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.
Less is more (expensive?). Maybe the price increase is justified if the suspension bits and motor internals are sufficiently special, though that seems unlikely. Surely KTM could pass on the savings from not including a headlight, switch gear, turn signals, catalytic converter etc to the customer. I’d think that all the street gear should more or less balance out the cost of the gorgeous akra exhaust, that (gold plated?) head gasket and higher-end suspension bits.
Perhaps another option might be a base-model track bike. Take the RC8R and strip all street equipment from the factory and sell it otherwise as-standard (perhaps with the thin head gasket as that shouldn’t alter cost at all). KTM should be able to offer it for about $14k (guessing here) and maintain the same profit margin as the RC8R road-bike.
Bikepilot, the exhaust on this bike alone retail is almost 4G you will find that this is actually a pretty fcking sweet deal for a raceready trackbike that is spanking new. I’m getting one period
Title of this article if it were written by me? “What I would buy if I were given $20K on the condition that I spent it on something I don’t absolutely need.”
If I had the spare cash to buy a motorcycle right now, this would be it.
But you absolutely need this bike for the track GeddyT!
That’s retail price of the exhaust. I doubt that retail price of the exhaust, headlight etc on the RC8R are much less. I’m not saying its not worth the cost, but I do suspect that there’s a much larger profit margin here than on the RC8R. I could be wrong though. Porsche has certainly showed that money can be made by stripping a vehicle down and selling it for more money :)
For a fully prepared racebike that is ready to go, this bike is a screaming deal! My only question would be, what about traction control? I’m also curious about the fairings, material and cost of relacement.
BP: Can you purchase a slipper clutch and Akrapovic exhaust for less than retail price?
alexontwowheels: Where we’re going, we won’t need traction control.
Are there any race series you can actually race that in, or is it just a refugee from the Island of Misfit Toys?
such a beautiful machine, exquisite engineering, & yet they wrap those great marchesinis w/ Dunslops…ugh
PhilB: CCS Unlimited GP, GTO, & Supertwins, other classes state “(vehicles) sold…for street use”
Is it homologated for AMA SBK? seems like it would fall well within that class
People are forgetting that this bike comes with closed Cart kits, upgraded wp 4618 shock – this combo alone, no matter how good of a deal your getting would cost more than $1600. Forged alu. wheels, would be at least another $1k if your sell your wheels. akrapovic exhaust $2500 – remember this is the Evo 4 (akra makes a cheaper ti version). quickshifter at the cheapest $400. slipper clutch $750 – the 2011 RC8R does not come with a slipper, it just detects which gear your in and rpm and opens up the exhaust valve or something of that nature.
to be honest this has about the same power as the 1098R for half the price. i say about because with the full system the 1098R has 187hp and stock is 99ft/lbs of torque.
i do not see a race ready bike touching this in price/performance. your getting a lot for the money. put on a brembo billet 19×18 Race master cylinder with a double brake line, do some suspension tuning and your good to go.
BTW, tires are subjective. but give me dunlop NTEC’s anytime, grip better and last longer than the michy or perris all day. turn in is slower and tires are a bit heavier but they make up for it in the confidence and amazing grip.
you can always change your tires. most people do.
JB, Its not a matter of what I can purchase retail, its a matter of relative production costs. I’d guess that if you assembled a bone-stock RC8 from all retail-priced parts you’d have yourself a $100k bike, that doesn’t mean that $100k is a reasonable price for the thing. Similarly, even if it costs, at retail, >$4k to strip the street goodies and fit the track goodies to transform an RC8R into an RC8Track, that has very little bearing, if any, on relative production costs and profit margins.
Besides, doesn’t everything else have a slipper clutch as standard anyway?
Now the market may well bear the (most likely) increased profit margin on the track bike – at least if the fanboys here backup up their posts with their $$ and if it will, more power to KTM!
Awesome, I just want to know when they hit showroom floors
bike pilot… its the same for 1198 and 1198s or sp. if they make tiers one is going to be more money. you can not make a product with better components for a cheaper price, even if it is stripped of the street worthiness.
almost every bikes comes with a slipper but i do not think the ktm does and i am sure the 1198 does not, only the 1198sp.
it is the law of the land, the bike will sell if the market can bare the price. if not the price will fall just like the price came down from previous years RC8′s. is the price unreasonable??? i think not. do i wish it was cheaper? i sure do – $18,500 would hit the spot. how many race ready bikes can you buy at this price, please name a few.
When this bike will come to Indonesia, and whether in Indonesia, this bike will go up again the price ?