mantra. You guys should see prices here…… do a search of Craigslist in Buffalo/Rochester/Syracuse and you’ll gag at what people ask for hunks of shit here.
I ride almost exclusively solo because I don’t wanna bar hop, I wanna ride. I don’t wanna get ‘dressed up’ to be seen, I want to ride. I don’t want to race, I want to ride.
And in LA? Well it is LA so image is everything, but when you are 25-30 and wear a swastika patch and FUCK YOU vest on your hard tail you had better thank God you are living now because when I moved out west in 1988 bikers were not too fond of posers and the cops were not too fond of bikers. Vans, beards, sleeping bags, the 70′s are suddenly cool. They sucked when I was alive during them, but whatever. Every group has has a bike club now from cops to accountants to congresmen and every club seems to need a vest or patch or whatever. Again, I just want to ride. I tell people I’m a motorcyclist and if you saw the variety of bikes in my garage you’d see why. Fuck I’d ride a Vespa if someone gave me one. Beats being in a car any day.
To whomever was asking about Katee Sackhoff’s riding experience and whether or not the bike was for riding, the answer is YES. This is not a piece of art, she WILL be riding this bike. Ms. Sackhoff actually has a lot of riding experience. in 2010, she rode from Los Angeles to Louisiana to raise money for the Gulf oil spill. She has also gone on several rides for other charities and just for fun, of course. Most of her friends and family are bikers, too. Definitely not just a casual rider.
@ Crashmanjay
I think you may have hit upon it. “Bikers” (not counting the real 1%’ers, who truly don’t give a crap what anybody thinks) are just image whores that exist to be seen. “Motorcyclists” just want to ride. I only ride with one guy because he and I think alike and just want to ride. Instead of bars we stop at bike shops. :-) I don’t and won’t belong to any clubs because, to quote the great Groucho, “I wouldn’t belong to any club that would have me for a member”.
Exactly… the thrill of the ride. Hyper bike or scooter…. no difference.
Performance this, bling-bling that…. get on whatever you have and ride it!
Ride hard.
That’s just lovely.
Very Deus in nature (the motor and frame), but with lotsa posh bits.