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.
Pretty sure it’s not the same headlight as the 990, just similarities in the overall shape. Also looks like there’s a u-shaped strip of led’s at the bottom of the headlight
whats the purpose of making there engines larger and larger? I wish ktm made a dakar replica 450 adventure bike for production.
ngads
we are 2.
My dream is a 400cc, 2 cylinder (V ou inline) with a tank capacity of 25/30 litre..
This needs to be pretty far from the final design, or else failure awaits them :P
Bit disappointing imo. I liked the monster Dakar rep look. This just looks like they’ve had a fiddle with the plastics on an SMT and then stuck MX wheels on. Was hoping for a giant Coma rep. Ho hum…NEXT!!!!!!!
I’m holding out for the 1290 SMT. Keep it light, ergonomically sensible and unfettered with electronic silliness and I’ll buy one.
@ngads:
Is called PEER PRESSURE. Everybody and their bodies are doing it so they can’t be the square ones or be left out.
Besides, the engine im sure won’t be bigger than 1.2L even tho it claims bigger (1290)…KTM is a bit like Husqvarna and some of the others wierd kids…”obtuse” displacement numbers displayed on the plastics to try be “different” but the real displacement is totally something else.
Personally, im OK with it. Bigger, fat torque, lower revving engines seem like just what the Dr. ordered to acomplish their way of life…after all, these MAXI trails ain’t getting smaller or ligther any time soon…and apparently they may turn out to be the tourers of the future(have u seen lately any TRUE small cc’s tourers ? Nah, don’t think so).
To those of us concerned about it’s look(me included)………don’t be……….i still have not seen a good looking dual sport {yet} and i hardly doubt it’ll happen…….it’s that “it comes with the territory” kind of thing…….can’t be helped.
Is like trying to make a UNIMOG look like a Lamborghini Aventador. U can’t.
Well Triumph were able to pull it off with the Explorer 1200, looks great…so function and form and work together sometimes…
@BikePilot:
Hurray for the SMT………..i can’t stand these DS with those functional (yet SILLY LOOKING) 19″ – 21″ front wheels…
I would love it if each of these Beasts came on 2 flavors.
STREET(17″-17″)
and
OFF-ROAD “Pretender”(21″-19″)… everybody wins…LOL…(^_^)
@Johndo:
Indeed. If i had to pick the best looking of the bunch i would claim the Explorer 1200.
It ain’t MV Agusta good looking (none of them will be, nature of the beast)…but they really raised the bar for the other to reach it (and not just aestetically)…again, just this man’s opinion.
http://motosvit.com/Benelli/TRE%201130%20K/2008-Benelli-Tre1300K-Tre-Kf.jpg
Does this one counts as a Dual Sport on anyones book ? I think it looks rather good.
Look Maaa…no silly huge front wheel !
MikeD:
” oes this one counts as a Dual Sport on anyones book ? I think it looks rather good. Look Maaa…no silly huge front wheel !”
Erm no…If you like Dual Sport wannabe bikes, thats your thing. But if you think, that a large diameter narrow front wheel is silly, then you have 1.) never actually ridden a bike offroad and 2.) no idea, what dual sport actualy means.
Of course corporate motorbike caters to the biggest market, and thats the fake crowd. Folks who want a motorbike, that looks a bit rugged, but will not actually see anything like dirt or even an unpaved road (unless its the short bit from the house on property to the local main road). See the jokes, that are Hondas latest entries.
I give credit to Ducati in that regard, at least they arent bs’ing anyone with the Multistrada, even the name makes it clear, its not meant to be off-road capable. For the rest, sure, if a rider wields awesome skill, they will be able to take them to places, then again, whats the point, if you have to struggle with an inherently flawed bike?! Whoever is halfway serious about the DS idea, wont move beyond 650-800 cc (the fairly capable 990 included, though weiht does not do it any favours either).
@para:
Nope, don’t like DS’s…i do like “standards with long travel suspension and hard-bags”…
Yes, no off-road xperience whatsoever…on my part of the USA there’s no wild off-road areas to xcersice such discipline…only flat, long, almost straight PAVED roads with a really wide and long curve into the mix from time to time but those are really scarse…can u guess where im at ?
Meaning of DS ? Baahh, the darn thing has been portrayed in so many shades AND shapes that i don’t know who to belief anymore…LMAO…(^_^)
was it just me or did anyone else see this pic before it was blurred… ha! nice one A&R
If they fail here as with EXP series it will be big problem already.
@Watcher:
Ok, let me see if i understood u right….
Were u trying to say:
If they fail here as to raise the bar above the Triumph Xplorer 1200 it will be a big problem already ?
Is that right or wrong ?