Photo: Five – Two = Podium

Blurred to protect against spoilers, we’ll just leave things simply by saying that World Superbike’s Race 2 at Donington Park is well worth a watching if you haven’t already seen it. Decided right down to the last few turns, race pundits surely will be discussing the race and its outcome over the next week. Unsurprisingly, geography is playing a major a role in how things are being viewed. Though in a race where a number of questionable passes occurred, it is hard to single out this one event from the plethora of others that occurred during the race, but of course this one had the biggest effect on the race outcome. Click past the jump for the he said, she said, and of course for some slightly sharper photos.

Norton V4 Gets Shakedown Test Ahead of Isle of Man TT

More news from Norton, as the British firm has begun track-testing its V4 road race bike, in preparation of the 2012 Isle of Man TT. Focusing on the bike’s handling, Norton has been working hand-in-hand with Öhlins and Dunlop developing the bike’s chassis. The trio has devised the highly sophisticated “165 mph no hands” test, which supposedly checks the stability of the bike, though we imagine Health & Safety would frown upon it. With the bike’s Aprilia RSV4 motor putting out 195hp at the crank, and with the total race package weighing 419 lbs (195 kg) when it is sopping wet, the Spondon-framed Norton may not be exactly what fans of the famous marques were hoping for after seeing the very appealing Norton NRV 588, though it does seem to be a potent package.

2012 Brammo Empulse R – Was It Worth the Wait?

Launching in downtown Los Angeles, the 2012 Brammo Empulse R & 2013 Brammo Empulse broke their cover and officially debuted. Right off the bat from the designations, you can see that Brammo intends for the Empulse R to be a 2012 model, with the base model Emuplse coming out next year (more on that further down). As we expected, the Brammo Empulse R got quite the price bump after its 22-month marination, and will be $18,995 MSRP. Meanwhile when the Brammo Empulse becomes available next year, it will have a slightly more palatable $16,995 price tag.

Up-Close with the Erik Buell Racing 1190RS ‘merica Edition

While the EBR 1190RS race bikes were on the track, their $40,000+ street-legal counterparts were on display outside of the Erik Buell Racing garage. Rocking an American flag livery, I naturally took pictures of this show bike. Eye catching to say the least, nothing says “Made in ‘merica” better than a red, white, and blue color scheme, especially when it is laid over carbon fiber. And while I want to love this bike because of its nuances and outside-of-the-box technical design, I don’t.

Sunday Summary at Estoril: Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

If there’s one lesson we can take from Sunday’s race at Estoril, it’s this: “I’ve always said we know Casey’s the guy that’s the fastest guy in the world. Maybe over the seasons he hasn’t put the championships together, but by far he’s the best guy in the world.” Cal Crutchlow is not known for mincing his words, and his description of Casey Stoner pulls no punches. But given the fact that Stoner only managed to win the Portuguese round of MotoGP by a second and a bit, is that not a little exaggerated?

Up-Close with the 2012 Brammo Empulse RR

Brammo is back for electric motorcycle racing in the North American TTXGP series, as the Ashland-based company is set to defend it’s #1 plate this year with Steve Atlas on board ( Shelina Moreda is slated to join the team later in the season). Gaining a title sponsorship from Icon, Brammo arrived at Sears Point with some edgy graphics on the 2012 Brammo Empulse RR. Dropping roughly 35 lbs in weight, and gaining roughly 50hp over the bike they ran at last year’s season opener, Brammo is making most of those gains in its revised motor and power inverter for the newest Empulse RR.

Mea Culpa: The Media’s Hard-on for a Good Penis Story

As you can imagine, the bulk of the commentary, both from readers and from professional journalists, has centered around the absurdity of the claim, with even jokes being offered about how an aged BMW rider should be thanking the German motorcycle brand for saving him money on Viagra, etc. The situation reminds me of the McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit. You know the story, right?. A woman buys a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, spills it on herself while in the car, and sues the bastards for her incompetence. True to litigious American form, the unthinkable happened, and a jury awarded this gold-digging woman millions of dollars. It is repudiating, and it stands for everything that is wrong with the legal system, or so we would be lead to believe — especially by the media.

An Addendum to Valentino Rossi’s Options for the Future

Never say never, but few are expecting Valentino Rossi to hang up his spurs at the end of the 2012 MotoGP Championship. Going out on a career low-point is certainly not the Italian’s style, especially as it casts a particularly dark shadow on a career that has enjoyed the bright-light superlative of “Greatest of All Time” from some of motorcycling’s most knowledgeable sources. Hoping to cast that phrase with an underlined typeface, and not with an interrogatory question mark, there is sufficient evidence to believe that Rossi will want to end his career in a way that will leave no doubt about the nine-time World Champion’s abilities. The question of course is how those final seasons will play out, and who they will be with.

Motorcycle from Japanese Tsunami Washes Up in Canada

Just a little over a year later, debris from the Sendai earthquake and its subsequent tsunami is starting to make its way across the Pacific Ocean, with the first bit major piece of fallout to hit Canadian soil just now being reported. Though the effects to the motorcycle industry were only a small portion of the overall devastation, for our purposes it seems fitting that the first sizable item to wash ashore is a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Landing in the Haida Gwaii islands of British Columbia, the Harley-Davidson Softail was discovered by Peter Mark, who was riding his ATV along the coast of the isolated beach.

Man Sues BMW for Causing Erection – No, Seriously

After a four-hour ride on his motorcycle, one BMW owner realized that he had a problem. Namely, a problem with his erect penis, which after some waiting would not subside. Now while most of us would cheekily reply that such a state is the sign of a good motorcycle ride, this San Francisco Bay Area native is not laughing, and has filed suit in the Superior Court of San Francisco County (CGC-12-520316) against BMW Motorrad North American and Corbin-Pacific. Saying that the motorcycle and its dealer-installed custom motorcycle seat have caused priapism, the man is suing for lost wages, personal injury, medical expenses, product liability, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

MV Agusta F3: The €9,000 Motorcycle that Castiglioni Hopes Will Save the Company

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08/10/2010 @ 5:30 pm, by Jensen Beeler8 COMMENTS

MV Agusta F3: The €9,000 Motorcycle that Castiglioni Hopes Will Save the Company 2011 MV Agusta F3 spy shot 2 635x416

UPDATE: The MV Agusta F3 has officially broken cover.

Italian news site Il Sole 24 Ore sat down with the new owner of MV Agutsa, Claudio Castiglioni, and asked the Italian perhaps the most pertinent question about his new company: what’s next? Striking to the point of things, Castiglioni says much of MV Agusta’s future will depend on the company’s new three-cylinder motorcycles, which the company hopes to sell 10,000 of during the next model year.

Officially now called the MV Agusta F3, Castiglioni was also forthright on some of the details. Already rumored to be a 675cc three-cylinder powered motorcycle, Castiglioni has confirmed this setup along with the fact that there will be at least two price points, with a base and sport model being available.

Pricing for the MV Agusta F3 will start at €9,000 with the sportier F3 costing between €10,000-€11,000. Some gorilla math on the A&R international pricing calculator computes those numbers to be just over $9,000 for the base model, and $10,500-$11,500 for the sport, which makes the new F3 a strong rival for the Triumph Daytona and undercuts the new Ducati 848 EVO considerably.

Like the F4 & Brutale, the F3 will have a naked counterpart as well. Castiglioni calls the smaller naked street bike the “Brutalina” which we sincerely hope is not the name the company lands-on for the bike, but the new CEO was quick to say that the naming of the smaller Brutale has not yet been finalized. No word on pricing yet for the smaller Brutale, but expect it to be somewhere in the $8,500 range.

While these prices are encouraging, the goal of 10,00 units in the first year of its restart is a daunting task for MV Agusta. Castiglioni is surely looking at Ducati’s numbers, which sells similar numbers in the lower-priced Monster segment. Time will tell if this strategy is the winning recipe for MV Agusta, and if the brand can maintain its premium sport bike status while undercutting with the F3 progeny.

Source: Il Sole 24 Ore

Top 5 Related Posts:

  1. Claudio Castiglioni Purchase of MV Agusta Imminent
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  3. Officially Official: Harley-Davidson “Sells” MV Agusta to Castiglioni Family
  4. MV Agusta USA Boss Confirms Small-Displacement Motorcycle is in the Works
  5. An Open Letter from MV Agusta’s Giovanni Castiglioni

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Comment:

  1. soupy says:
    August 10, 2010 at 10:30 PM

    If that price is for real and the styling (Tamburini’s supposed last design) is anything I’m hoping it’ll be, I’m putting my Daytona 675 up for sale and putting a deposit ASAP.

  2. Asphalt_Rubber says:
    August 11, 2010 at 12:31 AM

    MV Agusta F3: The €9,000 Motorcycle that Castiglioni Hopes Will Save the Company – http://aspha.lt/19g #motorcycle

  3. Doug Luberts says:
    August 11, 2010 at 7:08 AM

    If the quality is up there with the F4 and Brutale, I’d easilly consider adding one to the stable …

  4. Alex B says:
    August 11, 2010 at 8:21 AM

    I hope this makes financial sense for MV… The cost of putting together a smaller displacement machine isn’t that much lower than the current crop, unless some things are omitted (go-fast parts, hand assembly, in-house built parts, dare we say, quality control…). Would be curious to see how it turns out.

    That being said.. I want one!

  5. SPQR says:
    August 11, 2010 at 8:42 AM

    I want to see what it looks like naked.

  6. Silver says:
    August 11, 2010 at 10:00 AM

    Let’s just hope that they change up the design of the motorcycle so it doesn’t look like a 10 year old MVF4 just warmed over. They are fantastic looking bikes but why buy a smaller displacement bike when a used F4 can be had for close to the same price. They just need to break the mold of the old F4 (and new one) and come out with something stunning.

  7. Asphalt_Rubber says:
    August 11, 2010 at 1:57 PM

    Castiglioni Spills the beans on MV Agusta F3 and "Brutalina" – http://aspha.lt/19g #motorcycle #mvagusta

  8. ihb says:
    August 28, 2010 at 6:59 AM

    And than of a sudden they use pics that A&R questioned months ago!

    http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/rumors/mv-agusta-f3-3cylinder-head/

    buch of looser they are